Today, April 19, 2015. On this day in military history:
In 1942:
When you try to break through to the main forces of the red Army through the Ugra were almost completely destroyed coming from under Vyazma parts of the 33rd army. The Germans almost immediately found the detachment and broke it. Commander M. G. Efremov was badly wounded and shot himself to avoid capture by the Germans. Page and commander of the artillery of the army major General P. N. Afrosimov. Surrounded by 12-thousand grouping of Ephraim to his left, only 889 people.
In 1943:
At subordinate the NKVD of the office of the special divisions of the red Army formed the Directorate of counterintelligence of the people's Commissariat of defense of the USSR "SMERSH" ("Death to spies").
The Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet adopted a decree (in press unpublished) on the introduction of a special kind of punishment – death by hanging or hard labour for a term of 15-20 years for the "German-fascist villains guilty of murders and tortures of the Soviet civilian population and red army prisoners, for spies, traitors of the Motherland among Soviet citizens and their accomplices".
Stroop after the war, is captured and taken to Poland. He was sentenced to death and in September 1951 was hanged for his crimes. Before the war in Warsaw, lived 500 thousand Jews, after the war it added another 200 thousand refugees, all of them were forced into the ghetto. The ghetto was enclosed by a wall 4 meters high and 18 miles long. To leave or enter the ghetto, needed a special licence.
In 1944:
To the East and South of the town of Stanislav, our troops fought stubborn battles with the enemy, repelling the attacks of large forces of infantry and tanks.
On the night of April 19, our air force long-range has made a massive RAID on the railway junction lions and bombed a congestion of echelons with troops and equipment of the enemy.
Aviation of the black sea fleet was bombed-assault strikes on the enemy transports on the communications Sevastopol-Constanta.
Japanese forces captured a major city and an important hub of Zhengzhou, began a successful offensive in Central China.
In 1945:
Started 2nd phase of the Berlin operation. Troops of the 2nd Belorussian front crossed the river East of the Oder and cleared German forces from the area between the East Oder and the West Oder. Troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian front broke through the enemy's defenses at the Berlin and Dresden directions and began to surround the city.
The allies took the city. Prisoner taken on this day 64 667 soldiers and officers.
Italian partisans and rebels liberated Bologna.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky, commander of the 3rd Belorussian front, was awarded the second order of "Victory".
