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• » 4 Jul 1943

• General Sikorski and other members of Polish government-in-exile were killed in a plane crash in Gibraltar. Sabotage was suspected but it was never proven. ww2dbase [Władysław Sikorski | TH]
• The Battle of Kursk, what would become the largest tank battle in history, began. ww2dbase [Battle of Kursk | CPC]
• USS Tunny, while off Guam, Mariana Islands, received orders to sail to Johnston Island, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Tunny | CPC]
• USS Snook attacked a Japanese convoy with 16 torpedoes, 6 of which hit, sinking cargo ships Koki Maru and Liverpool Maru and damaging Atlantic Maru. ww2dbase [Snook | CPC]
• USS Pompano sank Japanese seaplane carrier Sagara Maru. ww2dbase [Pompano | CPC]
• Subhash Chandra Bose took command of the Indian National Army and assumed the leadership position of the Indian Independence League. ww2dbase [Subhash Chandra Bose | CPC]

• US Marines and US Army troops secured Kaeruka and Cheke Point on Vangunu Island, just southeast of New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. On New Georgia, a 52-man special weapons unit of the US Marine Corps 9th Defense Battalion arrived with four 40mm anti-aircraft guns. To the south of New Georgia, the Japanese attempted attempted the last large daylight air raid on Rendova; 16 bombers were able to break through to drop bombs on the island, but 12 of them would be shot down. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | CPC]
• USS Helena escorted invasion transports to Kula Gulf west of New Georgia. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | Helena (St. Louis-class) | CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]

• The Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization, or SACO for short, already officially signed into effect in Apr 1943, was signed by Chinese Army General Dai Li in China; Dai had not been able to travel to the United States for the official signing. ww2dbase [Milton Miles | CPC]

• The first of Chinese 30th Division began to arrive at Ramgarh Training Center in India. ww2dbase [Ramgarh Training Center | CPC]

• USS S-35 arrived off Paramushiro, Hokkaido, Japan. ww2dbase [S-35 | CPC]

• Journalist John Steinbeck of the newspaper New York Herald Tribune spent a day with British airmen at an airfield in England, United Kingdom. His experiences on this day would later be found in his work "Once There Was a War" in a chapter titled "Waiting". ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Cero was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Cero | CPC]

4 Jul 1943 Interactive Map