Air Operations, Aleutians

28th Composite Bomb Group bombers and 343rd Fighter Group fighters mount 5 light attacks against Kiska.

Air Operations, CBI

• 10 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack shipping in Samah Bay, Hainan Island.
• 6 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s, escorted by 14 23rd Fighter Group fighters, attack targets of opportunity in the Hong Kong port area after failing to locate their primary target, a large transport.

Air Operations, Gilberts

9 307th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 6 5th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s stage through the airfield at Funafuti to attack Betio Island in Tarawa Atoll.

Air Operations, Europe

• 787 aircraft return to Hamburg. In this total are 353 Lancasters, 244 Halifaxes, 116 Stirlings and 74 Wellingtons.
• The center of the Pathfinder marking, all done using H₂S, is about 2 miles east of the planned aiming point in the center of the city. The marking is well concentrated, however, and the Main Force bombing 'creeps back' only slightly.
• This is the night of the firestorm, which starts through an unusual and unexpected chain of events. The temperature is particularly high (30° centigrade at 6 o'clock in the evening) and the humidity is only 30 per cent, compared with an average of 40-50 per cent for this time of the year. There had been no rain for some time and everything is very dry. The concentrated bombing causes a large number of fires in the densely built-up working-class districts of Hammerbrook, Hamm and Borgfeld. Most of Hamburg's fire vehicles have been in the western parts of the city, damping down the fires still smouldering there from the raid of 3 nights earlier, and only a few units are able to pass through roads which are blocked by the rubble of buildings destroyed by high-explosive bombs early in this raid. About half-way through the raid, the fires in Hammerbrook start joining together and competing with each other for the oxygen in the surrounding air. Suddenly, the whole area becomes one big fire with air being drawn into it with the force of a storm. The bombing continues for another half hour, spreading the firestorm area gradually eastwards. It is estimated that 550-600 bomb loads fall into an area measuring only 2 miles by 1 mile. The firestorm rages for about 3 hours and only subsides when all burnable material is consumed. The burnt-out area is almost entirely residential. Approximately 16,000 multi-storeyed apartment buildings are destroyed. There are few survivors from the firestorm area and approximately 40,000 people are killed, most of them by carbon monoxide poisoning when all the air is drawn out of their basement shelters. In the period immediately following this raid, approximately 1,200,000 people, two thirds of Hamburg's population, flee the city in fear of further raids.

• 3 Mosquitos are sent to Duisburg, 6 Wellingtons lay mines in the Elbe River and there are 11 OTU sorties.
• 1 Mosquito is lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

18 V Bomber Command B-24s and 35 B-25s attack Salamaua with 133 tons of bombs. 5 B-25s attack barges near Finschhafen. 6 B-26s attack barges and a supply dump at Voco Point.

Air Operations, Solomons

XIII Bomber Command B-17s attack the airfield at Ballale and the Kahili airfield on Bougainville. Nearly 80 AirSols light bombers and fighters attack ground targets at and around Munda.

Aleutians

During the night the last Japanese leave Kiska. Again the Americans do not spot them. They are preparing for their own landing.

Britain, Home Front

Churchill declares in the Commons that if the new Italian government does not surrender 'Italy will be seared and scarred and blackened from one end to the other.'

'Chucrchill' IV tank of the 10th Gds. Heavy Breakthrough Tank Regiment/23rd Tank Corps/1st Tank Army/Voronezh Front abandoned after unseccessfull attack against German defensive positions. July 27,1943

'Chucrchill' IV Tank of the 10th Guards Tank Regiment

Germany, Planning

At a conference called to decide a plan of action in Italy, Hitler and his staff work out the order of steps to be taken: one, liberation of Mussolini, called Operation OAK TREE; two, occupation of Rome and restoration of Mussolini in the government, called Operation STUDENT; three, military occupation of the whole of Italy; and four, capture or destruction of the Italian fleet. Mussolini in fact is to become another 'Quisling' puppet leader.

India

A Chinese-American squadron is formed within the US 14th Air Force, with American-trained Chinese pilots.

Italy, Home Front

In the evening Mussolini is transferred from Rome to the island of Ponza.

New Georgia

The Americans call off the attack on Bartley Ridge and concentrate their efforts on a hill called Horseshoe Hill silencing several machine gun nests.

Japanese Destroyer Mikazuki attacked by USAAF B-25 Mitchell bombers

July 27, 1943 (Cape Gloucester , New Britain)

Japanese Destroyer Mikazuki Under Attack

Pacific

• In the 'Battle of the Pips', the battleships Mississippi (BB-41) and Idaho (BB-42) engage imaginary 'Japanese battleships', spotted on radar near the Aleutians. The only Japanese vessels in the area are submarines.
• The US submarine Scamp (SS-277) sinks the Japanese submarine I-24 off the Admiralty Islands.
• The Japanese minelayer Hirashima is sunk by the US submarine Sawfish (SS-276) off Kyushu, Japan.

Sicily

Units of the 45th Div advancing along the coast road towards Messina reach Tusa, a few miles west of Santo Stefano. They cross the river of the same name but are driven back. They later cross the Tusa River again and succeed in establishing a small bridgehead in the direction of Santo Stefano. After 3 days' hard fighting Nicosia falls to the American 1st Div. In the British sector the Canadian 1st Div takes Agira after a tough battle. Meanwhile the 231st Bde resumes its advance eastward along Highway 121, but is held up a few miles west of Regalbuto.

Gen Alexander, the commander of the XV Army Group, moves his headquarters from Africa to Sicily. The headquarters of Allied forces in the Mediterranean asks for consideration to be given to a plan for the capture of Naples and the neighboring airports as a base for the support of future operations. The date for the landing is fixed, purely provisional, as September 7.

A Bishop of the 142nd Field Regiment, Sicily, 27 July 1943. The Bishop was a self-propelled gun, based on the chassis of the Valentine tank, which mounted a 25-pdr howitzer. It saw action in North Africa and Italy. It was nicknamed “Bishop” because of the shape of the superstructure.

A Bishop of the 142nd Field Regiment