July 19th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
FRANCE: Paris: SS Lieutenant-General decrees that if any identified resistant does not surrender within 12 days of his crime, his male relatives will be executed and female relatives sent to hard labour camps.
GERMANY: Berlin: Himmler orders the "total cleansing" of Jews from the General Government area of Poland by the end of the year.
ROMANIA: A He112 fighter of Escadrila 51 Vanatoare flies the Royal Romanian Air Force's first night-time fighter sortie. (Greg Kelley)
U.S.S.R.: The 66th Naval Rifle Brigade (CO, Colonel A.D. Derzhavin) begins operations within the 64th Army on the Stalingrad strategic sector, having come to this sector from the Karelian Front.
At the same time the 154th Naval Rifle Brigade,which had formerly been in the Kalinin Front,began combat operations on the right bank of the Don. It also was placed within the composition of the 64th Army. A composite naval infantry battalion formed out of personnel from the Volga Naval Flotilla took an active part in the combat under the command of Capt.3rd Rank P.M. Televnyy. (Russell Folsom)(215, Chap. 3)
MALTA: Over the past five days Malta has been re-supplied by submarine and fast transport; the carrier HMS Eagle has ferried in 31 Spitfires.AFRICA: In Libya, US Army, Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24 Liberators hit Benghazi while B-17s attack Tobruk in a continuing effort to disrupt movement of supplies.
The aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-4), part of Task Force 22, launches 72 USAAF P-40 fighters off Accra in Africa; the P-40s are destined for the Tenth Air Force in India and land at Accra, Gold Coast..
EGYPT: The British cruisers HMS DIDO and HMS EURYALUS and four destroyers bombard Mersa Matruh.
PACIFIC: The Australian Cruiser Squadron under the American designation of TF 44, under Rear-Admiral Victor A. C. Crutchley, VC, RN, arrives in Wellington. TF 44, nicknamed " MacArthur's Navy", is assigned to assist with Operation Watchtower, the US invasion of the southern Solomon Islands.
TF44 was actually the Australian Cruiser Squadron, just given an American name. I believe its first engagement in the Pacific was at the Battle of the Coral Sea, where it fought off attacks by Japanese carrier aircraft and by some US B17s! The squadron's composition changed somewhat during the war, but usually consisted of two Australian heavy cruisers and one or more US cruisers (heavy or light). As I recall, USS Houston and USS Chicago served with it at different times.
The squadron was commanded by a Rear-Admiral of the Royal Navy, usually Australian-born. For example, Rear-Adm Jack Crace (who commanded the squadron at the Coral Sea) was born in Australia but joined the Royal Navy. The Australian naval college only started taking students in 1913, consequently it was difficult to find flag officers of the Royal Australian Navy with the requisite experience. Victor Crutchley was one of the few officers to hold this command who was not born in Australia. As an aside, by the end of the war, the two senior posts of Chief of the Australian Naval Staff and commander Australian Cruiser Squadron were held by Flag Officers of the RAN. (Michael Mitchell)
(Michael Mitchell and Mark E. Horan)
A USAAF B-17, on a reconnaissance mission in the Bismarck Archipelago, sights a Japanese
convoy including transports, leaving Rabaul and heading for New Guinea.
- The 11th Air Force flies search missions are flown over Attu and Agattu Islands.
- The small seaplane tender USS Casco (AVP-12) establishes an advance base in Nazan Bay, Atka Island, to support PBY Catalina operations against Kiska.
- Task Force 8 consisting of the heavy cruisers USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and USS Louisville (CA-28); the light cruisers USS Honolulu (CL-48), USS Nashville (CL-43) and USS St. Louis (CL-49); and supporting destroyers, sorties from Kodiak Island to bombard Kiska.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The Intelligence Center/Pacific Ocean Area (ICPOA) begins functioning today, using all of the CINCPAC's structural suggestions along with a few additional offices suggested by the VCNO. These include an enemy documents office for captured literature, a prisoner of war (POW) interrogation office, and a dissemination office to ensure the information reached the proper personnel. From its inception, ICPOA employs approximately 190 men (officers and enlisted) and operates in an administrative building at Pearl Harbor. ICPOA still needs to borrow the services of other intelligence units within the US Navy such as the Photographic Reconnaissance and Interpretation Intelligence Center (PRISIC) on Ford Island. (Mike Yared)(184)
U.S.A.: "The Seventh Symphony", by Shostokovich, is performed for the first time in the U.S. by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
Destroyer USS Saufley launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The final two U-Boats operating off the East Coast of the US are moved to other
areas because of improving defenses using convoys.
The last five U-boats assigned to the area, U-89,
U-132, U-402,
U-458 and U-754, are
reassigned to other areas.
The German's initial operations off the United States end as the last two U-boats operating off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, are ordered back to the North Atlantic. This was a result of the USN finally beginning to run convoys off the U.S. east coast in May 1942. The operations began on 11 January 1942 and during the next six months, German U-boats sank 397 vessels off the U.S. east coast while losing seven submarines. The operations shifted to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean in May 1942; it took the USN until July to begin convoys in these areas and even then, it required the assistance of RN and RCN warships to implement the convoy system. The last ship was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico on 4 September 1942.
At 1912, the unescorted Port Antonio was hit amidships by one torpedo from U-129 and sank within two minutes. The master and 12 crewmembers were lost. The survivors jumped into the water but managed to get into the starboard lifeboat. The U-boat surfaced, questioned the survivors and gave them the course for Cuba. After a search for more survivors they headed for land, reaching the coast near Santa Lucia on 21 July. One of the survivors, Jørgen Edvard Magnussen, had been on the Cadmus, which was sunk by the same U-boat on 1 Jul 1942. He had reached the coast after five days and joined the Port Antonio, only to be again shipwrecked within two weeks.
At 1655, the unescorted Leonidas M. was missed by U-332 with a torpedo. The U-boat began shelling the ship at 1711 and missed at 1725 with a second torpedo. The third torpedo fired at 1742 hit and sank the ship. Two crewmembers taken prisoner.
At 0230, U-564 attacked Convoy OS-34 about 200 miles north of the Azores and observed four detonations between 1 minute 15 seconds and 1 minute 27 seconds after firing. Suhren thought that he had hit four ships. However, only the Empire Hawksbill and Lavington Court were hit at this time. There were probably two hits each on the two ships. The master, 37 crewmembers and nine gunners from the Empire Hawksbill were lost. Five crewmembers, one gunner and one passenger (military personnel) from the Lavington Court were lost. The ship was taken in tow, but foundered on 1 August SW of Ireland in 49°40N/18°04W. The master, 33 crewmembers, five gunners and two passengers were picked up by sloop HMS Wellington and landed at Londonderry.
At 0645, the unescorted Baja California was hit by two torpedoes from U-84. The first hit at the forward end of #1 hatch on the port side and the second hit at the forward end of #3 hatch abaft the Chief Engineer’s room. She took a port list immediately and sank lying on its side in ten minutes 40 miles northeast from Rebecca Shoals. Of the 32 crewmen and five armed guards on board were three crewmen killed and the Chief Engineer and 10 others were serious injured. The survivors abandoned ship in one lifeboat and two rafts, because the explosion destroyed the other lifeboat. They were picked up at daylight on next day by the Cuban fishing schooner San Ignacio and were taken to Havana Naval Station, arriving there on 21 July.