UNITED KINGDOM: Convoy JW.55B departs Loch Ewe with 19 ships intent on making for the Kola Inlet. The convoy escort is comprised of the destroyers HMS Onslow, HMS Onslaught, HMS Orwell, HMS Scourge, HMS Impulsive, HMCS Haida, HMCS Iroquois, HMCS Huron, HMS Whitehall, and HMS Wrestler, minesweeper HMS Gleaner, and corvettes HMS Honeysuckle and HMS Oxlip. (Mark Horan)
Minesweeper HMS Melita commissioned.
Frigate HMS Cosby commissioned.
FRANCE: The USAAF Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 158: five B-17 Flying Fortresses drop one million leaflets on Paris, Amiens and Chartres at 2059-2135 hours.
GERMANY: Tonight RAF bombers raid Frankfurt, dropping 2,000 tons of bombs; the USAAF raids Bremen.
Forty USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb the Messerschmidt aircraft factory at Augsburg; one aircraft is lost.
During the night of 19/20 December, six RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons drop leaflets over several towns.
U-1232 launched.
AUSTRIA: USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb two targets: 73 hit the Main marshalling yard at Innsbruck with the loss of two aircraft and 17 attack Kattenberg with the loss of three aircraft.
U.S.S.R.: Three German Gestapo officers and a Soviet accomplice, are hanged in the market square of Kharkov. Captain Wilhelm Langheld, Hans Ritz, Reinhardt Retelav and their driver Mikhail Bulanov are found guilty of war crimes by a Soviet Military Court. A crowd of around 40,000 watches as lorries (trucks) on which they stand are driven away, leaving them hanging from the scaffold. The Nazis themselves often used this method for executions in the Soviet Union as in the case of Kieper and Kogan, two members of the Soviet Regional Court who were hanged on 17 August 1941, at Zhitomir. Forced to watch the hangings, 400 Jews were rounded up in the city. After the executions, the Jews were taken outside the town and shot into a pit 10 to 15 meters (33 to 49 feet) wide and 4 meters (13 feet) deep.
ITALY: In U.S. Fifth Army's II Corps area, the 36th Infantry Division's 143d and 141st Infantry Regiments attempt to clear the southern and western slopes of Mt. Sammucro from which the Germans are barring access to Highway 6 and the Mignano Gap, but make little headway.
USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb the Terni marshalling yard and the Orte marshalling yard and airfield; A-20 Havocs attack road, bridge, and the town of Orte and hit Cassino; P-40s bomb Orsogna, Sant' Elia Fiumerapido, and a dump near Arce. A-36 Apaches hit the railroad and harbor area at Civitavecchia.
USAAF Fifteenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolt, dispatched for escort duty, miss the rendezvous with the heavy bombers and instead strafe Ancona Airfield, truck convoys at Porto Civitsnova, a train near Senigallia, and a vessel at Roseto degli Abruzzi. B-26 Marauders bomb the Perugia railroad installations and marshalling yards at Castiglione della Valle and Foligno.
YUGOSLAVIA: USAAF Twelfth Air Force P-40s hit shipping at Split, Trogir, and Solin.
ARCTIC OCEAN:
Destroyer HMCS Athabaskan arrived Kola Inlet with convoy JW-55A.
CHINA: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek rejects the proposal by British Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command, for a major attack.
About 35 Japanese bombers and fighters attack Hengyang Airfield; 26 USAAF Fourteenth Air Force P-40s are sent up against the attacking force and shoot down nine; two P-40s are lost. Twelve B-25 Mitchells and eight P-40s attack Nanhsien and Ansiang.
THAILAND: Twenty USAAF Tenth Air Force B-24 Liberators fly a night strike against a newly expanded dock area at Bangkok causing considerable destruction.
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, about 30 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells, A-20 Havocs, and P-39 Airacobras hit barges, bivouac areas, and gun positions north and west of Finschhafen. Thirty 30 B-25s and B-26 Marauders bomb Madang and P-47 Thunderbolts sweep the coastline.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: Twenty nine USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from the Ellice Islands and Baker Island bomb barracks, hangars, and wharf areas on Mili and Maloelap Atolls; they claim seven fighters shot down. P-39 Airacobras from Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands strafe Mili Atoll, destroying three airplanes and firing an oil dump; two P-39 Airacobras are lost.
NEW BRITAIN: Japanese moving against the Arawe beach-head reach the Pulie river, east of Arawe.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Bougainville, 24 USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb the Moisuru bivouac and supply dump; other planes on armed reconnaissance hit targets of opportunity at Buka, Bonis, Ratsua, Poporang, Kara, Kahili, Koiaris, and on Nissan Island.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: The Japanese airfield on Arawe is captured by U.S. forces. The Japanese counterattacks are defeated.
On New Britain Island, Cape Gloucester is bombed by more than 140 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators, B-25 Mitchells, and B-26 Marauders as pre-invasion operations increase. Thirty seven P-40s hit Gasmata on the south coast of New Britain and 20 A-20 Havocs attack forces northeast of Arawe.
Sixteen USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators, escorted by 48 P-38 Lightnings and New Zealand (P-40) Kittyhawks, bomb the town of Rabaul and Simpson Harbor on New Britain Island.
PACIFIC OCEAN: USN submarine USS Grayback (SS-208) sinks Japanese destroyer HIJMS Numakaze about 45 nautical miles (83 kilometers) east-northeast of Naha, Okinawa, in position 26.30N, 128.26E.
CANADA: Frigates HMCS Saint John and Valleyfield arrived Halifax from builders Montreal and Quebec City respectively.
Corvette HMCS Guelph launched.
U.S.A.: Light cruiser USS Houston commissioned.
Destroyer escorts USS Jobb, Lawrence C Taylor and Le Ray Wilson laid down.
Destroyers USS McGowan and Benham commissioned.
Frigates USS Stoddert and Albuquerque commissioned.
USCGC Bodega grounded off Canal Zone. No lives lost.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-515 sank SS Phemius.
U-850 sunk in the mid-Atlantic west of Madeira, Portugal, in position 32.54N, 37.01W, by depth charges and Fido homing torpedoes from 5 Avenger and Wildcat aircraft (VC-19) of the American escort carrier USS Bogue. 66 dead (all hands lost).