Air Operations, Aleutians6 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24s and 6 B-25s mount 3 attacks (including 1 radar-guided attack) against Kiska. [ | ]Air Operations, BismarcksV Bomber Command B-17s and B-24s attack Rabaul-area airfields. [ | ]Air Operations, CBICHINA
Air Operations, East IndiesV Bomber Command B-25s attack Penfoei, Timor. [ | ]Air Operations, GilbertsThree VII Bomber Command B-24s reconnoiter Little Makin Island in Makin Atoll, and 2 of the B-24s bomb the island. [ | ]Air Operations, New Guinea
Air Operations, Solomons
Eastern FrontThe vicious fighting continues in the southern sector in the Battle of Kursk. The 4th Panzer Army and the Kempf Operational Group throw in all the forces at their command in a desperate attack on enemy positions at Prokhorovka. They succeed in taking several miles of territory, but lose 400 tanks. It is now more strictly a tank battle with the air and other supporting forces unable to intervene effectively. Visibility on the battlefield has become so poor because of dust and smoke that the Germans can make nothing of their advantage in long-range gunnery. The northern and southern points of the German forces are still very far apart, and they never get any closer. Von Manstein and von Kluge beg the Füher to call off the terrible costly Operation CITADEL, already doomed to failure. But they receive refusals.
In the north of the Kursk salient, Model commits the 10th Panzergrenadier Div, which launches a series of desperate attacks at Ponyri. Although the Germans now hold most of the town, it is impossible to move forward as their losses have been too great, To the west, the Soviet XVII Guards Rifle Corps takes the full force of the German attack, especially around Hill 257. But agains the Germans fail to break through. The II SS Panzer Corps continues its advance, the Leibstandarte's panzers advancing along both sides of the Prokhorovka road supported by the Luftwaffe. Driving the elements of the already depleted Soviet II Tank Corps before it, the Leibstandarte Div is subjected to flank attacks and artillery fire. The SS division takes Hill 252.2 and pushes on to capture the Oktiabr'skii State Farm. The Leibstandarte has driven a wedge into the Russian lines in front of Prokhorovka, and II Tank Corps' defenses are in disarray. However, its losses have been heavy and it now has only 60 tanks, 10 assault guns and 20 self-propelled tank destroyers in working order.[MORE] [ | ]
SicilyOn the 8th Army front the British XXX Corps under Gen Sir Oliver Leese reaches Palazzolo and makes for Caltagirone, while in the Gen Miles C. Dempsey's XIII Corps sector the 5th Div, after taking Syracuse, continues to advance along the coast road towards Augusta almost unopposed. However, in the evening, at Priolo, halfway between Augusta and Syracuse, advance patrols meet the armored cars of the German Schmalz Group moving up from Catania, and are forced to retire. The Americans are more seriously attacked, however. The Hermann Goering Pzr Div moves down toward Gela from its positions around Caltagirone. The Italians units' attack is repulsed almost immediately by fire from the Rangers and from naval guns, but the German tanks east of Gela reach the coast road only a mile from the sea. Here, however, they are pinned down by fire from American field guns and from the guns of the cruisers off the coast. The cruisers Savannah (CL-47) and Boise (CL-42) and 8 destroyers are providing the naval gunfire support. The American landings have suffered rather more than the British from the weather and few tanks and antitank guns have been landed. British battleships and cruisers are also in action shelling Favignana and Marsala during the night. King George V and Howe bombard Favignana Island, west of Sicily. An Italian coastal battery prevents Allied destroyers from entering Augusta harbor. In continuing action over the next 3 weeks 7 German and Italian submarines are sunk and the Italian Bronzo is captured.
Damaged by a horizontal bomber of Licata, Sicily is the LST 158. It is later beached and abandoned. Also damaged by enemy air attacks during this day are the attack transport Barnett (APA-5), the transport Orizaba (AP-24) and the transport Monrovia (AP-64). [ | ]
SolomonsThere is a stalemate in New Georgia. The Americans' supply situation is becoming critical. A runway for fighter aircraft has been prepared at Segi Pont. Adm Halsey names Gen Vandegrift, just promoted to command the I Amphibious Corps of the US Marines, to direct the land operations for the capture of Bougainville, the last Japanese bulwark between New Georgia and New Britain, where the Japanese have their vital base at Rabaul.
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