3 July 1939

July 3rd, 1939 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The Air Ministry issues specification F. 17/39 which will cover the prototypes and initial production of 300 Bristol Beaufighter long-range fighter aircraft. (22)

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3 July 1940

Yesterday Tomorrow

July 3rd, 1940 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Two old French battleships 'Courbet' and 'Paris' and several destroyers and submarines, including the giant 'Surcouf', are in British ports. They are boarded and seized, but not before there are casualties on both sides; three British personnel and a French seaman die in scuffles on board the submarine Surcouf; In total 59 French warships are seized.

Tugs Abeille II, Abeille IV, Abeille V, Abeille VI, Abeille XIV, Abeille XX, Abeille XXI, Abeille XXII, Cherbourgeois I, Cherbourgeois III, Cherbourgeois IV, Divette, Elan II, Excellent, Faisan, Jobourg, La Frene, La Pernelle, La Salicoque, Lama, Mammouth, Mastodonte, Mouflon, Nacqueville, Nessus, Peuplier, Pingouin, Pintade, Plougastel, Portzic, Ramier, Rene le Besnerais, Risban, Urville commissioned into RN service.

Minesweeping trawlers HMS Aiglon, Andre et Louise, Congre, Henriette, L'Atlantique, and Pine commissioned.

The Admiralty considers withdrawal from the eastern Mediterranean. While Admiral Pound supports the idea, Churchill is adamantly opposed and quashes it. The concern involves the Italian Fleet and the fall of France. (Alex Gordon)

RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - occupied airfields at Merville and Rotterdam.
51 Sqn. Four aircraft to Merville. Three bombed successfully, one returned early.
58 Sqn. Eight aircraft to Rotterdam. Only two bombed, weather very bad.
2 Group: 15 Sqn. Aerial reconnaissance of Scharnhorst and bombing of Evere.
82 Sqn. Cloud-cover raids on French airfields.
107 Sqn. Nine aircraft bomb railways at Hamm, Hamborn, Wismar, Osnabruck and Leunan. Four sections also went after barges on the River Lek and bombed Schipol.

RAF Fighter Command: No 1. Squadron is declared operational again after its return from France.

NETHERLANDS: Henri Winkelman, the former Dutch Commander-in-Chief is arrested and taken to Germany.

ALGERIA: Operation Catapult - Admiral Somerville arrives with Force H off the French Algerian base of Mers-el-Kebir near Oran. The French Admiral Gensoul is offered a number of choices to ensure his fleet with its four capital ships stays out of Axis hands.

These are to join the British outright; be interned in British ports; sail to French ports in the West Indies; or scuttle their own ships.

All are turned down and, at around 18.00, Force H opens fire on the anchored ships. Battleship FS Bretagne blows up (total killed 36 officers, 151 Petty Officers and 825 Seamen) and the 'Dunkerque' and 'Provence', together with other ships are badly damaged killing 130 French sailors. The French ships and shore batteries return fire, but fail to hit any British ships. Battlecruiser 'Strasbourg' and some destroyers manage to break out in spite of attacks by aircraft from HMS Ark Royal. They reach Toulon.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Chilliwack laid down North Vancouver British Columbia.
Corvette HMS Mayflower (later HMCS Mayflower) launched Montreal Province of Quebec.

U.S.A.: Submarine USS Tautog commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-26 (Type IA) is sunk at position 48.03N, 1130W, by 8 depth charges from an Australian Sunderland aircraft (Sqn 10/H). HMS Rochester picked up the 48 survivors (entire crew) from the attack.

3 July 1941

July 3rd, 1941 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Noel Coward brought a pre-war touch back to the West End with last night's opening of his latest play, Blithe Spirit., at the Piccadilly Theatre. Described by its author as "an improbable farce", it contains no references to the war whatsoever. The play stars Kay Hammond, Cecil Parker and Margaret Rutherford.

The Mk II, Handley-Page Halifax makes its first flight, it is armed with a two-gun dorsal turret and equipped with more powerful engines.

Minesweeper HMS Rothesay commissioned.

The first Bell P-39Cs supplied under Lend-lease arrive at RAF Colerne.

GERMANY:

U-265, U-521 laid down.

U-577 commissioned.

DENMARK: Denmark announced request for United States consular staffs to evacuate by July 15.

GREECE: Rhodes: The last French aerial reinforcements for Syria - 21 Dewoitine D.520 fighters of 3 Squadron, 2 Fighter Group (GC II/3) - land at the German-Italian airbase at Rhodes after coming from Tunis via Brindisi and Athens.

ROMANIA: Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu lectures his staff at the Ministry of Internal Affairs: "We find ourselves at the broadest and most favourable moment for a complete ethnic unshackling, for a national revival and for the cleansing of our people of all those elements alien to its spirit" (264, p161)

BALTIC SEA: Submarine Vesikko sinks 4100-ton ship Vyborg east from Suursaari.

U.S.S.R.: After violent fighting against Soviet tanks, General Nehring's 18th Panzer Division reported the existence if a new kind of Soviet tank, quite different in appearance from the all the known types, which seemed very advanced and was indestructible by German antitank guns.

Panzergruppe 2's 3rd Panzer Division (GL Walter Model) reaches the Dnepr River when it captures Rogachev, south-east of Minsk. (Jeff Chrisman)

Moscow:

Stalin broke his silence today and, calling his people "brothers" and "sisters" rather than "comrades", called on them to fight a total war against the invading Germans not only in the modern sense but also in the grim "old Russian" way.

In a speech broadcast throughout the Soviet Union, he called on the people to lay the land waste before the invader. Everything possible must be removed, he said, and that which cannot by moved must be destroyed..

It was a speech designed to stir the people's ancient love of Russia: "We must not leave a single pound of grain or a single gallon of petrol to the enemy." He called on the people whose ancestors had helped to defeat Napoleon by "scorching the earth" to follow their example and deny Hitler's invaders food and shelter. Crops and villages are to be burnt, livestock killed, dams destroyed. Partisan bands are to be formed "with the launching of guerrilla warfare everywhere, with blowing up bridges and roads, with wrecking telephone and telegraph communications, and with setting forests, depots and trains on fire. It is necessary to create in invaded areas unbearable conditions for the enemy."

Fuel is of special importance in this scorched-earth policy, for the German supply lines are becoming over-stretched and the thirsty tanks and aircraft must rely to a large extent on captured fuel.

The burning of houses is not important at the moment, for the weather is hot and fine, but if this campaign extends into the bitter Russian winter then the lack of shelter will hit the Germans as hard as it did Napoleon's men.

Stalin has demanded a great deal from the people of the Soviet Union. Some of them will not obey him - in some areas the invading Germans have been welcomed with bread and salt - but others will do anything for Holy Mother Russia if not for communism.
(Speech in Full)

SYRIA: Survivors of French Foreign Legion in Palmyra (165 men, mostly Germans and Russians) surrender. They have withstood 12 day of attacks by four allied cavalry regiments (including the Arab Legion) and an infantry battalion. Deir ez Zor entered by elements of Slim’s 10 Ind Div, capturing 100 prisoners, nine guns and 50 lorries. However, many French and Syrian troops escape to fight again. 127 Sqn RAF attacks a formation of Leo451s but are driven off by escorting Dewoitine S520s, losing two Hurricanes. (Michael Alexander)

ETHIOPIA: "Mopping up" of the Italian forces in East Africa continues as the Italian garrison at Debra Tabor surrenders to the British; General Gazzera's 7,000 strong army in the south surrenders to a Belgian force.

U.S.A.: Marshall informs Grunert that no further manpower or supplies would be sent.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0436, U-69 began a gun duel with the armed Robert L. Holt NW of the Canary Islands. She had been the ship of commodore Vice-Admiral NA Wodehouse CB RN from the dispersed Convoy OB-337. The ship sank at 0650 after the U-boat had fired 102 high explosive rounds and 34 incendiary rounds from the deck gun, 220 rounds from the 20-mm gun and 400 rounds with the MG34. The master, the commodore, 41 crewmembers and six naval staff members were lost.

3 July 1942

July 3rd, 1942 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeping trawler HMS Magdalen launched.

GERMANY:

U-543, U-719 laid down

U-191 launched.

NORWAY: Lutzow and Admiral Scheer leave Narvik with a destroyer escort heading for Tirpitz. Lutzow and 3 of the destroyers run aground.

YUGOSLAVIA: The German army launches an attack on partisans and on peasants thought to be sheltering them.

POLAND: Krakow: The SS murders 93 gypsies.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Beaufort Operations.

Convoy from Taranto to North Africa consisting of three cargo ships, German MV Ankara (4,786 BRT), and Italian MVs Nino Bixio (7,137 BRT) and Monvisio (5,322 BRT), with an extremely strong escort - DD Verrazano, DD Turbine, DD Euro, TB Antares, TB Polluce, TB Castore, TB San Martino, and DE Pegaso attacked by RAF aircraft.

NORTH AFRICA: The 2nd New Zealand Division, with artillery support, destroys the Italian Ariete Division. They have attacked toward Alam Nayil when they came up against the 2nd New Zealand Division.

In North Africa, US Army, Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24s attack Tobruk, Libya harbor during the daylight hours and B-17s bomb supplies at Tobruk during the night of 3/4 July.

El Alamein: Three nights ago, the Afrika Korps radio played romantic music and warned the ladies of Cairo to "make ready for us tonight."

After days of fighting, always advancing - sometimes even chasing the retreating British - victory seemed assured as Rommel formed his tanks and infantry for a final push towards the Nile Delta and the longed-for ladies.

Throughout the night, Allied troops in their desert defensive "boxes" watched as German multi-coloured Very lights lit up the sky in an impromptu firework display.

Rommel was banking on bypassing the weak and disorganized remains of the British X Corps at Alamein, leaving Italian infantry to clean up the garrison, and making a direct dash to Alexandria. His army began well, but was slowed by fierce sandstorms, constant air attacks and carefully places British artillery.

The British commander, General Auchinleck, guessed well and ordered his tanks to counter-attack in the south. He aimed to hit the Germans' flank but the battle became a head-on confrontation with the British armour held back by the lethal 88mm guns which have caused so much havoc to the thinly armoured British tanks in the past.

By tonight, Rommel's advance has been halted. Auchinleck's tactics are paying off. Axis troops are digging in, no nearer to the ladies of Cairo.

JAPAN: The Italian Savoia-Marchetti 75-GA trimotor aircraft arrives after its 7,000 mile flight from Rome. The purpose of the flight is to deliver codes, which would have two months by submarine. The aircraft refuelled at Zaporozhye in German-held Ukraine, near the Sea of Azov, and again at Pao-Tow-Chien, west of Peking in Japanese-held China. (Ed Miller)

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The RN submarine HM S/M Truant sinks a Japanese army cargo ship off the coast of Sumatra west of Kuala Lumpur.

AUSTRALIA: Frigate HMAS Gascoyne laid down.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Seven B-24s and two B-17s of the 11th Air Force bomb Kiska and Near Islands, encountering neither fighter opposition nor AA; results are not observed; the B-24s damage two Japanese seaplane tenders and a transport off Agattu Island.

The Japanese land 1,200 additional troops on Kiska as reinforcements.

The four Japanese aircraft carriers that departed Japan on 30 June arrive in Aleutian waters with the intent of engaging US naval and air forces but the weather is so bad that they are never sighted and they return to Japan in a few days.

U.S.A.: Canada and the United States form joint military, naval, and air office in Washington.

Destroyer USS Quick commissioned.

In the first successful firing of an American rocket from a plane in flight, Lieutenant Commander James H. Hean, Gunnery Officer of Transition Training Squadron, Pacific Fleet, fires a retro-rocket from a PBY-5A Catalina in flight at Goldston Lake, California. The rocket, designed to be fired aft with a velocity equal to the forward velocity of the aircraft, and thus to fall vertically, was designed at the California Institute of Technology. Following successful tests, the retro-rocket became a weapon complementary to the magnetic airborne detector (MAD) with Patrol Squadron Sixty Three (VP-63) receiving the first service installation in February 1943.

The Free French destroyer LE TIGRE sinks a German U-boat off New York.

CARIBBEAN SEA: At 0401, U-161 fired a spread of two stern torpedoes at the San Pablo, which lay berthed at the fully illuminated pier in Puerto Limón, Costa Rica and was discharging cargo. The ship was hit amidships and near the bridge in #1 and #2 holds and quickly settled to the bottom with only her superstructure above the water because the watertight doors between all holds had been left open. One crewmember died on watch below and 23 stevedores (residents of Puerto Limon) working in the holds were killed. All but three crewmembers of the vessel were ashore at the time of the attack. On 9 Jan 1943, the San Pablo was raised and after temporary repairs on 6 March, taken in tow by the tug Crusader to Tampa via Puerto Castilla and Key West, arriving on 28 March. It was first planned to repair the vessel, but she was declared a total loss and sunk as target 9 miles SSE of Pensacola Pass on 25 September.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarines sink three U.S. merchant vessels.

1. At 0614, the unescorted Gulfbelle was hit by one torpedo from U-126, while zigzagging at 11 knots 21 miles north of Tobago. The torpedo struck on the starboard quarter, ripped a hole 40 feet square, wrecked the engine room (killing an oiler and the second assistant engineer) and caused the turbine to fall out of the ship. The armed guards fired one round from the 5in gun, her only armament, at a range of 300 yards on the surfaced U-126. The shell passed over the U-boat, which then immediately submerged. At this time most of the crew of eight officers and 33 men had abandoned the ship in three lifeboats, because they did not clearly understand the order from the master to stand by their abandon ship stations. The master, four crewmen and the eight armed guards at the gun remained on board. Two boats drifted away in the choppy seas and were picked up by destroyer HMS Warwick. The crew in the #4 boat reboarded the ship later and were subsequently transferred to the same destroyer, which towed the tanker to Port of Spain, Trinidad. On 8 September the Gulfbelle reached Mobile, Alabama in tow for repairs, which were completed on 4 Jul 1943, when she left Mobile for Beaumont, Texas to resume service

2. U-215 sinks an armed freighter sailing in convoy BA 2 about 202nm (375 km) east of Boston, Massachusetts. USA. German Type VIID submarine U-215 is then in turn sunk about 200 nm (370 km) east of Boston, Massachusetts, USA at position 41.48N, 66.38W by depth charges from the British trawler Le Tigre. All hands on the U-boat (48 men) are lost. The trawler was a French one seized by the Royal Navy in 1940 after the fall of France in June. (Alex Gordon)

The Alexander Macomb, on her maiden voyage, heavy fog and fear of collision caused the ship to fall astern of Convoy BX-27. The master Carl Monsen Froisland maintained an intermittent zigzag course and was attempting to catch the convoy in daylight. She had reached the rear of the convoy and had about seven ships and an escort vessel in sight when at 1230 a torpedo from U-215 struck between #4 and #5 holds, causing the cargo of explosives to ignite and burst into flames. The eight officers, 33 crewmen and 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in, four 20mm and two .30cal guns) abandoned ship in three lifeboats and one raft, but because the ship was still under way one boat capsized. Other survivors jumped into the water and hung onto pieces of wreckage. At 1300 the ship sank by the stern about 175 miles east of Cape Cod. 15 minutes later armed yacht HMS Le Tigre rescued 23 crewmembers and eight armed guards and brought them to Woods Hole on 4 July. Corvette HMCS Regina picked up 14 crewmembers and 11 armed guards who were taken to Halifax. Six armed guards and four crewmembers died in the attack. German Type VIID submarine U-215 is then in turn sunk about 200 nm (370 km) east of Boston, Massachusetts, USA at position 41.48N, 66.38W by depth charges from the British trawler Le Tigre and destroyer HMS Veteran. All hands on the U-boat (48 men) are lost. The trawler was a French one seized by the Royal Navy in 1940 after the fall of France in June. (Alex Gordon and Dave Shirlaw)

3. U-575 sinks an unarmed freighter 158 nm (292 km) west-northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico and Cuba. The sub surfaces and the commander gives the survivors a bottle of brandy.

3 July 1943

July 3rd, 1943 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Rescue tug HMS Earner launched.

Escort carrier HMS Atheling (ex-USS Glacier) commissioned.

Frigate HMS Tavy commissioned.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Minalto launched.

GERMANY: Cologne: Tonight Luftwaffe night-fighters use "Wild Sow" tactic, a fighter in a flak-free zone guided by a ground controller, for the first time in an Allied raid on Germany tonight.

U-778 laid down.

U-477, U-1164 launched.

U-393 commissioned.

ITALY: Tonight three Wellingtons of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group drop 1.1 tons of bombs on the Lido di Roma airfield with the loss of one aircraft.

SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC: Most of the Army's 172d Infantry Regiment moves from Rendova Island to New Georgia Island and begins operations to capture Munda Airfield. Japanese aircraft continue to attack Allied forces; at approximately 1445 hours, 40 "Zekes" attack the area and 5 are shot down by P-38 Lightnings near Rendova.

US forces land unopposed at Zanana, eight miles east of Munda.

NEW GUINEA: Seven Japanese bombers escorted by Mitsubishi A6M Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters, Allied Code Name "Zeke," attack the Allied beachhead at Nassau Bay, New Guinea around 1600 hours. Fourteen P-40s returning from a mission intercept the enemy and shoot down 5 Zekes and a Mitsubishi Ki 46 Army Type 100 Command Reconnaissance Plane, Allied Code Name "Dinah."

CANADA: Frigate HMCS New Waterford launched Esquimalt.
Frigate HMCS Outremont launched Quebec City.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Six Eleventh Air Force B-24s bomb Main Camp on Kiska Island and take photos of Segula Island.

U.S.A.: "Comin' In On A Wing And A Prayer" by The Song Spinners reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the U.S. This song, which debuted on the charts on 19 June 1943, was charted for 11 weeks, was Number 1 for 3 weeks and was ranked Number 7 for the year 1943. Also on this date, Dick Haymes' record of "It Can't Be Wrong" makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song is from the motion picture "Now, Voyager" starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains. This is his first single to make the charts and it stays there for 11 weeks rising to Number 2 for 4 weeks.

Minesweeper USS Incessant is laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Fowler, Pride and Spangenberg launched.

Frigates USS Allentown and Huron launched.

Destroyer escort USS Whitman commissioned.

ATLANTIC: Two German submarines are sunk by RAF aircraft:
- Type IXC submarine U-126 is sunk about 385 nm (713 km) west of the German submarine base at Saint-Nazaire, France, at position 46.02N, 11.23W, by depth charges from a Wellington Mk. XII, aircraft "R" of No. 172 Squadron, based at RAF Limavady, County Derry, Northern Ireland. All hands (55 men) in the U-boat are lost. (Alex Gordon)
- Type VIIC submarine U-628 is sunk about 331 nm (613 km) west-southwest of the German submarine base at Saint-Nazaire, France, at position 44.11N, 08.45W, by depth charges from a Liberator Mk. IIIA, aircraft "J" of No. 224 Squadron, based at RAF St. Eval, Cornwall, England. All hands (49 men) in the U-boat are lost. (Alex Gordon)

U-199 shot down a USN VP-74 Mariner. No survivors from the aircraft.

U-359 and U-466 shot down a USAAC Liberator, whose entire crew of 10 perished.

U-420 was attacked by an RCAF 10 Sqn Liberator and two men were killed (Bootsmann Heinz Grosser, Matrosengefreiter Willi Noeske) with one more wounded when the boat was hit with a Fido homing torpedo. She was severely damaged and arrived at Lorient on 16 July.

3 July 1944

July 3rd, 1944 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: A V1 lands on a Chelsea block of flats, killing 74 people and injuring 50.

The British capital is being evacuated again. Under the impact of the flying-bomb attack the government has announced a new scheme to move mothers of children under five, as well as schoolchildren, to the country. Many others have made their own arrangements for evacuation. In the first two weeks of the attack over 1,700 people have been killed. The fact that V1s fall out of cloudy skies in daytime makes it harder to shelter.

In one of the worst incidents, on 30 June, a flying bomb glided low over the Thames and dropped beside Bush House in the Aldwych, which was crowded with lunch-hour office workers, killing 198 of them. Another which landed in Chelsea today killed 74. However, the anti-aircraft and balloon barrage now on the North Downs is bringing down more of the robot planes than before.

Bedford: Captain Glenn Miller and his band, the 418th Army Air Force Band, wake up in their new quarters which they moved into yesterday away from the risk of V1s in London. Their previous accommodation, 25 Sloane Court, is destroyed this morning when a V1 lands in front of the building, killing more than 100 people. Miller tells band manager Lieutenant Don Haynes, "As long as [the Miller Luck] stays with us, we have nothing to worry about."

FRANCE: US forces mount a major move south from Normandy. Their goal is a line from Coutances to St.Lo. The hedgerow country, weather and stiff German opposition, slow the advance.

Nearly 275 Ninth Air Force fighters strafe and bomb strongpoints, gun positions, a fuel dump, communication lines, bridges, and patrol the beach in the vicinity of Lessay and Periers, south of the US First Army's advance.

The US 712th enters combat in the Haye du Puits sector of Normandy. (Aaron Elson)(154)

HUNGARY: Four USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers attack the Szeged railroad bridge with Azon bombs.

ROMANIA: The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force attacks nine targets: (1) 110 hit the oil storage facilities at Giurgiu; (2-4) 212 bomb three targets in Bucharest, the Malaxa locomotive factory (95 aircraft), the Mogasia oil storage facility (83 aircraft) and the Titan Oil Refinery (34 aircraft); (5) the Timosoara marshalling yard (93 aircraft); (6) the Arad railway shops (44 aircraft); (7) the Piatra railroad bridge (28 aircraft); (8) the Duca railroad (27); and (9) the Turnu Severin railroad (13 aircraft). Eleven aircraft are lost. Fifty five Eighth Air Force B-17s in Italy on the USSR shuttle mission join in bombing the Arad marshalling yards; 38 P-51 Mustangs of the VIII Fighter Command, also on the shuttle run, fly escort on the mission.
During the night, a RAF Liberator Mk. VI of No. 205 Group drops leaflets on Arad but is lost.

ITALY: Siena, the beautiful Etruscan capital falls to Algerian troops of the French Expeditionary Corps. There was little time for celebration, however. Almost as soon as the last German had left the city, the 3rd Algerian Division was preparing to move south - to Naples and the planned invasion of the south of France. The Algerians have been replaced by the Moroccan 4th Mountain Division, which has wasted no time in heading for Florence and the Gothic Line. The US Fifth Army, which is also likely to lose much of its strength to the proposed invasion, today took the coastal town of Cecina and is close to encircling the port of Leghorn. The British 78th Division captures Cortona, and US forces reach Rosignano.

YUGOSLAVIA: The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force attacks two targets: (1) Oil storage facilities in Belgrade (28 aircraft) and (2) the Cuprija railway line (1 aircraft).

FINLAND: Yesterday evening the Finnish radio intelligence captured a Soviet message (Finnish code-breakers were able to read a signifigant portion of the Soviet signals traffic from the division level down) stating that the 63rd Guards Division (of the 30th Guards Corps), supported by the 30th Tank Brigade, attacks Ihantala after midnight today. Counter-measures are taken immediately.

Twelve Finnish artillery battalions fire at the Soviet positions in the early morning hours, as do the German Stukas and Jabos. This ends the Soviet activity for few hours.

However, some 200 enemy aircraft start bombing the Finnish positions at 6 am, and are soon joined by artillery and assault guns. At 7 am. an enemy division attacks Ihantala, but is repelled with the aid of artillery.

At 9 am. an enemy attack drives the I/IR 12 from Pyöräkangas, west of Ihantala. This potentially threatening penetration is soon contained, and preparations for a counter-attack are immediately started. Reserves are gathered, and the counter-attack, again supported by strong artillery forces, starts at noon. Capt. L. Jaale's III/IR 6 attacks from west, followed by the rest of Lt. Col. Reino Inkinen's regiment. Maj. K. Suurkari's detachment (remains of the I/IR 12, company from III/IR 12 and a jäger company) attacks from north at 12.30 pm, and Maj. J. Sammalkorpi's III/IR 35 from north-east at 2 pm. This three-pronged assault drives the enemy from Pyöräkangas by 5 pm.

For the rest of the day the Soviet forces attempt attacks at different points along the 6th Division's front, but every time the enemy formations are dispersed by Finnish artillery even before they are able to attack. Only at Tähtelä, at 6th Division's left flank, the enemy reaches the Finnish positions at 8 pm, but are immediately driven back by counter-attack.

This evening Lt. Col. Inkinen's IR 6 is withdrawn from the battle. It has fought with distinction continuously for eight days, and taken heavy losses. Also Col. Y. Hanste's IR 12 is withdrawn, and is replaced by IR 35.

U.S.S.R.: Ten days after the start of Operation Bagration, Minsk is captured by troops of the First and Third Byelorussian fronts. The German Fourth Army and other units are now cut off. The German Army Group Centre is caught offguard by this and is beginning to cease to exist as a fighting unit.
Minsk, the capital of Byelorussia, was the last major city in the Soviet Union still occupied by the Germans. The city was first encircled and then stormed by General Cherniakhovsky's Third Byelorussian Front and Marshal Rokossovky's First Byelorussian front.

Not only have they taken 73,000 prisoners, including two generals - Michaelis and Konradi - they have also trapped a large force of Germans east of Minsk. The story is the same all along the line. In the north General Bagramyan's First Baltic Front has invested Polotsk and is pushing the Germans out of the city in hand-to-hand street fighting. When Polotsk falls Vilna, the capital of Lithuania, will come within striking distance. In the south, Marshal Zhukov has monted an attack on Baranovichi, the key to the German right wing.

The Russians are, in the words of a congratulatory message to Stalin from Churchill, "pulverising the German armies". Hitler has sacked Field Marshal von Busch and replaced him by Model, but even that hardbitten warrior seems unable to stem the Russian tide.

Colonel General Johannes Frießner succeeds Colonel General Georg Lindemann in command of the German Army Group North. (John Nicholas)

BURMA: The Allies capture Ukhrul from the Japanese after a brief struggle.

NEW GUINEA: Operation Table Tennis: A US 739-man 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment is dropped on the Kamiriz airfield on Noemfoor Island, Schouten Islands, to occupy the area. They use C-47 Skytrains under cover of a smoke screen laid by A-20 Havocs. High winds carry the paratroopers to bone-cracking landings in supply dumps, vehicle parks, and amidst wrecked Japanese aircraft. The airfield had already been captured by American ground troops. Casualties are high with 10 percent injured by accidents and enemy fire. The 128 injured include 59 serious fracture cases. The 503d gets the job of mopping up Noemfoor.
Fifth Air Force P-38s and B-25s hit personnel and supply areas south of Kamiri and support invading ground forces as they push east along the north coast of Noemfoor Island. (Jack McKillop/John Nicholas)

VOLCANO ISLANDS: Carrier-based aircraft from the USN's Task Groups 58.1 and 58.2 attack Japanese airfields and shipping at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, and Chichi Jima and Haha Jima in the Bonin Islands. These two task groups are composed of four aircraft carriers and four light aircraft carriers.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Vesole laid down.

ATLANTIC: German Type IXC submarine U-154 is sunk about 594 nm (1100 km) west of Casablanca, French Morocco, in approximate position 34.00N, 19.30W, by depth charges from the USN destroyer escorts USS Inch (DE-146) and Frost (DE-144). All hands (57 men) in the U-boat are lost. (Alex Gordon)

At 1925, the unescorted Elihu B. Washburne was struck by one torpedo from U-513 off the coast of Brazil between the after port peak tank and the #5 hatch. The explosion either knocked off the propeller or broke the shaft. The ship lost the rudder, the after magazine for 3in rounds discharged and the magazine for 20mm ammunition exploded. Without control of the vessel, she turned 90° to port and gradually lost way. The most of the eight officers, 34 men, 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 3-in gun and nine 20-mm guns) and three passengers abandoned ship in three lifeboats. The master, eight crewmen and the armed guards remained on board to attempt to beach the ship. 25 minutes after the first hit, a second torpedo struck the hapless vessel at the #3 bulkhead. This explosion lifted the bow out of the water and threw water over the ship. At 2000, a third torpedo struck in the engine room and the remaining men now left in the fourth lifeboat. The ship was last seen by the survivors drifting with her bow completely out of the water. All hands survived and landed on the island of São Sabastião early the next morning.

3 July 1945

July 3rd, 1945 (TUESDAY)

GERMANY: US occupation troops arrive in Berlin. (Pat Holscher)

BORNEO: Sepinggan airfield falls to the 7th Australian Division. Thirteenth Air Force B-24s plus carrier-based Navy and Marine aircraft continue to support the Australian forces around Balikpapan, Borneo. Headquarters of the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF's) First Tactical Air Force lands and they assume operational control of all air support missions.

JAPAN: The USAAF's XXI Bomber Command of the Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands, dispatches 509 B-29s to participate in 1 mining and 4 incendiary missions during the night of 3/4 July; 3 B-29s are lost:

Mission 246: 26 B-29s mine Shimonoseki Strait and waters at Funakawa and Maizuru during the predawn hours of the 4th; 2 other B-29s mine alternate targets. This is the last mine laying mission of Phase IV of Operation STARVATION, the mining campaign carried out by B-29s.

Mission 247: 116 B-29s attack the Takamatsu urban area destroying 1.4 sq mi (4.6 sq km), 78% of the city; 3 other hit alternate targets; 2 B-29s are lost.

Mission 248: 125 B-29s hit the Kochi urban area destroying 0.92 sq mi (3.0 sq km), 48% of the city; 1 B-29 is lost.

Mission 249: 106 B-29s attack Himeji urban area destroying 1.216 sq mi (3.99 sq km), 63.3% of the city.

Mission 250: 129 B-29s hit the Tokushima urban area destroying 1.7 sq mi (5.6 sq km), 74% of the city; 2 B-29s attack alternate targets.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Dunvegan paid off Sydney Nova Scotia.
Corvette HMCS Quesnel paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.
Frigate HMCS Antigonish commenced tropicalization refit Pictou Nova Scotia.

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