July 10th, 1945 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMS BIGBURY BAY is commissioned.
Minesweeper HMS ROSAMUND is commissioned.
Minesweeping trawler HMS KURD mined and sunk off Cornwall.
Steam trawler Kned struck a mine laid on 18 August 1944 by U-218 and sank off Lizard Head.
JAPAN: In the Kurile Islands, 4 Eleventh Air Force B-24s fly a search down the west coasts of Paramushiru and Shimushu Islands and then radar-bomb Minami Zaki (Radar Hill) on Shimushu Island. 1 B-24 flies a radar-ferret mission over the northern Kurile Islands.During the night of 10/11 July, a Seventh Air Force B-24 from Okinawa bombs Karesehara Airfield; 43 other Okinawa-based B-24s bomb Wan and Sateku Airfields on Kikaiga-shima, Amami Islands; 50+ B-25s bomb Wan Airfield and Saha-Saki on Nakano Shima, Ryuku Islands, and Kurume, Kyushu.
During the day, 102 XXI Bomber Command P-51 Mustangs based on Iwo Jima attack Hashin, Nishinomiya, Sano and Tokushima mostly hitting airfields; 3 P-51s are lost.
The USN's Task Force 38, consisting of eight aircraft carriers and six light aircraft carriers under Vice Admiral John S. McCain, launches carrier-based aircraft to attack airfields around Tokyo.
Passing through frontal weather during the night and preceded by a submarine sweep on the look out for enemy picket boats and with air barriers formed by patrol aircraft to prevent snooping, Task Force 38 arrived undetected at a point 140 miles SE of Honshu at 0400 on 10th July.
As anticipated, the weather cleared sufficiently to allow strikes to be launched. The primary targets for the day's strikes were airfields and aircraft mainly in the Tokyo area, but extending from Koriyama in the north to Hamamatsu in the southwest. No airborne opposition was met. Only 13 airborne aircraft were seen, all of which avoided contact. Around the Task Force, only 3 enemy aircraft were sighted, 2 of which were shot down by the CAP and the 3rd was chased away before making contact.
The air defence of the Task Force was organized to counteract any possible suicide attacks. The method was similar to those used off Okinawa except that sufficient destroyers were available to establish 3 destroyer picket stations - 2 "Tomcat" stations consisting of one division of destroyers each, placed on bearing clear of the probable approach path of enemy aircraft and a further destroyer division called "Watchdog" on the mean of the target bearing line - all 40 to 50 miles from the Task Force Guide.
All aircraft returned to the Task Force via the Tomcat positions (one DD in each division being fitted with YE or YG homing beacons) and were inspected visually before being allowed to proceed towards the approach sector to the Task Force. The Watchdog was primarily a fighter direction base, one of whose destroyers was one the long hull 2200 ton class DDs fitted with SP radar which allowed accurate height finding on aircraft at much longer ranges from the Task Force. Each Task Group maintained a CAP of 32 fighters, 24 of them at various heights over the Task Group and 8 fighters over either the Tomcats or the Watchdog.
Pilots returned with reports that few aircraft could be seen on the ground and that those that were seen were mainly well dispersed and camouflaged.
Photographs of airfields were available within 2 hours after the camera planes landed, showing that large numbers of aircraft were present, but most of them ingeniously dispersed in fields woods and villages, some of them as much as 3 miles from their parent field. A total of 1500 aircraft were counted on photographs of 61 airfields. Altogether, 69 airfields were attacked; 109 aircraft were destroyed on the ground and 231 damaged. Air facilities and industrial targets were also attacked. 1303 strike sorties were flown and 425 CAP. 450 tons of bombs and 1648 HVAR were expended on strikes. Combat losses in aircraft were 7 VF/VBF and 6 VT. Operational losses were 4 VF and 2 VT. There were no VB losses. Crew losses were 4 VF/VBF pilots, 3 VT pilots, and 6 VT crewmen. (Rich Leonard)
Fighter-bombers locate and destroy an estimated 100 unfuelled aircraft dispersed at sites no closer than 10 miles (16 km) from any airfield. (The Japanese have decided to hoard their aircraft preparing for the Allied invasion which they believe will occur in October 1945.)
BORNEO: Australian progress east of Balikpapan is halted by Japanese barriers of flaming petrol.
ARGENTINA: The German U-boat U-530, missing since the end of April, surfaces at Mar del Plata, sparking off speculation that it ferried high-ranking Nazis to sanctuary in South America.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS FURSE is commissioned.
CANADA: Frigate
HMCS Carlplace refit commenced Saint John,
New Brunswick, later transferred to Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
Corvettes HMCS Hawkesbury and Parry Sound
paid off Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Corvette HMCS Lachute paid off Sorel,
Province of Quebec.
Minesweeper HMCS Spruce Lake launched New
Westminster, British Columbia.