Air Operations, Carolines

• FEAF B-24s attack the Sorol and Yap atolls.
• VII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Truk Atoll.

Air Operations, CBI

• 44 14th Air Force P-51s and P-40s support Allied ground forces in the Myitkyina area.
• 40 A-36s, P-47s, and P-51s attack several bridges and the Hopin, Indawgyi Lake, and Lashio areas.

Air Operations, East Indies

380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the Amahai airfield on Ceram.

Air Operations, Europe

• 13 Lancasters of No. 8 Group are sent to attack a flying bomb site and 2 Mosquitos are on Ranger patrols, but thick cloud prevents all the aircraft from completing their missions.

• 4 Mosquitos are sent to the oil plants and Homberg and Scholven/Buer, 6 Stirlings lay mines off Brest, 3 Halifaxes are on Resistance operations and there are 4 Serrate patrols over Denmark.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, Marianas

318th Fighter Group P-47s attack Tinian.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-24s, B-25s, and A-20s attack a supply depot at Kokas and airfields and artillery batteries at Babo and Manokwari.
• A-20s and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack Japanese Army bivouacs and gun positions in the Wewak area.
• Fighter-bombers support Allied ground troops in the Aitape area.
• 5th Air Force and attached RAAF aircraft based in the Hollandia area help defeat a multi-regiment ground attack by Japanese Army ground forces along the Driniumor River. Surviving Japanese ground troops withdraw.

Allied Command

Before leaving for Hawaii for discussions with Nimitz and MacArthur on the Pacific war strategy, Roosevelt replies to Chiang Kai-shek's letter of July 8, agreeing to send him a personal political representative and asking him in the meanwhile to entrust the command of the Chinese army to Gen Stilwell.

Eastern Front

After several days of fierce street fighting the 3rd Belorussian Front captures Vilna, the capital of Lithuania. The German Army Group North is in still greater danger of being completely cut off. Red Army elements in Poland, after capturing Kaunas and Grodno, are now within 100 miles of the German frontier.

After a fierce battle the 5th Army takes Vilnius, more than 7,000 of the 15,000 strong garrison having fallen during the fighting. The 11th Guards Army crosses the Niemen River at Alytus. German counter-attacks are beaten off with some difficulty.

Koniev launches his offensive without arty preparation. The 60th and 38th Armies attack the center and right of Hauffe's XIII Corps near Brody. Simultaneously the 13th Army begins a furious attack against the left wing of the XIII Corps and break through near Radekhov. Soon after the 38th Army breaks through near Zolochev. On either flank of the assault the XLVI and XLVIII Panzer Corps counterattack but are hit by the 3rd Guards and 1st Guards Armies.

Italy

The American 34th Div of IV Corps advances about 3 miles toward Leghorn. The other 2 divisions in the American IV Corps, the 88th and 89th(?), are engaged in the central and right sectors. The 4th Mountain Div of the French Expeditionary Corps captures San Gimignano, while another French division, the 2nd Moroccan, gets nearly as far as Poggibonsi and the suburbs of Castellina in Chianti about 20 miles south of Florence and halfway between Arezzo and Leghorn.

In the center of the Allied line the New Zealand 2nd Div captures the summit of Monte Castiglione Maggiore.

New Guinea

On Numfoor Island the American paratroopers make contact with the main body of Japanese who are still holding out about 3 miles northeast of Namber airfield.

On the mainland, in the Aitape sector, US units counter-attack and succeed in reaching the Driniumor River at 2 points. The 128th Inf routs the Japanese coastal attack group, destroying most of its guns.

Pacific

The US submarine Herring (SS-233) is reported as presumed lost in the Pacific Ocean area.

Secret War

With a crew who had completed only 100 hours of flying, the pilot of a Ju-88G night-fighter lands by mistake at Woodbridge, Suffolk. The aircraft is fitted with the Lichtenstein SN-2 wide-angle radar which has so benefited German night-fighter techniques for many months. Its capture robs the German night-fighters of their last chance to defend the country against Allied raids because British experts quickly issue instructions which nullify its value.

Western Front

The American 4th Arm Div lands in northern France. General Headquarters of the US 1st Army approves plans for Operation COBRA, the attack on St Lô.

The American VIII Corps continues to push south, but in the VII Corps sector only the 9th Div, on the left flank, makes headway, while action on the rest of the line is virtually suspended. The US XIX Corps continues the hard struggle for St Lô. Finally, in the V Corps sector, the 5th Div goes into the line to replace the 1st Div, which is moved to Colombières, some 6 miles southeast of Isigny, before going over to the VII Corps sector.

Images from July 13, 1944

Churchill Tank Crews of 31st Tank Brigade with Their Extensively Camouflaged Vehicles, 13 July 1944

A Knocked-out German PzKpfw IV Ausf H Tank of 21st Panzer Division in a Hull-down Position, 13 July 1944

The crew of a Staghound armoured car of 4th King’s Dragoon Guards shelter from the sun beneath a parasol fitted to the turret of their vehicle, 13 July 1944.

Armored Car Crew, 4th King's Dragoon Guards

US Army soldiers evacuate three injured comrades during the Battle of Normandy following the liberation of the village of La Haye-du-Puits by the U.S. 79th Infantry Division from German occupation on 9 July 1944. La Haye-du-Puits, Manche, Lower Normandy, France, 13 July 1944

Evacuating the Injured

American Soldiers Inspecting a Knocked-out Panther Tank at Le Dézert, 13 July 1944

This was a major Red Army operation to force the German troops from Ukraine and Eastern Poland. Launched in mid July 1944, in just under one month of fighting, the Red Army achieved their objectives.

The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive begins

Abandoned Vehicles of the German 9th Army at a Road near Titowka/Bobruisk (Belarus)

Laying Railway Tracks for Reception of Supplies, Bassin à Flot, Cherbourg, 13 July 1944