Day 1055 July 21, 1942

At 9.07 AM 40 miles Southwest of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico, U-84 badly damages US Liberty ship SS William Cullen Bryant. All 40 crew, 12 gunners and 2 Navy signalmen abandon ship, but reboard 2 hours later and are towed to Key West by tugs Moran and USS Willet. SS William Cullen Bryant will be repaired New York and return to service in March 1944. At 10.29 AM 5 miles North of Matelot Point, Trinidad, U-160 torpedoes British MV Donovania (3 crew and 2 gunners killed) which settles in shallow water. 43 crew and 2 gunners are picked up by British motor torpedo boats and US destroyer USS Livermore and landed at Port of Spain.

Operation Insect. British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle flies off 29 Spitfires. 28 Spitfires arrive at Malta but 1 has a leaky fuel tank and ditches in the Mediterranean.

Case Blue. German 1st Panzer Army and 17th Army converge from the West, North and East on Rostov-on-Don, near the Black Sea coast. The city is surounded by 3 defensive belts (bunkers, anti tank ditches and wire entanglements) 40km in depth. German 73rd and 298th Infantry Divisions, supported by the 13th Panzer Division, advance from the West along the road from Taganrog into the first belt.

Invasion of Papua. At 2.40 PM, 3000 Japanese soldiers land at Buna and Gona on the sparsely inhabited North coast of Papua. Japanese troops move inland to prepare roads and supply lines, with 1000 native Tolai labourers brought from Rabaul, to prepare for an overland offensive over the Owen Stanley Mountains to Port Moresby on the South coast.

First Battle of El Alamein, Egypt. At 4.30 PM, New Zealand 6th Brigade attack from South of Ruweisat Ridge into the El Mreir depression and hold these positions overnight. British 2nd and 23rd Armoured Brigades are scheduled to join them at daybreak.

Overnight, 15 miles off the East coast of Australia 90 miles South of Sydney, Japanese submarine I-11 sinks American SS Coast Farmer, carrying asphalt, tin plate, wood and general Army stores from Sydney to Melbourne (1 crewman killed, 33 crew and 7 US Navy gunners rescued next morning by an RAAF Crash Boat).