The first Boeing B-17s fly into combat, serving with the Royal Air Force on a daylight bombing raid from 30,000 feet against Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

B-17s Enter Combat

Czechoslovakia, Politics

Britain formally recognizes the Beneš government as the legal provisional government. A friendship and mutual assistance agreement between the Czechs and the Soviets is signed in London.

Eastern Front

The Soviet 11th and 27th Armies launch attacks against the Germans, with little success.

The 2nd and 3rd Panzer Groups struggle to contain trapped Red Army units in the Smolensk Pocket. The 7th Panzer Div is halted near Yartsevo.

German soldiers remove one of many Soviet national emblems during their drive to conquer Russia on 18 July 1941.

Soviet Emblems Removed

The Soviet 37th Army prepares to defend Kiev as the German 17th Army crosses the Bug River and establishes a bridgehead around Vinnitsa. The Stavka orders a partial withdrawal of the 6th, 12th and 18th Armies.[MORE]

Japan, Politics

Prince Konoye forms a new cabinet with Baron Hiranuma as Deputy Prime Minister and Adm Toyoda as Foreign Minister. Already personally unpopular, Matsuoka is removed because he has been urging that the Neutrality Agreement with the Soviets should be abandoned and that Japan should join with Germany in the attack on the USSR. The other Japanese leaders do not wish to take such a decisive step, and have decided that without Matsuoka and his known liking for Hitler they have a better chance of reaching an agreement with the US over the pressing problem of the oil resources.

Bren gun carrier being watched by the people of Beirut as they welcome British troops into the city.

British Enter Beirut