US 2nd Armored Division Enters Palermo, Sicily, 22 July 1943 |
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Air Operations, Aleutians
28th Composite Bomb Group bombers and US Navy warships open a preinvasion bombardment of Kiska Island. 17 B-24s, 26 B-25s, 20 343rd Fighter Group P-38s, and 13 P-40s attack the island and Little Kiska. 1 B-25 is downed by antiaircraft fire, but its crew is rescued, and 18 B-25s are damaged of which 1 crashes upon landing.
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]Air Operations, East Indies
- 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack oil-producing facilities at Soerabaja, Java.
- B-25s attack Selaroe Island in the Moluccas.
| ]Air Operations, Europe
A report issued by the British Joint Intelligence Committe claims the Combined Bomber Offensive is having an effect on Germany, noting German fighter strength is now directed mainly against Allied bombing missions in Europe, drawing assets away from other areas. The report claims strategic bombing is having an effect on strategic raw materials production, especially synthetic rubber, fuel, iron, and coal in the Ruhr industrial area of Germany.
USAAFITALY:
- NASAF B-17s attack the Foggia Airdrome complex and a marshalling yard at Battipaglia.
- NASAF B-26s attack a bridge and a marshalling yard at Salerno.
| ]Air Operations, New Guinea
More than 50 V Bomber Command B-24s, B-25s, and B-26s attack Japanese Army ground positions and antiaircraft batteries in the Komiatum battle area and Salamaua.
[ | ]Air Operations, Pacific
B-24s raid Surabaya.
[ | ]Air Operations, Sardinia
- The 325th Fighter Group returns to Sardinia in an ongoing effort to break the will of the Axis air units defending the island. In the course of several simultaneous sweeps over the island's airdromes, the P-40s down 12 Mc-202s, 2 Me-109s, 2 Ju-52s, and 2 Fi-156s between 0940 and 0950 hours.
- 2 P-40s and their pilots are lost.
| ]Air Operations, Sicily
NATAF A-20s attack Randazzo and roads, rail lines, and other ground targets near the battlefront.
[ | ]Air Operations, Solomons
In 2 afternoon strikes, 12 US Navy PB4Ys, 6 XIII Bomber Command B-24s, 18 AirSols TBFs, and 18 AirSols SBDs, escorted by a total of 134 AirSols fighters and fighter-bombers, attack a troop-laden Japanese seaplane tender and other shipping in the Buin area. The seaplane tender is sunk by the light bombers with great loss of life and several other vessels are damaged. VF-21 F4Fs down 5 A6M Zeros over southern Bougainville and the Shortland Islands at about 1535 hours.
[ | ]Aleutians
Major US naval forces bombard Kiska which the Japanese Imperial Staff has already decided to evacuate. 2 battleships, 5 cruisers and 9 destroyers as well as fighter forces are involved.
[ | ]Battle of the Atlantic
The US tanker Cherry Valley (10,172t), traveling from New York to Aruba, N.W.I., is torpedoed by U-66. The second torpedo attack fails and the U-boat surfaces to finish her quarry by shellfire only to meet Armed Guard gunfire. Cherry Valley escapes her assailant and reaches San Juan, Puerto Rico under her own power without any casualties.
[ | ]Eastern Front
The Russians take Mtsensk and Bolkhov and in the northern sector launch a limited offensive south of Lake Ladoga.
NORTHERN SECTORThe Leningrad Front's 67th Army, situated on the Neva east of the city, and Volkhov Front's 8th Army deployed on the west bank of the Volkhov north of Tosno launch the Mga Offensive Operation, employing a combined total of 253,300 men. The aim of the offensive is to force the Germans away from Leningrad and strengthen the precarious corridor south of Lake Ladoga.
CENTRAL SECTORHitler has given the commander of the 9th Army, Model, permission to conduct a mobile defense in the Orel salient. The general is thus fortifying the Desna River at the base of the salient.
Bolkhov falls to the 61st Army and Mtsensk to the 3rd Army as the slow advance into the Orel salient continues.
[ | ]New Georgia
Gen Griswold, the new commander of the occupation force, plans an offensive on a huge scale against the Munda air base for the 25th. Units of the 25th Div reach the island. They will be attached to the 37th Div which will carry out the operation with the 43rd Div. American land forces on New Georgia, Rendova and the smaller islands now amount to 32,000 army personnel and 1,700 Marines.
[ | ] Medics Assist an Injured American Soldier on the Sicilian Front, July 22, 1943 |
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Sicily
The Americans enter Palermo and have now cut off 50,000 Italian troops in the west of the island. It now only remains to take the extreme western strip of the island before turning the American forces east, towards Messina. The mobile Axis forces,however, including most of the Germans are escaping to the northeast corner.
Gen Vittorio Ambrosio, Chief of the Italian General Staff, following the directives put out from the meeting at Feltre on July 19, asks for 2 German divisions to be sent to Italy and for the German 29th Motorized Div to be transferred from Calabria to Sicily. But he requires
and he makes the point specifically
'that the Italian Supreme Command should be able to dispose freely of the troops put at its dispostion.'
The Canadian 2nd Infantry Brigade after Capturing the Town of Assoro, Sicily |
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| ]Solomons
In the Bougainville sector the small Japanese seaplane carrier Nisshin, escorted by 3 destroyers, tries to reach New Georgia but is intercepted and sunk by American aircraft near Bougainville.
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