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• Weather data for 17 Dec 1944

• USS Guitarro transited the Lombok Strait between the islands of Bali and Lombok, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Spot set sail for the Yellow Sea between China and Korea. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• The newly established USAAF 509th Composite Group was activated. The group's mission was to deliver atomic weapons. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• British bombers attacked Ulm, Germany. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• In a P-38 Lightning aircraft, US ace Richard Ira Bong scored his 40th kill to become America's leading fighter ace of the war. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

• 150 prisoners of war of US 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion were massacred by Waffen-SS forces at Malmédy, Belgium. Only 43 survived. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]

• Allied troops captured Faenza, Italy. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Unryu departed Kure, Japan at 0830 hours. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• USS Preston guarded carriers while the carriers launched strikes against Luzon, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Baya fired six torpedoes at a Japanese transport in the South China Sea; all torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Segundo encountered a typhoon while at sea, registering sustained winds at 145 miles per hour, with occasional gusts up to 185 miles per hour. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Alabama departed waters off Luzon, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) began retirement from the Luzon, Philippines strikes for refueling. ww2dbase [Main Article | Event | DS]
• USS New Mexico completed supporting the operations on Mindoro, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Franklin Roosevelt departed Warm Springs, Georgia, United States by train. He made a brief stop at Atlanta, Georgia to meet with Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Ernest King was promoted to the rank of fleet admiral. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Having the knowledge that on the following day the US Supreme Court would rule in favor of Mitsuye Endo over her illegal detainment based on her Japanese descent, US President Franklin Roosevelt issued Public Proclamation No. 21 one day before the public announcement of the ruling, declaring that all Japanese-Americans could begin returning to the west coast of the United States in Jan 1945. ww2dbase [Main Article | Event | CPC]

17 Dec 1944 Interactive Map