On this day during W.W. 2

The Marines were able to repel the attack on wake Island
  Two Destroyers destroyed and three damaged
  Way to go Marines

Dec 12 1944
  A V-2 hit the Rex Cinema in Antwerp killing 492 people and seriously injuring about 500 others
  German forces pulled back across the Roer River Maginot Line defenses blocked the U.S. Seventh Army
  British Eighth Army units crossed the Naviglio Canal and attacked Faenza on the Italian front

Dec 13 1941
  Japanese aircraft attacked U.S. Naval and Air bases in the Philippines
  The U.S. Department of Justice had interned 595 Japanese and 187 German alien Residents of the far western states.  The western Defense Command recommended to the secretary of war that 112,000 Japanese-American two thirds of whom were U.S. citizens be moved be moved from the srates bordering the pacific
  The Military, The Congress,The President, and the courts permitted those Japanese-Americans to be stripped of their property and confined in concentration camps

Dec 14 1941
  Japan and Thailand entered into an alliance. Bangkok retained some independece but the Japanese exercised what ever control necessary to operate in Thailand

Dec 13 -17 1939 This was the week that the Graf Spee was in the battle of the river Plate off the coast of Uruguay She was scuttled on the 17th

1941  The British Cruiser Galatea was sunk off the Egyptian coast by a German submarine.  The Japanese merchant ship Atsutasan Maru was sunk by the American Submarine Swordfish

1944  U.S. forces invaded Mindoro in the Philippines. Japanese suicide planes attacked the landing convoy, causing heavy damage and sinking two LST’s,  there was no opposition on the beaches and they were able to move inland quickly

Dec. 16 1940 The R.A.F. carried out a war cabinet directive to launch a massive  “area bombing” of a German city  (Operation Abigail). Mannheim was the choise,  134 Bombers sent, 103 actually made it, 10 were lost, 89 tons of high exposives 14,000 incendiaries, target submarine engine factories, 5 industrial plants were hit only 1 was seriously damaged

1941 Japanese forces invaded British Borneo,  Johnson Island in the Pacific was shelled by a Japanese Sub

1942 Russian forces advanced on the Don river front, inflicting heavy looses on the Italian Eighth Army.  an atempt to aid the German Sixth Army was abandoned after the fourth Panzer Army reached a point 40 miles from Stalingrad.

1944 In a carefully coordinated counter offensive the Germans launched a massive attack on the U.S. First and Ninth Armies along a 40 mile front in the Ardennes forest in Luxembourg (Battle of the Bulge) Paratroopers landing behind American lines, German fith and sixth Panzer, caught Americans by suprise, Rundstedt intended to advance to the Meuse River and the Albert canal and eventually to retake Antwerp

Dec 17 1939 TheGraf Spee was scuttled

1941 Red Army forces launch strong counter offensives along a broad front, while GermanArmy group South opened a new drive toward Sevastopol in the Crimea
  Top U.S. military commanders were replaced in the Pacific. Admiral  Chester W. Nimitzwas named commander of the Pacific Fleet. Lieutenant General Delos C Emmons became commanding General of the Hawian Department

1942 Russian units advance to a point 70 miles west of Stalingrad

1943 U.S. troops captured San Pietro while the Germans began pulling back at several sectors of the Italian front

1944 Allied Reinforcements were rushed into the Ardennes. The U.S. 82nd and the 101 Airborne Divisions  moved to defend key road junctions. The Germans made small gains in the direction of Malmedy.  Russian main force units were within 5 miles of Budapest

Dec 18 1939  12 of 24 R.A.F. Wellingtons were shot down by German Fighters while atempting to attack Naval targets around Wilhelmshaven and schillig.

1940  Hitler decided toproceed with the invasion of Russia even though Britian had not been knocked out of the war

1942  Heavy fighting broke out in New Guinea with U.S. and Australian forces launching Tank led attacks at several points

1943  Japanese Planes raided Kunming in Chinia in a move to lessen the threat to it’s forces from Burma who would shortly launch a drive against India

1944  Russian troops crossed the Hungarian Czech border on a 70 mile front north of Miskolc.  Hangkow in Chinia a Japanese major supply base, was attacked by U.S. 14th Air force planes including 77 B 29s

Dec 18 1933  Germany stated its position on disarmament to the French " the heavly armed states either have no intetion of disarming or do not feel in a position to do so. Germany is entitled to obtain, in one way or another,equality of treatment as regards her own security.  Germany defended the Nazi SA and SS as simple organizations whose solemission is to organize the political masses of our people so as to make the return of the Communist peril impossible forevermore and to immmunize the country, intellectually and physically against the risk of Communist disintegration

Dec 19 1939 The German passenger liner Columbus was scuttled about 450 miles east of cape May New Jersey.  The Columbus had been trailed by the american Cruiser Tuscaloosa since leaving Vera Cruz Mexico,  with the U.S. ship constantly reporting the Germans position by radio for any and all ships to hear. The captain of the Columbus felt his position was untenable and could not avoid seizure or sinking. He concluded scuttling was the only coarse of action. The Tuscaloosa’s actions made the U.S. position of neutrality highly suspect, but Berlin never protested for of irritating the U.S. and pushing them into the war

1941  Hitler assumed personal command of the German Army, replacing the ousted Field Marshal Brauchitsch who felt Moscow could not be taken and that the Germans should go on the defensive. Three Italian “human torpedo” teams led by prince Borghese,  entered Alexandria harbor in Egypt and seriously disabled  the British battle ships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant. The underwater demolition crews attached delayed action mines to the hulls.  The British cruiser Neptune stuck 4 mines off Malta and sank immediatly with only one survivor, British naval strenth in the Mediterranean reached its low point.  Japaneses troops crossed over to Hong Kong proper from Kowloon.  British troops were evacuated  from Pinang in Malaya.  Derna and Mechili in Libya were recaptured by the British

1942 Red Army troops reached Kantemirovka on the Voronezh-Rostov Rail line

1944  All Allied offensive actions against the Rhine were halted because of the German Ardennes offensive. Montgomerery was given command of all Allied forces north of the Bulge, Bradly all forces south. Bastogne was almost surrounded as the 101st Airborne Division arrived in the village
  A U.S. naval attack on luzon was posponed because of a Typhoon . The Japanese 35th Army on Leyte was told it could expect no further reinforcements or supplies.  The Typhoon inflicted heavy losses and damage to the U.S. 3rd fleet 3 Destroyers capsized 769 lives were lost,  severe damagewas suffered by 8 carriers a light Cruiser and7 Destroyers, and nearly 150 planes were lost off the Carrier deck

1938 All Jews in Danzig were ordered to leave by April 1st 1939

Dec 20 1941  Japanese troops landed at Davao, Mindano, in the Philippines.  The Flying Tigers entered combat for the first time,  successfully challenging Japanese Aircraft over Kunming

1942  An 8000 ton Japanese cargo ship hit a U.S. mine and sank off Cape Inubo due east of Tokyo.  It was the first Japanese ship lost in home waters after American subs began mining the coast

1943 Plans for an Allied amphibious assault on the west coast of Italy were cancelled because of a lack of landing craft and an inability to overcome the German defenses along the winter line  The Arawe peninsula on New Britian was cleared of all Japanese forces.  Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-Shek exchanged messages which showed a strong disagreement over future offensive operations in Burma.  Roosevelt hedged on further economic aid to the Chinese

1944 German troops advance to Stavelot and Noville and continued applying great pressure on U.S. forces at St-Vith.  Kawlin in Burma was captured by the 19th Indian Division

1937 Japanese shops and cottonmills in Tingstao were looted and burned byChinese mobs

Dec 21 1939 Rumania signed a new economic agreement with Germany

1940 Germany deplored the pro British position of the U.S. Berlin said its policy toward the U.S. was one of restraint onto selfeffacement.  Washingtons was "from morning untill nite of pinpricks injury insult challenge and moral aggresion.

1941 Japanese troops began massive landing operations at points along the coast of the Lingayen Gulf in the Pilippines, about 135 miles north of Manila.  Churchill cabled Governor Sir Mark Young of Hong Kong  “every day that you are able to mantain your resistance you help the Allied cause all over the world, and by a prolonged resistance you and your men can win the lasting honour which we are sure will be your lasting due”

1942 British eighth Army troops reached Sirte in Libya before halting

1943 A German Bridgehead over the Dnieper at Kherson was wiped out by the russians

1944 Bastogne came under siege. U.S> ammunition and food suplies were runninglow.  U.S. units beat back the German drive to take back Stavelot

Dec 22 1939  Finland launched an unexpected major counterattack against the Russians

1941 The first American troops arrived in Australia.  Japans 14th Army, under Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma was put ashore at Lingayen Gulf. This was the main force (about 40,000 men) of the Japanese offensive which took the Philippines.  Chiang Kai-shek offered two Chinese Armies to help the British defend Burma.  General Wavell accepted a division with a regiment to be held in reserve.    More than 32,000 Jews were murdered by German Einsatzgruppen execution squads in Vilna Lithuania.  Einsatzgruppen A  would report a total of 229,052 Jews in the Baltic states during the first six months of German occupation

1942 Soviet forces made new attacks in the Caucasus, striking south east of Nalchik as the Germans pilled back.  The British First Army renewed its drive for Tunis.

1943 Berlin threatened reprisals on British and American prisoners in retaliation for the Russian atrocity trials at Kharkov.  Heavy fighting devloped for Ortona with the first Canadian Division encoutering stiff German resistance. Ortona was the best port onthe Adriatic coast south of Pescara.

1944 German forces launh their final drive to reach the Meuse River. U.S. forces within the Bastogne pocket kept retreating  or were attempting to avoid fatal entrapment. Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, acting commander of the trapped 101st Airborne Division, was issued an ultamatum by the Germans at Bastogne :  Surrender honorably or face annihilation his famous reply was " Nuts" .    The U.S. third Army was by now beginning to attack the Germans in the Ardenns salient from the south having shifted from an offensive across the Saar, a brilliant maneuver by Patton.  The Vietnamese Liberation Army under Vo Nguyen Giap was formed in Indochina

Tanks a bunch the hollidays and a stomach bug had me under the weather again tanks

Dec 26 1939 The British began mining the east coast from the Moray Firth to the Thames estuary

1941 Russian forces landed on the Kerch Peninsula in an effort to relive Sevastopol.  The Japaanese broke through the Perak River defense line in Mayla and pushed through to Ipoh, which was evacuated by the defending Indian division.  Manila was declaired an open city. All troops were removed and military supplies destoyed.  Japanese bombings continued.

1942 More Allied troops and tanks were landed in New Guinea at Oro Bay.  Free French met no opposition in occupying French Somaliland. They secured the rail line from Djibouti to Addi Ababa.  Soviet troops advanced to within 105 miles of Rostov.

1943 In the classic duel between capital ships Scharnhorst was sunk while attempting to intercept an allied convoy to Murmansk. The German ship was first hit by 4 torpedoes launched by British and Norwegian destroyers. Badly damaged Scharnhorst was then attacked by the British Battleship Duke of York, 3 Cruisers and 6 Destroyers. Within minutes it rolled over to starboard and sank. The crew sang " Over a seaman’s Grave no roses bloom" as it was going under, and there were only 36 survivors  of the 1900 man crew.  Scharnhorsts destuuction ended effective German efforts to block the Murmansk convoys.  For the rest of the war thr Allied loss rate was only four percent for each convoy

1944 Bastogne’s siege was lifted as tanks of the U.S. 4th Armored Division broke the German enciclement. Only the tanks were able to penetrate initially as the Germans contested any advance through the corridor.  Thus ended the Ardennes offensive, a tactical victory for the Germans. But it was so costly that the German army was never able to recover from from its staggering losses, including 220,000 men (half of them prisoners) and more than 1,400 tanks and heavy assult guns.  The et effect of the final German offensive was to delay the Allies by 6 weeks.  The Akyab peninsula in Burma was cleared after the Japanese decided to withdraw.  Japanese naval ships attacked U.S. beachhead positions on Mindoro in the Phillipines.

Dec 27 1939 Washington protested the British seizure of U.S. mail en route to Europe.  France and Britian began seeking permission from Sweden for the shipment of “unoffical” aid to Finland through Sweden.  Two German Army noncommissoned officers were kiled by Poles in a Warsaw suburb bar. The bar owner was immidiatly hanged and 120 Poles selected at random were shot and killed.  Indian troops began arriving in France to join the British Expeditionary Force.

1941 British Commando raids were made on Vaagso and the Lofoten Islands of Norway.

1942 Indian forces reached the tip of Mayu peninsula in Burma. The drive for Akyab continued  unopposed.

1943 Ortona fell to the Allies after two weeks of house to house fighting in the Italian city.  The Marines at Cape Gloucester on New Britian advanced 3 miles toward the airfield.  Russian forces cut the Rail line out of Vitebsk.

1944 A secure corridor out of Bastogne was cleared as trucks and ambulances sped in to assist the trapped Americans.  Budapest was totally blocked as Russian forces sealed the city on all sides. Fighting broke out in the eastern and western suburbs

1937 Tsinan fell to the Japanese without opposition

Dec 28 1940 To stretch out its petroleum supplies the Japanese embarked on a substitute fuel program to power private automobiles. Charcoal was the prime replacement to be used instead of gasoline

1941 German and British tank forces inflicted heavy losses on each other as the 8th Army resumed offensive action and drove toward Agedabia.  Manila was bombed by Japanese planes.

1942 Hitler approved the withdrawal of Army Group A from the Caucasus.

1943 After prolonged bitter fighting, Ortona was finally captured by the British 8th Army.  British talks with the Turks were held to bring Turkey into the war.

1944 The projected advance toward Bologna by the U.S. 5th Army was postponed because of the losses sustained in the Serchio valley fighting. But the Germans were already beginning to withdraw from the valley.

1937 King Carol II of Rumania named an anti-semitic fascist, Octavian Goga to head the new Government. Goga immidiately embarked on a program to establish a dictatorship, extend the power of his party’s private Army, and restrict and harass Jews.

1933 General Kurt von Hammerstein, chief of the German Army Command, resigned. He was the last outspoken anti-Nazi military leaders, and Hitler was now able to manipulate the Army as he wished.

Dec 29 1939 Finnish forces administered a resounding defeat to the Russians at Suommusalmi.

1940 Roosevelt called for a direct arms aid program to Britian “The Nazi masters of Germany have made it clear that they intend not only to dominate all life and thought in their own country, but also to enslave the whole of Europe, and then to use the resources of Europe to dominate the rest of the world … The people of Europe who are defending themselves do not ask us to do their fighting. They ask us for the implements of war, the planes, the tanks, the guns, the freighters which willenable them to fight for their liberty and our security.”  Incendiary bombs were dropped in massive quantities on London. 1,500 fires were started.

1941 Kerch and Feodosiya were recaptured by Russiananphibious forces in the Crimea. the German, however, maintained their drive toward Sevestapol. On the central front the Germans continued withdrawing from the Moscow area.

1942 Kotelnikovo, southwest of Stalingrad, was recaptured by the Russians.

1943 The Russian first Ukrainian front, under Marshal Vatutin began a spectacular breakthrough along a 185 mile front west of Kiev. 22 German Divisions were hurled back to the Plish border.  The airfield at Cape Gloucester on New Britian was taken by U.S. Marines who suffered few casualties. Counter attacks on the Arawe peninsulawere repulsed.  Chinese 28th Division forces made progress in advancing toward the Tarung river in Burma, dispersing the Japanese at a key strongpoint.

1944 Door to door fighting broke out in central Budapest. The provisional Hungarian government declared war on Germany.

1934 Japan declared its intenion not to adhere to the provisions of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty which had established imposed limitations on the relative size of each Nations fleets ( 5, 5, 3, 1.67, 1.67 for the U.S., Britian, Japan, Italy, and France respectivel