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• The Swedish SAAB 21A aircraft made its maiden flight powered by a 1,475hp Daimler-Benz DB605B 12-cylinder inverted-vee engine connected to a pusher propeller. Deliveries commenced to the Flygvapnet in Jul 1945. The SAAB 21 was the world's second aircraft to be fitted with an ejector seat as standard operational equipment (the first was the Heinkel He-219). The J-51A suffered from heavy control forces and engine overheating which affected its speed and rate of climb, thus its role was soon changed from that of an interceptor to ground strike with provisions for various ordnance loads. ww2dbase [AC]
• Remy Van Lierde shot down a German Bf 109 fighter, which was his fourth kill. ww2dbase [Remy Van Lierde | CPC]
• Fitted with new drop-tanks which enable the P-47 aircraft of US VIII Fighter Command to reach the Dutch-German border, eight squadrons of P-47 aircraft were despatched to escort home 186 B-17 bombers returning from a raid on Kassel, Germany. ww2dbase [P-47 Thunderbolt | AC]
• Orde Wingate departed Delhi, India. ww2dbase [Orde Wingate | CPC]
• German Armeegruppe A's attack along the Mius River in Ukraine came to a unsuccessful conclusion. ww2dbase [TH]

• TBF-1 Avenger aircraft from USS Santee in the Atlantic southwest of the Azores attacked the surfaced German submarine U-43 using Mark 24 FIDO acoustic homing torpedoes. U-43 was lost with all 55 hands. ww2dbase [TBF Avenger | Conclusion of the Battle of the Atlantic | Mark XXIV | DS]

• Task Group 21.14 centered around escort carrier USS Card departed Naval Operating Base Bermuda on their first combat sortie. ww2dbase [Card | Port Royal Bay | DS]

• Hamburg, Germany was bombed again before dawn by 777 RAF bombers. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Hamburg | TH]

• Otto Skorzeny's SS men arrived in Rome, Italy. ww2dbase [Operation Eiche | Rome | CPC]

• In frantic air battles off Sardinia, Italy, American P-40 and P-38 aircraft claimed the destruction of 21 enemy transport aircraft and five fighters of German Luftwaffe's III/JG77 group. ww2dbase [AC]

• USS Finback sank a Japanese freighter in the South China Sea, hitting her with 1 of 3 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Finback | South China Sea | CPC]

• Jean was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army. ww2dbase [Jean | ]

30 Jul 1943 Interactive Map