Sunday, July 30, 1944. Landing at Sansapor.

US forces landed near Sansapor, Dutch New Guinea.

It's easy to forget how late in the war, in relative terms, the fighting in New Guinea was actively occurring.  Roosevelt, Nimitz and MacArthur had just met in Hawaii on whether to invade the Philippines or Formosa, and yet here's a landing in Dutch New Guinea.  The actions closed the back door to Japanese air power.

Tinian town was taken on Tinian. Actor Lee Powell, who had joined the Marine Corps, died on the island on that day, but from drinking an improvised alcoholic beverage that contained Methanol during a celebration of the battle's end.

He had played the Lone Ranger.

The Soviet Narva Offensive ended.

The US 1st Army seized Granville and entered Avranches.

Pvt. Sam Fever, of 324 E. 96th St., Brooklyn, N.Y., a member of an engineer unit, somewhere in France, plants a sign at a roadside indicating that the roadway has been cleared of mines as American troops roll forward in a great new offensive.

Cpl. David Halbert of Cleveland, Ohio, looks over a bunch of signs left by retreating Germans on the highway to Coutances, France. These signs tell what German units were here. 30 July, 1944.

Sections of German protestantism, which was not united, issued a declaration as it became clear that members of the German "Confessing Church" had participated in the July 20 plot.

Declaration of Loyalty by the German Protestant Church

Attempt on the Führer’s Life

With indignation and disgust, the German people turn away from the deed of July 20, which, in an hour requiring the utmost in unity, undertook to overthrow the Reich in turmoil of incalculable proportions by means of murder and treachery. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank the Almighty for the salvation of the leader and ask Him to continue to keep him under His protection. This request comes with a pledge of renewed loyalty and the resolution to submit ourselves even more earnestly than before to the relentless demands of this time, to which the Fuehrer is restlessly devoting himself entirely.

After the attempt on the life of the Führer, the German Protestant Church Chancellery and the Spiritual Council of the German Protestant Church expressed their gratitude to God for his gracious protection in telegrams of loyalty to the Führer. At the same time, the Spiritual Council of Confidence noted that on the Sunday after the assassination attempt, prayers for the Führer were said in Protestant services all over the Reich.

Source: Das Evangelische Deutschland. Kirchliche Rundschau für das Gesamtgebiet der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche, Nr. 30-31/1944, p. 74.

The Confessing Church was a protestant movement that had resisted efforts to unify, and Nazify, German Lutheranism.  It's efforts were fairly successful in that goal.

The U-250 was sunk in the Gulf of Finland by the Soviet Navy.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 29, 1944. Guam, Tinian, Aitape and Normandy.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Biak, Blog Mirror, Guam, Imperial Japanese Army, New Guinea, Normandy, Operation Cobra, Operation Overlord, Tinian, United States Marine Corps, World War Two