Air Operations, Aleutians

8 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24s and 2 B-17s are sent to reconnoiter and attack Kiska, but are hampered by bad weather. Only 7 bombs are dropped and 1 B-24 is lost on the return flight.

Air Operations, Europe

8 Bostons attacking in pairs hit various targets including the Sluiskil power station and the Langenbrugge power station. 1 Wellington is sent to Essen and 1 Mosquito to Münster, but turn back for lack of cloud. There are no losses.

Air Operations, Libya

1st Provisional Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack Tobruk.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 5th Air Force B-17s mount 3 attacks, B-25s and 22nd Medium Bomb Group B-26s mount 5 attacks, and 35th Fighter Group P-400s and P-39s mount 5 attacks on Japanese ships off Buna and Gona. 1 B-17 claims 2 hits on a transport, but all others miss targets having to fly at high altitude because of heavy antiaircraft fire.
• 35th Fighter Group P-39s and P-400s and RAAF P-40s attack Japanese shipping and landing barges along the northern coast setting fire to 1 troop transport, but Japanese Navy ground troops land to reinforce the garrison at Buna. A 35th Fighter Group P-39 shoots down a Japanese Navy seaplane over Gona. 1 USAAF P-400 and 1 RAAF P-40 are downed by antiaircraft fire in the action.

Allied Planning

Roosevelt agrees with the British that SLEDGEHAMMER (the Second Front in 1942) is not possible and instructs his negotiators in London to agree to 'another place for US troops to fight in 1942'. The plan to invade North Africa, previously mooted as GYMNAST is adopted in talks over the next few days and renamed TORCH.

Battle of the Atlantic

The unarmed US freighter Honolulan (7493t) is torpedoed and sunk by U-582 off the west coast of Africa. There are no casualties among the 39-man crew and 1 stowaway.

Eastern Front

The German Army Group A opens the final offensive against Rostov-on-Don.[MORE]

India, Home Front

The ban on the Communist Party is lifted.

New Guinea

Allied aircraft attack enemy transports north of the island. The Japanese forces who landed at Buna and Gona push south as far as Giruwa and penetrate inland as far as the Soputa area to reconnioter the track that leads across the mountains to Port Moresby known as the Kokoda Trail. Within 2 weeks 13,500 troops will be put ashore. A small Australian force prepares to defend Kokoda itself. MacArthur orders Gen Basil Morris, Allied commander in New Guinea, to arrange urgently for the reinforcement of Kokoda.

North Africa

The British 23rd Armored Brigade, which came to the front only a few days earlier, passes through the Axis minefields but makes very little progress and loses a great number of tanks. The Axis forces counterattack vigorously, wiping out the New Zealand 6th Brigade and one battalion of the 161st Indian Brigade.

Although the British forces attacking south Ruweisat take heavy losses, including the decimation of 23rd Armored Brigade, Rommel decides that the drain on his strength in the past 14 days has been too great to permit further attacks.

He decides for the time being to abandon his original plan of breaking through the British line and by-passing El Alamein to get to the Nile. Just now it is more urgent for him to rebuild and reorganize his units before undertaking any new operations or working out any new plans. Both sides now wish a pause to rest and regroup. The British are far better placed to receive reinforcements being so close to their base in the Nile Delta. Malta too is recovering its strength to attack Axis communications.[MORE]

Rommel Awards Knight's Cross to Corp Halm

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel awards the Knight's Cross to Corporal Gunther Halm. On July 22, 1942, Halm, serving with an anti-tank element, knocked out nine British tanks of the 23rd Armoured Brigade. Battle of El Alamein. Note the propaganda company radio news man holding the microphone to record the exchange between the Field Marshal and Halm.

Occupied Poland

• The Treblinka concentration camp is opened by the Germans.
• The Germans begin the resettlement of Jews from Warsaw. By October 3, a total of 310,322 will have been transferred to work of concentration camps.

22 July 1942 | Germans in General Government began the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. Around 260k Jews were deported to Treblinka.

Jews Being Deported to Treblinka

Pacific

• The Solomons invasion force, including the US 1st Marine Div, sails from Wellington, New Zealand, for the rendezvous near Fiji, where it will be joined by a battalion from Pearl Harbor.
• The US freighter William Dawes (7176t) is torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-24 off the coast of Australia losing 4 of the 15-man Armed Guard and 1 passenger. The survivors row toward the coast where fishing boats tow them the rest of the way.