Wolf’s Lair, Rastenburg, East Prussia, Germany • July 20, 1944 Adolf Hitler had been the target of 4 assassination attempts before he became Germany’s head of state in January 1933 and perhaps 2 dozen more afterwards. On July 11, 1944, 36‑year-old Lt. Col. Claus von Stauffenberg arrived at the Berghof on the Obersalzberg, Hitler’s Bavarian retreat near Berchtesgaden, carrying a…
Berlin, Germany • July 19, 1940 Military operations between France and the Axis powers—that is, Germany and Italy—ended on June June 25, 1940. A week and a half earlier, on June 14, the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) marched unchallenged into the nearly deserted French capital of Paris under skies heavy with soot from the oil reserves the…
Tokyo, Japan • July 18, 1944 On this date in 1944 Prime Minister, War Minister, Home Minister, and Chief of Army General Staff Hideki Tōjō was removed from office with the blessing of Emperor Hirohito (posthumously referred to as Emperor Shōwa). Up until this date the scrawny, owlish Tōjō had enjoyed the confidence of his…
Berlin Suburb of Potsdam, Germany • July 17, 1945 After Nazi Germany’s fuehrer (leader) Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945; and after Hitler’s political successor Reich President Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz agreed to the unconditional surrender of all German armed forces on May 7 and 8, 1945; and after Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander…
Trinity Test Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico • July 16, 1945 On this date in 1945 the first detonation of an atomic bomb directly led to greater unimaginable destruction when “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” immolated Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. Up until July 16, 1945, military brass and military and civilian scientists…
Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy, France • July 14, 1944 On this date, Bastille Day in France, the U.S. Army laid to rest Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., at the U.S. cemetery in Sainte-Mère-Église a few miles/kilometers west of Utah Beach in Normandy. The 56‑year-old Roosevelt had died of a heart attack less than 2 days before at Méautis, a village…
Kursk, Soviet Union • July 13, 1943 On this date in 1943 Operation Citadel (Unternehmen Zitadelle), Adolf Hitler’s delayed gambit to retake the important Soviet rail hub of Kursk, south of Moscow, and straighten the German line on the Eastern Front failed with devastating losses on both sides, but especially to German strategic armored reserves….
Beirut, Lebanon • July 12, 1941 During their advance on the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in May 1941, the British were harassed by Luftwaffe aircraft (Heinkel bombers and Messerschmitt fighters) flown in support of the pro-German Iraqi government of Prime Minister Rashid Ali al‑Gaylani. (Al‑Gaylani or El‑Ghalani, who helped found the anti-Western and anti-Semitic Muslim…
Vichy, France • July 11, 1940 On July 10, 1940, the French National Assembly meeting in the municipal opera house in Vichy, France, a small resort town 200 miles/322 kilometers south of German-occupied Paris, ceded its power and authority to Premier Philippe Pétain, the 84‑year-old Maréchal of France and World War I hero. On this date, 1 day later, Marshal…
Near Scoglitti, Sicily, Italy • July 10, 1943 On this date 21-year-old Oklahoma national guardsman Bill Mauldin landed on the southwest coast of Sicily with K Company, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division as part of Operation Husky (July 9/10 to August 17, 1943). Mauldin is less known for his 3‑year service in World War II than for his cartoon…
