FRANCE: Toulouse: General Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French, has been sentenced in his absence to a four-year term of imprisonment by a military court in Toulouse.

De Gaulle, who was the under-secretary for National Defence in the French government when he fled to London in June, was also fined 100 Francs. He has already been reduced in rank to Colonel. Vice-Admiral Muselier, commanding Free French air and naval forces, is also to be prosecuted.

GERMANY: Berlin: The German News Bureau reported:

We have learned concerning the attack of the British fleet on French warships in the port of Oran, that some of the ships were not under steam at the time of the sudden British assault, and were so positioned in the harbour that they could not bring their heavy artillery to bear. The battleships Dunkerque and Provence, as well as the combat flotilla leader Mogador, now lie burning in Oran harbour. The battleship Bretagne was apparently blow up by a British-laid mine as it put to sea. The battleship Strasbourg, five flotilla leaders and a large number of torpedo boats and submarines succeeded in fighting their way through the encircling British ships and broke through to the Mediterranean.

U-453 and U-454 are laid down.

ROMANIA: The country has a new cabinet. Gigurtu is Prime Minister and Manoilescu is Foreign Minister. The policies of the new government are clearly pro-German and anti-Semitic.

PORTUGAL: Lisbon: The Duke of Windsor is appointed Governor of the Bahamas.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Alexandria: Admiral Cunningham is able to reach agreement with French Admiral Godfrey on the demilitarisation of battleship 'Lorraine', four cruisers and a number of smaller ships.

Colonial sloop FS Rigault de Genouilly sunk off Algiers by submarine HMS Pandora.

GIBRALTAR: The first aerial combat takes place between British and French aircraft about 30 leagues (104 miles) southwest of Gibraltar. Three French Curtiss Hawk fighters attack a British Sunderland flying boat that was on patrol against U-boats. The Sunderland shot down one fighter and damaged a second.

EAST AFRICA: Italian forces advance into Sudan, occupying Kassala and Gallabat.

U.S.A.: New York: A bomb in the British hall of the World’s Fair goes off, killing two people.

Two motion pictures are released in the U.S. today.

   "Manpower" a drama directed by Raoul Walsh, stars Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, George Raft, Alan Hale, Frank McHugh, Eve Arden, Barton MacLane and Ward Bond; Diana Barrymore and Faye Emerson have uncredited bit parts. Robinson and Raft are members of a power company road gang who meet Dietrich in a clip joint and then she comes between them.

   "Moon Over Miami," a musical directed by Walter Lang, stars Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Robert Cummings, Jack Haley, Carole Landis, Charlotte Greenwood and Jack Haley. Grable and Landis are gold diggers from Texas who arrive in Miami looking for rich husbands.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Dauphin laid down Montreal.
Corvette HMS Hepatica (later HMCS Hepatica) laid down Lauzon, Province of Quebec.

Minesweepers HMCS BURLINGTON and NIPIGON are laid down in Toronto.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Akranes bombed and sunk off Bridlington Bay, Yorkshire.

GERMANY: Bremen: Wing-Cdr Hughie Idwal Edwards (1914-82) led a daylight raid on the port at just 50 feet, despite wires and fierce fire. Four planes were lost, but the rest, all hit, returned. (VC) 

U.S.S.R.: Kovno: Lithuanian militiamen kill 463 Jews.

ETHIOPIA:

Addis Ababa: With the Italian surrender at Amba Alagi, all that remains for the Allies in East Africa is clearing up. Yeserday General Gazzera surrendered his divisions at Sidamo to a Free Belgian force. The alternative to the Belgians was the Ethiopian "Patriots", led by Major Orde Wingate, who reputedly wears a purse made from the scrotum of a dead Italian.

A few Italian divisions remain around Gondar in the north-west, and in the far west, and the rains - which make all roads impassable - will give them a few months life, but they present no strategic threat to anyone.

U.S.A.: Roosevelt urges Americans to pledge their lives as well as their work to the defence of human freedom.
Roosevelt broadcasts on Independence Day that the US will never survive as a happy and fertile oasis of liberty surrounded by a cruel desert of dictatorship.

Two motion pictures are released in the U.S. today.

"Manpower" a drama directed by Raoul Walsh, stars Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, George Raft, Alan Hale, Frank McHugh, Eve Arden, Barton MacLane and Ward Bond; Diana Barrymore and Faye Emerson have uncredited bit parts. Robinson and Raft are members of a power company road gang who meet Dietrich in a clip joint and then she comes between them.

"Moon Over Miami," a musical directed by Walter Lang, stars Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Robert Cummings, Jack Haley, Carole Landis, Charlotte Greenwood and Jack Haley. Grable and Landis are gold diggers from Texas who arrive in Miami looking for rich husbands.

CANADA:

Corvettes HMCS Prescott, Lethbridge and Kenogami arrive Halifax from builders in Montreal.

Corvette HMCS Lachine arrived Halifax from builder Quebec City.

Minesweeper HMCS Cowichan commissioned.

ICELAND: PBY-5 Catalinas of Patrol Squadron Seventy Two (VP-72) operating from Reykjavik, Iceland, begin flying protective patrols to cover the arrival of US Marine Corps garrison units from the U.S.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-69 whilst on her way back to Lorient (61st day of cruise) and, out of torpedoes, sighted the Robert L Holt. Metzler decided to take her on, and by keeping Robert L Holt's gun crew away from their gun by firing his 2cm machine gun at them if they tried to approach, bought enough time to ready and fire his 8.8cm main armament. U-69 thus sank the Robert L Holt.

At 0355, the Auditor, dispersed on 28 June in 48°17N/20°40W from Convoy OB-337, was hit by one torpedo from U-123 and sank about 600 miles NW of the Cape Verde Islands. One gunner was lost. The master and 50 crewmembers landed at St Michael Island, Azores and 20 crewmembers and four gunners landed at Taffalal Bay, San Antonio Island, Cape Verde Islands and were brought to Bathurst by sloop HMS Gorleston.

 

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: US Army, Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24s attack a convoy during the night of 4/5 July, setting 1 tanker aflame.

EGYPT: The Australian 9th Division arrives to reinforce Allies resistance, as the exhausted German Panzer units start to run out of ammunition.

Of the 318 AVG veterans 38 choose to go into the Army Air Force in China. (Chuck Baisden)

Combat elements of  CATF are the 11th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), the 16th Fighter Squadron and the 23d Fighter Group.

U.S.A.:  The USAAF's Air Transport Command, which was established on 30 April 42, is redesignated I Troop Carrier Command at Stout Field, Indianapolis, Indiana and made responsible for training and preparing units and personnel for troop carrier (airborne) operations. The USAAF Ferrying Command, which was established on 29 May 41, is redesignated Air Transport Command and made responsible for air transport and ferrying operations.

Irving Berlin's (1888-1989) musical review "This Is the Army," "the biggest and best-known morale-boosting show of World War II," opens at the Broadway Theater in New York.

Minesweeper USS Herald launched.

Destroyer USS David W Taylor launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-701 (German) at 60' from Aerial depth charges; 18 self escape, 15 without Dräger gear, no rescue at hand, but only 7 survive until rescue, as POWs.

Motor tanker Tuapse sunk by U-129 at 22.13N, 86.06W.

At 0338, the unescorted and unarmed Norlandia was torpedoed by U-575 about 25 miles NE of Cape Samana, San Domingo. The torpedo struck on the starboard side between the engine room and the #3 hatch. The explosion tore up the deck, destroyed the radio room, jammed the machinery and caused the ship to flood rapidly, sinking by the stern after 15 minutes. The 21 survivors among the crew of eight officers and 22 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats and were later questioned by Heydemann, who expressed regret at having to sink an American ship and gave them a bottle of German brandy before leaving. He reported the ship erroneously as the Panamanian merchant Portland. One boat with 14 survivors landed after 18 hours at Samaná, Dominican Republic, while the other boat arrived 12 hours later.

GIBRALTAR: General Wladislaw Sikorski is killed when his Liberator plane crashes on take-off. Sikorski had been visiting Polish troops in Egypt. Talk of sabotage is being discouraged by the British, but many Poles remain suspicious. Sikorski had angered Stalin by demanding a full inquiry into the thousands of massacred bodies found in the forest at Katyn, many of them Polish officers. His replacement as Prime Minister in the London Exile Government of Poland is Stanislaw Mikolajczyk who has been acting as Prime Minister in General Sikorskis' absence. General Kukiel becomes C-in-C.

Prime Minster Mikolajczyks cabinet consists of Jan Kwapinski, deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Commerce and Shipping; Tadeusz Romer, Minister of Foreign Affairs; General Marian Kukiel, Minister of National defence; Wladyslaw Banaczyk, Minister of Home Affairs; Stanislaw Kot, Minister of Information; Ludwik Grosfeld, Minister of Finance; Jan Stanczyk, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare; Waclaw Komarnicki, Minister of Justice: Marian Seyda, Minister of State (Peace Conference Planning); Karol Popiel, Minister of State (Polish Administrative Planning); The Rev. Zygmunt Kaczynski, Minister of Education; Henryk Strassburger, Polish Minister in the Middle East.

(Glenn Steinberg and Mike Yared)

GREECE: Crete: There is a successful British commando raid on German military airbases. (Glenn Steinberg)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 2140, U-375 attacked Convoy KMS-18B 10 miles north of Cape Tenez, Algeria and sank the St Essylt and City of Venice. The City of Venice was carrying 292 troops of the 1st Canadian Division for the Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. The master, ten crewmembers and ten troops were lost. HMS Honeysuckle, Rhododendron, Teviot and Restive rescued 147 crewmembers, 22 gunners, 282 troops and ten naval personnel.

INDIAN OCEAN: At 1410, the Breiviken was torpedoed and sunk by U-178 off Portuguese East Africa. Three crewmen, including the British radio officer, were lost out of the 34 crewmen and two gunners aboard. 20 survivors were picked up from the sea by the U-boat, where the master was questioned by an officer who spoke very good Norwegian. They were placed on rafts about 10 minutes later, because a smoke trail was sighted and U-178 left to pursue the ship, it was the Michael Livanos and sank her at 1830. The survivors of Breiviken later found two drifting lifeboats from their own ship righted and bailed them. On 8 July they reached the coast near Ponto Barra du False, where they were taken care of by the lighthouse keeper and his wife.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Thirteenth Air Force B-17s pound Bairoko, New Georgia Island.

New Georgia: The US force advancing from Zanana toward Munda meet heavy Japanese resistance.

U.S.A.:

Destroyers USS Heywood L Edwards and Richard P Leary laid down.

Submarine USS Cero commissioned.

Destroyer escorts USS Weaver, Loy, Lovelace, and Laning launched.

Destroyers USS Morrison, Hickox, Healy, Bennion launched.

Submarine USS Angler launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1745, the Pelotaslóide, escorted by the Brazilian submarine chasers Jacuí and Jundiaí, was hit by two torpedoes from U-590 and sank five miles north of Salinas, Brazil.

UNITED KINGDOM: The Eighth Air Force in England dispatches 558 bombers and 632 fighters on Mission 451 to attack 7 airfields north and west of Paris; bad weather and mechanical failures cause 350+ bombers to abort; 1  B-17 and 4 fighters are lost:

1. Of 300 B-17s, 24 hit Dreux Airfield, 24 hit Illiers L'Eveque Airfield, 13 hit Conches Airfield and 1 hits a target of opportunity; 1 B-17 is lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 37 damaged.

2. Of 258 B-24s, 56 hit Conches Airfield, 50 hit Beaumont le Roger Airfield, 49 hit Evreux Airfield, 25 hit Beaumont-sur-Oise Airfield and 12 hit Creil Airfield; 2 B-24s are damaged beyond repair and 52 damaged. 

199 P-38s, 189 P-47s and 244 P-51s are dispatched to escort the bombers but 63 abort; 2 P-38s, 1 P-47 and 1 P-51 are lost and 1 P-47 is damaged. 

Of 144 P-38s and 176 P-47s, 29 hit Nevers marshalling yard, 25 hit Joinville Bridge, 16 hit Chartre-Chateaudun marshalling yard, 14 hit Perrigny marshalling yard, 14 hit Fresnes Bridge, 8 hit La Tours marshalling yard at Cercy, 8 hit Cambrai marshalling yard, 6 hit St Florentin, 5 hit targets of opportunity and 4 hit Rouen Bridge; they claim 17-0-10 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 1-0-0 on the ground; 1 P-38 is lost and 1 damaged.

36 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions during the night; 1 aircraft crashes.

FRANCE: Carpiquet, just west of Caen is liberated by the Canadian 3rd Division.

Bad weather curtails Ninth Air Force bomber operations, but 95 B-26 Marauders and A-20 Havocs bomb a rail bridge at Oissel and strongly defended positions north of Anneville-sur-Mer, using the Pathfinder technique; 900+ fighters strafe and bomb numerous targets including troop concentrations, gun positions, rail lines, marshalling yards, a tunnel, a radio station, bridges, highways, and a command post; fighters also fly escort and cover the beach and assault areas; units moving from England to France.

EASTERN FRONT: The First Baltic Front attacks The German Army Group North. Polotsk, the gateway to Latvia, quickly falls. The extended German position is held tenuously because the Soviet forces to the south have advanced quickly, exposing the flanks of these units.

Bay of Viipuri: renewed Soviet attacks today. After heavy fighting Finnish troops are forced to leave the islands of Suonionsaari, Esisaari and Ravansaari. Islands of Teikarinsaari and Melansaari are almost lost but regained by counterattacks later in the day.

Vuosalmi (between Bay of Viipuri and Ihantala): heavy fighting as the Soviets try to capture the Finnish bridgehead on the southern side of the river Vuoksi. Defenders' losses are so heavy that the commander of the defending 2nd Div, Maj. Gen. Martola, gives the order that the bridgehead should be evacuated. Evacuation is cancelled, however, as a POW Soviet officer reveals that the attackers are also greatly weakened.

Tulemajoki (on the northern shore of the Lake Ladoga): Soviets break into Finnish positions and the defenders are forced to retreat even further west, behind the pre-1939 border.

INDIAN OCEAN: In the Indian Ocean, the Indian Navy trawler Hoxa rescues 23 survivors of the US freighter SS Jean Nicolet sunk by Japanese submarine I-8 on 2 July. The freighter had a crew of 41, an Armed Guard contingent of 28 and 30 passengers. The captain, radio operator and a passenger where taken aboard the submarine and were interned by the Japanese; only the passenger survived the war. One person was shot and the remainder were left on deck with their hands tied as the submarine submerged. The 23 that survived managed to free their hands, swim to the burning ship and launch rafts.

New Guinea: Operation Table Tennis: Kornasoren airfield is captured on Numfoor. Paratroops are used and lose heavily due to inexperience. Allied ground forces continue pushing east and southeast from the Kamiri Airfield area on Numfoor Island and taking Kamiri village and Kornasoren Airfield. C-47s drop 400 paratroopers of the US 503rd PRCT, 3rd Battalion Reinforcement on Kamiri Airfield but when casualties reach 8 percent due to accidents and enemy fire, it is decided to fly the remainder of the paratroopers to the airfield as soon as C-47s can land.
(Jack McKillop adds): These were Task Groups 58.1 and 58.2 (ships and air groups listed on 3 July). At least 51 Japanese aircraft are shot down, most in the early morning.

PACIFIC: Two task groups of US TF 58 strike Iwo Jima and Chichi Jimi. The other task groups strike Guam. 

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. The USN aircraft sink 12 Japanese vessels.

Chichi Jima, south of and fairly close to Iwo, was very unlike Iwo. The latter was essentially a volcanic ash heap full of natural caves and tunnels, all defensive enhanced by the Japanese over time. All was apparently easy to see, but all of it very difficult to get into; everything had to be first found, then rooted out. Chichi was quite hilly, almost mountainous, and heavily covered with all sorts of greenery. What made Iwo important was its airfield. What made Chichi important was its sprawling and powerful radio setup, the central transmission point for the entire Imperial Navy. Chichi presented an extremely difficult direct land attack problem, which is why nobody tried it -- and why it got lots of aerial attacks. It was off Chichi that then-Lieutenant George H.W. Bush got shot down.

In the Marianas, TG 58.3 returns from Eniwetok Atoll and commences air attacks over Guam while USAAF P-47s attack IJA troops on Aguijan, Rota, Saipan and Tinian Islands. TG 58.3 consists of two aircraft carriers and two light aircraft carriers. With the return of TG 58.3, TG 58.4 retires to Eniwetok.

Japanese submarine I-10 is lost off Saipan believed sunk by USS DAVID W. TAYLOR (DD-551) and USS RIDDLE (DE-185). (Marc James Small)(220, 221 and 222)

Task Group 58.3 arrives in the Mariana Islands from Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands, to relieve Task Group 58.4 which then departs for Eniwetok. During the day, aircraft of TG 58.3 attack Guam. TG.58.3 consists of:
USS Enterprise (CV-6) with Carrier Air Group Ten (CVG-10)
USS Lexington (CV-16) with CVG-16
USS Princeton (CVL-23) with Light Carrier Air Group Twenty Seven (CVLG-27)
USS Jacinto (CVL-30) with CVLG-51
 

CANADA:

Frigate HMCS Antigonish commissioned.

Minesweeper HMCS Revelstoke commissioned.

TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Submarine USS S-28 went missing during training exercises off Oahu, Hawaii with USCGC Reliance. A Court of inquiry was unable to determine the cause of her loss.

U.S.A.:

Destroyer USS Beatty laid down.

Destroyer minelayer USS J William Ditter launched.

Destroyer USS Borie launched.

Destroyer escorts USS Jobb and Naifeh commissioned.

Destroyer escorts USS Cross and Hanna launched.

Destroyer USS Mannert L Abele commissioned.

Submarine USS Blackfin commissioned.
 

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Between 1631 and 1706, U-539 fired torpedoes at a tanker convoy and reported four tankers with 26,000 tons torpedoed. According to the xB-Dienst one of these tankers was the American Hollywood (5498 tons). However, the only ship hit was the unescorted Kittanning, which was torpedoed three times about 40 miles NE of Cristobal. The Kittanning had left port at 1330, but soon thereafter the third assistant engineer fell and seriously injured himself and the master decided to return to Cristobal. At 1631, just after the ship changed course back at 14.5 knots, a torpedo struck on the starboard side at the #6 tank. At 1646, a second torpedo hit the #7 tank on the same side abaft the midships house and the ship swung hard right. The explosions opened a hole 65 feet long and 20 feet high and flooded five tanks, causing a 35° list to starboard. At 1700, the ten officers, 39 crewmen and 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5-in, one 3-in and eight 20-mm guns) abandoned ship in four lifeboats, but two boats swamped in the choppy seas and squally weather. A coup de grâce, fired at 1706, struck on the port side at the #4 tank under the midship house, causing the tanker to right herself and float on an even keel. The U-boat had reported another torpedo fired at 1849 hours, but it seems that it had missed. USCGC Marion and Crawford arrived; the former picked up the survivors and took them to Cristobal. The master and five men reboarded the Kittanning and Crawford began towing the tanker, but when the tow line parted, the operations halted for the night. The next morning, tug USS Woodcock arrived and took the tanker in tow. However the tug suffered engine trouble and had to drop the tow. Later the Panama Canal tug Tavernilla took the ship in tow, later helped by the Panama Canal tug Cardenas. With the help of the American tug Jupiter Inlet the tanker moored at Cristobal on 6 July. The Kittanning was drydocked at Balboa, before being towed to Galveston for permanent repairs.

GERMANY: Berlin: Watched by several thousand Berliners, the British occupation force arrived in the former capital of the Third Reich this afternoon. Women and children clambered over heaps of rubble to gain a better view as the 11th Hussars of the 7th Armoured Division appeared after a 14-hour, 120-mile journey from the British occupation zone. They had been held up for three hours at Magdeburg waiting for the Russians to give them permission to enter their zone.

They passed lines of Russian infantry riding in horse-drawn carts. Beside the gleaming fresh paintwork of the Hussars' tanks, the Russians looked shabby and tattered. Berlin seems populated almost entirely by women and thousands of them are employed by the occupation powers clearing the rubble, brick by brick. At first they worked 13 hours a day; that has now been reduced to seven. There are long food queues, fuel is scarce and most buildings lack glass.

Berlin: Rumours that Hitler is still alive start to spread.

BORNEO: Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb Japanese defensive positions near Balikpapen, Borneo in support of Australian troops. Meanwhile, the Australians capture Manggar Airfield which will be needed because the three escort aircraft carriers supporting operations, part of Task Group 78.4, begin retiring to Leyte.

BURMA: RAF Republic Thunderbolt fighter-bombers of No. 42 Squadron, knock out three 105-mm field guns which are hindering the British Army's advance. (22)

JAPAN: The USAAF's XXI Bomber Command dispatches 159 Iwo Jima-based P-51s to attack the Yokosuka naval base, and airfields in the Tokyo area (Imba, Tsukuba, and Kasumigaura); they claim 9-25 aircraft on the ground; one P-51 is lost. At the same time, Okinawa-based Far East Air Forces P-51s fly a massive sweep along the west coast of Kyushu .

General Spaatz will command the US Army Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific (USASTAF) when it is activated in mid-July .

(Jack McKillop adds) On 16 July 1945, General Carl Spaatz assumed command of the U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces (USASTAF). USASTAF will have administrative and operational control of all B-29 units, plus supporting fighter units, in the Pacific, i.e., the Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands and the Eighth Air Force which is transferred without personnel and equipment from England to Okinawa on 16 July.

To celebrate the 4th of July, 8 Eleventh Air Force B-24s radar-bomb the Kataoka naval base on Shimushu Island, Kurile Islands, with napalm.

CANADA:

Corvette HMCS Baddeck paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.

HMC ML 085 paid off.

The Prince-class auxiliary anti-aircraft cruiser HMCS Prince Robert departed Esquimalt for duty with the British Pacific Fleet. The ship arrived at the RN’s main base at Sydney, Australia, on 10 Aug. It was intended that Prince Robert would help to provide escort in the forward operating areas for troop convoys carrying invasion forces for the final assault against Japan. (DS)