July in WW2
1 July 1940: The French Government moves to the spa town of Vichy
2 July 1940: Hitler orders a study into the possible invasion of Britain
3 July 1940: British warships destroys much of the French Navy at anchor in the Algerian port of Oran to avoid them falling into German hands, and to show the US that Britain is determined to fight on
4 July 1945: General Douglas McArthur announces the liberation of the Philippines
5 July 1943: Battle of the Kursk Salient begins in Russia as German forces attack a bulge in their line along a 170 mile front
6 July 1943: US cruiser Helena and two Japanese destroyers are sunk in the Battle of Kula Gulf in the Solomon Islands
7 July 1941: US troops take over the occupation of Iceland to free up British forces stationed there
8 July 1945: A US soldier fires on German PoWs at a camp in Utah, USA. Eight PoWs are killed and twenty wounded
9 July 1944: Caen and Bretteville-sur-Odon in Normandy taken by British troops
10 July 1943: OPERATION HUSKEY begins, as Allied troops land in Sicily. German forces are brought to a halt at Kursk having gained just five miles.
11 July 1940: Lord Beaverbrook appeals for housewives to hand over aluminium pots for the war effort
12 July 1943: British and US forces join up at Ragusa in Sicily
13 July 1940: The first Free-Polish RAF fighter squadron is formed as Hitler orders that the Luftwaffe destroy the RAF in preparation for Operation Sealion, the invasion of Britain
14 July 1945: Eisenhower dissolves Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF)
15 July 1945: The blackout ends with the London West End illuminations being turned on after over two thousand days
16 July 1945: The first atomic bomb is exploded at White Sands missile range in New Mexico, USA
17 July 1944: US troops enter St Lo in Normandy
18 July 1944: Operation Goodwood begins as the British Second Army launches an offensive around Caen
19 July 1944: Russian forces enter Latvia
20 July 1944: The July Bomb Plot: German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg attempts to assasinate Hitler with a suitcase bomb at the Wolf’s Lair at Rastenburg in East Prussia.
21 July 1945: US President Truman and Churchill agree to use the atomic bomb if Japan does not surrender
22 July 1945: Japan says that it is open to peace negotiations but not threats
23 July 1942: The Treblinka concentration camp is opened in Poland
24 July 1944: US Marines land on the Pacific Island of Tinian in the Marianas. Operation Cobra begins as US Forces break out of Normandy
25 July 1943: Hitler orders mass production of V-rockets for attacks on Britain
26 July 1945: The Potsdam Treaty threatens ‘prompt and utter destruction’ if Japan does not surrender unconditionally
27 July 1941: Japanese troops enter French Indo-China ( now Vietnam)
28 July 1942: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues an order that all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so were to be immediately executed
29 July 1945: The British Eighth Army is disbanded
30 July 1944: US First Army reaches Avranches
31 July 1939: The Senate demands that Polish customs officials quit the free-city: Poland responds with economic sanctions
