July 1942

July

• 01

  • The First Battle of El Alamein beginsOn 1 July 1942 Rommel attacked the El Alamein position. An Indian brigade at Deir el Shein fell but bought time, and by 4 July the Axis attack had stalled.
  • Key eventThe fall of SevastopolOn 1 July 1942 Manstein’s troops entered ruined Sevastopol. The defence commanders were evacuated; tens of thousands of soldiers were left on Cape Khersones.
• 02

  • The vote of no confidence in ChurchillOn 2 July 1942 the House of Commons rejected, by 475 votes to 25, a motion of no confidence in the direction of the war tabled after the fall of Tobruk.
• 03

  • The Japanese on GuadalcanalIn early July 1942 the Japanese began building an airfield on Guadalcanal. On 2 July Washington ordered an offensive in the Solomons to forestall them.
• 04

  • The first USAAF missions in EuropeOn 4 July 1942 six American crews in British Bostons joined the RAF in raiding Dutch airfields. Two did not return. A symbolic start for the Eighth Air Force.
• 11

  • The fighting for Tel el Eisa and Ruweisat Ridge10–16 July 1942: Auchinleck seized the initiative at El Alamein. Australians routed the Italians at Tel el Eisa; New Zealanders bled on Ruweisat Ridge.
  • The round-up in Liberty Square in SalonikaOn 11 July 1942 the Germans herded 9,000 Jewish men into Liberty Square in Salonika, humiliated them for hours and registered them for forced labour.
• 12

  • The creation of the Stalingrad FrontOn 12 July 1942 the Stavka formed the Stalingrad Front from the shattered South-Western Front's command and three reserve armies to shield the Volga.
  • An Operation Outward balloon over BöhlenOn 12 July 1942 a British balloon's wire shorted a 110 kV line near Leipzig. Post-war findings say a breaker failure then set the Böhlen power station on fire.
• 16

  • Key eventThe Vel d'Hiv round-upOn 16–17 July 1942 French police arrested 13,152 Jews in Paris, over 4,000 of them children. Families were held for five days at the Vel d'Hiv velodrome.
• 18

  • The first jet flight of the Me 262On 18 July 1942 at Leipheim Fritz Wendel flew the third Me 262 prototype, for the first time on jet power alone. The aircraft entered service in 1944.
• 19

  • U-boats withdrawn from the US coastOn 19 July 1942 Dönitz recalled the last two U-boats from off Cape Hatteras. Convoys and air patrols had ended the “second happy time” off the US coast.
• 20

  • The Japanese land at Buna and GonaOn 20 July 1942 a convoy carrying Colonel Yokoyama's force sailed from Rabaul. On the evening of 21 July it landed near Gona to march overland on Port Moresby.
• 22

  • Key eventThe Great Deportation in the Warsaw GhettoOn 22 July 1942 the Germans began deporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka. By 21 September they had murdered at least 254,000 people there.
  • The Treblinka extermination campOn 22 July 1942 the first transport left Warsaw for Treblinka II. The next day the camp began operating; the Germans murdered some 800,000–900,000 Jews there.
• 23

  • The Germans take RostovOn 23–24 July 1942 the Wehrmacht took Rostov-on-Don for a second time. That day Directive No. 45 ordered simultaneous drives on the Caucasus and Stalingrad.
• 26

  • The end of the First Battle of El AlameinOn 26–27 July 1942 Auchinleck's last attack at Miteiriya collapsed. On 31 July the Eighth Army went over to the defensive – Rommel was stopped, but not beaten.
• 27

  • The RAF raid on Hamburg of 26/27 JulyOn the night of 26/27 July 1942 the RAF sent 403 bombers to Hamburg. Fires engulfed residential districts, 337 people died and 29 aircraft failed to return.
• 29

  • The Japanese take KokodaOn 28/29 July 1942 the Japanese drove a handful of Australians from Kokoda. Lt Col William Owen was killed and the last airstrip before the mountains fell.