23 December 1941

Destroyer HMS Lauderdale commissioned.

Submarines HMS Untiring and Varangian laid down.

ASW trawler HMS Birdlip commissioned.

FRANCE: The second German submarine involved in Operation Drumbeat, U-123, sets sail from Lorient for North America.

U-210, U-609 launched.

U.S.S.R.: The outer ring of Russian forts around Sevastopol is finally captured by the Germans.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-79 sunk in the Mediterranean north of Sollum, in position 32.15N, 25.19E, by depth charges from destroyers HMS Hasty and Hotspur. 44 survivors (No casualties).

NORTH AFRICA: Benghazi is evacuated by Rommel as the British 8th Army reaches Barce.

LIBYA: Because of supply difficulties, which increase as pursuit progresses westward, elements of XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, are forced to remain in place. However, the Indian 4th Division seizes Barce, on the coast, and forward elements of the 7th Armoured Division force the Germans to retire from Antelat to Agedabia.

HONG KONG: The Canadian Royal Rifles of Canada withdraw to Hong Kong's Stanley Peninsula.

BURMA: Rangoon feels the first of the Japanese air strikes. There are two Allied fighter squadrons available. One RAF and the other is the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers). These fighters are only able to offer token resistance to the Japanese. Nevetheless 15 Japanese aircraft are shot down for the loss of three P-40s and two pilots, AVG pilots Henry Gilbert and Neil Martin, who are lost in action. (Chuck Baisden)

At our base at Mingaladon Airdrome just outside of Rangoon as one of the armorers in the 3rd Squadron AVG (Hell's Angels), we had completed our morning preflight and a number of us crew chiefs, armorers and radio men were standing around on a small knoll just outside our barracks and perhaps a hundred odd feet from our flightline dispersal area when the air raid siren went off with our pilots racing to their planes, starting engines and immediately taxiing to the active runway and taking off.

It was a miracle there were no mid air collisions as some 14 P-40B fighters were taking off from one direction sandwhiched between a number of RAF Brewster Buffaloes (I believe they were New Zealand pilots) taking off from another dispersal area in almost opposite directions. It was right hairy for a spell.

Things got quiet and then from a distance we saw a rather large formation approaching our field, flying in a tight 3 ship V of V formation with fighter escorts swarming like a bunch of bees. Turned out there were 54 Japanese Betty bombers and some 40 fighter. One of our guys started counting and when he hit 27 yelled "Hell they are not ours, we don't have that many." There was an immediate mad dash for some slit trenches a few feet from where we had been standing.

One group of the bombers targeted our field and laid their pattern precisely down the runway and through our dispersal area. I remember those black dots getting larger and larger accompanied by a whoose-whoose sound and thought they were all aimed directly at me.

It was nothing compared to the shock of the bombs as they walked up the field with the noise getting louder and louder. The concussion bounced us around in the trench and from the smell someone had voided in his trousers. I know one 21 year old that grew up in a hurry.

Saw a parachute coming down with a Japanese I-97 making a pass at the helpless guy in the chute. Luckily one of the RAF pilots saw what the Jap pilot was up to and forced him to break off. Neil Martin, my pilot at Langley and Mitchel when we were pulling tow targets in an old Martin B-10, made a pass at the bomber formation and never pulled out of his dive, evidently killed by a bomber gunner. Henry Gilbert was also shot down and killed. My comrade-in arms R.T.Smith (Tadpole) shot down 2 or 3 and landed with his fuselage full of holes, a present from a Japanese bomber gunner. I had the privilege to fly as his gunner in B-25s with the Air Commando Group 2 years later.

Score for this day was 15 of the enemy and we lost 3 P-40s and 2 pilots. There were a number of casualties among support personnel in the RAF at our field and some 1000 civilians were killed or wounded in Rangoon.

The parachutist saved by the New Zealand RAF pilot was Paul J. Greene. (d. July 03, 2005) (Chuck Baisden)

MALAYA: The Indian III Corps completes a withdrawal of all west coast forces behind the Perak River during the night of 23/24 December. Japanese planes, which so far have concentrated on airfields, begin intensive action against forward areas.

AUSTRALIA: The Advisory War Council agrees that the future of Australia is bound up with the talks taking place during the Arcadia Conference in Washington, D.C., and Prime Minister John Curtin cables U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill appealing for more reinforcements for Singapore, Malaya. At the same time, Curtin tells Roosevelt that if the U.S. government wants, Australia would gladly accept an American commander in the Pacific.

The USAAF Far East Air Force (FEAF) comes under control of the newly-created US Forces in Australia (USFIA). Major General Lewis H Brereton, Commanding General FEAF, receives orders establishing HQ FEAF at Darwin, Northern Territory.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Using a P-26A, of the Philippine 6th Pursuit Squadron, Lieutenant Jose Kare shoots down a Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero. (Rob George)

On Luzon, Lieutenant General Douglas MacArthur, Commanding General US Army Forces Far East, decides to evacuate Manila and withdraw to Bataan Peninsula to make a delaying stand. During the night of 23/24 December, a Japanese invasion force of 7,000 men arrives in Lamon Bay from the Ryukyu Islands. Another Japanese invasion force sails from Mindanao Island for Jolo Island in the Sulu Archipelago.

After 0000 hours, four of the Far East Air Force's B-17 Flying Fortresses take off from Del Monte Field on Mindanao Island and bomb shipping in Lingayen Gulf, Luzon. They damage a destroyer and a minesweeper. After the attack, one aircraft lands at Del Monte Field and the other three land on Ambon Island in the Netherlands East Indies. After refueling, all four proceed to Batchelor Field near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Twelve P-40s and six P-35s, the only USAAF fighter aircraft in the Philippines, strafe Japanese forces landing in San Miguel Bay on Luzon.

BORNEO: The Japanese invasion convoy which left Miri in the British protectorate of Sarawak yesterday, is being escorted by the five heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, six destroyers, two minesweepers and an aircraft depot ship. Part of the escort force is sighted this morning when it is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) off Kuching, capital of Sarawak. At 1140 hours, 24 Japanese aircraft bomb Singkawang II Airfield in Dutch Borneo, so damaging the runways that a Dutch striking force which has been ordered to attack the convoy is unable to take off with a bomb load. Despite the critical situation the Dutch authorities urge the transfer of their aircraft to Sumatra, Netherlands East Indies. Air Headquarters, Far East, agrees and tomorrow afternoon, the aircraft were flown to Palembang. The Japanese convoy does not escape unscathed. This evening, it is attacked by Dutch submarine HNMS K-XIV which sinks two transports and damages a transport and a tanker. During the night of 23/

24 December, submarine Dutch HNMS K-XVI torpedoes and sinks the Japanese destroyer HIJMS Sagiri. Fires rage on the destroyer igniting the torpedoes and the ship blows up killing 121 of the 241 crewmen. During the evening, five RAF Blenheim Mk. IVs of No. 34 Squadron based at Tengah Airfield, Singapore, Malaya, operating at extreme range, bomb the ships at anchor in Kuching harbor but do little damage.

LINE ISLANDS: The U.S. Palmyra Island is shelled by Japanese submarines HIJMS I-71 and I-72. Palmyra Island is located about 957 nautical miles (1 773 kilometers) south-southwest of Honolulu, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii.

TERRITORY OF HAWAII: 1,000 troops of the Japanese Maizaru 2d Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) land on the southwest shores of Wake and Wilkes Islands at approximately 0230 hours (all source disagree on the exact time). The two patrol craft (destroyer-transports) landing troops on Wake Island are run aground and abandoned due to severe damage by US Marine guns. Other troops are landed by up to six landing barges at various points. It is possible that small groups are landed by rubber boat within the lagoon. The 100 2d Company, Maizaru 2d SNLF troops landing on Wilkes Island near the new Channel are wiped out, but the force on Wake far outnumbers the defenders. Before dawn cruisers and destroyers provide fire support and air attacks commence after sunrise. In the early hours the US Marine commander is informed by Pearl Harbor that the relief expedition will not arrive within the next 24 hours. The Japanese force is firmly established ashore, the Marine defenders have suffered 40% casualties, most heavy weapons have been destroyed or captured, and organized resistance can not be sustained. At 0730 hours Commander Cummingham informs Major Devereux that the garrison will surrender to prevent needless loss of life. Once contact had been made with the Japanese it still takes several hours for the scattered defenders to be notified of the surrender. And then some refuse to believe it. Fire fights continue until all Marines have surrendered by approximately 1330 hours after a valiant defence.

Forty-nine Marines, three sailors, and about seventy civilians (there were many civilian construction workers on Wake) are killed during the battle. Something like 470 military personnel, of whom apparently about 400 were Marines, are captured, along with over a thousand civilians. In 1943 about a hundred of the civilians, still on the island, were executed. Duane Schultz indicates in his book, though, that 376 of the 400 captured Marines survived the war, which if correct is a surprisingly good rate considering the normal conditions of Japanese POW camps. (Arnold Lloyd Gladson and Keith Allen and Gordon Rottman)

A Dutch submarine torpedoes two Japanese transports. Resistance will continue until the 25th.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Two Japanese submarines attack U.S. merchant ships off the coast of California, U.S.A.:(1) HIJMS I-21 attacks two ships; (1) she fires a torpedo at a 6,418 ton unarmed U.S. tanker about 17 nautical miles (32 kilometers) west-southwest of Pismo Beach, California but the tanker escapes and she later torpedoes and sinks an 8,272 ton unarmed U.S. tanker SS Montebello about 19 nautical miles (36 kilometers) west-northwest of Morro Bay, California; and (2) HIJMS I-17 surfaces and shells an unarmed U.S. tanker located about 62 nautical miles (114 kilometers) southwest of Eureka, California, but the tanker escapes. (Jack McKillop & Dave Shirlaw)

Uncertainty over the positions of and number of Japanese carriers and reports that indicate Japanese troops have landed on Wake Atoll compel Vice Admiral William S. Pye, Acting Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, to recall Task Force 14 (Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher) while it is 425 nautical miles (787 kilometers) from its objective.

ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON: Free French forces seize control of the colony of St. Pierre and Miquelon, two islands off the coast of Newfoundland. These islands had been governed by pro-Vichy French officials.

UNITED STATES: California Governor Culbert Olson, at the request of Lieutenant General John. DeWitt, Commanding General Fourth Army and Commanding General Western Defense Command, bans the sale of liquor to persons in uniform, except between 1800 and 2200 hours.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Convoy HG-76 is finally safe this morning after one of the toughest voyages ever. Trouble had been expected, so departure from Gibraltar was delayed until a powerful escort of two sloops, three destroyers, seven corvettes and HMS AUDACITY, a captured German liner converted to an aircraft carrier, was ready.

In the last six days 14 U-boats have attacked the convoy. Commander "Johnnie" Walker, an anti-submarine expert, used Audacity's planes brilliantly and sank five U-boats, and shot down two long-range reconnaissance aircraft with the loss of only two of his 32 merchant ships. Yesterday U-751 sank Audacity, but was blown up herself hours later.