The U.S. Ninth Army captured the villages of Leiffarth and Roerdorf.[4]
The ArmyโNavy Game was played at Baltimore Municipal Stadium, with Army defeating Navy 23-7 before a crowd of 66,659. About 30,000 members of the general public were allowed to attend on the conditions of living within 8.3 miles (13.4 km) of Baltimore and purchasing a $25 war bond. General Douglas MacArthur sent Army head coach Earl Blaik a congratulatory telegram after the game.[5]
Died:Josef Lhรฉvinne, 69, Russian pianist; Eiji Sawamura, 27, Japanese baseball player (killed in action near Yakushima when his ship was torpedoed and sunk)
A series of clashes in Athens known as the Dekemvriana ("December events") began when British troops and Greek police opened fire on a massive leftist demonstration, killing 28 and wounding 100.[6]
In Britain the official process of returning evacuees began in regions unaffected by the V-weapon attacks.[10]
409 Japanese paratroopers were landed at Leyte in a coordinated offensive with Japanese infantry attacking from the west.[11]
The Germans began removing all the electric trains in the Netherlands along with their wiring and sending them to Germany to replace the train system in places where it had been destroyed by Allied bombing.[8]
The American submarines Plaice, Redfish and Sea Devil torpedoed and damaged the Japanese aircraft carrier Jun'yล in the Strait of Formosa. Jun'yล was withdrawn from service and scrapped after the war.
The British escort destroyer Aldenham was sunk by a naval mine in the Adriatic Sea off Pag. Aldenham was the last Royal Navy destroyer lost in World War II.
The Palawan massacre occurred in the Philippines when 150 Allied prisoners of war were murdered by the Japanese during an air raid.
At least 186 Japanese aircraft were deployed for an all-out attack on the American invasion force sailing toward Mindoro. Most of them failed to locate the American convoys and at least 46 were shot down.[23]
During the Battle of Mindoro, the Sixth United States Army landed on Mindoro itself. The Japanese offered weak opposition on the ground but continued to respond strongly in the air, sending a wave of kamikazes to the battle zone that managed to destroy a pair of LSTs.[23]
Died:Glenn Miller, 40, American bandleader (presumed, after the plane carrying Miller to Paris to play for the soldiers there went missing in bad weather over the English Channel and was never found)
Benito Mussolini gave a speech at the Teatro Lirico in Milan that would be his last. Although he maintained that new German weapons would turn the tide of the war, it was clearly a political last will and testament as he tried to defend himself in the eyes of history and presented a dark picture of a Bolshevik Europe in the event of Allied victory.[26]
Allied troops in Italy entered Faenza, the closest they would get to Bologna before the beginning of winter.[27] A little further north, The 10th Indian Division crossed the Senio River.[28]
The U.S. military began preparations for deploying nuclear weapons by activating the 509th Composite Group.
Ernest King was made a five-star admiral in the U.S. Navy.[24]
German submarine U-772 was depth charged and sunk south of Cork, Ireland by Royal Navy frigate Nyasaland.
German forces captured 9,000 surrounded U.S. troops in the Schnee Eifel region on the Belgian-German border and pushed the Americans back off German soil.[6][13]
Japanese aircraft carrier Unryลซ was torpedoed and sunk in the East China Sea by the American submarine Redfish.
German submarine U-737 sank in a collision with depot ship MRS 25 in Vestfjorden, Norway.
U.S. General Anthony McAuliffe responded to a German command to surrender the besieged garrison at Bastogne with a brief reply centered on a full sheet of paper: "N U T S !"[30]
In the Battle of the Bulge, the U.S. First Army withdrew from St. Vith while III Corps of the Third Army moved north to relieve the siege of Bastogne.[32]
As an economical measure, the U.S. government banned horse racing effective January 3.[6]
The Belgian troopship Lรฉopoldville was sunk by German submarine U-486 in the English Channel off Cherbourg. Approximately 763 American soldiers and 56 crew were killed.[33]
German tanks reached the furthest point of the Bulge at Celles.
Bande massacre. A total of 34 men between the ages of 17 and 32 were executed by the Sicherheitsdienst near Bande, Belgium in retaliation for the killing of three German soldiers.
The Agana race riot began on Guam over the nights of December 24 and 25 between white and black members of the United States Marines. Some 43 Marines would be tried in courts-martial and receive prison terms over the rioting.
Mosquito Bowl took place on Guadalcanal; "The Mosquito Bowl, A Game of Life and Death in World War II" by Buzz Bissinger[37]
The Battle of Garfagnana (Known to the Germans as Operation Winter Storm and the Christmas offensive to the Italians) beings.[40]
German submarine U-486 torpedoed the British frigates Affleck and Capel in the English Channel off Cherbourg. Affleck was declared a constructive total loss and Capel was sunk.
German submarine U-2342 was sunk by a mine in the Baltic Sea north of Swinemรผnde.
American troops began gaining ground in their counteroffensive during the Battle of the Bulge. Adolf Hitler disregarded the advice of his generals and ordered renewed offensives in the Alsace and Ardennes regions.[13]
At least 20 Allied soldiers perished when the Infantry Landing Ship Empire Javelin sank in the English Channel with 1,483 troops aboard. It is unknown whether she struck a naval mine or was torpedoed by the German submarine U-322 which was active in the area that day.
German submarine U-735 was bombed and sunk by British aircraft off Horten, Norway.
Hockey star Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens showed up exhausted to the Montreal Forum after spending the day helping his family move from one apartment to another. That night he recorded eight points (five goals and three assists) during a 9โ2 win over the Detroit Red Wings, a new NHL record for points by one player in a single game that stood until 1976.[43]
General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, reported that an atomic bomb equivalent to 10,000 tons of TNT would be ready for testing by the summer of 1945.[46]
Part I of the Russian epic film Ivan the Terrible premiered in the Soviet Union. Part II would not be released until 1958.
Twelve de Havilland Mosquitos of the RAF bombed Oslo, Norway, targeting a Gestapo headquarters in the city. The RAF initially believed the raid was successful, but the target building was in fact undamaged and other civilian buildings were hit instead. 78 Norwegians and 28 Germans were killed in the worst single incident in Oslo during the war.[48]
^Quartermaine, Luisa (2000). Mussolini's Last Republic: Propaganda and Politics in the Italian Social Republic 1943โ45. Exeter: Elm Bank Publications. p. 128. ISBN978-1-902454-08-5.
