World War II History for October 2
1940 - During World War II, the HMS Empress was sunk while carrying child refugees from Britain to Canada.
1941 - Operation Typhoon was launched by Nazi Germany. The plan was an all-out offensive against Moscow.
The plan was to send the Wehrmacht into the Soviet capital of Moscow.
With most of the Jews of Paris either dead or deported, the Nazi Gestapo turns its eye toward the destruction of synagogues.
The Germans began their surge to Moscow, led by the 1st Army Group and Gen. Fedor von Bock. Russian peasants in the path of Hitler’s army employ a “scorched-earth” policy.
Hitler’s forces had invaded the Soviet Union in June, and early on it had become one relentless push inside Russian territory. The first setback came in August, when the Red Army’s tanks drove the Germans back from the Yelnya salient. Hitler confided to General Bock at the time: “Had I known they had as many tanks as that, I’d have thought twice before invading.” But there was no turning back for Hitler–he believed he was destined to succeed where others had failed, and capture Moscow.
Although some German generals had warned Hitler against launching Operation Typhoon as the harsh Russian winter was just beginning, remembering the fate that befell Napoleon–who got bogged down in horrendous conditions, losing serious numbers of men and horses–Bock urged him on. This encouragement, coupled with the fact that the Germany army had taken the city of Kiev in late September, caused Hitler to declare, “The enemy is broken and will never be in a position to rise again.” So for 10 days, starting October 2, the 1st Army Group drove east, drawing closer to the Soviet capital each day. But the Russians also remembered Napoleon and began destroying everything as they fled their villages, fields, and farms. Harvested crops were burned, livestock were driven away, and buildings were blown up, leaving nothing of value behind to support exhausted troops. Hitler’s army inherited nothing but ruins.
1942 - The Queen Mary, sailing in an evasive zigzag pattern off the coast of Ireland, accidentally slices through its escort, the Curacao, which sinks, claiming 338 lives.
1944 - The Nazis crushed the Warsaw Uprising.
After two months of fierce urban warfare, the Germans crush the Polish resistance in Warsaw. As many as 250,000 Poles have died during the struggle.
The Allies break into the Siegfried Line, a defensive line running along Nazi Germany’s western border. The breach is in the north, near Aachen, and it is there that U.S. troops will penetrate western Germany.
