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WWII On This Day: July 10

What happened on July 10 during World War II? This date brings together 6 events from 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
Hurricanes of No. 1 Squadron, 1940. The Hurricane equipped more squadrons than the Spitfire and shot down more aircraft.
Hurricanes of No. 1 Squadron, 1940. The Hurricane equipped more squadrons than the Spitfire and shot down more aircraft. Imperial War Museums, CH 17331 · Public domain Source
The Battle of Britain

Channel fighting becomes the opening battle

German attacks on Channel convoys, ports and coastal targets drew Fighter Command into repeated combat over water and the south coast. The British official chronology later used 10 July as the opening date of the Battle of Britain. The Channel fighting had several purposes. It disrupted coastal traffic, tested British reactions, gave German fighter units repeated opportunities to engage RAF squadrons and helped establish how quickly Fighter Command could concentrate over the approaches to south-east England. The Royal Navy eventually reduced vulnerable daylight convoy movement through the narrowest part of…

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1941
Soviet soldiers preparing for the defence of Smolensk on 1 July 1941.
Soviet soldiers preparing for the defence of Smolensk on 1 July 1941. RIA Novosti archive, image #2415 / P. Bernstein · CC BY-SA 3.0 Source
Operation Barbarossa

The battle for the Dvina–Dnieper line begins

Army Group Centre attacked the Soviet second strategic echelon along and beyond the Dvina–Dnieper line. The mobile groups attempted to repeat the Minsk method around Smolensk before Soviet reserve armies could establish a stable defence. Soviet commands fed newly deployed armies into the battle and ordered counterattacks against German spearheads and bridgeheads. These attacks were costly and often poorly coordinated, yet they forced the panzer groups to protect crossings and exposed flanks while continuing east. The central battle was becoming longer and more complicated with each penetration. German armour could…

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1943
Soviet soldiers inspect disabled German Ferdinand tank destroyers on the Orel sector, July 1943.
Soviet soldiers inspect disabled German Ferdinand tank destroyers on the Orel sector, July 1943. Pavel Troshkin · Public domain in Russia Source
Battle of Kursk 1943

The northern pincer has effectively stalled

Further attacks around Olkhovatka and Ponyri failed to create the operational penetration Ninth Army needed. Model's force had advanced only a limited distance into Central Front's prepared depth and was increasingly fighting to improve local positions. The failure in the north changed the geometry of Citadel. Fourth Panzer Army could still gain ground in the south, but the original encirclement required a northern pincer capable of moving toward the junction east of Kursk. Soviet plans for the Orel counteroffensive were also approaching execution behind Ninth Army.

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A Tiger tank of the SS panzer corps during the battle of Kursk, July 1943.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101III-Zschaeckel-206-35 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Battle of Kursk 1943

II SS Panzer Corps advances toward Prokhorovka

Leibstandarte advanced toward Prokhorovka, Totenkopf expanded its bridgehead north of the Psel and Das Reich protected the eastern side of the corps. The SS formation remained dangerous, but its movement was narrowing into terrain bounded by the river, railway embankments, anti-tank positions and arriving Soviet reserves. The 5th Guards Army and 5th Guards Tank Army were entering the same area. The next day's fighting would therefore develop from two commands preparing offensive action on intersecting axes.

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1944
Operation Overlord: D-Day, 6 June 1944.
Operation Overlord: D-Day, 6 June 1944. IWM A 23872 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence Source
Operation Overlord

Operation Jupiter, Hill 112 again

43rd (Wessex) Division attacked to retake Hill 112, the low chalk rise between the Odon and the Orne from which artillery observers could see across most of the southern approaches to Caen. Both sides understood that whoever held it controlled the ground. The hill changed hands repeatedly through July and was fought over at a cost out of all proportion to its size. It is remembered in Britain as one of the worst positions of the campaign.

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The bocage: an earth bank with a hedge grown into it, ringing every field.
The bocage: an earth bank with a hedge grown into it, ringing every field. US Army Signal Corps · NARA · Public domain Source
Operation Cobra

A mile a day, and it cannot go on

Seven weeks after the landings the American front had advanced a few miles into the hedgerows at a cost that had already exceeded the planners' estimate for the entire campaign to the Seine. Every field was a separate assault. Bradley's conclusion was that the method was wrong rather than the effort insufficient. A broad frontal push in this country simply consumed infantry. What was needed was one hole, made by something the Germans could not absorb.

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