December 25th, 1943 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Many families are without their Christmas bird today, but resourceful housewives will have concocted some kind of traditional pudding with dried fruit saved from their rations. Turkeys and geese have been allocated on a quota system: one suburban butcher with 800 customers received only 15 birds. Another estimated that one family in ten would enjoy a traditional fowl.
GERMANY: Berlin: The main weight of the RAF's Christmas raid on Berlin last night fell on the city's south-eastern suburbs, as well as on a ball-bearing factory at Erkner, 15 miles away. The bombs killed 178 Berliners, compared with 104 aircrew killed and 16 taken prisoner. RAF PoWs were made to clear rubble after what was the month's second big raid. Nine days ago 438 Berliners and 279 slave workers (186 women, 65 men and 28 youths from eastern Europe) died during an attack on rail networks; so did 294 German airmen.
U.S.S.R.: The Soviet offensive, which started yesterday, advances and cuts the Vitebsk-Polotsk rail line.
Moscow: The Red Army yesterday launched an offensive in the Ukraine along the Kiev-Zhitomir highway, aiming to prise open German ranks now defending Galicia and Romania. In the Vitebsk sector Gorodok has been captured and German defensive positions are on the brink of collapse. The year thus ends, as it began, with Russia in the ascendant: a year which started with Stalingrad, ended the Russians' long retreat and humiliating the seemingly invincible Germans.
Since then the Russians have defeated the Germans at Kursk in the greatest tank battle yet fought, recaptured Kharkov for the second time, liberated Kiev, cut off the German Seventeenth Army in the Crimea, crossed the Dnieper and broken Hitler's "Eastern Wall".
This has, however, been not only a year of victories, but also a year in which the awesome reserves of the Soviet Union have been mobilised. Millions of men have been put under arms and those arms are of excellent quality.
The improved versions of the T-34and the heavy Stalin tanks with their 122mm guns have proved a match for the Germans, who scrambled desperately to get their Tigers and Panthers onto the battlefield to cope with the T34s pouring from Russian production lines.
It is the same story in the air, with the Russians producing excellent aircraft in great numbers - no fewer than 2,900 a month during 1943, of which 2,500 were combat planes. Added to them were 16,000 heavy or medium tanks, 3,500 light tanks, 4,000 mobile guns and 130,000 guns of all calibre during the year. As well as the Russians' own strength there was also the help sent from the west: mechanized divisions go into battle in American lorries; Soviet pilots fly Airacobras and Kittyhawks; generals scan intelligence decrypts.
All this strength is now being welded together into a formidable fighting machine. Stalin plans to clear the Ukraine, destroying the Wehrmacht in a series of "cauldrons" before marching on Poland, Romania and Germany itself. The Germans are still fighting skilfully, but Russia now has the power.
NORWAY: At 1900 German Rear-Admiral Bey sails with Scharnhorst and five destroyers, Z-29, Z-30, Z-33, Z-34, and Z-38 of the 4th Flotilla (Captain Johannesson), towards convoy JW-55B. Spotted by German air and U-Boat searches, Admiral Bey is unaware of the British force which is conducting distant escort, including Duke of York.
In the interest of maintaining radio silence, Scharnhorst had not been using her radar, and although the need to do so had passed, no instruction was issued to make it operational, thus her blindness was self inflicted. By contrast the 3 British cruisers had been tracking by radar (which Scharnhorst would not have been able to detect) for some 50 minutes before HMS Belfast fired the first starshell, thus announcing the presence of enemy forces. (Alex Gordon and John Nicholas and Navy News)
INDIA: Japanese bombers raid Chittagong.
Karachi: Chuck Baisden spends Christmas Day as a guest of the Indian government. He had landed in Accra, West Africa, a yellow fever zone. Upon landing at Karachi the Indian health inspectors found his yellow fever shot record not up to date so he is put into a quarantine hospital until December 30. He has plenty of company due to a torpedoed ship whose survivors are without health records. (Chuck Baisden)
CHINA: Hunan Province: The see-saw and bloody battle for northern Hunan province has swung in favour of the Chinese Nationalists, with Kuomintang troops today recapturing Kung-an. It was one of the first towns lost two months ago when 100,000 Japanese troops invaded the area in an attempt to stop Chinese troops moving from central China to southern Yunnan to support the new tripartite Allied plan to retake Burma.
The battle in Hunan, has escalated the air war in China. At Changte, the epicentre of the campaign, the USAAF's effectiveness in dropping supplies and providing air-borne artillery was met 14 days ago by a Japanese attack on Allied airfields with the loss of 40 US and Chinese planes.
NEW GUINEA: Trobrian Group: (Full Article)
Lt. Hal Braun's 30-man platoon of the Arizona National Guard manned a remote outpost so it could warn if the Japanese invaded Kiriwina Island, which had valuable airstrips.
"The Bushmasters' fourth Christmas away from loved ones was approaching,"
Braun said. "We knew combat was coming shortly and this Christmas might be the
last for many Bushmasters. My sergeants and I planned to make it a good
Christmas."
About 50 gallons of alcohol was cooked in a still. Australian friends "borrowed" a few of their generals' geese, and they brought cases of 4X beer.
"We cut four very large palm fronds and wired them in a shape looking a bit like a Christmas tree," Braun said. "A dried large starfish topped our efforts, and colorful seashells decorated the palm branches. Small, sand-filled ration cans with rope wicks soaked in gasoline were our candles."
Crayfish from an underground cave pool were trapped and cooked Cajun-style in local hot peppers and canned ketchup.
"Fire pits with rocks and seaweed were readied for the large fish we caught," Braun said. "Spits were prepared for the geese. A few band members struggled out with instruments, and we were ready for our fourth Christmas away."
Oddly, the native neighbors weren't around.
The Bushmasters were a diverse group. Thirty percent were of Mexican heritage, and there were soldiers from 22 Native American tribes.
"There was a melting pot of American boys from every background," Braun said. "Silent Night was sung in English, then Spanish, Polish, and Private Meier of Milwaukee let us hear it in its original German. As he finished it was totally silent on the outpost and every man was at home with his loved ones."
Then the men heard nose flutes and small drums and natives singing Silent Night in their own language. Gift-bearing natives approached.
"Luckily for us, they loved Spam, which they called BullaMaCow, and gifts were exchanged," Braun said.
A Navajo silversmith made Braun an aluminum bracelet from a piece of a Japanese Zero. (David Madrid of Peoria)
New Britain: Japanese forces attack the Arawe beach-head.
US naval Task Group 50.2, two carriers and six destroyers, raids Kavieng with 86 aircraft. They sink one Japanese transport. Glen Boren is there.
ABOARD THE USS BUNKER HILL.
Busy day for the Bunker Hill. Reveille at 0345, we were 190 miles out from Kavieng when we launched the attack. We sent everything that would fly. I offered to fly the "hanger queen" but was turned down. The skipper said he didn't think my piper cub training was enough.
About 0900, Wooly shot down a jap "Mavis" (4 engine seaplane) with one burst. Later Ambrosio shot down a "Betty". Several japanese aircraft were around us all afternoon. As we were landing our last flight, Pearse shot down another "Betty". At sunset, we were surrounded by about 30 "Bettys" as announced by radar control. Our ships fired at several of them but none went down in flames. Several flares were dropped but none close. They gave up at 2030 and went home. We headed back to Espirito Santo. VF 18 score now at 46. ( our losses that day was one TBF and two men.) I understand that two destroyers, one medium and one large transport along with several barges were sunk. Boggies around us all afternoon.
U.S.A.: Ella Mae Morse's record of "Shoo-Shoo Baby" from the movie "Three Cheers For The Boys" released. This is the first of her records to make the charts and it stays there for 15 weeks and rises to Number 4.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: ASW trawler HMS Kingston Beryl mined north off Skerryvore, Ireland.