Air Operations, Aleutians

62 343rd Fighter Group P-40s and Canadian Kittyhawks mount 9 separate attacks against Kiska. 1 P-40 is lost to antiaircraft fire.

Air Operations, Central Pacific

8 Midway-based B-24s of the VII Bomber Command’s 11th Heavy Bomb Group attack Wake Island. The formation is attacked by as many as 30 A6M Zeros, and 1 B-24 is lost in a collision with a Zero.

Air Operations, CBI

• Japanese bombers based at Canton and Hankow continue to mount heavy attacks against 14th Air Force bases in eastern China.
• 23rd Fighter Group P-40s and 1 449th Fighter Squadron P-38 (in the unit’s combat debut) down 9 A6M Zeros and 8 bombers over Kweilin and Hengyang between 0845 and 1015 hours.

Air Operations, East Indies

V Bomber Command B-25s attack Fuilaro, Koepang, Lautem, and Tenau on Timor.

Air Operations, Europe

• 791 aircraft are involved in the first raid of the Battle of Hamburg. Included in the total are 347 Lancasters, 246 Halifaxes, 125 Stirlings and 73 Wellingtons.
• 'Window' is used for the first time this night. The weather is clear over the target with a gentle wind. The marking, a mixture of H₂S and visual, is a little scattered but most of the target indicators fall near enough to the city center for a concentrated raid to develop quickly. 728 aircraft drop their bomb loads in the span of 50 minutes. Bombing photographs show that less than half the aircraft drop within 3 miles of the city center and a creepback 6 miles long develops. However, because of Hamburg's size, severe damage is caused in the central and northwestern discticts, especially in Altona, Eimsbüttel and Hoheluft. The Rathaus, the Nikolaikirche, the main police station, the main telephone exchange and the Hagenbeck Zoo are among the well-known Hamburg landmarks to receive hits. 140 animals in the zoo are killed. Civilian casualties include about 1,500 people killed in the raid, the largest number outside of an area where Oboe could be used.
• 4 Halifaxes, 4 Lancasters, 3 Stirlings and 1 Wellington are lost.
• Over the next week and a half Hamburg is raided in the most effective attacks of the European campaign in Operation GOMORRAH. Hamburg is of vital strategic importance with its 3,000 industrial plants, almost all of them involved in war production. The RAF mounts major operations on 4 nights: July 24, July 27, July 29 and August 2. On the first 3 of these nights about 780 bombers drop 2,300 tons of bombs each night and on the fourth night 425 bombers drop 940 tons. The USAF joins in on July 25 and 26 and the RAF sends small forces on every other night. Altogether about 50,000 civilian deaths are caused and as many injuries. About 800,000 people are made homeless.
• The attack on July 27 includes many incendiary weapons and a fire storm is raised for the first time. A fire storm occurs when the fires in a given area become so intense that they devour all the oxygen nearby and suck more into themselves creating a hurricane-force winds which both feed the fires and move them along a great speed. The Allied bombers only raise firestorms on a handful of occasions during the war including the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima on Aug 6, 1945.
• Tactically the raids are important for the RAF since they use 'Window' for the first time. This consists of strips of metal foil dropped from supporting aircraft which confuses the German radar system by giving false echoes. It is very successful at first as only 12 of 240 aircraft are lost but improved radar nullifies some of its benefits during later months. A token of the growing strength of Bomber Command is that it is able to mount major attacks on other targets even during this period. The attacks on Hamburg and other later efforts make up the second of Air Marshal Harris' 'battles'.
• This period also sees intensive operations by the US forces against other targets, inlcuding many German aircraft factories. The 8th Air Force loses 88 planes in these operations.
• 33 Lancasters of No. 5 Group returning from North Africa bomb the Leghorn docks but the target is covered by haze and the bombing is scattered.
• There are no losses.
• 13 Mosquitos carry out diversionary and nuisance raids to Bremen, Kiel, Lübeck and Duisburg. 6 Wellingtons lay mines in the Elbe River while the Hamburg raid is in progress and there are 7 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-25s attack Lae and the surrounding area, and barges off northeastern New Guinea.

Air Operations, Solomons

37 US Marine Corps TBFs and 36 AirSols SBDs, with 40 XIII Fighter Command fighters, attack Japanese Navy ground troops at Bairoko in support of a Marine ground attack. AirSols aircraft also attack a defended hill inside the Munda Point airfield, New Georgia defensive sector.

Battle of the Atlantic

US Army aircraft sink the German submarine U-622 off Norway.

U-459 was a German submarine Type X1V. She was scuttled on July 24, 1943 after being attacked by two British Wellington aircraft (Sqdn. 172/Q & 547/V) near Cape Ortegal, Spain. 19 dead and 41 survivors.

U-459 Scuttled After Air Attack

Eastern Front

Stalin sends a message to Gens Rokossovsky, Vatutin and Popov praising the 'final liquidation of the German summer offensive' and recalling that in the Orel-Kursk and Belgorod sectors the Germans concentrated 37 divisions, 17 armored, 2 motorized and 18 infantry. They have lost 70,000 dead, and 2,900 tanks, 195 Ferdinand self-propelled guns, 844 guns, 5,000 trucks and 1,392 German aircraft have been destroyed.

The figures for tanks and aircraft destroyed are exaggerations, but after the war the German generals do in fact admit that they sacrificed the best of their armor and lost their air superiority over the Russians as a result of the ill-fated Operation CITADEL.

Italy, Politics

The Fascist Grand Council meets for the first time since December 1939. They meet for 10 hours to hear and discuss a statement(?) by Mussolini. The debate and voting go against Mussolini but it is not yet clear what is to happen next. The Council passes a resolution inviting the King of Italy to assume command of the armed forces, contrary to Mussolini's proposals.

Sicily

The American Provisional Corps mops up the western part of the island, capturing, according to American sources, 'a record number of prisoners'.

On the north coast the American 45th Div takes Cefalu and inland units of the 1st Div advance toward Nicosia.

Solomons

In New Georgia the Japanese put a stubborn resistance against the 161st Inf on the Munda pass. The Americans are taking up their positions for the attack on Munda.