July 22nd, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS Dornoch commissioned.
GERMANY: Goebbels tells judges that the justice of a sentence is irrelevant: its utility is what matters.
U-639 launched.
U-665 commissioned.
POLAND: Warsaw: Tonight, the Jewish ghetto is in a state of shock after a brutal roundup of children, signalling the start of an operation to "deport" them all "to the east". Their true destination will be the gas chambers of Treblinka.
Trigger-happy SS guards have surrounded the ghetto walls; others roamed the streets, snatching wailing children from their mothers' arms. Whole orphanages have been emptied and their inmates, kicking and yelling, carried off in high-sided carts to the ghetto's railway siding where they were loaded into covered goods wagons. All day long the shrieks of "Mama, mama!" and "Save us!" have tormented the adults who stayed behind.
SS Major Hermann Hofle is in charge of the deportation. He has ordered Adam Czerniakow, the leader of the Jewish council, to deliver 6,000 Jews to the railway siding by 4pm each day, seven days a week. If this is not done, the Nazis' 60 hostages - among Czerniakow's wife - will die.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: US Army, Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24s bomb Suda Bay, Greece claiming hits on 2 vessels while B-17s hit Tobruk, Libya.
NORTH AFRICA: British forces, including the 23rd Armoured Brigade, south of Ruweisat have taken heavy losses. Rommel however, decides that the drain on his strength has been too much. Both sides pause to regroup. The British are better situated to receive reinforcements. And Malta is recovering.Egypt: Tel-el-Eisa: Pte. Arthur Stanley Gurney (b.1908), Australian Military Forces, overcame a machine-gun post, attacking two more before being killed. (Victoria Cross)
PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA: Laurenço
Marques: The Japanese ship Asama Maru arrives carrying approximately 800 U.S.
civilians from Japan, South-East Asia and the Philippines. She is accompanied by
the Italian vessel Conte Verde, with about 600 passengers from Shanghai.
NEW GUINEA: Major-General Horii's South Seas
Detachment begins the trek along
the Kokoda Trail from Buna, New Guinea. This trail leads over the Owen Stanley Mountains
(11,000 feet; 3340 meters) towards Port Morsby. Due to the loss in the Naval Battle of the
Coral Sea, the Japanese have arrived at this overland route to capture Port Moresby.
USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses mount 3 attacks and B-25 Mitchells, B-26 Marauders,
P-39and P-400 Airacobras and RAAF P-40s mount five attacks against IJN shipping and landing barges at Gona as
Japanese forces continue to land in northeastern New Guinea with the ultimate aim of
pushing across the Owen Stanley Range to the Allied base at Port Moresby.
The aircraft damage a destroyer and sink an army transport.
NEW ZEALAND: Ships bearing the US 1st Marine Division sail from Wellington for the Koro island rehearsal, prior to the landings in the southern
Solomon Islands now set for August 7.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The 11th Air Force dispatches 8 B-24 Liberators and 2 B-17 Flying Fortresses to Kiska Island, but only 8 reach the target and due to fog drop only 7 bombs with unobserved results; 1 B-24 is missing on the return flight.
CANADA: Patrol vessel HMCS Western Maid acquired. Built in Vancouver, 1936, 44ft overall, Registered owner Union Trading Co, Ltd, Vancouver, noted as filthy condition, main engine requiring overhaul, otherwise seaworthy. Appraised at $10,200.00, ownership to crown Aug 1942, sold Mar 1945.
Minesweeper HMCS Middlesex launched Port Arthur, Ontario.
U.S.A.: US President Roosevelt agrees with the British that "Sledgehammer" is not possible in 1942. He instructs his planners in London to find "another place for US troops to fight in 1942".
Gasoline [petrol] rationing is implemented.
Submarine USS Blackfish commissioned
Destroyer USS Radford commissioned.
Submarine USS Dace laid down.
Destroyer USS Sigsbee laid down.
Minesweeper USS Pheasant laid down.
Corvette USS Pert laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1335, the Roamar was shelled by U-505 with 22 rounds from the deck gun and sank at 1500.
At 2012, the unescorted and unarmed Honolulan was torpedoed by U-582 about 400 miles south of the Cape Verde Islands while proceeding on a nonevasive course at 9.6 knots. One torpedo struck the starboard side at the #5 hatch, destroying a lifeboat, opening a huge hole in the hull and jamming the steam whistle. Most of the eleven officers and 28 crewmen abandoned ship in three lifeboats. The master, the first mate and the radio operator stayed behind until a second torpedo struck at 2040 between the #2 and #3 hatch, causing the ship to sink within minutes. These men jumped into the water and were picked up by one of the boats. Two hours later the ship sank with the whistle still blowing. The survivors were questioned by the U-boat and given the course to the Cape Verde Islands and two boxes of cigarettes before leaving. All men were picked up by the British MS Winchester Castle six days later and landed in New York on 7 August.
U-77 reported that she had sunk eight sailing vessels with gunfire between 22 Jul and 16 Aug 42. Six of these vessels were Vassiliki, Toufic El Rahman, St. Simon, Ezzet, Kharouf and Daniel. The Adnan was only damaged and an unidentified sailing vessel was sunk on 7 August.