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Post by emron on Jan 7, 2018 21:32:02 GMT 12
7 January 1940 Battle of Raate Road ended with the Finnish 9th Division routing the Soviet 44th Division over the past few days. On the same day, General Semyon Timoshenko took command of Soviet Army forces in Finland. British submarine HMS Undine spotted three trawlers 20 miles west of Heligoland, Germany and moved in to attack. The trawlers, actually minesweepers, counterattacked forcing Undine to dive. A depth charge attack caused damage to Undine's hydroplanes, leading to a forced scuttling. The crew of 27 was later rescued by the German minesweepers. Vessels of German First Minesweeper Flotilla reported sighting and attacking another submarine southeast of Heligoland. Examination of records after the war indicated that their target was possibly HMS/M Seahorse (96 S), that had sailed from England with 36 crew on 26 December 1939 for operations in the area, but was never heard from again.
7 January 1941 Admiral Somerville's Force H, consisted of battlecruiser HMS Renown, battleship HMS Malaya, aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, cruiser HMS Sheffield, and 7 destroyers, departed Gibraltar to cover the Excess convoy which left Gibraltar on the previous day. Admiral Cunningham's Mediterranean Fleet, consisted of battleship HMS Warspite, battleship HMS Valiant, aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, and 7 destroyers departed Alexandria, Egypt, to meet the Excess convoy. Australian 6th Division and British 4th Armoured Division approached Tobruk, Libya after capturing Acroma 10 miles to the west. British forces captured Tobruk airport. The Australian 19th Brigade reached the perimeter defences on the eastern side of Tobruk.
7 January 1942 Japanese tanks wiped out the Indian 11th Division at Slim River, British Malaya early in the morning; by 0930 hours, both the road and railway bridges were secured by Japanese troops and they advanced rapidly 19 miles toward Kuala Lumpur. A Japanese invasion force departed Davao, Mindanao, Philippines for Tarakan, Dutch Borneo. The siege of Bataan began as U.S. and Filipino forces completed their withdrawal from the Layac Line. A Japanese air raid on Rabaul on New Britain Island, destroyed a Hudson and 2 Wirraways and damaged 2 other Hudsons, all of No. 24 Squadron RAAF.
7 January 1943 The 7,152 ton British passenger/cargo ship SS Benalbanach was sunk about 150 nautical miles northwest of Algiers, Algeria, when the convoy she was part of was attacked by a single German aircraft. She was carrying 389 men of a motor transport unit and a crew of 74 and was en route from the U.K. to Bone, Algeria. The Benalbanach was hit by two torpedoes launched from the aircraft. The ship caught fire, blew up and sank almost immediately taking the lives of 57 crew members and 353 service personnel. Her captain died in the water just as he was about to be rescued. In the western Mediterranean off Algiers, minesweeping trawler HMS Horatio was torpedoed and sunk by German MTB S-58 and minesweeping trawler HMS Jura was torpedoed and sunk by U-371 off Algiers. SS Ville de Strasbourg was damaged by U-371 in the same action. USAAF B-17, B-24, B-25, and A-20 bombers, escorted by USAAF P-38 fighters and RAAF Catalina flying boats, attacked a Japanese convoy en route to Lae, New Guinea, sinking transport Nichiryu Maru off Gasmata, New Britain.
7 January 1944 Southern Italy: The British X Corps and the US II Corps broke through the Germans' winter defensive line. The village of San Vittore fell yesterday and today, after a vicious battle, the Germans were driven off Monte Porchia. But the British 46th Division was forced back after several attempts to get its tanks across the flooded river Peccia.
7 January 1945 The last RAF Bomber Command Wellington operation was flown in the night by the crew of a No 192 Squadron Wellington Mk. X based at RAF Foulsham, Norfolk, England. The Wellington was on a radar countermeasures flight over the North Sea. Bad weather caused the flight to be curtailed but the Wellington returned safely, the last of more than 47,000 sorties carried out by this type in Bomber Command service. The USAAF Eighth Air Force flew Mission 785: 1,073 bombers and 700 fighters attacked communications centres, rail targets, bridges and an oil storage depot in western Germany using PFF methods; three bombers and a fighter were lost. During the night RAF Bomber Command dispatched 645 Lancasters and nine Mosquitos to bomb Munich; 597 bombed the target with the loss of 11 Lancasters and four more crash in France. This was the last major raid on Munich. In major strikes against targets on Luzon Island, large numbers of USAAF Far East Air Forces B-25 Mitchells and A-20 Havocs, supported by P-38 Lightnings, hit the network of airstrips from Clark Field to Angeles Airfield, B-24 Liberators bombed Nielson and Grace Park Airfields and Nichols Field and B-25s and fighter-bombers pounded bridges in the Plaridel and Calumpit areas. B-24s raided Padada and Daliao Airfields on Mindanao Island. In Lingayen Gulf, Japanese air attacks in the area continued and two USN high speed minesweepers are sunk: USS Hovey was sunk by an aerial torpedo and USS Palmer by bombs. Destroyers USS Charles Ausburne, Braine, Russell, and Shaw opened fire with their guns and sank the Japanese destroyer HIJMS Hinoki, about 86 nautical miles west of Manila.
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Post by emron on Jan 7, 2018 8:41:08 GMT 12
6 January 1940 Two Finnish Fokker fighters destroyed seven Ilyushin bombers over Utti, 60 miles north-east of Helsinki. Lieutenant Jorma Sarvanto shot down six of the bombers in five minutes before running out of ammunition. Another Fokker D.XXI later finished the remaining plane. The New Zealand 4th Brigade sailed from Auckland for Egypt in six transports escorted by the battleship HMS Ramillies, heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra and light cruiser HMS Leander.
6 January 1941 The German Hilfskreuzer (Auxiliary Cruiser) Kormoran sank Greek freighter Antonis in mid-Atlantic. The Greek ship was carrying 4.800 tons of coal, her 28 man crew (and one blind passenger) were all taken aboard Kormoran. Overnight, Greek destroyers shelled the Albanian port of Vlorë. 20 miles south, Italian destroyers Alfieri, Carducci, Fulmine, and Gioberti and torpedo boats Partenope, Pallade, Romeda, and Altair shelled Greek positions at Porto Palmermo. The Greek offensive against Italian positions in the mountains of Albania reached the strategically important Klisura Pass on the river Vjosë, which, if captured, would allow Greek forces in the centre of the front to link up with troops on the coast, but it was met with stiff resistance. A Free French force under Lieutenant Colonel Jean Colonna d'Ornano attacked Murzuk airfield in southwestern Libya from Chad, capturing the airfield, but d'Ornano was killed in action. British 4th Armoured Division advanced 50 miles from Bardia, Libya to capture Belhamed to the east of Tobruk and the airfield at El Adem 8 miles to the south. Patrols were now conducted 10 miles west of Tobruk at Acroma. British convoy Excess (British ships Essex, Clan Cumming, Clan Macdonald, and Empire Song) departed from Gibraltar for Malta and Greece, escorted by anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Bonaventure (carrying 400 troops) and destroyers HMS Hereward, Jaguar, Hasty and Hero. British cruisers HMS Gloucester and Southampton, escorted by destroyers HMS Ilex and Janus, departed Alexandria, Egypt, at 1315 hours to carry 510 Army and RAF personnel to Malta and to meet Excess convoy which had departed from Gibraltar on the same day. Ju87s of the Luftwaffe's X, Fliegerkorps under General Geisler began operating out of Sicily.
6 January 1942 11 British RAF Coastal Command bombers attacked Sola Airfield at Stavanger, Norway in indirect support of the naval attack at Florø, Norway. British cruiser HMS Sheffield, destroyer HMS Inglefield, and destroyer HMS Intrepid departed Scapa Flow, Scotland for Operation Kitbag. The British 1st Armoured Division, recently arrived from U.K., relieved the 7th Armoured Division of 13 Corps, British Eighth Army, reached Antelat, Libya. The port at Derna opened to traffic. The deployment of German and Italian troops along the line El Agheila-Marada was completed. As Rommel took delivery of 55 new tanks, the British advance reached Mersa Brega and El Agheila. Having accepted the nomination of Chiang Kai-shek as Supreme Commander of an Allied China Theatre, the Chinese asked that a senior U.S. officer be sent to China to act as chief of the Generalissimo's Allied staff. On the Indian 11th Division front, Malaya, the Indian 6/15 Brigade Group reached the Batang Berjuntai area and took up defensive positions south of Selangor River. The Kuantan force completed their withdrawal from eastern Malaya through Jerantut during night and continued west in the Raub area. A Japanese amphibious force landed at Brunei Bay, British Borneo. During the night, seven Japanese flying-boats attacked Ambon Island for the first time, damaging two RAAF Hudsons and a Buffalo based at Laha. After destructive artillery exchanges on Luzon in the morning, the Japanese, having the advantage of aerial spotting, attacked the overextended delaying line south of Layac Junction in force and made a limited penetration entering Dinalupihan without opposition. The withdrawal from this line began during the night. Nine Japanese flying boats from Truk, Caroline Islands, attacked Vunakanau Airfield at Rabaul, New Britain, destroying a direction-finding station and damaging a Wirraway fighter, a Hudson bomber, and the runways; one Wirraway fighter was scrambled and reached the flying boats, but it failed to hit the attackers. The Second Marine Brigade (Brigadier General Henry L. Larsen, USMC) embarked in troop transports (former Matson Line passenger liners) SS Lurline, SS Monterey and SS Matsonia, and cargo ship USS Jupiter (AK-43) and ammunition ship USS Lassen sailed from San Diego, California, for Pago Pago, American Samoa. The initial escort was provided by Task Force 17 (Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher), formed around aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5).
6 January 1943 In a conference between Adolf Hitler and Erich Raeder, Hitler continued to express his anger in the German Navy's ineffectiveness during the recent Battle of the Barents Sea. Admiral Raeder, supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine, offered his resignation. The Free French captured the Axis base at Oum-el-Araneb, Libya. In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-26 Marauders bombed the forces in the Sanananda Point area; A-20 Havocs bombed Lae Airfield. In the Solomons Sea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators, B-26 Marauders and P-38 Lightnings attacked a convoy heading southwest off the coast of New Britain heading for Lae, New Guinea.
6 January 1944 Thrusting west in a great salient from Kiev, General Vatutin's First Ukrainian Front crossed the pre-war border of Poland and chased the Germans to the gates of Sarny, an important junction on the railway from Kiev to Warsaw. In the U.S. Fifth Army's II Corps area, Italy, Task Force A of the 1st Armoured Division reached the crest on the north end of Mt. Porchia and held firm against a counterattack. The 135th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division, completed clearing St. Vittore by 1700 hours local and drove closer to La Chiaia while the 168th Infantry Regiment continued an outflanking movement to the north, making slow progress. 1st Special Service Force was reinforced by two battalions of the 133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division, to temporarily continue operations as Task Force B. Task Force B attacked toward Mt. Majo from Mt. Arcalone. US troops pressed southwards from Cape Gloucester, New Britain, to the Aogiri river. The ADC Group (7th Marine Regiment reinforced by a battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment and supporting units) renewing their southward attack, cleared Hill 150, south of Target Hill. USAAF Thirteenth Air Force P-38 Lightnings swept the Rabaul area, claiming nine "Zeke" fighters shot down during a running battle over the Cape Gazelle area. USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and RNZAF Venturas bombed and strafed targets in the Choiseul Bay area of New Georgia Island, including jetty areas and buildings at Tarekekori, targets on Morgusaia Island, and gun positions on Kondakanimboko Island. On Espiritu Santo, Major General Hubert R. Harmon took command of the USAAF Thirteenth Air Force.
6 January 1945 The USAAF XX Bomber Command flew Mission 25: 49 Chengtu, China-based B-29 Superfortresses were dispatched to bomb an aircraft factory at Omura, Kyushu Island; 28 hit the primary target, 13 bombed a secondary target at Nanking, China while six attacked targets of opportunity; one B-29 was lost. This was XX Bomber Command's last mission against targets in Japan. Future operations against Japan would be undertaken by XXI Bomber Command based at Saipan, Marianas. Task Groups 77.2 [battleships USS California, Colorado, Mississippi, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and supporting cruisers and destroyers] and 77.6 (Minesweeping and Hydrographic Group) reached Lingayen Gulf area and began naval bombardment and mine sweeping. Japanese suicide plane attacks intensified against Lingayen Gulf invasion force; kamikazes damaged battleships USS New Mexico and California, heavy cruiser USS Louisville, light cruiser USS Columbia and destroyers USS Allen M. Sumner, Newcomb (she is also hit by friendly fire), O'Brien and Richard P. Leary. Kamikazes attacked the minesweeping group, sinking high speed minesweeper USS Long and damaging high speed minesweeper USS Southard and high speed transport USS Brooks. Destroyer USS Walke on detached duty covering the minesweeping operations was attacked by four enemy aircraft; one crashed the ship's bridge, drenching it with burning gasoline and mortally wounding her commanding officer, Commander George F. Davis. Rear Admiral Theodore Chandler died of injuries sustained on the previous day when his flagship, the cruiser USS Louisville was struck by a Japanese kamikaze special attack. When battleship New Mexico was struck by Japanese special attack aircraft, among the men killed were members of an observing British military mission, including Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden, Winston Churchill's personal military representative to General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. Lumsden became the most senior British Army combat casualty of the Second World War. Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, commander in chief of the British Pacific Fleet, also on the bridge of New Mexico, survived the attack with only minor injuries.
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Post by emron on Jan 5, 2018 18:14:48 GMT 12
5 January 1940 Oliver Stanley became the British Secretary of State for War with the resignation of Leslie Hore-Belisha. The Finnish 9th Division started an attack in the Raate road, which led to nearly complete destruction of Soviet's 44th Division in two days. The first Soviet air attack on the general headquarters town of Mikkeli caused 29 dead. As the first Norwegian volunteer fighters left Oslo for Finland, the first Swedish volunteers arrived.
5 January 1941 While flying an Airspeed Oxford for the ATA from Prestwick via Blackpool to RAF Kidlington near Oxford, Amy Johnson went off course in adverse weather conditions. Reportedly out of fuel, she bailed out as her aircraft crashed into the Thames Estuary near Herne Bay. The crew of trawler HMS Haslemere spotted Johnson's parachute coming down and saw her alive in the water, calling for help. Conditions were poor – there was a heavy sea and a strong tide, snow was falling and it was intensely cold. Lt Cmdr Walter Fletcher, the commander of Haslemere, dived into the water in an attempt to rescue Johnson. Fletcher failed in the attempt and he died in hospital days later as a result of the intense cold. Amy Johnson's body was never recovered. Bardia, Libya, was captured by troops led by Major General Richard O'Connor after an assault of less than four days. The Australian 6th Division took 45,000 prisoners including four generals, 462 guns, 130 tanks and over 700 trucks; Australian casualties were 130 KIA and 326 WIA. This was Australia's first major land battle of the war.
5 January 1942 The Soviet Army landed reinforcements on the Crimean coast near Eupatoria and Sudak, in an effort to break the siege of the Sevastopol naval base, but could make little headway against firm German resistance. On the central front south of Kaluga, Soviet forces held Belev, west of the Oka River. Action on northern front along the Volkhov River was indecisive. In the Ionian Sea, the 5,413 ton Italian auxiliary cruiser and former passenger ship SS Citta di Palermo was en route from Brindisi, Italy, to Patras, Greece, escorting the motor vessel MV Calino. On board SS Citta di Palermo were about 600 Italian troops. At 0800 hours. when 30 miles northwest of Cape Dukato, Lefkas Island, Greece she was struck by two torpedoes fired by submarine HMS/M Proteus. The Palermo took only six minutes to sink. There were only a few survivors. The Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet moved HQ from Singapore to Batavia, Java, Netherlands East Indies. Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya Command, at a conference in Segamat, planned for a withdrawal into Johore. On the Slim River front, the Indian 11th Division repelled an enemy attack down the railway line.
5 January 1943 Soviet forces took Tsimlyansk and Morozovsk, the main airfield used by the Luftwaffe to supply Stalingrad. The V Corps, British First Army, broke off action on Djebel Azag and Djebel Ajred, Tunisia after hard fighting in heavy rain, withdrawing the assault force (36th Brigade, 78th Division) to their original positions. The US 5th Army, under General Mark Clark, became operational with headquarters at Oujda, French Morocco. Solomons: The two groups of Task Force 67 rejoined this morning about 12 miles off the western end of Guadalcanal and headed east. Rear-Admiral Tisdale's group being to the northward in the order Honolulu (flag), Achilles, Columbia, Louisville. At 9.25 a.m. when the ships were off Cape Hunter on the south coast of Guadalcanal, a group of four aircraft was seen spiralling down through the high clouds at an angle of sight of about 40 degrees ahead of Achilles and the aircraft alarm was sounded. The aircraft followed one another in quick succession, the first three attacking the Honolulu and the fourth HMNZS Achilles. The Achilles was swinging to starboard when a bomb hit the top of ‘X’ turret (manned by Royal Marines), piercing the roof and exploding on the right-hand gun. The gun-house was wrecked; eleven men were killed outright, two died of wounds, and eight others were seriously wounded. The explosion blew the right side of the turret overboard and split the roof in two, throwing one half on to the quarter-deck together with the Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun mounted on the turret; the other half landed upside down on the turret. Fires were confined to the turret and quickly extinguished. Task Force 67 retired at high speed to the south-eastward and covered the withdrawal of the transport convoy from Guadalcanal, arriving at Espiritu Santo on 8 January. Temporary repairs to the damaged turret of the Achilles were carried out by the American repair ship Vestal. Major General Alexander Patch, Commanding General US XIV Corps on Guadalcanal issued his 1st phase orders for clearing Guadalcanal. He set a line from the beach inland 3500 yards, which is 3000 yards west of the US lines as his first objective. This area contained the Gifu, the Seahorse and the Galloping Horse as the well known geographical features and/or Japanese defensive positions. The newly arrived 25th Division would lead this phase. Meanwhile unknown to the Allies the Japanese had begun secret plans for Operation Ke, the withdrawal of all of their troops from Guadalcanal, while holding out at the Gifu until complete.
5 January 1944 US Fifth Army began its final assault on the Winter Line, Italy. The British X Corps withdrew from the Peccia River bridgehead, since tanks were unable to cross the river. Mt. Porchia, which dominated Cedro Hill, was still held by the Germans. USN submarine USS Scorpion departed Pearl Harbour on 29 December for her fourth war patrol in the Yellow Sea. On 3 January, she topped off her fuel at Midway Islands and headed west. Today, she attempted to rendezvous with sister ship USS Herring to transfer an injured crewmember. Heavy seas prevented the transfer and Scorpion continued west. She was not heard from again and assumed to be the victim of a Japanese mine; she was declared lost on 6 March 1944.
5 January 1945 The USAAF Ninth Air Force's 9th Bombardment Division attacked rail bridges at Ahrweiler, Simmern, and Bullay, Germany, and communications centres at Gouvy, Houffalize, and near Durler, Belgium, and Massen, Luxembourg. Fighters escorted the bombers. VIII Bomber Command bombers flew armed reconnaissance, attacked airfields, communications centres, traffic concentrations, and other targets, and supported the US III and VIII Corps west and east of Bastogne and the 2nd and 3rd Armoured Divisions near Manhay, Belgium. In the British Eighth Army area, Italy, the British V Corps and Canadian I Corps completed limited attacks to improve the Winter Line positions. The two corps linked up along the Senio River between Cotignola and St. Severo. The Canadian I Corps advanced to the Reno River except on the extreme right. Operation GRUBWORM, one of the major air transport achievements of the war, was completed on this date, one month from its start. The Chinese 14th and 22nd Divisions, Chinese Sixth Army Headquarters, a heavy mortar company, a signal company, and two portable surgical hospitals have been airlifted from Assam, India. The move required 1,328 transport sorties; Air Transport Command provided 597 sorties; the air commando squadrons, 488; and Tenth Air Force, 243; the airlift included over 25,000 Chinese soldiers, 396 U.S. soldiers, 1,596 animals, 42 jeeps, 48 howitzers, 48 heavy mortars, and 48 antitank guns; the troops and supplies have been landed at Chanyi, Kunming, Luliang, and Yunnani, China. Only three aircraft were lost during the operation. In major strikes of the day in the Netherlands East Indies (NEI), USAAF Far East Air Forces (FEAF) B-25 Mitchells and P-38 Lightnings and RAAF Beaufighters bombed Menado on Celebes Island while FEAF B-24 Liberators attacked Miri Airfield in Sarawak, British Borneo. Numerous smaller strikes were flown throughout the NEI. Fighter-bombers and B-24 Liberators hit the Pombelaa and Tondano area, and targets of opportunity on northeastern Celebes Island. Other FEAF aircraft flew scattered strikes at various targets in Borneo, Lesser Sunda Islands, and Tanimbar Island in the Moluccas Islands. In the South China Sea, Japanese air attacks continued against the Lingayen Gulf-bound forces in the teeth of heavy antiaircraft fire and combat air patrol. Of the minesweeping group, an infantry landing craft (gunboat) was damaged by a kamikaze, a small seaplane tender and a fleet tug were damaged by near-misses of suicides. Kamikazes attacking the bombardment and escort carrier groups succeeded in damaging heavy cruiser USS Louisville and destroyer USS Helm, escort aircraft carriers USS Manila Bay and USS Savo Island and destroyer escort USS Stafford, west of Subic. Suicides also damaged Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Australia and destroyer HMAS Arunta. Japanese escort destroyers approached the minesweeping group but turned away at approach of destroyer USS Bennion and Australian frigate HMAS Gascoyne and sloop HMAS Warrego. Subsequently, planes from TG 77.4 (escort carrier group) sank HIJMS Momi 20 nautical miles southwest of the entrance to Manila Bay and damaged HIJMS Hinoki and Sugi west of Manila Bay. US Task Group 94.9 (Rear Admiral Allan E. Smith), consisting of the heavy cruisers USS Chester, Pensacola and Salt Lake City with destroyers USS Cummings, David W. Taylor, Dunlop, Ellet, Fanning and Roe together with USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators (escorted by P-38 Lightnings) jointly bombarded Japanese shipping and installations on Chichi Jima and Haha Jima. Approaching Chichi Jima, USS Dunlap, Fanning and Cummings damaged a landing ship and USS Fanning sank her. Off Chichi Jima, USS David W. Taylor was damaged by a mine and USS Fanning by gunfire. USN Task Force 92 (Rear Admiral John L. McCrea), consisting of the light cruisers USS Concord, Richmond and Trenton with eight destroyers, bombarded Japanese installations (airfield and fish canneries) at Suribachi Wan, Paramushiro, Kurile Islands. Four USAAF Eleventh Air Force B-24 Liberators flew an air coverage mission for a naval task force on its approach to Paramushiru Island.
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Post by emron on Jan 4, 2018 23:18:31 GMT 12
4 January 1941 Allied troops reached Bardia, Libya at about 1600 hours, splitting the Italian defenders into two groups, shaking Italian morale, causing large numbers of Italian troops to surrender. General Archibald Wavell, Commander in Chief Middle East Command, ordered British forces to advance into Cyrenaica, to exploit their victory against the Italians. 7th Armoured Division under Major General Michael Creagh detoured around Bardia and marched toward Tobruk.
4 January 1942 The Indian 11th Division forces on the River Slim were bombarded by Japanese aircraft as it prepared defensive positions. A Japanese force moved south along the west coast to the Selangor River, then east along the river, threatening the communications line at Rawang. To meet this threat, the Indian 6/15 Brigade Group started toward Batang Berjuntai. During the night eight B-17 Flying Fortresses based at Singosari Airdrome, Java, Netherlands East Indies, staged through Samarinda Airdrome, Dutch Borneo, and attacked Japanese warships and transports in Malalag Bay, Davao, Mindanao Island and damaged heavy cruisers HIJMS Myoko and Nachi. Major General George Brett assumed command of the U.S. Forces in Australia. One of his first orders was to divert two transports en route from Brisbane, Queensland, to the Philippine Islands to put in at Darwin, Northern Territory. This effectively ended the effort to reinforce the troops in the Philippines. The Japanese began an air offensive against Rabaul on New Britain Island, the strategic base in the Bismarck Archipelago, garrisoned by 5,400 men (principally the Australian 2/22d Battalion, 8th Division; an RAAF detachment; 100 men of the New Guinea Volunteer Reserve; and a few Royal Australian Navy officers). 16 Type 96 G3M bombers of Chitose Air Group of Japanese Navy 24th Air Flotilla, based at Truk in Caroline Islands reached Rabaul, New Britain at 1100 hours, where they were able to attack various military facilities with minimal resistance (only 2 Wirraway fighters scrambled, while anti-aircraft guns were ineffective)
4 January 1943 Caucasus: Nalchik Chernyakovsky, the rail centre on the River Chir fall to the Soviet Army. A severe two-day storm began in Libya, sharply decreasing the capacity of Benghazi port and forcing the British Eighth Army to make greater use of the more distant port of Tobruk. USAAF Tenth Air Force heavy bombers from Gaya and Pandaveswar, India bombed the marshalling yard at Mandalay, halting the northbound flow of supplies. Tracks and cars in the southern half of the marshalling yard were heavily bombed, causing fires visible for 70 miles. Heavy bombers also damaged a 15,000-ton transport at the mouth of the Rangoon River. Meanwhile, one B-25 Mitchell and nine P-40s hit rail targets at Naba. The US Army 161st Infantry, the US 6th Marine Regiment, and the headquarters of the US 2nd Marine Division arrived at Guadalcanal in a convoy escorted by TF-67. The Task Force was then split: Task Group 67.2 comprising light cruisers USS Nashville, St. Louis and Helena and destroyers Fletcher and O'Bannon, under Rear Admiral Ainsworth, sailed to bombard a Japanese Airfield on Munda, New Georgia; The rest of the force operated as a distant support group under Rear Admiral Tisdale; it included the heavy cruiser Louisville, light cruisers Honolulu, Columbia and HMNZS Achilles.
4 January 1944 Allied aircraft started Operation Carpetbagger, regular supply missions to partisans in the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Italy. USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators bombed Sohano Island, concentrating on the seaplane base and supply area. B-25 Mitchells hit gun positions at Tonolai and bomb Chabai on Bougainville Island. P-39 Airacobras, New Zealand (PV-1) Ventura's, and night fighters, operating individually or in small flights, hit targets on Bougainville, including barges at Mutupina Point and along the Jaba River, and areas around Buka, Buka Island, Bonis, Poporang Island, Papas, and Banin. Aircraft of USN Task Group 37.2 bombed Japanese shipping at Kavieng, New Ireland Island, damaging destroyers HIJMS Fumizuki and Satsuki in Stephen Strait. Task Group 37.2 was comprised of the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill, with Carrier Air Group 17 (CVG-17), the small aircraft carrier USS Monterey with Light Carrier Air Group 30 (CVLG-30), the battleship USS Washington and six destroyers.
4 January 1945 USN Task Force 38 continued operations against Japanese airfields and shipping in the Formosa area. Navy planes sank three auxiliary submarine chasers and damaged an escort vessel and an auxiliary submarine chaser in the Formosa Strait; sank an auxiliary netlayer northeast of Taiwan; and damaged a minesweeper near Takao, Fleet Air Arm aircraft from the aircraft carriers Indomitable, Indefatigable and Victorious launched a major air strike against the Japanese oil refineries at Pangkalan Brandan in Sumatra. Escort carrier USS Ommaney Bay was struck by a Japanese kamikaze attack south of Mindoro, Philippine Islands. A twin-engined bomber crashed on the starboard side and two bombs were released; one of them penetrated the flight deck and detonated below, setting off a series of explosions among the fully-fuelled aircraft on the forward third of the hangar deck. The second bomb passed through the hangar deck, ruptured the fire main on the second deck, and exploded near the starboard side. Fires fuelled by fuel and ammunition, prevented other ships for coming close and by 1750 hours the entire topside area had become untenable The order to abandon ship was given at 1945 hours, the ship was sunk about 53 nautical miles northwest of San Jose, Panay, by a torpedo from the destroyer USS Burns. A total of 95 crewmen were lost, including two killed on an assisting destroyer when torpedo warheads on the carrier's hangar deck finally exploded.
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Post by emron on Jan 3, 2018 22:43:31 GMT 12
3 January 1941 At 0530 hours, the British artillery barrage began, hitting Italian defensive positions at Bardia, Libya. At 0600 hours, Australian 6th Division began its assault from the west, clearing anti-tank obstacles for the 23 tanks of the British 7th Royal Tank Regiment that began attacking at 0650 hours. Between 0810 and 0855 hours, battleships HMS Warspite, Valiant and Barham, along with destroyers, monitors, and gunboats, bombarded Bardia with 244 15-inch shells, 270 6-inch shells, 250 4.5-inch shells, and many smaller calibres. The ground forces would penetrate 2 miles into the Italian lines. Midshipman Prince Philip of Greece had joined the crew of battleship HMS Valiant for this action. The first Luftwaffe units arrived to back up the Italian forces in Albania. Washington: President Roosevelt announced at a press conference here today a programme for building about 200 new merchant ships in one year to take the place of shipping being sunk in the war.
3 January 1942 Washington: President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill announced the creation of a unified command in the Southwest Pacific, with British General Sir Archibald Wavell as supreme commander of American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) forces in that area. Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was named Commander in Chief of Allied Forces in China.
3 January 1943 Exploiting the German withdrawal in the Caucasus, the Red Army occupied Mozdok and Malgobek. TUNISIA: An Axis tank-infantry force, with artillery and air support, overran the French 19th Corps troops at Fondouk. The British First Army's V Corps, employing the 36th Brigade of the 78th Division, began limited attacks to improve positions on Djebel Azag and Djebel Ajred, west of Mateur. The British 6th Armoured Division conducted a reconnaissance in force on the Goubellat plain. All USAAF XII Fighter Command units (A-20 Havocs and DB-7 Bostons) attacked Axis tanks at Fondouk. Japanese supplies and reinforcements were landed at Lae under Allied air attacks.
3 January 1944 In the U.S. Fifth Army area, Italy, II Corps prepared for final phase of assault on the Winter Line, to begin on 5 January. During the night the 1st Special Service Force, as a preliminary for the attack on Mt. Majo, began clearing the ridge southeast of this feature. The French Expeditionary Corps (FEC) under General Alphonse Juin, took command of the zone on the north flank of Fifth Army as the U.S. VI Corps withdrew from the line to participate in amphibious assault on Anzio. The 3rd Algerian Division began relief of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division. Top Marine ace Major Gregory Boyington with 28 confirmed victories over his career, was himself shot down. He was picked up by a Japanese submarine and dropped off at Rabaul. He spent the next 20 months in Japanese prison camps. After returning from her third convoy duty, the destroyer USS Turner was anchored off Sandy Hook, New Jersey waiting to go to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for repairs. The next morning, a series of unexplained explosions rocked her ammunition storage areas, turning the ship into an inferno. Another explosion ripped the bottom out of the Turner and she sank by the stern taking with her 15 officers and 138 ratings. 165 survivors were taken to the hospital at Sandy Hook, the lives of injured saved by blood plasma flown from Brooklyn to a hospital in Sandy Hook by CDR Frank Erickson in a Coast Guard HNS-1 helicopter, the first recorded mercy mission conducted by a rotary wing aircraft.
3 January 1945 USN Task Force 38 (Vice Admiral John S. McCain) began operations against Japanese airfields and shipping in the Formosa area, principally along the west coast. TF 38 planes sank a landing ship, five cargo ships and damaged five army cargo ships. TF 38 consisted of five battleships, 11 aircraft carriers, five small aircraft carriers, three heavy cruisers, 14 light cruisers and 56 destroyers. The USAAF Twentieth Air Force's XXI Bomber Command flew Mission 17: 97 Mariana Island-based B-29 Superfortresses were sent to bomb docks and urban areas of Nagoya; 57 hit the primary target and 21 others bombed alternates and targets of opportunity; Japanese fighters flew over 300 attacks on the B-29s and five were lost.
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Post by emron on Jan 2, 2018 22:27:31 GMT 12
2 January 1940 Battle of the Raate Road: At midnight, Finnish Army Captain Eino Lassila launched an attack on a 500 metre section of Russian artillery on the Raate Road. At 0700, Russian troops attempted a counterattack with tanks, but the Finnish troops were able to bring two Bofors anti-tank guns to the front to halt the counterattack, destroying 7 of the Russian tanks.
2 January 1941 Before dawn, British artillery pieces moved into position near Bardia, Libya. During the day, British monitor HMS Terror and British gunboats HMS Ladybird and HMS Aphis bombarded Bardia; Italian aircraft responded without success. After sun down, Wellington bombers of No. 70 Squadron RAF and Bombay bombers of No. 216 Squadron RAF attacked Italian positions at Bardia. Troops of the Australian 6th Division began to prepare for the ground assault. German submarine U-65 sank British ship SS Nalgora 250 miles west of Port-Étienne, French West Africa. All the military equipment destined for British troops in Egypt went down with the ship, 105 survivors took to lifeboats and would eventually make land at the Cape Verde Islands or rescue by other ships. 2 January 1942 German submarine U-134 sank British ship SS Waziristan in the Barents Sea at 0648 hours. Waziristan had sailed as part of convoy PQ-7a with another merchant ship SS Cold Harbor (Panama) escorted by two armed trawlers. Before the sinking she had become separated from the other vessels and been damaged by Luftwaffe bombing. U-134 observed how the crew abandoned ship before it broke in two and sank, however none of the 47 that had been aboard were ever seen again. Also lost with Waziristan were 3,700 tons of supplies including 1000 tons of copper and 410 Ford trucks for the Soviet Union. She was the first ship to be sunk on an Arctic convoy. Following a prolonged offensive by the South African 2nd Infantry Division and the New Zealand Divisional Cavalry Regiment, 7,000 Axis troops surrendered to the Allies at Bardia, Libya. Lieutenant E. W. Kerr of C Squadron, NZ Divisional Cavalry Regiment accepted the surrender of German General Artur Schmitt, commander of the Bardia garrison. C Squadron became the first Allied force to enter Bardia. HQ and B Squadrons entered Bardia after Kerr's troop, releasing Allied prisoners. The American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) raided a Japanese air base in Thailand, one of the first offensive air strikes by the Allies in Asia. Japanese force reached Telok Anson via the Perak River and went ashore, greatly increasing the threat to the Indian III Corps. The 1st Independent Company and Indian 3rd Cavalry Squadron defending this area, were forced back through the Indian 12th Brigade Group, which in turn came under severe pressure. In the Philippines Japanese troops occupied Cavite naval base and the capital of Manila as US forces withdrew to the Bataan peninsula.
2 January 1943 German Army Group A began withdrawing the 1st Panzer Army northward toward Rostov to prevent it from becoming encircled. The Italian light cruiser Ulpio Traiano, which was under construction in Palermo, Sicily was sunk by British frogmen using explosive charges. German auxiliary cruiser HK Michel, known to the British as Raider H, attacked the 7,040 ton British freighter SS Empire March south of the Cape of Good Hope. Michel opened fire, knocking out the bridge and the radio room and turning the freighter into "an inferno from stem to stern, but still moving." To dispatch the blazing wreck quickly, the captain of the Michel fired two torpedoes, one of which missed. Twenty six crewmen of the freighter were picked up, with another man being found the next day when Michel returned to search for anyone who might have been missed. This was the last ship sunk by Michel on her first cruise. On 8 January, the auxiliary cruiser was ordered to proceed to Japan and while en route, the prisoners were handed over to the Japanese at Singapore. On this first crew, the German raider spent 354 days at sea and sank 15 ships totalling 99,386 tons. In Papua New Guinea, the Urbana Force (two battalions of the U.S. 126th and 128th Infantry Regiments, 32d Infantry Division) overran Buna Mission in a concerted assault and organized resistance ended at 1632 hours local. The top Japanese commanders, Captain Yoshitatsu Yasuda and Colonel Hiroshi Yamamoto, committed suicide. Another series of attacks on Guadalcanal begin against Japanese positions on Mt. Austen known as the Gifu. In the air, USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses, with P-38 Lightnings, and USMC SBD Dauntlesses, with F4F Wildcats, bombed ten supply-carrying Japanese destroyers west of Rendova Island; the SBDs damaged the destroyer HIJMS Sukukaze. The F4Fs shot down two "Zeke" fighters and an SBD rear gunner shot down a third "Zeke."
2 January 1944 The U.S. Sixth Army's Task Force Michaelmas (Regimental Combat Team 126, 32d Infantry Division, reinforced) made a surprise landing at Saidor, Northeast New Guinea and captured the harbour and airfield. This landing cut off the Japanese rearguard forces from the main Japanese base at Madang, only 55 miles away.
2 January 1945 British Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Commander-in-Chief Allied Naval Expeditionary Force was killed when his plane taking him to a conference in Brussels, Belgium, crashed on takeoff at Toussus-le-Noble, France. He was 61. Western Front: US 3rd Army took Bonnerue, Hubertmont and Remagne. Hitler denied a request from Field Marshall Model to withdraw west of Houffalize. The USAAF Ninth Air Force's 9th Bombardment Division dispatched 135 A-20 Havocs, A-26 Invaders, and B-26 Marauders to hit rail bridges and communications centres in Belgium and Germany; fighters escorted the bombers, flew patrols, sweeps, and armed reconnaissance and supported the U.S. III and VIII Corps in the Bastogne, Belgium area and the XII Corps south of the Clerf River, Luxembourg, and west of the Sauer River in Germany. The USAAF Eighth Air Force flew Mission 776: 1,011 bombers and 503 fighters were dispatched to attack communications and tactical targets in western Germany. During the night, RAF Bomber Command struck several targets: 514 Lancasters and seven Mosquitos were dispatched to Nuremberg. The centre of the city, particularly the eastern half, was destroyed. The castle, the Rathaus, almost all the churches and about 2,000 preserved medieval houses went up in flames. The area of destruction also extended into the more modern northeastern and southern city areas. The industrial area in the south, containing the important MAN and Siemens factories, and the railway areas were also severely damaged. Four hundred fifteen separate industrial buildings were destroyed. In a second raid, 389 aircraft, 351 Halifaxes, 22 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitos, were sent to Ludwigshafen. The aiming point for this raid was the area of the two I.G. Farben chemical factories. Estimated totals of 500 high-explosive bombs and 10,000 incendiaries fell inside the limits of the two factories, causing much damage. Ten large, 30 medium and 200 small fires were recorded at the main factory. Thirteen other industrial firms and several railway installations were also hit. In Italy The British Eighth Army began a series of limited actions to finish clearing the eastern bank of the Senio River. In the Canadian I Corps area, the 5th Armoured Division attacked northward toward the sea, taking Conventelle. The USAAF Twentieth Air Force's XX Bomber Command flew Mission 24: 49 B-29 Superfortresses, operating from Calcutta, India were dispatched to attack a railroad bridge at Bangkok; Thailand; 44 bombed the primary target and two hit an alternate and a target of opportunity. Convoys of the Luzon Attack Force were assembling in Leyte Gulf. The first echelon, Minesweeping and Hydrographic Group (Task Group 77.6), sailed from Leyte Gulf for Luzon and was soon spotted and attacked by Japanese aircraft, including kamikazes. Task Group 77.6 consisted of a destroyer, a light minelayer, ten high speed minesweepers, a frigate, a high speed transport, a small seaplane tender, an ocean going tug and a landing craft infantry (gunboat). Task Group 77.4, the Carrier Cover Transport Group, sailed from Manus Island en route to Luzon. Included in this group were 17 escort aircraft carriers (CVEs), 18 destroyers and 9 destroyer escorts.
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Post by emron on Jan 1, 2018 23:04:10 GMT 12
1 January 1940 U.S. freighter SS City of Flint, her odyssey almost at an end, was damaged in a collision with the British steamship SS Baron Blytheswood. Repairs to City of Flint will keep her at Narvik for another six days. The German armoured ship Deutschland had seized City of Flint on 9 October 1939 and she had then been sailed to Norway, the U.S.S.R. and then back to Norway where she had been seized by Norwegian authorities and returned to U.S. custody on 3 November 1939. German aircraft bombed RAF Coastal Command at Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, damaging light cruiser HMS Coventry and ground facilities with the loss of one Ju 88 bomber.
1 January 1941 The chief of the Free French naval forces, Vice-Admiral Emile Muselier was arrested in London on suspicion of treason. In the Gibraltar Strait, British destroyers HMS Duncan, Firedrake, Foxhound, Jaguar and Hero stopped a French convoy from Casablanca, French Morocco. The convoy consisted of French ship Chantilly, French tankers Octane and Suroit and Danish ship Sally Maersk. HMS Jaguar attacked Chantilly, leading to the convoy's capture. 2 crew were killed and 4 wounded in the attack.
1 January 1942 In Libya XXX Corps, British Eighth Army, renewed their assault on Bardia after nightfall. The Japanese attacked the Kampar position in western Malaya, in force, but are unable to break through. The Indian 11th Division was in grave danger as a Japanese amphibious force landed in the Utan Melentang area, at the mouth of the Bernam River, behind the Kampar line. The Indian 12th Brigade Group moved from Bidor to meet this threat. Japanese aircraft delivered the first severe blow against Tengah airdrome on Singapore Island. Two Japanese infantry platoons landed on the 29 square mile Labuan Island, British North Borneo, capturing the British Resident, Hugh Humphrey. The South Luzon Force was disbanded upon completing their withdrawal across the Pampanga River at Calumpit and destroying bridges there. Its components continued their withdrawal toward Bataan. The U.S. Office of Production Management prohibited the sale of new cars and trucks to civilians. All automakers dedicated their plants entirely to the war effort. By the end of the month, domestic car manufacture had stopped. Automobile plants were converted wholesale to the manufacture of bombers, jeeps, military trucks, and other equipment.
1 January 1943 After breaking from convoy UGS-3, the 7,176 ton U.S. Liberty Ship SS Arthur Middleton was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-73, on approach to the port about 7 nautical miles northwest of Oran, Algeria. Two torpedoes hit the Arthur Middleton at the bow; the U-boat commander saw the target explode after 17 seconds. The torpedoes detonated the cargo of munitions and explosives and sent water, hull plates, parts of the ship and flames 1000 feet into the air. The Liberty ship disintegrated from the #5 hatch to the bow, only the after part of the ship remained afloat for less than a minute. Only three armed guards survived of the eight officers, 34 men, 27 armed guards and 12 passengers (one US Army security officer and 11 crewmen from USS LCT-21). These three men jumped overboard from the stern gun platform and were picked up by destroyer HMS Boreas 25 minutes later and were transferred to hospital ship HMHS Oxfordshire. U-73 was damaged by the blast. The light cruiser HMS Ajax was severely damaged in Bone harbour, Algeria, by Luftwaffe Ju 87 dive bomber. The ship made her way to the New York Navy Yard in the U.S. for repairs and was out of action until October 1943. The USN fleet tug USS Grebe, grounded at Vuata Vatoa, Fiji, on 6 December 1942 while attempting to float the U.S. freighter SS Thomas A. Edison. Salvage operations were abandoned during a tropical cyclone that later destroyed both ships in the night of 1/2 January. Ground Controlled Approach equipment (GCA) was called into emergency use for the first time when a snowstorm closed down the field at NAS Quonset Point, Rhode Island, a half hour before a flight of PBYs was due to arrive. The GCA crew located the incoming aircraft on their search radar and using the control tower as a relay station, "talked" one of them into position for a contact landing. This recovery was made only 9 days after the first successful experimental demonstration of GCA. The cruiser HMS Scylla stopped the German blockade runner Rhakotis 200 nautical miles north-west of Cape Finisterre, Brittany. After an eight-hour search, Australian Sunderland of No. 10 Squadron, RAAF spotted Rhakotis in the Bay of Biscay on 31 December, attempting to smuggle in war cargo from Japan. HMS Scylla was diverted to intercept, and ran at full speed through a gale for some 20 hours, with the Sunderland guiding her towards the target by dropping flares along the course. When the cruiser opened fire, the Germans scuttled their ship.
1 January 1944 The US Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSAFE) Command - covering all US Army Air Forces in Britain - came into effect; it was headed by General Carl Spaatz, who arrived today. It was established at Bushy Park, Hertfordshire, England to provide operational control of the two USAAF strategic air forces in Europe, the Eighth Air Force in the U.K. and the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy. Lieutenant General George S. Patton turned over command of the U.S. Seventh Army to Lieutenant General Mark Clark. General Clark, who also retained command of the U.S. Fifth Army, was to plan for Operation ANVIL, the early plan for the invasion of southern France. USN aircraft from the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill and USS Monterey of Task Group 37.2 bombed shipping escorted by cruisers and destroyers, damaging the light cruiser HIJMS Noshiro off Kavieng, New Ireland; two F6F Hellcats and an SB2C Helldiver were lost. Task Group 37.2 consisted of the two aircraft carriers, the battleship USS Washington and six destroyers.
1 January 1945 German troops began a withdrawal from the Ardennes Forest in the Belgian-German border region. In the air, the German Luftwaffe launched Unternehmen Bodenplatte, which consisted of 800 aircraft conducting low-level strikes against snow-bound Allied airfields in the Netherlands and Belgium. They destroyed 220 aircraft, mainly on the ground, but lost 188 aircraft of their own, as well as many experienced pilots who could not be replaced. This operation failed to achieve its goal of wiping out Allied air power based in the region. In the 6th Army Group area, Alsace, France, the Germans launched an offensive along a 50-mile front between Saarbrucken and Strasbourg, designated Operation NORDWIND (North Wind), against the U.S. Seventh Army. The attack was carried out by General Hans von Obstfelder's First Army with the aim of exploiting weaknesses in the US 6th Army Group caused by the withdrawal of forces to the Ardennes. Adolf Hitler today presented the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds award to Stuka pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel. He was the sole recipient of this grade of the decoration. Rudel was responsible for the destruction of 530 Soviet tanks, enough tanks for five complete Soviet Tank Corps! He also destroyed 150 anti-aircraft and anti-tank positions, 800 motor vehicles, the Soviet Battleship Marat, a Soviet Cruiser, a Soviet Destroyer, 70 Soviet landing craft, and numerous bridges and bunkers. He also heavily damaged another Soviet Battleship, the October Revolution. Rudel flew 2,530 combat missions, claimed 11 air victories in his Stuka, and was shot down 32 times. During the War, Stalin placed a 100,000 Rouble bounty on him for his capture payable dead or alive.
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Post by emron on Dec 31, 2017 21:45:29 GMT 12
31 December 1940 German submarine U-65 damaged British tanker British Zeal with two torpedoes 200 miles off Dakar, French West Africa. The crew abandoned the ship, but after U-65 departed the scene, the crew reboarded and successfully salvaged the damaged ship and set sail for Freetown, British West Africa. Allied merchant shipping sunk by German submarines world-wide in the year of 1940 was 567 ships, totaling 2,771,483 gross tons. 24 German submarines were lost in the same time period.
31 December 1941 On the Libyan-Egyptian frontier, the South African 2nd Division, assisted by the 1st Army Tank Brigade of XXX Corps, British Eighth Army, attacked and penetrated the Bardia fortress on the main road from Tobruk to Egypt. During the day, the British light cruiser HMS Ajax, the Australian destroyers HMAS Napier, Nestor and Nizam with the British destroyers HMS Arrow, Gurkha and Kingston, bombarded German defences at Bardia. HMS Indomitable arrived at Cape Town, South Africa en route to the Far East. In Singapore, British and Dutch transports took on civilians for evacuation to South Africa. Off the Chinese coast, 56 Japanese troop transports departed the island of Taiwan, escorted by 3 cruisers and 16 destroyers, for an amphibious operations in British Malaya. British 155th Field Regiment of the Lanarkshire Yeomanry stopped a Japanese attack at Kampar, British Malaya; further south on the western coast, the Japanese landed behind the Allied lines. On the east coast, the Indian 9th Division fell back to the south side of the Kuantan River. Japanese Lingayen Force captured Sibul Springs, Luzon, Philippines, breaching part of the final defensive line north of Manila. South of the city, Japanese tanks of Sonoda Force reached Baliuag.
31 December 1942 Battle of the Barents Sea: Convoy JW 51B comprised fourteen merchant ships carrying war materials to Kola Inlet in Russia was regrouping after being dispersed by severe gales over the prior 3 days. The convoy had sailed in the dead of winter to preclude attacks by German aircraft and was protected by the destroyers HMS Achates, Orwell, Oribi, Onslow, Obedient and Obdurate; Flower-class corvettes HMS Rhododendron and Hyderabad; the minesweeper HMS Bramble and trawlers Vizalma and Northern Gem. The escort commander was Captain R. St.V. Sherbrooke RN (flag in Onslow). In addition to the convoy escort, cruisers HMS Sheffield and Jamaica and two destroyers were independently stationed in the Barents Sea to provide distant cover. These four ships, known as "Force R", were under the command of Rear-Admiral Robert L. Burnett, in Sheffield. The German forces ordered to attack the convoy included the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper; cruiser Lützow and destroyers Friedrich Eckoldt, Richard Beitzen, Theodor Riedel, Z29, Z30 and Z31. These ships were based at Altafjord in northern Norway, and were under the overall command of Vice-Admiral Oskar Kummetz, in Admiral Hipper. The encounter took place in the middle of the months-long polar night and both the German and British forces were scattered and unsure of the positions of the rest of their own forces, much less the enemy's. The battle commenced at 08:20 when the defending destroyers fired torpedoes at the approaching Admiral Hipper which was forced to temporarily retire. When Admiral Hipper returned to make a second attack, she fired upon Onslow causing heavy damage and many casualties including 17 killed. Although Onslow ultimately survived the action, Sherbrooke had been badly injured by a large steel splinter and command passed to Obedient. Admiral Hipper then pulled north of the convoy, came upon minesweeper Bramble, which opened fire; Admiral Hipper returned fire with her much heavier guns. The destroyer Friedrich Eckholdt was ordered to finish off Bramble, which sank with all hands. Then Admiral Hipper shifted aim to Obedient and Achates to the south. Achates was badly damaged, but continued to lay down smoke until eventually she sank; the trawler Northern Gem rescued many of her crew. The shellfire attracted the attention of Force R, which was still further north. Sheffield and Jamaica approached unseen and opened fire on Admiral Hipper at 11:35, hitting her with enough six-inch shells to damage two of her boiler rooms, reducing her speed to 28 knots Kummetz initially thought that the attack of the two cruisers was coming from another destroyer, but upon realising his mistake, he ordered his ships to retreat to the west. Friedrich Eckholdt and Richard Beitzen mistook Sheffield for Admiral Hipper; after attempting to form up with the British ships, they were engaged by Sheffield. Friedrich Eckholdt broke in two and sank with all hands. Meanwhile, Lützow approached from the east and fired ineffectively at the convoy, then joined with Admiral Hipper when they broke off the action and retired to their base, shadowed part way by Force R. The Soviet 5th Shock Army drove southwest from Nizhne Chirskaya and retook Tormosin. German Army Detachment Hollidt was rendered impotent to stop these attacks. The great victory at Stalingrad was almost complete, with the survivors of Paulus's army dying of cold, hunger and typhus in the ruins of the city which they sought to capture. Kotelnikovo, von Manstein's base for the attempt to relieve the city, fell yesterday, and now the whole German position in the Caucasus is threatened as the Russians sweep south. Meanwhile General Zhukov, the architect of the Stalingrad victory, has moved back to Leningrad. Having organized the resistance there a year ago, he has now been ordered by Stalin to break the German siege. Emperor Hirohito was presented with the finalized plan to withdraw from Guadalcanal and pull back the beleaguered garrison to New Georgia. He informed Nagano and Sugiyama that he would issue an Imperial Prescript to acknowledge the heroic sacrifices of his soldiers and sailors.
31 December 1943 On the Huon Peninsula, New Guinea, the Australian 2/15th Battalion, 20th Brigade, 9th Division, accompanied by tanks, moved through Kanomi and resumed the advance until halting at the last creek before Nanda. The 20th Brigade had advanced 17 miles in ten days. In Northeast New Guinea, almost 150 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators and medium bombers attacked the Madang, Alexishafen, and Bogadjim areas. On New Britain Island, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs hit troop concentrations in the Cape Gloucester area; nearly 50 P-40s and P-47 Thunderbolts intercepted a small force of airplanes attacking the Arawe beachhead area and 12 aircraft were claimed shot down.
31 December 1944 The USAAF Eighth Air Force flew Mission 772: 1,327 bombers and 785 fighters hit both strategic and tactical targets; they encountered about 150 Luftwaffe fighters, mostly in the Hamburg area; 27 bombers and ten fighters were lost. Piggyback bomber accident: Struggling to maintain formation on return to England from a raid on Hamburg, B-17 42-231987, flown by pilot 1st Lt. Glenn H. Rojohn and co-pilot 2nd Lt. William G. Leek, Jr, was in collision with another bomber flying below. B-17 43-338457 piloted by 1st Lt. William G. MacNab and 2nd Lt. Nelson B. Vaughn, had risen upward. The top turret guns on MacNab’s plane had pierced through the skin on the bottom of Rojohn’s plane, binding the two inextricably together, Three of the engines on the lower plane were still running, as were all four of Rojohn's. The fourth engine on the lower bomber was on fire and the flames were spreading to the rest of the aircraft, the two were losing altitude quickly. Rojohn and Leek managed to wheel the wreck back toward the German coast and held it steady for six of Rojohn's crew and four of McNab's to bail out. With the lower B-17 aflame and ammunition exploding Leek refused to abandon his pilot and the pair fought to keep the planes level during the rapid descent. The McNab plane exploded on impact, vaulting the other B-17 upward and forward. It hit the ground and slid along until its left wing slammed through a wooden building. The nose of the plane was relatively intact but everything from the wings back was destroyed. Miraculously Rojohn and Leek were still seated in their cockpit and neither was badly injured. All ten survivors of this accident were taken prisoner shortly after, two of the six men who parachuted from Rojohn's plane did not survive the jump.
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Post by emron on Dec 31, 2017 13:14:33 GMT 12
30 Dec 1884 Hideki Tojo was born in the Kōjimachi district, Tokyo.
30 December 1939 The Soviet leadership decided to re-evaluate the war-effort against Finland. All attacks were to cease for the time. Remnants of the Soviet 163rd Division were destroyed by the Finnish 9th Division at Suomussalmi as it attempted to retreat over the frozen Lake Kiantajärvi. The government of Uruguay gave German freighter SS Tacoma 24 hours to leave the port of Montevideo, deeming the ship an auxiliary war vessel since she had assisted various manoeuvres of armoured ship Admiral Graf Spee and embarked her crew when that warship was scuttled.
30 December 1940 In London, troops were drafted in to clear the streets of rubble and to demolish unsafe buildings damaged in the overnight bombing and fires. The Australian destroyer HMAS Voyager captured a 190-ton Italian supply schooner “Zingarella” off Solum, Egypt. An Australian boarding party found that British POWs on board had taken control of the vessel and imprisoned more than 100 Italian crewmen and passengers. The schooner was taken to Solum, she would later serve in the Royal Navy as a stores carrier. Convoy US-8 (Australia-Middle East) consisting of the troop transports Aquitania. Awatea, Dominion Monarch, Mauretania and Queen Mary escorted by the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra, sailed from Melbourne, Victoria. The troopships were carrying the Australian 2/15th Battalion and the 2/28th and 2/43rd Battalions of the 24th Brigade and 700 New Zealand troops.
30 December 1941 After another costly and unsuccessful tank battle for Agedabia, Libya, during which the British 22nd Armoured Brigade was rendered ineffective as a fighting force, XIII Corps of the British Eighth Army suspended their assault pending the arrival of reinforcements. German tanks had proved superior both mechanically and in gun power. The Japanese maintained pressure against the Kampar position in western Malaya; on the east coast they threatened Kuantan from the north in greater strength. The Kuantan defence force was in the process of concentrating west of the Kuantan River, which was crossed by a single ferry. Two Japanese battalions landed at Kota Bharu and began a march down the east coast. Japanese Lingayen Force captured Tarlac on Luzon, Philippines. American and Filipino forces fell back to the Bamban-Sibul Springs Line, the final defensive line north of Manila. South of Manila, the Japanese 16th Division reached the Laguna De Bay lake.
30 December 1942 Allied convoy RA-51 departed Kola Inlet near Murmansk, Russia. To the west, German submarine U-354 detected Allied convoy JW-51B; Admiral Erich Raeder ordered cruisers Lützow, Admiral Hipper and six destroyers to sortie from Altafjord, Norway to intercept. Special Service vessel HMS Fidelity, carrying two OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes, the motor torpedo boat MTB-105 and two landing craft HMS LCV-752 and LCV-754, had developed engine problems and was straggling behind convoy ONS-154 in the Atlantic. She was torpedoed and sunk today by U-435 about 277 nautical miles north of Lagens Field, Azores, with the loss of 274 crew, 51 Marines (T Company, 40 Commando) and 44 survivors from SS Empire Shackleton, which had been sunk the day before. The only survivors were the eight crew of the motor torpedo boat, detached on anti-submarine patrol, who were later picked up by HMCS Woodstock, and two crewmen of a seaplane that had crashed on take off on 28 December and been picked up by HMCS St. Laurent. The second prototype Boeing XB-29 heavy bomber, s/n 41-003, made its first flight today. In Papua New Guinea, the Urbana Force maintained pressure against Buna Mission from the southeast and prepared to envelop it by attacking eastward from Buna Village and Musita Island. Warren Force regrouped. Advance elements of the 163rd Infantry Regiment were flown to Dobodura and Popondetta from Port Moresby.
30 December 1943 In the U.S. Fifth Army's II Corps area, Italy, the 34th Infantry Division relieved battle-worn 36th Infantry Division. In the VI Corps area, the 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, attempted to clear the hills astride the St. Elia road in the region east of Acquafondata and succeeded in getting elements on one, Mt. Rotondo. On Bougainville, Piva North (Piva Uncle) airstrip was completed; the field was located just inland from Torokina, on the coast of Empress Augusta Bay.
30 December 1944 In the U.S. Third Army area, Belgium, VIII Corps opened a drive on Houffalize. The 11th Armoured Division progressed slowly and at heavy cost. The 87th Infantry Division took Moircy but lost it in a counterattack later in day. In the III Corps area, Germans again attempted to cut the Arlon-Bastogne highway and isolate Bastogne, reaching Lutrebois and surrounding two companies of the 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division, in Villers-la-Bonne-Eau. On 25 December, an agreement was reached in Greece which led to the establishment of a regency government under Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou, the archbishop of Athens. Greek King George II, living in exile in the U.K., appointed the archbishop as the head of the caretaker government, and Archbishop Damaskinos was sworn in as regent today and appointed himself Prime Minister. Aircraft carriers USS Enterprise and Independence left Ulithi anchorage to fight with Japanese night bombers in the Philippines area. Both carriers had aircraft equipped with radar (night versions of F6F Hellcat fighters and TBM torpedo bombers). The second resupply convoy arrived at Mindoro Island, Philippines. Under Japanese air attack while en route, the convoy lost three merchant ships, two destroyers, three tank landing ships (LSTs), and a landing craft, mechanized (LCM) at or near the island. Most of the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, arrived. On Bougainville, Australian 25th Battalion, 7th Brigade, 3rd Division, occupied Pearl Ridge. The capture of the heavily defended Japanese position on the Pearl Ridge gave the Australians possession of this important vantage point that provided views over both sides of the island.
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Post by emron on Dec 30, 2017 9:57:46 GMT 12
29 December 1939 Soviet 163rd Division, trapped in the Finnish village of Suomussalmi for the past 22 days, began evacuating on an ice road over Lake Kiantajärvi; troops of the Finnish 9th Division attacked the rearguard. Meanwhile, in Moscow Stalin endorsed Chief of Staff Shaposhnikov's plan for a major attack on Finnish forces on the Karelian Isthmus; Semyon Timoshenko volunteered to lead the offensive as the disgraced Kirill Meretskov was demoted to the commander of the Soviet 7th Army. The prototype Consolidated (Model 32) XB-24 (USAAC serial number 39-680) made its maiden flight at Lindbergh Field, San Diego, California.
29 December 1940 Between 6pm and 9.30pm 136 raiders from Luftlotte 2 and 3, flying over the heart of the City of London, rained 22068 incendiaries and 127 tons of HE on its historic buildings, causing a firestorm that would be called the Second Great Fire of London. St. Paul's, close-ringed by flame, remained as if by a miracle, practically unharmed; but many of Wren's famous churches, the 500 year old Guildhall, banks, offices and shops by the hundred, were reduced to ashes. In spite of the ferocity of the assault, and although three hospitals were hit, human casualties were surprisingly few. Realising that much of the damage by incendiary bombs might have been avoided if they had been dealt with immediately they fell, the Government decided to make "fire-watching" compulsory and took powers to conscript all employers and employees to share, if necessary, in the protection of their place of work from fire bombs. In the Adriatic Sea, the Greek submarine RHS Proteus (Y 3) torpedoed and sank the 11,452 ton Italian troop transport SS Sardegna about 51 nautical miles east of Brindisi, Italy. RHS Proteus was rammed and sunk immediately after this attack by the Italian torpedo boat R.N. Antares. In a "fireside chat" on radio, President Roosevelt called for the US to become "the arsenal of democracy." The President made "the direct statement to the American people that there is far less chance of the US getting into war if we do all we can now to support the nations defending themselves against attack by the Axis than if we acquiesce in their defeat."
29 September 1941 The Soviet 44th Army landed 23,000 men and a battalion of tanks at Feodosiya to reinforce Sevastopol. In response, General Hans von Sponeck ordered the German 46th Infantry Division to fall back, losing much heavy equipment in the process and against Adolf Hitler's "no retreat" order. The establishment of the China Theatre was announced. It was to be under supreme command of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who would be assisted by an Allied staff. The theatre was to include portions of Thailand and French Indochina in friendly hands. The Indian detachment from Kuching, Sarawak, arrived at Sanggau, Dutch Borneo and was placed under Dutch command. In Malaya, on the Indian 11th Division front, the Indian 12th Brigade held firmly against a strong Japanese attack, but since its position was becoming untenable, fell back through Kampar to Bidor, where it was held in reserve. In northern Luzon, the 91st Division, Philippine Army, held Cabanatuan against a strong enemy thrust but the Japanese succeeded in crossing the Pampanga River near there. Another Japanese force, heading for Tarlac in the 21st Division (PA) sector, reached a position just north of Tarlac. All elements of the South Luzon Force withdrew quickly toward Bataan. Japanese "Betty" and "Nell" bombers from Formosa, attacked Corregidor for the first time. Although wooden structures suffered heavily, little damage was done to military installations. Anti-aircraft fire from forts guarding Manila Bay destroyed a number of bombers.
29 December 1942 Kotelnikovo, south-west of Stalingrad, fell to the Soviets after fierce fighting. Italian General Enrico Pezzi, commander of the Italian air forces on the Russian front, went missing when his SM81 transport aircraft vanished during a return flight from Chertkovo, presumed shot down by the Soviets. Advance elements of the British 8th Army (armoured cars of the 4th Light Armoured Brigade) halted in front of the Afrika Korps positions at Buerat, Libya. A lull followed as the British prepared for the next attack. High speed minesweeper (ex-destroyer) USS Wasmuth was escorting a convoy through a heavy Alaskan storm when two depth charges were wrenched from their tracks by the pounding sea, fell over the side, and exploded beneath the ship's fantail. The blasts carried away part of the ship's stern and she began to founder in the gale. Despite the heavy sea, the oiler USS Ramapo came alongside the crippled and foundering Wasmuth and safely transferred all 134 crew and two passengers. The abandoned Wasmuth sank later this morning. Due to engine problems, the Norwegian freighter SS Ingerfem fell behind convoy ONS-156 3 days into the voyage in the Atlantic and was hit by a torpedo fired from U-631. 41 of the crew managed to take to the lifeboats before the ship broke in two and sank ten minutes after the hit. The sole survivor was rescued on 11 January, when his lifeboat was spotted about 500 miles west of Scotland. Meanwhile the battle for Convoy ON-154 continued unabated. U-123 sank SS Baron Cochrane and damaged Empire Shackleton; U-336 sank SS President Francqui; U-435 sank SS Empire Shackleton and Norse King; U-591 sank SS Zarian; U-628 sank SS Lynton Grange; U-662 sank SS Ville de Rouen.
29 December 1943 During the night RAF Bomber Command sent 712 aircraft; 457 Lancasters, 252 Halifaxes and three Mosquitos, to bomb Berlin. Elsewhere, Mosquitos were also active with eight bombing Magdeburg, six hitting Dusseldorf (four on the city and two on the Rheinmetall armaments factory), five attacking Leipzig and three bombing Leverkusen (two hitting the city and one bombing the I.G. Garben chemical plant. Korosten and Chernyakhov northwest of Kiev fell the Soviets as did Skvira to the southwest, in a massive Ukrainian breakthrough. In the U.S. II Corps area, Italy, combat patrols of the 36th Infantry Division entered St. Vittore but were forced out. In the U.S. VI Corps sector south of the Atina road, French forces seized three hills on the eastern end of Mt. Monna Casale and dug in. Three battalions of the 1st US Marine Division today made a strategic breakthrough by taking an important airfield at Cape Gloucester, on the western coast of New Britain, four days after landing in force. Once operational, the airfield will give the Allies air control of the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits between New Guinea and New Britain. Possession of these is essential to any further advance by MacArthur's forces along New Guinea's north coast. At the same time control of the straits will sever one of the main supply routes to Japan's increasingly isolated South-west Pacific HQ at Rabaul.
29 December 1944 Following the death of Sir John Dill, General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson was promoted Field Marshal, relieved as Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean, and appointed to Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission in Washington. During the day, RAF Bomber Command sent two separate forces to bomb marshalling yards in Koblenz, one of the main centres serving the Ardennes battlefront. One hundred ninety aircraft, 162 Halifaxes, 22 Lancasters and eight Mosquitos, were sent to bomb the Mosel M/Y near the main city; 180 bombed the target. Eighty five Lancasters are sent to hit the Lutzel yards north of the city; 82 bombed the target. No aircraft were lost from either operation. At least part of the bombing of each raid hit the railway areas. The Lutzel railway bridge at Koblenz was out of action for the rest of the war and the cranes of the Mosel Harbour were also put out of action. Canadian Flight Lieutenant Richard "Dick" Audet of RCAF No. 411 Squadron based at Heesch, the Netherlands, shot down two Bf-109's and three Fw-190 in a single mission in the Rheine area and despite his canopy coming off halfway through the attacks. He was flying LF MK.IXe, RAF serial number RR201 and was the only Spitfire pilot ever to score five victories in one sortie.
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Post by emron on Dec 29, 2017 11:16:27 GMT 12
28 December 1939 Joseph Stalin ordered the Soviet troops in Finland to hold position as his generals worked on a new offensive plan against the surprisingly resilient Finnish defences. The Soviet troops enveloped within Finnish lines were thus abandoned and left to be eliminated by the Finnish forces. Raider 'Atlantis' sailed from Bremen to Kiel after completing "final adjustments" to her disguise and loading naval stores and ammunition.
28 December 1940 Mussolini asked Hitler for German support against the Greeks in Albania. At first Hitler considered to send in one of his experienced mountain divisions, but then changed his mind and refused to become involved. German battleship Scharnhorst made its first unsuccessful attempt to break out in the North Atlantic together with the battleship Gneisenau. The operation was aborted after the Gneisenau was damaged by heavy seas. The Australian 6th Division saw their first action near Bardia, Libya. This was the 2nd AIF's first battle and involved an attack on an Italian frontier fortress. The preliminary operations began several days before the main attack was launched.
28 December 1941 The British commenced Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, the German Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. During the night two Czech resistance fighters, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, were dropped by parachute into Czechoslovakia landing near Pilsen. They were to get in touch with the Czech underground and help them plan acts of resistance. U-75 was sunk in the Mediterranean near Mersa Matruh, Egypt by depth charges from destroyer HMS Kipling. 14 dead and 30 survivors. U-75 sank SS Volo earlier in this action. XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, continued the assault on Agedabia, Libya with the 22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, whose tank strength by this time has been greatly reduced because of mechanical failure. US forces on Luzon, Philippines were under attack on the line Tarlac-Cabanatuan. The US 4th Marine Regiment completed its move from the Bataan Peninsula to Corregidor Island. The Japanese were attacking British forces as they withdrew from Ipoh, Malaya toward Kampar and the River Slim. Convoy ZK.5 consisting of the transports SS Aquitania, British freighter SS Sarpedon and Norwegian freighter MS Herstein carrying 4,250 Australian troops of the 39th and 53rd (Militia) Battalions and 10,000 tons of equipment departed Sydney for Port Moresby in Papua escorted by four cruisers HMAS Canberra, Australia, Perth and HMNZS Achilles. This was the first substantial build up of Allied forces in New Guinea.
28 December 1942 600 Italian soldiers are reported to have been killed by Albanian freedom fighters. Hitler ordered Greece and Crete to be fortified and Balkan rebellions to be suppressed firmly. He also approved the withdrawal of Army Group A from the Caucasus. The Germans continued a large attack against Convoy ONS-154 in the Atlantic. U-225 damaged SS Empire Lancaster, President Francqui, Ville de Rouen and sank SS Melmore Head; U-260 sank SS Empire Wagtail; U-406 damaged SS Zarian, Lynton Grange and Baron Cochrane; U-591 damaged SS Norse King. In Libya British Eigth Army patrols reached a point east of Buerat, overlooking Wadi el Chebir, without opposition. General Dupont, the Vichy Governor of French Somaliland, surrendered the colony to the Free French. General Sugiyama and Admiral Nagano told the Japanese Emperor of the intent by IGHQ to order a withdrawal from Guadalcanal. In Papua New Guinea, the Japanese garrison of Buna was ordered to withdraw to Giruwa, assisted by a detachment at Giruwa, which was to attack through the U.S. left flank.
28 December 1943 The USAAF Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command in UK was charged with forming and training a special organization (the Radio Counter Measure Unit) to use radio countermeasures against German defences. Twenty four specially equipped B-17 Flying Fortresses were to operate in support of both night and day raids. In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, Italy the Canadians completed the capture of Ortona. The remaining Germans had finally retreated to hill positions north-west of the town. In the U.S. Fifth Army's VI Corps area, the French continued the attack on Mainarde ridge and overran Hill 1190. The Soviet advance south of Kiev continued to gain ground. Their forces took Korostyshev, an important position east of Zhitomir. In New Britain the Japanese airfield at Cape Gloucester came under attack by US Marines. USAAF Fifth Air Force fighters covered the Arawe and Cape Gloucester beachheads while 19 A-20 Havocs bombed and strafed Japanese ground positions ahead of the Marine ground forces. Marshall Islands: Fifteen USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from the Ellice and Phoenix Islands bombed Maloelap, Majuro and Mili Atolls. Eighteen A-24 Dauntlesses from the Gilbert Islands, with an escort of 20 P-39 Airacobras, attacked Mili Atoll; this attack was followed by another against the atoll carried out by nine B-25 Mitchells from Tarawa, supported by 12 P-39s.
28 December 1944 In the U.S. First Army's V Corps area, Belgium, the final German effort to force the 1st Infantry Division from the Elsenborn defences failed. In the U.S. Third Army's III Corps area, limited progress was made against delaying opposition between the Sauer and Wiltz Rivers. The 35th Infantry Division continued its drive on the southern flank of the German salient despite very heavy fire southwest of Villers-la-Bonne-Eau. During the night RAF Bomber Command dispatched 67 Lancasters and a Mosquito to attack a "large naval unit" and some merchant ships in Horten harbour in the Oslo fjord, Norway. Six of eight German submarines cleared the harbour, but U-735 was sunk about 32 nautical miles south-southwest of Oslo; only one of the 40 man crew survived. A second submarine, U-682, suffered heavy damage. The Infantry Landing Ship Empire Javelin was torpedoed and sunk by the German Submarine U-772 in the English Channel. Among the passengers were 208 officers and 624 enlisted men of the main body of the newly raised US 15th Army. Most were rescued by the French frigate L'Escarmouche, but thirteen men were reported as missing in action and 20 others sustained injuries. The U-boat did not report the attack, because she was sunk a short time later. Japanese air attacks commence against the 99-ship Mindoro Island, Philippine Island-bound USN Task Group 77.11; Allied air cover could not provided because of bad weather over the airfields within range. Kamikazes crashed tank landing ship USS LST-750 and U.S. freighters SS William Sharon and SS John Burke. SS John Burke, carrying ammunition, exploded, the massive blast damaging tanker USS Porcupine and motor torpedo boat PT-332. There were no survivors from among SS John Burke's 40-man merchant complement and 28-man Armed Guard. Fragments from John Burke also hit freighter SS Francisco Morozan 100 yards away, wounding three of that ship's merchant complement. SS William Sharon, set afire by the kamikaze and gutted by fires that were ultimately controlled, was abandoned, the survivors transferring to destroyer USS Wilson, whose assistance proved invaluable in extinguishing the blaze that had consumed the freighter. Combat-salvage vessel USS Grapple later towed the merchantman to San Pedro Bay for repairs. USS LST-750, hit subsequently by an aerial torpedo, was later scuttled by destroyer USS Edwards off the southwestern coast of Negros Island.
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Post by emron on Dec 28, 2017 8:16:57 GMT 12
27 December 1939 In Finland, Soviet 4th Division rushed several groups of men across the frozen Suvanto River in the darkness to reinforce the bridgehead on the far bank, but the attempts were detected by Finnish forces, which attacked them with artillery and machine guns, killing many. After dawn, Finnish forces successfully eliminated all Soviet bridgeheads on the Finnish side of the Suvanto River, ending the Battle of Kelja by 1800 hours. Elsewhere, in Suomussalmi, Finnish 9th division, supported by the newly-arrived four 1902 76-millimeter cannon and two Bofors 37-millimeter anti-tank guns, began to assault the encircled Soviet 163rd Division.
27 December 1940 The German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper arrived in Brest to complete Operation Nordseetour in the Atlantic Ocean, during which she engaged the British heavy cruiser HMS Berwick. Admiral Hipper was the first of the German big ships to reach the French Biscay ports. German armed merchant cruiser Komet arrived at Nauru and warned the British dock personnel to evacuate. Komet then shelled the facilities and wrecked the loading plant, oil tanks, boats, buildings and mooring buoys. This was the last visit of German ships to Nauru during the war and Komet transferred her activities to the Indian Ocean.
27 December 1941 Operation Archery: The British landed 600 commandos on Vaagso and Maaloy in the Lofoten Islands, Norway. This was on the heels of the landing yesterday, on Moskenesoy. To prevent the Germans from using it in the manufacture of high explosives, they destroyed four fish-oil factories and fish-oil storage. They set most of the town of Maaloy alight and destroyed the local telephone exchange. They were also successful in their mission to capture an Enigma machine and weather codes at the weather station aboard the 200-ton trawler "Vorstenboote"; 17 commandoes were killed in action along with 4 crew from the naval assault force; eight aircraft were lost from the bombers and fighter-bombers dispatched in support by the RAF. Around 100 Germans were killed and about the same number taken prisoner. At the same time 243 Norwegians came away with the force - but voluntarily. They were patriots who would be a welcome addition for the Norwegian Free Forces.
27 December 1942 In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-26 Marauders hit targets in the Gona area while a single B-24 hit the runway at Finschhafen in Northeast New Guinea. Fifty two Japanese aircraft attacked Allied ground troops at Buna and in their first significant action in the Pacific, a dozen P-38 Lightnings engaged some 24 Japanese aircraft over Buna, claiming nine "Zeke" fighters and two "Val" dive bombers shot down for one P-38 damaged. One of the P-38F pilots was Second Lieutenant Richard I. Bong who scored his first two aerial victories. By the end of the war, he had earned 40 such credits, making him the top U.S. ace of all time. Destroyer HMCS St Laurent and corvettes HMCS Battleford, Napanee and Chilliwack sank U-356 north of Azores; no survivors from the crew of 45. The convoy of forty-five ships, ONS-154, escorted by Canadian escort group C1, had been diverted to the south and was out of range of air cover from Iceland when it was sighted on 26 Dec 42 by U-664 one of ten U-boats of the "Spitz" line, which had been lying in wait for ONS-154 since the 24 Dec 42. U-225 damaged SS Scottish Heather, U-356 sank SS Empire Union, King Edward, Melrose Abbey and damaged SS Soekaboemi, U-441 sank SS Soekaboemi. A three-day battle began that night in which the escorts sank U-356, but the "Spitz" U-boats attacked again and again and were joined by another 9 U-boats from the "Ungestum" group, waiting some distance to the west. In one of the worst convoy maulings of the war, 14 ships of more than 73,000 tons were sunk. The convoy Commodore's ship Empire Shackleton was sunk, and a tanker was torpedoed. Also lost, with all hands, was the special service ship HMS Fidelity. 27 December 1943 In the U.S. Fifth Army's VI Corps area, Italy, French troops gained positions on the slopes of Mainarde ridge. In the British Eighth Army area, defending German paratroopers started to abandon the town of Ortona after a week of fierce fighting with the Canadian 1st Division; infantry from the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada suffered heavy casualties; 1,372 Canadians were killed in taking Ortona and environs. The USN light cruisers USS Honolulu and St. Louis with four destroyers bombarded the Kieta area on Bougainville. On New Britain Island, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs attacked positions in the Cape Gloucester battle zone; B-25 Mitchells hit villages and tracks from Rottock Bay to Riebeck Bay and strafed barges along the south coast; B-24 Liberators bombed the airfield at Hoskins. Forty nine Allied fighters from the Solomon Islands swept the Rabaul area. USAAF, USMC and USN fighter pilots claimed 49 Japanese aircraft shot down during the day. The 1st Marine Division expanded the Cape Gloucester beachhead on New Britain Island despite torrential monsoon rainfall and difficult terrain. The 1st Marine Regiment drove 3 miles west toward the airfield without Japanese interference. Company G, 158th Infantry Regiment arrived at Arawe in response to Brigadier General Julian W. Cunningham's request for reinforcements.
27 December 1944 In Belgium the British XXX Corps advanced into Celles and the German 2nd Panzer Division withdrew. This German division was far to the front of the other German divisions and will suffer from the Allied counterattacks. In the U.S. Third Army's VIII Corps area, the 17th Airborne Division took over the Meuse River sector. In the III Corps area, trucks and ambulances rolled into Bastogne on a road opened by Combat Command R, 4th Armoured Division, ending the siege of the city. In the U.S. Fifth Army area, Italy, the first echelon of the 10th Mountain Division arrived. In the IV Corps area, the Germans forced a further withdrawal of the 92nd Infantry Division, but elements of Indian 8th Division passed through the 92nd and made patrol contact with the Germans. The USAAF Twentieth Air Force's XXI Bomber Command flew Mission 16: 72 B-29 Superfortresses from the Mariana Islands were sent to bomb the Nakajima and Musashino aircraft plants in Tokyo; 39 hit the primary targets and 13 attacked alternates and targets of opportunity. Japanese fighters were active, flying over 250 individual attacks. Three B-29s were lost, one to fighters and two to mechanical difficulties. Forty eight Mariana Island based USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators bombed Iwo Jima, while 21 more bombed Chichi Jima. P-38 Lightnings strafed the Iwo Jima airfields on which two B-24 Liberators also made snooper strikes during the night. USN Task Group 94.9, the heavy cruisers USS Chester, Pensacola and Salt Lake City and seven destroyers, followed up the USAAF strikes with a bombardment of Japanese installations on Iwo Jima and shipping offshore. Destroyer USS Dunlap was damaged by shore battery, but not before she teamed with USS Fanning and Cummings to sink a fast transport and a landing ship.
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Post by emron on Dec 27, 2017 18:33:46 GMT 12
Some more detail:
10 Squadron RAAF was formed at Point Cook, Victoria, in July 1939 and a detachment was sent to Britain where it was to collect the squadron's Sunderland flying boats, gain some experience with the new aircraft and then fly then back to Australia. This plan was disrupted by the outbreak of war in September 1939. On 7 October the detachment was told it was staying in the UK, and it became operational from Pembroke Dock on 10 October, when one of its aircraft made a flight to Tunisia, making it the first Dominion squadron to go into action. Extra personnel were dispatched to bring the squadron up to full strength, arriving at Pembroke Dock on 26 December. By this point the squadron had already begun operations over the Western Approaches.
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Post by emron on Dec 26, 2017 22:16:48 GMT 12
26 December 1937 Pan American Airways Sikorsky S-42B flying boat "Samoan Clipper," msn 4207, registered NC16734, arrived in Auckland after flying from San Francisco, via Honolulu, Kingman Reef and Samoa, a distance of about 5,996 nautical miles.
26 December 1939 A squadron of fully trained Royal Australian Air Force personnel disembarked at Pembroke, Wales, for service with the Coastal Command. No.10 Squadron was equipped with the six Sunderland MK1 flying boats that had been offered to the UK by the Australian War Cabinet at the outbreak of war. The squadron had been formed on 1 July, 1939 in Australia and became the first Dominion air force unit to be committed to active service in the European war.
26 December 1940 German armoured ship Admiral Scheer met with auxiliary cruisers H.K. Thor and Pinguin, resupply ship SS Nordmark, tanker SS Eurofeld and the captured freighter SS Duquesa at point "Andalusien" located about 713 nautical miles west of the British island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic. 26 December 1941 223 British Commandos and 77 Norwegian troops landed on Moskenesøya in the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway in Operation Anklet, destroying a radio transmitter at Glåpen and capturing several prisoners. To the north in Vestfjord, British cruiser HMS Arethusa and destroyers HMS Somali, HMS Ashanti, and HMS Eskimo attacked and captured two Norwegian coastal ships and sank a German patrol boat; an Engima machine and code settings were captured aboard the patrol boat. German submarine U-559 damaged Polish troop transport Warszawa 20 miles east of Tobruk, Libya at 1429 hours with a torpedo, killing 4 crew members and 19 troops. 445 survivors were taken off by British corvette HMS Peony. At 1930 hours, U-559 struck again, sinking the damaged Warszawa. Manila was declared an open city but Japanese bombing continued unabated. USN defence forces under Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell, Commander of the Sixteenth Naval District and the Philippine Naval Coastal Frontier, moved to Corregidor Island. The North Luzon Force, except for the 194th Tank Battalion, fell back from the Agno River to the line Santa Ignacia-Guimba--San Jose. The South Luzon Force continued to withdraw in two columns and organized their first line of defence west of Sariaya. Japanese "Nell" and "Betty" bombers based on Formosa bombed shipping in Manila Bay; the USN destroyer USS Peary was damaged by near-misses. Ipoh, Malaya was evacuated by Indian 11th Division troops, who fell back to Kampar 25 miles to the south. But the Indian 12th Brigade Group fought a rear-guard action at Chemor, to the north. USN seaplane tender USS Tangier, diverted from the attempt to relieve Wake Island, disembarked Battery B, 4th Marine Defence Battalion and the ground echelon of Marine Squadron VMF-221 at Midway, to augment that garrison's defences.
26 December 1942 General Henri Giraud was chosen as French High Commissioner for North Africa, to replace assassinated General Darlan. The appointment was made by the French Imperial Council in Algiers, with the approval of the Allied High Command. Spokesman for General Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French in London, commented favourably on Giraud's appointment, although Giraud was a potential rival to de Gaulle. USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, with fighter escort, hit the harbour and shipping at Bizerte; Tunisia; heavy anti-aircraft and fighter attacks accounted for two B-17s and two P-38 Lightnings shot down; P-38 Lightnings claimed two Fw 190s destroyed. Other B-17s, with P-40 escort, bombed the harbour and shipping at Sfax and three enemy vessels were claimed sunk. P-38 Lightnings on reconnaissance attacked locomotives and motor vehicles south of Tunis and west of Sousse. P-40s strafed barges off Sousse, destroying one of them, and strafed ground targets during reconnaissance over the Kairouan-Sousse-Kasserine area. During the night of 26/27 December, C-47 Skytrains dropped a detachment of U.S. paratroopers at a bridge north of El Djem. French Somaliland: Free French troops entered the colony from British Somaliland to seize two rail bridges and thus ensure the safety of the rail line from the port of Djibouti to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The action was accomplished without bloodshed. 26 December 1943 Battle of North Cape: In the Arctic Ocean north of Norway, British cruiser HMS Belfast detected German battlecruiser Scharnhorst by radar 30 miles east of Allied convoy JW-55B at 0900 hours. Three British cruisers attacked, disabling Scharnhorst's fire control radar. Scharnhorst turned north to escape, and British Vice Admiral Robert Burnett chose not to give pursuit until 1200 hours, this time damaging Scharnhorst and receiving damage on HMS Norfolk. As Scharnhorst fled southward, she was intercepted by HMS Duke of York and other British warships at 1650 hours. Scharnhorst was surrounded by 1725 hours, overwhelmed and hit repeatedly. She was subsequently abandoned and sank at 1948 hours; 1,927 were killed during the combat and her sinking. The British picked up only 36 survivors before fleeing the scene due to submarine threat. Indian troops captured Villa Grande, Italy. Canadian troops captured Ortona, Italy after repulsing a German counterattack. To the west, US troops captured Morello Hill, overlooking San Vittore. The 1st Marine Division, under General Rupertus, began landings near Cape Gloucester on New Britain. Naval support was provided by Admiral Barbey's US naval TF 76. The landing, over difficult terrain, succeeded and the Marines defeated a few small Japanese attacks during the first night. Supporting the landings, over 270 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells. B-24 Liberators, and A-20 Havocs attacked the area between the Cape and Borgen Bay from 0714 to l614 hours. P-38 Lightnings, P-40s, and P-47 Thunderbolts claimed over 60 Japanese aircraft shot down over the invasion area. During retaliatory Japanese air strikes at Cape Gloucester, destroyers USS Lamson, Shaw and Mugford were damaged by dive bombers; and tank landing ship USS LST-66 was damaged by a horizontal bomber. While escorting landing craft, destroyer USS Brownson was hit by two bombs from a Japanese "Val" dive bomber. A tremendous explosion followed. The ship settled rapidly amidships with the bow and stern canted upward. The wounded were placed in rafts and at 1450 hours the order to abandon ship was given. The amidships section was entirely underwater at that time. There was a single ripple like a depth charge explosion and the ship sank at 1459 hours. One hundred eight of her crew were lost. On Bougainville, seven USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells, with 34 fighters, attacked the Cape St George area and 25 B-25s attacked the bivouac and supply area at Kahili. New Zealand (PV-1) Venturas on reconnaissance bombed Chivaroi and Faisi Islands.
26 December 1944 Units of US 4th Armoured Division, US Third Army, under George Patton relieved the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium Soviet armies surrounded Budapest, beginning a siege on the Hungarian capital that would last 102 days. More than a million civilians were trapped in the city during the fighting. In the South China Sea, the Japanese "Intrusion Force" under Rear Admiral Masanori Kimura, consisting of the heavy cruiser Ashigara, light cruiser Oyodo, three destroyers and three escort destroyers, approached Mindoro Island, Philippines, to bombard the beachhead. USAAF Far East Air Forces B-25 Mitchells, P-38 Lightnings, P-40s, and P-47 Thunderbolts and USN PB4Y Liberators and PBM Mariners successively attacked the force. They damaged heavy cruiser Ashigara (near-misses), light cruiser Oyodo, destroyers Asashimo, Kiyoshimo, and Kasumi, and escort destroyers Kaya and Kashi. Kimura's force carried out its bombardment mission, then encountered U.S. motor torpedo boats; PT-223 sank the already damaged destroyer Kiyoshimo off San Jose, Mindoro. This was the last sortie by a Japanese naval force in the area of the Philippines.
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Post by emron on Dec 26, 2017 11:06:24 GMT 12
25 December 1940 Two FAA Martlet I fighters of No. 804 Squadron RAF, on patrol over Scapa Flow, Scotland intercepted and destroyed a prowling Junkers Ju 88 aircraft, the first victory for a US-built aircraft in British service. 700 miles to the west of Cape Finisterre, Spain German cruiser Admiral Hipper encountered Middle East troop convoy WS5A, one of 'Winston's Specials', escorted by cruisers HMS Berwick and HMS Bonaventure and accompanied by carrier HMS Furious ferrying aircraft to Takoradi, Gold Coast (Ghana). In an exchange of gunfire the heavy cruiser HMS Berwick and two merchantmen were slightly damaged, Hipper was also damaged. Carriers HMS Argus and HMS Furious launched aircraft to hunt for Admiral Hipper as she retreated toward Brest, France for repairs, but the German cruiser would not be found.
25 December 1941 The British 8th Army entered Benghazi and Agedabia, Libya. Japanese troops landed at Jolo, Philippines and captured the island after wiping out the garrison of 300 Filipino militia and policemen. Meanwhile, US Navy moved the headquarters of the Asiatic Fleet from Manila to Java. US Marines destroyed docks, fuel tanks, and ammunition dumps at Cavite Naval Shipyard. British Governor of Hong Kong Sir Mark Young ordered the surrender of the colony at 1515 hours, which he signed shortly after at the Japanese field headquarters at the Peninsula Hotel. At around the same time, British river gunboat HMS Robin was scuttled to prevent capture. The Allies completed the abandonment of defensive positions along the Perak River in Malaya and established new positions at Ipoh about 10 miles to the south. Archibald Wavell arrived in Rangoon, Burma by aircraft, landing amidst a Japanese air raid. Japanese submarine I-66 sank Dutch submarine K XVI 70 miles northwest of Kuching, Sarawak, Borneo at 1145 hours, killing all 36 aboard. Japanese troops also captured the British airfield near Kuching. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz arrived at Pearl Harbour to assume command of the US Pacific Fleet. Carrier USS Saratoga launched F2A Buffalo aircraft of Marine Squadron VMF-221 to Midway Atoll. Originally intended to relieve Wake Atoll, they became the first fighters to be based on Midway and immediately began a daily patrol schedule.
25 December 1942 In Russia, the Germans were encircled by the Red Army at Stalingrad. 1000 miles to the north it was the Russians who were besieged in a struggle for survival every bit as desperate: Leningrad had now been under siege for 15 months. Submarine HMS P-48 was sunk NW of Zembra Island in the Gulf of Tunis, by depth charges of Italian destroyer escorts Ardente and Ardito, while attacking the Italian convoy making for Tunis. There were no survivors. Axis forces evacuated their outflanked garrison at Sirte in Libya. German forces retook Longstop Hill in Tunisia.
25 December 1943 Responding to the 22 Dec sighting of an Allied convoy, German battleship Scharnhorst and destroyers Z29, Z30, Z33, Z34, and Z38 departed from Altafjord in northern Norway to intercept it. The force was under the command of Konteradmiral Erich Bey. At Tunis, Tunisia Dwight Eisenhower met with General Henry Maitland Wilson, who would later replace him as the Allied command in the Mediterranean Theatre. American submarine USS Skate ambushed IJN battleship Yamato 180 miles northeast of Truk. One or two torpedoes hit Yamato on the starboard side near turret No. 3, ripping a hole that extended some 15 feet downwards from the top of the blister and longitudinally some 75 feet. The follow-up depth charge attack by Yamagumo, Tanikaze, or both failed to hit Skate, which made its escape three hours later. Yamato retired to Truk and received emergency repairs. 15 B-24 bombers escorted by about 50 fighters (P-38, F4U, F6F, and 17 RNZAF P-40 Kittyhawk fighters) attacked Rabaul, New Britain. 88 Japanese fighters rose to defend. The Americans lost 1 F4U and 2 P-38 aircraft; the Japanese lost 3 aircraft.
25 December 1944 US 2nd Armoured Division, with British help, stopped German 2.Panzer Division just 4 miles from the Meuse River, at Celles in Belgium in one of the crucial moments of the Ardennes battle. Frigate HMS Dakins was mined in the English Channel 14 miles NW of Ostend. Good damage control enabled her to return to the UK under her own power, however she was not considered worth repairing. Also in the English Channel, Frigate HMS Capel was torpedoed and sunk by U-486 (Oberleutnant der Reserve Gerhard Meyer) at 1237. The torpedo explosion blew the bridge structure aft until it rested on her funnel. Capel sank very slowly and capsized at 1602. There were 7 casualties. Whilst searching for Capel’s assailant, frigate HMS Affleck took a hit from a Zaunkönig fired by U-486. The explosion blew off Afflecks stern but she reached Cherbourg under her own power and was later towed to Portsmouth, but never repaired.
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Post by emron on Dec 24, 2017 18:55:57 GMT 12
December 25th, 1945
King George VI's Christmas Broadcast on the BBC began with:
"For six years past I have spoken at Christmas to an Empire at war. During all those years of sorrow and danger, of weariness and strife, you and I have been upheld by a vision of a world at peace. And now that vision has become a reality. By gigantic efforts and sacrifices a great work has been done, a great evil has been cast from the earth. No peoples have done more to cast it out than you to whom I speak. With my whole heart I pray to God by whose grace victory has been won, that this Christmas may bring to my peoples all the world over every joy they have dreamed of in the dark days that are gone. This Christmas is a real homecoming to us all, a return to a world in which the homely and friendly things of life can again be ours. To win victory, much that was of great price has been given up, much has been ravaged or destroyed by the hand of war. But the things that have been saved are beyond price. In these homelands of the British people which we have saved from destruction, we still possess the things that make life precious; and we shall find them strengthened and deepened by the fires of battle. Faith in these things held us in brotherhood through all our trials, and has carried us to victory. Perhaps a better understanding of that brotherhood is the most precious of all the gains that remain with us after these hard years. Together all our peoples round the globe have met every danger and triumphed over it; and we are together still. Most of all we are together, as one world-wide family, in the joy of Christmas. I think of men and women of every race within the Empire returning from their long service to their own families, to their own homes, and to the ways of peace. I think of the children, freed from unnatural fears and a blacked-out world, celebrating this Christmas in the light and happiness of the family circle once more reunited. There will be vacant places of those who will never return, brave souls who gave their all to win peace for us. We remember them with pride and with unfading love, praying that a greater peace than ours may now be theirs."
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Post by emron on Dec 24, 2017 17:53:54 GMT 12
24 December 1939 Finnish Army Group Talvela pushed Soviet 75th and 139th Divisions back across the Russian border. Meanwhile, Soviet 163rd Division tried unsuccessfully to break out of Suomussalmi, Finland; the Soviet 44th Division failed to move in to provide support for the 163rd Division.
24 December 1941 At about 1902 hrs last evening, the Type VIIC German submarine U-559 torpedoed SS Shuntien, blowing off her stern and killing her captain, four officers and chief steward. Her bow rose in the air and she sank within five minutes without being able to launch any of her lifeboats. Shuntien had left Tobruk in Cyrenaica, eastern Libya as a member of Convoy TA 5 bound for Alexandria in Egypt. She was carrying between 800 and 1,000 Italian and German prisoners of war, guarded by more than 40 soldiers of the Durham Light Infantry. A convoy escort, the Flower-class corvette HMS Salvia, rescued 46 of the ship's officers and men and an unknown number of her prisoners, DEMS gunners and DLI guards. The total number of survivors that Salvia rescued was about 100. The Hunt-class destroyer HMS Heythrop rescued less than 20 others. A few hours later, at about 0135 hrs today, U-568 torpedoed Salvia about 100 nautical miles west of Alexandria. The torpedo broke the corvette in two and poured burning bunker oil onto the sea. A sister ship, HMS Peony, came to look for survivors. She sighted a patch of oil on the surface of the sea but found no-one left alive. At least 900 died in this disaster, including all 106 of Salvia's crew. The small party of survivors aboard Heythrop were landed at Alexandria. It included only one of Shuntien's officers, Second Engineer John Hawkrigg. A Japanese convoy, despite attacks by British and Dutch planes and Dutch submarines, succeeded in landing troops in the Kuching area of the British protectorate of Sarawak, early in morning. The garrison, having already destroyed Kuching airdrome, requested permission to withdraw to Dutch Borneo and was told to delay the Japanese as long as possible before retiring. Dutch aircraft withdrew from Singkawang, Borneo, to Palembang, Sumatra. Dutch submarine K XVI sank Japanese destroyer Sagiri with two torpedoes off Borneo; 121 were killed, 120 survived and were rescued by destroyer Shirakumo and a minesweeper. Japanese troops penetrated the final Allied defensive line, "The Ridge", at the Stanley Peninsula on Hong Kong island. At St. Stephen's College Emergency Hospital, 56 wounded soldiers, doctors, and nurses were bayoneted while a number of female civilians were raped. Near the coast, British destroyer HMS Thracian was damaged by Japanese aircraft and was forced to run aground to prevent sinking. USN seaplane tender USS Wright (AV-1) disembarked Marine reinforcements (Batteries "A" and "C," 4th Defence Battalion) at Midway Island.
24 December 1942 Peenemunde, Germany: The research station here today chalked up a successful test firing of a new type of surface-to-surface weapon system. This was a "flying bomb", known as the FZG 76 or Fi 103. During the test it was catapulted into the air from a 230-foot ramp and flew some one and half miles. The Russian 62nd Army received fresh reinforcements and retook the Red October tractor factory in Stalingrad. The Germans lost their last remaining landing ground in the Stalingrad pocket, when Tatsinskaya was overrun by Soviet tanks. The German relief column found itself pushed back as the Russian's recaptured Generalovsky. Admral Jean-François Darlan was assassinated by a 20-year old student, Fernand Bonnier de la Chappelle, in Algiers, Algeria. Darlan was at the door of his office in his headquarters, the Palais d'Ete, when he was shot by his assassin and he died a few hours later. 24 December 1943 The USAAF Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command flew Mission 164 against 23 V-1 weapon sites in the Pas de Calais area of France: 478 B-17 Flying Fortresses and 192 B-24 Liberators hit the targets at 1330-1510 hours without loss. This was the largest number of aircraft carrying out attacks of any Eighth Air Force mission to date and the first of its major strikes against missile sites. The bombers were escorted by 40 P-38 Lightnings, 459 P-47 Thunderbolts and 42 USAAF Ninth Air Force P-51 Mustangs. In the British Eighth Army's XIII Corps area, Italy, the New Zealand 2nd Division, moving to outflank Orsogna, reached the heights commanding that town on the northeast. In Ortona German troops counterattacked against Canadian positions and caused heavy casualties. In the Vitebsk sector, the Red Army, 1st Ukraine Front under Vatutin, overran Gorodok in a two-pronged attack, bringing about the collapse of a whole series of defence points that depended upon it. At dawn, the Soviet forces opened a new offensive; driving along the axis of the Kiev-Zhitomir highway, they breached German lines and soon recovered ground lost to a German counteroffensive and more. The defending German 4th Panzer Army will be penetrated deeply due to overstretched German units and the lack of reserves. The aim was to destroy the German salient on the Dnieper and open Galicia and Romania. The German submarine U-645 was sunk about 462 nautical miles north-northeast of Lagens Field, Azores Islands, by depth charges from the USN destroyer USS Schenck, all 55 crewmen were lost. U-275 fired a "Gnat" torpedo at the destroyer USS Leary (DD 158) and hit her on the starboard side in the after engine room. She sank about 467 nautical miles north-northeast of Lagens Field, after a huge internal explosion within one minute; 97 of the 149 crewmen were lost. British destroyer HMS Hurricane was struck by a "Gnat" torpedo fired by German submarine U-415 and sank about 444 nautical miles north-northeast of Lagens Field. On New Britain Island, the pre-invasion bombing effort against Cape Gloucester reached its peak as nearly 190 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators, B-25 Mitchells, and A-20 Havocs attacked the area in a day-long bombardment; P-39 Airacobras hit a disabled destroyer offshore; and Japanese forces in Arawe area were hit by A-20s. An American task force of three cruisers, USS Cleveland, Columbia and St. Louis with four destroyers bombarded airfields and shore bases on the northern tip of Bougainville and the neighbouring island of Buka. USN F6F Hellcat, USAAF P-38 Lighting and New Zealand (P-40) Kittyhawk fighter pilots shot down 27 Japanese "Zeke" fighters over Rabaul: RNZAF 16 and 17 Squadrons, led by Squadron Leaders P. G. H. Newton and J. H. Arkwright carried out a fighter sweep over Rabaul with twenty-four American Hellcats. In terms of enemy aircraft destroyed this was the most successful action of the war for the New Zealand Fighter Wing. Twelve Japanese aircraft were shot down, four more probably destroyed, and many damaged. Seven RNZAF aircraft were lost but two of the pilots were saved. Flying Officer K. W. Starnes crashed just off Torokina beach and was rescued, while Flight Sergeant Williams, who had been shot down over St. George’s Channel, was rescued after six hours in the water by an air-sea rescue aircraft and taken to Torokina, where he entered hospital suffering from slight gunshot wounds. The five pilots lost were Flight Lieutenants A. W. Buchanan and P. S. Worsp, Flying Officers M. E. Dark and D. B. Page, and Sergeant R. H. Covic. Twenty four USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attacked seaplane anchorage at Bonis on Bougainville. New Zealand (PV-1) Venturas of RNZAF No.1 Squadron (Pilot Officer D. F. Ayson and Flying Officer R. J. Alford) on armed reconnaissance bombed barges and troops on northern Bougainville and claimed two “Zeke” fighters shot down east of Cape St George. Later evidence changed the score to three destroyed and two damaged. During a five hour attack, the USN destroyer escort USS Griswold sank Japanese submarine HIJMS I-39 about 6 nautical miles east-northeast of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. All crewmen on the submarine were lost.
24 December 1944 45 modified Heinkel He-111s air launched 31 V1 bombs aimed at Manchester; England; 17 reached the area, killing 32 people and injuring 49. The troopship SS Leopoldville, carrying 2,000 American soldiers across the English Channel, was torpedoed by German submarine U-486. Escorting warships lifted off many soldiers, although some were injured in the escape. More than 800 men perished. A high pressure front across western Europe brought clear weather and the USAAF Eighth Air Force launched Mission 760, a maximum effort against airfields and communications in western Germany. This was the largest air strike of the war with 2,034 heavy bombers (1,400 B-17 Flying Fortresses and 634 B-24 Liberators) and 853 fighters dispatched; they bombed over 65 targets; 12 bombers and ten fighters were lost. In U.S. First Army's V Corps area, Belgium the 1st Infantry Division repelled another German bid for Butgenbach. In the U.S. Third Army's VIII Corps area, heavy fighting continued around the Bastogne perimeter. The Japanese flew their last bombing raid against Calcutta, India. Fifty USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from the Mariana Islands struck Iwo Jima and 17 P-38 Lightnings made a low-level strafing attack on the island. The USAAF Twentieth Air Force's XXI Bomber Command flew Mission 15: 29 Mariana Island-based B-29 Superfortresses were dispatched to attack two airfields on Iwo Jima; 23 hit the primary targets and one hit an alternate target without loss. USN Task Group 94.9, the heavy cruisers USS Chester, Pensacola and Salt Lake City and nine destroyers, followed the USAAF bombing raids on Iwo Jima by shelling the airstrips and other installations there; destroyers USS Case and Roe sank Japanese fast transport T.8 and landing ship T.157. SS Robert J Walker (US-flagged Liberty ship) was sunk by U-862 160 miles off Australia; two crewmembers killed. She was the only ship sunk in the Pacific Ocean by a German U-boat.
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Post by emron on Dec 23, 2017 21:43:45 GMT 12
23 December 1939 At 0630 hours, 4 Finnish divisions counterattacked on a 28-mile front on the west side of the Karelian Isthmus, trying to trap resting Soviet forces in a massive encirclement; but without support of anti-tank weapons or artillery pieces, they were repulsed by tanks; Finnish General Öhqvist called off the attack at 1440 hours after suffering 1,300 casualties. Meanwhile, Captain Mäkinen's 2 machine gun companies in the Finnish 9th Division attacked forward elements of the Soviet 44th Division, tying down the entire column of 15,000 troops and equipment.
23 December 1941 54 Japanese bombers escorted by 24 fighters attacked Rangoon, Burma in the late morning, killing 1,250; of those who became wounded as the result of this raid, 600 died. Two Allied fighter squadrons fought in it's defence, sixteen Brewster Buffalo fighters of No. 67 RAF Squadron (mostly NZ pilots) and 14 P-40B Tomahawk fighters of 3rd Squadron, American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) based at Mingaladon airfield. They claimed 15 Japanese aircraft shot down for the loss of three P-40s and two pilots. 17 Allied military personnel were killed on the grounds of Mingaladon airfield when it was also bombed. The Indian III Corps completed a withdrawal of all west coast forces behind the Perak River, Malaya, during the night. Japanese planes, which so far had concentrated on airfields, began intensive action against forward areas. On Luzon, Philippines, Lieutenant General Douglas MacArthur, Commanding General US Army Forces Far East, decided to evacuate Manila and withdraw to Bataan Peninsula to make a delaying stand. During the night a Japanese invasion force of 7,000 men arrived in Lamon Bay from the Ryukyu Islands. Another Japanese invasion force sailed from Mindanao Island for Jolo Island in the Sulu Archipelago. 1,000 troops of the Japanese Maizaru 2nd Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) landed on the southwest shores of Wake and Wilkes Islands at approximately 0230 hours. Before dawn cruisers and destroyers provided fire support and air attacks commenced after sunrise. In the early hours the US Marine commander was informed by Pearl Harbour that the relief expedition would not arrive within the next 24 hours. Fire fights continued until all Marines have surrendered by about 1330 hours after a valiant defence. Forty-nine Marines, three sailors, and about seventy civilian construction workers were killed during the battle. Approximately 470 military personnel, including 400 Marines, were captured, along with over a thousand civilians. Uncertainty over the positions of and number of Japanese carriers and reports that indicated Japanese troops had landed on Wake Atoll compelled Vice Admiral William S. Pye, Acting Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, to recall Task Force 14 while it was still 425 nautical miles from its objective.
23 December 1942 Bomber Command Venturas attacked naval installations at Den Helder, Netherlands whilst 18 Boston light bombers attacked facilities at St Malo, France. The Ventura attack proved particularly accurate, badly damaging a torpedo workshop. In Algeria the Americans informed General Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, political affairs commissioner of the French resistance, that Admiral Francois Darlan, French High Commissioner for North Africa, had decided to resign and leave North Africa and that they had consented. Darlan who was the former commander-in-chief of the Vichy French armed forces had been appointed as High Commissioner of France (head of civil government) for North and West Africa on 14 November, following his capture at Algiers during the Allied invasion. In Papua New Guinea, a stalemate existed on the Sanananda front, where the Japanese were stubbornly defending their well-organized positions. On the Urbana front, the U.S. 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division, completed the capture of Musita Island and began firing on Buna Mission at close range. USMC SBD Dauntless dive bombers attacked Munda Airfield on New Georgia Island. The escorting F4F Wildcats of Marine Squadron VMF-121 shot down five Japanese ”Zeke” fighters.
23 December 1943 In Italy the British 8th Army, V Corps had seized most of Ortona from the Germans after a house-to-house fight. Inland, Arielli fell to other 8th Army units, the 5th Division. USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-26 Marauders attacked a railroad bridge and marshalling yard at Imperia. The Ventimiglia railroad bridge was attacked; the bridge was not hit but the overpass, tunnel, tracks. and transformer station nearby were damaged. On New Britain Island, 18 USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators, escorted by 48 fighters, bombed Taharai Airfield in the Rabaul area; Vunakanau Airfield was also hit; fighter escorts claimed 30 aircraft shot down over the Rabaul area. USAAF bombers began operations from Munda airfield on New Georgia Island. Seventeen USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attacked gun positions and other targets on Sohano Island, and six hit positions at Malevoli in Choiseul Bay on Choiseul Island. Six New Zealand PV-1 Venturas attacked a radar station and lighthouse on Cape St George on Bougainville Island. Sixteen P-39 Airacobras on patrol bombed and strafed targets on Shortland Island. Convoy RA.55A departed the Kola Inlet with 22 ships, escorted by 10 destroyers, one minsweeper and 3 corvettes. Close cover of 3 cruisers and distant cover by battleship HMS Duke of York, cruiser HMS Jamaica and four destroyers ensured safe arrival.
23 December 1944 In Germany, about 500 USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauders and A-20 Havocs attacked rail bridges, communications targets, villages, a rail junction and targets of opportunity losing 31 bombers; fighters flew bomber escort, armed reconnaissance, and patrols (claiming over 100 German aircraft downed and three airfields bombed) and supported ground forces between Werbomont, Belgium and Butgenbach, Germany along the northern battleline of the Bulge and the U.S. III, VIII, and XII Corps forces along the southern battleline of the Bulge. In the U.S. Third Army area, Belgium, improving weather conditions permitted extensive air support, particularly in the Bastogne area, where 260 USAAF IX Troop Carrier Command C-47 Skytrains dropped 334 tons of supplies in parapacks on several drop zones inside the besieged American positions at Bastogne. In the VIII Corps area, the Germans continued to press in slowly on Bastogne. In the III Corps area, Combat Command A of 4th Armoured Division cleared Martelange and continued 2 miles up the Arlon-Bastogne highway. USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24 Liberators bombed Fabrica and Silay Airfields on Negros Island while P-38 Lightnings and P-47 Thunderbolts provided cover. B-24s bombed Grace Park Airfield in the suburbs of Manila on Luzon. On Mindanao Island, B-25 Mitchells attacked San Roque Airfield and the Davao and Zamboanga areas. Numerous FEAF aircraft flew various small strikes, armed reconnaissance, and sweeps over the Philippine Islands and fighter-bombers were especially active against targets in the central Philippines.
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Post by emron on Dec 23, 2017 10:35:37 GMT 12
22 December 1940 While escorting Allied convoy MG1 from Malta to Gibraltar, with battleship HMS Malaya, destroyer HMS Hyperion was torpedoed by Italian submarine Serpent 24 east miles of Cape Bon, Tunisia, in the Strait of Sicily. Hyperion was damaged, killing 2 and wounding 14; HMS Ilex took off the survivors; she was taken in tow by HMS Janus but later had to be scuttled. Malaya carried on and was met by Force H.
22 December 1941 Allied troops reached Beda Fomm, Libya while pursuing retreating Axis troops, but were halted by a group of 30 German tanks. Further west, Axis forces began evacuating Benghazi by sea. German ship Spezia and Italian ship Umbra Cadamosto ran into an Italian minefield off Misrata and were destroyed. The First Washington Conference (Arcadia) between Roosevelt and Churchill began aboard HMS Duke of York in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. The USN's "Pensacola" Convoy, consisting of heavy cruiser USS Pensacola, gunboat USS Niagara, transports USS Chaumont and Republic, Army transports USAT Meigs and Willard A. Holbrook, U.S. freighters SS Admiral Halstead and Coast Farmer and Dutch freighter MV Bloemfontein, arrived in Brisbane, Queensland. Brigadier General Julian F. Barnes' Task Force South Pacific was redesignated U.S. Forces in Australia (USFIA). This was the first U.S. troop detachment to arrive in Australia. 33 dive bombers and 6 fighters from IJN carriers Soryu and Hiryu attacked Wake Atoll; during the aerial battle, one of the last two operational F4F Wildcat fighters of Marine Squadron VMF-211 was shot down, while the other one was badly damaged. Task Force 14, the Wake Relief Expedition was recalled at 0911 hours (Hawaii Time) with the lead ships 515 miles northeast of Wake. Later a compromise plan called for the F2A Buffaloes of Marine Squadron VMF-221 to be flown off carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) at maximum range on the following day and that the seaplane tender USS Tangier (AV-8) carrying 300 marines and munitions would make a speed run to Wake while the remainder of Task Force retired. 45,000 troops of Japanese 48th Division and 90 tanks landed at Lingayen, Luzon, Philippines. 9 American B-17 bombers from Darwin, Australia attacked Japanese ships in Davao Gulf, Mindanao and then landed at Del Monte, Mindanao.
22 December 1942 In Tunisia the British First Army's V Corps renewed their drive on Tunis, during the night. The 2nd Coldstream Guards of the 1st Guards Brigade attacked Djebel el Ahmera hill (later known as Longstop Hill), 6 miles northeast of Medjez el Bab, and partially occupied it. The heavy rain did not slow the advance. Captured French torpedo boats Bombarde, La Pomone and L'Iphigénie, with Italian crews, departed Bizerte, Tunisia for Palermo, Sicily. In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bombed Maimba mission and the village near Buna where Japanese ground forces continued to resist stubbornly.
22 December 1943 Orders were issued for General Carl Spaatz to take command of the US Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSAFE). Lieutenant General Ira C Eaker, Commanding General USAAF Eighth Air Force, was to Command Allied Air Forces in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, after remaining in the UK until mid-January to advise Spaatz and Lieutenant General James H Doolittle, the new Commanding General Eighth Air Force. In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, Italy, Villa Grandi fell to the Indian 8th Division. The 2nd Canadian Brigade entered Ortona and was heavily engaged in house-to-house fighting with the German 1st Paratroop Division. P-40s and Spitfires of the USAAF Twelfth Air Force and Australian, British and South African aircraft hit strong points in the Tollo-Miglianico-Chieti areas. P-40s attacked bridges, locomotives, trucks, and railroad tracks at and near Tortoreto and Benedello. In Northeast New Guinea, nearly 40 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells, with P-38 Lightning escort, bombed Wewak and Boram. The P-38 Lightnings, B-25s and some P-47 Thunderbolts on a sweep claimed at least 13 aircraft shot down. B-25s and P-39 Airacobras bombed airfield and barges at Madang and the town of Alexishafen; and A-20 Havocs and B-26 Marauders attacked the occupied area north of Finschhafen.
22 December 1944 In Bastogne, Belgium, the German surrender demand was rebuffed by General McAuliffe with the famous response "Nuts!"; meanwhile, the US Third Army shifted its axis of advance in attempt to relieve Bastogne. Having lost 8,000 of some 22,000 men at St. Vith, the Allies evacuated and it fell to the German offensive. Rundstedt, Model and Guderian recommended that the offensive be halted, due to Allied resistance, the arrival of reserve units, and the clearing weather, but the suggestion was refused by Hitler. Clearing weather in Italy enabled USAAF Twelfth Air Force medium bombers to hit bridges at Torre Beretti, Pontetidone, and Chiari; fighter-bombers concentrated on railway targets, destroying five bridges in northern Italy and making numerous cuts in rail lines, several on the important Brenner Pass line. Motor transport and guns north of the battle area were also successfully attacked. During the night of 22/23 December, A-20 Havocs on intruder patrols hit Po River crossings and targets of opportunity. Two USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bombed Yungning, China. Over 80 P-51 Mustangs and P-40s on armed reconnaissance over wide reaches of southern China, eastern Burma, and northern French Indochina hit numerous targets of opportunity. The Tien Ho Airfield in Canton was strafed and several aircraft were destroyed in battles over Canton and Kai Tek Airfield in Hong Kong. Rail facilities, river and road traffic, and other targets of opportunity were hit at Chinchengehiang and the Pingsiang-Yungning area. The USAAF Twentieth Air Force's XXI Bomber Command flew Mission 14: 78 B-29 Superfortresses from the Mariana Islands were dispatched to hit the Mitsubishi aircraft industrial complex in Nagoya, Japan; 48 hit the primary target and 14 hit alternate targets. Total cloud cover prevented accuracy and damage was light; three B-29s were lost. On Luzon, Philippines, USAAF Far East Air Forces (FEAF) B-24 Liberators, with P-47 Thunderbolt support, bombed Clark Field while P-47 Thunderbolts bombed and strafed Lipa Airfield. On Negros Island, B-24s bombed Carolina Airfield while B-25 Mitchells, with P-47 cover, hit Fabrica Aerodrome. On Mindanao Island, B-24s bombed storage and personnel areas while B-25s hit the waterfront at Zamboanga. FEAF aircraft flew numerous shipping searches, armed reconnaissance, and sweeps over Mindanao and throughout the Netherlands East Indies. Washington: Henry “Hap” Arnold was promoted to the rank of General of the Army (five-star), placing him fourth in Army rank seniority behind Marshall, MacArthur, and Eisenhower.
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Post by emron on Dec 22, 2017 17:54:28 GMT 12
21 December 1940 15 British carrier aircraft from HMS Illustrious attacked an Italian convoy off Kerkennah islands, Tunisia, sinking two of the three ships in the convoy. The fight for Bardia, Egypt, was continuing. The British were steadily drawing the ring tighter. The Italian defences, which had withdrawn behind the chain of forts that surrounded the harbour area, were putting up tough resistance, but military experts believed that the resistance must collapse if the British commander ordered a decisive raid. German raiders Komet and Orion and support ship Kulmerland released 514 prisoners at Emirau Island, Bismarck Islands. They were mainly women, children and the injured, captured from various ships including NZ's Holmwood and Rangitane. They were given food before being turned over to two English families living on the island. British ship Nellore would arrive on 29 Dec to pick them up. 150 prisoners remained aboard Orion.
21 December 1941 The German submarine U-751 put three torpedoes into British escort aircraft carrier HMS Audacity causing her to sink about 441 nautical miles northeast of Lagens Field, Azores Islands. In the general counter-attack, German submarine U-567 was detected and sunk by depth charges from the British sloop HMS Deptford and corvette HMS Samphire, all 47 crewmen on the U-boat were lost. All of the British vessels were escorting convoy HG76 (Gibraltar to the U.K.). German submarine U-451 was sunk about 18 nautical miles west-northwest of the Tangier Zone, by depth charges from a British Fleet Air Arm Swordfish Mk. I, aircraft "A" of No. 812 Squadron based at Gibraltar. The Swordfish was equipped with air-to-surface vessel (ASV) radar. This was the first submarine to be destroyed by an aircraft at night. Only one of the 45 man crew in the U-boat survived. Three Japanese convoys from Formosa and the Pescadores bearing the main body of the Japanese 14th Army assault force, arrived in Lingayen Gulf, Philippines. The Japanese land the 38th Division at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon. The Japanese soon established a strong beachhead and finished unloading their troops by the 23rd. A reinforced Japanese landing force known as the Wake Occupation Force, left Kwajalein bound for Wake Island. It was under the command of Rear Admiral Kajioka Sadamichi. Air attacks were continued by the Japanese carriers Soryu and Hiryu. The Wake Island relief force TF-14, was within 600 nautical miles of the island. The task force comprised of the aircraft carriers USS Lexington (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3), the heavy cruisers USS Astoria, Minneapolis and San Francisco, ten destroyers, the seaplane tender USS Tangier and the oiler USS Neches. The convoy was carrying the 4th Marine Coastal Defence Battalion, Marine Squadron VMF-221 equipped with F2A-3 Buffalo fighters, along with 9,000 five-inch rounds, 12,000 three-inch rounds, and 3 million 50 calibre rounds as well as a large amount of ammunition for mortars and other battalion small arms.
21 December 1942 During the day, nine RAF Bomber Command Venturas and six (A-20) Bostons were dispatched to attack railway targets in France, Belgium and Holland but only two Venturas found targets, at Monceau and Valenciennes. No aircraft were lost. During the night RAF Bomber Command dispatched 137 aircraft, 119 Lancasters, nine Stirlings and nine Wellingtons, to bomb Munich with the loss of 12 aircraft, eight Lancasters, three Stirlings and a Wellington, 8.8 per cent of the force. One hundred ten aircraft claimed to have bombed Munich and started fires but their photographs show that all or most of the bombs fell in open country, possibly attracted by a decoy site.
21 December 1943 In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, Italy, the Canadian 1st Division of the Eighth Army, met stiff German resistance near Ortona. After finally crossing "the gully" the Canadians now expected that the town would come easily. The first elements of the Polish II Corps land at Taranto. They were commanded by Lieutenant General Wladyslaw Anders and Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Zygmunt Szyszko-Bohusz. On the Huon Peninsula in Northeast New Guinea, the Australian 20th Brigade, 9th Division, crossed the Malaweng River. At 1600 hours, the leading company of the 2/15th Battalion entered Hubika which was littered with dead Japanese soldiers. Task Force Backhander, the task force for operations on Cape Gloucester, New Britain Island, Bismarck Archipelago, under the command of Major General William H. Rupertus, USMC, conducted a final rehearsal for invasion of Cape Gloucester at Cape Sudest, Papua New Guinea.
21 December 1944 In the U.S. Third Army's VIII Corps area, Belgium, the Germans laid siege to Bastogne and extended westward; crossed the Neufchâteau-Bastogne highway in force. Ammunition and food supplies of the Bastogne garrison were running low. Provisional Corps troops were transferred to the XII Corps. Combat Command A, 10th Armoured Division, tried unsuccessfully to recover Waldbillig. Combat Command A, 9th Armoured Division, and Combat Command R, 10th Armoured Division, were formed into Combat Command X, 10th Armoured Division. In the British Eighth Army's Polish II Corps area, Italy, the 5th Kresowa Division, having relieved the 3rd Carpathian Division, began mopping up east of the Senio River. V Corps continued to clear northward astride the Naviglio Canal. The Canadian I Corps overran Bagnacavallo and reached the Senio River in the Cotignola-Alfonsine area, but the Germans retained positions along the river on both flanks.
21 December 1945 Heidelberg, Germany: US General George S Patton died today at 17:55 from injuries sustained in a car accident on December 9th. He died of pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure. He would be buried among the soldiers who died in the Battle of the Bulge at Hamm, Luxembourg.
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