State of emergency imposed in Denmark

© din-bog.dk General Hermann von Hanneken
© din-bog.dk Act of sabotage at the railway station Østerport, Copenhagen, 1944

After the Wehrmacht occupied Denmark with hardly any resistance in April of 1940, the government in Copenhagen was officially allowed to remain in office. Initially the relationship between German occupiers and the Danish people proceeded almost without friction. However, as the war wore on, that changed. Since the German defeat in Stalingrad, acts of sabotage by the largely communist-led Danish resistance increased more and more. Finally, the German occupiers impose a state of emergency over the country on 29 August 1943. The Danish government is deposed and executive authority transferred to the commander of German troops, General Hermann von Hanneken.

Red Army captures Tcharkov

In early July the Soviets began their summer offensive against Germany’s eastern front with vastly superior forces. On 23 August 1943 the Red Army succeeds in recapturing the important industrial city of Tcharkov. German troops are being pushed back toward the west at an ever-increasing pace. On 6 November the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, will be liberated from its German occupiers.

© rodman German soldiers entering a destroyed residential area in the city of Tcharkov, 1941