Air Operations, Bonin and Volcano Islands

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

Air Operations, Carolines

FEAF B-24s attack the Yap Atoll.

Air Operations, CBI

• Several 10th Air Force P-40s attack targets around Myitkyina.

• 11 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Changsha.
• More than 140 14th Air Force P-51s and P-40s attack numerous targets in a wide area around Changsha, Shinshih, Hengyang, Leiyang, and Chaling.

Air Operations, East Indies

• V Bomber Command B-24s attack the Namlea airfield on Boeroe and shipping in Kayeli Bay in the Molucca Islands.
• B-25s attack shipping at Dili, Timor.

Air Operations, Europe

• ;369 aircraft attack 6 flying bomb launch sites and the V-weapon site at Wizernes. Included in the aircraft total are 174 Lancasters, 165 Halifaxes and 30 Mosquitos. All raids are successful except for the small raid by 20 aircraft on the Forêt de Croc site where the Oboe leader Lancaster is shot down and the bombs of this force all miss the target.
• Only the 1 Lancaster is lost.

• 302 Lancasters and 15 Mosquitos of Nos. 1, 5 and 8 Groups attack the railway yards and a 'triangle' rail junction at Courtrai. The Bomber Command report says that both sites 'were devastated'.
• 9 Lancasters are lost.
• 149 Halifaxes, 13 Mosquitos and 4 Lancasters of Nos. 4 and 8 Groups attack the synthetic oil refinery at Bottrop. The northern part of the target receives major damage.
• 7 Halifaxes and 1 Lancaster are lost.
• 147 Lancasters and 11 Mosquitos of Nos. 1, 3 and 8 Groups attack the Oil Plant at Homberg and cause severe damage. German documents show that the production of aviation fuel, which stood at nearly 6,000 tons per day at the end of April, is now fluctuating between 120 and 970 tons per day, following Bomber Command and American 8th Air Force raids.
• But German night fighters catch the Homberg bomber force and 20 Lancasters are lost. No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron, from Mepal, loses 7 of its 25 aircraft on the raid.
• 54 Halifaxes, 23 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitos of Nos. 4, 5 and 8 Groups are sent to attack the flying bomb sites at Ardouval and Wizernes, but only 23 aircraft bomb at Ardouval and none at Wizernes.
• There are no losses.

• Support and 106 aircraft from training units make a diversionary sweep over the North Sea, 6 Lancasters and 5 Mosquitos make a 'spoof' raid to Alost, 26 Mosquitos are sent to Hamburg, 8 Stirlings lay mines off Lorient, 17 aircraft are on Resistance operations, and there are 42 Mosquito patrols and 33 RCM sorties.
• 1 Mosquito is lost on the Hamburg raid.

Wizernes V-weapon site before the recent series of Bomber Command attacks.

Wizernes V-Weapon Site

A Lancaster is seen over Wizernes during the daylight attack on the 20th July.

Wizernes V-Weapon Site

One feature of the Wizernes site was a huge concrete dome used as aunderground store.

Wizernes V-Weapon Site

Recce picture of the site at Wizernes. In the center of the picture the large dome-shaped underground storage area can be made out.

Wizernes V-Weapon Site

Low-level recce picture of the remains of the Wizernes site.

Wizernes V-Weapon Site

Air Operations, Marianas

• The pre-invasion aerial bombardment of Guam by US carrier aircraft from Task Force 58 reaches its peak. Carrier aircraft also attack targets on Tinian, as do artillery based on Saipan and US warships.
• 318th Fighter Group P-47s complete 161 sorties against pre-invasion targets on Tinian.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-24s attack the Moemi airfield and Manokwari.
• B-25s attack Kasim Island and shipping off Sorong and other coastal areas.
• A-20s support Allied ground forces near Sarmi.
• B-25s and A-20s attack dumps at Cape Moem, Sauri, and Wom.
• V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack coastal targets of opportunity and Japanese Army troops on Kairiru Island.

Diplomatic Relations

The Russian-supported Polish Committee of National Liberation is formed.

Eastern Front

Southwest of Kovel, in the central sector, the force of the 1st Belorussian Front reach the Bug River on a front of 40 miles.

The Soviet 1st Shock Army pierces the front of the 18th Army near Ostrov as the 3rd Panzer Army buckles under assaults from the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies.

The 4th Panzer Army is crumbling, the Soviet 8th Guards Army having reached the Bug River. A relief attack by the XLVIII Panzer Corps toward the Brody Pocket fails.[MORE]

English Channel

The British destroyer Isis sinks on a mine off Normandy with the loss of 154 of her crew.

Italy

Units of the American 34th Div succeed in establishing an advance post along Highway 67 southeast of Pisa. The French 4th Mountain Div reaches the line Santo Stefano-Castelfiorention-Certalto on the left flank of the line.

The British XIII Corps has to modify its plan of attack to allow it to cover a wider front with its divisions, so as to take in the sector at present held by the French Expeditionary Corps, which is being withdrawn from the front. The region between the Chianti hills and Highway 2 offers few defenses, and the greatest efforts will be concentrated on the left flank, where the New Zealand 2nd Div and 8th Indian Div are getting ready to attack.

The South African 7th Arm Div captures Monte San Michele and Monte Querciabella allowing the 4th Div and British 6th Arm Div to advance into the Arno valley.

Marianas

The bombardment of Tinian is stepped up a stage when army arty based on Saipan adds its weight to the attacks from the air and by naval shelling.

As the American fleet approaches its objective, the air and naval bombardment of Guam, which has been almost ceaseless since July 7, is stepped up to an unprecedented level.

Occupied France

German military conspirators temporarily seize control of Paris and imprison local SS personnel but wait in vain to hear confirmation of Hitler's death from Berlin. The SS regain control and release their comrades after Hitler's broadcast.

Western Front

The US 1st Army continues its preparation for Operation COBRA. In the Caen sector the Canadian 2nd Div captures St Andrè-sur-Orne after some hard fighting. The British attacks south and east of Caen continue, but the tenacious German antitank defense has worn down the advance units and cut their momentum.

Germany, Resistance

Shortly after midday a bomb explodes in the conference room at Hitler's HQ at Rastenburg in East Prussia. Hitler, although badly shaken, is only slightly hurt. The bomb has been planted by Col Count Claus von Stauffenberg who represents in this a wide-ranging conspiracy of senior officers and a few politicians. Immediately after the bomb goes off the conspirators act on the assumption that Hitler is dead. In fact the bomb, disguised in a briefcase has been moved slightly by another officer and Hitler, shielded from the blast by the heavy leg of the map table, thus survives. Not all the elements of the conspirators' plan are carried out with sufficient ruthlessness to achieve much success, and once it is clear that Hitler has survived, the plot falls apart. On the first day several of the leading participants, including von Stauffenberg, are shot in Berlin, and eventually the Nazi vengeance will encompass several thousand executions. Hitler later delights in watching film of these. Among those actively involved in the plot are Gen Ludwig Beck, Carl Gordeler (formerly mayor of Leipzig), Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, Gen Franz Halder and others taken from aristocratic and Roman Catholic groups. Many others know of the plot including Rommel, von Kluge and Canaris but have done nothing to help or hinder it. The security of the plot is easily penetrated and many of the conspirators are quickly rounded up. The effect of the incident on Hitler is first to increase his pathological distrust of the generals and second, when combined with the physical deterioration caused by the dubious combination of medicines he takes, the shock of the explosion further weakens his ability to concentrate and to remain stable in the face of reverses. He becomes less interested in his work and more prone to wild outbursts.

Hitler moves to his East Prussian headquarters at Rastenburg. An unsuccessful attempt is made to assassinate Hitler by Col Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenbert at the Wolf's Lair at Rastenburg, Hitlers headquarters in the East.

Stauffenberg had been drawn into the circle of military conspirators against Hitler but also quickly formed the opinion that they lacked resolution. Thus it was taht he took it upon himself, as someone with access to Hitler's conferences but so disabled as to escape body search, to smuggle a bomb into the Führer's conference room. Hitler and the other 24 occupants of the room suffer varying degrees of wounds, the most serious being the loss of life of Col Brant and Herr Berger, who die immediately, and Generalleutnant Schmundt and Gen Korten, dying subsequently from wounds they have received. The remaining 20 suffer superficial wounds and shock, save for Gen Buhle and Generalmajor Scherff, who are more seriously injured. Unfortunately, though Stauffenberg makes good his escape from the Rastenburg headquarters, the Berlin conspirators fail to act with resolution during his return flight to the city, and by the time he has arrived, they have lost irretrievable time. By the evening the coup has foundered and Gen Fromm, head of the Home Army, who hoped thereby to remove the evidence of his own complicity, shot Stauffenberg, with others, in the courtyard of the War Ministry.

The assassination attempt, codenamed 'Valkyrie', had failed, but coup signals had been sent out. The German command in Paris started to take over from the Nazis until news of the failure came through. Coup plotters and large numbers of suspects, including Canaris and Oster, were rounded up. Gen Ludwig Beck and others commited suicide. From July until April 1945 trials and executions of suspects continued.

Images from July 20, 1944

The Wolf's Lair Conference Room Soon after the Explosion

Conference Room Wreckage, 20 July 1944

Joseph Goebbels sitting on a chair while Hermann Göring looks on. Both are looking at the destroyed conference table used when a bomb went off intending to kill Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944

In the Conference Room

Adolf Hitler visiting an adjutant, General der Infanterie Rudolf Schmundt, seriously injured during an Army inspired assassination attempt upon Hitler's life at his Wolfschanze HQ on July 20, 1944

Visiting the Injured

Two German officers stand on the wing of Major Gabreski’s Republic P-47D-25-RE Thunderbolt, 42-26418, after his belly landing near Bassenheim, Germany, 20 July 1944. (Luftwaffe)

German Officers on the Wing of a P-47D

An Ambulance Jeep of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, Vaucelles, France, 20 July 1944

Humber Mk. IV Armoured Car, 17th Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars, Normandy, 20 July 1944. (Lt Ken Bell, Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3378681)

Aumber Mk. IV Armoured Car

P-51s Fly Above The Clouds On A Practice Fighter Escort Mission, 20 July 1944

A British soldier Examines an Abandoned German 'Nebelwerfer' near Troarn, Normandy, 20 July 1944

Canadian Infantrymen of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders eat lunch outside the railroad station during 'Operation Spring'. Vaucelles, Calvados, Lower Normandy, France. 20 July 1944

Canadian Infantrymen Outside Railroad Station

Universal Carrier, 4th Field Regt, RCA, Vaucelles, France, 20 July 1944. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3222766)

Universal Carrier, 4th Field Regt, RCA

Personnel of No.2 Provost Company, Canadian Provost Corps, talking with French civilians, Fleury-sur-Orne, France, 20 July 1944

Provost Company Personnel Talking with French Civilians