This day in history in ww2

12 Jul 1872

• Emil Hácha was born. [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1901

China

• Dong Zhao was born in the village of Dongtaoyuan, Chang'an County, Shaanxi Province, China. [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1902

• Takeichi Nishi was born. [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1916

• Lyudmila Pavlichenko was born. [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1918

• The Japanese dreadnaught Kawachi was lost with 700 men in Tokuyama Bay, Japan, following an explosion of defective cordite in the ship's magazine. [AC]

12 Jul 1922

• S-34 was commissioned into service. [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1925

• USS S-31 arrived at Cavite, Luzon, Philippine Islands. [Main Article | CPC]

Philippines

• USS S-35 arrived at the Submarine Base, Cavite, Philippine Islands. [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1928

Brunei

• Seria Well Number One (S-1) was drilled at the Seria River, marking the start of an attempt to find oil in Brunei. [CPC]

12 Jul 1929

• The 12-engined Do X flying boat took its maiden flight. [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1934

Germany

• Hermann Göring, the German Reichstag President, announced that Adolf Hitler was above the law. [Main Article | AC]

12 Jul 1935

United Kingdom

• Aging Australian cruiser HMAS Brisbane arrived in Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom with a crew for operating the future cruiser HMAS Sydney (currently HMS Phaeton). [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1936

Spain

• In Spain, Calvé Sotelo, a well-known monarchist, was murdered by Republican storm troopers, and passions were roused to even greater fury when, at the funeral, police opened fire, killing four of the mourners. [Main Article | AC]

12 Jul 1937

Photo(s) dated 12 Jul 1937

12 Jul 1940

• Battle of Britain: German He 111 and Do 17 bombers attacked Allied convoy code named Booty off of Essex and Suffolk, England; 2 British Spitfire fighters and 1 British Hurricane fighter were lost in the battle, but they prevented sinkings. In southern England, German Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers attacked Portland and Exeter, losing two aircraft. At Aberdeen, Scotland, a He 111 bomber on a reconnaissance mission was intercepted and shot down, but was able to release one bomb on the city before crashing into the city's ice rink. [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Phoenix arrived at Valparaiso, Chile on a mission "to cultivate friendly relations". [Main Article | CPC]
• USS O'Brien departed Pará, Brazil for La Guaira, Venezuela. [Main Article | CPC]
• Destroyers USS Walke and USS Wainwright arrived at Pará, Brazil with Marines for cruisers USS Wichita and USS Quincy. [CPC]
• The Turkish Prime Minister stated that Turkey intended to remain faithful to her friendships, but that any threat to her independence would be met by resort to arms. [AC]

Atlantic Ocean

• German submarine U-56 attacked British transport ship Dunera with a torpedo in the North Channel between England, United Kingdom and Ireland; the torpedo glanced off the ship without exploding; the commanding officer of U-56 did not realize that Dunera was carrying, among others, Italian and German prisoners of war bound for Australia. To the southwest, 160 miles southwest of Ireland, German submarine U-99 sank Greek ship Ia at 0200 hours; 3 were killed and 27 were later rescued. At 2300 hours, U-99 struck again and fired a torpedo at Estonian ship Merisaar, but missed; with shots from the deck gun, she stopped the Estonian ship and forced her to sail into the German-occupied French port of Bordeaux (before reaching Bordeaux, however, a German aircraft would sink her on 15 Jul). [Main Article | CPC]

Canada

• Operation Fish: British ships arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada with US$1,750,000,000 worth of gold and securities from the Bank of England was destined for the Bank of Canada's vault in Ottawa. [CPC]

China

• Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong ordered his troops to move against Nationalist positions in Jiangsu Province, China. [Main Article | CPC]

France

• Jean de Lattre de Tassigny was made a Grand Officier of the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur. [Main Article | CPC]

Mediterranean Sea

• In the Mediterranean Sea, Italian bombers attacked British battleship HMS Warspite and cruiser HMS Liverpool between 0850 and 1150 hours. HMS Liverpool was hit by a dud, but it still killed 1 and wounded 2. One Italian bomber was shot down by a Sea Gladiator carrier biplane fighter from HMS Eagle. [Main Article | CPC]

Poland

• Graf Zeppelin was towed to Gotenhafen, Germany (now Gdynia, Poland). [Main Article | CPC]

Portugal

• US passenger liner Manhattan departed Lisbon, Portugal with about 800 American citizens and their families fleeing the European War. [CPC]

12 Jul 1941

• Werner Mölders reported that under his command JG 51 had destroyed 500 Soviet aircraft at the cost of only three casualties during the first 20 days of Operation Barbarossa. [Main Article | CPC]
• 1st US Marine Brigade completed taking over the occupation of Iceland from British troops. [CPC]
• French Lieutenant-General Joseph-Antoine-Sylvain-Raoul de Verdillac attended the French-British negotiations for a ceasefire in the French Mandate of Syria and the Lebanon. Making progress in the discussions during the day, the process to draft the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre began at 2200 hours near Acre, British Mandate of Palestine. [Main Article | CPC]

France

• Douglas Bader shot down a German Bf 109 fighter and damaged three others over Pas-de-Calais, France. [Main Article | CPC]

United Kingdom

• Four days after the Soviet military mission arrived in London, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union signed an agreement of mutual assistance, noting that neither country would negotiate a separate peace with the Axis powers. [TH]

Photo(s) dated 12 Jul 1941

12 Jul 1942

• Cruiser Köln arrived at Oslo, Norway. [Main Article | CPC]
• The Volkov pocket was eliminated by the German troops, with over 30,000 prisoners taken, including General Andrey Vlasov. [TH]
• Japanese armed merchant cruisers Aikoku Maru and Hokoku Maru sank New Zealand freighter Hauraki in the Mozambique Channel. [Main Article | CPC]
• German submarine U-129 sank US ship Tachirá 50 miles southwest of Grand Cayman island; 5 were killed, 33 survived. [Main Article | CPC]
• Allied convoy OS-33 was attacked by a German submarine wolfpack 500 kilometers west of Madeira archipelago, with U-116 sinking British ship Cortona (0022 hours; 31 were killed, 23 survived) and British ship Shaftesbury (0945 hours; all 45 aboard survived), U-201 sinking British ship Cortona (shard credit with U-116) and British ship Siris (0413 hours; 3 were killed, 52 survived), and U-582 sinking New Zealand patrol craft HMNZS ML-1090 and British ship Port Hunter (0147 hours; 88 were killed, 3 survived). [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Seadragon sank Japanese transport Himaya Maru off Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina. [Main Article | CPC]
• Italian submarine Alagi sank Turkish vessel Antares in the Mediterranean Sea. [CPC]
• British submarine HMS Safari sank Italian sailing ship Adda in the Gulf of Orosei, Sardinia, Italy. [CPC]
• USS Permit began her sixth war patrol. [Main Article | CPC]

Egypt

• German 104th Infantry Regiment attacked Allied troops in the Tel el Eisa ridge region near El Alamein, Egypt; the German attack was driven off after it suffered 600 casualties. [Main Article | CPC]

Russia

• The Soviet high command STAVKA formed the Stalingrad Front out of the Southwest Front; it was placed under the command of Marshal Timoshenko. [TH]

Photo(s) dated 12 Jul 1942

12 Jul 1943

• Soviet forces launched a massive offensive along their Bryansk, Central, and West Fronts in Russia, toward Bryansk, Kursk, and Orel. Prokhorovka, Russia became the site of what would be hailed as the largest armor battle in history. [Main Article | TH]
• USS Mingo damaged a Japanese freighter with torpedoes. [Main Article | CPC]
• Wing Commander John Nettleton, who won the Victoria Cross for leading the ill-fated Augsburg, Germany raid from RAF Waddington in Apr 1942, failed to return from mission to Turin, probably shot down by a night fighter over the English Channel. [AC]
• HMS King George V bombarded Trapani, Sicily, Italy. [Main Article | CPC]
• Chiang Kaishek committed, in writing, to a Chinese offensive into Burma. [Main Article | CPC]
• British 8th Army captured Augusta, Sicily, Italy, adding yet another useful harbour for the Allied invasion forces. [Main Article | AC]
• Destroyer Yukikaze led an attack on an US cruiser-destroyer group in the Battle of Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands. [Main Article | CPC]

Australian Papua

• 432nd Fighter Squadron (flying P-38 aicraft) of USAAF 475th Fighter Group was out of Dobodura No. 15 airstrip of Dobodura Airfield, Australian Papua. [Main Article | CPC]

British Western Pacific Territories

• Companies N and Q of the USMC 4th Raider Battalion departed New Georgia, returning to join the rest of the battalion at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. After dark, a Japanese force consisted of light cruiser Jintsu and destroyer-transports ran into a group of Allied light cruisers; the ensuing Battle of Kolombangara, which lasted into the next morning, saw the sinking of Jintsu and USS Gwin; the Japanese were able to land 1,200 men on New Georgia. [Main Article | CPC]

Italy

• HMS Howe bombarded Trapani and Favignana, Sicily, Italy. [Main Article | CPC]

Japan

• Yamato was drydocked at Kure, Japan for upgrades. A Type 21, Mod 3, air and surface search radar was to be installed. Twelve (4x3) new 25-mm AA guns were to be fitted on the weather deck. Yamato's total 25-mm AA suite would be 36 guns. Her 155-mm wing mount guns were to be provided with coaming armor and their barbettes with 28-mm of additional armor. Yamato's fuel storage would be reduced and her main and auxiliary rudder controls were to be improved. [Main Article | Facility | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]
• I-168 departed Kure, Japan. [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

Ukraine

• The National Committee for a Free Germany was formed in Krasnograd, Ukraine, made up of a number of captured German officers as well as exiled German communists. This group called for an uprising against Hitler and an end to the fighting between Germany and the Soviet Union. [TH]

Photo(s) dated 12 Jul 1943

See all photos dated 12 Jul 1943

12 Jul 1944

• US VII Corps made limited progress toward Saint-Lô, France. [Main Article | TH]
• USS Snook fired four torpedoes at two Japanese freighters; one hit, causing damage but not sinking the target. [Main Article | CPC]
• US Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. passed away from a heart attack in Normandy, France. [AC]

France

• Omar Bradley, his staff, and his generals met and created a preliminary plan for what was to become the Operation Cobra offensive in France. [Main Article | CPC]

US Pacific Islands

• USS Whale departed Midway Atoll. [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

Photo(s) dated 12 Jul 1944

See all photos dated 12 Jul 1944

12 Jul 1945

• Japanese representatives in the Soviet Union requested a update on the Japanese inquiry on the extension of the 1941 non-aggression treaty, getting little in the way of a response. [Main Article | CPC]
• More than 500 American B-29 bombers dropped incendiary bombs on a number of cities on Honshu, Japan. [Main Article | CPC]
• A number of B-25 bombers based in Okinawa attacked military airfields on Kyushu, Japan. [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Hawkbill departed Subic Bay, Zambales, Philippine Islands for her fifth war patrol. [Main Article | CPC]

Germany

• The Britain honored Soviet General Zhukov in a ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany. [Main Article | CPC]

Guam

• USS Hackleback arrived at Guam, Mariana Islands, ending her second war patrol. [Main Article | CPC]

Hawaii

• USS Seahorse departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her eighth war patrol. [Main Article | Facility | CPC]
• USS Wasp departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. [Main Article | CPC]

Photo(s) dated 12 Jul 1945

See all photos dated 12 Jul 1945

12 Jul 1946

Photo(s) dated 12 Jul 1946

12 Jul 1951

Russia

• Viktor Abakumov, Nikolai Selivanovsky, Mikhail Likhachev, Mikhail Belkin, and Georgiy Utekhin were arrested as ordered by Joseph Stalin. [Main Article | CPC]

Photo(s) dated 12 Jul 1951

12 Jul 1954

• USS Saint Paul completed a tour of duty in Japanese and Chinese waters. [Main Article | CPC]

United States

• USS Wisconsin completed her scheduled overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia, United States. [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1969

United States

• Joseph Rochefort's wife Elma Fay passed away from congestive heart failure. [Main Article | CPC]

12 Jul 1973

United States

• Shortly after 0000 hours, a fire started at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, United States; firefighters arrived on the scene within five minutes, but they could not control the fire for about 22 hours. The fire destroyed 16,000,000 to 18,000,000 Official Military Personnel Files, part of which were the destroyed records for those who served with the US Army during the WW2 years. [CPC]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis