Skip to content
WW2 Theatres Theatres of the Second World War
Home

World War II calendar

WWII On This Day: September 19

What happened on September 19 during World War II? This date brings together 7 events from 1941 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
A German guard on Kyiv's citadel on 20 September 1941, the day after German troops occupied the city; a burning Dnieper bridge is visible behind him.
A German guard on Kyiv's citadel on 20 September 1941, the day after German troops occupied the city; a burning Dnieper bridge is visible behind him. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L20208 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Source
Operation Barbarossa

German troops occupy Kyiv while the pocket survives to the east

German troops entered Kyiv on 19 September after Soviet forces abandoned the city. The main encirclement battle continued east of the Dnieper, where the armies of Southwestern Front were still attempting to break out. Inside the pocket, ammunition, fuel and communications deteriorated as German infantry compressed the perimeter and front headquarters lost contact with subordinate formations. Kyiv gave Army Group South a major political and transport centre. The destruction of Southwestern Front would be decided during the following week in the countryside east of the city.

Continue in Operation Barbarossa →
Nurses help people wounded during the first major bombardments of Leningrad, September 1941.
Nurses help people wounded during the first major bombardments of Leningrad, September 1941. RIA Novosti archive #888 / Vsevolod Tarasevich · CC BY-SA 3.0 Source
The Siege of Leningrad

The September air offensive hits Leningrad

A major Luftwaffe attack struck Leningrad during the September air offensive, hitting transport, industry, public buildings and residential districts. Air attack and artillery fire continued throughout the siege and repeatedly damaged utilities, housing and the distribution network that connected food stocks with the civilian population.

Continue in The Siege of Leningrad →
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

The forest becomes an operation

The 60th Infantry of the 9th Division had already tested the western forest and found that small German forces could use the terrain to stop a much stronger attacker. The division now held a broad front from Schevenhütte to the Monschau corridor. First Army treated the woods as a threat to the southern flank of the drive toward the Roer. Its immediate planning centred on the forest road net and the approaches to Schmidt; the dams beyond the forest had yet to become a formal objective.

Continue in Aachen and the Hürtgen Forest →
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

The Bailey bridge at Son is finished

Royal Engineers completed the Bailey bridge at Son after working through the night, allowing the armoured column and its supporting traffic to cross the Wilhelmina Canal. The replacement restored movement on the corridor, but the time spent at Son had already shifted the schedule. The leading armour still had to pass Grave and fight through Nijmegen before it could approach the Lower Rhine.

Continue in Operation Market Garden →
Operation Market Garden

The corridor reaches Nijmegen

The leading armour crossed the Maas at Grave on the bridge the 82nd Airborne had taken intact on the first afternoon, and reached Nijmegen by mid-morning. The Waal bridge there was still German. An attack that afternoon by Guards infantry and American paratroopers into the town centre was stopped short of the approaches by 10th SS Panzer troops holding the Valkhof and the Hunner Park.

Continue in Operation Market Garden →
The Arnhem road bridge photographed from the air on 19 September 1944. Destroyed German armoured vehicles are visible near the northern end where Frost's force was holding out.
The Arnhem road bridge photographed from the air on 19 September 1944. Destroyed German armoured vehicles are visible near the northern end where Frost's force was holding out. Imperial War Museums, MH 2061 · Public domain (UK Government) Source
Operation Market Garden

The break-in to the bridge is destroyed

Four battalions attacked east along the river and the railway before dawn to reach Frost at the bridge. Caught in the open in daylight on the Onderlangs and the Utrechtseweg, they were cut down by armour and by fire from the high ground. The remnants fell back west. From this point there was no prospect of reinforcing the bridge, and the division began contracting towards Oosterbeek.

Continue in Operation Market Garden →
Operation Market Garden

The Polish glider element lands under fire

The glider-borne part of the Polish brigade came down on a landing zone that was being fought over, taking casualties on the ground before the men were out of the aircraft. Their anti-tank guns were among the few weapons in the perimeter capable of dealing with German armour, and several were lost on landing.

Continue in Operation Market Garden →