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WWII On This Day: October 21

What happened on October 21 during World War II? This date brings together 2 events from 1941 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
German troops escort civilians from Kragujevac and surrounding communities toward execution on 21 October 1941.
German troops escort civilians from Kragujevac and surrounding communities toward execution on 21 October 1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photograph 46726 / Muzej Revolucije Narodnosti Jugoslavije · Public domain Source
Reprisal and Massacre

Kragujevac turns the ratio into a mass shooting

German forces carried out mass shootings in Kragujevac and its surroundings after fighting with insurgents had left ten German soldiers dead and twenty-six wounded. Civilians were seized from the town and nearby communities, registered and taken to execution sites. The local German notice stated the formula directly: one hundred people for each German soldier killed and fifty for each wounded. The Museum ‘21 October’ has identified 2,796 civilians killed during the October shootings, including pupils and teachers. The victims came from many parts of civilian life. Workers, tradesmen, farmers, school…

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1944
Infantrymen of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division rest on a slope in the Hürtgen Forest on 18 November 1944.
U.S. Army Signal Corps / National Archives · 18 November 1944 · Public domain · Source
Aachen and the Hürtgen Forest

Wilck surrenders the garrison

Colonel Gerhard Wilck surrendered the remaining Aachen garrison despite Hitler's order to hold the city. Approximately 3,500 surviving troops were taken prisoner during the final capitulation; larger totals include men captured during the surrounding operations. Aachen became the first major German city captured by the Western Allies. Fighting continued immediately south-east of the city as the campaign's weight shifted toward the forest road net.

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