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WWII On This Day: July 18

What happened on July 18 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1940 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
Japanese troops and trucks near Zhennanguan on the China–Indochina border on 22 September 1940 as the northern Indochina operation began.
Japanese troops and trucks near Zhennanguan on the China–Indochina border on 22 September 1940 as the northern Indochina operation began. Mainichi Shimbun · public domain (Japan) Source
The Second Sino-Japanese War

Britain closes the Burma Road and Japan enters northern Indochina

The Burma Road, 717 miles long, had been built by 200,000 Burmese and Chinese labourers and became operational in October 1938. In July 1940 Britain yielded to Japanese diplomatic pressure and closed it for three months. On 22 September Japan and the French authorities in Indochina signed the Decoux–Nishihara accord, seven and a half hours before a Japanese ultimatum expired, which allowed 6,000 Japanese troops to be stationed in Tonkin north of the Red River and gave transit rights for more. The main Japanese objective was to stop China importing…

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1944
British infantry and Sherman tanks waiting to advance at the start of Operation Goodwood, 18 July 1944.
British infantry and Sherman tanks waiting to advance at the start of Operation Goodwood, 18 July 1944. IWM B 7513 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence Source
Operation Overlord

Operation Goodwood, and the fall of Saint-Lô

Three armoured divisions attacked south-east of Caen behind the heaviest air bombardment yet used in support of ground troops. They gained around seven miles and lost heavily to anti-tank guns and dug-in armour sited in depth on the Bourguébus ridge. On the same day US First Army finally took Saint-Lô after weeks in the bocage, at a cost that gave the town its post-war name, the Capital of Ruins. Goodwood is still argued about: a breakthrough attempt, or a holding attack to fix the German armour in the east while…

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German prisoners of war captured during the Soviet summer offensive march through Moscow on 17 July 1944.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-696-0426-14A · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Operation Bagration

The offensive widens toward Brest, Lublin and the Baltic

1st Belorussian Front resumed a major advance on the southern wing toward Brest and Lublin while the northern fronts continued through Lithuania. The operation was no longer confined to the destruction of Army Group Centre in Belorussia; Soviet armies were now entering eastern Poland and threatening the land connection between the German forces in the Baltic and those defending central Poland. The wider frontage created opportunities and strain simultaneously. German formations had to cover several operational directions, but Soviet fronts also had to distribute fuel, artillery ammunition, bridge equipment and…

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American armour in the ruins of Saint-Lô, July 1944.
American armour in the ruins of Saint-Lô, July 1944. US Army Signal Corps · NARA · Public domain Source
Operation Cobra

Saint-Lô falls

Saint-Lô was taken after a fortnight of fighting that cost the 29th Division heavily, and was left almost completely destroyed. The town gave First Army the road junction and the start line it needed. The body of Major Thomas Howie, who had been killed leading his battalion towards the town, was carried in on the leading jeep at the request of his men and laid at the ruined church.

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