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• » 26 Jul 1942

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Singapore. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• USS Skipjack attacked a Japanese ship off the Philippine Islands; the torpedo missed. ww2dbase [Skipjack | CPC]
• German submarine U-66 sank Brazilian ship Tamandaré 12 miles east of Tobago at 0815 hours; 4 were killed, 50 survived. At 0945 hours, U-171 sank Mexican ship Oaxaca off Corpus Christi, Texas, United States; 6 were killed, 39 survived. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | CPC]
• German submarines U-607 and U-704 sank British ship Empire Rainbow of Allied convoy ON-113 475 miles east of St. John's, Newfoundland at 0811 hours; all 37 aboard survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• US Coast Guard cutter Comanche departed for Greenland, leading a supply flotilla bringing the construction crew of future Bluie East Two. ww2dbase [Bluie East Two | CPC]

• Japanese troops attacked Oivi, Australian Papua at 1500 hours, capturing Captain Sam Templeton of the Papuan Infantry Battalion at about 1700 hours. The surviving forces at Oivi fell back into the jungle along the Kokoda Trail after dark. Earlier in the day, Japanese transports delivered 1,020 troops from Rabaul, New Britain to the northern coast of Australian Papua. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 | CPC]

• After dark, Operation Manhood was launched by the British 8th Army in attempt to decisively defeat the Axis offensive in Egypt by striking at Miteirya Ridge. ww2dbase [First Battle of El Alamein | El Alamein | CPC]

• 403 British bombers (181 Wellington, 77 Lancaster, 73 Halifax, 39 Stirling, and 33 Hampden) attacked Hamburg, Germany, destroying 823 houses, damaging 5,000 houses, killing 337, wounding 1,027, and making 14,000 homeless; 14 bombers were lost on this mission. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Hamburg | CPC]

• German 6th Army broke through the lines held by Soviet 62nd Army and 64th Army west of Stalingrad, Russia. ww2dbase [Battle of Stalingrad | Stalingrad | CPC]

• Owen Baggett completed the pilot training course at New Columbus Army Flying School. ww2dbase [Owen Baggett | CPC]

26 Jul 1942 Interactive Map