Air Operations, CBI

4 P-40s of the 23rd Fighter Group's 75th Fighter Squadron strafe river supply boats near Nanchang sinking 1 boat. A 2nd AVG Fighter Squadron P-40 downs a Japanese reconnaissance bomber near Hengyang, the final victory credit given to the AVG.

Air Operations, Europe

• 1 Mosquito is sent to bomb Wilhelmshaven though a cloud cover. There is no report of damage.
• 59 aircraft lay mines in Heligoland and the Frisians. 1 Wellington is lost.

Air Operations, Mediterranean

6 USAMEAF B-24s en route to attack shipping at sea are attacked by GAF fighters. 1 B-24 is downed with its crew; the remaining B-24s abort the mission.

Arctic

The US freighter Hoosier (5060t) is straddled by bombs and damaged irreparably. The 42-man crew and 11-man Armed Guard abandon ship and are rescued by the British corvette HMS Poppy.

Australia, Home Front

More Australian troops embark for New Guinea.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The British anti-submarine trawler Manor (314t) is sunk by a German motor torpedo boat in the English Channel with the loss of 29 on board.
• The US freighter Santa Rita (8379t) is torpedoed by U-172 about 700 miles northeast of Puerto Rico and abandoned with the loss of 4 of her crew. The US destroyers Livermore (DD-429) and Mayo (DD-422) rescue the 48 crewmen, 2 passengers and 9 Armed Guard sailors.

Eastern Front

The 4th Panzer Army reaches Tikhnaya Sosna but is brought to an unexpected halt as it runs out of fuel. Hoth has still not released his full strength from Voronezh and is ordered to quit the area and move all his armor south, upon Kantemirovka, where the XL Panzer Corps, with the 6th Army, will be allocated to the 4th Panzer. Elements of Paulus' 6th Army reaches the Rossosh River.

The siege and battle for control of this port city unfolded from Oct 1941 well into the summer of 1942, with the last Soviet resistance suppressed by the German on July 9 1942.

Germans Take the City

The Germans reorganize their command system in the south. Army Group South is divided into two. Army Group A (Gen List) is composed of 1st Pzr Army, 17th Army and 11th Army. Army Group B (Gen von Bock) has 4th Pzr Army, the Hungarian 2nd Army, 2nd Army and 6th Army. This reorganization is designed to expedite the progress of the Caucasus offensive now being prepared. The plan is for Army Group A to advance from positions south of the Donets, capture Rostov, cross the Don and after overrunning the oilfields, to come to a halt on a line from Batumi on the Black Sea to Baku on the Caspian. Army Group B at this stage is ordered to advance north of the Don as far as Stalingrad and establish a protective front for Army Group A (but see July 17 and July 19 for changes to this plan). Army Group A's attacks begin immediately. Army Group B's forces are already under way and their advance now reaches Rossosh cutting the Moscow-Rostov railway.

English Channel

German MTBs sink a tanker and 4 coasters.

Gulf of Mexico

The US tanker Benjamin Brewster (5950t) is torpedoed by U-67 about 60 miles west of Southwest Pass, Louisiana. The cargo of aviation fuel catches fire taking the lives of 25 crewmen. 15 survivors are rescued the following morning by a fishing boat.

North Africa

Stubborn British resistance foils Rommel's attempt to break through the defenses at El Alamein.

A Quad artillery tractor and 25-pdr field gun of 9th Australian Division, 9 July 1942.

Australian Artillery on the Move

The 21st Panzer and the Littorio Divs attack the 'box' at 'Kaponga' only to find the British have already evacuated it. Rommel's striking force now concentrates south of the Alamein Line as Auchinleck plans to launch another offensive in the coastal area.

XXX Corps now under Maj-Gen William H. Ramsden is given the main role. The lead is given to Maj-Gen Leslie J. Morshead's 9th Australian Div. Its goal is the low hill of Tell el Eisa near the coast from which it is hoped to break througj the Axis defenses and force the retreat and destruction of Rommel's Army. The inland flank is to be covered by the South Africans who are directed to Tell el Makh, to the southeast of Tell el Eisa and almost due west of El Alamein. The would be opposed by the weakest Axis formation, the Sabratha Infantry Div.

Occupied Holland

Anne Frank and her family of Dutch Jews go into hiding in the Prinsengacacht, a large building in central Amsterdam. Here they remain for the next 2 years until they are betrayed to the Gestapo. Anne Frank dies in Buchenwald, in February, 1945. Dr Frank survives and publishes his daughter's diary after the war.

Benjamin Brewster Torpedoed by U-67

The tanker, SS Benjamin Brewster was torpedoed by the German submarine U-67 (Muller-Stockheim) at 2330 GWT on July 9, 1942 while anchored about 2 1/2 miles off Grand Isle, Louisiana (29.05 North / 90.07 West). The ship was en route from Baytown, Texas to Port Tampa, Florida with a cargo of 70,500 barrels of aviation gas and other clean oils. Her complement was 35 merchant crew and 5 Naval Armed Guard. Of this number, 24 merchant crew and 1 Navy man were lost. (Photo courtesy of Exxon Shipping Co)

Pacific

The US submarine Thresher (SS-200) sinks the Japanese recovery vessel Shinsho Maru (4836t) at the entrance to the Kwajalein Atoll, Marshalls. Thresher is damaged by bombs and depth charges, but remains on patrol.