RAF Fighter Command: One He 111 intercepted over the South Downs - shot down by Hurricane of No.43 Sqn. One Hurricane of No. 1 Sqn. lost - pilot safe.

General Alan Brooke is appointed C-in-C Home Forces, replacing Field Marshal Sir Edmund Ironside who retires, promoted to Field Marshal.

The first prototype cavity magnetron is delivered to TRE -- the British radar research centre -- near Swanage, on the south-west coast. (Cris Wetton) 

Corvette HMS Kingcup laid down.

Submarine HMS Umbra laid down.

Corvette HMS Bluebell is commissioned.

Corvette HMS Picotee launched.

Submarine HM S/M P-611 is launched.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Crestflower bombed and sunk off Portsmouth.

GERMANY: Hitler issues a "Last Appeal to Reason", urging Britain to make peace; he also promotes 12 generals to field marshal, including von Brauchitsch, Keitel, von Rundstedt and Kesselring; he gives Field Marshal Göring  the new and unique title of Reichsmarschall.

Oberstleutnant Ramcke is transferred to the 7th Flieger Division.

DENMARK: The government withdraws from the League of Nations.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Action off Cape Spada - Off Cape Spada at the northwest tip of Crete, 'Bartolomeo Colleoni' is stopped by HMAS Sydney's gunfire and finished off with torpedoes from the destroyers. 'Bande Nere' manages to escape. HMAS Sydney and destroyers HMS Hasty, HMS Havock, HMS Hero, HMS Hyperion and HMS Ilex on an anti-submarine sweep into the Aegean north of Crete. Collins, SYDNEY'S captain, in his narrative of the action, states that SYDNEY, with HAVOCK in company, was to support the destroyers. In addition SYDNEY was to make a sweep of the Gulf of Athens for enemy shipping. As these two missions could not be carried out simultaneously Collins chose to support the destroyers. No special course changes were made indicating a deviation from the designated mission. The meeting of the Italian cruisers and the destroyers which precipitated the Cape Spada action was quite by chance. Collins makes no mention of any report of the Italian ships. (Ric Pelvin)

U.S.A.: Washington: Congress today passed the bill asked for by President Roosevelt to pay for a "two-ocean" navy. The House of Representatives approved a bill appropriating an additional $4 billion to build enough warships to enable the US to confront the danger of war with Germany and its allies in the Atlantic, and simultaneously with the Japanese in the Pacific. There will be an additional 1,325,000 tons of warships and 15,000 naval aircraft. The US fleet will then number 35 battleships, 20 aircraft carriers and 88 cruisers.

The BBC broadcasts at midnight by "Colonel Britton" urging the creation of resistance forces. The slogan "V for Victory" is used. The BBC has been introducing programs to Europe with the Morse Code signal "... _" for some time now.

There is of course an irony in this in that this coincides with the first notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. (Anton Capet)

London:

Churchill determined to help the Russians has decided to send them high-level secret intelligence based on Enigma decoding. The Russians will not, however, be told that Britain has cracked the Enigma secret, for the Soviet Union's own codes are being read by the Germans.

Instead, the "sanitized" messages are being disguised under the cover of "a well-placed source in Berlin" and passed on through the military mission in Moscow.

RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: 'Channel Stop' 105 Sqn. attacks 8 ships escorted by six Flak ships off the Dutch coast. Four ships badly damaged, two Blenheims lost.

NORTH SEA: Submarine HMS Umpire, working up and on passage north with an east coast convoy is rammed and sunk off Cromer by the German destroyer 'Peter Hendricks'. There are 22 casualties but 16 survive.
 

GERMANY: U-153, U-375 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: The Germans are continuing their thrust towards Leningrad in the face of increasing Russian resistance. There was heavy fighting yesterday near Lake Peipus where the German infantry has still not been able to break through in support of its advance tank units. A Soviet communique claims that Red Army troops surrounded and destroyed enemy mechanised units between Pskov and Porkov, 180 miles south-west of Leningrad.

Leningrad is now under attack from three directions: the Finns are approaching from the north and north-east, on both sides of Lake Ladoga, while the Germans are attacking through Estonia and the Luftwaffe are mounting heavy riads on the city and the rail link with Moscow.

Rastenburg:

Hitler orders Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group to move south. Guderian is ordered to move south and join the Kiev battle after the action at Smolensk is complete. Guderian objects strongly that he should continue towards Moscow and is overruled by Hitler.

Hitler's decision led to victory in the Battle of Kiev on  September 25th which destroyed the Soviet southwestern front. 665,000 Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner, 884 tanks and 3,018 artillery pieces were taken. Rundstedt was now able to move into the Ukraine, the Crimea and the Donets Basin with additional major losses in men and material for the Soviets. Hitler and the German military leaders felt that now the move on Moscow could be made despite the late start on October 2nd. They expected to seize Moscow and deliver the knockout blow to the Soviet Union before the winter weather set in.

     Their expectations were not met. (Jay Stone)

Thornycroft boats in action with Soviet destroyer Vinha damaged, but saved.

LITHUANIA: In small groups, 5,000 Jews have been shot dead and thrown into pits at Ponar, outside Vilna.

FIJI: A new Fiji government ship, the Viti, leaves Suva for the atolls of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. On board are a party of New Zealanders, 15 radio operators and 22 soldiers. Their job is to watch the seas around the atolls for German raiders who had started to penetrate the south Pacific. Each atoll will have a civilian radio operator and, where there were no other Europeans, two unarmed soldiers.

Radio operator John Jones, a volunteer from the Post and Telegraphic Department's training school in Courtenay Place, recalls that "it sounded like a nice job, something different and we were all young guys".

"And in our innocence we went away and when we got to Suva we knew we would be on a tropical island."

Mr Owen, soldier Leslie Speedy, and radio operator Arthur Heenan, of Hastings, were put on Maiana Island.

Mr Heenan wrote that the locals were friendly and he had a lazy time eating and sleeping. None of the coastwatchers ever saw a German. (Michael Field, New Zealand and Pacific correspondent for Agence France-Presse)

CANADA: Small craft ordered for RCN - HC 7, HC 9, HC 10, HC 11, and HC 12.

U.S.A.: C-in-C (American) Atlantic Fleet Operation Order No. 6 instructs that American naval forces are to guarantee the safety of any convoys in the North Atlantic whenever the strategic situation demanded.

US TF 1 is formed in the Atlantic for the protection of US forces on Iceland and support for convoys to Iceland. USS Wasp ferries P-40s to Iceland.

Marshall informs Grunert that his supplies are now being calculated on a war reserve sufficient for 50,000 men for six months less the supplies necessary for 30,000 Philippine Army troops for the same time (allocations for the Philippine Army were much lower than for the US soldiers). (Marc Small)

Destroyer USS Baldwin laid down.

Minesweeper USS Swallow laid down.

The aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-4), part of Task Force 22, launches 72 USAAF P-40 fighters off Accra in Africa; the P-40s are destined for the Tenth Air Force in India and land at Accra, Gold Coast..

EGYPT: The British cruisers HMS DIDO and HMS EURYALUS and four destroyers bombard Mersa Matruh.

- The 11th Air Force flies search missions are flown over Attu and Agattu Islands.

- The small seaplane tender USS Casco (AVP-12) establishes an advance base in Nazan Bay, Atka Island, to support PBY Catalina operations against Kiska.

- Task Force 8 consisting of the heavy cruisers USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and USS Louisville (CA-28); the light cruisers USS Honolulu (CL-48), USS Nashville (CL-43) and USS St. Louis (CL-49); and supporting destroyers, sorties from Kodiak Island to bombard Kiska.

TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The Intelligence Center/Pacific Ocean Area (ICPOA) begins functioning today, using all of the CINCPAC's structural suggestions along with a few additional offices suggested by the VCNO. These include an enemy documents office for captured literature, a prisoner of war (POW) interrogation office, and a dissemination office to ensure the information reached the proper personnel. From its inception, ICPOA employs approximately 190 men (officers and enlisted) and operates in an administrative building at Pearl Harbor. ICPOA still needs to borrow the services of other intelligence units within the US Navy such as the Photographic Reconnaissance and Interpretation Intelligence Center (PRISIC) on Ford Island. (Mike Yared)(184)

U.S.A.: "The Seventh Symphony", by Shostokovich, is performed for the first time in the U.S. by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

Destroyer USS Saufley launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The final two U-Boats operating off the East Coast of the US are moved to other areas because of improving defenses using convoys.
The last five U-boats assigned to the area, U-89, U-132, U-402, U-458 and U-754, are reassigned to other areas.

The German's initial operations off the United States end as the last two U-boats operating off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, are ordered back to the North Atlantic. This was a result of the USN finally beginning to run convoys off the U.S. east coast in May 1942. The operations began on 11 January 1942 and during the next six months, German U-boats sank 397 vessels off the U.S. east coast while losing seven submarines. The operations shifted to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean in May 1942; it took the USN until July to begin convoys in these areas and even then, it required the assistance of RN and RCN warships to implement the convoy system. The last ship was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico on 4 September 1942.

At 1912, the unescorted Port Antonio was hit amidships by one torpedo from U-129 and sank within two minutes. The master and 12 crewmembers were lost. The survivors jumped into the water but managed to get into the starboard lifeboat. The U-boat surfaced, questioned the survivors and gave them the course for Cuba. After a search for more survivors they headed for land, reaching the coast near Santa Lucia on 21 July. One of the survivors, Jørgen Edvard Magnussen, had been on the Cadmus, which was sunk by the same U-boat on 1 Jul 1942. He had reached the coast after five days and joined the Port Antonio, only to be again shipwrecked within two weeks.

At 1655, the unescorted Leonidas M. was missed by U-332 with a torpedo. The U-boat began shelling the ship at 1711 and missed at 1725 with a second torpedo. The third torpedo fired at 1742 hit and sank the ship. Two crewmembers taken prisoner.

At 0230, U-564 attacked Convoy OS-34 about 200 miles north of the Azores and observed four detonations between 1 minute 15 seconds and 1 minute 27 seconds after firing. Suhren thought that he had hit four ships. However, only the Empire Hawksbill and Lavington Court were hit at this time. There were probably two hits each on the two ships. The master, 37 crewmembers and nine gunners from the Empire Hawksbill were lost. Five crewmembers, one gunner and one passenger (military personnel) from the Lavington Court were lost. The ship was taken in tow, but foundered on 1 August SW of Ireland in 49°40N/18°04W. The master, 33 crewmembers, five gunners and two passengers were picked up by sloop HMS Wellington and landed at Londonderry.

At 0645, the unescorted Baja California was hit by two torpedoes from U-84. The first hit at the forward end of #1 hatch on the port side and the second hit at the forward end of #3 hatch abaft the Chief Engineer’s room. She took a port list immediately and sank lying on its side in ten minutes 40 miles northeast from Rebecca Shoals. Of the 32 crewmen and five armed guards on board were three crewmen killed and the Chief Engineer and 10 others were serious injured. The survivors abandoned ship in one lifeboat and two rafts, because the explosion destroyed the other lifeboat. They were picked up at daylight on next day by the Cuban fishing schooner San Ignacio and were taken to Havana Naval Station, arriving there on 21 July.

The US Seventh Army on Sicily is advancing against north and west with little resistance. The British Eighth Army's 13 Corps still faces firm resistance near Catania on the east coast. Montgomery moves the axis of his attack inland.

During the night of 18/19 July, RAF Wellingtons drop over 800,000 leaflets on Rome.

There were two raids tonight by USAAF bombers. The first was by 122 Ninth Air Force B-24 Liberators on the Littorio marshalling yard; 332.8 tons of bombs were dropped. The second raid by 147 XII Bomber Command B-17 Flying Fortresses on the Lorenzo marshalling yards; 443.8 tons of bombs were  dropped and three B-17s were lost.

Northwest African Tactical Air Force (NATAF) light bombers attack Catania, Sicily.

During the following day, about 150 Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb the Rome railroad yards while B-25 Mitchells and B-26 Marauders hit nearby Ciampino Airfield. Over 100 Ninth Air Force B-24 Liberators attack the Littoria marshalling yards and nearby airfield and on the return flight, railroads at Orlando, Sicily and Anzio are bombed. 

US Ninth Air Force P-40s bomb rail facilities in the Alcamo, Sicily area; Northwest African Air Force B-25s hit Catania and Randazzo; P-40s escort C-47 Skytrains; and NATAF A-36 Apaches attack trains and motor transport in western Sicily.

Rome: Panic swept the Italian capital today as Allied bombers dropped more than 500-tons of high-explosive bombs on "military targets" on the outskirts of the Eternal City. The bombing force was made up of 157 B-17s and 112 B-24s, of which only five did not return. As thousands of men, women and children fled the city in vehicles of every description, the Pope drove to the scene to comfort victims. He returned, his vestments bloodstained, to announce that Romans could take shelter within the neutral Vatican.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviets continue to attack on both sides of the Kursk salient. The Red Army pushes forward, threatening German positions at Bolkhov, in the Orel salient.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Thirteenth Air Force B-17s bomb Kahili Airfield on Bougainville Island and B-17s and B-25s hit the airfield on Ballale Island.
Eight B-25s, 18 Marine SBD Dauntless and 19 Marine TBF Avengers in support of ground forces, hit positions in the Bairoko battle area on New Georgia Island where enemy resistance is fierce. During the night of 19/20 July, a Japanese task force is spotted near Choiseul and is attacked by PBY Catalinas and 8 TBF Avengers; they sink a destroyer and heavily damage a cruiser. Before dawn, 8 B-25s and 5 TBFs attack the convoy without success; 2 B-25s and 2 TBFs are lost.

Japanese Mitsubishi G3M, Navy Type 96 Attack Bomber, Allied Code Name "Nell," attack the U.S. airfield on Funafuti Island, Ellice Islands. 

NEW GUINEA: 2/5 Battalion AIF and I/162 US Infantry Battalion secure the forward slopes of Mount Tambu. They are subject to vicious Japanese counter-attacks. Because of the mountainous terrain, the only artillery in range were infantry mortars and a section of two 3.7" mountain guns (from 1 Aust Mtn Bty)

Lt Cochrane was FOO in an OP within 50 yards of the Jap positions. He called in 129 rounds from the two mountain guns: "Throughout the fight 25 yards of the 50% zone rested on Australian troops without one shell dropping short. Maj O'Hare wrote of his mountain guns: '... the 3.7 How was a miracle gun for accuracy and reliability'". [From "the New Guinea Offensives" by David Dexter, p 149]. (Michael Mitchell)

ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: In the Aleutian Islands, the 633d, 634th and 635th Bombardment Squadrons (Dive), 407th Bombardment Group (Dive), based at Drew Field, Tampa, Florida begin operating from Amchitka Island with Douglas A-24 Dauntless, the USAAF version of the Navy's SBD. The squadron will fly combat missions 4-13 August.

CANADA:

Mutiny onboard destroyer HMCS Iroquois against commanding officer Cdr William Boyd Love Holms RCN. Reported that Cdr Holms, over a period of time insisted upon peacetime routines such as Bovril and sherry on the bridge and ordered men to work in their good uniforms; he also stopped leave arbitrarily and inflicted group punishments. In the rapid expansion which saw the RCN become the fourth largest navy in the world, only about 80 per cent of Iroquois wartime crew had been to sea before. Mutiny simmered for months and was delayed only by a short visit by Iroquois to Halifax. Matters came to a head in July 1943. Though Iroquois later rescued 628 survivors from the troopship Duchess of York, Holms had withheld fire while three troopships, which were being escorting 300 miles west of Vigo, were attacked by German a/c, and two were sunk. Then on arrival in Plymouth, after a German prisoner complained that he had been robbed of a uniform badge, Holms again stopped leave. The junior rates locked themselves on their messdecks while Holms fell down to knock himself unconscious in his bathroom. The mutiny ended when Holms was stretchered ashore.

Destroyer HMCS Huron commissioned.

Minesweeper HMS Serene (ex HMCS Leaside) laid down Toronto, Ontario.

Frigate HMCS Joliette laid down Quebec City, Province of Quebec.

U.S.A.: The US Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is authorized to develop the Gorgon, an aerial ram or air-to-air missile powered by a turbojet engine and equipped with radio controls and a homing device. The Gorgon is later expanded into a broad program embracing turbojet, ramjet, pulsejet and rocket power; straight wing, swept wing, and canard air frames; and visual, TV, heat-homing and 3 type of radar guidance for use as air-to-air, air-to-surface and surface-to-surface guided missiles and as target drones.

Destroyer escorts USS Acree and Keith commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German submarine U-513 is sunk in the South Atlantic south-east of Sao Francisco do Sul, Brazil, in position 27.17S, 47.32W, by 6 depth charges from a PBM-3C Mariner of Patrol Squadron Seventy Four (VP-74) based at Naval Air Facility (NAF) Natal, Brazil. The submarine commander had elected to remain on the surface and use his AA guns against the PBM. Only 7 of the crew of 53 survive and they are rescued by the small seaplane tender USS Barnegat (AVP-10).

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Canadian forces clear the Caen suburbs of Vaucelles, Louvigny and Flery-sur-Orne.

During the afternoon 262 USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26s and A-20 Havocs bomb bridges on the Loire and Seine Rivers and a fuel dump at Bruz; fighters provide escort and, though limited by bad weather, hit rail lines and scattered enemy installations and movements in the Amiens-Tours-Chartres area and along the Ghent-Brussels, Belgium railroad.

ITALY: The US 34th Div. captures Leghorn [Livorno]. The Germans have demolished the port and laid 25,000 booby-trap bombs.

GERMANY: 400+ USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17s and B-24s based in Italy bomb an ordnance depot, an aircraft factory, a motor works, and an airfield in the Munich area; P-51s and P-38s fly 300+ sorties in support; enemy fighter opposition is weak but flak is heavy and accurate; 16 USAAF aircraft are shot down and several are missing.  

U-2502 is commissioned.

U-2513, U-3507 laid down.

EASTERN FRONT: Russian units enter Latvia.

ARABIAN SEA: At 1703, the unescorted King Frederick was torpedoed and sunk by U-181 in the Nine Degree Channel in the Arabian Sea. The wreck was later dispersed. 20 crewmembers, five gunners and two passengers (military personnel) were lost. The master, 27 crewmembers and one gunner were picked up by the American Liberty ship Shamshee and landed at Aden.

GUAM: In support of the upcoming invasion of Guam, Seventh Air Force P-47s, based on Saipan, continue to bomb and strafe Tinian Island while Far East Air Force (FEAF) B-24s, striking in 2 waves, attack the airfield on Yap Island; several of the B-24s become separated from the formations and bomb Ngulu and Sorol Atolls in the Caroline Islands.

- Mission 276: 27 B-29s lay mines in the Oyama, Niigata, Miyazu, Maizuru, Tsuruga, Nezugaseki, Obama Island, and Kobe-Osaka areas of Japan and at Wonsan, Korea; 1 B-29s mines an alternate target.
- Mission 277: 127 B-29s attack the Fukui urban area destroying 1.6 sq mi (4.2 sq km), 84.8% of the city; 1 other B-29s hits an alternate target.
- Mission 278: 126 B-29s hit the Hitachi urban area destroying 0.88 sq mi (2.28 sq km), 64.5% of the city; 1 other B-29 hits an alternate target; 2 B-29s are lost.

- Mission 279: 91 B-29s attack the Choshi urban area destroying 0.379 sq mi (0.982 sq km), 33.8 % of the city.

- Mission 280: 126 B-29s hit the Okazaki urban area destroying 0.65 sq mi (1.68 sq km), 68% of the city; 1 B-29 hits an alternate target.

- Mission 281: 83 B-29s bomb the Nippon oil plant at Amagasaki; 1 other B-29 hits an alternate target.

- Iwo Jima-based P-51s strike airfields, factories, railroads, power lines and other tactical targets at Kagamigahara, Nagoya, Meiji, Izumi, Nishinomiya, and Tambaichi during the day.

90+ Far East Air Forces P-51s pound numerous targets on sweeps over the Nagoya area and hit airfields, factories, power facilities, and gun positions at locations including Kagamigahara, Nishinomiya, and Osaka.

Carrier-based aircraft of Task Force 38 attack the Kure naval shipyard in Japan and damage the aircraft carriers HIJMS Amagi and HIJMS Katsuragi and the battleship HIJMS Haruna. Meanwhile, Task Group 35.4 consisting of four light cruisers and destroyers, completes its bombardment of Japanese radar stations at Nojima Saki on Honshu Island.

Off Okinawa, Japanese kamikazes damage the destroyer USS Thatcher (DD-514) and another barely misses the destroyer USS Charles J Badger (DD-657).

BORNEO: Thirteenth Air Force P-38s support Australian ground troops by hitting a suicide boat hideout at Sandakan while B-25s bomb Jesselton Airfield.

CANADA:

End of Halifax ammunition dump crisis after day of terror.

Corvettes HMCS Peterborough, Rosthern and Owen Sound paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.

HMC ML 076 and ML 077 paid off.

U.S.A.: Congress ratifies the Bretton Woods monetary agreement.