December 1944

December

• 03

  • Key eventThe Dekemvriana beginsOn 3 December 1944 police opened fire on an EAM rally in Syntagma Square, Athens. At least 28 people died, and fighting broke out in the city – the Dekemvriana.
  • The stand-down of the Home GuardOn 3 December 1944 George VI took the Home Guard's farewell parade in Hyde Park. The volunteer home defence force stood down; it was disbanded in 1945.
• 05

  • The capture of RavennaOn 4 December 1944 Canadians and Bulow's partisans entered Ravenna, and its Byzantine monuments survived. The front in Romagna came to a halt on the rivers.
• 08

  • The bombardment of Iwo JimaOn 8 December 1944 B-29s, B-24s and cruisers struck Iwo Jima. From then on B-24s from the Marianas bombed it every day until the landing in February 1945.
• 14

  • The Palawan massacreOn 14 December 1944 Japanese soldiers at Puerto Princesa drove 150 American prisoners into shelters, doused them in petrol and set them alight. Eleven survived.
• 15

  • The landing on MindoroOn 15 December 1944 the Americans landed unopposed near San Jose on Mindoro. Airfields on the island were to cover the coming invasion of Luzon.
  • The disappearance of Glenn MillerOn 15 December 1944 a plane carrying Major Glenn Miller from England to Paris vanished over the Channel. No wreck was found; the cause is still disputed.
  • The loss of RuhnuOn 15 December 1944 the Germans left Ruhnu in the Gulf of Riga, the last scrap of Estonia they held. Soviet troops took the island on 19 December.
• 16

  • Key eventThe Ardennes offensive beginsOn 16 December 1944 three German armies struck a thin American line in the Ardennes. Hitler aimed to retake Antwerp and split the Allies.
• 17

  • The Malmedy massacreOn 17 December 1944, at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy, men of Kampfgruppe Peiper shot dozens of American prisoners – 84 of them died.
  • Typhoon CobraOn 18 December 1944 Typhoon Cobra struck Halsey’s Third Fleet in the Philippine Sea. Three destroyers capsized and 790 sailors were killed.
• 18

  • Bastogne surroundedOn 18 December 1944 the race for Bastogne was on as the 10th Armored and 101st Airborne Divisions converged on it. The ring closed on 20–21 December.
• 22

  • McAuliffe’s “Nuts!”On 22 December 1944 the Germans demanded the surrender of encircled Bastogne. Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe replied in one word: “Nuts!”
• 23

  • Clear skies over the ArdennesOn 23 December 1944 the skies cleared over the Ardennes. Allied aircraft struck German columns, and C-47s dropped supplies to Bastogne’s defenders.
• 24

  • The counter-offensive in the ArdennesOn 24 December 1944 Collins’s VII Corps resolved to strike the German 2nd Panzer Division at Celles. Patton had been driving on Bastogne since 22 December.
  • The sinking of the LeopoldvilleOn 24 December 1944 U-486 torpedoed the Belgian troopship Leopoldville off Cherbourg. 763 soldiers of the US 66th Infantry Division were killed.
  • V-1s over ManchesterOn Christmas Eve 1944 Heinkels over the North Sea launched 45 V-1s at Manchester. More than 40 people were killed, most of them in Oldham.
• 26

  • Key eventThe relief of BastogneOn 26 December 1944 tanks of Patton’s 4th Armored Division broke through to encircled Bastogne, opening a narrow corridor to the 101st Airborne Division.
  • The race riot at AganaOn the night of 25/26 December 1944 on Guam white Marines fired on the camp of a black depot company. Three days of clashes ended in arrests and courts martial.
• 28

  • Churchill in AthensFrom 25 to 28 December 1944 Churchill and Eden were in strife-torn Athens. A conference of Greek parties brought no truce but did agree on a regency.
• 29

  • Key eventThe siege of Budapest beginsOn 29 December 1944 the Red Army sent envoys with an ultimatum into encircled Budapest. Both were killed, and the Soviets began their assault on Pest.
• 31

  • Hungary declares war on GermanyGeneral Béla Miklós’s provisional government, formed in Debrecen under Soviet supervision, declared war on the Third Reich on 28 December 1944.