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• US forces broke through near Saint-Lô, France, forcing a German withdrawal from the Normandy region. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 2 | TH]
• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Davao, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• United States Army 5332nd Brigade (Provisional) was activated in India. Known as the Mars Task Force, the Brigade consisted of 475th Infantry Regiment (largely of Galahad and New Galahad veterans), 124th cavalry Regiment (Special) (formerly the Texas National Guard and now serving as infantry), and the 612th and 613th Artillery Battalions (Pack) with mule-borne 75mm Howitzers. The Galahad veterans appeared to have been extremely unwilling to return to the front but after their grievances were addressed went back into battle again. By the time the brigade was withdrawn (redeployed to China) in Feb 1945 it had suffered 122 dead, 938 wounded, and 1 missing. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Marlin collided with SC-642 while undergoing training, sustaining light damage. ww2dbase [Marlin | CPC]
• The US submarine Robalo struck a mine and sank whilst on patrol off the western coast of Palawan, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Robalo | AC]

• Soviet forces captured Narva as they crossed the Estonian border. ww2dbase [Operation Bagration | Narva | TH]

• Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler made a speech to the Luftwaffe pilots of III KG/3 in which he exaggerated the damage done by the V-1 flying bombs that they were launching to London, England, United Kingdom and other targets. He finished his speech by saying that the German High Command had clear evidence of a weaking the power of the belligerent British Nation. ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | V-Weapons Campaign | HM]
• Leutnant Alfred Schreiber, flying a Me 262A-1a jet fighter, damaged a Mosquito aircraft crewed by Flight Lieutenant Albert Wall and navigator Albert Lobban No. 544 Squadron RAF. This was the first air-to-air combat involving a jet aircraft. Although the Mosquito aircraft would ultimately make an emergency landing at Fermo, Italy, Schreiber received a victory for the engagement because he had observed a large piece broken off from the British aircraft and was convinced that the aircraft could not be in flight for long; the piece he observed was actually just the outer hatch door. ww2dbase [Me 262 Schwalbe | CPC]
• The head of German intelligence unit Abwehr II Colonel Wessel von Freytag-Loringhoven committed suicide just prior to his arrest by the German Gestapo. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Twenty-two officers of D-1, IRON-74, arrived on board. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]
• Douglas MacArthur and Chester Nimitz presented each of their plans to Franklin Roosevelt on how to approach Japan during the Pacific Strategy Conference in US Territory of Hawaii. MacArthur wanted to target the Philippine Islands to recover American territory, while Nimitz preferred to invade Taiwan which would serve as gateway to both Japan and China. ww2dbase [Pacific Strategy Conference | CPC]

• The keel of landing ship No. 140 was laid down by Sasebo Naval Arsenal, Japan. ww2dbase [Sasebo Naval Arsenal | No. 101/103-class | Sasebo, Nagasaki | CPC]

• Fifteenth Air Force fighters on an Operation Frantic shuttle mission leave Ukraine bases, strafed enemy aircraft in the Bucharest-PloeÅŸti, Romania area, and returned to bases in Italy. ww2dbase [P-38 Lightning | P-51 Mustang | Operation Frantic | PloeÅŸti | DS]

• At dusk, Flight Lieutenant Remy van Lierde, a Belgian pilot with 3 Squadron RAF, shot down two V-1 flying bombs and shared a third over the Bexhill area on the coast of Sussex County in southern England, United Kingdom. Van Lierde would go on to shoot down 35 bombs during the V-1 assault. He flew a Tempest V fighter and had the Belgian national colours painted on the spinner tip. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Remy Van Lierde | Bexhill, England | HM]

• USS Golet was officially presumed lost in the Pacific Ocean. ww2dbase [Golet | CPC]

26 Jul 1944 Interactive Map