Eighty years ago this week RAF Bomber Command wrecks a Panzer division but at heavy cost

 

361 RAF bombers attacked the training area of 21st Panzer division at Mailly-le-Camp as part of Bomber Command's new commitment to support the upcoming land battle for France. The camp was levelled and 37 tanks were destroyed but at a heavy cost. Delays in marking the target allowed Luftwaffe night-fighters time to attack and they shot down 42 Lancasters, a prohibitive loss rate of 11.6% and one of the worst suffered on a major raid.

The Red Army retook Sevastopol, which the Germans had never fully fortified during their occupation. The evacuation of Axis troops trapped on the Crimea was partially successful with some 30,000 troops rescued largely thanks to the Romanian navy. However, the Axis lost some 60,000 men (half German, half Romanian), many of whom were lost on ships sunk during the evacuation.

The administrative committee of the Labour Party voted to expel left-winger Nye Bevan when he voted against new defence regulations outlawing wildcat strikes, notably in the mines, which threatened to compromise the war effort. He accused the Labour minister of giving "a speech of an anti-trade union character the like of which I have never heard from the most die-hard Tory in this House or outside this House" in favour of the regulations. Bevan survived a vote by Labour MPs.

General Slim launched a counter-attack against the Japanese forces besieging Imphal and Kohima.  He chose the 15th division, the weakest opposing formation, as his immediate target. Progress was slow partly because the monsoon had broken, but the Japanese were already severely over-streched and at the limits of their endurance.

Gandhi was released from house arrest, ostensibly on health grounds. This was the end of his last detention by the British authorities.