July 6th

1940: Off the coast of Norway, light units of the Kriegsmarine sink 5 British submarines, Narwhal, Salmon, Spearfish, Shark and Thames. After spending 8 weeks in the West, a triumphant Hitler returns to Berlin where he is wildly cheered by the Berlin population.
1941: In the East, Heeresgruppe Nord continues its advance, reaching a line from Lake Peipus through Reval to Parun N of the Gulf of Riga. In Libya, Axis aircraft bomb Tobruk and Sidi Barrani.
1942: In Egypt, the Afrikakorps is holding on to its positions before El Alamein against continuous attacks by the British Eighth Army. U-132 (Kptlt. Vogelsang) enters the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Canadian east coast and sinks 3 merchant ships.
1943: In the East, the battle of Kursk continues with unabated ferocity. While the northern pincer of 9.Armee (Model) is struggling to make any significant progress, the southern pincer of 4.Panzerarmee (Hoth) advances some 12 miles, with both sides incurring heavy casualties.
1944: In the East, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front recaptures Kovel SE of Brest-Litovsk. In Italy, the British Eighth Army (Leese) captures Osimo 20 miles S of Ancona.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1757: Quebec Quebec - French troops sent to re-enforce Louisbourg; the Corps Royal, consisting of six officers, four hundred recruits from France, and twenty artillery men, plus two battalions of the Berry Regiment.
1757: St-Jean Quebec - French troops depart for assault on Fort William Henry; companies of La Reine, La Sarre, Languedoc, and Guyenne, plus 1,000 men of La Marine, a three hundred man unit known as Villiers' Volunteers, 2,500 Canadians, 1,800 Indians (Ottawa, Menomonee, Sauk, Potawatomie and Fox), two companies of artillery, one company of workmen, and the artillery train; Lévis to take command of Carillon and await arrival of Montcalm.
1758: Ticonderoga NY - General James Abercromby lands at Howe's Cove at the northern end of Lake George, to attack Montcalm's French at Fort Carillon; army of almost 15,000 advances in four columns; retreat after death of Lord Howe; will try again the following morning.
1777: Ticonderoga NY - British force under General John Burgoyne takes Fort Ticonderoga from Arthur St. Clair and his rebels during the American Revolution.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=06

1898 - Armed Auxiliary Dixie captures Spanish Three Bells, Pilgrim, and Greeman Castle
1908 - CDR Robert Peary sails in Roosevelt from New York to explore Arctic.
1911 - First naval aviation base established at Annapolis, MD.
1920 - Test and first use of radio compass in aircraft off Norfolk, VA
1943 - Night Battle of Kula Gulf results in loss of 2 Japanese destroyers and USS Helena.
1976 - 1st women enter Naval Academy.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1630 - Thirty-Years War: 4,000 Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolphus land in Pomerania, Germany.
1801 - Battle of Algeciras: The French navy are defeated by the BritishRoyal Navy.
1917 - World War I: Arabian troops led by Lawrence of Arabia and Auda ibu Tayi capture Aqaba from the Turks during the Arab Revolt.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_6

1918: Corporal W.E. Brown, VC - Corporal W.E. Brown, 20th Battalion, originally from New Norfolk, Tasmania, wins the Victoria Cross at Villers-Bretonneux, France.
1941: Battle of Damour, Lebanon - This was the final battle in Lebanon against the Vichy French.1943: Darwin bombed - Darwin was bombed 64 times during the Second World War.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

July 7th

1940: A French naval squadron that has sought refuge at Alexandria is disarmed and interned by the British Navy, while the battleship Richelieu berthed at Dakar is attacked and disabled by British naval forces.
1941: Under the pretext of defending the Western Hemisphere against Nazi incursions, the US 1st Marine Brigade is landed in Iceland to relieve the British garrison that has been there since the previous year.
1942: In the East, units of 4.Panzerarmee (Hoth) capture Voronesh on the Don.
1943: In the battle of Kursk, the German forces engaged are still unable to achieve a major breakthrough in the face of stiffening Soviet resistance reenforced by the arrival of strong tank and infantry reserves. Lt. Hartmann, II/JG 52, downs 7 Soviet aircraft near Kursk, bringing his total to date to 22. Off the coast of Brazil, U-185 (Kptlt. Maus) sinks 3 merchant ships.
1944: In the West, 450 heavy RAF bombers carry out a saturation raid (2,300 tons) on the German defenses in and around Caen. Attacks by the US Seventh Army (Bradley) in the Carentan area of the Cotentin peninsula are blunted by violent German counter-attacks.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1944: Caen France - Highland Light Infantry ordered to attack fortified German positions in Buron, a source of dangerous fire from Germans, while Canadian and British bombers drop 2,572 tons of bombs on Caen.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=07

1798 - Congress rescinds treaties with France; Quasi War begins with Frigate Delaware capturing French privateer, Croyable.
1846 - Commodore John D. Sloat lands at Monterey and claims California for U.S.
1916 - Thomas A. Edison becomes head of Naval Consulting Board which screens inventions for use by the Navy
1948 - First six enlisted women sworn into Regular Navy. The Navy WAVES in Naval Reserve, who were the first to transfer to the Regular Navy, were Kay Louise Langdon, Aviation Storekeeper First Class; Wilma Juanita Marchal, Chief Yeoman; Frances Teresa Dovaney, Storekeeper, Second Class; Edna Earle Young, Yeoman, Second Class; Doris Roberta Robertson, Teleman, Second Class; and Ruth Flora, Hospital Corpsman, First Class.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1942: 9th Division in action at El Alamein - General Rommel's forces had pushed the allies back to El Alamein in June 1942, the July battles involved allied attempts to push German and Italian forces back, none of the three attempts were successful.
1942: Horn Island Bombed - Horn Island was bombed by Japanese aircraft nine times during the Second World War. 1956: Last RAAF transports return from Korea - The last Australian servicemen did not depart Korea until 1957.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1846 - Mexican-American War: American troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the United States conquest of California.
1915 - World War I: end of First Battle of the Isonzo.
1937 - Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge - Japanese forces invade Beijing, China.
1941 - World War II: U.S. forces land in Iceland to forestall an invasion by Germany.
1941 - World War II: Beirut is occupied by Free France and British troops.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_7

1777: American troops give up Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, to the British.
1798: Napoleon Bonaparte’s army begins its march towards Cairo from Alexandria.
1966: The U.S. Marine Corps launches Operation Hasting to drive the North Vietnamese Army back across the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history?tihMonth=7&tihDay=7&tdih=GO

1917: British Army Council Instruction Number 1069 formally establishes the British Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), authorizing female volunteers to serve alongside their male counterparts in France during World War I.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=807

July 8th

1941: In the East, Panzergruppe 4 (Hoepner) of Heeresgruppe Nord (von Leeb) captures Pskov and advances toward Novgorod and Leningrad. Germany and Italy announce the dissolution of the state of Yugoslavia, with large portions annexed by Italy; an independent state of Croatia, allied to the Axis and with its capital at Agram (Zagreb), is proclaimed.
1942: In the East, 4.Panzerarmee (Hoth) at Voronesh begins an offensive SE along the west bank of the Don to meet up with 6.Armee (Paulus) advancing E toward the Don from Charkov with the objective of establishing bridgeheads across the river in the Kalach area and continue on to capture Stalingrad on the Volga. Axis bombers carry out raids on harbor facilities at Malta in the Mediterranean.
1943: The battle of Kursk is about to reach its climax, with the exhausted German forces unable to make any further gains while losing vast numbers of men, tanks and planes. Soviet claims for the day are 304 tanks and 161 aircraft, the German 400 tanks and 193 aircraft.
1944: In the West, the British Second Army (Dempsey) begins a major attack (Operation Epsom) to capture Caen. In the East, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front recaptures Baranovichi NW of Brest-Litovsk.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1950: Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea.
source: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20080708.html

1959: First Americans killed in South Vietnam - Maj. Dale R. Ruis and Master Sgt. Chester M. Ovnand become the first Americans killed in the American phase of the Vietnam War when guerrillas strike a Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) compound in Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon. The group had arrived in South Vietnam on November 1, 1955, to provide military assistance. The organization consisted of U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps personnel who provided advice and assistance to the Ministry of Defense, Joint General Staff, corps and division commanders, training centers, and province and district headquarters.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=1954

1944: Caen France - The 3rd Canadian Division and 1st British Corps and move into the city; the 9th Canadian takes both Buron and Authie; the 7th Brigade captures Cussy and Ardenne; the 8th Brigade completes its capture of Carpiquet as the Germans are pulled back.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=08

1778 - Allied French fleet under Comte d'Estaing arrives in America.
1853 - Commodore Matthew C. Perry sails his squadron into Tokyo Bay.
1879 - USS Jeannette departs San Francisco to explore Arctic.
1944 - Naval bombardment of Guam begins.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1942: 460 Squadron raids Wilhelmshaven - 13 Wellingtons of 460 Squadron participated in a night time bombing raid on this major German port severely damaging an armour plate shop and the Deutsche Werke ship building yards.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

July 9th

1940: The German raider Komet leaves Bergen in Norway for operations in the Pacific via the Northwest Passage in the Arctic Ocean assisted by Soviet icebreakers.
1941: In the East, Vitebsk is captured by troops of Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Bock). To date, the Red Army has lost 2.500 tanks and 300,000 men as prisoners of war.
1942: In Egypt, renewed attacks by the Afrikakorps against British defenses at El Alamein bog down in the face of stubborn British resistance.
1943: Beginning of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, with the US 82nd and the British 1st Airborne Divisions making the first landings at night; due to navigational errors, hundreds of US paratroopers are dropped in the sea and are drowned, while many others are widely scattered and miss their assigned targets.
1944: In the West, units of the British Second Army enter Caen which has been reduced to a heap of rubble due to the preceding heavy aerial and artillery bombardments by the Allies.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1941: Damour taken - Damour was the main military base and administrative centre for the Vichy French forces in Syria. The Australian victory at Damour opened the way to Beirut and led the Vichy French to seek an armistice.
1943: 3 and 450 Squadrons RAAF and eight RAN corvettes involved in the allied invasion of Sicily - Known as Operation Husky the invasion of Sicily was the second largest undertaken in Europe during the Second World War, Overlord being the largest. The operation involved 180,000 troops and 2,590 ships.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1846 - Sailors and Marines from USS Portsmouth occupy and raise flag over San Francisco.
1918 - Henry Ford launches first of 100 Eagle boats.
1944 - Organized Japanese resistence ceases on Saipan, Marianas.
1960 - USS Wasp departs Guantanamo Bay to support United Nations effort to calm the newly independent Congo.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1915: Germans surrender Southwest Africa to Union of South Africa. With the Central Powers pressing their advantage on the Western Front during World War I, the Allies score a distant victory, when military forces of the Union of South Africa accept a German surrender in the territory of Southwest Africa.
1971: United States turns over responsibility for the DMZ - Four miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), about 500 U.S. troops of the 1st Brigade, 5th Mechanized Division turn over Fire Base Charlie 2 to Saigon troops, completing the transfer of defense responsibilities for the border area. On the previous day, nearby Fire Base Alpha 4 had been turned over to the South Vietnamese. This was part of President Richard Nixon's Vietnamization policy, which had been announced at a June 1969 conference at Midway Island. Under this program, the United States initiated a comprehensive effort to increase the combat capabilities of the South Vietnamese armed forces. As the South Vietnamese became more capable, responsibility for the fighting was gradually transferred from U.S. forces. Concurrent with this effort, there was a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1944: Caen France - Canadians and British capture Caen after massive bombardment by 467 planes from Bomber Command; urban area north of Orne River secured by nightfall by two British Divisions and the 3rd Canadian; the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders and the Sherbrooke Fusilier tanks are the first into the ruined city, although the famous Abbaye-aux-Hommes, 1000 years old, is untouched; 1,194 Canadian casualties, 334 are fatal.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=09

July 10th

1940: Beginning of the Battle of Britain. - The Luftwaffe carries out its first large scale attack (70 aircraft) against targets in Britain by bombing dock facilities at Swansea and the Royal Ordnance Factory at Pembrey in Wales.
1941: In the East, Panzergruppe 1 (von Kleist) repulses a violent Soviet counter-attack in the area of Korosten W of Kiev. The Finnish Karelian Army (Heinrichs) begins an offensive toward Lake Ladoga NE of Leningrad.
1942: In the East, armored units of 4.Panzerarmee (Hoth) and 6.Armee (Paulus) of Heeresgruppe B (von Weichs) join up N of Kalach on the Don, while 17.Armee (Ruoff) and 1.Panzerarmee (von Kleist) of Heeresgruppe A (List) continue their advance toward Rostov.
1943: Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, is now fully underway with 12 divisions (160,000 men and 600 tanks) of the US Seventh (Patton) and the British Eighth (Montgomery) Armies being brought ashore by 3,000 landing craft (200 sunk by rough seas) on the southeast coast of Sicily.While the British approaching Syracuse meet with little German resistance, the US forces are held back by strong counter-attacks of the Hermann G=F6ring and the Italian Livorno Divisions.
1944: In the East, the Red Army begins 3 major offensives into the Baltic States: the 2nd Belorussian Front NW from Vitebsk, the 3rd Belorussian Front W from Psovsk, and the Leningrad Front SW toward Narva.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1911: Formation of Royal Australian Navy (RAN) - In its original form the Royal Australian Navy consisted of the battlecruiser Australia and several cruisers, destroyers and submarines. When the new fleet arrived in Australia on 4 October 1913 the day was declared a public holiday and was described in the press as the greatest day in Australia's history.
1941: Private J.H. Gordon, VC - Private J.H. Gordon, 2/31st Battalion, originally from Rockingham, Western Australia, wins the Victoria Cross near Jezzine, Lebanon.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1965: MiGs shot down as bombing of North Vietnam continues - U.S. planes continue heavy raids in South Vietnam and claim to have killed 580 guerrillas. U.S. Phantom jets, escorting fighter-bombers in a raid on the Yen Sen ammunition depot northwest of Hanoi, engaged North Vietnamese MiG-17s. Capt. Thomas S. Roberts with his backseater Capt. Ronald C. Anderson, and Capt. Kenneth E. Holcombe and his backseater Capt. Arthur C. Clark shot down two MiG-17s with Sidewinder missiles. The action marked the first U.S. Air Force air-to-air victories of the Vietnam War.
1967: Heavy fighting continues near An Loc and the Central Highlands -
Outnumbered South Vietnamese troops repel an attack by two battalions of the 141st North Vietnamese Regiment on a military camp five miles east of An Loc, 60 miles north of Saigon. Communist forces captured a third of the base camp before they were thrown back with the assistance of U.S. and South Vietnamese air and artillery strikes. Farther to the north, U.S. forces suffered heavy casualties in two separate battles in the Central Highlands. In the first action, about 400 men of the 173rd Airborne Brigade came under heavy fire from North Vietnamese machine guns and mortars during a sweep of the Dak To area near Kontum. Twenty-six Americans were killed and 49 were wounded. In the second area clash, 35 soldiers of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division were killed and 31 were wounded in fighting.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do

1934 - USS Houston takes Franklin Delano Roosevelt on first visit of U.S. President to South America.
1943 - Naval gunfire help Allied troops land on Sicily. It was first extensive use of LST's and smaller landing craft to deliver heavy equipment over the beach.
1945 - 14 carriers from Third Fleet carriers begin air strikes on Japanese Home Islands which end 15 August.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1943: Pachino Italy - In Operation Husky, Canadian 1st Infantry Division and 1st Tank Brigade invade Sicily with British 8th Army, U.S. and French troops; after training for 3 1/2 years in Britain; Sicily taken Aug. 17 with 2,434 Canadian casualties.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...th=Jul&day=010

1942: General Carl Spaatz becomes the head of the U.S. Air Force in Europe.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_h...Day=10&tdih=GO

July 11th

1940: Marshal Petain replaces president Lebrun and proclaims himself head of state of the French Republic.
1941: In the East, armored units of Panzergruppe 1 (von Kleist) advance within 10 miles of Kiev. Stalin replaces 3 major Soviet commanders appointing Voroshilov for the northern, Timoshenko for the central and Budjenny for the southern front.
1943: In the battle of Kursk, the attacking German forces depleted by heavy losses in men and armor have nearly spent their momentum. even though 4.Panzerarmee and Armee-Abteilung Kempf in the southern sector succeed in capturing the pivotal town of Prokhorovka. To prevent further attrition, especially of the vital armored forces, Field Marshals von Kluge and von Manstein urge Hitler to call off the operation which is turning into a disaster for the entire Eastern Front, but Hitler refuses.
1944: In the East, the Red Army captures the remnants of the encircled 4.Armee (35.000 men). In the West, the US VIII Corps (Collins) continues its attacks from the Carentan area toward St. Lo, but is meeting with strong German resistance. The United States formally recognizes the provisional French government of General de Gaulle at London as the de facto government of France.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1302: An army of French knights, led by the Count of Artois, is routed by Flemish pikemen.
1708: The French are defeated at Oudenarde, Malplaquet, in the Netherlands by the Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy.
1942: In the longest bombing raid of World War II, 1,750 British Lancaster bombers attack the Polish port of Danzig.
1972: American forces break the 95-day siege at An Loc in Vietnam.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0711.htm

1941: Vichy French surrender in Syria - The five-week long Syrian campaign represented the first occasion that the Australian 7th Division was committed to action. The campaign was based on the premise that the Vichy French forces would offer only token resistance, though this turned out not to be the case. Of the 34,000 Allied troops (Australian, British, Indian and Free French) committed to the campaign 3,900 became casualties.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1798 - Reestablishment of Marine Corps under the Constitution
1919 - Pay Corps renamed Supply Corps
1943 - Gunfire from U.S. cruisers and destroyers stop German and Italian tank attack against Army beachhead at Gela, Sicily.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1940: England - Petty Officer D. A. Hewitt first Canadian killed in the Battle of Britain.
1944: Caen, France - Guy Simonds, 2nd Canadian Corps, takes over operational command of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division and 3rd Canadian Infantry Division in Normandy.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=011

1861: Battle of Rich Mountain - Union troops under General George B. McClellan score another major victory in the struggle for western Virginia at the Battle of Rich Mountain. The Yankee success secured the region and ensured the eventual creation of West Virginia. Western Virginia was a crucial battleground in the early months of the war. Western Virginia was also a vital east-west link for the Union because the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran through its mountains. After McClellan scored a series of small victories in western Virginia in June and early July, Confederate General Robert Garnett and Colonel John Pegram positioned their forces at Rich Mountain and Laurel Hill to block two key roads and keep McClellan from penetrating any further east. McClellan crafted a plan to feign an attack against Garnett at Laurel Hill while he sent the bulk of his force against Pegram at Rich Mountain. Part of McClellan's force, led by General William Rosecrans, followed a rugged mountain path to swing around behind the Rebels' left flank. McClellan had promised to attack the Confederate front when he heard gunfire from Rosecrans's direction. After a difficult march through a drenching rain, Rosecrans struck the Confederate wing. It took several attempts, but he was finally able to drive the Confederates from their position. McClellan shelled the Rebel position, but did not make the expected assault. Each side suffered around 70 casualties. Pegram was forced to abandon his position, but Rosecrans was blocking his escape route. Two days later, he surrendered his force of 555. Although McClellan became a Union hero as a result of this victory, most historians agree that Rosecrans deserved the credit.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do

July 12th

1940: The Luftwaffe carries out raids on Aberdeen in Scotland and Cardiff in Wales.
1941: The last Vichy French troops in Syria surrender to British and Free French forces. Great Britain and the Soviet Union sign a Mutual Assistance Pact declaring that neither state will make a separate peace with the Axis Powers. In the East, the Luftwaffe launches its first bombing raid on Moscow, but with minimal results.
1942: The Soviet Stavka (Red Army High Command) establishes a Stalingrad Front under Marshal Timoshenko. On the Leningrad front, troops of Heeresgruppe Nord complete the reduction of the Volchov pocket, taking 30,000 Soviet prisoners, including General Vlasov, CO of the Second Guards Army and later to become C-in-C of the anti-Bolshevik Russian Liberation Army.
1943: In the East, while the battle of Kursk is still raging, the Soviet Central (Rokossovsky), Bryansk (Popov) and West Fronts (Sokolovsky) begin a massive counter- offensive in the area of Orel, Bryansk and Kursk. At Krasnograd near Moscow, a group of captured German officers, including Field Marshal Paulus and General von Seydlitz, and exiled German communists form the 'National Committee for a Free Germany' that calls for the overthrow of Hitler and the cessation of hostilities against the Soviet Union. In Sicily, the Allies capture Augusta and Ragusa.
1944: In the West, the US First Army (Bradley) advancing S from the Carentan area toward St. Lo is slowly gaining ground against fierce resistance by the German 7.Armee (Dollmann).
source: : http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html


1965: Last 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, ambush of Malayan Emergency - The last ambush conducted by the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment was mounted from Malaysia against targets at Babang in Kalimantan.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1836 - Commissioning of Charles H. Haswell as first regularly appointed Engineer Officer.
1916 - North Carolina is first Navy ship to carry and operate aircraft
1921 - Congress creates Bureau of Aeronautics to be in charge of all matter pertaining to naval aeronautics.
1951 - Ninth Naval District forces assist in flood relief work in Kansas City through 20 July
1953 - United Nations Fleet launches heavy air and sea attack on Wonsan; Major John Bolt, USMC becomes first jet ace in Marine Corps.
1988 - SECDEF approves opening Navy's Underwater Construction Teams, fleet oiler, ammunition ships, and combat stores ships to women.
1990 - Commander Rosemary B. Mariner becomes first woman to command an operational aviation squadron (VAQ-34).
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1812: Windsor Ontario - US Brigadier General William Hull crosses the Detroit River with 2,500 troops and occupies the town of Sandwich; first American invasion in the War of 1812; worried about a new alliance between the British and the Indians led by Tecumseh, Hull will soon retreat to Detroit, and surrenders to the British a month later.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=012

1965: First Marine wins Medal of Honor - Viet Cong ambush Company A of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, led by U.S.M.C. Lt. Frank Reasoner of Kellogg, Idaho. The Marines had been on a sweep of a suspected Viet Cong area to deter any enemy activity aimed at the nearby airbase at Da Nang. Reasoner and the five-man point team he was accompanying were cut off from the main body of the company. He ordered his men to lay down a base of fire and then, repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, killed two Viet Cong, single-handedly wiped out an enemy machine gun emplacement, and raced through enemy fire to rescue his injured radio operator. Trying to rally his men, Reasoner was hit by enemy machine gun fire and was killed instantly. For this action, Reasoner was nominated for America's highest award for valor. When Navy Secretary Paul H. Nitze presented the Medal of Honor to Reasoner's widow and son in ceremonies at the Pentagon on January 31, 1967, he spoke of Reasoner's willingness to die for his men: "Lieutenant Reasoner's complete disregard for his own welfare will long serve as an inspiring example to others." Lieutenant Reasoner was the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for action in Vietnam.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do

July 13th

1940: Hitler issues Directive No. 15 outlining the details of Unternehmen Seel=F6we (Operation Sea Lion), the German invasion of the British Isles. In advance of the landings, the Luftwaffe is to begin operations against British defensive positions, airfields and radar installations along the southern coast of England on August 15; 2.600 aircraft have been earmarked for this purpose.
1941: In the East, troops of Heeresgruppe Nord (von Leeb) continue their advance from Pskov toward Luga, 75 miles from Leningrad.
1943: Finally admitting that despite the maximum efforts by the German forces to break through the Soviet defenses no further gains can be made, Hitler orders the suspension of Operation Citadel. Though the Wehrmacht is able to extricate most of its depleted forces from a potential disaster - a second Stalingrad - this outcome of the battle represents a tremendous victory for the Red Army and portends the end of German offensive operations in the East.
1944: In the East, the Red Army recaptures Vilna in Lithuania, and continues its advance into eastern Galicia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1953: HMAS Tobruk begins a two-week patrol of the northern part of Korea's east coast - This was the Tobruk's last patrol before the war in Korea ended in late July 1953.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1942: Rimouski Quebec - German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence; Quebec outcry for protection forces secret Commons session.
1950: Honolulu Hawaii - Royal Canadian Navy destroyers HMCS Cayuga, Athabaskan, and Sioux arrive at Pearl Harbor escorted by cruiser Ontario; to join US naval task force to operate against the Communists in Korea as part of the United Nations contingent; war began June 25.
1993: Lahr Germany - Germans hold farewell ceremony for Canadian troops after 42 years of NATO service.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=013

1863 - USS Wyoming battled Japanese warlord's forces.
1939 - Appointment of RADM Richard Byrd as commanding officer of 1939-1941 Antarctic Expedition.
1943 - During Battle of Kolombangara in Solomon Islands, U.S. lost USS Gwin. (DD-433) while Japanese lost light cruiser Jintsu.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

July 14th

1941: Believing the campaign in the East soon to be concluded in Germany's favor, Hitler orders the German war industry to shift production away from guns and armored vehicles to U-boats and airplanes. In Syria, an armistice is signed at Acre between the Vichy and British-Free French forces.
1942: In the East, the advances by Heeresgruppe A (List) and Heeresgruppe B (von Weichs) toward the Don bend at Kalach and Rostov continue against minimal Soviet resistance. In Egypt, an attack by the British Eighth Army against the positions of the Afrikakorps S of El Alamein is unsuccessful.
1943: Joining in the counter-offensive by the Central, Bryansk and Western Fronts, the Soviet Western Front (Vatutin) launches attacks against 4.Panzerarmee and Armee-Abteilung Kempf in the southern sector of the Kursk salient.
1944: In the East, the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front (Konev) begins an offensive E of Lvov and recaptures Pinsk.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1918Fighting at Abu Tellul, PalestineA heavy attack by about 1,000 men of the German Asia Corps on Australian Light Horse positions at Abu Tellul, a prominent hill on the west bank of the Jordan River, Palestine, is defeated. This was the only occasion on which the German Asia Corps was known to have carried the primary role in an attack in the Middle East during the First World War.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1940: England - Andrew George Latta McNaughton 1887-1966 put in command of new Anglo-Canadian 7th Army Corps; with British and New Zealand troops as well as Canadian.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=014

1864: At Harrisburg, Mississippi, Federal troops under General Andrew Jackson Smith repulse an attack by General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
1900: European Allies retake Tientsin, China, from the rebelling Boxers.
1940: A force of German bombers attacks Suez, Egypt, from bases in Crete.
1945: American battleships and cruisers bombard the Japanese home islands for the first time.
1964: The United States sends 600 more troops to Vietnam.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_h...Day=14&tdih=GO

July 15th
1940: The Luftwaffe carries out raids against British convoys in the English Channel as well as airfields and railway lines in SW England.
1941: German fores of Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Bock) encircle 300,000 Soviet troops in the Smolensk-Orsha pocket. In the outskirts of Leningrad, hundreds of thousands of Soviet civilians, mostly women and teenagers, begin constructing over 300 miles of trenches and field fortifications.
1942: In the East, units of 4.Panzerarmee (Hoth) capture Kamensk on the Donets.
1944: In Italy, the British Eighth Army (Leese) reaches the river Arno near Arezzo. The Italian government returns to Rome.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1940Volunteer Defence Force formedThe Volunteer Defence Force (VDC), composed mainly of First World War veterans, was formed for home defence by the Returned and Services League (RSL).
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1240: A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.
1410: Battle of Grunwald: allied forces of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeat the army of the Teutonic Order.
1918: the Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_15

1942: The first supply flight from India to China over the ‘Hump’ is flown.
1958: President Dwight Eisenhower sends 5,000 Marines to Lebanon to keep the peace.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_h...Day=15&tdih=GO