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• 54 Japanese bombers escorted by 24 fighters attacked Rangoon, Burma in the late morning, killing 1,250; of those who became wounded as the result of this raid, 600 died. ww2dbase [Invasion of Burma | Rangoon | CPC]

• Three Curtiss-Wright CW-41B fighters, assembled by the Chinese Aircraft Manufacturing Company at Loiwing (now Leiyun) in Yunnan Province, China on the border with Burma, crashed into a mountain whilst being delivered to the A.V.G. at Rangoon, Burma. Two of the pilots were killed. ww2dbase [AC]
• Song Ziwen was named the Minister of Foreign Affairs. ww2dbase [Song Ziwen | CPC]
• Three CW-21 fighters crashed in poor weather while being ferried from Rangoon, Burma to Kunming, China. ww2dbase [Kunming Airfield | CW-21 | Kunming, Yunnan | CPC]

• U-576 arrived at Saint-Nazaire, France, ending her second war patrol. ww2dbase [U-576 | Saint-Nazaire, Pays de la Loire | CPC]
• Alpino Bagnolini departed La Pallice, La Rochelle, France at 0850 hours for trials, returning at 1825 hours. ww2dbase [Alpino Bagnolini | La Rochelle, Poitou-Charentes | CPC]

• Allied troops in Hong Kong withdrew to the final line, "The Ridge", at the Stanley Peninsula. A military hospital was established at St Stephen's College on the peninsula to treat wounded soldiers. ww2dbase [Stanley Prison and St Stephen's College | Battle of Hong Kong | CPC]

• Akagi, Kaga, Shokaku, and Zuikaku arrived at Hashirajima island in Hiroshima Bay, Japan, along with escorts Shigure, Shiratsuyu, Ariake, and Yugure. ww2dbase [Akagi | Kaga | Shokaku | Zuikaku | Shigure | Yugure | Hashirajima, Yamaguchi | CPC]
• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Yokosuka, Japan on her first voyage for the Japanese Navy. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Yokosuka, Kanagawa | CPC]
• Rear Admiral Matome Ugaki inspected food transport ship Irako at Hashirajima, Japan. ww2dbase [Irako | Hashirajima, Yamaguchi | CPC]

• German submarine U-559 sank British passenger ship Shuntien 29 miles east of Tobruk, Libya at 1902 hours, killing 6 crew members and 700 passengers, who were mostly Axis prisoners of war. 64 crew members and 400 POWs were rescued by British corvette HMS Salvia and destroyer HMS Heythrop. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British destroyers HMS Hasty and HMS Hotspur sank German submarine U-79 with depth charges 40 miles north of Sollum, Egypt; all 44 aboard survived. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Permit fired two torpedoes at a Japanese destroyer in the South China Sea; both torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Permit | South China Sea | CPC]
• Tanikaze completed the escort duty of carriers Hiryu and Soryu in the central Pacific Ocean. ww2dbase [Tanikaze | CPC]

• In the Philippine Islands, as Japanese 48th Division marched south toward Manila, US Army General Douglas MacArthur began withdrawing to Bataan, declaring Manila an open city. On the same day, USAAF B-17 bombers attacked Japanese ships at Lingayen Gulf and Davao in the Philippine Islands, while P-35 and P-40 fighters strafed landing ships in San Miguel Bay, Luzon, damaging destroyer Nagatsuki. On Mindanao, the 9 US B-17 bombers originally from Australia refueled and took off to attack Japanese ships in Davao Gulf and Lingayen Gulf, damaging Japanese destroyer Kuroshio. ww2dbase [Invasion of the Philippine Islands | TH]

• Trucks brought in 786 tons of food into Leningrad, Russia across the frozen Lake Ladoga; for the second day in a row, enough food was brought in to feed the population. ww2dbase [Siege of Leningrad | Leningrad | CPC]

• Japanese troops landed at Kuching, Sarawak. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Borneo | Kuching | CPC]

• Japanese submarine I-21 attacked the 12,000-ton tanker SS Montebello off San Simeon, California. Hours earlier, Montebello had left Port San Luis, California with a load of gasoline bound for Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I-21 fired two torpedoes at the tanker. One failed to explode but the other hit home and did its job. Montebello’s No. 2 hold was ruptured and her captain, Olof Eckstrom, gave the order to abandon ship. All 38 men aboard made it into lifeboats as Commander Matsumura shelled the stricken ship. During the shelling, according to Captain Eckstrom, the lifeboats came under small arms fire from the submarine, probably rifle fire. Montebello sank about an hour after being torpedoed. All 38 crewmen survived. Later that same day, the 10,000-ton tanker SS Idaho came through the same waters. About 9 miles west of the Montebello attack, I21’s gun crew shelled Idaho with minimal damage before the tanker sailed on. ww2dbase [Japanese Attacks on the Continental United States | Point Piedras Blancas, California | CPC]
• Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met at the White House, Washington DC during the First Washington Conference (Arcadia). ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | Franklin Roosevelt | White House | First Washington Conference | Washington | CPC]
• In the United States, a White House directive extended the powers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to include counter-espionage throughout the Americas. By the end of the war the FBI would have grown from a strength of 2,280 personnel, in 1941, to 15,000, including 5,000 special agents (in slang, "G-men"). ww2dbase [AC]
• Japanese submarine I-17 attacked the 7,000-ton tanker SS Larry Doheny south of Eureka, California. I-17 began with a surface attack with her deck gun and scored four hits. A US patrol plane arrived on the scene causing I-17 to submerge, but she quickly returned to periscope depth. I-17 fired one torpedo that led to an explosion 90 seconds later. I-17 claimed one ship sunk but, although the torpedo exploded close aboard the tanker, it was a premature detonation that caused only minor damage. ww2dbase [Japanese Attacks on the Continental United States | California | DS]

• Before dawn, at 0235 hours, 1,500 troops of the Japanese Maizuru Second Special Naval Landing Force landed on Wake Island and Wilkes Island in the Wake Atoll; from the air, carrier aircraft from Soryu and Hiryu provided support by attacking targets on Wilkes, Peale, and Wake Islands. Given that defeat was now imminent, acting commander of the US Navy Pacific Fleet Vice Admiral William Pye recalled Task Force 14 with USS Saratoga; the force was originally dispatched to reinforce Wake. At 0800, the Americans surrendered. On Wilkes Island, the Americans attempted one final counterattack, killing 100 Japanese troops at the cost of 11 US Marines killed and 5 wounded. ww2dbase [Battle of Wake Island | Wake | TH]
• Japanese submarines I-71 and I-72 shelled American facilities at Palmyra Atoll. ww2dbase [Palmyra | CPC]
• Japanese submarines I-71 and I-72 bombarded the US Naval Air Station on Palmyra Atoll. ww2dbase [Palmyra | CPC]

23 Dec 1941 Interactive Map