Air Operations, Aleutians

Bad weather forces 4 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24s to abort their mission to reconnoiter and attack Kiska.

Air Operations, Europe

• 12 Bostons bomb an airfield near Abbeville, but results are not know because of clouds. There are no losses.
• During the night 55 aircraft are sent to lay mines off Lorient, St Nazaire and in the Frisians. 1 Hampden and 1 Wellington are lost.

Battle of the Atlantic

The US freighter Andrew Jackson (5990t) is torpedoed and sunk by U-84 about 20 miles off Cardenas, Cuba with the loss of 3 of her crew.

Caribbean

The US freighter Tachira (2235t), en route to New Orleans, is torpedoed and sunk by U-129 with the loss of 4 crewmen and 1 of the Armed Guard sailors.

Diplomatic Relations

Vichy French officials in Indochina cede a disputed border region of Cambodia to Thailand.

Eastern Front

The Soviet High Command appoint Marshal Semyon Timoshenko to a newly constituted Stalingrad Front. Moscow sources state that the Don is 'running with blood'. The Germans reach Kanteminovka.

A young Russian officer, Battalion commander A. Yeremenko, rallying soldiers for a counter-attack. A few seconds after the photo was taken he was killed (July 12, 1942)

Rallying For a Counter-Attack

Expecting a German thrust in strength to the Volga, the Stavka creates a new Stalingrad Front led by Timoshenko, allocating the 62nd, 63rd and 64th Armies. In all the Stalingrad Front comprises 34 rifle divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, 3 tank and 8 rifle brigades, 14 independent tank brigades and 540,000 men. The 63rd Army is to hold the east bank of the Don, while the 21st Army regroups on the north bank between the 63rd and 62nd Armies.

The Southwest Front retains command of the 38th, 28th, 57th and 21st Armies. The 38th and 28th Armies will soon be taken out of the line to re-form as the 1st and 4th Tank Armies. Timoshenko is given command of the Stalingrad Front. In the fighting since June 28 the old Southwest Front has lost 161,400 killed and missing and 71,000 wounded.

New Guinea

An Australian force from Port Moresby arrives at Kokoda. The small unit trekked 5 days over a difficult trail across the Owen Stanley Range.

Guns of the Australian 2/8th Field Regiment firing around El Alamein, 12 July 1942

Artillery Near El Alamein

Pacific

The US submarine Seadragon (SS-194) sinks the Japanese merchant cargo ship Nichizan Maru (2838t) off Cam Ranh Bay, French Indonesia.

United States, Home Front

Stern Park Gardens, near Joliet, Illinois, is renamed 'Lidice' in honor of the martyred Czech village.