29 Jul in WW2 History | World War II Database

29 Jul 1883

Benito Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, Forlì, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
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29 Jul 1887

Mamoru Shigemitsu was born.
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29 Jul 1900

Filipp Golikov was born in Perm, Russia; his birth date also appeared as 16 Jul 1900 when presented in the Old Style.
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29 Jul 1914

Two Austrian monitors steamed down stream from the Austrian frontier and opened fire on Belgrade. Serbian guns immediately returned fire and with the brief demonstration completed the Austrian monitors withdrew.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei D. Sazonov received a telegram from the German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg. It implied that "further progress of Russian mobilization measures" would compel Germany also to mobilize.

29 Jul 1918

Douglas MacArthur received his third Silver Star medal.
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29 Jul 1921

Adolf Hitler formally became the head of the Nationalsozialistische Deutches Arbeiter Partei (NSDAP), or the Nazi Party.
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29 Jul 1922

A secret clause was added to the Russo-German Treaty of Rapallo, allowing German troops to train with heavy weapons, something disallowed by the Versailles Treaty, in Soviet territory.
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29 Jul 1927

In Russia, Metropolitan Sergei Stragorodsky, the most senior prelate, issued a public declaration that the church recognized the Soviet state as its "Civil Fatherland". Hundreds of clergy refused to accept the church coming under state control and by 1930 an estimated one fifth of all those imprisoned in the Solovki camp complex were clerical victims of persecution.

29 Jul 1931

Tatsuta Maru arrived at San Francisco, California, United States.
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29 Jul 1933

Takashi Hishikari was named the commanding officer of the Japanese Kwantung Army in northeastern China.

29 Jul 1937

Troops of the Japanese Army 5th Division and Japanese naval troops separately attacked the Chinese city of Tianjin. In Tongzhou near Beiping, 5,000 Japanese-trained East Hebei Army soldiers mutinied against the Japanese. The rebellion soon became out of control. Japanese civilians were rounded up and massacred, and there were many incidences of rape committed against Japanese women. Much of the city was burned down by the time East Hebei Army officers regained control of their men. The militant factions in the Japanese government would use this incident as one of the justifications for starting the Second Sino-Japanese War.
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Photos dated 29 Jul 1937

29 Jul 1938

Japanese and Russian troops clashed on the border region between Manchukuo and Russia, starting the Battle of Lake Khasan.
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29 Jul 1939

Pavel Sukhoi was named the Chief Designer of aircraft factory number 135 in Kharkov, Ukraine.
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29 Jul 1940

German naval command (Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine) issued a memo noting that the mid-Sep 1940 invasion date for Britain as demanded by Adolf Hitler was possible, but considering the present state of affairs, a postponement to May 1941 was suggested. Meanwhile, a special economic board was set up to oversee the looting of British industry upon conquest.
40 German Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers attacked Dover Harbor in southern England, United Kingdom at 0730 hours, escorted by 40 Bf 109 fighters; British fighters from No. 41, No. 43, No. 56, and No. 64 Squadrons shot down 8 German dive bombers and 7 fighters and anti-aircraft guns shot down 2 German dive bombers, while 2 British Spitfire fighters and 1 British Hurricane fighter were shot down. At 1700 hours, destroyer HMS Delight left Portland in southern England; at about 1830 hours, she was hitting by a bomb from a German aircraft from Cherbourg, France, killing 18 and wounding 59, but she was able to return to Portland under her own power.
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British Air Ministry accused Germany of using rescue aircraft with Red Cross markings for reconnaissance purposes.
At a conference held in a converted railway carriage, Colonel-General Alfred Jodl, Adolf Hitler's Chief of Operations, announced that the Führer had decided "once and for all" to rid the world of the Soviet menace. However, recognizing that the war against the United Kingdom took a higher priority at this point in time, Hitler pushed the invasion date to the spring of 1941.
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British submarine HMS Sealion detected German submarine U-62 on the surface 60 miles southwest of Stavanger, Norway and attacked with 3 torpedoes (which all missed) followed by shots from the deck gun. U-62 dove and escaped the area.
German submarine U-99 sank British ship Clan Menzies 80 miles west of Ireland at 0215 hours; 5 were killed and 88 took to lifeboats.
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US President Franklin Roosevelt, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, and House Naval Affairs Committee chairman Carl Vinson arrived at Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, United States, via presidential yacht Potomac, for an inspection. After the navy yard, they also visited US Army's Langley Field and the Newport News Ship Building and Drydock Company.
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Destroyers USS Walke and USS Wainwright departed Rio Grande du Sol, Brazil for Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Japanese reported that Mr. Melville Cox, one of nine British residents arrested in Japan on the previous day, had "committed suicide" by throwing himself out of a police station window.

29 Jul 1941

Marshal Georgi Zhukov resigned as Chief of Staff of the Soviet forces.
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British merchant seaman David Hay was awarded an Albert Medal for his daring rescue of a fellow sailor from shark infested waters during the journey between Liverpool, England, United Kingdom and Takoradi, British Gold Coast.
Orion sank the ship Chaucer by gunfire in the South Atlantic. The entire crew of 48 was rescued by Orion.
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Photos dated 29 Jul 1941

29 Jul 1942

Proletarskaya was captured by German troops as they formed a bridgehead over the Manych River in the Caucasus in southern Russia.
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Japanese troops captured the Kokoda airfield, New Guinea.
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29 Jul 1943

The Italian submarine, Pietro Micca, was torpedoed and sunk by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Trooper in the Mediterranean Sea. Eighteen men were rescued but 54 went down with the boat. An Italian rescue vessel later lowered listening gear to the submarine to detect signs of life but heard only the sound of gunshots. It was believed that the survivors took their own lives rather than endure a terrible, lingering death.
German Armeegruppe A attacked to improve its positions on the Mius River in Ukraine.
The US ambassador in Madrid, Spain demanded that the Spanish government withdrew the division of Spanish volunteers fighting on the Eastern Front; Franco would largely comply with this demand by the end of Sep 1943, although still leaving behind a regiment-sized unit in Russia.
Joseph Goebbels' diary entry of this date noted that Hamburg, Germany had been devastated and about 800,000 were made homeless.
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29 Jul 1944

German Armeegruppe Nord was cut off as the Red Army reached the Baltic coast west of Riga, Latvia.
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Aleksandr Vasilevsky was made a Hero of the Soviet Union and was awarded his second Order of Lenin.
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USS Becuna arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii.
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USS Puffer attacked a Japanese freighter in the Dutch East Indies; all 6 torpedoes missed.
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Photos dated 29 Jul 1944

29 Jul 1945

American battleships USS South Dakota, USS Indiana, and USS Massachusetts began a two-day bombardment of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
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A special attack Japanese biplane trainer aircraft crashed into destroyer USS Callaghan off Okinawa, Japan; Callaghan was to be the last American warship to be sunk by special attack aircraft in the war.
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B-25 bombers of US 5th Air Force damaged Japanese escort carrier Kaiyo at Hiji, Japan.
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A special attack aircraft struck destroyer USS Cassin Young, killing 22 and injuring 45.
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Japanese submarine I-58 sank cruiser USS Indianapolis; USS Indianapolis' prior order to maintain radio silence resulted in a 2-day delay in realization of her loss.
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USS Bugara sank 4 small enemy craft with her deck gun in the Gulf of Siam and South China Sea area during the day.
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USS Cabrilla attacked a Japanese patrol vessel with an acoustic seeking torpedo in the South China Sea; the torpedo missed.
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USS Sennet attacked a Japanese transport in the Sea of Japan; the single torpedo missed.
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