http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/jul42/f17jul42.htm
Rommel wants to withdraw
Friday, July 17, 1942 www.onwar.com
Rommel (center) with Kesselring (left) [photo at link]
In North Africa... Rommel’s supply situation continues to deteriorate, but German and Italian troops are still able to halt a British advance near Miterirya Ridge. Rommel suggests a retreat to the Italian and German Commanders, Cavallero and Kesselring.
From Berlin... Hitler fearing that Army Group A will not be able to cross the Don River against growing Soviet opposition, switches the 4th Panzer Army from Army Group B. Without 4th Panzer Army, Army Group B’s progress toward Stalingrad is slowed.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
July 17th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Churchill warns Stalin that, following the fate of convoy PQ-17, there will be no more convoys to northern Russia.
FRANCE: Paris: With the Grande Rafle still in progress, another Franco-German conference takes place, which Dr. Joseph Billig haas summarised: “Bousquet, secrétaire-général for the Police-Nationale, working in perfect harmony with Laval and Leguay, his representative in the occupied zone, intervened very vigorously in the question of the Jewish children at Drancy [concentration camp on the outskirts of Paris]......The representatives of the French police expressed the wish several times to see the children deported to the Reich.”
U.S.S.R.: Deprived of it’s armoured spearhead 4 Pz. Armee, and being low on fuel, the advance of Army Group B slows.
Moscow: The Germans are making further gains in their thrust towards Stalingrad, forcing the Russians to evacuate the towns of Boguchar and Milerovo yesterday. The Panzers are rolling through the ripening corn of the steppe, faced, in many cases, only by suicide squads with grenades and Molotov cocktails.
War correspondents with the advancing Panzers are writing about the Mot Pulk [motorized square] of trucks and guns guarded by an armoured skin of tanks crushing its way forward like an “irresistible mastodon”. But the fierce struggle is still going on for Voronezh, the vital communications centre, which was one of the first objectives. When the Germans crossed the Don, Hitler gave permission for the city to be bypassed in order to pursue Marshal Timoshenko’s escaping forces, but the commander, at that time Field Marshal von Bock, decided to take it by storm. On 13 July von Bock was replaced by General von Weich, but resistance at Voronezh has still not been wiped out; tanks which ought to be driving to Stalingrad are still fighting in the suburbs.
On 13 July Hitler made Stalingrad - not the Caucasus - the main objective for Army Group B, and today he switched the 4th Panzer Army to reinforce that attack. Despite the delays, he believes that Timoshenko and the Red Army are finished. This is not the view of his army chiefs of staff.
NORTH AFRICA: A British attack is finally broken by German and Italian forces around Miteirya Ridge. Rommel is having increasing difficulty, once again, with supplies and suggests retreat to Cavallero and Kesselring.
In Libya, US Army, Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24s bomb Bengasi harbor and B-17s hit Tobruk. (Jack McKillop)
PACIFIC: USAAF B-17s bomb the harbor at Rabaul, New Britain Island, Admiralty Islands. (Jack McKillop)
Portugese Timor: The Kuru lands the first on many “Z Special Force” parties from AIB The Allied Intelligence Bureau. These teams, normally of 3 or 4 men with guerrilla and local language and customs skills are tasked with raising local troops; these troops will be sent back to Australia for specialist training then reinserted to cause the enemy as much mayhem as possible. (William L. Howard)(188, 189, 190, 191)
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Castlemaine commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: In the Aleutians, three 11th Air Force B-17s and 7 B-24s fly weather, bombing and photo missions; shipping is bombed and North and South Heads of Kiska Island are photographed; fighters down 1 B-17E. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.:
Submarine USS Hake launched.
Destroyer USS Satterlee launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-751 sunk NW of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 45.14N, 12.22W, by depth charges from an RAF 61 Sqn Whitley and a 502 Sqn Lancaster. 48 dead (all hands lost). (Dave Shirlaw)
The transfer of 4th Panzer Army will create a massive traffic jam, and slow the impetus of Army Group A’s advance. Later, when Army Group A will need 4th Panzer Army, Hitler will re-assign it back to Army Group B, for commitment to the battle for Stalingrad.