December 24th, 1941 (WEDNESDAY)
FRANCE: The third German submarine involved in Operation Drumbeat, U-66, sets sail from Lorient for North America.
GERMANY:
U.S.S.R.: The positions of the Spanish 250.Infanterie-Division or 'Division Azul' (Blue Division) of the Wehrmacht, at Udarnik and Gorka come under attack. General Munoz Grandes has commanded the division to hold its present positions 'as though nailed to the ground', and the Spaniards do just that. (Russ Folsom)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: German submarine U-568 torpedoes and sinks the British corvette HMS Salvia (K 97) about 104 nautical miles (193 kilometers) west-northwest of Alexandria, Egypt, in position 31.46N, 28.00E. All 106 crewmen on the corvette are killed.
LIBYA: Benghazi: Battle-worn and weary, after a month of continuous fighting, men of the 8th Army captured this wrecked town today. Rommel has fought all the way, shielding his few remaining Panzers with potent anti-tank fire and fending off British attempts to outflank his retreating Afrika Korps. His main threat came from the Desert Air Force, which itself was badly hampered by poor weather.
With heavy casualties to his men and the loss of 170 fighting vehicles, Rommels army has been badly hurt by Operation Crusader, and its commander faces a long wait for replacements.
General Auchinleck could press on towards Tripoli and complete victory in North Africa. But his men are tired, and his tanks have suffered badly in fierce desert combat. The replacement crews are "green", and the pattern of desert war is repeating itself in that it is the British turn to suffer from stretched lines of communication.
British troops were in a similar position once before - only to be moved to Greece to disaster. On December 12, Auchinleck was told that his much-needed reinforcements of two divisions, four light bomber squadrons and a consignment of anti-tank guns were being diverted - to the Far East.
Flower
class corvette Salvia which had been attempting to rescue Axis POW’s from the
sunken Shuntien, is torpedoed and sunk by U-568 about 100 miles West of
Alexandria at 31 48N 28 00E. There are over 900 casualties, as no one survives
this sinking.
CHINA: Changsha: Central China's gateway city of Changsha is in danger of being overrun by Japanese forces for the third time in 12 months as the deadlocked conflict between Japan and China flares again. The Japanese have moved on Changsha to head off a Chinese Nationalist force from Hunan that was being moved south to Canton to attack Japanese forces in order to relieve pressure on Hong Kong.
HONG KONG: The British defenders are split in two, and are short of water. Japanese troops capture 53 British and Canadian soldiers, rope them together, and shoot or bayonet them to death. In the village of Stanley, the Japanese attack doctors and wounded soldiers in St. Stephen's College Emergency Hospital, bayoneting more than 50 men in their beds.
The British destroyer HMS Thracian (D 86) runs aground and is captured by the Japanese. She is salvaged by the Japanese Navy, repaired and recommissioned on 25 November 1942 as Patrol Vessel No.101, then re-rated a training ship in March 1944, being attached to the torpedo school at Yokosuka. Recaptured in 1945, she is eventually broken up at Hong Kong post-war. (Dave Shirlaw & Jack McKillop)
MALAYA: The Indian 11th Division, controlling all Indian III Corps troops north of the Slim and Bernam Rivers, is organizing a defense in depth astride the main road with the main line of resistance in the Kampar area and rear positions near the Slim River. Commander Australian Imperial Force Malaya, Major General Gordon Bennett (General Office Commanding Australian 8th Division), assigns responsibility for North Johore to the Australian 27th Brigade Group, 8th Division.
British air strength in Malaya has been reduced to 38 fighters, 40 dive bombers, 34 torpedo bombers, 17 reconnaissance aircraft and 17 others.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Lamon Bay in southeast Luzon is the point of an additional Japanese landing. US and Filipino forces fall back to the 1st of 5 defending lines in northern Luzon. MacArthur's intention is to fall back onto the Bataan Peninsula and await reinforcements and supplies from the US.
Manila: The Japanese noose is beginning to close on the capital of the Philippines. A second support force, numbering 7,000 landed today at Lamon Bay, on Luzon's east coast, and is expected to try to link up with General Homma's 43,000-strong main force which landed two days ago by 85 transports in the Lingayen Gulf and is only 120 miles from Manila.
However, because of intelligence overestimates, the US C-in-C, General MacArthur, who has only 25,000 US troops and Filipino scouts available to defend Manila, has declared it an open city and started to withdraw his men to the Bataan peninsula where they will regroup.
Japanese troops land on Jolo in the Sulu Archipelago today and tomorrow.
On Luzon, Admiral Thomas C. Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, releases the 4th Marine Regiment, stationed at Olongapo, to defend the beaches of Corregidor. The Japanese Lamon Bay invasion force, which constitutes the southern prong of pincers applied against Manila, goes ashore early in morning at three points—Mauban, near Atimonan, and Siam. The main assault force, in the center, secures Atimonan, forcing the defenders back toward Pagbilao. The Mauban force takes that town and pushes 5 miles (8 kilometers) west. From Siam the Japanese advance in two columns, one southwest toward Tayabas Bay and the other southeast along Route 1 toward the Japanese Legaspi detachment. The Japanese on northern Luzon consolidate their beachhead and debouch on the central plain to thrust sharply toward the Agno River line. San Fabian and Binalonan fall, 26th Cavalry Regiment (Philippine Scouts) retiring from Binalonan across the Agno River to Tayug. The planned withdrawal toward Bataan is begun in the evening. U.S. Army, Far East headquarters, except for the rear echelon, and Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, and Francis B. Sayre, U.S. High Commissioner of the Philippines, sail to Corregidor from Manila. Fort Stotsenburg is evacuated. Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright's North Luzon Force, disposed generally along the line Tayug-Urdaneta-San Carlos-Aquilar, from east to west, begins withdrawing toward the Agno River line. The South Luzon Force, command of which passes from Major General George M. Parker to Brigadier General Albert M. Jones, is to withdraw northward into Bataan. General Parker moves to Bataan to head the Bataan Defense Force, organized to prepare defensive positions. In the Sulu Archipelago, the Japanese invade Jolo Island in the evening against light resistance from the constabulary. Jolo Island is located about half way between Borneo and Mindanao Island.
Three USAAF Far East Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses fly from Del Monte Field, Mindanao Island during the night of 24/25 December, bomb the airfield and shipping at Davao on Mindanao Island and land at Batchelor Field near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Two USN PBY Catalinas leave Manila, Luzon, for Darwin with personnel of HQ Far East Air Force. Army Air Forces units on Luzon, as well as ground forces, begin moving to Bataan Peninsula.
BORNEO: A Japanese convoy, despite attacks by British and Dutch planes and Dutch submarines, succeeds in landing troops in the Kuching area of the British protectorate of Sarawak, early in morning. The garrison, having already destroyed Kuching airdrome, requests permission to withdraw to Dutch Borneo and is told to delay the Japanese as long as possible before retiring. Dutch aircraft withdraw from Singkawang, Borneo, to Palembang, Sumatra.
PALMYRA ISLAND: A Japanese submarine shells the atoll slightly damaging a dredge without inflicting casualties. (Gordon Rottman)
MIDWAY ISLANDS: USN seaplane tender USS Wright (AV-1) disembarks Marine reinforcements (Batteries "A" and "C," 4th Defense Battalion).
PACIFIC OCEAN: Two U.S. merchant vessels are shelled by Japanese submarines off the coast of California:
- HIJMS I-17 shells a 5,695 ton unarmed freighter about 19 nautical miles (36 kilometers) north-northwest of Catalina Island which is about 14 nautical miles (26 kilometers) southwest of Long Beach, California. Although the freighter is abandoned, she is later reboarded and towed to San Pedro, California.
- HIJMS I-23 shells a 2,119 ton unarmed freighter off Monterey Bay south of San Francisco. The ship escapes.
AUSTRALIA: U.S. Brigadier General Henry B. Claggett takes temporary command of U.S. Forces in Australia, pending the arrival of Major General George H. Brett from Chungking, China.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Orillia arrived Halifax, Nova Scotia for refit.
SAINT PIERRE AND MIQUELON: Free French Naval Forces take possession of the two islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the south coast of Newfoundland without firing a shot. A strong protest is lodged by U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull but after several weeks of bickering between U.S., Canadian and British diplomats and "the so called Free French" as Hull describes them the coup remains a fait accompli.
U.S.A.:
Anti-Aircraft cruiser USS Atlanta commissioned at the New York Naval Shipyard.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Submarine HMS H-31 sunk by mine in Bay of Biscay.
Corvette HMS Salvia sunk by U-568.