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WWII On This Day: October 26

What happened on October 26 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1939 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1939
Hans Frank's proclamation announcing the General Government, effective 26 October 1939.
Hans Frank's proclamation announcing the General Government, effective 26 October 1939. Hans Frank / Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw · Public domain (German official work) Source
Occupation, Collaboration and Resistance in World War II

German civil rule begins in the General Government

On 26 October 1939 the German-occupied Polish territories that had not been annexed directly to the Reich were organised as the General Government under Hans Frank, with Kraków as the administrative centre. No Polish national government remained inside the territory. Frank's civil administration shared power with German military, SS and police organisations rather than replacing them. Registration, taxation, property seizure, labour mobilisation and food extraction gave the occupation a bureaucratic structure, while German policy targeted Polish political and cultural institutions and increasingly subjected Jews and other civilians to segregation, forced…

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1944
LVT-4 Alligator amphibious vehicles pass Terrapin amphibious vehicles near Terneuzen during the Battle of the Scheldt, 13 October 1944.
Department of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada · 13 October 1944 · Public domain in Canada · Source
The Battle of the Scheldt

The Beveland landing

On 26 October troops of the 52nd (Lowland) Division crossed from the Terneuzen area and landed near Baarland on South Beveland, using amphibious vehicles and landing craft to turn the German positions facing the isthmus. The landing accelerated the collapse of the peninsula's defence. Canadian troops advancing from the east and the Lowland troops from the south cleared South Beveland by the end of the month.

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A converted cable ship laying pipeline across the English Channel, 1944.
Pipeline laying in the Channel, 1944 ·
Operation PLUTO

DUMBO enters service

The first DUMBO line began pumping from Dungeness to the Boulogne area. Additional HAIS and HAMEL lines were laid as continental engineers extended the receiving pipeline toward Calais and Belgium.

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