UNITED KINGDOM: Frigates HMS Kingsmill, HMS Lawford, Lawson and Louis launched.

EUROPE: The Allies bomb Rome's railyards and, flying over Hungary to make their first raid on Austria, factories at Wiener Neustadt.

GERMANY: U-287 launched.

AUSTRIA: 61 US Ninth Air Force B-24s based in North Africa, hit an aircraft factory at Wiener-Neustadt in the first Ninth Air Force raid on Austria.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Army captures Bolshaya and Danilovka in their advance on Kharkov. A new offensive begins in the Smolensk area and Spas-Demensk, west of Kirov falls.

The headquarters of the German 2 Pz. Armee is pulled out and transferred because the one army headquarters is sufficient for the reduced frontage. (Jeff Chrisman)

Baltic Fleet and Ladoga Flotilla: (Sergey Anisimov)(69)Submarine loss. "S-9" - by depth charges of surface ships, close to Bolshoi Tuters Is.

ITALY: 125 XII Bomber Command B-17s bomb the Lorenzo marshalling yard dropping 264 tons of bombs. This is followed by 66

B-25 Mitchells and 102 B-26 Marauders attacking the Littoria marshalling yard.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Luftwaffe aircraft attack convoy MKS 21 off the coast of Algeria, strafing and holing U.S. freighters SS Jonathan Elmer, in position 36°07'N, 03°07'E, and SS Anne Bradstreet, in position 36°19'N, 02°18'E. U.S. freighter Francis W. Pettygrove is torpedoed at 36°08'N, 02°14'E; partially abandoned, the survivors that clear the ship are taken on board RN minesweeper HMS Hythe. The rest of the crew and Armed Guard remain on board to prepare the ship for tow.

FRENCH MOROCCO: Pierre Pucheu, the former Vichy minister of the interior, is arrested.

INDIA: Auchinleck proposes abandoning all offensive operations in Burma in order to concentrate on supplying China by air.

"The most sensational of the early raids carried out by the 380th Bombardment Group (Heavy), in view of the planes and techniques available at that time, occurred today, against strategic Balikpapan on the island of Borneo. At 1730, eleven B-24's carrying 69 x 500-pound bombs took off from Darwin and headed out across the Timor Sea in cloudy and turbulent weather. One aircraft was forced to turn back and another failed to find the target, but between midnight and 0145, nine planes hovered over the oil refineries, tanks, and harbour installations, dropped their bombs from between 5,000 and 8,500 feet, and claimed forty-eight 'hits.' As the last plane turned for the long flight back to the base, two refinery areas and one medium-sized vessel were afire and seven large oil-tanks were exploding. In just under seventeen hours from the take-off, eight of the nine aircraft had returned. The ninth, short of fuel, had crash-landed, but all crew members were safe."

SOLOMON ISLANDS: On New Georgia Island 4 P-40s of the US Thirteenth Air Force, become the first Allied aircraft to land on the reconstructed Munda Airfield; after refuelling, they are sent on a sweep of the Kolombangara Island coast; 9 B-17s, with fighter cover, bomb a Kape Harbor depot; and 2 others on armoured reconnaissance bomb Vila on Kolombangara Island. On Santa Isabel Island, 12 B-25s bomb supply areas in the Rekata Bay area; 2 B-24s on armoured reconnaissance hit Suavanau Point, 8 bomb the airfield on Ballale Island, and 13 bomb Kahili Airfield on Bougainville Island.

USS John Penn (APA-51) had just finished unloading a cargo of 155-mm. ammunition off Lunga Point, Guadalcanal. At 2120 she came under attack by enemy torpedo planes. Three minutes later, when the transport took one of the planes under fire, it burst into flames and crashed into her mainmast. About that same instant a torpedo hit from another plane hit the ship. Although vigorous efforts were made to save her, John Penn went down stern first at 2150.

CANADA: British and US military leaders meet in Quebec joined by Roosevelt and Churchill. Discussion concerns General Morgan's plans for Overlord, future operations in Italy, and the Pacific. Churchill accepts a US General to command the invasion of France. Admiral Mountbatten is selected to lead a new Southeast Asia Command. This conference will continue through August 24th.

Mr. and Mrs. Churchill are staying in the great citadel overlooking the St. Lawrence river. As well as the British chiefs of staff, the prime minister has taken along his daughter Mary, a subaltern in an anti-aircraft unit, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the leader of the recent "Dambusters" raid on the Ruhr dams, and Brigadier Orde Wingate, the leader of the Chindits in Burma.

On arrival at Halifax en-route for Quebec, Mr. Churchill made the reception party sing "The Maple Leaf Forever" - the Canadian national anthem.