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• Despite that the Philippine capital of Manila was already declared an open city on 23 Dec 1941, Japanese bombing continued without interruption. Shortly after, US Navy Admiral Hart of the Asiatic Fleet departed Manila by submarine USS Shark for Soerabaja, Java. In Manila Bay, USS Peary was damaged by Japanese aircraft. Philippine naval defense vessels moved to the island of Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay, and 411 US Marines originally based at Cavite moved to Corregidor Island. ww2dbase [Invasion of the Philippine Islands | CPC]
• US President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the United States. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]
• Soviet Kalanin Front attacked German 9th Army northwest of Moscow, Russia, aiming to penetrate between German Army Group North and Army Group Center. ww2dbase [Battle of Moscow | CPC]
• Erwin Rommel ordered the withdraw of tanks to Agedabia, Libya. ww2dbase [Operation Crusader | CPC]
• 223 British Commandos and 77 Norwegian troops landed on Moskenesøya in the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway in Operation Anklet, destroying a radio transmitter at GlÃ¥pen and capturing several prisoners. To the north in Vestfjord, British cruiser HMS Arethusa and destroyers HMS Somali, HMS Ashanti, and HMS Eskimo attacked and captured two Norwegian coastal ships and sank a German patrol boat; an Engima machine and code settings were captured aboard the patrol boat. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-559 damaged Polish troop transport Warszawa 20 miles east of Tobruk, Libya at 1429 hours with a torpedo, killing 4 crew members and 19 troops. 445 survivors were taken off by British corvette HMS Peony. At 1930 hours, U-559 struck again, sinking the damaged Warszawa. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British submarine H31 became missing while on patrol in the Bay of Biscay; all 22 aboard were never heard from again. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Dutch B-10 bombers from Samarinda, Dutch Borneo sank Japanese minesweeper W6 and collier Unyo Maru off Kuching, Sarawak, British Borneo. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Borneo | CPC]

• Two Japanese Type 97 flying boats were spotted over Rabaul, Bismarck Islands. Wirraway fighters were scrambled, but they were not fast enough to intercept. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 1, Bismarck Islands | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• USS St. Louis departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii as a convoy escort bound for San Francisco, California. The convoy consisted of Matson liners SS Lurline, SS Matsonia, and SS Monterey transporting wounded personnel from the Pearl Harbor Attack and military families returning to the United States after the onset of war. ww2dbase [St. Louis | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• General Takashi Sakai and Admiral Masaichi Niimi paraded through Victoria, Hong Kong with the troops of the Japanese 38th Infantry Division. ww2dbase [Battle of Hong Kong | Takashi Sakai | Masaichi Niimi | Hong Kong | CPC]
• Japanese troops burned over 100 bodies of soldiers killed in combat, soldiers murdered, and medical personnel murdered over the past several days in and around St Stephen's College in southern Hong Kong; the college had served as a military hospital and one of the final British strongholds. ww2dbase [Stanley Prison and St Stephen's College | Battle of Hong Kong | CPC]

• An ANT-6 aircraft operated by the airliner Aeroflot crashed near Dmitriyevka (now Bayserke), Kazakhstan. 26 were killed; 8 survived. A number of the killed were high ranking Kazakh government officials. ww2dbase [TB-3 | Dmitriyevka, Almaty | CPC]

• Anglo-Indian and Japanese troops clashed at Chemor, Malaya north of Ipoh. Later in the day, the Allies withdrew from Ipoh and fell back to Kampar 25 miles to the south. ww2dbase [Invasion of Malaya and Singapore | CPC]

• Kamoi arrived at Emidji, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Emidji | CPC]

• USS S-38 arrived at Manila Bay, Philippine Islands at 2145 hours, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [S-38 | Manila Bay | CPC]

• Soviet troops conducted an amphibious assault on the Kerch Peninsula in an attempt to relieve the siege of Sevastopol, Russia, landing 13,000 men of the Soviet 51st Army. ww2dbase [Battle of Sevastopol | Krym | TH]
• Allied convoy PQ-7a departed Hvalfjörður, Iceland. Russian ship Kuzbass, straggler of Allied convoy QP-3, arrived at Iokanka, Russia under tow by Soviet icebreaker Fyodor Litke. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]

• American seaplane tender Tangier disembarked men of Battery B of the US Marines 4th Defense Battalion, ground echelon of Marine Fighter Squadron 221, and additional equipment including radar at Midway Atoll. These men and equipment were originally intended for Wake Atoll. ww2dbase [Midway Bases | Midway | CPC]

26 Dec 1941 Interactive Map