Air Operations, Carolines

• Several FEAF B-24s conducting armed reconnaissance missions attack the Yap Atoll and Peleliu Island.
• During the night, VII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Truk Atoll.

Air Operations, CBI

• 2 10th Air Force B-25s bomb rail facilities at Mohnyin and Naba.
• 8 10th Air Force P-40s support Allied ground troops at Myitkyina.

• 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 14th Air Force fighter-bombers attack numerous targets in the Tungting Lake region.
• During the night, 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s sow mines near Canton.

Air Operations, East Indies

380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the Namlea airfield on Boeroe and shipping in the same area.

Air Operations, Europe

• 307 Halifaxes of Nos. 4 and 6 Groups with 15 Mosquitos and 6 Lancasters of the Pathfinders attack 2 flying bomb sites and a stores site. All target are almost completely cloud-covered. The bombing is made on Oboe markers and results are not observed.
• 1 Halifax from No. 4 Group is lost on the raid to St Martin l'Hortier.
• 2 Mosquitos carry out uneventful Ranger patrols to airfields in northern Holland.

• 6 Mosquitos are sent to the Scholven/Buer oil plant and 4 to the Homberg oil plant, 6 Lancasters lay mines off Horn's Reef and 2 Mosquitos make flying-bomb patrols.
• There are no losses.

This Lancaster, N-Nan, completed 100 operations on 1 July. Unfortunately, it is not possible to identify the aircraft or squadron involved as more than one 'N-Nan's reached this milestone.

Lancaster Completes 100 Missions

The Important Task of Updating the Aircraft's Mission Log

Air Operations, Japan

4 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24s attack Kurabu Cape airfield and Shimushu Island at dawn with the aid of radar.

Air Operations, Marianas

318th Fighter Group P-47s attack Japanese Army positions on Rota, Saipan, and Tinian islands.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V and XIII Bomber command B-24s, V Bomber Command B-25s and A-20s, and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers open the final pre-invasion bombardment of Noemfoor Island.
• 5th Air Force aircraft attack the airfield at Manokwari and mount numerous sorties against coastal targets in the Wewak area.

Eastern Front

Berisov, a major center midway between Orsha and Minsk, is taken by troops of 3rd Belorussian Front under Gen Ivan Chernyakovsky.

With the Soviet armies fast approaching the Germans begin the evacuation of second echelon personnel from Minsk, 8,000 wounded and 12,000 ausiliaries being moved west.

Heavy fighting rages on the Berezina, the 31st and 267th Infantry Divisions attempting to hold open a line of retreat for the 4th Army. Despite the threat posed by the 11th Guards and 5th Guards Tank Armies around Borisov, the XXVII Corps gets most of its men across near Zhukovets while the XXXIX and XII Corps cross at Berezino. Soviet forces continue or push forward, trying to get behind the German army and encircle it before it can reach Minsk. Leading tanks enter Tschweren.

Italy

Troops from the 34th Div, IV Corps, 5th Army take Cecina on the west coast and inland, in the advance to Volterra, Pomerance also falls. East of Cecina, despite resistance by the Germans, the 135th Regt succeeds in holding the bridgehead captured the previous day. On the right of the American corps, the 1st Arm Div advances on Siena.

On the right of the Allied line the British X Corps of 8th Army which has not yet made contact with the enemy, replaces the British 6th Arm Div in the front line.

Japan, Command

Adm Nagumo, who commanded the Pearl Harbor attack force and led Japanese naval and air units in southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean to their successes in the early months of the Pacific war, shoots and kills himself on Saipan. Nagumo's defeat in the Battle of Midway apparently left him demoralized, and he was demoted to command a small flotilla operating in the Marianas.

Mariana Islands

On Saipan the US 2nd and 4th Marine Divs and the 27th Inf Div advance northward against heavy Japanese resistance pushing forward about a mile in some sectors and bringing right flank troops to within 5-1/2 miles of the northern tip of the island. On the left flank of the advance, US troops have seized the heights overlooking Tanapag harbor.

New Guinea

Task Force 77 under Rear-Adm William N. Fechteler, with the US 158th Inf Regt and Australian units, sails for Numfoor Island, between Biak and the northwest point of New Guinea. The Japanese 18th Army has to split up its slender forces to try to defend an impossible number of Allied targets. On Biak the Americans try to prevent the Japanese from re-grouping. In the Wadke-Sarmi area, on the mainland, to ensure the safety of Maffin Bay, American troops advance as far as the mouth of the Woske River and then move inland.

Occupied Denmark

Copenhagen is placed under martial law.

Pacific

During the month of July the US submarine Cobia (SS-245) sinks 6 ships in Japanese home waters while the submarine Ray (SS-271) sinks 5 ships in the Philippines-East Indies area.

United States, Home Front

The Bretton Woods Conference begins. This is a UN monetary conference which establishes the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank.

Western Front

The headquarters of the US 1st Army issues to its divisions directives for a general offensive. This is to begin on July 3 with the US VIII Corps, west of the Cotentin peninsula, and extend progressively eastward to all the other formations in the army. In the extreme north of the Cotentin peninsula all organized German resistance ends with the capture of Cap del la Hague by the American 9th Div of VII Corps.

In the British 2nd Army sector the VIII and XXX Corps, with heavy artillery support, repulse powerful counterattacks by the German 1st SS Pzr Group in the area of Tilly-sur-Seulles and Caen. with wholesale destruction of German tanks.

Since D-Day, the Allies have landed 920,000 men, nearly 600,000 tons of equipment and 177,000 vehicles. Each of the 2 Allied armies, the 1st American and 2nd British, can put 15 or 16 divisions in the line, while 15 more, 9 US and 6 British and Canadian, are in reserve in the south of England, ready to embark. In 24 days' fighting the Allies have suffered 62,000 casualties.

World Affairs

An international monetary conference begins at Breton Woods with an opening speech by the US Treasury Secretary, Morgenthau. The conference lasts until 22 Jul. 44 countries are represented, all enemies of Germany and Japan. Agreement is reached on the establishment of an International Monetary Fund and an International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Images from July 1, 1944

5.5-inch Gun Crew Digging In near Siqueville-en-Bessin, 1 July 1944

Troops Examine an Abandoned German 50mm Anti-tank Gun Position, 1 July 1944

AEC Matador Artillery Tractor, Named ‘Gazala’, Towing a 5.5-inch Gun through a Village, 1 July 1944

AEC Matador Artillery Tractor and 5.5-inch Gun in Secqueville-en-Bessin, 1 July 1944

StuG III Ausf. G from Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 303 at Lappeenranta, 1 July 1944

US Marines are photographed in a foxhole near the front lines during the Battle of Saipan against Japanese forces. Saipan, Mariana Islands. 1 July 1944.

US Marines in a Foxhole on Saipan

USMC LVT(2) Landing Vehicles, Tracked, nicknamed 'Water Buffalo', churn through the water headed for the beach on Tinian Island, near Guam in the Mariana Islands, 1 July 1944.

USMC LVT(2) Landing Vehicles, Tracked Headed for Tinian

A Flying Bomb Incident, Showing Bomb Damage to Terraced Gouses in Sandmere Road, Brixton, 1 July 1944

Winston Churchill at Tufton Street, Westminster after a V1 rocket landed, 1 July 1944

Peabody Avenue, South End, Ebury Bridge (West Side) (Copyright Westminster City Archives)

97th Evacuation Hospital men and vehicles, Normandy, France, circa early July 1944. Dodge WC-62 or 63, 1 1/2-ton 6x6 (at left), other 3/4-ton weapons carriers.

97th Evacuation Hospital Men and Vehicles

1st Army Engineers operate a mobile stone crusher in Carentan, Normandy, circa July 1944. Being filled with stone, a GMC CCKW-353 (164 inch wheelbase) 2 1/2-ton 6x6 Dump Truck.

1st Army Engineers Operate a Mobile Stone Crusher