http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/6/26.htm
July 26th, 1945 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The results of the General Election are announced. The Conservative Party of Winston Churchill loses to the Labour Party. Clement Attlee becomes Prime Minister.
This is a sensational general election landslide victory. Tonight for the first time the party rules Britain with a secure parliamentary majority. It is a turning point in the nation’s history. The results of the 5 July polling announced today were Labour 393 seats, Tories and allies 213, Liberals 12, other parties 22.
Voters had cheered Winston Churchill wherever he went during the campaign. But millions had also decided long ago to punish the Tories for pre-war economic misery. They voted instead for a party apparently more earnestly dedicated to social reform. The forces overwhelmingly backed Labour.
Mr. Churchill resigned this evening and the king sent for the Labour leader, Clement Attlee, to form the new government. With the help of Ernest Bevin, the trade union juggernaut, Mr. Attlee had a few hours earlier survived a botched attempt by his deputy Herbert Morrison and others to depose him. In his hour of defeat, the war-time prime minister accepted the verdict with grace: “I thank the British people for many kindnesses shown towards their servants.”
Boom defence vessel HMS Barbastel launched.
GERMANY: Allied leaders of Britain, China and the US issue the Potsdam ultimatum warning Japan that failing to surrender will lead to “prompt and utter destruction.”
TINIAN: The cruiser USS INDIANAPOLIS delivers the consignment of U-235 needed to assemble the atomic bomb.
MALAYA: British ships end a three-day bombardment of ports, railways and airfields.
INDIAN OCEAN: Minesweeper HMS Vestal suffers severe damage after being struck by a JAAF Kamikaze aircraft and has to be sunk by destroyer Racehorse. There are 20 casualties. Vestal is the only RN warship to be sunk after being damaged by a Kamikaze aircraft. (Is this a specific or a general qualification? Were ANY RN ships sunk by Kamikazes or does this incident relate only to being scuttled after being damaged in such an attack?) (Alex Gordon)(108)
JAPAN: In the Kurile Islands, 7 Eleventh Air Force B-24s successfully hit the Kataoka Naval Base on Shimushu Island with incendiaries, leaving smoke columns 5,000 ft (1,524 m) high in their wake; there is no airborne opposition and AA fire is moderate and inaccurate. Another B-24 flies a radar-ferret mission over the northern Kurile Islands. The submarine USS Barb (SS-220) surfaces off Kunashiri Island and the crew uses her deck gun to destroy a lumbermill and the sampan building yard.
During the night of 26/27 July, 350 Twentieth Air Force B-29 Superfortresses fly 3 incendiary missions against secondary cities; 1 B-29 is lost:
- Mission 293: 127 B-29s attack the Matsuyama urban area destroying 1.22 sq mi (3.16 sq km), 73% of the total city area.
- Mission 294: 97 B-29s hit the Tokuyama urban area destroying 0.47 sq mi (1.22 sq km), 37% of the city area; 1 other hits an alternate target.
- Mission 295: 124 B-29s attack the Omuta urban area destroying 2.05 sq mi (5.31 sq km), 38% of the city area; 1 other hits an alternate target; 1 B-29 is lost.
509 BG conducts another Pumpkin mission. [See chart with better format at linked diary - HJS.]
Ops. Miss. Date Aircraft Cdr. Crew Bombing Target Lat Long Result
27 9 26/07/45 44-27296 Price B-7 Secondary Visual Shimoda urban Very Poor
27 9 26/07/45 44-27297 Albury C-15 Secondary Radar Toyama urban Unobserved
27 9 26/07/45 44-27298 Taylor A-1 Opport. Radar RR Yards, Yaizu Poor
27 8 26/07/45 44-27301 Eatherly C-11 Opport. Visual Tsugawa area Poor
27 8 26/07/45 44-27302 Westover A-4 Opport. Visual Taira Industrial Area Poor
27 9 26/07/45 44-27303 Devore A-3 Secondary Visual Osaka urban Good
27 9 26/07/45 44-27304 Marquardt B-10 Secondary Radar Hamamatsu urban Unobserved
27 8 26/07/45 44-27354 Classen A-5 Opport. Visual Copper Ref. Hitachi area Good
27 8 26/07/45 44-86291 Ray C-14 Secondary Radar Kashiwazaki urban Unobserved
27 9 26/07/45 44-86292 Lewis B-9 Secondary Radar Nagoya urban Unobserved
(David Hebditch)
BORNEO: Thirteenth Air Force B-24s hit Tabanio, Trombol, Sengkawang, and Oelin Airfields in support of Australian ground troops.
CANADA: HMC ML 120 is paid off.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Joseph P Kennedy Jr launched.
Destroyers USS McCaffery and Newman K Perry commissioned.
Wow, Japanese using an Aesop’s fable in an attempt to negotiate away from unconditional surrender.