July 20th, 1945 (FRIDAY)
BELGIUM: Brussels: The premier, Achille Acker, tells King Leopold he should abdicate because of his "grave and unpardonable mistakes."
GERMANY: Potsdam: Truman says that the Allies are making no territorial claims, wanting only peace and prosperity and "man's greatest age."
PACIFIC: In the Kurile Islands, 8 Eleventh Air Force B-24s fly the heaviest and most successful mission of the month, bombing hangars and revetments at Matsuwa Airfield on Matsuwa Island.JAPAN: The Twentieth Air Force's 393d Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), 509th Composite Group, begins a series of 12 precision attacks over Japan for the purpose of familiarizing the crews with the target area and tactics contemplated for the scheduled atomic bomb missions; the strikes (on 20, 24, 26, and 29 Jul) are mostly against (or near) cities previously bombed, in the general area of cities chosen for possible atomic attack, and involve from 2 to 6 aircraft in order to accustom the Japanese to sight of small formations of B-29 Superfortresses flying at high altitudes.
These are known as the Pumpkin Raids.
David Hebditch has chronicled these missions:
| Ops. | Miss. | Date | Aircraft | Cdr. | Crew | Bombing | Target | Lat | Long | Result | |
| 20 | 4 | 20/07/45 | 44-27296 | Price | B-7 | Primary | Radar | Fujikoshi Steel, Yoyama | Unobserved | ||
| 20 | 4 | 20/07/45 | 44-27298 | Taylor | A-1 | Primary | Visual | Aluminum plant, Toyama | Poor | ||
| 20 | 4 | 20/07/45 | 44-27299 | Devore | A-3 | Primary | Visual | Nippon Soda, Toyama | Very Poor | ||
| 20 | 2 | 20/07/45 | 44-27300 | Bock | C-13 | Primary | Radar | Light Industry, Fukushima | Unobserved | ||
| 20 | 1 | 20/07/45 | 44-27301 | Eatherly | C-11 | Opport. | Radar | RR Station, Tokyo | Unobserved | ||
| 20 | 1 | 20/07/45 | 44-27302 | McKnight | B-8 | Secondary | Radar | Otsu urban | Unobserved | ||
| 20 | 3 | 20/07/45 | 44-27303 | Wilson | B-6 | Secondary | Radar | Taira urban | Unobserved | ||
| 20 | 1 | 20/07/45 | 44-27304 | Marquardt | B-10 | Secondary | Radar | Taira urban | Unobserved | ||
| 20 | 2 | 20/07/45 | 44-27353 | Albury | C-15 | Aborted | |||||
| 20 | 3 | 20/07/45 | 44-27354 | Classen | A-4?? | Primary | Radar | Tsugami-Atagi Manfg Company | Unobserved |
94 P-51s based on Iwo Jima are dispatched against targets, mainly airfields, at Kamezaki, Meiji, Okazaki, Nagoya, Kagamigahara, Hamamatsu, and Komaki, Japan; they claim 1-11 Japanese aircraft on the ground; 3 P-51s are lost.
CANADA: Corvettes
HMCS Oakville, Prescott and St Lambert
paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.
Patrol vessels HMCS Ambler, Reindeer,
Caribou and Moose and HMC ML 078 paid off Sydney, Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.: Washington: Congress ratifies the Bretton Woods monetary agreement.
The top songs on the pop charts today are
(1) "Dream" by The Pied Pipers;
(2) "The More I See You" by Dick Haymes;
(3) "Sentimental Journey" by Les Brown and his Orchestra with vocal by
Doris Day; and
(4) "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima" by Bob Wills and his Texas
Playboys.
The motion picture "A Thousand and One Nights" is released in the U.S.Directed by Alfred E. Green, this period adventure film stars Cornel Wilde, Evelyn Keyes, Phil Silvers and Adele Jergens; Shelley Winters appears in a bit part. Wilde is fast-talking Aladdin who romances the Sultan's daughter until he finds out. Aladdin then uses a magic lamp with Keyes as the genie to try to win the daughter but the genie falls in love with him and tries to sabotage his plans. The film is nominated for two technical Academy Awards.