Air Operations, Aleutians

4 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24s and 1 LB-30 reconnoiter and attack Kiska.

Air Operations, CBI

5 11th Medium Bomb Group B-25s, escorted by 4 23rd Fighter Squadron P-40s, attack docks and warehouses in the Canton port area.

Air Operations, Europe

During the night the Luftwaffe makes an incendiary raid on Middlesbrough.

42 planes lay mines off Lorient and Verdon. 3 Wellingtons are lost.

Arctic

• The US freighter John Witherspoon (7191t), having emerged unscathed from the German aerial attacks the previous several days, is torpedoed and sunk by U-255 about 20 miled off Novaya Zemlya with the loss of 1 of her crew. 38 crewmen and 11 Armed Guard sailors survive.
• The freigher Pan Atlantic, hasitly painted white to camouflage her against the ice floes through which she is sailing, is bombed and sunk losing 18 of her 37-man crew and 7 of her 11 Armed Guard sailors. The British corvette rescues the survivors.

Battle of the Atlantic

• U-132 attacks a convoy in the Gulf of St Lawrence and sinks 3 ships.
• Wellington 'H' of No 172 Squadron picked up u-boat contact southeast of its location. U-502 dived as the aircraft released four depth charges. The attack was successful, the first by a Wellington aircraft.

  U-502

  Class	Type IXC/40
  CO	Kapitänleutnant Jurgen von Rosenstiel
  Location	Bay of Biscay, W of La Rochelle
  Cause	Air attack
  Casualties	52
  Survivors	None

CBI

Gen Stilwell establishes the command and control structure for the China-Burma-India theater. The main headquarters is at Chungking, with liaison headquarters at New Delhi, where US and Chinese forces are located, and at Kunming, where the China Air Task Force is located.

China

Japanese troops clear the rail line between Hangchow and Nancheng.

Diplomatic Relations

Argentina reaffirms its neutrality.

Eastern Front

The German 6th Army and Hoth's 4th Panzergruppe move towards Voronezh from the west and southwest. On their left the attacks of Weich's 2nd Army also make some progress.

Political officer I. Sobchenko is briefing the 107th Separate Tank Battalion personnel on the overall situation. Volkhov Front. July 6, 1942.

A Briefing on the Volkhov Front

The Germans capture the greater part of Voronezh but are bogged down in bitter fighting with Soviet rearguards. The Stavka is preparing to move additional forces up to prevent the movement of German armor northeast toward Moscow.

North Africa

The Italians begin coming up to join Rommel. He sends them to hold the northern and central sections of his front.

Fighting continues around El Alamein. RAF aircraft attack Tobruk and Benghazi.

Aerial View of a Raid in Libya

This view of an air raid on an Axis plane base at Martuba, near Derna, in Libya on July 6, 1942 was made from one of the South African planes which took part in the raid. The four sets of white streaks in the lower half show the dust of Axis planes speeding along the ground to escape as bomb bursts appear near them and in upper center. (AP Photo)