GIBRALTAR: General Wladislaw Sikorski is killed when his Liberator plane crashes on take-off. Sikorski had been visiting Polish troops in Egypt. Talk of sabotage is being discouraged by the British, but many Poles remain suspicious. Sikorski had angered Stalin by demanding a full inquiry into the thousands of massacred bodies found in the forest at Katyn, many of them Polish officers. His replacement as Prime Minister in the London Exile Government of Poland is Stanislaw Mikolajczyk who has been acting as Prime Minister in General Sikorskis' absence. General Kukiel becomes C-in-C.

Prime Minster Mikolajczyks cabinet consists of Jan Kwapinski, deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Commerce and Shipping; Tadeusz Romer, Minister of Foreign Affairs; General Marian Kukiel, Minister of National defence; Wladyslaw Banaczyk, Minister of Home Affairs; Stanislaw Kot, Minister of Information; Ludwik Grosfeld, Minister of Finance; Jan Stanczyk, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare; Waclaw Komarnicki, Minister of Justice: Marian Seyda, Minister of State (Peace Conference Planning); Karol Popiel, Minister of State (Polish Administrative Planning); The Rev. Zygmunt Kaczynski, Minister of Education; Henryk Strassburger, Polish Minister in the Middle East.

(Glenn Steinberg and Mike Yared)

GREECE: Crete: There is a successful British commando raid on German military airbases. (Glenn Steinberg)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 2140, U-375 attacked Convoy KMS-18B 10 miles north of Cape Tenez, Algeria and sank the St Essylt and City of Venice. The City of Venice was carrying 292 troops of the 1st Canadian Division for the Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. The master, ten crewmembers and ten troops were lost. HMS Honeysuckle, Rhododendron, Teviot and Restive rescued 147 crewmembers, 22 gunners, 282 troops and ten naval personnel.

INDIAN OCEAN: At 1410, the Breiviken was torpedoed and sunk by U-178 off Portuguese East Africa. Three crewmen, including the British radio officer, were lost out of the 34 crewmen and two gunners aboard. 20 survivors were picked up from the sea by the U-boat, where the master was questioned by an officer who spoke very good Norwegian. They were placed on rafts about 10 minutes later, because a smoke trail was sighted and U-178 left to pursue the ship, it was the Michael Livanos and sank her at 1830. The survivors of Breiviken later found two drifting lifeboats from their own ship righted and bailed them. On 8 July they reached the coast near Ponto Barra du False, where they were taken care of by the lighthouse keeper and his wife.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Thirteenth Air Force B-17s pound Bairoko, New Georgia Island.

New Georgia: The US force advancing from Zanana toward Munda meet heavy Japanese resistance.

U.S.A.:

Destroyers USS Heywood L Edwards and Richard P Leary laid down.

Submarine USS Cero commissioned.

Destroyer escorts USS Weaver, Loy, Lovelace, and Laning launched.

Destroyers USS Morrison, Hickox, Healy, Bennion launched.

Submarine USS Angler launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1745, the Pelotaslóide, escorted by the Brazilian submarine chasers Jacuí and Jundiaí, was hit by two torpedoes from U-590 and sank five miles north of Salinas, Brazil.