Air Operations, Bonin and Volcano Islands

VB-109 PB4Ys based at Isely Field on Saipan attack Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima, and Haha Jima airfields.

Air Operations, Carolines

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

Air Operations, CBI

• 20 10th Air Force B-25s attack the Myitkyina area and bridges and a supply dump at Mawhun.
• More than 60 P-47s and P-51s attack bridges at three locations and sweep the Katha, Lashio, and Talawgyi areas.
• 38 P-40s support Allied ground forces around Myitkyina.

• 14th Air Force B-25s, P-51s, and P-40s complete more than 100 sorties against numerous towns and river traffic.
• 12 B-25s and P-40s attack a rail yard at Hsuchang.
• 12 B-25s attack Lungling and Mangshih.
• 26 P-40s support Chinese Army ground forces on the Salween River front.
• P-40s from the 23rd Fighter Group’s 74th Fighter Squadron down 6 Japanese fighters over the airfield at Siangtan during a mid-morning engagement.

Air Operations, Europe

• 47 Lancasters and 6 Mosquitos carry out an 'Oboe leader' attack on the flying bomb supply dump at Nucort. Because of poor weather conditions, no results are seen.
• There are no losses.
Evening Ops:

• 162 Halifaxes, 58 Lancasters and 14 Mosquitos carry out accurate attacks on the flying bomb launch site at Bois des Jardins and the Nucort supply dump.
• 1 Halifax is lost.
• 222 Lancasters and 7 Mosquitos attack the railway yards at Chalons sur Marne and Nevers. Both raids are successful.
• 2 Lancasters from the Nevers raid and 1 Lancaster from the Chalons sur Marne raid are lost.

• 162 aircraft from 7 different groups make a diversionary sweep over the North Sea, 36 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, 6 Lancasters lay mines off Denmark, 11 aircraft are on Resistance operations, and there are 45 Mosquito patrols and 25 RCM sorties.
• 1 mine-laying Lancaster is lost.

Air Operations, Marianas

318th Fighter Group P-47s attack Tinian.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-24s attack the airfield at Efman through heavy weather.
• B-25s attack the Korrido Anchorage.
• A-20s attack gun batteries on an island near Manokwari.
• B-25s, A-20s, and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack Japanese Army troops and other targets throughout the Wewak area.

Burma

The commander of the Japanese forces in Myitkyina considers the possibility of breaking out through the surrounding forces and withdrawing. The garrison has already had 800 dead and 1,180 wounded, and the Japanese positions have been gradually eroded by the limited but incessant attacks of the past weeks.

Eastern Front

2nd Baltic Front take Opochka, 30 miles north of Idritsa. Other Russian formations cross the Niemen in several places west and southwest of Vilna.

The Finns manage to halt the Soviet advance on the Karelian Isthmus.

Opochka falls to the 10th Guards Army.

The Germans counterattack at Alytus, hitting the 11th Guards Army. After heavy fighting the Germans are repulsed and the Guards secure their bridgehead.

The XLII Corps of the 4th Panzer Army break, Hauffe's XIII Corps losing contact with its neighbor. As the 60th and 38th Armies struggle to breadk through the German defenses before Lvov, Koniev commits his 3rd Guards Tank Army against the XIII Corps' northern flank ant the 4th Tank Army against its southern wing. Counterattacks by the XLVI Panzer Corps hit the 3rd Guards Tank anc by the XLVIII Panzer Corps strike the 4th Tank Army. In intense fighting the XLVIII suffers heavy losses, being slaughtered by squadrons of Ilyushin ground attack aircraft. However, eventually the German attack halts the 38th Army.

Italy

Units of the 34th Div are now advancing rapidly on Leghorn. 2 regiments, the 168th and the 133rd, press on towards Pisa. In the center of IV Corps sector, the 363rd Regt of the 91st Div captures Bagni di Casciana without opposition, but then has to help to support the 34th Div's attack on Leghorn. The 88th Div's offensive on the right flank of IV Corps continues. In the French Expeditionary Corps sector the 8th Moroccan Regt captures Castellina in Chianti.

In the center of the front the British XIII Corps mounts an attack against Arezzo. The attack is preceded by an aerial bombardment at dawn, and is carried out by 2 divisions, the 6th Arm on the left and the New Zealand 2nd Div on the right. The German positions held by units of the LXXVI Panzerkorps, 1st Parachute Div, by 2 infantry divisions, the 334th and the 719th, and some units of the 15th Panzergrenadiere. After sunset the Germans begin to withdraw along the whole front.

The Italian government returns to Rome.

Western Front

The offensive by the American 1st Army comes to a halt west of the Taute River while the operational plans for Operation COBRA against St Lô and Coutances are prepared. The offensive of the 9th Div of VII Corps continues, while the 30th and 1st Inf Divs and 2nd and 3rd Armored Divs are re-grouped under VII Corps. The 35th and 29th Divs of XIX Corps, supported by artillery and bombers, continue their advance towards St Lô: on the left of the 35th Div the 134th Regt reaches Height 122, nearly a mile and a quarter beyond St Lô, but the division as a whole fails to keep up the momentum. Units of the 29th Div reach the Bayeux-St Lô road near La Madeleine, but are immediately cut off by the Germans.

In the British 2nd Army sector the British XII Corps attacks during the night along a line Bougy-Evrecy-Maizet, southwest of Caen between the Orne and the Odon.

The commander of the German LXXXIV Corps in Normandy, Gen Dietrich von Choltitz, a veteran of extensive combat including Russia, reports on the fighting west of St Lô: 'The whole battle is one tremendous blood bath such as I have never seen in eleven years of war.'

Images from July 15, 1944

An American version of a sidewalk cafe, in fallen La Haye du Puits, France on July 15, 1944, as Robert McCurty, left, from Newark, New Jersey, Sgt. Harold Smith, of Brush Creek, Tennessee, and Sgt. Richard Bennett, from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, raise their glasses in a toast.

Makeshift Sidewalk Cafe

Stauffenberg at left, Hitler center, Keitel on right. The person shaking hands with Hitler is General Karl Bodenschatz, who was seriously wounded five days later, by Stauffenberg's bomb.

At Rastenburg, 15 July 1944

Gunners of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers attend an open air service led by the Reverend Bennett Rees, during operations in the Odon valley, 15 July 1944

Open Air Service

Sappers clearing the last mines from the beach front of a former French luxury hotel, now in use as a rest club for troops of 3rd Division, 15 July 1944.

Sappers Clearing Mines

H/Captain John M. Anderson, Chaplain of the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, talking with Private Lawrence Herbert in his trench near Caen, France, 15 July 1944

Visiting the Trenches

Chaplains working with R.A.P. evacuate wounded 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, Caen, France, 15 July 1944

Chaplains Helping Evacuate Wounded

Churchill Tanks Prepare for an Attack on Hill 113, 15 July 1944

Attending the Wounded, 15 July 1944