20 December 1939

UNITED KINGDOM: The British Broadcasting Company's (BBCs) Empire Service is inaugurated, transmitting from the UK on two short-wave transmitters at Daventry, Northamptonshire, England.

UNITED KINGDOM: The London Naval Disarmament Conference began in October with the major naval powers making a last attempt at negotiating a naval disarmament treaty in London. With mounting political tensions, the conference collapses today without agreement.

SPAIN: The Spanish Republicans succeed in wresting Teruel from Francisco Francoâ€™s Nationalists. The lack of military supplies and equipment, however, prevents the Republicans from sustaining their offensive, which grinds to a halt.

FREE CITY OF DANZIG: Jews ordered by the Nazi Government of Danzig to leave by 1 April 1939. The Danzig Government had adopted the Nazi racial policy on 23 November.

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 'Security Patrols' - Hornum - Borkum. 77 Sqn. Two aircraft. Bombs dropped on flarepath. 102 Sqn. One aircraft. Bombs dropped on flarepath.

Experts examine the captured RDF system of the 'Graf Spee'.
Cris Wetton writes: 'At the time of the sinking of the Graf Spee, the British had no concrete proof that the Germans had any form of Radar. A British Engineer called Derek Bainbridge-Bell was flown out to examine any Radar equipment; as far as I recall, he was only able to examine the antenna - which was sufficient to determine the frequency range but not much else. I have an album of German cigarette cards detailing the armed forces and dating from 1940. The Graf Spee features in the naval section and it is easy to see that the radar antenna has been carefully blanked out.'

'O Thou whose righteous judgements stand', a new wartime hymn with music composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, is published.

U.S. freighter SS Nishmaha is free to sail from Marseilles to continue her voyage, but port conditions and weather prevent her from sailing as scheduled.

The conversion of the 7,862 ton German surface raider HK Atlantis, ship number 16 and soon to be identified by the British as Raider C, to a Hilfskreuzer (Auxiliary Cruiser or raider) is completed. She will set sail on her first mission on 31 March 1940.

U.S.A.: Washington: The USA forbids the exports of technical data for producing aviation fuel, as well as the fuel itself to belligerent countries.

Heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) disembarks scuttled German passenger liner SS Columbus's "distressed mariners" at Ellis Island immigration centre in New York Harbour.

ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires: Kpt.z.S. Hans Langsdorff, the commander of the 'Graf Spee', while in his room in the Naval Arsenal in Buenos Aires where the ships officers were being held, commits suicide with a shot to the head. He is found this morning wrapped in the ensign of his ship. He was later buried in the Cementerio del Norte in Buenos Aires.

British destroyer HMS Hyperion (H 97) intercepts the 32,581 ton German passenger liner SS Columbus 391 nautical miles (724 kilometers) east of Cape May, New Jersey. Columbus is scuttled to prevent capture; two crewmen perish in the abandonment. The USN heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) rescues Columbus' survivors (567 men and nine women stewardesses) and sets course for New York City, the only U.S. port that can handle such a large and sudden influx of aliens. Meanwhile the British light cruiser HMS Orion (85) intercepts the German freighter SS Arauca off Miami, Florida; Arauca puts in to Port Everglades to avoid capture. Destroyer USS Truxtun (DD-229) has trailed the merchantman at one point; destroyer USS Philip (DD-76) is present when Arauca reaches sanctuary. A U.S. Army Air Corps B-18 Bolo of the 21st Reconnaissance Squadron (Long Range) based at Miami Municipal Airport, however, witnesses the shot that HMS Orion fires over Arauca's bow (in the attempt to force the latter to heave-to) splashing inside U.S. territorial waters off Hialeah, Florida. Learning of this incident, Secretary of State Cordell Hull instructs U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James Joseph P. Kennedy to remind the British Foreign Office that, as neutrals, the American republics are entitled to have their waters "free from the commission of any hostile act by any non-American belligerent nation." SS Arauca is interned by the U.S. government and is acquired by the USN from the Maritime Commission on 20 April 1942 and commissioned as the refrigerated storeship USS Saturn (AF-40) the same day.

FINLAND: Risto Ryti takes over as president of Finland, from Dr. Kyosti Kallio. Kallio has been the President of the Republic since 1937. The Winter War has been an especially hard time for him, even if the more immediate decision making has in practice been in other hands, in civilian affairs with Prime Minister Ryti and Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner, and in military matters with Marshal Carl Mannerheim. On 12 March 1940 Kallio gave the Finnish negotiatiors the powers to sign the harsh peace treaty with the Soviet Union, he uttered the famous words "May wither the hand that has signed a paper like this!" The next summer (1940) Kallio suffered a stroke that left his right arm paralysed. Kallio's health deteriorated during the summer and autumn of 1940, and finally he gave up the presidency today. The President is normally elected by a chamber of electors elected by popular vote. This time this process is dispensed with and the new President is elected by the electors of 1937. The new President Risto Ryti had been the Prime Minister during the Winter War and the Director of the Bank of Finland before that. Later on the same day Dr. Kallio leaves Helsinki for his estate in Nivala. But at the Helsinki railway station, as he is seen off by the Finnish political and military leadership, he suffers the final fatal stroke and dies in the arms of his senior adjutant Colonel Aladar Paasonen.

ALBANIA: Greece starts a bombardment of Klisura.

BULGARIA: Laws to crack down on Jews and Freemasons are introduced.

NORTH AFRICA: Wavell to CIGS:
...investment of Bardia proceeding. 16 Brigade and 16 Australian Brigade now grouped under 6th Australian Div. 100 guns should be in position against Bardia by tomorrow morning.
Transport strained ... Large percentage of vehicles out of action awaiting repair.
... we want Bardia as soon as possible but do not propose to risk failure and heavy casualties, especially as this is Australians' first operation.

Destroyer HMCS Assiniboine returned to operational status from refit.

U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt creates a four-man board for the defence drive. William Knudsen is to be director; Sidney Hillman is to look after the interests of labour; Colonel Frank Knox, the navy, and Henry L. Stimson, the army. It is said that full authority will be given to this board to direct and speed American rearmament and all material aid "short of war" for Great Britain and the democracies. The new council will be known as the Office of Production Management for defence.

The motion picture "One Night in the Tropics" opens at the Roxy Theater in New York City. Directed by Edward Stutherland, this comedy based on an Earl Derr Biggers novel, stars Allan Jones, Nancy Kelly, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Robert Cummings and Leo Carrillo. This is Abbott and Costello's film debut.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German submarine U-37 mistakenly attacks two Vichy French submarines and sinks FR Sfax off Cape Juby, French Morocco. Cape Juby is located on the coast of southern French Morocco, near its border with the Spanish Sahara, directly east of the Canary Islands.

UNITED KINGDOM: A renewed appeal for salvaged waste paper was made yesterday by Sir Charles Portal, the chief of the air staff in a broadcast. "You have all got munitions of war in your homes," he told people. Old magazines and newspapers, Christmas cards and decorations, food cartons and cigarette packets are all needed to make parts of shell cases, mines, machine-gun bullets and radio sets for tanks and aircraft.

Scrap metal is also urgently required, although 5,000 tons of iron railings have already been collected. Some people have put up stiff resistance to the removal of their railings. Some have connected them to the mains electricity. One man even drew a revolver and warned that if anyone touched his railings he would fire.

GERMANY: An appeal for winter clothing, intended for German troops on the Eastern Front, is broadcast by Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Göbbels.

He made no admission that Hitler had expected Russia to crumble to defeat before the snows came in and had therefore not issued winter kit to the army. Instead, he insisted that winter had come early and was more than normally severe.

The authorities had done everything possible to provide ample equipment", he said, "using the last available transport to send enormous quantities of equipment even to the front line. But despite all these preparations the troops still needed a lot more things."

He added: "Those at home will not deserve a single peaceful hour if even one soldier is exposed to the rigours of winter without adequate clothing."

Göbbels's appeal is widely discussed in the German press today. One newspaper says: "The strict clothes rationing of the past few years has not made it possible for us to have any clothing to spare. We have no surplus and we must therefore give away what we ourselves need. We must expect to shiver because of the soldiers' needs." The Nazi Party newspaper Volkischer Beobachter argues: "Hitler does not make it easy for us; but we do not ask why you should surrender what you so badly need yourself. Be grateful you are not at Smolensk, Minsk or Vyazma."

All this does little for the German soldier in those places. Propaganda pictures show him healthy and smiling in a steam bath. The reality is that he is infested with lice because it is too cold for him to wash. Sentries who fall asleep freeze to death. The roads are littered with frozen horses.

In order to try to correct this shambles brought about by Hitler's overweening confidence, the Germans have placed huge orders for wooden huts, fur-lined overcoats, skis and snow-shoes.

Skis, sweaters and blankets have been seized in Norway, and the Baltic states. Soon a soldier somewhere in Russia's frozen wastes will be wearing a fur coat that once belonged to a Berlin Hausfrau.

With the retirement of Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch as Commander in Chief of the Army yesterday, Chancellor Adolf Hitler himself assumes personal command of the Army, especially of its operations on the Eastern front. Initial success leads Hitler to a hypnotic belief in his ability. When the success turns, Hitler remains convinced and therefore believes that the efforts of others is at fault.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet winter offensive continues to advance retaking Volokolamsk to the northwest of Moscow. The Germans continue their attack on Sevastopol, while the Soviets bring 14,000 men and supplies into the area as reinforcements.

ITALY: Dictator Benito Mussolini requests German assistance for his hard-pressed troops in the Cyrenaica region of Libya in the form of a Panzer Division and various logistical support.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: While on their way to intercept an Italian convoy bound for Tripoli the British Force K [light cruisers HMS Neptune (20), Aurora (12), Penelope (97) and the destroyers HMS KANDAHAR (F 28), Lance (G 87), Lively (G 40) and Havock (H 43)] run into a newly laid Italian minefield. HMS Neptune sinks while HMS Aurora and Kandahar are badly and HMS Penelope is lightly damaged. HMS Aurora is patched up at Malta before returning home for repairs at Liverpool from April to June 1942. HMS Penelope is repaired at Malta but is bombed on 26 March 1942 while still under repair. She leaves Malta on 8 April 1942 for full repairs at the New York Navy Yard in the U.S. These repairs are completed in September 1942. ((Alex Gordon)(108) & Jack McKillop)

EGYPT: During the night of 18/19 December, the Italian submarine R.Smg. Scir launches three SLC (Slow Moving Torpedo) human torpedoes off the British naval base at Alexandria. The SLCs are a 21-inch (53 centimeter) torpedo fitted with an electric motor powered by batteries with an explosive charge in the detachable head. The weapon is manned by two operators using breathing apparatus. After release the SLCs, the submarine returns to La Spezia, Italy. Anticipating the return of the British Force B to Alexandria, the harbor nets are left open allowing the three SLCs to slip in and direct their weapons toward the designated targets. Since the expected aircraft carrier HMS Eagle (94) is no longer in the harbor, the three attach their explosive charges to the battleships HMS Valiant (02) and Queen Elizabeth (00) and the large tanker SS Sagona. Two Italian frogmen are captured, Lieutenants Luigi Durand de la Penne and Bianchi. They refuse to divulge any information until moments before the explosion (because they are being interrogated right above the area of the keel where the explosion is to occur). At 0600 hours local, the first charge detonates under the tanker SS Sagona and badly damages both the tanker and the destroyer HMS Jervis (F 00), which is moored alongside for refueling. The charge under HMS Valiant detonates at 0620 hours, and the one under HMS Queen Elizabeth at 0624 hours. The depth of water is 15 to 50 feet (4,6 to 15 meters) and the charges weighed about 300 kilograms (661 pounds). Both battleships were severely damaged and remained out of the war for a period of time. The Italians are interned in a POW camp for the rest of the war. This attack, which neutralizes the ability of the British to oppose the Italian Regia Marina with its battleships, allows deeply needed convoys to supply Axis forces in Africa. Additionally, de la Penne and Bianchi are awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valour in 1945 by Vice-Admiral Charles Morgan, the Valiant's skipper at the time. (John Nicholas, Tom Hickcox and Jack McKillop)

LIBYA: Axis forces continue their retreat in Cyrenaica. The XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, continues to follow the withdrawing Axis forces, the Indian 4th Division advancing along the coast to Derna and the British 7th Armoured Division across the desert. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)

BURMA: The Japanese overrun Bokpyin, a village about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Victoria Point. A controversy known as the Tulsa Incident, arises as a U.S. officer asks the Government of Burma to impound Lend-Lease material at Rangoon (a valuable part of which is loaded on the SS Tulsa in the harbor), pending a decision on its use. At the suggestion of the senior Chinese representative in Burma, a committee is subsequently formed to determine the division of supplies.

General Claire L. Chennault and his "Flying Tigers," a group of "volunteer" pilots, set up headquarters 150 miles (241 kilometers) from Rangoon. From today until 4 July 1942, they destroy 297 Japanese planes and kill some 500 of the enemy. (Tom Hickcox)

CHINA: The 1st and 2nd Squadrons from the Flying Tigers of The American Volunteer Group had their first air combat, shooting down 3 Japanese bombers plus 2 unconfirmed. (Chuck Baisden)

HONG KONG: Japanese troops surround the headquarters of Canadian Brigadier John Lawson, Commanding Officer West Brigade, at Wong Nei Chong Gap. Lawson is killed in an attempted breakout becoming the first Canadian General killed in WWII.

Canadian Sergeant Major John Robert Osborn of the 1st Battalion, Winnipeg Grenadiers, dies during an attempt to recapture Mount Butler. Osborn falls on a grenade to save others in the company and is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

Five British naval ships are scuttled to prevent capture by the Japanese: (1) the barrage/gate vessels HMS Aldgate (Z 68) and Watergate (Z 56), (2) the tugs HMS Alliance (W 77) and Poet Chaucer and (3) the boom defense vessel HMS Barlight (Z 57). Barlight is raised by the Japanese and commissioned on 20 September 1942 as Netlayer 101. She is sunk on 15 June 1944 in Tanapag Harbor Saipan Island, Mariana Islands by USN destroyer USS Halsey Powell (DD-686).

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The Japanese 56th Division lands on Mindanao near Davao during the night.

This is the more southerly of the Philippines two largest islands. The next stage of Japan's pincer attack on the US territory has begun. The Japanese have moved swiftly since they landed on the islands on 10 December. By 14 December around 6,500 troops had disembarked on the northern island of Luzon, the largest of the Philippines.

But as the imperial army has advanced the beleaguered US defenders have put up a brave fight. On 14 December the Japanese took Tuguegarao in northern Luzon, and US bombers attacked their troop convoys. One pilot, Captain Hewitt T Wheless, was delayed by engine trouble and reached his target only after the other bombers had gone. Suddenly 18 Japanese fighters descended on him like a swarm of wasps, but he dropped his bombs and headed home, pursued by fighters for 75 miles. His radio operator died and a gunner was wounded, but he made it, downing, so it is said, 11 fighters on the way.

SINGAPORE: The authorities here have made an urgent request to London for more troops and aircraft to counter the growing threat of a Japanese invasion. In north-west Malaya, British troops yesterday abandoned the island of Penang following the loss days before of the state of Kedah and the province of Wellesley. Penang's mainland neighbour, the tin-mining state of Perak, is under attack as the Japanese move south. In Wellesley the Japanese captured Butterworth airfield, 360 miles from Singapore, giving them control of five of Malaya's 11 airfields. British troops are being pulled back to the river Krian, thought to provide better defences. Further south at Port Swettenham, a 6pm curfew has been imposed.

MALAYA: The Japanese are active against the right flank of the Krian River line; on the Grik road, the Japanese frustrate the efforts of the Indian III Corps to recover lost ground. RAF fighters based at Ipoh are forced to withdraw to Kuala Lumpur. The Indian 9th Division continues their withdrawal southward in eastern Malaya and abandons the Kuala Krai railhead.

WAKE ISLAND "The Japanese are occupying all the islands," Hitler declared two days ago. "They will get Australia. The white race will disappear from those regions." He has mixed feelings about his ally's success.

One island Japan has so far failed to occupy is Wake, a treeless atoll halfway between Manila and Pearl Harbor, defended by 400 US marines, 1,000 construction workers, a dozen planes and six 5-inch guns. The Japanese fleet arrived off Wake on 11 December, after three days of bombing. Major Devereux, the marine commander, waited until the ships were in range of his guns, the fired. Two destroyers were sunk and a cruiser damaged. The defenders fight on.

Japanese "Nell" bombers (Mitsubishi G3M2, Navy Type 96 Attack Bombers) based on Roi Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, bomb the islands, targeting installations on Wake and Peale islets.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese submarine HIJMS I-172 torpedoes and sinks a 5,113 ton unarmed U.S. freighter about 296 nautical miles (549 kilometers) south-southeast of Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. Twenty five crewmen survive and are rescued.

In the South China Sea, the Dutch submarine HNMS O2 is scuttled by her own crew, about 22 nautical miles (40 kilometers) east of Kota Bharu, Malaya, to prevent her capture by the Japanese. The sub was damaged by depth charges from two Japanese destroyers earlier in the day.

Patrol vessel HMCS Adversus ran aground in blizzard McNutt's Island, Nova Scotia. All 16 crewmembers recovered.

U.S.A.: The US Selective Service (draft) Act is amended requiring the registration of all males 18-64. The age for those subject to military service is 20-44. (John Nicholas)

Lieutenant General John DeWitt, Commanding General of the Fourth Army and the Western Defense Command, recommends to the War Department to round up "all alien subjects 14 years of age or over, of enemy nations and remove them to the Zone of the Interior (ZI)," because the West Coast had become a wartime Theater of Operations. DeWitt also writes, "...that there are approximately 40,000 of such enemy aliens and it is believed that they constitute an immediate and potential menace to vital measures of defense."

The previous Commander in Chief of the US Fleet, Admiral J.O. Richardson, sported the acronym CINCUS. Admiral King didn't like the sound of this under the circumstances of Dec. 7, and declared himself COMINCH, which slightly annoyed FDR because that was rightly his acronym. But he let it go. (Matt Clark)

Vice Admiral Randall Jacobs relieves Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation.

The U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1942 is graduated early, due to the National Emergency.

"Elmer's Tune" by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra with vocals by Ray Eberle and The Modernaires reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the U.S. This song, which debuted on the charts on 8 November 1941, was charted for 15 weeks, was Number 1 for 1 week and was ranked Number 8 for the year 1941.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The British destroyer HMS Stanley [I 73, ex-USN USS McCalla (DD-253)] is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-574 about 336 nautical miles (622 kilometers) north of the Madeira Islands in position 38.12N, 17.23W. Stanley is escorting about 30 ships in convoy HG76 (Gibraltar to the U.K.); only 25 of her 161 man crew survive. Within 12-minutes, U-574 is sunk by ramming and depth charges from another escort, the British sloop HMS Stork (U 81); 16 of the 44 crewmen on the sub survive.

WESTERN EUROPE: The Eighth Air Force suffers its worst single day loss of the war to date. Luftwaffe fighters and flak down six B-17s. Two B-17s crash upon landing in England. Two men were KIA, 58 MIA, 12 WIA. (Skip Guidry)

NETHERLANDS: "Oboe" equipped de Havilland Mosquitoes IX's of No. 109 Squadron RAF flying from Wyton make an attack on a power-station at Lutterade in Holland. This is the first use of Oboe by Pathfinder Mosquitoes. (22)

FRANCE: During the night of 19/20 December, RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons lay mines off three ports on the Bay of Biscay: six lay mines off Lorient, five off St. Nazaire and four off Brest.

GERMANY: Chancellor Adolf Hitler receives French Prime Minister Pierre Laval at his headquarters in the presence of Italian Foreign Minister Count Gian Ciano, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, head of the German Air Force; and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, to discuss "the existing problems of France."

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet forces are now about 70 miles northeast of Voroshilovgrad. The Rostov-Voronezh rail line is cut and the northern forces of Manstein are feeling the increasing Russian pressure. Paulus cites fuel shortages as his reason not to breakout of Stalingrad.

The Sixth Army Chief of Staff, General Schmidt, a committed Nazi Party member, is an important figure in the decision. Meanwhile, the Fourth Panzer Army's relief column has been making smaller gains and is now at the Myshkova River.

Soviet forces continue to gain ground in a broad offensive. Assault forces from the middle Don River reach Kantemirovka, on the Voronezh-Rostov railroad north of Millerovo.

SPAIN: Spain and Portugal announced the creation of a neutral Iberian bloc. "Our peninsula policy is based on sentiment and the, conviction that we are serving the permanent interests of all nations" .

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: While escorting a convoy to Benghazi, Libya, the British corvette HMS Snapdragon (K 10) is bombed and sunk off Bizerte, Tunisia, by German aircraft.

TUNISIA: Rain curtails most aerial operations but USAAF Twelfth Air Force A-20 Havocs and DB-7 Bostons, with fighter escort, hit the marshaling yard at Sfax.

NEW GUINEA: Continuing the assault on the Sanananda front in Papua New Guinea, the Australians reduce several Japanese positions just beyond the track junction in a frontal drive; flanking elements reach positions near the roadblock. A Japanese attack on the block is repulsed. Australian cavalrymen destroy a Japanese force 300 yards (274 meters) north of the block and establish a new perimeter, which they call "Kano." The Urbana Force, after air and mortar preparation, attacks the Triangle, Companies E and G of the U.S. 126th Infantry Regiment driving south on it while Company F blocks from below. The attack is soon halted by cross fire, which causes heavy casualties. The battalion commander is lost in this action. Troops on the Warren front regroup. The rest of Australian 2/10th Battalion, 18th Brigade, 7th Division, arrives at the front after dark. U.S. troops are to operate the Oro Bay port and the engineers charged with the construction of a road from Oro Bay to Dobodura airfields land at Oro Bay during the night of 19/20 December. Additional cargo is also brought ashore.

In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs and B-25 Mitchells hit the Buna Mission area. B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators attack warships, transports and cargo vessels off Madang in Astrolabe Bay and north northwest of Finschhafen off the coast of Huon Peninsula damaging a destroyer. Meanwhile, B-25s bomb Lae Airfield.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Guadalcanal, the 3rd Battalion, backed up by 1st Battalion of the 132nd Infantry Regiment, Americal Division, has spent two days moving into contact with Japanese forces in the area that will become known as "The Gifu" on Mt. Austen. After an artillery and aerial bombardment, Colonel William Wright, battalion commanding officer, moves forward with his unit. He is wounded by machine gun fire. While attempting to hit the Japanese position with grenades, he is mortally wounded. The action is stalemated for the rest of the day, until the battalion executive officer can move forward. The next few days will show small gains as the U.S. forces aggressively patrol in their attempts to locate the Japanese forces. The Japanese will continue to send forward infiltration parties, making the front lines of the U.S. forces jittery and harassing the rear supply forces. (John Nicholas)

USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses, escorted by P-38 Lightnings, hit the airfield at Munda on New Georgia Island. They are attacked by 20 Japanese Zeke fighters (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters); the Americans claim three Zekes with no American losses.

PACIFIC: Japanese submarine I-4 is sunk by the USS Seadragon (SS-194) off New Britain. (Mike Yared)(144 and 145)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The American reconnaissance team that landed on Amchitka Island on 17 December leaves the island.

Two USAAF Eleventh Air Force B-24 Liberators fly reconnaissance and patrol over Amchitka and Kiska Islands. Four escorting P-38 Lightnings turn back due to weather and mechanical difficulties.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS La Malbaie completed mechanical repairs Halifax, Nova Scotia.

U.S.A.: During WW II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) produced numerous documents, most commonly known are the Intelligence Bulletins. The Military Intelligence Special Series continues with "German Tactical Doctrine" (William L. Howard)

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)

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.

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.

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.

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).

UNITED KINGDOM: Frigates HMCS Saint John, Stormont, Port Colborne, Nene, Loch Alvie and Monnow arrived Clyde with Convoy RA-62.

WESTERN EUROPE: Weather grounds the USAAF Ninth Air Force bombers. Fighters fly armed reconnaissance in western Germany, escort RAF Lancasters, fly patrols from Belgium to the Rhine River, support the U.S. 1st, 2d, 99th, and 106th Infantry Divisions, and 7th Armored Division (north and east of Malmedy, Belgium, and southeast and southwest of Saint-Vith, Belgium), and fly cover for U.S. Twelfth Army troops and the XII Corps near Verdun and Saint- Avold, France.

EIRE: An RAF Catalina Mk. IV assigned to No. 202 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command based at RAF Castle Archdale, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, crashes on Stradbally Mountain, County Kerry. The wreckage is finally removed in 1978.

NORWAY: German submarine U-737 is sunk in the Vestfjorden about 61 nautical miles (112 kilometers) north-northeast of Bodo¸, after a collision with MRS 25; 20 of the 51 crewmen survive.

BELGIUM: Because of the German Ardennes counteroffensive, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Commander in Chief 21st Army Group, abandons a plan to employ XXX Corps, British Second Army, in the Nijmegen, The Netherlands, area and orders it to assemble in the Louvain-St Trond-Hasselt region to hold the Meuse River line.

German forces attack north from the area of Stavelot but are forced back. St. Vith and Bastogne are still held. The road junctions of these towns are vital to the German offensive.

As German troops encircle the US 101st Airborne and 9th and 10th Armoured Divisions at Bastogne, the Allies impose a blackout on all news from the Ardennes fighting, which is now being called the "Battle of the Bulge."

General der Infanterie Heinz Kokott, Commanding General 26 Volks Grenadier Division:

". . . division, during the early hours of 20 December, had issued issued its orders to the regiments.

"For Regiments 77 and 78 these orders called for a continuation of their attack . . . as had been planned and ordered for the previous day.

"Regiment 78 had the additional mission to clear, before the start of the attack, the situation at Margeret as some enemy nests were still holding out in the southern part of the village. . . . and positive contact was to be established with the Panzer Lehr Division fighting near Neffe.

"The main point of effort of the division attack was to be, as heretofore, in front of the (left) Regiment 78. The terrain (affording a good view for observation) as well as the intention to get hold of as quickly as possible of the dominating heights west of Bizory, were the decisive factors for selecting this sector as the central point of effort.

"The main attack was to begin as soon as the customary morning fog would have lifted sufficiently to safeguard a clearly observed support by infantry and heavy weapons.

The morning fog was, of course, supplied by nature. The fog of war would be supplied by elements of the 101st Airborne.

"Towards 0700 hours on 20 December, Grenadier Regiment 78 reported that Margaret was "enemy free" [those words again] and that combat fit reconnaissance troops were on their way to the west.

Grenadier regiment 77 reported regroupings during the assembly. It was a very foggy day and at first all observation was impossible.

"Between 0900 and 1000 hours, 20 December, the commander of XLVIII Panzer Corps appears at the division command post. He pictured the situation as follows:

"The 2nd Panzer Division has taken Noville. The enemy is in flight-like retreat from the 2nd Panzer Division via Foy to the south. The 2nd Panzer Division is in steady pursuit. The fall of Foy - if not already taken place - is to be expected at any moment. After the capture of Foy, the 2nd Panzer Division, according to orders, turns to the west and drives into open the terrain."

The corps commander, General der Panzertruppen Heinrich Freiherr von Luettwitz, has got it wrong. Perhaps the commander of the 2nd Panzer Division, Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert, has been sending "anticipatory" reports to corps. The facts are that Team Desobry and the 1st Battalion, 506th did not withdraw from Noville until 1330 hours. The order for the withdrawal came down on the Field Artillery

FO radio and I passed it to the battalion commander. (See S.L.A. Marshall; Bastogne, The First Eight Days.) Luettwitz speaks of "The fall of Foy." (It sounds almost like "the fall of Paris.") At the time Foy was a collection of four or five farms. It was on low ground and could not be defended. The road from Noville to Foy ran downhill for 1.8 kilometres and then toward high ground for 200 meters. On that high ground the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 506 had established defensive positions through which we moved into a reserve position. This was not a text book retrograde but we were hardly in "flight-like retreat" and the 2nd Panzer was not coming down that road in pursuit. I think that they were happy to be rid of us so that they could continue the drive west to the Meuse. We had done them great harm.

At the time the Noville-Foy-Bastogne road was the right boundary of the 506th. About 200 meters east of the road was Bois Jacques.

During a period of 30 minutes approximately 50 German soldiers came out of the woods with their hands over their head and surrendered to us. I believe that they were members of the 26th VG Division, probably of Regiment 77 of that division. So much for high morale in that division.

"It is now the primary mission of the 26th Division with all its available elements to proceed via Wardin - Remoifosse for an encirclement of Bastogne from the south, then to penetrate Bastogne from the soutwest and to intercept the enemy in his withdrawal and breakthrough to the southwest or west. The Panzer Lehr Division, with main effort on the left near Marvie, will close in on Bastogne from the southeast.

"This unfortunate change in the situation came as a surprise to the division; all the more so since Regiments 77 and 78 had not detected or reported any signs of weakening on the part of the enemy.

They only had to record unchanged heavy enemy resistance and powerful artillery - and mortar fire. The same impressions had continuously been reported by the Reconnaissance Battalion 26 which was facing the enemy.

"On the basis of this orientation and instructions through the Panzer corps, the division now immediately turned its individual orders to the Regiments, utilizing all available means of communications. "

XLVII Panzer Corps had ordered the 26th VG to send its Regiment 39, which had been guarding the left flank of both the division and corps, on a wide swing south of Bastogne to almost due west of the city while the 26th Reconnaissance Battalion would do the same and take up positions to the southwest of Bastogne. Between these two major elements of the 26th VG and its Regiments 77 and 78, corps would insert the Panzer Lehr Division to which the 77th and 78th would be attached.

Kokott called meeting of the commanders of Regiment 39 and all separate battalions of the division in Wardin.where the division command post was located. He brifed them on the division's mission of attacking and entering Bastogne from the southwest and west.

During this meeting an officer who had recconnoitered the routes to the west reported that the road were impassable for vehicles. The vehicles, which contained much ammunition and equipment, would have to make a long detour to the east in order to get to their new positions in the southwest and west. This would cause an inordinate delay. Kokott ordered that the vehicles be unloaded and that the men carry as much of this load as possible.

"The commanders reiterated their respective missions. Everything was clear. The rifle companies and the engineers company which had arrived in the meantime, unloaded their combat vehicles without delay. The staff of the First Battalion of Rifle Regiment 39 and parts of the regimental staff were moving up, additional units of the Replacement Training Battalion, engineers, and the Second Battalion of Rifle Regiment 39 followed. As they were approaching, they remained in the march and - after the equipment had been taken off the vehicles - disappeared in "single file", loaded down heavily with weapons and ammunition, in the forest heading for Lutrebois. With exemplary calm and matter-of-factedness, weapons, ammunition and equipment were unloaded, stripped and picked up, with the stead flow of the arriving units continuing to the west and southwest."

". . . the division commander was getting ready for his drive ahead [to the new area of operations in the west and southwest] via Doncols - Lutremange to Remoifosse when an artillery salvo - about 12 shots - landed straight in the center of Wardin [the division CP]. This was not particularly alarming until there was, shortly thereafter, another battalion salvo - this time at the western edge of the village - which broke the windows of the command car. Orders had just been issued to disperse the motor vehicles further and all drivers were busy with theri machines and motors - when the third time the dull drumming of fire and became audible and already the impact of the batteries hitting - this time straight into the assembled motor; this was immediately followed for several minutes by a fire concentration with devastating effects on this assembly of men and machines.

"The fire ceased. The enemy observers - and this could only have been an observed fire - appeared to be satisfied with their success. "And they had reason to be satisfied. The command staff was considerably paralyzed. The vehicles, including the command car, were burning or had been knocked out of commission, a great number of men and almost all the officers had either been killed or wounded, among them the first liaison officer, the division intelligence officer (Ic), two officers of the Signal Battalion, one engineer officer and one liaison officer. The Ia (operations officer) and Iia (officer personnel officer) - same as the division commander - had only been slightly wounded.

"This occurred towards about 1300 hours. "It was fortunate that all the necessary orders had been given before and that all movements had already been started. "The dead were laid out, the wounded were bandaged. From the command post of Artillery Regiment 26 - located in a house in the village and thus slecetd somewhat more appropriately - the command of the battle was taken over again and the command staff somewhat restored."

I doubt that this was an observed fire mission. In all probability information had been received that the 26th VG had its CP there and the location was fired upon as an unobserved fire mission. There was no place for observers to be located. I would like to believe that this mission had been fired by my battalion, the 321 Glider Field Artillery but we were engaged in the north and northeast in support of the 506th. Wardin was opposite the zone of the 501st which had the 907th Glider Field Artillery in direct support. So the mission was fired either by the 907 or one of the 155mm corps artillery battalions attached to the division. It is gratifying, however, to read how artillery can mess up a division headquarters.

"Towards 1430 hours a message arrived from Rifle Regiment 39 to the effect 'that the forward elements of the regiment, after having crossed the north-south highway (Bastogne - Mortelange) had become engaged with enemy forces." [This was either the 327th Glider Infantry or the 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion.]

"Dusk and darkness arrived very early on that winter day. From Doncols on the road necame poor, muddy, at some parts very narrow and there were many slopes. This, however, was the least. A lot more disagreeable was the fact that - in contrast with the exemplary traffic movements in the morning - now there presented itself a picture of considerable confusion; everything was crowding onto this road: tanks of the Panzer Lehr Division, so broad that they could barely squeeze through defiles and villages; trucks which had skidded off or had become stuck; motorized vehicles of an advance section of the 5th Parachute Infantry Division, supply vehicles, and motorcycles; marching in between or pushed to the side or came to a standstill due to exhaustion were the horse-drawn vehicles of the 26th Division which had again been overtaken by the companies on foot of the 5th parachute Infantry Division, with the men themselves pulling their vehicles. In addition - ambulances, damaged tanks and captured tanks driving back from the west! . . . traffic came to a standstill and became almost hopelessly entangled!"

Kokott goes on to discuss a lack of training and discipline. The result of this hampered operations around Bastogne and in the withdrawal from the Ardennes.

"These road conditions reached their peak later when SS-formations arrived in the Bastogne combat sector. These units - unduly boastful and arrogant anyway - with their total lack of discipline so typical for them, their well-known unreserved ruthlessness, paired with a considerable lack of reason, had a downright devastating effect and in all cases proved a handicap for any systematic conduct of fighting."

". . . the division commander reached the [new] command post at Bras only after midnight, i.e. towards 0100 on 21 December. Based on incoming reports, the situation to him on that night appeared as follows:"

"The Grenadier Regiments 77 and 78, while fighting some very costly battles, had made but small progress. "The heavily defended village of Bizory, however, had been taken by Grenadier regiment 78.

"The regiments were now located immediately west of the Foy - Bizory road. Enemy resistance there: strong." "The enemy forces opposite Rifle Regiment 39 fought stubbornly and were supported by tank (guns)?, artillery and, particularly, by strong mortar fire.

This was the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment which would defend 50% of the circle around Bastogne.

"As to the impression of the enemy, it appeared that - even if he would put up a stubborn and tough battle - he would be less strong and prepared in the southern sector than in the eastern sector.

(Kokott probably received this impression from the fact that the 501st had handled his division roughly and no other units would be as severe with them.)

"Here in the south - and perhaps in the west - the success had to be aimed for and to be fought for with all the strength!"

At the end of the day, 5th Panzer Army described the organization for combat of the units to be involved in the reduction of Bastogne. Essentially they were the divisions already involved.

"The division dutifully expressed its doubts and considered the chances for success under existing conditions unlikely. These doubts were eliminated, however, by the corps in its estimate of the enemy situation, which was about as follows: 'There are certain indications that the enemy had already become softened. Furthermore it could be assumed that there could 'not be much inside' Bastogne. Aside of parts of an airborne division, which, however, could not be very strong, it was reckoned that there would be the remnants of those enemy divisions, which had been abdly battered at the Our River and which ahd taken refuge in Bastogne. On the strength of prisoner of war interviews, the fighting quality of the forces inside of Bastogne was estimated not to be very high.'"

"The losses on 20 December for the division mounted to about: 8 - 10 officers and 300 men killed, wounded and missing. Most of this was suffered by Rifle Regiment 39 and Grenadier Regiment 78."

So ended another tough day for General Heinz Kokott. But that's what they pay division commanders for.

First Lieutenant Francis Canham, 321st Glider Field Artillery, was killed in action in Noville, Belgium observing fire on the 2nd Panzer Division.

LUXEMBOURG: The U.S. Third Army forms a provisional corps from former First Army units south of the Ardennes salient, the 4th Infantry Division and the 10th Armored Division (- Combat Command B); the corps is to hold the Germans on the south flank of the penetration and plug a gap existing between it and elements of the 9th Armored Division and 28th Infantry Division near Ettelbruck.

FRANCE: Patton starts moving his 250,000 strong army from the Saar to the Ardennes.

The US 100th Infantry Division completes the capture of Fort Schiesseck. The fortress is 14 storeys deep, complete with disappearing gun turrets and 12-foot thick steel-reinforced concrete walls. (William L. Howard)

Allied commanders conferring at Verdun decide to halt offensives toward the Rhine and concentrate on reducing enemy salient in the Ardennes. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, studies the situation map in his office and draws a line from Givet, France, on the Muese River through the Ardennes and across the German frontier to Prum. All Allied units north of the line are placed under command of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Commander in Chief 21st Army Group, which means that he commands the U.S. First and Ninth Armies. South of the line Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, Commander in Chief 12th Army Group, would command the U.S. Third Army. He ordered that the change take effect on 1200 hours on 20 December. (John Nicholas and Jay Stone)

The U.S. Seventh Army is ordered to go on the defensive. In the XV Corps area, the 44th Infantry Division finds that the Germans have abandoned Fort Simershof and Hottviller. Fort Schiesseck, barring access to Bitche, continues to hold out.

The U.S. Third Army's XX Corps begins withdrawal from hard-won positions east of the Sarre River. The 5th Infantry Division maintains a foothold east of the river at Saarlautern, but the 378th Infantry Regiment, 95th Infantry Division, is ordered to withdraw from Ensdorf. The III Corps is ordered north for an attack against the southern flank of enemy in the "Bulge." In the XII Corps area, the 35th Infantry Division halts an attack to consolidate in preparation for relief. The 4th Armored Division and 80th Infantry Division are being transferred to III Corps.

The USAAF Eighth Air Force flies Mission 756: 328 bombers and 45 fighters are dispatched to hit tactical targets (rail and road junctions, rail and road chokepoints and railheads) to impede the German counteroffensive launched in the Ardennes: 65 aircraft hit the Ehrang marshalling yard (M/Y) at Trier, 49 bomb a railroad junction at Kall, 40 attack Kyllburg, 28 hit the M/Y at Gemund, 25 bomb Blankenheim, 23 attack Bitburg, 22 bomb Hildersheim, 13 each bomb the Lutzel M/Y at Koblenz and a highway choke point at Schleiden, 12 attack a highway choke point at Glaadt and nine bomb Stadtkyll. The missions above are escorted by 37 P-47 Thunderbolts; they claim 7-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft.

USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers attack oil and rail targets: at Blechhammer, 114 bomb the North I.G. Farben synthetic refinery and 47 hit the South refinery with the loss of five aircraft; at Rosenheim, 26 hit the West marshalling yard and 24 hit the Main marshalling yard; one other aircraft bombs Kassel.

During the day, 30 RAF Bomber Command Lancasters, escorted by USAAF Ninth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts, carry out a G-H raid on the railway yards in Trier behind the front on which the Germans are attacking in the Ardennes.

U-2369 laid down.

U-1306 commissioned.

U-2357, U-4702 launched.

AUSTRIA: USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers hit rail targets: 35 bomb the Stroszhof marshalling yard (M/Y) in Vienna, 28 hit the Main M/Y at Graz, 19 bomb the South M/Y at Villach and two hit the North M/Y, 16 bomb the Main M/Y at Innsbruck and 14 bomb the North M/Y at Klagenfurt.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Seven USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers bomb a synthetic oil refinery at Ostrava Moravaska and three other bombers hit targets of opportunity.

BALTIC SEA: During the night of 19/20 December, 12 RAF Bomber Command Lancasters lay mines in the Cadet Channel, the strait between Storstrom Island, Denmark, and Germany.

HUNGARY: USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers attack Sopron; 26 bomb the marshalling yard and one hits the city.

GREECE: British General Scobie warns civilians of possible bombing in areas held by ELAS (communist) units.
British tanks and armoured cars today raced to the rescue of 350 RAF and army personnel holding out against the communist-backed ELAS (Communist Hellenic People's Army) rebels who captured the RAF rear headquarters at Kifissia, ten miles from Athens. An army statement alleged that women and children had taken part in the assault backed by mortars and light artillery. The British were making their last stand in a dynamited hotel when the relief column arrived. In Athens, ELAS attacked and burnt a prison holding collaborators awaiting trial.

Despite the best efforts of No.2933 Squadron RAF Regiment, the headquarters is overrun tomorrow and a large number of British prisoners are taken and marched north. Supplies are dropped to the column by Wellington Mk. XIIIs of No.221 Squadron RAF.

ITALY: Sgt Arthur Banks (b.1923), RAFVR, was executed. Shot down on 27 August, he worked with partisans until his capture earlier this month. He refused to talk under torture. (George Cross)

In the British Eighth Army area, V Corps, renewing their offensive during the night of 19/20 December, clears the Faenza area sufficiently for deployment of the 56th Division. The Canadian I Corps begins an attack, during the night of 19/20 December to break out of the Naviglio Canal bridgehead.

Weather grounds USAAF Twelfth Air Force medium bombers. XXII Tactical Air Command fighters and fighter-bombers, unable to reach the primary targets further north, hit communications north of the battle area but concentrate mainly on gun positions in the La Spezia area. During the night of 19/20 December, A-20 Havocs attack lights at five locations in the eastern Po Valley.

YUGOSLAVIA: Forty nine USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers bomb two marshalling yards in Maribor with the loss of one aircraft.

During the day, RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb three targets: 36 bomb tactical targets at Kolasin, 12 hit the West marshalling yard at Sarajevo and four attack a highway bridge at Matesevo.

BURMA: In the British Fourteenth Army's IV Corps area, the Indian 19th Division takes Kawlin and Wunthe. In the XXXIII Corps area, the British 2nd Division, having moved forward from Kohima, crosses the Chindwin River at Kalewa and is relieving the East African 11th Division.

CHINA: Sixteen USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells, escorted by 24 P-40s, attack Pengpu. Four P-51s claim two freighters sunk off Hong Kong and two P-40s destroy three locomotives and a truck at Sinyang.

Twelve USAAF Tenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells hit road junctions at Mongmit and south of Kyaukme, the Kyaukme railroad station, and Hsenwi bridge. Seven P-47 Thunderbolts severely damage the Tonbo road bridge, and 11 others hit targets of opportunity during a Onmaka-Hsoplong rail sweep. Forty two P-47s attack supply and personnel areas and troops at Myadaung, Tantabin, and Twinnge, the village of Nyaugbintha, and a truck park near Humon.

Four USAAF Fourteenth Air Force P-38 Lightnings bomb the Wanling-Mongyu road causing a traffic block.

JAPAN: The USAAF Twentieth Air Force's XX Bomber Command flies Mission 22: 36 B-29 Superfortresses, from the Chengtu, China area, are dispatched to hit an aircraft plant at Omura; 17 hit the primary target and 13 others hit secondary target, Shanghai, China, and another two strike other alternates; they claim 5-4-12 Japanese aircraft; two B-29s are lost.

VOLCANO ISLANDS: Twenty seven USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Saipan and 25 from Guam, Mariana Islands, strike Iwo Jima. Fourteen P-38 Lightnings from Saipan, with three Twentieth Air Force XXI Bomber Command B-29 Superfortresses as navigational escort, strafe airfields on Iwo Jima. Four B-25 Mitchells from Guam and Saipan carry out three snooper strikes against Iwo Jima during the night of 19/20 December.

EAST INDIES: In the Netherlands East Indies (NEI), USAAF Far East Air Forces B-25 Mitchells, A-20 Havocs, and P-38 Lightnings attack the Kairatoe area on Celebes Island. Other FEAF aircraft on armed reconnaissance, sweeps, and small strikes hit targets of opportunity at many locations throughout the NEI.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: While the fighting on Leyte and Mindoro continues, the Japanese high command decides that no more reinforcements or supplies will be sent to the 35th Army.

In the U.S. Army's X Corps area on Leyte Island, the 127th Infantry Regiment, 32d Infantry Division continues to battle the Japanese south of Limon. The 12th Cavalry Regiment (Infantry), 1st Cavalry Division, attacks toward Lonoy, on Highway 2, and seizes this barrio. In the XXIV Corps area, the 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division attacks north astride Highway 2 toward Libongao, gaining nearly 3 miles (4,8 kilometers); the 306th Infantry Regiment to the west pushes toward the Palompon road, which patrols reach. On Mindoro Island, the Western Visayan Task Force, helped by Mindoro guerrillas, begins a series of patrol actions along the south, west and northwest shores of Mindoro and a reconnaissance of small islands offshore.

USAAF Far East Air Forces fighter-supported B-25 Mitchells bomb Fabrica Airfield on Negros Island. Fighters on a sweep over Ponay, and Leyte Islands hit Fabrica, Bacolod, Silay, Dumaguete and Alicante Airfields, and the town of Palompon on Leyte Island. On Luzon, B-24 Liberators bomb Legaspi Airfield while P-38 Lightnings hit Batangas Airfield.

The planned bombardment of Luzon by the large carriers of U.S. Third Fleet is canceled because of weather conditions.

NEW GUINEA: Australian Lieutenant General Frank Berryman, Chief of Staff Advanced Headquarter Allied Land Forces South West Pacific, is convinced that U.S. Lieutenant General Richard Sutherland, Chief of Staff South West Pacific Area, is trying to hinder Australian liaison with General Headquarters, and sends a message to U.S. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief South West Pacific Area, stating: "General (Thomas) Blamey (Commander in Chief Allied Land Forces South West Pacific and Commander in Chief Australian Military Force) desires direct liaison and would appreciate attachment of Lieutenant General Berryman and small personal staff to Advanced General Headquarters (at Hollandia) as early as convenient to you."

MARCUS ISLAND: Three USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators on armed reconnaissance from Guam bomb Marcus Island. The island is located in the North Pacific about 768 nautical miles (1 422 kilometers) west-northwest of Wake Island and is used as a refueling point for Japanese aircraft en route to the Central Pacific.

PACIFIC OCEAN: In the East China Sea, the Japanese aircraft carrier HIJMS Unryu is torpedoed and sunk by the USN submarine USS Redfish (SS-395) about 204 nautical miles (379 kilometers) northwest of Naha, Okinawa, in position 28.19N, 124.40E. This was the first war voyage for HIJMS Unryu. The ship is carrying a special cargo of 30 Yokosuka MXY7 Navy Suicide Attacker Ohka (Cherry Blossom) Model 11 rocket propelled suicide aircraft before being sent on her way to confront the U.S. invasion forces in the Philippine Islands. The first torpedo strikes Unryu on the starboard side under the bridge; the second torpedo struck 15 minutes later under the forward elevator setting off the deadly Ohka bombs and aviation gas stored in the lower hanger deck. The detonations literally blows the bow area apart. After the boiler rooms flood, the ship lists to over 30 degrees and the order to abandon ship is given. Minutes later, with a 90 degree list, the carrier plunges headfirst into the wate r. There are only 147 survivors of the 1,241 crew plus an unknown number of passengers. Redfish is damaged in the resultant depth charging, and is forced to terminate her patrol.

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander of the Pacific Fleet and Commander of the Pacific Ocean Area, is promoted to the (five-star) rank of Fleet Admiral.

A 3 by 4 feet (0,9 by 1,2 meter) piece from a paper Japanese Fu-Go balloon is found at Manderson, Wyoming. The date of the landing cannot be determined. Manderson is located about 105 miles (169 kilometers) south of Billings, Montana.

Four fighters of the USAAF Fourth Air Force, directed by the Los Angeles Control Group to search for a Japanese Fu-Go balloon reported over Santa Monica, California, are unable to locate the target.

Washington: Dwight D. Eisenhower is promoted to the rank of General of the Army.

Like most legislation that dramatically impacts a nation's international relations was focused on domestic concerns. the primary focus of the Act was defining the control and development of atomic stuff (energy/weapons/etc.). During the war, it was under the military. The Federation of American Scientists and the Atomic Scientists of Chicago lobbied hard to ensure that after the war control was in civilian hands.

The Act created the Atomic Energy Commission and handed all atomic authority to the Department of Energy. Which is why to this day the DoE develops and tests American nuclear weapons for the military.

The prohibition on information sharing had a wide range of unintended impacts from Britain pursuing an independent nuclear force to Canada pursuing an independent reactor design, and the only use of the 'declarative power' of the Canadian Federal government (The Cdn Constitution (at the time British North America Act) enables the Federal Government to 'declare' an item of Provincial responsibility critical to the security of the state and move it to Federal constitutional authority - natural resources are a Provincial responsibility, except for uranium mining) (Dave Hornford)