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http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/23.htm

December 23rd, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM:
Destroyer HMS Lauderdale commissioned.

Submarines HMS Untiring and Varangian laid down.

ASW trawler HMS Birdlip commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY:
U-210, U-609 launched.

U-363, U-646 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.S.R.: The outer ring of Russian forts around Sevastopol is finally captured by the Germans.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-79 sunk in the Mediterranean north of Sollum, in position 32.15N, 25.19E, by depth charges from destroyers HMS Hasty and Hotspur. 44 survivors (No casualties). (Dave Shirlaw)

NORTH AFRICA: Benghazi is evacuated by Rommel as the British 8th Army reaches Barce.

BURMA: Rangoon feels the first of the Japanese air strikes. There are two Allied fighter squadrons available. One RAF and the other is the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers). These fighters are only able to offer token resistance to the Japanese. Nevetheless 15 Japanese aircraft are shot down for the loss of three P-40s and two pilots, AVG pilots Henry Gilbert and Neil Martin, who are lost in action. (Chuck Baisden)

Chuck adds:

At our base at Mingaladon Airdrome just outside of Rangoon as one of the armorers in the 3rd Squadron AVG (Hell’s Angels), we had completed our morning preflight and a number of us crew chiefs, armorers and radio men were standing around on a small knoll just outside our barracks and perhaps a hundred odd feet from our flightline dispersal area when the air raid siren went off with our pilots racing to their planes, starting engines and immediately taxiing to the active runway and taking off.

It was a miracle there were no mid air collisions as some 14 P-40B fighters were taking off from one direction sandwhiched between a number of RAF Brewster Buffaloes (I believe they were New Zealand pilots) taking off from another dispersal area in almost opposite directions. It was right hairy for a spell.

Things got quiet and then from a distance we saw a rather large formation approaching our field, flying in a tight 3 ship V of V formation with fighter escorts swarming like a bunch of bees. Turned out there were 54 Japanese Betty bombers and some 40 fighter. One of our guys started counting and when he hit 27 yelled “Hell they are not ours, we don’t have that many.” There was an immediate mad dash for some slit trenches a few feet from where we had been standing.

One group of the bombers targeted our field and laid their pattern precisely down the runway and through our dispersal area. I remember those black dots getting larger and larger accompanied by a whoose-whoose sound and thought they were all aimed directly at me.

It was nothing compared to the shock of the bombs as they walked up the field with the noise getting louder and louder. The concussion bounced us around in the trench and from the smell someone had voided in his trousers. I know one 21 year old that grew up in a hurry.

Saw a parachute coming down with a Japanese I-97 making a pass at the helpless guy in the chute. Luckily one of the RAF pilots saw what the Jap pilot was up to and forced him to break off. Neil Martin, my pilot at Langley and Mitchel when we were pulling tow targets in an old Martin B-10, made a pass at the bomber formation and never pulled out of his dive, evidently killed by a bomber gunner. Henry Gilbert was also shot down and killed. My comrade-in arms R.T.Smith (Tadpole) shot down 2 or 3 and landed with his fuselage full of holes, a present from a Japanese bomber gunner. I had the privilege to fly as his gunner in B-25s with the Air Commando Group 2 years later.

Score for this day was 15 of the enemy and we lost 3 P-40s and 2 pilots. There were a number of casualties among support personnel in the RAF at our field and some 1000 civilians were killed or wounded in Rangoon.

The parachutist saved by the New Zealand RAF pilot was Paul J. Greene. (d. July 03, 2005) (Chuck Baisden)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Using a P-26A, of the Philippine 6th Pursuit Squadron, Lieutenant Jose Kare shoots down a Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero. (Rob George)

TERRITORY OF HAWAII: 1,000 troops of the Japanese Maizaru 2d Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) land on the southwest shores of Wake and Wilkes Islands at approximately 0230 hours (all source disagree on the exact time). The two patrol craft (destroyer-transports) landing troops on Wake Island are run aground and abandoned due to severe damage by US Marine guns. Other troops are landed by up to six landing barges at various points. It is possible that small groups are landed by rubber boat within the lagoon. The 100 2d Company, Maizaru 2d SNLF troops landing on Wilkes Island near the new Channel are wiped out, but the force on Wake far outnumbers the defenders. Before dawn cruisers and destroyers provide fire support and air attacks commence after sunrise. In the early hours the US Marine commander is informed by Pearl Harbor that the relief expedition will not arrive within the next 24 hours. The Japanese force is firmly established ashore, the Marine defenders have suffered 40% casualties, most heavy weapons have been destroyed or captured, and organized resistance can not be sustained. At 0730 hours Commander Cummingham informs Major Devereux that the garrison will surrender to prevent needless loss of life. Once contact had been made with the Japanese it still takes several hours for the scattered defenders to be notified of the surrender. And then some refuse to believe it. Fire fights continue until all Marines have surrendered by approximately 1330 hours after a valiant defence.

Forty-nine Marines, three sailors, and about seventy civilians (there were many civilian construction workers on Wake) are killed during the battle. Something like 470 military personnel, of whom apparently about 400 were Marines, are captured, along with over a thousand civilians. In 1943 about a hundred of the civilians, still on the island, were executed. Duane Schultz indicates in his book, though, that 376 of the 400 captured Marines survived the war, which if correct is a surprisingly good rate considering the normal conditions of Japanese POW camps. (Arnold Lloyd Gladson and Keith Allen and Gordon Rottman)

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: Japanese troops land at Kuching on Sarawak.

A Dutch submarine torpedoes two Japanese transports. Resistance will continue until the 25th.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Tanker SS Montebello sunk by submarine HIJMS I-21 six miles off Cambria, Calif. (Dave Shirlaw)

Mexico breaks off relations with Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Convoy HG-76 is finally safe this morning after one of the toughest voyages ever. Trouble had been expected, so departure from Gibraltar was delayed until a powerful escort of two sloops, three destroyers, seven corvettes and HMS AUDACITY, a captured German liner converted to an aircraft carrier, was ready.

In the last six days 14 U-boats have attacked the convoy. Commander “Johnnie” Walker, an anti-submarine expert, used Audacity’s planes brilliantly and sank five U-boats, and shot down two long-range reconnaissance aircraft with the loss of only two of his 32 merchant ships. Yesterday U-751 sank Audacity, but was blown up herself hours later.

U-559 sank SS Shuntien. (Dave Shirlaw)

http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=119

First Washington Conference
22 Dec 1941 - 14 Jan 1942

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

The Arcadia Conference took place in Washington, United States, in which meeting Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt concluded that despite the recent Japanese aggression toward US and UK holdings in teh Pacific, Europe remained the top priority of the Allies. The two leaders agreed that the military resources of the United States and Britain (with its Commonwealth forces) must be combined under one command in order to most efficiently fight the war against Germany. In addition, the United Nations was formally established during this conference on 1 Jan 1942.

Source: Wikipedia.

First Washington Conference Timeline

13 Dec 1941 British battleship HMS Duke Of York departed the Clyde, Scotland, United Kingdom with Winston Churchill on board, sailing for the United States. The battleship was escorted by destroyers HMS Faulknor, HMS Foresight, and HMS Matabele.

22 Dec 1941 The First Washington Conference (Arcadia) between Roosevelt and Churchill began with plans to organize a Combined Chiefs of Staff represented by both Americans and British.

23 Dec 1941 Churchill and Roosevelt met at the White House, Washington DC during the First Washington Conference (Arcadia).