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http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/22.htm

July 22nd, 1944 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The Eighth Air Force flies two missions.

- Mission 488: 7 B-17s drop leaflets on Bremen, Hamburg and Kiel, Germany. Escort is provided by 27 P-51 Mustangs.

- Mission 489: 7 B-17s drop leaflets in France and the Netherlands during the night.

- 44 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions during the night.

Rescue tug HMS Enforcer launched.

ASW trawler HMS Royal Marine launched.

FRANCE: The USAAF’s Ninth Air Force dispatches a group of A-20 Havocs and two groups of B-26s to attack a rail bridge at Bourth and fuel dumps at Foret de Conches and Flers; four groups of fighter-bombers fly armed reconnaissance and rail cutting missions during the late evening; a fighter group escorts the bombers; and fighters of the IX Tactical Air Command escort 100+ C-47 Skytrains on a supply-evacuation run to the Continent, and provide cover over the battle area.

GERMANY: Rastenburg: Hitler appoints Goebbels Reich plenipotentiary for total war, giving him powers second only to his own.
POLAND: Chelm falls to Rokossovsky’s First Belorussian Front on their advance to Lublin.

The Soviets set up the communist-controlled Polish Committee of National Liberation at Lublin to administer all of the territory they have occupied in Poland.

ROMANIA: 76 P-38s and 58 P-51s begin the second Fifteenth Air Force shuttle mission, attacking airfields at Zilistea and Buzau (claiming the destruction of 56 enemy aircraft) and landing at Operation FRANTIC bases in the USSR; 458 B-17s and B-24s (with fighter escorts) bomb an oil refinery at Ploesti and other bombers hit alternate targets of the Verciorova marshalling yard, Orsova railroad bridge, and Kragujevac, Yugoslavia marshalling yard. For their part the defending Romanian Air Force, Grup 9 Vanatori (Me109 G) shoot down six P-38s without loss. (Jack McKillop and Mike Yaklich)

Anthony Orsini of Woodbridge, New Jersey, a navigator, recalls that day:

Assigned to the 449 Bomb Group, attached to the 15th Air Force, 716 Squadron, Orsini was on a B-24 bomber approaching the Ploesti oil fields in Romania. The sky was full of aircraft when guns started to fire and black clouds of flak filled the air.

“My blood ran cold,” Orsini said.

When the bomber violently shook, Orsini said he knew they were hit.

The pilot screamed, “Abandon ship!” and Orsini strapped on his parachute and threw himself off into the sky.

He struck a tree and blacked out on the landing. When he woke up, Orsini was in the arms of a peasant woman, who was happily chattering. Villagers and Chetnik guerrillas shielded the airman from roving German patrols.

Gen. Draza Mihailovich, a Chetnik guerrilla leader and Serb nationalist, immediately started coordinating a rescue plan with the Office of Strategic Services or OSS, a forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency. (from The Rescue That Time Forgot,

February 25, 2008 BY SHARON ADARLO Star-Ledger Staff

The Star-Ledger is published in Newark, New Jersey)

CHINA: US official observers arrive to assess military co-operation between the US and China.

GUAM: Both US Marine Division advance about 1 mile from their beachhead positions taken yesterday in the invasion.
The Allies’ central Pacific strategy of cutting Japan off from its recently-acquired Pacific empire seems tantalizingly close to fruition. If Guam, the southern-most of the Marianas, falls, Japan’s last lifeline to its bases in the east will be severed. US bombers are hastening the process, today striking for the 37th successive day at Yap, in the western Carolines, 350 miles to the south of Guam and Japan’s nearest base to Guam. West of Yap, US forces also bombed the Japanese-held Palau Islands, a possible staging post for recapturing the Philippines.

NEW GUINEA: Following an air and artillery bombardment, U.S. Army personnel clear the last organized Japanese pocket on Biak Island.

MARIANAS ISLANDS: Seventh Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts from Saipan Island, using napalm-bombs for the first time, hit Tinian and Pagan Islands. They aim to burn out the heavy brush overlooking the landing beach, but the early mixture with gasoline is less than satisfactory. Makin Island-based B-25s pound Ponape Island. Far East Air Force (FEAF) B-24s again attack the airfield on Yap Island.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Two B-25s flying a negative shipping search encounter a G4M “Betty” bomber which evades contact.

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Stone Town commenced tropicalization refit Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
Corvette HMCS Frontenac paid off Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Corvette HMCS Camrose paid off Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Corvette HMCS Kamsack paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.

Henry Asbjorn Larsen 1899-1964 leaves Halifax on the RCMP patrol ship St. Roch to return to Vancouver via NW Passage; completes trip 86 days later.

HMC ML 125 commissioned.

U-354 evacuated a weather team from Hopen Island.

U.S.A.: The Bretton Woods conference of international finance ministers ends, having set up the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sails for Hawaii in the heavy cruiser USS Baltimore (CA-68) to confer with Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur.

The motion picture “The Adventures of Mark Twain” is released in the U.S. Directed by Irving Rapper, the film stars Fredric March (as Twain), Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, John Carradine and Percy Kilbride; Diana Barrymore is cast in a bit part while Peter Lawford has an uncredited bit part. This “Hollywoodized” version of Samuel Clemens is not a great biography but it is entertaining. The film is nominated for three technical Academy Awards.

Submarine USS Mero laid down.

Destroyer USS Harry E Hubbard commissioned.

Minesweeper USS Creddock launched.

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-183 was commissioned at New Orleans, Louisiana. Her first commanding officer was LTJG E. W. Owiazda, USCGR. He was succeeded on 11 October 1945 by LT Clive V. Clark, who in turn was succeeded on 24 October 1945 by LTJG Elliott Rubin, USCGR. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area.