July 1944

1 July 1944

German armour repeatedly attacks Rauray. 31 Panther tanks and numerous SP guns are reportedly destroyed by the tanks of 24th Lancers and 49th Division infantry with PIATs.
Remainder of Inns of Court regiment come ashore at Courselles on June Beach
74 people killed when a VI lands on a block of flat in Chelsea, London.

2 July 1944

Panzer Lehr ordered to leave Tilly-sur-Seules and drive across the Allied front to Carentan.
Brazilian Expeditionary Force joins the Allies in Italy.

3 July 1944

Algerian troops of the French Expeditionary Force capture Siena, Italy.
Minsk, captital of Byelorussia, recaptured by Soviet Red Army.
Three United States Army Divisions commence the advance south, aiming first for La Haye du Puits.
82nd Airborne Division capture Hill 131.
Four Halifax bombers from Tarrant Rushton drop men and supplies to the French Resistance on behalf of Special Operations Executive.

4 July 1944

Battle of the Hedgerows commences; United States forces advance towards St. Lo.
United States 83rd Division attacks south west of Carentan.
Start of Operation Windsor, the Canadian attack on Carpiquet.

6 July 1944

Field Marshal von Runstedt is sacked as Commander-in-Chief West, accused by Hitler of a defeatist attitude.
United States forces complete capture of Saipan, Marianas

7 July 1944

Anglo-Canadian Operation Charnwood to capture Caen.
HMS Rodney engages German targets around Caen.
Generals Montgomery, Bradley and Patton meet at Monty's field headquarters. The British General awards medals to US personnel including General Maxwell D Taylor.
Field Marshal von Kluge appointed C-in-C West in place of von Runstedt.

8 July 1944

3rd Infantry Division attacks German forces near Lebisey, north of Caen.
B-29 Superfortress bombers, flying out of China, bomb industrial centres in Japan.

9 July 1944

Panzer Lehr takes Pont-Herbert and resists an American counter-attack
Allied troops enter the devastated ruins of Caen. Up to 2,000 French civilians lost their lives in Caen in the weeks following D-Day.
Carrier pigeons released by troops in Normandy bring messages to RAF Hurn, near Bournemouth in seven hour flights.

10 July 1944

Operation Jupiter, the renewed fight for Hill 112.
Churchill tank of C Squadron, 7th Royal Tank Regiment (Corporal Benny Sheldon), knocks out three Tigers on Hill 112.

11 July 1944

Panzer Lehr mounts a counter-attack on US troops in the Le Desert.
Air attacks destroy 20 of Panzer Lehr's tanks but the surviving 12 get through to the Vire Canal.
Tiger tanks of 503 Heavy Battalion attack British forces at Colombelles.
Hill 112 temporarily captured by 43rd (Wessex) Division.

12 July 1944

Field Marshal Rommel states that German forces in Normandy have lost 97,000 men and 225 armoured vehicles. Replacements up to this date are only 10,000 men and 17 AFVs!

14 July 1944.
Bastille Day; armoured cars of 2nd Household Cavalry land near Graye-sur-Mer.

15 July 1944

Operation Greenline, the British assault on Hill 113.
Crocodiles of 141 RAC attack Le Bon Repos
15th (Scottish) Division take Esquay and Bougy.

16 July 1944

Overnight attack on Maltot by Crocodile flamethrowers.

17 July 1944

Rommel wounded when the RAF attack his car near Sainte-Foy-de-Montgomery

18 July 1944

Operation Goodwood, Anglo-Canadian actions east of Caen.
Elements of Panzer Regiment 21, caught in the aerial bombardment, had heavy tanks blown completely upside down.
Lieutenant John Gorman, Irish Guards, rams a Tiger II with his Sherman.
Polish 2nd Corps captures the Italian city of Ancona.

19 July 1944

7th Armoured and Guards Armoured Divisions launch an attack against the Bourguebus Ridge.
Operation Atlantic, Canadian operations south west of Caen Canadians take Colombelles and Fauborg de Vaucelles
United States troops enter St Lo.

20 July 1944

6th Guards Tank Brigade land on Gold and Juno beaches.
Winston Churchill visits American troops at Cherbourg
Hitler bomb plot; the Fuhrer survives an assassination attempt by Colonel Count Klaus von Stauffenberg
General Bradley's plan to launch Operation Cobra delayed due to low cloud across Britain which prevents bombers from taking off.

21 July 1944

End of Op Goodwood in a period of torrential rain.
Start of Operation Spring, exploitation south and west of Caen

22 July 1944

US Marines storm Guam.
Montgomery gives Churchill a brief guided tour of Caen and a flight around the area in Monty's captured Fiesler Storch.

23 July 1944

General Heinz Guderian appointed new army Chief of Staff by Hitler.

25 July 1944

Operation Cobra is launched with a massive air attack. 500 fighter-bombers drop 200 tons of bombs followed by over 2,000 medium and heavy bombers resulting in the virtual destruction of Panzer Lehr division.

26 July 1944

US troops capture Marigny.

28 July 1944

US forces advance to Coutances.

30 July 1944

Operation Bluecoat
Guards Armoured Division and 6th Guards Tank Brigade launch the attack on Caumont.
Jagdpanthers of 654 heavy battalion attack Guards Tank Brigade on Hill 226 and destroy eleven Churchills.

<< Back  Diary Home  Next >>