7 December 1939

SWITZERLAND: The majority of the delegates in the League of Nations Assembly who participated in the discussion of the Lytton Report (investigation of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria) held to the view that a resolution of censure against Japan was in order; the British, Australian, Canadian, and Italian delegates insist that the path to direct negotiation was still open; subsequently on 9 December a Committee of Nineteen was appointed "to study the Report of the Commission."

GERMANY: Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen urges German-Americans to act as Nazi propagandists.

FRANCE: The Hoare-Laval peace plan for the Italo-Ethiopian war is negotiated at Paris. Englishman Samuel Hoare and Frenchman Pierre Laval made an agreement that if Italian dictator Benito Mussolini stopped fighting, he could have most of Ethiopia.

UNITED STATES: Severe flooding hit parts of the Houston, Texas, area. Eight persons are killed as 100 city blocks are inundated. Satsuma, a suburb of Houston, reports 16.49 inches (41,9 centimeters) of rain. .

UNITED STATES: In baseball, the Boston Red Sox acquire the contract of 19-year-old Ted Williams from San Diego of the Triple A Pacific Coast League, but he will not report to Boston until 1939.

Two hundred South London children far from home today had the pleasure of sitting down to lunch with Queen Elizabeth. They shared a 3d menu of stewed steak, potatoes and jam tart with their royal visitor, who pronounced it all "very good".

The Queen was visiting evacuees in Chichester, Sussex, during a surprise tour of the area. It was a gesture of appreciation for the invaluable work of the Women's Voluntary Service during the evacuation programme.

U.S. freighters SS Effingham and SS Winston Salem, detained at Ramsgate, Kent, England, by British authorities since 27 and 28 November, respectively, are released; the latter proceeds to Rotterdam where her cargo of 2,782 bales of cotton is seized by British authorities.

FRANCE: Paris: King George VI lunches with President Lebrun and the prime minister, Edouard Daladier. He visits the French front lines where General Maurice-Gustave Gamelin, Chief of National Defence Staff, Commander in Chief of Land and Air Forces and Commander in Chief Allied Forces in France, took the King on one of the underground ammunition and troop trains that serve the Maginot Line. From a fortified observation post he looked across three miles of no-man's land to the German defences and was shown the Order of the Day: "Be vigilant, keep cool and fire low - to the last round and the last man and a bit more ... your proud watchwords will be: 'On ne passe pas, on les aura' [They will not pass, we will win]"

DENMARK, Sweden and Norway declare their strict neutrality in the Russo-Finnish war.

FINLAND: A Russian Division breaks through to the town of Suomussalmi.
First Soviet attacks against the Finnish main defence line at Taipale produce no results.

GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Exmoor is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities.

CANADA: HMS Seaborn commissioned as flagship Rear Admiral 3rd Battleship Squadron Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The "first flight" of Canadian troops sails for Britain with 7,400 men on five ships.

UNITED STATES: In baseball, New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig, age 36, is elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame. Gehrig, whose illness forced an end to his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, hit 493 home runs and batted .340 over his career. He is the first player to have the existing rule waived that required a player to be retired one year before he could be elected. Gehrig played eight games in the 1939 season before retiring.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The GRAF SPEE sinks the British freighter SS STREANSALH (3895 BRT) about 853 nautical miles east-southeast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in position 25.015S, 27.50W. (Navynews & Jack McKillop)

U.S.A.:
The American Federation of Labor reports that there are 8,130,000 registered unemployed in the United States.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper breaks into the North Atlantic through the Denmark Straits. This is part of Operation NORDSEETOUR.

U.S.S.R.: Generalfeldmarschall Walther Brauchitsch, Commander in Chief of the Army, offers his resignation to Hitler. The stress of the battle on the Eastern Front has taken its toll. Hitler makes no formal acceptance of the resignation, but Brauchitsch makes no important decisions after this date.

The German offensive (Operation BARBAROSSA, begun on 22 July 1941 by Field Marshal Waither von Britishauchitsch, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army) to crush Soviet forces has ground to a halt on the broken line from Lake Ladoga on the north to the Sea of Azov on the south. At the extremities of front, the Soviet garrisons of Leningrad and Sevastopol are besieged; on the central front the Germans are at the outskirts of Moscow. The Red Army is conducting a general counteroffensive (begun on 6 December) to drive the Germans westward. Three fresh Soviet armies are exerting pressure against the German spearheads in the vicinity of Moscow. Although assured the support of satellite nations (Finland, Romania, Hungary), the Germans are at a disadvantage because of overextended supply lines and battle exhaustion.

LIBYA: Major General Neil M. Ritchie's British Eighth Army, a component of General Sir Claude Auchinleck"s British Middle East Command, continues the offensive, begun in November, to clear Libya of German and Italian forces, which are nominally under Italian command, but actually under German General Erwin Rommel. The objective is twofold: first, destruction of the Axis forces concentrated in east Cyrenaica, which is in progress; second, the conquest of Tripolitartia. Armored elements of the British XXX Corps battle Axis tanks around Bir el Gubi. After nightfall, the British XIII Corps goes on the offensive, the 70th Division driving along El Adem Ridge, the key feature south of Tobruk.

JAPAN: 10:30 PM (9:30 AM, December 7. Washington time): Grew receives message for Emperor sent by Roosevelt, delayed in route by Japanese.

The Foreign Office sends the following message to the Japanese Ambassador in Washington, D.C.: "Will the Ambassador please submit to the United States Government (if possible to the Secretary of State) our reply to the United States at 1:00 p. m on the 7th, your time." A second message reads, "After deciphering part 14 of my (message) #902 [a] and also #907 [b], #908 [c] and #909 [d], please destroy at once the remaining cipher machine and all machine codes. Dispose in like manner also secret documents."

MALAYA: Two RAF (PBY-5) Catalina Mk. I flying boats of No.205 Squadron, based at Seletar in Singapore, are despatched to shadow a Japanese convoy; one aircraft is lost to Japanese fighters.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: 9:00 AM (8:00 PM, December 6, Washington time). Navy Department log entry stating Harrison called to request current positions of all USN and RN ships. Harrison later denied making this call. (This may have been in preparation for the planned meeting with Roosevelt at 3 PM on December 7.)

9:00 PM until 2:00 AM December 8 (8:00 AM to 1:00 PM Washington time): Advance Party of 27^th B.G. -- an incoming unit of A-24 attack bombers -- throws party in honour of Brereton at Manila Hotel. Hart and Purnell are present for first part.

9:30 PM (8:30 AM Washington time): Brereton telephones FEAF HQ at Neilson Field from Manila Hotel to order that FEAF and all fields and subordinate commands were to go on "combat alert" at daylight. Order was never carried out.

MIDWAY ISLANDS: At 2135 hours local, the islands are bombarded by the Japanese Midway Neutralization Unit consisting of destroyers HIJMS Ushio and Sazanami; Marine shore batteries of the 6th Defense Battalion return the fire, claiming damage to both ships. One of the USN submarines deployed on simulated war patrols off Midway, USS Trout (SS-202), makes no contact with the enemy ships; the other, USS Argonaut (SS-166), is unable to make a successful approach, and the two destroyers retire from the area. Subsequent bad weather will save Midway from a pounding by planes from the Pearl Harbor Attack Force as it returns to Japanese waters.

PACIFIC OCEAN: The 2,140 ton U.S. Army-chartered steam schooner Cynthia Olson is shelled and sunk by Japanese submarine HIJMS I-26 about 987 nautical miles (1 827 kilometers) north-northeast of Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. There are 35 people aboard, 33 crewmen and two Army passengers. All are lost. She is the first U.S. merchant vessel sunk by a Japanese submarine in WWII.

Light minelayer USS Gamble (DM-15) mistakenly fires upon submarine USS Thresher (SS-200) about 65 nautical miles (121 kilometers) west of Honolulu, Oahu, in position 21.15N, 159.01W. Thresher mistakes Gamble for destroyer USS Litchfield (DD-336) (the latter ship assigned to work with submarines in the Hawaiian operating area), the ship with which she is to rendezvous. USS Gamble, converted from a flush-deck, four-pipe destroyer, resembles USS Litchfield. Sadly, the delay occasioned by the mistaken identity proves fatal to a seriously injured sailor on board the submarine, who dies four hours before the boat finally reaches port on the 8th, of multiple injuries suffered on 6 December 1941 when heavy seas wash him against the signal deck rail.

The first night recovery of aircraft in World War II by the U.S. Navy occurs when the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) turns on searchlights to aid returning SBD Dauntlesses and TBD Devastators that had been launched at dusk in an attempt to find Japanese ships reported off Oahu. Friendly fire, however, downs four of Enterprise's six F4F Wildcats (the strike group escort) that are directed to land at NAS Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. Other Enterprise SBDs make a night landing at NAS Kaneohe Bay, miraculously avoiding automobiles and construction equipment parked on the ramp to prevent just such an occurrence.

TERRITORY OF HAWAII:

Attack on Pearl Harbor. Articles courtesy of Jack McKillop and Marc Small. Extra Articles Here

Japan launches air attacks on Pearl Harbor, Guam and Wake Island; its navy bombards Midway Island.

Japan's devastating opening blow of the Pacific war against the United States came plunging out of a sunny Hawaiian sky yesterday when 184 aircraft from six Japanese aircraft carriers of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's Strike Force caught the American defenders completely unawares at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, at 7.55am [local time].

Japanese spies had reported that the Pacific Fleet was almost certain to be in Pearl Harbor on a Sunday morning. They were right. 86 warships of the fleet were spread out before the eager eyes of the Japanese pilots. They included seven battleships - the prime targets in the absence of carriers - moored close to each other in "Battleship Row", and another the USS PENNSYLVANIA, in dry dock.

This audacious operation, designed to neutralize the Pacific Fleet in one blow, succeeded in sinking four battleships in a total of 19 warships sunk or disabled. It destroyed 188 military aircraft and damaged 159, and killed 2,403 Americans, 1,000 of them in the battleship USS ARIZONA which blew up and sank at her mooring early in the attack. For the battle force of the US Pacific Fleet it was the hour of doom.

Japanese losses were light. Only 29 Japanese aircraft failed to make it back to the carriers, and one Japanese I-class submarine and five midget submarines were sunk.

Such a spectacular victory on the first day of war has no parallel in the history of warfare. In Washington today, President Roosevelt described the Japanese action as "a day that will live in infamy."

The six Japanese carriers, AKAGI, KAGI, Hiryu, SORYU, ZUIKAKU and SHOKAKU, had met in late November at Tankan Bay in the Kuriles and with naval escort, approached in great secrecy to the flying off position 275 miles north of Hawaii.

The first attacking wave comprised 50 high-level bombers, 40 planes carrying shallow-running torpedoes, 51 dive-bombers and 43 Zero fighters. Their approach was detected by army radar at a distance of 132 miles, but they were thought to be friendly planes.

By 7.40am the Japanese strike force was over Oahu, and 15 minutes later the attack began with dive-bombers blasting the army, navy and marine airfields to neutralize American air power so that the attack on warships could proceed without interference.

The torpedo planes, high-level and dive-bombers attacked the warships initially without any opposition whatever. Amid the roar of engines and the crash of bombs, they turned Pearl Harbor into a smoke-filled inferno of blazing, exploding warships and installations.

At 8.30am a lull developed, but within 45 minutes a second strike force of 176 planes launched its attack. They withdrew by 10am and the raid was over. The big disappointment for the Japanese was the absence of the aircraft carriers of the Pacific Fleet which were on manoeuvres at the time of the raid. By this action alone, the Japanese have proved the value of big carriers in any naval campaign.

At 0645 hours local, the old Wickes Class four-stack destroyer USS Ward (DD-139) opened fire with her Number 1 4-inch gun on a Japanese midget submarine attempting to enter Pearl Harbor; the shell splashed harmlessly beyond the small conning tower. Then number three 4-incher atop the galley deckhouse amidships commenced fire and its round passed squarely through the submersible's conning tower. As the Japanese midget submarine wallowed lower in the water and started to sink, the destroyer swiftly dropped four depth charges which sink the sub.

Seaman First Class James Richard Ward, US Navy, wins the MOH for conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and complete disregard of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. When it was seen that the U.S.S. Oklahoma was going to capsize and the order was given to abandon ship, Ward remained in a turret holding a flashlight so the remainder of the turret crew could see to escape, thereby sacrificing his own life. (Drew Halevy sent me the above citation)

Captain Mervyn Sharp Bennion, US Navy, displays conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and complete disregard for his own life, above and beyond the call of duty. As commanding officer of the USS West Virginia, after being mortally wounded, Capt. Bennion evidenced apparent concern only in fighting and saving his ship, and strongly protested against being carried from the bridge. (MOH)

USCGC Taney's screen of anti-aircraft fire prevented Japanese planes bombing Pearl Harbor from destroying Honolulu power plant.

Two B-17Ds took off from Hickam Field, Territory of Hawaii at 1140 hours to look for the Japanese fleet.

The newly federalized Hawaii Territorial Guard (HTG), made up of ROTC cadets and volunteers from Honolulu high schools, the majority Nisei, is placed under direct Army command. (Gene Hanson)

I was sitting at the bar of the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado. The bartender came up to me and said, "Soldier you better get back to your base. The Japanese just bombed Pearl Harbor and all military people are ordered back"

I hitch hiked back to base. What a contrast! Hitching rides into Denver that day I waited 30 minutes for a car to stop. Going back, the first car I stuck my thumb out at screeched to a stop and drove me right up to the gate! (Hal Turrell)

I had just come off watch in the ops room at RAF Portreath, Cornwall, England, in 10 Gp Fighter Command, and the Spits were ready for a dawn 'Rhubarb' (low-level nuisance raid against opportunity targets). It was very cold and wet with a thick sea mist and the mud was vile. As I took off my boots I turned on the radio. The news of the attack was shocking, but I knew then that the hope of our winning the war was now a certainty as the USA was bound to come in. It was an ill wind that looked as if it would blow us good in the end. (Doug Tidy)

It was 8th of December in Burma and my Squadron was in Keydaw, just a few miles north of Toungoo ( this place is still on the maps) and the war came to the AVG in the form of an air raid siren going off in the middle of the night. Scared the hell out of us uninitiated heroes as we were informed that we may have a visit from Japanese paratroopers and this caused some palpitations and shrinking gonads among us stalwarts of democracy and saviors to the Chinese. We got right busy after the initial shock and carried on our normal activities. We spent the day checking our armament loading for my squadron, the 3rd or Hell's Angels, American Volunteer Group, Chinese Nationalist Air Force. As a member of the 3rd Squadron I went by train to Mingaladon Air Base just outside of Rangoon while our other 2 Squadrons left Keydaw for Kunming, China.

- Walter Gourlay: "I was living in New York City and worked a turret lathe in Sperry Gyroscope, a major defense plant in Brooklyn. That Sunday afternoon I had taken my new girl friend to a movie theater in Times Square that showed foreign art films. I don't remember what movie we were watching -- I think it was a Russian import with English subtitles-- when suddenly the film stopped, the lights went on and the manager announced that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and we were at war. We went outside and stood among the crowd watching the news bulletins flashing on the Times Building, with the first details of the raid (remember there was a big time difference between Hawaii and New York.) Several men in uniform with their dates were in the crowd. Everyone was subdued. Then the bulletin flashed ordering all military personnel to return to their units immediately, and they left the scene, some with their dates, others saying goodbye on the Square.

I remember phoning my best friend, who was in the merchant marine, to tell him we were at war. He didn't believe me until he turned on his radio. (No TV then.)

The next day I was in the plant, working my turret lathe, when the loudspeaker told us to stop working to listen to FDR calling on Congress to declare war. We listened quietly and then went back to work."

- Ben Frank: "I was taking care of my father's drugstore while he was home for lunch. I was listening to a broadcast of the NY Philharmonic, when the concert was interrupted by a news flash about the bombing of Pearl Harbor."

- Dick Jones: At age 19 in 1941 I was working in an acetylene manufacturing plant in Norfolk, Virginia. I was working the graveyard shift (Midnight to 0800) because it paid ten cents more per hour. When our boss, Maurice Van Osselar came to work the next morning he told me that the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor. We had been watching the newsreels at the movies and listened to the radio and knew that things were getting dicey.

A few days later when the US declared war on Japan and Germany we got busy at the plant and painted all the windows black on the inside. We use a water based paint which was the forerunner of modern latex paints. It was casein paint with lampblack for color.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: Upon learning of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Air Force, Alaska Defense Command's six B-18 Bolos and 12 P-36 Hawks take to the air to avoid being caught on their fields.

CANADA: Under the War Measures Act, Order in Council P.C. 9591, all Japanese nationals and those naturalized after 1922 are required to register with the Registrar of Enemy Aliens.

At 0900 hours local, the 14th part of the message from the Japanese Foreign Office to the embassy is received. The missing piece does not mention the attack, it merely says negotiations have come to a standstill and must be ended.

The following is from a memorandum regarding a conversation, between the Secretary of State (Cordell Hull), the Japanese Ambassador (NOMURA), and Mr. KURUSU: "The Japanese Ambassador asked for an appointment to see the Secretary at 1:00 p.m., but later telephoned and asked that the appointment be postponed to 1:45 as the Ambassador was not quite ready. The Ambassador and Mr. Kurusu arrived at the Department at 2:05 p.m. and were received by the Secretary at 2:20. The Japanese Ambassador stated that he had been instructed to deliver at 1:00 p.m. the document which he handed the Secretary, but that he was sorry that he had been delayed owing to the need of more time to decode the message. The Secretary asked why he had specified one o'clock. The Ambassador replied that he did not know but that was his instruction. The Secretary said that anyway he was receiving the message at two o'clock. After the Secretary had read two or three pages he asked the Ambassador whether this

document was presented under instructions of the Japanese Government. The Ambassador replied that it was. The Secretary as soon as he had finished reading the document turned to the Japanese Ambassador and said, "I must say that in all my conversations with you (the Japanese Ambassador) during the last nine months I have never uttered one word of untruth. This is borne out absolutely by the record. In all my fifty years of public service I have never seen a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions -- infamous falsehoods and distortions on a scale so huge that I never imagined until today that any Government on this planet was capable of uttering them." The Ambassador and Mr. Kurusu then took their leave without making any comment." The Japanese had handed Secretary Hull the so-called "Fourteen Point message" which is not a declaration of war; it merely declares an impasse in the ongoing diplomatic negotiations. The Imperial Rescript declaring a

state of war between the Japanese Empire and the U.S. is not issued until the next day, in Tokyo. [The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, took place on 7 December, at 1320 hours, Washington time (0750 hours, Honolulu time), which was 8 December, 0320 hours, Tokyo time. On 8 December at 0600 hours, Tokyo time (7 December, 1600 hours, Washington time), the Japanese imperial headquarters announced that war began as of "dawn" on that date.]

Local authorities and the F.B.I. begin to round up the leadership of the Japanese American communities. Within 48 hours, 1,291 Issei (Japanese-born immigrant) are in custody. These men are held under no formal charges and family members are forbidden from seeing them. Most would spend the war years in Japanese alien internment camps run by the Justice Department.

Men stood to arms along the shores and upon the islands of the Western Pacific yesterday as the storm of war, roaring eastward out of Europe, clouded the skies of the Orient.

The American-Japanese negotiations, stalemated at the week-end but prolonged in the hope of eventual compromise as both sides sought for time, were perhaps a less important index to the seriousness of the Pacific situation than the actual military forces in the theatre of potential struggle.

The land, sea and air forces now mobilized in the Pacific are very considerable, not by any means as large as the great armies struggling in Russia or the fleets and air forces deployed around the periphery of the continent of Europe, but nevertheless more considerable than any the Orient has hitherto known. They include:

The Japanese Army consists of perhaps sixty to sixty-six divisions (part of them "triangular" divisions of 16,000 to 17,000 men; the rest, "square" divisions of 22,000 men), a grand total of about 1,800,-000 men. The exact disposition of these troops is not known, but probably more than twenty divisions are locked up in the unending struggle with China; another twenty to twenty-seven may be in Manchukuo opposite the Russian Far Eastern armies; there are forces in Metropolitan Japan and garrisons in her island outposts; there are possibly 75,000 to 150,000 troops today in French Indo-China and several other divisions in Hainan Island, on the high seas or on the island of Formosa.

Perhaps 1,000 of Japan's 3,000 to 5,000 tactical planes are in China; there are undoubtedly several hundred in French Indo-China; the others may be scattered from Metropolitan Japan and Paramshir and Sakhalin to Formosa. Japan possibly has one new battleship in commission, of about 40,000 tons with sixteen-inch guns, giving her a total of eleven capital ships, with a twelfth nearly ready. She has at least seven, possibly nine, aircraft carriers converted from merchantmen, a number of seaplane carriers, and large squadrons of cruisers, destroyers and submarines. There may be one or two big, heavily armored new battle cruisers or "pocket battleships" In commission.

Approximately 50 per cent of United States naval strength was In the Pacific at last report, with the bulk of our hitting power concentrated in the Pacific Fleet based on Hawaii. The Asiatic Fleet, a separate entity, consisted some months ago of three cruisers, a squadron of destroyers, eighteen submarines, some twenty-four long-range patrol bombers and various auxiliaries. It has probably been strengthened in recent months, but it is still primarily a defensive torpedo fleet, which is to be assisted in its task by air power.

The Philippines have been heavily strengthened, both with land and air forcees, and Lieut. Gen. Douglas MacArthur has now assumed direct command of United States armed forces in the Far East, with Regular Army troops and 150,000 Filipinos under his orders.

Hawaii is a great fortress, more heavily garrisoned, land, sea and air, than ever in its history, and bases in Alaska, Midway, Wake and many other mid-Pacific islands are being completed and garrisoned.

At Singapore Britain has recently stationed two capital ships to compensate for our Pacific weakness—resulting from transfers to the Atlantic—in this category, and there are cruisers, probably aircraft carriers and some smaller vessels.

There are probably 10,000 or more men in Hong Kong and perhaps a few British submarines, but almost no planes. There may now be 70,000 to 150,000 men in Malaya, with several hundreds of planes, and an unknown garrison in Burma, probably small on land, but considerable in the air. In addition India, Australia and New Zealand provide a large backlog of strength.

Russia has drawn upon her Far Eastern Forces to reinforce her hard-pressed armies in the West, but, nevertheless, it is likely that more than twenty divisions still are stationed in Eastern Siberia, with some tanks and a considerable number (several hundred) of planes.

China has a large, though badly equipped, army of guerrillas and regulars, variously estimated at from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 men, and perhaps 100 Curtiss P–40 pursuit planes with American volunteer pilots may shortly be ready to help General Chiang Kai-shek defend the Burma Road.

A naval force that admirably supplements the British Far Eastern forces, consisting of about three cruisers, eight destroyers, forty torpedo boats and some fifteen submarines, is supplemented by an increasingly powerful bomber force, which may now consist of 200 to 300 bombers, plus a considerable number of long-range naval patrol planes, and 200 or so fighters (nearly all American-built planes). The Netherlands Indies Army probably numbers more than 100,000, mostly natives, and is fairly well equipped.

An army of perhaps 80.000 men —most of them already mobilized —with numerous reserves but little equipment. Air force negligible.

Such are the forces most immediately concerned by the situation in the Pacific. The equation of uncertainty that any Pacific struggle would entail is rendered more complex by the great distances in that ocean.

The general strategy of a Pacific war would be one in which air power and sea power, acting primarily as weapons of economic attrition, would play large roles. From Hawaii and Singapore and the Netherlands Indies Anglo-American naval forces would operate in distant blockade; planes from our carriers and long-range bombers might raid Japanese industries and cities, and submarines would harass Japanese shipping in the Sea of Japan and the China Sea.

Against such tactics the Japanese have the advantage of the interior position and shorter lines of communication. But in a fullblown war, Japan's task is immediately spread all over the map. She may have to attack Siberia or defend herself from Russian attacks; hold the Chinese in check; smash at Singapore by air, if not by land; reduce Hong Kong; perhaps attack or neutralize the Philippines; hold off the harassing air and sea attacks by Britain and the United States, and eventually— if she is to reap anything from hostilities—she must move either into Malaysia and Burma, or into the Netherlands Indies, any one of them a major, risky and unpredictable operation.

And at this juncture Japan cannot count upon much help—directly or indirectly—from Germany. She would fight for life—and unless Germany won, Japan would almost certainly lose, though not quickly.

In a scheduled baseball game, the Paramount Pictures team is playing the Japanese-American Los Angeles Nippons. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is announced in the third inning but the game continues with Paramount wining 6-3.

11:00 AM: (10:00 PM, December 6, Washington time): copies of first 13 parts of Japanese message on negotiations delivered to Roosevelt, Knox, Turner, the Director of Naval Intelligence, Rear Admiral Theodore S Wilkinson, and to the Director of Army Intelligence, Brigadier General Sherman Miles.^[1]

^[1]General Miles was the son of Lieutenant General Nelson Miles and the nephew of General William Tecumseh Sherman.

MIDWAY ISLAND: Two destroyers of the Japanese Midway Neutralization Unit shell Sand Island. (Gordon Rottman)

- Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. declare war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.

- Japan declares war on Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., the U.S., and the Union of South Africa.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Corvette HMCS Windflower rammed and sunk in convoy SC.58 by Dutch freighter Zypenhberg C/S "PIZW", in dense fog off the Grand Banks at 46 19N 49 30W. 23 crewmembers lost. Windflower was cut down in thick fog by the bow of the freighter. One of her boilers blew up and within 10 minutes she was sinking. Her starboard lifeboat was thrown overboard by the force of the explosion, dragging along several of the men who had been attempting to launch it. As live steam from the exploded boiler seethed up through the fog the men remaining on board got away the port lifeboat and one carley float. Windflower's stern went under, her fore part rose out of the water and leaned perilously over the men close alongside. Some of those on the float, seeing the looming shape above them, prepared to abandon their refuge for the water, where they would almost certainly have drowned. A Petty Officer calling upon all his stock of authority and the mighty resources of a naval vocabulary kept them in their places while the bow leaned off in the other direction and sank slowly from sight. HMS Nasturtium returned to join with Zypenhberg in rescuing 47 of Windflower's company, three of whom died later. Convoy SC-58 (49-ships in ten columns) sailed from Sydney, NS, on 04 Dec. An eight-ship mid-ocean escort group (Lt. H.S. Rayner in St Laurent, Senior Officer), relieved the local escort group on 06 Dec. Windflower was stationed on the starboard bow of the convoy but lost contact with the main body in heavy fog. The OOW reversed course and was closing to resume station when she was sighted by Zypenhberg crossing her bow from right to left at a distance of 400 yards. Zypenhberg, Capt Bakker, Master, which was the fourth in the starboard column of five ships, went full astern and began sound signals to warn the next ship astern, Baltara (3,300 GRT). Windflower went to full ahead and altered to starboard but was struck on the port quarter and lost 25 feet of her stern. For a time it appeared that the ship could be saved but the after bulkhead finally gave away and caused the boiler to explode, which was the main cause of the casualties. HMS Nasturtium, hearing the explosion, assumed that the convoy was under attack and closed the area, carrying out a depth charge attack on an Asdic contact that was actually the sinking Windflower. In the process she seriously damaged herself although no casualties were inflicted on the 47 Windflower survivors that were recovered by Zypenhberg. Zypenhberg and Nasturtium were detached to St. John's while the remainder of the convoy continued. Four days later a strong gale scattered the formation but there was fortunately no contact with the enemy and the ships arrived safely in Liverpool on 21 Dec 41. (Alex Gordon and Dave Shirlaw)(108)

German submarine U-208 is sunk about 95 nautical miles (176 kilometers) west of the Tangier Zone by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Harvester (H 19) and Hesperus (H 57) in position 35.51N, 07.45W; all 45 crewmen are lost.

FRANCE: During the night of 7/8 December, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off four French ports: six aircraft lay mines off Brest, five off La Pallice and four each off Bayonne and St. Jean de Luz.

NETHERLANDS: During the night of 7/8 December, 14 RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines in the Frisian Islands.

GERMANY: The Gestapo arrests over 700 young people, alleged members of a group called "Edelweiss Pirates".

U.S.S.R.: Soviet forces attack at the River Chir. Their goal are the German airfields that are supplying Stalingrad. These attacks are stopped by the German 11th Panzer Division, but the Germans absorb serious losses.

ALGERIA: In Algiers, French Admiral Jean Francois Darlan proclaims himself French Head of State in North Africa and Commander in Chief of land, naval and air forces. Darlan appoints an Imperial Council consisting of Generals Nogues, Giraud, Chatel, Boisson and Bergeret to advise him. The action has been approved before hand by the Allies.

TUNISIA: In Bizerte, French Admiral Derrien, the naval commander, complies with the orders of the German commander General Walther Nehring, commander of the LXXXX Corps, and disarms the Bizerte garrison, turning over all his ships, and the harbor's arsenal and defenses.

Ground fighting subsides as German attacks in the Tebourba area decrease in intensity.

USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, escorted by P-38 Lightnings, attack docks and shipping at Bizerte. Escorted DB-7 Bostons attack tanks in the Tebourba-El Bathan area where elements of the British First Army continue to be hard pressed. Other DB-7s sent to bomb La Hencha and Sousse abort because of bad weather. P-38s and P-40s fly numerous reconnaissance missions over the Sousse-Sfax-Gabes area and patrols over Oran, Algeria, while B-17 Flying Fortresses and F-4 Lightnings fly photographic reconnaissance over the Sousse-Sfax-Gabes area and the Tunis-Bizerte area.

SINGAPORE: Changi: A beautiful shinto shrine, built by PoWs is unveiled in the camp.

In the Australian 7th Division area in Papua New Guinea, the 30th Brigade relieves the 16th Brigade on the Sanananda front where the troops are greatly weakened by malaria as well as protracted fighting. Companies C, D, and L of the U.S. 126th Infantry Regiment are relieved in the front line by the Australian 49th and 55/53d Battalions, 30th Brigade. Americans, except for those garrisoning the roadblock and holding positions west of it, are ordered to the rear of the Australian forces. Fresh Australian troops attack at once toward the block but cannot reach it; a further effort to supply the block is also futile. After a heavy air and artillery preparation, Urbana Force (two battalions of the U.S. 126th and 128th Infantry Regiments, 32d Infantry Division) again attacks Buna Village and clears a trench at the southern edge. Elements on the coast repel Japanese attacks from the village and mission. Warren Force (based on U.S. 128th Infantry Regiment, 32d Infantry Division) patrols intensively. U.S. Lieutenant General Robert Eichelberger, Commanding General I Corps, who is in the process of moving his headquarters from Henahambuti to Simemi Village and of combining headquarters of I Corps and the 32d Infantry Division into Headquarters Buna Force, selects Brigadier George F. Wootten, General Officer Commanding Australian 18th Brigade, 7th Division, who is at Milne Bay, to command future operations of the Warren Force.

George Welch, who is credited with shooting down four Japanese planes during the attack on Pearl Harbor shoots down two Vals and a Zeke flying a P-39, becoming an ace exactly one year after his first victories.

Welch was credited with shooting down 4 Japanese planes during the attack on Pearl Harbor . He would go on to score 16 victories and become a test pilot for North American Aviation.

All of Welch's victorys were multiples: 7 Dec. 41: 4; 7 Dec. 42: 3; 21 Jun 43: 2; 20 Aug 43: 3; 2 Sep 43: 4. (Skip Guidry and Tom Carlson)

In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attack the area around Buna as ground forces attack the village and clear a trench at the southern edge; B-25 Mitchells also hit the airfield at Lae. B-17 Flying Fortresses attack a wrecked vessel off Gona. Japanese Army bombers attack the Second Field Hospital at Port Moresby in retaliation for the inadvertent bombing of a Japanese field hospital at Buna earlier in the week.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Captain Sato leads a Tokyo Express run to Guadalcanal tonight. US P(atrol) T(orpedo) Boats (PT 36, PT 37, PT 40, PT 43, PT 44, PT 48, PT 59, and PT 109) force his destroyers to retire.

Thirteen USMC SBD Dauntlesses from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, attack 12 Japanese destroyer-transports of the Tokyo Express in New Georgia Sound at 1635 hours local. Two destroyers are damaged for the loss of one SBD.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses attack a tanker off Gasmata, New Britain Island.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: USAAF Eleventh Air Force aircraft fly a reconnaissance mission over the Semichis and Attu Islands; reconnaissance of Kiska Island is aborted due to weather.

U.S.A.: The USS New Jersey BB-62 is launched from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. This battleship is one of the Iowa class.

One year after the "day of infamy" at Pearl Harbor, the US Navy today launched 15 ships, including the biggest battleship ever built. The huge USS New Jersey slid down the ways at the Philadelphia Navy Yard almost on the hour of last December's attack.

Elsewhere in America, an aircraft carrier, two destroyers, a submarine, six minesweepers, two escort craft, a destroyer tender and what the navy called a "special" ship were launched. All this was a tangible demonstration of Franklin D. Roosevelt's message to the people: that the day of surprise was a year ago, the period of defence is over and the offensive is under way. "Coral Sea, Midway, the Solomons, New Guinea and North Africa are shining examples of [our] power," the president said. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the chief of the Pacific Fleet, said that victory has been assured over the Japanese because the "sea lane across the greatest of oceans has been made safe. The optimism is tempered by official statistics: 58,307 casualties in the year, a massive 35,822 of which occurred in the Pacific theatre. Many are classified as missing and presumed to be prisoners of war. More than one million US servicemen are now in action.

Corvette HMCS Oakville arrived New York for duty under USN Commander Eastern Frontier, New York-Guantanamo convoys, Dec 42 - Feb 43.

The prototype Bell (Model 33) XP-63-BE (USAAF s/n 42-45511) makes it first flight at Buffalo Municipal Airport, New York. During the war, a total of 3,303 P-63s are built. The majority of the P-63s are transferred to the Soviet Union and France.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: When U-515 sinks the British liner CERAMIC only one man a Royal Engineer, survives.

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Air Marshal Harris claims that he will win the war over the next several months with new support for the continuing attacks on Berlin and other German targets. His plan is to make 15,000 missions with 40 squadrons of Lancaster heavy bombers which will be operational in the next three months dropping 13,850 tons of bombs a month and "produce in Germany a state of devastation in which surrender is inevitable". He will actually make 14,500. The war does not end.

London: Severe justice will be meted out to many thousands of war criminals. So Viscount Simon, Britain's Lord Chancellor, told parliament today/. But he added: "There must be no mass executions of great numbers of nameless people. It must be justice administered to an individual." His comments come after Lord Vansittart, former head of the Foreign Office, had warned: "We shall not establish sanity in Germany without a considerable measure of sanitation. War criminals must be followed to the uttermost ends of the earth."

ITALY: In the British Eighth Army area, V Corps makes an unsuccessful attack on Orsogna.

The U.S. Fifth Army begins the second phase of the assault on the Winter Line in the Mignano Gap. The U.S. II Corps begins envelopment movements against German positions in the St. Pietro area astride Highway 6. In preparation for the assault on Mt. Lungo, the Italian 1st Motorized Group relieves the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, on the southeastern nose (Hill 253); the 2d and 3d Battalions, 143d Infantry Regiment, prepare for a drive on St Pietro, moving forward to the line of departure on Cannavinelle Hill; the 1st Battalion, 143d Infantry Regiment jumps off toward Mt. Sammucro (Hill 1205) at 1700 hours and gains the crest before dawn of 8 December. On the northern flank, the 3d Ranger Battalion attacks at dusk toward Hill 950, 1 mile (1,6 kilometers) north of Mt. Sammucro. The German defenders absorb the attack well.

USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and A-36 Apaches bomb the harbor and town of Civitavecchia; B-25s also attack Pescara, hitting the railroad, road, and town area; A-36s, P-40s, and RAF Desert Air Force fighters hit a gun position west of Orsogna, the towns of Viticuso and San Vittoria, and a bridge at Civitella Roveto.

Heavy cloud cover severely restricts operations but one USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-26 Marauder attacks a bridge south of Arma di Taggia.

EGYPT: The U.S. and British delegates conclude the SEXTANT Conference at Cairo. To gain landing craft for Operation ANVIL (the plan for the invasion of southern France), plans for amphibious operations against the Bay of Bengal are canceled. Plans for the north Burma campaign are unsettled. The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) set up a tentative timetable for the offensive against Japan as follows: seizure of the Marshall Islands and New Britain Island in the Bismarck Archipelago, January 1944; Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands, April 1944; Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, June 1944; and the Mariana Islands, October 1944. The CCS issue a directive establishing a unified command in the Mediterranean, effective 10 December. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom President Franklin D. Roosevelt has already decided to make commander of Operation OVERLORD (the Normandy invasion), is to be responsible for all operations in the Mediterranean except strategic bombing.

CEYLON: Since British Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Commander Southeast Asia Command, is ordered to release a large portion of his amphibious resources for use elsewhere, planning is begun for a limited operation (PIGSTICK) on the south Mayu Peninsula in Burma on the Bay of Bengal as a substitute for Operation BUCCANEER (amphibious operation in the Andaman Islands), subject to approval of Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

CHINA: Thirteen USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and escorting fighters attack Chang-te twice.

BURMA: Eight USAAF Fourteenth Air Force P-40s strafe freight cars between Mogaung and Myitkyina.

NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs bomb troop encampments and dumps in the Finschhafen area and P-40s strafe boats and barges near Madang.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Eighteen USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells carry out strikes against Kahili and Kieta Harbor on Bougainville Island. Torokina Island is bombed by two Royal New Zealand (PV-1) Venturas on patrol.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: Over 90 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators and B-25 Mitchells attack the Cape Gloucester and Borgen Bay areas on New Britain Island.

During the night of 7/8 December, 26 Australian Beauforts attack Borpop Aerodrome on New Ireland Island.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: During the night of 6/7 December, 14 USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators, staging through Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, hit targets on Maloelap and Wotje Atolls and six B-24s from Nukufetau Island in the Ellice Islands bomb Maloelap Atoll, and one other, failing to reach the primary, drops bombs on Mili Atoll. This date marks the beginning of Operation FLINTLOCK (operations against Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls).

The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) accept the U.S. plan for a strategic air command, the US Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSAFE), to coordinate the operations of the USAAF Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces.

The escort aircraft carrier St. Andrews (CVE-49) is transferred to the British as HMS Queen (D 19). She is returned to the USN on 31 October 1946. This is the 31st escort aircraft carrier transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend Lease.

FRANCE: French troops under de Tassigny attack German forces trapped in the Colmar pocket.

In the U.S. Third Army's XX Corps area, the 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division finishes clearing its sector and ties in with the 95th Infantry Division; in the Metz area, Fort Plappeville surrenders to the 2d Infantry Regiment. The XII Corps regroups for an assault on the West Wall between Saarbruecken and Zweibruecken by the 35th and 26th Infantry Divisions. The 35th Infantry Division is still engaged at Sarreguemines. The 26th Infantry Division reaches positions within sight of Maginot Line forts at Wittring and Achen.

In U.S. Seventh Army's XV Corps area, the 44th Infantry Division is approaching Enchcnberg against lively opposition. The 100th Infantry Division seizes Mouterhouse. In the VI Corps area, the 94th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron and elements of the 19th Armored Infantry Battalion attached to the 79th Infantry Division begins an attack on Gambsheim.

The French First Army opens an attack on the Colmar Pocket in the I Corps zone while the II Corps is containing determined counterattacks in the Ostheim, Guemar, and Mittelwihr areas. I Corps drives on Cernay and Thann, The 2d Moroccan Division takes Bischwiller and establishes a bridgehead at Pont d'Aspach.

GERMANY: In the U.S. Ninth Army's XIX Corps area, the commander of 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, reports that continued efforts to take the Julich strongpoints will be fruitless; during the past six days the regiment has suffered heavy casualties and is unfit to continue the action; the 115th Infantry Regiment replaces the 116th and prepares to continue the assault.

In the U.S. First Army's V Corps area, the corps virtually finishes clearing its sector to the Roer River. The 2d Ranger Battalion pushes to the crest of Castle Hill, where it is under heavy fire and repels 2 counterattacks. When a platoon advances to reinforce the rangers, the Germans withdraw hastily. Combat Command the R of 5th Armored Division pulls back from Bergstein during the night but by this time The 28th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division, has advanced almost to the village from the south.

In the U.S. Third Army's XX Corps area, the 90th Infantry Division attempts to improve and consolidate the bridgehead in the Pachten-Dillingen area with little success: The 357th Infantry Regiment establishes a thin perimeter on the northern flank and holds it against a major counterattack but is separated from the 358th Infantry Regiment in the Dillingen-Pachten area by the fortified West Wall belt; German fire continues to prevent construction of a vehicular bridge, but a footbridge is improvised and the bridgehead resupplied during the night of 7/8 December. The 95th Infantry Division continues to battle West Wall positions in its Saarlautern bridgehead: the 379th Infantry Regiment makes limited progress in Saarlautern-Roden; the 377th Infantry Regiment takes over the fight for Fraulautern; the 378th Infantry Regiment is virtually at a standstill in the Ensdorf area and its 2d Battalion is still west of the Sarre River.

Early in the morning, eight USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers bomb the Main marshalling yard at Salzburg with the loss of two bombers.

During the night of 7/8 December, RAF Bomber Command dispatches Mosquitos to attack three cities: 52 bomb Cologne, six hit Hanau and one attacks Mannheim.

NORWAY: Aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm carry out Operation Urbane, laying mines and attacking shipping off Stavanger.

AUSTRIA: Twenty two USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators make predawn raids on the following: eight bomb Klagenfurt city and marshalling yard (M/Y) with the loss of one aircraft; five hit the M/Y at Villach; four bomb the Main M/Y at Innsbruck; two bomb Lienz; and one each bomb Mittersill and Spittal and the railroad junction at Wolfberg. P-38 Lightnings, and P-51 Mustangs fly reconnaissance and reconnaissance escort missions.

HUNGARY: In the south Russian forces reach Lake Balaton. Right wing elements of the Third Ukrainian Front clearing the region between the Danube River and Lake Balaton seize Adony, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Budapest, and Enying, less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Szekesfehervar; center elements report the south bank of Lake Balaton clear; left flank forces clearing the region between Lake Balaton and the Drava River take Barcs. Moscow announces that the Germans are bringing reinforcements from Italy and the Western Front to defend Budapest.

ROMANIA: General Radescu leads a new Romanian government into office. They pledge to implement the terms of the armistice and to assist the Allies with the purge of all pro-Nazis.

U.S.S.R.: Frigates HMCS Saint John, Stormont, Port Colborne, Nene, Loch Alvie and Monnow arrived Kola Inlet with Convoy JW-62.

ROMANIA: Lieutenant General Nicolae Radescu, the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, leads a new Romanian government into office. They pledge to implement the terms of the armistice and to assist the Allies with the purge of all pro-Nazis. In 1945, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin had Andrey Vyshinsky, the Soviet deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs, communicate the threat of dismembering the Romanian state to force Radescu's resignation from the post of prime minister. On 6 March 1945 the first communist-dominated government of Romania took office under the direction of Petru Groza. Over the next few years, the communists would completely consolidate their power. Pursued by the communist authorities, in 1946 Radescu sought refuge in the British embassy, and ultimately left Romania not for the U.K. but for New York City, where he dies in 1953.

ITALY: In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, the village of Piedura falls to the 46th Division, but the Germans retain the ridges near there.

Weather grounds USAAF Twelfth Air Force medium bombers. Despite the weather, fighters and fighter-bombers attack railroads, roads, bridges, rolling stock, and other targets over widespread areas of northern Italy, from La Spezia to north of the Po River Valley; bad weather obscures most primary targets but alternate targets are fairly successfully hit.

In the early morning, a USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombs an oil storage facility at Trieste.

During the night of 7/8 December, three USAAF Twelfth Air Force A-20 Havocs bomb targets of opportunity in Po River Valley.

YUGOSLAVIA: Yugoslavia reports several crossings of the Danube River near Vukovar in Slovenia by Soviet and Yugoslav units. Berlin claims that German withdrawal from Montenegro and western Serbia "progressed according to plan."

Seventy nine RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group transport supplies to partisans.

GREECE: Athens: British tanks and troops have been ordered onto the streets of Athens today to crush an uprising by ELAS (the National Liberation Army), the military wing of KKE, the country's communist party, and EAM, a left-wing "front " organization. Dozens of people, some of them British troops, have died.

The trouble began on 1 December when George Papandreou, the Social-Democratic premier of an Allied-installed coalition provisional government, went ahead with a decree to demobilize all guerilla groups of both left and right which had fought against the Germans. EAM, which had left the coalition over the issue, called a general strike, and on 3 December bloody clashes between communists and police left 12 dead. On 5 December Churchill ordered the commander of British troops in Greece, Lt-Gen Ronald Scobie, to restore order whether or not Papandreou lent his authority. Scobie declared martial law in Athens as ELAS men moved to take over police stations and other key points. Before dawn today, ELAS movced into the city in strength, advancing on the government quarter where the outnumbered main force of British troops has put up barricades.

In Britain, Labour MPs have condemned Churchill's move against "popular movements which have vigorously assisted in the defeat of the enemy." But Churchill told MPs that no government could be secure if there were private armies "owing allegiance to a group, a party or an ideology instead of to the state or nation."

CHINA: Four USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells B-25 Mitchells and eight P-40s attack and considerably damage Sankiao; four B-25s, operating individually, attack truck convoys and other targets of opportunity in the Hengyang area and in Siang-Chiang Valley while 15 P-51 Mustangs hit shipping at Hong Kong, claiming a destroyer and freighter sunk. Sixty five P-51s, P-40s, and P-38 Lightnings on armed reconnaissance over wide areas of China attack storage areas, troops, bridges, railroad targets, and gun positions around Paoching, Anking, Hengyang, Tuhshan, Nan Tan, Kengtung, and Luchai and between Kweilin and Liuchow.

MANCHURIA: The USAAF Twentieth Air Force's XX Bomber Command flies Mission 19: 108 B-29 Superfortresses, operating from Chengtu, China, are dispatched to bomb the Manchuria Airplane Manufacturing Company and an adjacent arsenal at Mukden; 80 hit the primary target and ten other B-29s bomb a rail yard short of the primary target, and several other bombers strike alternate targets; the B-29s claim 10-10-30 fighters; seven B-29 Superfortresses are lost.

BURMA: Nine USAAF Tenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells knock out the east span of the road bridge at Tonbo; 21 P-47 Thunderbolts support ground forces in the Bhamo area; 63 blast concentrations of enemy troops and supplies at Male while four others hit supplies at Myauk-le. Fourteen; P-47s knock out a bridge at Mansam and damage three bridges at Mongmit and Namyao; 17 others hit Nawnghkio and bomb supply areas at Na-kawnkongnyauiig.

Eight USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells hit a storage area at Lashio, Burma.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: In the U.S. Sixth Army's X Corps area, the Japanese continue to cling stubbornly to the ridge southeast of Limon, preventing the 2d Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment (Special) from advancing. The 1st Squadron reaches the Leyte River, where it makes contact with Troop A and 126th Infantry Regiment, 32d Infantry Division. In the XXIV Corps area, USN Task Group Task Group 78.3 lands troops of the 77th Infantry Division at Deposito on the eastern shore of Ormoc Bay. Leyte, at 0707 hours after a bombardment by destroyers and LCI(R)s; the troops move inland at once, at 0707 307th Infantry Regiment clearing Ipil and at the 305th Infantry Regiment reaching the Bagonbon River. The 7th Infantry Division pushes on toward Ormoc, the 184th Infantry Regiment reaching the Tabgas River and the 17th Infantry Regiment taking Hill 380. This virtually completes the battle of the ridges, although fighting continues for several days before the division reaches its objective, the Talisayan River. Fighting continues in the Buro Airstrip area. The 1st Battalion, 149th Infantry Regiment, 38th Infantry Division, gains a hold on the southwestern edge, making contact with the 1st Battalion, 187th Glider Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division.

Within three hours of the first soldiers' going ashore, however, enemy air attacks begin. Kamikazes damage destroyers USS Mahan (DD-364) and Lamson (DD-367); USS Mahan is scuttled about off Ormoc by destroyer USS Walke (DD-723); destroyer USS Flusser (DD-368) and rescue tug ATR-31 extinguish USS Lamson's fires and she is towed to Leyte Gulf. Other suiciders damage high speed transports USS Ward (APD-16) and Liddle (APD-60); Ward is scuttled by destroyer USS O'Brien (DD-725). Still other kamikazes damage tank landing ship USS LST-737, sink medium landing ship LSM-318 and damage (by near-misses) LSM-18 and LSM-19.

USAAF Far East Air Forces (FEAF) B-24 Liberators bomb Malogo Airfield, the town of Masbate on Masbate Island, and Sanbon Field on the southeastern tip of Luzon Island. Other FEAF aircraft fly armed reconnaissance and harassing missions over Mindanao Island attacking various targets of opportunity.

Opposing the 8th phase of the TA Operation, USAAF Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers and USMC F4U Corsairs attack Japanese shipping in San Isidro Bay, Leyte, sinking a fast transport and four army cargo ships; and damaging the escort destroyers HIJMS Ume and Sugi. .

Both USAAF Majors Richard I. Bong and Thomas B. McGuire shoot down two Japanese aircraft while covering American landings at Ormoc, Leyte Island. Bong gets his 37th and 38th victories when he shoots down a "Sally" bomber (Mitsubishi Ki-21, Army Type 97 Heavy Bomber) and a "Tojo" fighter (Nakajima Ki-44, Army Type 2 Single-seat Fighter Shoki). McGuire shoots down two "Tojo" fighters for his 29th and 30th victories.

JAPAN: American troops waging war against Japan in the Pacific have come to know one Japanese voice better than any other. It belongs to "Tokyo Rose", an American citizen of Japanese parentage featured in regular propaganda broadcasts to the Allied troops by the Japanese Broadcasting Company. Her message is not always very subtle; in a sexy, sultry voice she tells the GIs that the girls they left behind are being unfaithful. "Rose's" real name is Iva Ikuko Toguri d'Aquino.

EAST INDIES: In the Netherlands East Indies, USAAF Far East Air Forces (FEAF), B-25 Mitchells hit Miti (Miti Island), Kaoe and Lolobata Airdromes on Halmahera Island and Galela Airfield on Galela Island.

MARIANAS ISLANDS, SAIPAN: In a combined high-low attack Japanese "Betty" bombers (Mitsubishi G4M, Navy Type 0 Attack Bombers) based on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, strafe airfields on Saipan at 0404 hours. In the afternoon, 13 "Betty" bombers bomb the bases at 1435 hours; six of the aircraft are shot down by antiaircraft fire but three USAAF B-29 Superfortresses are destroyed, three are seriously damaged and 20 are slightly damaged.

PACIFIC OCEAN: In the South China Sea, two USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators claim a cargo vessel sunk.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Nine USAAF Eleventh Air Force bombers fly two negative shipping searches.

Tug HMCS Glenkeen launched Kingston, Ontario.

Corvette HMCS Nanaimo arrived Esquimalt, British Columbia, for refit.

UNITED STATES: The top songs on the pop record charts are: "The Trolley Song" by The Pied Pipers; "Dance with the Dolly" by The Russ Morgan Orchestra, vocal by Al Jennings; "I'm Making Believe" by Ella Fitzgerald and The Ink Spots; and "Smoke on the Water" by Red Foley.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-482 is listed as missing. The submarine is possibly lost to mines northwest of Malin Head, County Donegal, Eire, in the minefields A1 or A2 which crossed its route; all 48 crewmen were lost.

U.S.A.: Frank Sinatra records the songs, "Try A Little Tenderness", "(I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance With You" and "Paradise".