Pierre Laval allowed German forces to enter Vichy France to hunt for clandestine radio transmitters.[4]
The Japanese auxiliary ship Montevideo Maru was torpedoed and sunk off Cape Bojeador, Luzon, Philippines by the American submarine Sturgeon, unaware that it was carrying a large number of Australian prisoners of war and civilians. 1,054 Australians perished, the worst maritime disaster in Australian history.
German submarines U-414 and U-707 were commissioned.
Following two weeks of reverses on the North African front, a motion of censure was brought against Winston Churchill in the House of Commons proposing that "this House, while paying tribute to the heroism and endurance of the Armed Forces of the Crown in circumstances of exceptional difficulty, has no confidence in the central direction of the war." Churchill gave a lengthy speech before the vote, conceding that the campaign in North Africa had not been going well but insisting that things would improve once vast amounts of American military supplies arrived. The motion was defeated, 475 to 25.[5]
The Flying Tigers fought their final engagement, driving away eight Japanese bombers raiding Hengyang.[8]
The American Liberty shipAlexander Macomb was sunk on her maiden voyage east of Cape Cod by German submarine U-215, which was then depth charged and sunk off the coast of New England by the British anti-submarine trawler Le Tiger.
Russian authorities admitted the loss of Sevastopol but claimed that its capture had cost the Germans 300,000 casualties.[9]
The U.S. Army relaxed its draft standards to allow induction of selectees with physical deformities for limited military service.[9]
The Japanese sent a survey party to the sparsely populated island of Guadalcanal to select a location for an airfield. A site was selected near Lunga Point and construction began.[13]
During a debate over a proposed amendment to the National Resources Mobilization Act, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King uttered the famous phrase that he believed that nothing better could be suggested than the government's present policy of "not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary."[15][16]
An American pilot spots the so-called Akutan Zero intact at Akutan Island. Information gained from studying the plane allowed the Americans to devise ways to defeat the Zero. Plane salvaged on July 15.
RAF Lancaster bombers flew the longest raid of the European theatre up to this time, traveling 1,750 miles to bomb German shipyards at Danzig.[3]
Allied convoy PQ 17 finally arrived in Russia after losing 24 of its original 33 vessels, the worst convoy loss of the war. Joseph Stalin suspected that the British had fabricated the heavy losses so as to provide the Soviets with fewer goods than promised.[14]
5,000 Jews from the Rovno ghetto were shot in a forest near the city.[25]
Hitler decided to dismiss Fedor von Bock from command of the newly created Army Group B and replace him with Maximilian von Weichs. Bock's dismissal took effect on July 15.[26]
The Vichy government refused a U.S. offer to move nine warships of the French fleet to an American, neutral or Martinique port to prevent their seizure by the Axis.[8]
The Indian National Congress working committee adopted a resolution demanding British withdrawal from India but denying any intention of embarrassing the Allied war effort.[8]
An American salvage crew recovered the so-called Akutan Zero intact at Akutan Island. Information gained from studying the plane allowed the Americans to devise ways to defeat the Zero.
German submarine U-576 was sunk near Cape Hatteras by depth charges from two U.S. aircraft and gunfire from a merchant ship.
The two-day Vel' d'Hiv Roundup began when French police under the direction of the Nazis conducted a raid and mass arrest of Jews in Paris.
A decree was published in Paris announcing that the "nearest male relatives, brothers-in-law, and cousins of troublemakers above the age of eighteen will be shot. All women relatives of the same degree of kinship will be condemned to forced labor. Children of less than eighteen years old of all the above mentioned persons will be placed in reform schools."[29]
Hitler moved to his new headquarters in Vinnytsia, codenamed Werwolf.
The United States severed diplomatic relations with Finland.[1]
In the First Battle of El Alamein, Australian forces were repelled on an attempt to take Point 24 from the Germans and suffered nearly fifty percent casualties.
Winston Churchill informed Stalin that, in light of the PQ 17 disaster, no further convoys would be sent to northern Russia in the foreseeable future.[14]
German submarine U-751 was depth charged and sunk off Cape Ortegal by British aircraft.
In the First Battle of El Alamein, Australian forces were pushed back in an attempt to capture Miteirya Ridge, or as they call it "Ruin Ridge".
Germany's Second Happy Time drew to a close as U-boats were ordered withdrawn from the U.S. east coast because of the increasing effectiveness of American antisubmarine measures.[3]
Lordsburg Killings: Two elderly men were shot at a Japanese-American internment camp outside of Lordsburg, New Mexico. The shooter would be charged with murder but later acquitted.
Arthur Harris made a radio broadcast informing German listeners that the bombers would soon be coming "every night and every day, rain, blow or snow - we and the Americans. I have just spent eight months in America, so I know exactly what is coming. We are going to scourge the Third Reich from end to end, if you make it necessary for us to do so ... it is up to you to end the war and the bombing. You can overthrow the Nazis and make peace."[36][37]
^ abcdefgWilliams, Mary H. (1960). Special Studies, Chronology, 1941–1945. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 44–45.
^Lemay, Benoît (2010). Erich Von Manstein: Hitler's Master Strategist. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers. p. 237. ISBN978-1-935149-55-2.
^ abcdPolmar, Norman; Allen, Thomas B. (2012). World War II: the Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941–1945. Dover Publications. p. 23. ISBN978-0-486-47962-0.
^ abcMercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 569. ISBN978-0-582-03919-3.
^Anastakis, Dimitry (2015). Death in the Peaceable Kingdom: Canadian History since 1867 through Murder, Execution, Assassination and Suicide. University of Toronto Press. p. 160. ISBN978-1-4426-0636-4.
^Spector, Shmuel, ed. (2001). The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Volume II. New York University Press. p. 673. ISBN978-0-8147-9377-0.