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WWII On This Day: September 29

What happened on September 29 during World War II? This date brings together 7 events from 1939, 1941 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1939
The German battleship Schleswig-Holstein firing on the Polish depot at Westerplatte, September 1939.
Schleswig-Holstein firing on Westerplatte, 1 September 1939 · Public domain · Source
Invasion of Poland 1939

Modlin fortress surrenders

The Modlin fortress area north of Warsaw capitulated on 29 September after continuing resistance beyond the fall of the capital. Its defenders had tied down German forces around the confluence of the Vistula and Narew while enduring bombardment, supply shortages and isolation. Warsaw's surrender removed the last nearby operational connection that might have given continued defence a larger purpose. Modlin's capitulation left Hel and Kleeberg's field group as the principal remaining organised centres of resistance. The campaign was ending through separate local decisions as each command reached the limit of…

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1941
Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence.
USHMM
The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

33,771 Jews are murdered at Babyn Yar

German notices ordered Kyiv's Jews to assemble with documents, valuables and clothing. SS and German police units, supported by auxiliaries, forced them to the Babyn Yar ravine and shot them. Einsatzgruppe C reported that 33,771 Jews were murdered on 29 and 30 September. The site remained a place of execution for Jews, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, psychiatric patients and other civilians.

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The notice dated 28 September 1941 ordering Kyiv's Jews to assemble at 08:00 on 29 September under the false pretext of resettlement.
The notice dated 28 September 1941 ordering Kyiv's Jews to assemble at 08:00 on 29 September under the false pretext of resettlement. Unknown author · Public domain Source
Operation Barbarossa

Kyiv's Jews are assembled for the Babyn Yar massacre

German notices ordered the Jews of Kyiv to assemble on 29 September with documents, valuables and clothing under the false pretext of resettlement. Victims were marched toward the Babyn Yar ravine, forced to surrender possessions and clothing, and taken in groups to the killing site. Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C, German police units and auxiliaries carried out the shootings. The perpetrators' report recorded 33,771 Jews murdered on 29 and 30 September. Explosions from mines left by retreating Soviet forces had struck the German-occupied city days earlier and were used as…

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Heavy seas breaking around HMS Sheffield while she escorts Arctic convoy JW 53 toward Russia in February 1943.
Royal Navy official photographer · Imperial War Museums A 14890 · Public domain
The Arctic Convoys

PQ 1 turns the demonstration run into a regular system

PQ 1 sailed with eleven merchant ships and reached Arkhangelsk on 11 October without losing a vessel. Together with Dervish, it established the PQ outbound and QP homebound pattern that would carry the route through its first year. By the end of 1941 the early convoys had delivered more than 100,000 tons without losing a merchant ship. That success helped create confidence at the same time Germany was reinforcing Norway with aircraft, U-boats and heavy warships. The conditions under which Dervish and PQ 1 had crossed were already disappearing.

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1944
Ruins at the Monte Sole massacre landscape near Marzabotto, preserved as part of the memorial area.
Ruins at the Monte Sole massacre landscape near Marzabotto, preserved as part of the memorial area. NicFer · CC BY-SA 3.0 Source
Reprisal and Massacre

The Monte Sole massacres begin

On 29 September 1944 German forces began a large anti-partisan sweep through the Monte Sole area south of Bologna. Civilians who had remained in houses, churches and shelters were repeatedly assembled and killed as units moved through the settlements. The killing continued through 5 October across many separate sites. The Monte Sole historical record counts 770 victims during the seven-day massacre, including large numbers of women, children and elderly people. The operation used terror against the civilian population as part of the attempt to destroy the partisan environment. The killings…

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Warsaw Uprising: Two medics and a soldier (right) from "Parasol" battalion after coming out of sewers at Warecka Street near Nowy Świat (North Śródmieście district). In the center Maria Stypułkowska-Chojecka "Kama". On the right Krzysztof Palester "Krzych".
Warsaw Uprising - Soldiers from Parasol on Warecka Street 1 September 1944 · Jerzy Chrzanowski · Public domain · Source
The Warsaw Rising

The attack on Żoliborz

German forces opened the general assault on Żoliborz on the morning of 29 September. Infantry of the 19th Panzer Division attacked with tanks, assault guns and artillery from the south and west, forcing several Home Army groups away from factories, market buildings and monastery positions. The defenders contracted toward the residential core around Wilson Square and the Vistula side while negotiations elsewhere in Warsaw were already exploring terms for civilians and the surviving Warsaw Corps.

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

A HAMEL line enters service

Conundrum II completed a successful three-inch HAMEL lay and pumping began through both pipe types. The system had finally demonstrated the intended combination of a flexible cable-pipe and a welded steel line.

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