Replies

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/03.htm

July 3rd, 1944 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: A V1 lands on a Chelsea block of flats, killing 74 people and injuring 50.

The British capital is being evacuated again. Under the impact of the flying-bomb attack the government has announced a new scheme to move mothers of children under five, as well as schoolchildren, to the country. Many others have made their own arrangements for evacuation. In the first two weeks of the attack over 1,700 people have been killed. The fact that V1s fall out of cloudy skies in daytime makes it harder to shelter.

In one of the worst incidents, on 30 June, a flying bomb glided low over the Thames and dropped beside Bush House in the Aldwych, which was crowded with lunch-hour office workers, killing 198 of them. Another which landed in Chelsea today killed 74. However, the anti-aircraft and balloon barrage now on the North Downs is bringing down more of the robot planes than before.

Bedford: Captain Glenn Miller and his band, the 418th Army Air Force Band, wake up in their new quarters which they moved into yesterday away from the risk of V1s in London. Their previous accommodation, 25 Sloane Court, is destroyed this morning when a V1 lands in front of the building, killing more than 100 people. Miller tells band manager Lieutenant Don Haynes, “As long as [the Miller Luck] stays with us, we have nothing to worry about.”
FRANCE: US forces mount a major move south from Normandy. Their goal is a line from Coutances to St.Lo. The hedgerow country, weather and stiff German opposition, slow the advance.

Nearly 275 Ninth Air Force fighters strafe and bomb strongpoints, gun positions, a fuel dump, communication lines, bridges, and patrol the beach in the vicinity of Lessay and Periers, south of the US First Army’s advance.

The US 712th enters combat in the Haye du Puits sector of Normandy. (Aaron Elson)(154)

HUNGARY: Four USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers attack the Szeged railroad bridge with Azon bombs.

ROMANIA: The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force attacks nine targets: (1) 110 hit the oil storage facilities at Giurgiu; (2-4) 212 bomb three targets in Bucharest, the Malaxa locomotive factory (95 aircraft), the Mogasia oil storage facility (83 aircraft) and the Titan Oil Refinery (34 aircraft); (5) the Timosoara marshalling yard (93 aircraft); (6) the Arad railway shops (44 aircraft); (7) the Piatra railroad bridge (28 aircraft); (8) the Duca railroad (27); and (9) the Turnu Severin railroad (13 aircraft). Eleven aircraft are lost. Fifty five Eighth Air Force B-17s in Italy on the USSR shuttle mission join in bombing the Arad marshalling yards; 38 P-51 Mustangs of the VIII Fighter Command, also on the shuttle run, fly escort on the mission.
During the night, a RAF Liberator Mk. VI of No. 205 Group drops leaflets on Arad but is lost.

ITALY: Siena, the beautiful Etruscan capital falls to Algerian troops of the French Expeditionary Corps. There was little time for celebration, however. Almost as soon as the last German had left the city, the 3rd Algerian Division was preparing to move south - to Naples and the planned invasion of the south of France. The Algerians have been replaced by the Moroccan 4th Mountain Division, which has wasted no time in heading for Florence and the Gothic Line. The US Fifth Army, which is also likely to lose much of its strength to the proposed invasion, today took the coastal town of Cecina and is close to encircling the port of Leghorn. The British 78th Division captures Cortona, and US forces reach Rosignano.

YUGOSLAVIA: The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force attacks two targets: (1) Oil storage facilities in Belgrade (28 aircraft) and (2) the Cuprija railway line (1 aircraft).

FINLAND: Yesterday evening the Finnish radio intelligence captured a Soviet message (Finnish code-breakers were able to read a signifigant portion of the Soviet signals traffic from the division level down) stating that the 63rd Guards Division (of the 30th Guards Corps), supported by the 30th Tank Brigade, attacks Ihantala after midnight today. Counter-measures are taken immediately.

Twelve Finnish artillery battalions fire at the Soviet positions in the early morning hours, as do the German Stukas and Jabos. This ends the Soviet activity for few hours.

However, some 200 enemy aircraft start bombing the Finnish positions at 6 am, and are soon joined by artillery and assault guns. At 7 am. an enemy division attacks Ihantala, but is repelled with the aid of artillery.

At 9 am. an enemy attack drives the I/IR 12 from Pyöräkangas, west of Ihantala. This potentially threatening penetration is soon contained, and preparations for a counter-attack are immediately started. Reserves are gathered, and the counter-attack, again supported by strong artillery forces, starts at noon. Capt. L. Jaale’s III/IR 6 attacks from west, followed by the rest of Lt. Col. Reino Inkinen’s regiment. Maj. K. Suurkari’s detachment (remains of the I/IR 12, company from III/IR 12 and a jäger company) attacks from north at 12.30 pm, and Maj. J. Sammalkorpi’s III/IR 35 from north-east at 2 pm. This three-pronged assault drives the enemy from Pyöräkangas by 5 pm.

For the rest of the day the Soviet forces attempt attacks at different points along the 6th Division’s front, but every time the enemy formations are dispersed by Finnish artillery even before they are able to attack. Only at Tähtelä, at 6th Division’s left flank, the enemy reaches the Finnish positions at 8 pm, but are immediately driven back by counter-attack.

This evening Lt. Col. Inkinen’s IR 6 is withdrawn from the battle. It has fought with distinction continuously for eight days, and taken heavy losses. Also Col. Y. Hanste’s IR 12 is withdrawn, and is replaced by IR 35.

U.S.S.R.: Ten days after the start of Operation Bagration, Minsk is captured by troops of the First and Third Byelorussian fronts. The German Fourth Army and other units are now cut off. The German Army Group Centre is caught offguard by this and is beginning to cease to exist as a fighting unit.
Minsk, the capital of Byelorussia, was the last major city in the Soviet Union still occupied by the Germans. The city was first encircled and then stormed by General Cherniakhovsky’s Third Byelorussian Front and Marshal Rokossovky’s First Byelorussian front.

Not only have they taken 73,000 prisoners, including two generals - Michaelis and Konradi - they have also trapped a large force of Germans east of Minsk. The story is the same all along the line. In the north General Bagramyan’s First Baltic Front has invested Polotsk and is pushing the Germans out of the city in hand-to-hand street fighting. When Polotsk falls Vilna, the capital of Lithuania, will come within striking distance. In the south, Marshal Zhukov has monted an attack on Baranovichi, the key to the German right wing.

The Russians are, in the words of a congratulatory message to Stalin from Churchill, “pulverising the German armies”. Hitler has sacked Field Marshal von Busch and replaced him by Model, but even that hardbitten warrior seems unable to stem the Russian tide.

Colonel General Johannes Frießner succeeds Colonel General Georg Lindemann in command of the German Army Group North. (John Nicholas)

BURMA: The Allies capture Ukhrul from the Japanese after a brief struggle.

NEW GUINEA: Operation Table Tennis: A US 739-man 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment is dropped on the Kamiriz airfield on Noemfoor Island, Schouten Islands, to occupy the area. They use C-47 Skytrains under cover of a smoke screen laid by A-20 Havocs. High winds carry the paratroopers to bone-cracking landings in supply dumps, vehicle parks, and amidst wrecked Japanese aircraft. The airfield had already been captured by American ground troops. Casualties are high with 10 percent injured by accidents and enemy fire. The 128 injured include 59 serious fracture cases. The 503d gets the job of mopping up Noemfoor.
Fifth Air Force P-38s and B-25s hit personnel and supply areas south of Kamiri and support invading ground forces as they push east along the north coast of Noemfoor Island. (Jack McKillop/John Nicholas)

VOLCANO ISLANDS: Carrier-based aircraft from the USN’s Task Groups 58.1 and 58.2 attack Japanese airfields and shipping at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, and Chichi Jima and Haha Jima in the Bonin Islands. These two task groups are composed of four aircraft carriers and four light aircraft carriers.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Vesole laid down.

ATLANTIC: German Type IXC submarine U-154 is sunk about 594 nm (1100 km) west of Casablanca, French Morocco, in approximate position 34.00N, 19.30W, by depth charges from the USN destroyer escorts USS Inch (DE-146) and Frost (DE-144). All hands (57 men) in the U-boat are lost. (Alex Gordon)

At 1925, the unescorted Elihu B. Washburne was struck by one torpedo from U-513 off the coast of Brazil between the after port peak tank and the #5 hatch. The explosion either knocked off the propeller or broke the shaft. The ship lost the rudder, the after magazine for 3in rounds discharged and the magazine for 20mm ammunition exploded. Without control of the vessel, she turned 90° to port and gradually lost way. The most of the eight officers, 34 men, 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 3-in gun and nine 20-mm guns) and three passengers abandoned ship in three lifeboats. The master, eight crewmen and the armed guards remained on board to attempt to beach the ship. 25 minutes after the first hit, a second torpedo struck the hapless vessel at the #3 bulkhead. This explosion lifted the bow out of the water and threw water over the ship. At 2000, a third torpedo struck in the engine room and the remaining men now left in the fourth lifeboat. The ship was last seen by the survivors drifting with her bow completely out of the water. All hands survived and landed on the island of São Sabastião early the next morning.