Air Operations, Bismarcks

V Bomber Command B-25s and A-20s attack barges at Cape Gloucester.

Air Operations, CBI

• During the night, 9 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s sow mines in the Rangoon River.

Air Operations, East Indies

380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Waingapoe, Sumatra.

Air Operations, Europe

• VIII Air Support Command mounts four separate B-26 attacks, the largest so far by this group on a single day. Two of the attacks are undertaken by the 323rd Madium Bomb Group about 1120 hours when 20 and 19 aircraft, respectively, bomb the Merville and Poix/Nord Airdromes with more than 44 tons of bombs.
• 1 B-26 is lost, 7 damaged; 7 crewmen missing
• About 1620 hours, 21 386th Medium Bomb Gorup B-26s and 18 322nd Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack the Abbeville/Drucat and Tricqueville Airdromes, respectively, with about 30 tons of bombs.
• 5 B-26s are damaged
• In its operational debut, B-26s of the 387th Medium Bomb Group, mount a diversionary mission with a heavy P-47 escort to an area north of Dunkirk, but encounter no opposition.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-25s attack targets in the Finschhafen area and barges along the coast.

Air Operations, Sicily

• NASAF B-26s attack Adrano.
• NATAF aircraft attack numerous Axis-held towns and various targets of opportunity.
• Other NATAF aircraft attack shipping in the Milazzo-Orlando area.
• IX Fighter Command P-40s attack shipping near Milazzo.

Air Operations, Solomons

• More than 100 AirSols light bombers, fighters, and fighter-bombers attack the final Japanese Army defensive sector at Munda.
• XIII Bomber Command B-17s and B-25s, and AirSols light bombers and fighters attack the Vila airfield on Kolombangara.

Algeria

Gen Henri Giraud is appointed Commander-in-Chief of Free French forces.

Atlantic

Carrier-based Martlet Wildcat fighters shoot down 5 Bv-138 reconnaissance flying boats off Norway.

Battle of the Atlantic

US naval land-based aircraft (VP-74) sink the German submarine U-199 off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

U-199

Britain, Home Front

Capt Hedley Verity, Yorkshire and England cricketer dies in a PoW camp in Italy. He was 38.

Eastern Front

During the month of July in the Siege of Leningrad 210 people are killed and 921 are wounded by German shelling.

Over the entire front the Germans have 2,500 combat aircraft against 8,300 Soviet planes, a ratio of 3.3:1 against. During July along the German armies in the east have lost 197,000 ment but receive only 90,000 replacements, a shortfall of more than 100,000 men in a single month.

The Germans add a panzer-grenadier and infantry division to their order of battle while 2 motorized divisions are re-designated panzer-grenadier divisions. Total German strength in the east stands at 16 panzer, 13 panzer-grenadier and 150 infantry divisions.

New Georgia

2 American battalions mop up on Bartley Ridge. The Japanese drive off new attacks on Horseshoe Hill.

Pacific

• The US submarine Finback (SS-230) sinks the Japanese army cargo ship Ryuzan Maru (4720t).
• The US submarine Pogy (SS-266) sinks the Japanese aircraft transport Mogamigawa Maru (7497t) northwest of Truk.

Sicily

The US 45th Div takes Santo Stefano. The British and Canadians are now moving toward Regalbuto and Centuripe. The British 231st Bde fails in an attempt to occupy Regalbuto; the 78th Div attacks Centuripe, held by large German forces.

An American cargo ship, loaded with ammunition, explodes after being hit by a bomb from a German plane off Gela, on the southern coast of Sicily, on July 31, 1943. (AP Photo)

American Cargo Ship Explodes