July 1943

July

• 04

  • Key eventThe death of General SikorskiOn 4 July 1943 a Liberator carrying General Władysław Sikorski crashed into the sea just after take-off from Gibraltar. Sixteen died; only the pilot survived.
• 05

  • Key eventThe Battle of Kursk beginsOn 5 July 1943 the Germans launched Operation Citadel, attacking the Kursk salient from north and south, and ran into the Red Army’s strongest defences yet.
  • The National Bands Agreement in GreeceOn 5 July 1943 ELAS joined an agreement with the British Military Mission that placed the Greek guerrillas under a joint headquarters.
• 06

  • The Battle of Kula GulfOn the night of 5–6 July 1943 Japanese destroyers torpedoed USS Helena in Kula Gulf. Japan lost two ships but landed its reinforcements.
• 07

  • Dornberger and von Braun meet HitlerOn 7 July 1943 at the Wolf’s Lair Dornberger and von Braun showed Hitler a film of an A4 launch. Hitler gave the programme top armaments priority.
• 10

  • Key eventThe landing in SicilyOn 10 July 1943 the Allies landed in Sicily: Montgomery’s Eighth Army in the south-east, Patton’s Seventh Army in the Gulf of Gela. Operation Husky had begun.
• 11

  • Key eventBloody Sunday in VolhyniaOn 11 July 1943 UPA units and local peasants attacked nearly 100 Polish villages and settlements in Volhynia – the bloodiest day of the Volhynia massacres.
• 12

  • The Battle of KolombangaraOn the night of 12–13 July 1943 the Allies sank the cruiser Jintsū, but Japanese torpedoes damaged three Allied cruisers and sank the destroyer Gwin.
  • The Battle of ProkhorovkaOn 12 July 1943 the 5th Guards Tank Army struck the SS Panzer Corps at Prokhorovka. It lost hundreds of tanks but halted the German advance.
• 13

  • Hitler calls off Operation CitadelOn 13 July 1943 at the Wolf’s Lair Hitler told Kluge and Manstein he was ending the Kursk offensive. The Red Army was already counter-attacking near Oryol.
• 19

  • The first bombing of RomeOn 19 July 1943 US bombers struck Rome’s railway yards and airfields. Some 1,500–3,000 people died, while at Feltre Mussolini stayed silent before Hitler.
• 22

  • The capture of PalermoOn 22 July 1943 Patton’s Americans entered Palermo. The drive across western Sicily netted some 53,000 prisoners, but its military value was disputed.
• 23

  • The B-36 bomber orderedOn 23 July 1943 the US Army Air Forces ordered 100 six-engined B-36 bombers by letter of intent, before the first prototype had even flown.
• 24

  • Key eventOperation GomorrahFrom 24 July to 3 August 1943 Allied bombers struck Hamburg. A firestorm on the night of 27/28 July killed about 18,000 people; in all some 34,000–40,000 died.
• 25

  • Key eventThe fall of MussoliniOn 25 July 1943, after a vote in the Grand Council of Fascism, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini, had him arrested and handed power to Badoglio.
• 28

  • Jan Karski meets RooseveltOn 28 July 1943 Jan Karski, courier of the Polish Underground State, told President Roosevelt at the White House about the occupation and the Holocaust.