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WWII On This Day: October 7

What happened on October 7 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1941 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
A Soviet 122 mm A-19 gun crew firing during the defence of Moscow on 3 December 1941.
RIA Novosti archive #46802 / Viktor Temin · 3 December 1941 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
The Battle for Moscow

The Vyazma and Bryansk encirclements rupture the western defence

By 7 October the principal German armoured pincers had closed behind major Soviet forces at Vyazma, while Guderian's advance had broken the Bryansk Front and produced additional pockets farther south. The loss of these armies opened a deep gap between the encircled forces and the capital. The pockets continued resisting for days. German infantry had to turn inward to reduce them while mobile formations pressed east, buying Soviet headquarters time to organise another defensive system closer to Moscow. German prisoner claims were enormous, but the fighting around Bryansk remained porous…

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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 Flushing dyke is breached

Bomber Command breached the sea defences near Flushing on 7 October as part of the plan to inundate Walcheren. A further breach near Veere followed on 11 October, increasing the area under tidal water. Flooding restricted roads and cross-country movement inside the island and forced both defenders and future attackers toward the dykes, towns and higher ground around the rim.

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Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence.
USHMM
The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

Prisoners destroy Crematorium IV

Members of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando attacked SS guards and set Crematorium IV on fire during a revolt on 7 October 1944. Explosives used in the action had been smuggled from the Union munitions factory by women prisoners. The revolt was suppressed and almost all participants were killed. Róża Robota, Ala Gertner, Regina Safirsztajn and Ester Wajcblum were tortured and executed for their role in supplying explosives to the underground.

Continue in The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence →