WWII On This Day: September 22

Heinz Guderian and Semyon Krivoshein during the German withdrawal and Soviet takeover ceremony at Brześć, 22 September 1939. Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-121-0011A-22 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Source

September 22, 1939 · 12:00 Invasion of Poland 1939

German forces hand Brześć to the Red Army

German troops captured Brześć after fighting around the fortress, while the occupation boundary agreed with the Soviet Union assigned the city to the Soviet sphere. Heinz Guderian and Semyon Krivoshein met during the German withdrawal and Soviet takeover on 22 September. Contemporary photographs record the public military ceremony that accompanied the transfer. Brześć shows the practical cooperation produced by the August pact. German and Soviet forces coordinated the territorial handover while each state established its own occupation system on its side of the emerging partition line.

Continue in Invasion of Poland 1939 →

Anti-aircraft guns near St Isaac's Cathedral firing during a German night raid on Leningrad, 24 November 1941. Boris Kudoyarov · Public domain Source

September 22, 1941 · 12:00 The Siege of Leningrad

German orders define the blockade

The German naval staff directive of 22 September ordered Leningrad to be tightly blockaded and destroyed by artillery and air attack. It also ruled out accepting a capitulation. A second order on 7 October repeated that surrender was not to be accepted and explicitly cited the burden of feeding the population.

Continue in The Siege of Leningrad →

Red Army units crossing the Dnieper on the Kyiv axis in 1943. The archive gives the year and location/action, not an exact day. Yefim Kopyt · Russian archival photograph · Public domain Source

September 22, 1943 The Dnieper Crossings

Forward detachments cross at Bukrin

Elements of the 3rd Guards Tank Army and 40th Army began forcing the Dnieper in the Bukrin sector with boats and improvised craft. Small groups reached the western bank before heavy bridging and much of the artillery had arrived, then fought to hold ground while more men and weapons crossed. The bridgehead gave Vatutin a foothold south of Kyiv, but its terrain restricted movement and exposed the crossing sites to German observation. Every additional gun, vehicle and ton of ammunition had to pass through a narrow and vulnerable river system.

Continue in The Dnieper Crossings →

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

September 22, 1944 Operation Market Garden

Black Friday, the corridor is cut

German battlegroups attacked the corridor from both sides at Veghel and cut it. Traffic on the single road stopped completely for the best part of a day, at the moment the Oosterbeek perimeter most needed reinforcement. The road was reopened, cut again the following week further south, and became known to the men who used it as Hell's Highway.

Continue in Operation Market Garden →

September 22, 1944 Operation Market Garden

The first crossings to Oosterbeek

Polish troops attempted to cross the Nederrijn in small rubber boats under fire. Very few got over on the first night, and the boats and paddles available were nowhere near sufficient. Over the following nights around two hundred Poles reached the perimeter, enough to stiffen it and nothing like enough to relieve it.

Continue in Operation Market Garden →

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

September 22, 1944 · 08:00 Operation PLUTO

The first BAMBI line begins pumping

A successfully laid HAIS line was water-tested and placed in service between the Isle of Wight and the Cherbourg peninsula. It delivered approximately 56,000 imperial gallons per day, about 250 long tons.

Continue in Operation PLUTO →