Il-2s at Kursk. By RIA Novosti archive, image #225 / Fyodor Levshin / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15577237
It was day two for the Battle of Kursk. The Germans suffered substantial tank losses due to IL-2 action.
Ground forces highly valued the work of aviation on the battlefield. In a number of instances enemy attacks were thwarted thanks to our air operations. Thus on 7 July enemy tank attacks were disrupted in the Kashara region (13th Army). Here our assault aircraft delivered three powerful attacks in groups of 20–30, which resulted in the destruction and disabling of 34 tanks. The enemy was forced to halt further attacks and to withdraw the remnants of his force north of Kashara.
Glantz and Orenstein 1999, p. 260.
I'd be skeptical of the number claimed in that entry, but the problem faced is an obvious one. Indeed, the Germans were attacking a salient that was defended in depth, and their air force wasn't what it had once been. The tactical problem is similar to that which is faced by Ukraine today.
The Wehrmacht's 9th Army, commanded by Walter Model, made only small gains on the Central Front. Hoth's 4th Panzer Army nearly broke through Voronezh Front defenses around Syrtzevo but Soviet armored counterattacks prevented this from occurring.
The Australians bombed Mubo, New Guinea and captured Observation Hill thereafter.
The Finns passed out captured Russian arms to civilians for home defense.
Jóhannes Gunnarsson, SMM was consecrated as the Catholic Bishop of Hólar, Iceland in Washington, D.C. He had been appointed to be head of the Catholic Church in Iceland the prior February. He occupied the position until 1967, when he resigned as he was facing ill health.
Born in Reykjavik, he had been a Catholic Priest since 1924 and was the first Icelandic Catholic Bishop since Jón Arason, who was beheaded with his two sons by King Christian III in 1550.
Christianity had come to Iceland in the form of the Latin Rite with Irish monks, who inhabited the island prior to Scandinavian conquest, and then with Irish slaves held there, although it seems some early missionary activity may have occured well before the Althing adopted it for the island in 1000. It remained a Catholic country until King Christian III of Denmark and Norway forced it on those countries following a civil war in Denmark. A civil war over the issue occured in Iceland, where Catholic opposition to Lutheranism was put down by royalist forces. Catholicism was outlawed after that and the formerly Catholic island became a Lutheran one, with those refusing to convert forced into exile. Oddly, Latin remained the language of the Church of Iceland, however, until 1686.
The Catholic Church reappeared officially in 1855. The Church has grown quite a bit in recent years, but remains small. The Lutheran Church on the island had been in the very conservative branch until after World War Two, when it went over to the liberal branch thereafter.
Women in Oregon applied social pressure to war work:
Rudolph Foster, age 70, Chief Clerk of the White House Executive Offices since 1897, passed away.
*This was mistakenly run as the July 6 series of events for 1943. Nope, this all happened on July 7.
