December 23rd, 1940 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:". . . one man (Mussolini) and one man alone has ranged the Italian people in deadly struggle against the British Empire and has deprived Italy of the sympathy and intimacy of the United States of America. That he is a great man I do not deny. But that after 18 years of unbridled power he has led your country to the horrid. verge of ruin-that can be denied by none. It is all one man-one man, who, against the crown and royal. family of Italy, against the Pope and all the authority of the Vatican and of the Roman Catholic Church, against the wishes of the Italian people who had no lust for this war; one man has arrayed the trustees and inheritors of ancient Rome upon the side of the ferocious pagan barbarians. There lies the tragedy of Italian history and there stands the criminal who has wrought the deed of folly and of shame."
Minesweeping trawler HMS Hamlet commissioned.
FRANCE:
Jacques Bonsergeant, a 28-year-old engineer who had a fight with a German sergeant, is the
first Frenchman to be executed by the Nazis in Paris.
Individual Frenchmen were laying wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and groups of Parisians gathered in the streets to remember the dead of both wars. In the afternoon, the Germans had begun to disperse the groups, and 123 arrests were made, among them 90 schoolchildren. In the scuffles, four people were hurt. One of those arrested was Bonsergeant, a civil engineer. He was visiting Paris for the wedding of a friend and was caught up inadvertently in the 'demonstration'. He was jostled by German soldiers and arrested.
GERMANY:
Augsburg: The Messerschmitt 261 V1 twin-engine, long-range aircraft makes its maiden flight. The aircraft
has a range of 6,800 miles, and was originally designed to fly non-stop from Berlin to
Tokyo to carry the Olympic Torch for the 1940 Games.
Daily Keynote speech from the Reich Press Chief
Once again the British have dropped 5 bombs on Zurich. The Minister emphatically reminds
us of his earlier instructions not to praise Switzerland for the furious remarks of the
Swiss press regarding the British attacks. It is not in our interests to show gratitude
for any protests that Switzerland might happen to make.
ALBANIA:
The advancing Greeks capture the town of Himara on the Adriatic Sea.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The 625-ton Italian torpedo boat R.N. Fratelli Cairoli sinks 4 miles (6,4 kilometers) north of Misurata, Libya, after hitting a mine laid by the British submarine HMS/M Rorqual (N 74).
SINGAPORE:
The Reuters News Agency reports:
A communiqué from Air Marshal Brooke Popham, the British Commander-in-Chief in the Far
East, states that recently large transports of troops from every branch of service have
arrived in the Malayan states. This has reinforced the already massive defences of
Singapore and also the fighting power of the other sections of Far East Command.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Launceston laid down.
U.S.A.: The National Guard's 35th Division, consisting of units from Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, is inducted into Federal service.
A conference of industry and labor officials agrees that there would be no strikes or lockouts in war industries while World War II continued.
Admiral William D. Leahy (USN, Retired), newly appointed Ambassador to Vichy France, accompanied by his wife Louise, embarks in heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) at Norfolk, Virginia, for the transatlantic passage to take up his diplomatic post "at a very critical time in the relations between the United States and France." Destroyers USS Madison (DD-425) and Upshur (DD-144) escort Tuscaloosa on the initial stage of her voyage.
Submarine USS Grampus launched.