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WWII On This Day: September 14

What happened on September 14 during World War II? This date brings together 7 events from 1942, 1943 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1942
Red Army soldiers carrying a Soviet flag through the ruins of Stalingrad in 1943.
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R76619 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Battle of Stalingrad

The 13th Guards Rifle Division crosses into the centre

During the night of 14–15 September, Major General Alexander Rodimtsev’s 13th Guards Rifle Division crossed the Volga into a crisis around the central landing stages. German troops had reached parts of the railway station area and threatened to separate the surviving Soviet positions from their principal crossing points. The division entered combat in battalion and regimental groups as they landed. Its troops counterattacked toward the railway station and Mamayev Kurgan while other Soviet formations held pockets around the centre. Losses were severe, but the arrival provided Chuikov with enough fresh…

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Convoy PQ 18 at sea in September 1942, with HMS Eskimo in the foreground and an underwater detonation beside HMS Ashanti.
Convoy PQ 18 at sea in September 1942, with HMS Eskimo in the foreground and an underwater detonation beside HMS Ashanti. British Newsreel Pictures · Imperial War Museums A 12022 · Public domain Source
The Arctic Convoys

PQ 18 fights through with carrier air cover

PQ 18 returned to the Arctic route with a stronger escort and the escort carrier HMS Avenger, whose Sea Hurricanes could meet German reconnaissance and torpedo bombers before they reached the merchant columns. German aircraft and U-boats still inflicted heavy losses during the September passage. Thirteen of the twenty-eight merchant ships were sunk, but the convoy stayed organised and the escorts imposed losses on the attacking air formations. The result was still costly; its importance lay in showing that the answer to PQ 17 was stronger integrated protection rather than…

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1943
LST-425 loads troops and vehicles of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division at Palermo on 14 September 1943 for transport to Salerno; the photograph documents reinforcement preparations in Sicily.
LST-425 loads troops and vehicles of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division at Palermo on 14 September 1943 for transport to Salerno; the photograph documents reinforcement preparations in Sicily. Royal Navy / Naval source record · Public domain Source
The Italian Armistice and the Landings at Salerno

Reinforcement ships load at Palermo for the Salerno beachhead

Additional troops and vehicles of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division were loaded aboard landing ships at Palermo as Fifth Army fought for the Sele perimeter. Allied sea communications allowed the lodgement to receive fresh manpower and ammunition during the counterattacks. An archival photograph documents LST-425 loading the formation’s troops and trucks at Palermo on 14 September. The scene records the reinforcement route in Sicily, several hundred kilometres from the ground fighting at Salerno.

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British troops unloading from landing ship LST 383 on the Salerno coast on 9 September 1943.
Imperial War Museums NA 6630 · British official photograph · Public domain (UK Government)
The Italian Armistice and the Landings at Salerno

The 82nd Airborne Division reinforces the beachhead by air

Parachutists of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division began arriving in the Salerno bridgehead during the German counterattacks. Drop zones near the beaches brought infantry reserves into the perimeter when road movement from the ports was under pressure. Their arrival helped hold sectors from which engineers and artillery had to continue supporting the bridgehead. Naval fire and air attacks also increased the cost of German movement across open ground.

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1944
U.S. Navy LCVPs on a Baie de Cavalaire invasion beach during Operation Dragoon, 15 August 1944, with German prisoners passing behind them.
Baie de Cavalaire invasion beach, 15 August 1944 · U.S. Navy / Naval History and Heritage Command 80-G-59475 · Public domain · Source
Operation Dragoon

The Southern France Campaign Closes

The U.S. Army's Southern France campaign period ended on 14 September. By then Seventh Army had reached objectives that pre-invasion planning had expected much later, while Toulon and Marseille were being restored for sustained logistical use. At 00:01 on 15 September the 6th Army Group under Jacob Devers became operational under SHAEF, bringing Seventh Army and the French army into the command structure for the campaigns in the Vosges, Alsace and toward the Rhine. Dragoon had become the southern wing of the Allied front in western Europe.

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Allied transport aircraft and gliders overhead while paratroops descend over the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden on 17 September 1944.
U.S. Army Air Forces / National Archives, NAID 531308 · Public domain in the United States · Source
Operation Market Garden

Arnhem's main landing grounds are fixed west of the city

Air planners selected the Renkum and Wolfheze heaths for the main British landing and glider zones. Anti-aircraft positions, terrain and the need for large glider areas weighed against sites close to the Arnhem road bridge. The decision left the first troops six to eight miles from the objective. British battalions would have to move through wooded and urban approaches while other units protected the landing grounds for later lifts.

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Residents of liberated Praga greet Polish and Soviet soldiers on Targowa Street in September 1944.
Residents of liberated Praga greet Polish and Soviet soldiers on Targowa Street in September 1944. Unknown photographer · Public domain (Poland) Source
The Warsaw Rising

Praga is captured

By 14 September Soviet and Polish forces had cleared Praga and reached the east bank of the Vistula opposite the insurgent districts. German troops withdrawing from the suburb destroyed the major bridges behind them. The capture placed friendly artillery and infantry directly across the river from Warsaw but left the Vistula as a contested obstacle. Any reinforcement of the Rising now required boats, bridging equipment and protection for exposed bridgeheads on the German-held west bank.

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