366 Days

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December

News Headlines

1

STALAG IX B OPENS, BECOMES INFAMOUS GERMAN POW CAMP

Near Bad Orb, Hessen • December 1, 1939 On this date in 1939, four months since the out­break of war in Europe, the German Wehr­macht (mili­tary) estab­lished a pri­soner of war camp, Mann­schafts-Stamm­lager IX B, out­side Bad Orb, roughly 30 miles north­east of Frank­furt am Main. Over the course of the war Stalag IX B—Stalag being a con­trac­tion […]

2

MUSTARD GAS TRAGEDY IN BARI HARBOR

Bari, Italy • December 2, 1943 World War I combatants had used a variety of poi­son gases on each other ranging from inca­pa­ci­tating and tem­po­rarily blinding the enemy to gases that burned the body, destroyed the lungs, and lique­fied tis­sues. Some­times their use had un­in­tended con­se­quences, as when the gases inflicted casu­al­ties on the users […]

3

THIRD B-29 RAID ON TOKYO

Tinian, Mariana Islands · December 3, 1944 On this date in 1944 eighty-six B‑29 Super­for­tresses belonging to XXI Bomber Com­mand, a unit of the U.S. Twen­tieth Air Force, left the north­western Pacific Mari­ana Islands base on Tini­an on their third Tokyo bombing mis­sion. Ten days earlier 111 of these heavy bombers had launched the first […]

4

ROOSEVELT’S “VICTORY PLAN” LEAKED

Chicago, Illinois · December 4, 1941 Early in July 1941, four months after the U.S. Congress had en­acted the Lend-Lease Pro­gram that began assisting Great Brit­ain and China in their defense against the aggressor states of Nazi Ger­many, Fas­cist Italy, and Im­perial Japan, Presi­dent Franklin D. Roose­velt asked his Sec­re­taries of War and the Navy […]

5

PRINCE ASAKA, HIROHITO’S UNCLE, TO COMMAND CHINA TROOPS

Tokyo, Japan · December 5, 1937 On this date in 1937 Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, a lieutenant gene­ral in the Imperial Japa­nese Army and uncle by mar­riage to Japa­nese Emperor Hiro­hito (post­humously referred to as Emperor Shōwa), flew from Tokyo to his new assign­ment—tem­po­rary com­mand of the Japa­nese Shang­hai Expe­di­tionary Force, a unit of Gen. Iwane […]

6

SOVIET INITIATIVE OUTSIDE MOSCOW SHOCKS GERMANS

Moscow, Soviet Union · December 6, 1941 Three weeks after launching Opera­tion Bar­ba­rossa on June 22, 1941, the Ger­mans and their Axis part­ners had reached close enough to Mos­cow to fly sorties and bomb the Soviet capital. Tactically, the Wehr­macht (German armed forces) won resounding vic­tories, taking over three mil­lion Soviet pri­soners in 1941 and seizing […]

7

JAPAN’S SNEAK ATTACK SAVAGES U.S. PACIFIC FLEET

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii · December 7, 1941 On this date in 1941, a quiet Sunday morning on the Hawaiian is­land of Oahu just before 8 o’clock, Japan staged an un­pro­voked attack on America’s door­step, the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor and its defending Army Air Corps and Marine air­fields dotting the harbor peri­meter. Twelve […]

8

U.S. GOVERNMENT BEGINS ARRESTING ENEMY ALIENS

Washington, D.C. • December 8, 1941 Although the devastating Japanese surprise attack on U.S. mili­tary instal­la­tions at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Decem­ber 7, 1941, came as a shock to most Amer­i­cans, Presi­dent Franklin D. Roose­velt’s admin­is­tra­tion had already begun weighing pos­sible responses to an out­break of war with Japan, Germany, and Italy, countries treaty-bound in […]

9

JAPAN: NO U.S. AGGRESSION, NO WAR

Tokyo, Japan · December 9, 1940 On September 27, 1940, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan signed the Tri­par­tite Pact, or Axis Pact as it was also known. The Pact was an out­growth of the “Rome-Berlin Axis” cele­brated by the Italo-Ger­man “Pact of Steel,” which Adolf Hitler’s foreign minis­ter Joachim von Rib­ben­trop and Benito […]

10

JAPANESE TROOPS LAND ON LUZON

Manila, Philippines · December 10, 1941 On this date in 1941, three days after the U.S. Pacific Fleet had been severely crippled at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Japa­nese troops landed on the U.S.-held island of Guam in the West­ern Paci­fic Ocean and occu­pied it with­in hours. On the same day ele­ments of the Japa­nese 14th Area Army […]

11

GERMANY, ITALY DECLARE WAR ON U.S.

Berlin, Germany • December 11, 1941 On this date in 1941 in Berlin, Adolf Hitler, Chancellor and Fuehrer of Nazi Germany, addressed a tooth­less Reichs­tag (German parlia­ment), its members eager to hear him declare war on America. Hitler did this four days after air and naval units of the Imperial Japa­nese Navy had ambushed the […]

12

DEADLY JAPANESE ATTACK ON USS PANAY

Shanghai, China • December 12, 1937 In 1937 the Chinese city of Shanghai, a city of 3 million people, domi­nated the coun­try eco­nom­i­cally. Located on one of the many trib­u­taries of the Yangtze River, Shang­hai was a “treaty port” (i.e., open to foreign traders) on the East China Sea. Then as now the Yangtze River […]

13

BRITISH NAVY TRAPS GERMAN FLAGSHIP ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE

River Plate Estuary, Uruguay • December 13, 1939 In the first months of World War II only Great Britain’s Royal Navy, under the leader­ship of 65‑year-old First Lord of the Ad­mi­ralty (in May 1940, Prime Minis­ter) Winston Chur­chill, pro­se­cuted the war against Nazi Germany with energy. After U‑boats had sunk the air­craft carrier HMS Cou­ra­geous […]

14

NORWAY’S QUISLING MEETS HITLER

Berlin, Germany · December 14, 1939 On this date in 1939 Adolf Hitler and high-ranking members of the Ger­man Navy and Army met with Norway’s Vidkun Quis­ling, whose pri­vate visit to Berlin had been spon­sored by Alfred Rosen­berg, the Nazi Party’s chief racial theorist. From 1931 to 1933 Quis­ling had served as Norway’s minis­ter of […]

15

MINDORO’S CAPTURE IS STEPPING STONE TO MANILA

Mindoro Island, Philippines • December 15, 1944 On October 17, 1944, the naval, air, and land forces of Gen. Douglas Mac­Arthur, Supreme Com­mander, South­west Pacific Area, began their assault on the Japa­nese-held Philip­pine island of Leyte. Three days later Mac­Arthur and his staff, accom­panied by Philip­pine presi­dent Sergio Osmeña, waded onto Palo Beach (Red Beach), […]

16

NAZIS FORCE BULGE IN ALLIED LINES

Adlerhorst Forward HQ, Central Hessen, Germany • December 16, 1944 “It is essential to deprive the enemy of his belief that victory is certain,” Adolf Hitler told his gene­rals on Decem­ber 12, 1944, at his rural Adler­horst (Eagle’s Nest) head­quarters near Bad Nau­heim, Germany, the camou­flaged western com­mand out­post Archi­tect of the Reich Albert Speer had built […]

17

ALLIES DENOUNCE NAZI KILLING OF JEWS

Washington, D.C. and London, England • December 17, 1942 In remarks he made to 14 senior Nazis at a top-secret con­fer­ence in the fashion­able Berlin suburb of Wann­see on Janu­ary 22, 1942, 38-year-old SS-Ober­gruppen­fuehrer Rein­hard Hey­drich, chief of the Reich Security Head [or Main] Office as also head of the German secret police apparatus, spoke of “prac­tical experi­ence” […]

18

HITLER PLANS OPERATION BARBAROSSA, SOVIETS’ RUIN

Berlin, Germany · December 18, 1940 On this date in 1940 in Berlin, one day before receiving the credentials of the new Soviet am­bas­sador to Germany, Adolf Hitler signed Fuehrer Direc­tive 21, Opera­tion Bar­ba­rossa (Unter­neh­men Bar­ba­rossa), thereby ini­ti­ating the secret pre­pa­ra­tions and mili­tary opera­tions that led to the Axis inva­sion of the Soviet Union on June 22, […]

19

FINNISH AID TO DISRUPT NAZI ORE IMPORTS

London, England · December 19, 1939 In the afternoon of August 23, 1939, Adolf Hitler’s foreign secretary Joachim von Ribben­trop appeared in Moscow’s Krem­lin fortress to sign off on the Nazi-Soviet Non­ag­gres­sion Pact. The 10‑year pact, also known by the twin sur­names of the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Ribben­trop, was […]

20

ROOSEVELT: U.S. MUST PLAN FOR ITS DEFENSE

Washington, D.C. · December 20, 1940 On this date in 1940 President Franklin D. Roose­velt appointed William Knud­sen to head a four-member board (Office of Pro­duc­tion Manage­ment, or OPM) to plan for national defense and coor­di­nate aid to Great Britain following Ger­many’s total block­ade of that island nation in mid-August (Battle of the Atlantic). A […]

21

ROMANIA’S CENTER GOVERNMENT FALLS, FASCISTS IN?

Bucharest, Romania · December 21, 1937 On this date in 1937 Romania’s last free elections (until 1990) ended in the ouster of the middle-of-the road Na­tion­al Libe­ral govern­ment. The Libe­rals, who remained the largest party in parlia­ment, were unable to form a coali­tion govern­ment with the next two runner-up par­ties. A week later King Carol II […]

22

U.S., BRITISH LEADERS FORMULATE WAR PLANS FOR 1942

Washington, D.C • December 22, 1941 On this date in 1941 the Japanese public glimpsed their first photos in the news­paper Asahi Shimbun of their country’s devas­tating attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the worst mili­tary catas­trophe in Amer­i­can history. On the same date, Presi­dent Frank­lin D. Roose­velt, British Prime Minis­ter […]

23

FAILED OPERATION WINTER STORM DOOMS GERMANS IN STALINGRAD

Southwest of Stalingrad, Soviet Union • December 23, 1941 On this date in 1942 the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) ended Oper­a­tion Winter Storm (German, Unter­nehmen Winter­gewitter), the 11‑day attempt by German Army Group Don, a new forma­tion commanded by Field Marshal Erich von Man­stein, to break the Soviet envelop­ment of Gen. Friedrich Paulus’ German Sixth […]

24

JAPANESE MAKE THIRD ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE CHANGSHA

Changsha, Hunan Province, China • December 24, 1941 In the years since the political upheaval that brought Emperor Meiji to power (1868–1912), the Japa­nese began looking to the Asian main­land as a well­spring of new mineral, agricul­tural, and human resources to exploit for their use, benefit, and advan­tage. In the mid-1890s and 1905–1910 Japan brought the […]

25

GERMANS UNABLE TO BREAK BASTOGNE ROADBLOCK

101st Airborne Command Post, Bastogne, Belgium • December 25, 1944 On Christmas Eve 1944 in the German-besieged Eastern Bel­gian town of Bastogne (popu­la­tion 3,500), soldiers of the armor­less U.S. 101st Air­borne “Screaming Eagles” Divi­sion, the 9th and 10th Armored Divi­sions, and several com­bat engi­neer and field artil­lery bat­tal­ions received rations of brandy and listened to the […]

26

BRITISH TRAP ENDS SCHARNHORST’S CAREER

North Cape, Norway • December 26, 1943 On this date, the day after Christmas 1943, the German battle­ship (or battle­cruiser) Scharn­horst and her crew of 1,968 met their fate in the Battle of the North Cape off the northern tip of Norway. At 32,100 long tons, the sleek, 771‑ft, state-of-the-art war­ship with nine 11‑inch (28 cm) […]

27

CIVILIAN PROGRAM TO BOOST PILOT NUMBERS

Washington, D.C. • December 27, 1938 In 1938 America’s armed forces had less than 3,000 pro­fes­sional pilots. To speed the pro­duc­tion of pilots out­side the U.S. armed ser­vices, Pre­si­dent Franklin D. Roose­velt unveiled the Civil­ian Pilot Training Pro­gram (CPTP) on this date in 1938. The pro­gram was intended, the presi­dent said, to pro­vide a boost to […]

28

NAVY TO RECRUIT SKILLED CIVILIANS INTO SEABEE UNITS

Washington, D.C. • December 28, 1941 The Seabees were in effect combat engineers of the U.S. Navy, working and, when neces­sary, fighting on land. On this date in 1941 Rear Admiral Ben Moreell requested autho­rity to orga­nize a mili­ta­rized Naval Con­struc­tion Force, and a week later he gained per­mis­sion from the Bureau of Navi­ga­tion (later […]

29

CONSOLIDATED B-24 HEAVY BOMBER MAKES MAIDEN FLIGHT

San Diego, California • December 29, 1939 On this date in 1939 a prototype four-engine heavy bomber took off from San Diego’s Lind­berg Field on its maiden flight. The flight lasted 17 minutes. Designed by Consol­i­dated Air­craft, the proto­type was ini­ti­ally known in-house as Model 32. Besides its dis­tinc­tive twin tails and slab sides that allowed for […]

30

MAJOR COMBAT OPERATIONS ON LEYTE WIND DOWN

Tacloban, Leyte Island, Philippines • December 30, 1944 The island of Leyte, the first island in the Philip­pine archi­pel­ago captured by returning GIs, was securely in U.S. hands by this date in 1944. It only remained for Gen. Douglas Mac­Arthur, Supreme Com­mander of the South­west Pacific Area, to announce the end of organized Japanese unit resistance, […]

31

RECORD END-OF-YEAR DELIVERY OF B-29s

Washington, D.C. • December 31, 1943 By this date in 1943 Boeing delivered its 92nd B‑29 Super­for­tress to the U.S. govern­ment after the giant bomber began rolling off the assem­bly line the pre­vious Septem­ber. Even before the coun­try was at war and govern­ment funds had been allo­cated, Boeing had produced a proto­type of the long-range […]

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