Britain is alive with reports of parachute landings, which were officially denied today. In the invasion of Holland, some parachutists were disguised as clergymen. Some rumours say that they have been disguised as nuns in Scotland. Other rumours of "fifth column" activity include secret rays in operation, which stop car engines dead, and spy messages concealed in the personal column of The Times. It is now an offence to spread rumours - a man was fined GBP 25 today for saying that 20 parachutists had landed in Kent. The Ministry of Information has asked people to join the "Silent Column" and to report defeatist talk.

RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group ( Blenheim). 21 Sqn and 57 Sqn. 12 aircraft bombed Stavanger/Sola airfield in Norway. 7 aircraft lost to fighters.

Submarine HMS Salmon sailed on patrol on 4 July but was not heard from since. After the war it was found that she had been routed across a German minefield that had just been laid at 57 22N 05 00E. All 30 crew lost. (Alex Gordon)(108)

Corvette USS Temptress (ex-HMS Veronica) laid down.
Corvettes HMS Dianthus and Jonquil launched.

FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: The French Chamber of Deputies votes for the reform of the Constitution by 395 votes to 3. Thus the French parliament grants Marshal Petain the power to make and alter the constitution.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Action off Calabria: Battle of Punto Stilo - Italian aircraft based out of Sicily start five days of high-level bombing against Admiral Cunningham's force (and Force H out of Gibraltar) and cruiser HMS Gloucester is hit and damaged. 

In a series of actions, Skua II fighters from 800 and 803 Sqns, FAA, break up most of the attacks, downing three and damaging several more of the attackers. No hits are obtained. 

Mediterranean fleet heads for a position to cut off the Italians from their base at Taranto.

Meanwhile, Swordfish I search planes from 813 Sqn, FAA aboard HMS Eagle having established contact with the Italian Fleet for Admiral Cunningham's Mediterranean Fleet, the 9 Swordfish Is of 824 squadron, FAA, also aboard HMS Eagle, deliver two separate torpedo attacks on Italian warships in the Ionian Sea. Unfortunately for the Royal Navy, the Italian cruisers outmanoeuvre both attacks. The second of the two attacks is delivered within sight of the British Fleet during the gunnery engagement between HMS Warspite and the Italian battleships Conti di Cavour and Giulio Cesare. These are the first aerial attacks delivered by carrier-based aircraft on the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean. (Mark Horan)

RAF Bomber Command headquarters here has received a new directive instructing it to concentrate on German transport and to aim at breaking the morale of the German population. Recent attacks include two daylight bombing raids in northern France and night-time raids on Bremen, Cologne, Duisburg, Cherbourg and Rotterdam. Key transportation targets are the railways, and air war planners have faith in the crippling effect of such strikes. At the same time the RAF has carried out some raids on U-boat bases and warships in Brest harbour, France.

Westminster:

Lieutenant R. N. Brabner, just back from Crete, spoke in the House of Commons:

In Greece, Crete, Libya, and Syria there has been an almost chronic lack of the most important war materials. It sounds incredible, but when we were at Malemi (the aerodome at Canea, capital of Crete) we rarely were in a position to put more than two aircraft into the air for a continuous patrol during daylight hours.

He then told the House that "705 to 80% of our tanks broke down before they saw the enemy."

Seven 8th Air Force P-38 Lightnings arrive in the UK via the North Atlantic route, this being the first time single-seat USAAF aircraft have flown this route.

London Gazette - Medal commendations for SS FORTHBANK.

King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct Gunner Eric Vernon Smith. (Bernard de Neumann)

Boom defence vessels HMS Barstoke and Barclose launched.

ASW trawler HMS Birdlip launched.

Submarine HMS P-38 launched.

GERMANY: U-585 launched, U-522 laid down.

FINLAND: The Finns re-occupy Morgonland, establishing an observation and artillery direction post with a party of five men under the command of Lt. Per-Erik Ahlblad. (Cris Wetton)

VI Corps (Maj. Gen. Talvela) starts its attack this evening, slightly before the rest of Karelian Army. The aim is to capture certain positions before the Army main attack next day. Because of stiff Russian resistance VI Corps (5th and 11th Divs) fail to capture these positions in time.

I would add that Finnish Army had many difficulties with its attack in summer and early autumn of 1941. While the men were generally experienced veterans of the Winter War and motivated to pay back for the injustices suffered, they were inexperienced in offensive warfare. There are some appalling examples of how officers handled infantry attacks: one battalion commander told his FO "I don't give a damn where you fire with your guns" and then ordered a frontal assault on a heavily defended hill. One could all too well imagine the consequences.

U.S.S.R.: Vitebsk and Pskov fall to the Germans; 300,000 Soviet prisoners have now been taken.
40 Divisions and 300,000 Soviet soldiers have been eliminated from the Order of Battle. The 2nd and 3rd Panzer Groups have encircled them at Vitebsk and Pskov forming the 4th Panzer Army. It has now crossed the Dnieper and Dvina Rivers advancing to encircle Smolensk. (Peter Beal)
 

BLACK SEA: Soviet submarine SC-206 sunk by Romanian ships Stihi, Naluka and three torpedo boats near Mangalia at 43°51.5'N, 28°45'E. Also possible version - mines near Konstanza. Sometimes this loss is connected with friendly fire from Soviet destroyer Soobrazitelny, but this attack took place in another point.

LIBYA: Tobruk: British positions are bombarded by Axis aircraft and artillery.

SYRIA: Damour, Syria falls to Australian Troops. Homs also falls. General Dentz asks for an armistice on behalf of the Vichy forces.

The Vichy French destroyers GUEPARD, VALMY and VAQUELIN sail from Syria tonight bound for Salonika to embark a battalion of French troops to reinforce Beirut. These troops have crossed by land to Greece with the co-operation of the Axis. However, this attempt fails, the loaded destroyers turning back to Salonika after sighting British aircraft. (Peter Beeston)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: TF 5, under Purnell, sails to southern Philippine waters in preparation for war. (Marc Small)

UNITED KINGDOM: In England, 7 8th Air Force P-38s arrive in the UK via the North Atlantic route, this being the first time single-seater USAAF aircraft have flown this route.

Minesweeper HMS MELITA is laid down.

ENGLISH CHANNEL: ASW trawler HMS MANOR is sunk by German motor torpedo boats.

GERMANY: RAF bombers raid the U-boat base at Wilhelmshaven.

U-227 launched.

U-345 and U-976 are laid down.

U-630 is commissioned.

NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam: The Jewish Frank family, including 13-year-old Anne, who keeps a diary, go into hiding from the Nazis.

NORWAY: U-209 lost two men during an accident on the landing place in the harbour of Bergen. The boat went on its next patrol on 17 July. [Funkgefreiter Edmund Kiepulski, Funkgefreiter Alfons Kuklinski].

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Six US Army, Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24s dispatched against shipping are attacked by fighters; one B-24 is lost and the others return to base without bombing targets.

The Italian submarine PERLA is intercepted and seriously damaged by depth charges from corvette HMS HYACINTH. The boat is forced to the surface and captured off Beirut.  Towed to the Lebanese port, the Perla is repaired and renamed P-712. In 1943 it was transferred to the Greek Navy where it served until 1947.

EGYPT: El Alamein: Nine days after launching what he hoped would be his final, all-out and successful assault on the British army, Erwin Rommel - now a field marshal - appears to have met his match in desert tank warfare.

General Sir Claude Auchinleck has taken command of the Eighth Army and has succeeded in repelling several powerful assaults between El Alamein and the impenetrable Qattara Depression. Unfortunately, the "Auk's" subordinates have not followed orders to "give the enemy no rest."

U.S.A.: The First Special Service Force is activated at Camp William Henry Harrison, near Helena, Montana. Consisting of some 2,300 men, the Force was organized into three regiments of about 600 men each, plus a service battalion. Each regiment was divided into two battalions of three companies each. Its Soldiers would carry a variety of U.S. small arms and wear U.S. Army uniforms. Its heaviest weapons would be 60mm mortars and light machine guns. It had earlier been determined that the Canadian Army would participate in the project. The Canadian volunteers, who made up about one third of the unit, were rigorously screened before arrival at Camp William Henry Harrison. Some of the American volunteers were hardly volunteers. Per long-standing custom, many commanders used Frederick's call for Soldiers to man this new unit as an opportunity to rid themselves of their less-desirable troops, to include some who reported to Montana from post stockades and arrived under armed guard. On the other hand, many of these garrison Soldier troublemakers would prove themselves to be ideal combat Soldiers in the unorthodox Devil's Brigade. The training that all members of the Force received was intense and extensive. The unfit were weeded out.
Those who withstood the rigorous training became experts in small unit and individual combat, demolitions, amphibious operations, and mountain warfare. They became airborne-qualified. They also got used to using the Weasel, the specially-designed vehicle intended for the snows of Norway. They would never use it there because the Norwegian operation, the reason for the Force's creation, was cancelled. (Mike Yared)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two German submarines sink armed U.S. merchant vessels in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic.

U-67 sinks a tanker 60 miles (96.6 km) west of Southwest Pass, Louisiana.

At 1624, the unescorted Santa Rita was hit by one torpedo from U-172, while steaming on a nonevasive course at 16 knots about 700 miles NE of Puerto Rico. Lookouts had spotted the wake but it was too late and the torpedo struck on the port side between #3 hatch and the engine room. The explosion killed one officer and two crewmen on watch below, wrecked the engines and opened a hole 30 feet in diameter that caused the flooding of the #3 hold. Ten minutes after the hit, the most of the eight officers, 44 crewmen, two passengers and nine armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in and some .50cal and .30cal guns) abandoned ship without orders in the two starboard lifeboats, but one of them capsized and one crewman drowned. The master, chief officer and ten men in a third boat followed them. The U-boat then surfaced and fired some machine gun burst to warn the survivors and fired four rounds from the deck gun into the superstructure and destroyed the radio room. Some Germans boarded the abandoned vessel, searched her and placed scuttling charges on board. They returned to the U-boat after two hours with some foodstuffs. The ship sank capsizing at 20.30 hours after the charges detonated and seven more shells were fired into the hull. The master was questioned by Emmermann and then taken on board as prisoner of war. 32 survivors in two lifeboats were picked up on 11 July by the USS Livermore and Mayo and landed at Port of Spain, Trinidad. The other lifeboat with 27 survivors was taken in tow by a US Army Air Force crash boat after being spotted on 25 July by an aircraft and landed at Borenquen Point, Puerto Rico. The master Henry R. Stephenson was landed on 21 July in Lorient, taken to Wilhelmshaven and from there to the POW camp Milag Nord near Bremen. He was repatriated on the Swedish motor merchant Gripsholm in January 1945 through a Red Cross exchange of prisoner of war. (Dave Shirlaw and Jack McKillop)

At 2305, the unescorted Cape Verde was torpedoed and sunk by U-203 east of Grenada. One crewmember and one gunner were lost. The master, 31 crewmembers and eight gunners landed at the Bay of St Vincent, Windward Islands on 14 July.

At 1601, the Nicholas Cuneo was stopped by U-571 with 20-mm gunfire across her bow and sunk with 43 shells from the deck gun after the crew had abandoned ship.

At 0247, the unescorted Empire Explorer was torpedoed and sunk by gunfire by U-575 west of Tobago. Three crewmembers were lost. The master, 66 crewmembers and eight gunners were picked up by HM MTB-337 and landed at Tobago. U-575 reported the ship under her former name Inanda.

SS Triglav sunk by U-66 at 26.47N, 48.10W.

ITALY: General Guzzoni is now in command on Sicily with the Italian 6th Army.

In Sicily during the night of 8/9 July, Northwest African Strategic Air Force Wellingtons bomb the airfields at Catania, Gerbini, and Comiso and Northwest African Tactical Air Force planes hit Sciacca and Milo Airfields. 

During the day, Ninth Air Force B-24s bomb airfields at Maleme, Crete, and Comiso and Taormina while B-25 Mitchells hit Sciacca landing ground and Biscari Airfield and dispersal areas and P-40s escort bombers over Castelvetrano, and Milo Airfields. Northwest African Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-25s, B-26 Marauders, and fighters attack other targets, including Sciacca and Biscari Airfields, Gerbini satellite field, and Cape Passero Island radar stations. This pre-invasion air bombardment of Sicily provides air superiority over the enemy.

The Allied forces for Operation Husky are gathered around MALTA. The invasion of Sicily will begin with airborne landings tonight. These will include the US 505th PIR landing at Gela. (Mike Yared)

2,590 Allied ships headed for Sicily to mount the first amphibious assault on Occupied Europe - Operation Husky - while transport aircraft and gliders from North African bases inserted troops from the British 1st Airborne and US 82nd Airborne Divisions, beginning half an hour before midnight.

BURMA: The RAF bomb Maungdaw.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: A USN submarine lands men, equipment and ammunition on Negros Island.

Marine SBD Dauntlesses bomb Japanese ground defenses at Bairoko Harbor on New Georgia while B-25s and several fighters sent against forces near Vella Lavella Island, fail to locate the target and strafe Buki and Ganongga Islands, and a destroyer beached on southeast Kolombangara Island. At least 4 A6M "Zekes" are shot down by a P-39Airacobra and Navy F4F Wildcat pilots in the early afternoon over Rendova.

Four USN destroyers shell the area near Munda on New Georgia Island. Later in the day, 18 USMC SBD Dauntless bomb the same area.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Kiama launched.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The 159th Regimental Combat Team arrives on Attu Island to relieve the 17th Infantry Regiment of garrison duty. The 17th ships out for Adak where it begins training for the invasion of Kiska; during the Kiska invasion, the 17th is designated Landing Force 16.8. 

- Mission 462: during a morning mission 150 B-17s are dispatched to bomb bridges and airfields in France but cloud cover causes the bombers to hit targets of opportunity; 68 hit Chalonnes Bridge, 36 hit Chateaudun Airfield, 12 hit Bouchemaine Bridge, 12 hit Chalonnes highway bridge and 12 hit Le Creusot Bridge;  1 B-17 is lost and 10 damaged. Escort is provided by 155 P-47s and P-51s; 1 P-47 and 1 P-51 are lost.

- Mission 463: 104 B-24s and 77 B-17s are dispatched to hit CROSSBOW (V-weapon) sites in France but encounters poor weather; Only 37 B-24s bomb V-weapon sites; 12 B-17s hits St. Omber Longuenesse airfield and three hit targets of opportunity; 1 B-24 is lost and 60 damaged. Escort is provided by 158 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 5-0-3 Luftwaffe aircraft.

90 P-38 Lightnings strafe the Moulin-Nevers-Tours area claiming 1-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; a P-38 is lost .

- Mission 464: During the night, 5 B-17s drop leaflets in France.

37 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions during the night.

The band leader Glenn Miller gives the first concert of his British tour.

FRANCE: 3rd Canadian and 1st British Division enter Caen and the Carpiquet Airfield.

Caen: Criticism of Montgomery's handling of operations in the Caen sector has been growing since the failure of repeated attempts to break out into open country. The Britons and Canadians of Dempsey's Second Army remain stalled at the river Orne inside Caen, with the Germans still holding Bourgebus Ridge to the south of the town. Another commanding height, Hill 112, has again be wrested from the enemy, only to be lost in a counter-attack. The high rate of casualties is causing anxiety. After almost four years of war, manpower is running low; this may help to explain Montgomery's caution.

Against this background, Montgomery's staff have produced a plan for exploiting the 21st Army Groups four-to-one superiority in tanks over the Germans. A mass attack by 750 tanks is to be mounted east of Caen with the aim of driving towards Falaise: "I have decided the time has come to have a real showdown on the eastern flank," Montgomery says.

Of 250+ Ninth Air Force B-26s and A-20 Havocs dispatched, bad weather prevails and about 60 bomb targets including a rail bridge, crossing, overpass and a highway bridge at Ablis, Orleans, Vendome, and Montfort-sur-Risle; fighters escort IX Bomber Command bombers, provide area cover over the battle area, and bomb and strafe gun positions, vehicles, rail cars, bridges, and tanks.

Destroyers HMCS Huron and HMS Tartar engaged 4 German armed trawlers off St. Malo, France. The small ships, making only 9 knots, made smoke to screen their movements and set off signal rockets to alert German forces ashore. The trawlers opened a hot fire from their light AA armament (37-mm and 20-mm) and German shore artillery began to shell the two destroyers. Shrapnel soon hit both Tartar and Huron from near misses and Huron suffered two wounded crewmembers. The destroyers withdrew and a subsequent attack by the Canadian 65th MTB Flotilla was also driven off. The 4 German trawlers arrived safely at St. Malo. This engagement shows that, when alerted and ready to defend themselves, the German naval forces were able to mount a credible defence. The odds were not in favour of the Allied formation and the supporting fire from shore batteries completely 'turned the tables'. The committing of a light force of 2 destroyers against such opposition reveals a failure to properly assess the threat in a joint context, which is a very common fault. The one thing that counts in naval warfare, above all else, is numbers. Although several similar engagements had gone strongly in favour of the allies, they had all been stronger forces and enjoyed a measure of tactical surprise when the battle was opened.

GERMANY:

U-3002 launched.

U-3007, U-3505 laid down.
 

ITALY: The US 88th Division liberates Volterra, Tuscany. French units advance on Poggibonsi, Italy.

The US 100th Infantry Battalion occupies and controls Leghorn directly under the control of the Fifth Army in Rome. Nisei soldiers of the 100th Infantry Battalion are in Leghorn.

In the Fifteenth Air Force's first Pathfinder-led mission, 222 B-17s and B-24s bomb Xenia and Concordia Vega oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania; P-38s and P-51s fly escort; other P-51s sweep the Ploesti area during the attacks; the bombers and fighters claim destruction of 14 of the 40-50 opposing fighters; 6 AAF aircraft are shot down.

Minesweeper USS Swerve mined and sunk off Anzio.

FINLAND: Ihantala: Finnish troops notice that Soviets are no longer trying to achieve a breakthrough. 

A quiet day at Ihantala. Enemy artillery is still active today and tomorrow, but there are no more serious Soviet attempts to achieve a breakthrough. Border Jäger Battalion 2 and the 36th AT-gun Company are transferred to Vuosalmi (east of Ihantala at the sector of Lt. Gen. Hjalmar Siilasvuo's III Corps), where the Red Army is now trying to break the Finnish line after its failure at Ihantala.

This day is considered to be the last of the Battle of Tali-Ihantala. It has ended in a Finnish defensive victory. Tali-Ihantala was the most serious Soviet attempt to break the Finnish line, and the greatest battle in the Scandinavian military history. The VKT-line, the third and last Finnish line of defence, had budged but not broken. With German help, Finns were able to stop the Soviet offensive and save their independence.

After it in the early days of July became clear to the Soviet leadership that the Finnish line at Ihantala will hold, they changed their point of main effort in the Karelian Isthmus to Bay of Viipuri and Vuosalmi, where they also ultimately failed. At the same time Finns were also fighting a crucial battle in northern Karelia (north of Lake Ladoga). These battles would also merit postings as detailed as these had been, but Tali-Ihantala was the first, greatest and most important. It showed it was possible to stop the Red Army for good.

At Tali-Ihantala several factors favoured Finns. Soviet formations, while still receiving substantial reinforcements, were operating at the end of long lines of supply. On the other hand the Finnish lines of supply were relatively short, and the worst deficiences in the equipment were being remedied. Germans had supplied Finns with amounts of the new infantry AT-weapons, Panzerfausts and -schrecks, and Finns soon found out that these weapons were ideal for the Finnish terrain. (The first delivery of these weapons was received already in April 1944, but in one of those moments of utter stupidity some staff officer decided that secrecy was the prime consideration and these weapons were stored. Only very few men received training in these AT-weapons before the Soviet offensive.) The relatively short range of these weapons was not a major drawback, because in the rugged Finnish terrain (especially so at Ihantala) the infantry could fight the tanks at very short ranges. Also the Finnish AA-defences had been strenghtened.

The Finnish morale, after being shaken by the early Soviet successes, had by now been firmed by the awarness that there was no more room for retreat. If the line here is not held, the Red Army can break into the inner parts of Finland, and there's no telling how or if they can be stopped. The Finnish troops fought courageously, and it was, at least partially, courage born out of desperation. The Panzerfausts and -schrecks also gave new confidence to the troops. They finally had means to deal with the Soviet tanks, and the artillery and the air forces were giving efficient support.

A major factor in the Finnish victory, as is evident in these postings, was the artillery. At the closing stages of the battle the Finnish Army had more than 20 artillery battalions present, and they were used to a devastating effect. Often the artillery alone was enough to disperse the enemy troops formed for an attack. Thanks to the pioneer work of General of Artillery Vilho Nenonen the Finnish artillery had one of the most efficient artillery fire-control systems of the day. It made possibe for one forward observer to rapidly call the fire of several artillery battalions.

OTOH the Soviet commanders were in a hurry. Viipuri had been captured on 20 June as planned, but after that the Soviet offensives had been repulsed. The main effort was made at Tali-Ihantala, but it soon became clear that the going was a lot tougher than expected. The commanders were lagging behind the timetable, and they were aware that if they aren't able to break the Finnish line, the point of main effort would be switched elsewhere. Consequently the Soviet attacks in the latter stages of the battle were hastily planned and ill-executed.

Finnish losses at Tali-Ihantala between 25 June and 9 July were 1101 KIA, 6264 WIA and 1096 MIA. Soviet losses in the same period are estimated at 5000 KIA and 14 000 WIA. Finns and Germans claimed almost 300 aircraft shot down during the battle. I haven't seen any figures how many tanks the Red Army lost at Tali-Ihantala; they lost some 600 tanks in Karelian Isthmus in summer 1944, many of them at Tali-Ihantala.

Around this time the Soviet High Command Stavka decided to concentrate all the forces available against Germany. For the Soviet Union the war against Finland had always been a side-show, and now the drive to Berlin has far greater priority. Forcing Finland to surrender had proved far more difficult that had been estimated, and finally Stalin concluded it's not worth the cost. (Molotov was of the same opinion. In the early 1970's he commented to a party historian that it was a very wise decision not to occupy Finland. "It would have been a bleeding wound on our side! The people there, they are stubborn, very stubborn.") Although the Red Army will occasionally probe the Finnish defences (in mid-August 1944 two Soviet divisions were encircled and destroyed near Ilomantsi, northern Karelia, when they were trying to flank Finnish defences), there will be no more large-scale operations against Finland. The demand for an unconditional surrender was quietly dropped. A peace will be negotiated.

Vuosalmi: Finns abandon their bridgehead on the southern side of the river. Soviets cross the river at several points and are able to capture a bridgehead on the northern side. Finns manage to contain the bridgehead, but are unable to destroy it.

Bay of Viipuri: Soviets invade the western shore of the bay. Coast is here defended by the German 122nd Div. which beats the Soviet attacks back. This is the last day of heavy fighting around the Bay of Viipuri, and the frontlines here stay the same for the rest of the war (until Sept. 1944).

INDIAN OCEAN: The unescorted Shahzada was torpedoed and sunk by U-196 SW of Bombay. The master, 36 crewmembers and nine gunners were lost. 15 crewmembers were picked up by the British SS Chaugon and landed at Bombay on 17 July and 21 crewmembers made landfall at Goa on 18 July. 15 other crewmembers and one gunner were picked up by the Norwegian merchantman Magna and landed at Aden on 21 July.

BURMA: Maj. Frank Gerald Blaker (b.1920), Highland Light Infantry, charged a machine-gun post alone. Fatally wounded, he cheered on his men as they stormed the objective. (Victoria Cross)

MARIANAS ISLANDS: Final Japanese organized resistance on Saipan ceases as the US forces reach Point Marpi. US casualty list of 3400 KIA and 13,000 WIA; Japanese estimated 27,000 KIA and 1,780 prisoners.
Seventh Air Force P-47s based on Saipan hit the remnants of Japanese forces on Saipan and Tinian Islands, as organized resistance on Saipan ends; Saipan will become a base from which B-29s will bomb Japan and construction work on the airfields is already underway..

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Asbestos arrives Halifax from builder in Quebec City.

U.S.A.:

Destroyer minelayer USS Harry F Bauer launched.

Minesweeper USS Shelter commissioned.

FRANCE: Paris: De Gaulle proposes a national referendum to decide France's system of government.

- Mission 256: 29 B-29s mine Shimonoseki Strait and the waters at Niigata and Nanao; 1 other mines other targets; 1 B-29 is lost. This is the beginning of Phase V of the mining campaign to establish a total blockade of the Japanese home islands.

- Mission 257: 123 B-29s attack the Senai urban area destroying 1.22 sq mi (3.16 sq km), 27% of the city area; 1 other B-29 hits an alternate target; 1 B-29 is lost.

- Mission 258: 115 B-29s attack the Sakai urban area destroying 1.02 sq mi (2.64 sq km), 44% of the city area; 3 other B-29s hit alternate targets.

- Mission 259: 108 B-29s hit the Wakayama urban area destroying 2.1 sq mi (5.44 sq km), 52.5% of the city area.

- Mission 260: 129 B-29s attack the Gifu urban area destroying 1.93 sq mi (5.0 sq km), 74% of the city area; 1 B-29 is lost.

- Mission 261: 61 B-29s attack the Utsube Oil Refinery at Yokkaichi with poor results; 1 hits an alternate target.

102 Iwo Jima Island-based P-51s hit airfields at Itami, Hamamatsu, Aichi, and Washinomiya, claiming 1-0-0 aircraft in the air and 15-5 on the ground; 3 P-51s are lost.

- 43 Fifth Air Force B-24s from Okinawa bomb Omura Airfield, Kyushu (1 other bombs the airfield on Kikaiga-shima, Amami Islands, Ryukyu Islands) and 50+ Okinawa-based B-25s hit Tokuno Airfield on Tokuno Shima, Amami Islands.

SOUTH CHINA SEA: During the night of 9/10 July, the submarine USS Cod (SS-224) went to the rescue of the Dutch submarine O-19 which had run aground on Ladd Reef n the South China Sea, about 300 miles (483 km) northwest of Brunei Bay.  Cod takes the Dutch crew on board and destroys O-19 when it could not be got off the reef.

CHINA: Nanning: Chinese forces advancing rapidly east in southern Kwangsi have severed the last link between Japan's China Army and its garrison in Indochina. Since recapturing Nanning, a Chinese column has taken Nam Quan on the Indochina border. Two columns driving north are closing on the key rail junction of Kweilin, Japan's lifeline to south China. Its nearest major airbase at Tanchuk will be threatened if this rapid advance continues. With Nanning and Luichow recaptured, Chinese units now control the three US Fourteenth Army Air Force bases lost last year; these should be operational soon.

AUSTRALIA: Thirty thousand people line the streets of Perth for the funeral procession of John Curtin, Australia's late prime minister.

CANADA: Corvettes HMCS West York and Forest Hill paid off Sorel Province of Quebec.

Corvette HMCS Kenogami paid off Sydney Nova Scotia.