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• » 7 Jul 1943

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Rabaul and then Kavieng, departing later in the same day. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• At Wolf's Lair, German rocket research team leader Walter Dornberger presented his research to Hitler and successfully convinced him to give rocket research and production a high priority. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-759 sank Dutch cargo ship Poelau Roebiah of Allied convoy TAG-70 east of Jamaica; 2 were killed and 68 survived. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | CPC]
• Joseph Stilwell presented Chiang Kaishek and He Yingqin the Legion of Merit medals. ww2dbase [Chiang Kaishek | CPC]

• The broken-off bow of USS Helena sank in Kula Gulf northwest of New Georgia. A US Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator aircraft dropped lifejackets and four rubber lifeboats to survivors in the area of the bow. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | Helena (St. Louis-class) | Kula Gulf | CPC]

• B-25 bombers of US 14th Air Force, escorted by P-51 fighters, attacked Tianhe Airfield in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. ww2dbase [Tianhe Airfield | Guangzhou, Guangdong | CPC]

• At the Wolfsschanze headquarters in Rastenburg, Germany, Werhner von Braun and Walter Dornberger presented Adolf Hitler a film of a V-2 rocket launch. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Wernher von Braun | Rastenburg, Ostpreußen | CPC]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Second commanding officer, Capt DS MacMahan USN, assumed command. Five splinter-proof shelters on beach completed. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]

• USS Permit sank Banshu Maru No. 33 off Hokkaido, Japan, hitting her with 1 of 2 torpedoes fired; another transport was damaged with 2 of 2 torpdoes fired. ww2dbase [Permit | CPC]

• Soviet Il-2M aircraft, attacking in huge numbers, destroyed some seventy tanks of the German 9th Panzer Division in just twenty minutes during the Battle of Kursk. German aircraft also saw much action, with He 111 tactical bombers alone flew 178 sorties. ww2dbase [Battle of Kursk | AC, CPC]

• General Henri Giraud arrived in Washington DC, United States for conferences with President Franklin Roosevelt. ww2dbase [Henri Giraud | Washington | AC]

• USS Harder arrived at Midway Atoll, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Midway Bases | Harder | Midway | CPC]

7 Jul 1943 Interactive Map