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WWII On This Day: September 15

What happened on September 15 during World War II? This date brings together 5 events from 1940, 1943 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
Fighter Command, 1940.
Fighter Command, 1940. Imperial War Museums A 704 · Public domain Source
The Battle of Britain

The Luftwaffe again finds Fighter Command in strength

Two major daylight attacks on London on 15 September met repeated interceptions by 11 Group, reinforced during the fighting by squadrons from other groups. The scale of the response contradicted German assessments that Fighter Command had been reduced to its last effective strength. British victory claims for the day were greatly inflated, as were many air-combat claims during the campaign. Postwar reconciliation substantially reduced the number of German aircraft actually lost. What mattered operationally was that the Luftwaffe still could not send large daylight bomber formations to London without serious…

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London, 7th September 1940 · London's dock area. Tower Bridge stands out against a background of smoke and fires. New York Times Paris Bureau Collection.
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 541917) · Public domain
The Blitz

Battle of Britain Day

On 15 September the Luftwaffe mounted two major daylight attacks toward London. Fighter Command met them in strength from No. 11 Group, reinforced by formations from neighbouring groups. German losses were severe and, more important operationally, the attackers encountered a fighter force that German intelligence had expected to be close to exhaustion. The day's combat did not end bombing of London, but it undermined the expectation that mass daylight raids could quickly produce air superiority. Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion on 17 September. The bombing campaign continued and increasingly moved…

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1943
Red Army troops crossing the Dnieper on the Kyiv axis in 1943.
Yefim Kopyt · Russian archival photograph · Public domain
The Dnieper Crossings

Army Group South falls back to the Dnieper

Hitler authorized the major withdrawal toward the Dnieper after weeks in which Manstein had argued that continued forward positions risked losing forces before they could reach the river. The retreat aimed to put the river between Soviet spearheads and the main German formations while a new line was organized on the western bank. Field fortifications were incomplete, so the river itself, available road networks and the concentration of mobile reserves had to compensate. The decisive question became whether German units could arrive and dig in before Soviet detachments secured usable…

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1944
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

Armoured reports near Arnhem remain in the intelligence picture

Major Brian Urquhart assembled Dutch reports, aerial reconnaissance and other indications that German armoured formations or refitting elements were near Arnhem and raised the issue within I Airborne Corps. II SS Panzer Corps was indeed refitting in the area after heavy losses in Normandy. Its divisions lacked full establishment strength, but surviving tanks, assault guns, infantry and experienced staffs could still be organised rapidly once the airborne landings began.

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Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945.
Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945 · Imperial War Museums B 14422 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence · Source
The Rhineland Battles

Everyone knew about the dams

Allied planners identified the Schwammenauel and Urftsee dams as the key to the whole Roer front in September 1944. Anyone holding them could flood the valley across the American line of advance whenever they chose. The autumn campaign in the Hürtgen forest was fought largely to reach them and did not, at a cost of around 33,000 casualties. This operation is the bill for that failure arriving five months late.

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