December 24

1942: Following the suspension of Operation Winter Tempest, the relief of Stalingrad, the Red Army begins an offensive against Heeresgruppe Don (von Manstein) toward Kotelnikovo, breaking through the lines of 4.Rumänische Armee.
1943: In the Ukraine, the Red Army launches an offensive in the Kiev-Shitomir area, capturing Berdichev. General Dwight D. Eisenhauer is appointed supreme commander of the Allied forces preparing for the invasion of Europe.
1944: In the English Channel, U-486 (Oblt.z.S. Gerhard Meyer) sinks the Allied troop carrier SS Leopoldville with the loss of 763 men of the US 66th Infantry Division. All news and information on this incident is suppressed by orders of SHAEF headquarters.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/december.html

1941: Benghazi recaptured - Benghazi changed hands five times as the North African campaign ebbed and flowed along the Mediterranean coast.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1941: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese Imperial Army.
1941: Kuching is conquered by Japanese forces.
1942: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers.
1943: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_24

1814 - Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812.
1864 - Naval Forces under Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter with Army forces under Major General Benjamin F. Butler begin unsuccessful two-day attack against Fort Fisher, NC.
1950 - Under cover of naval gunfire support, Task Force 90 completes a 14-day evacuation of 100,000 troops and equipment and 91,000 refugees from Hungnam, North Korea.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesdec.htm

December 25

1942: Heavy fighting continues all around the perimeter of the Stalingrad Kessel, while the decimated and starving troops of 6.Armee receive their last rations of horse meat, the 12,000 horses in the pocket having now all been slaughtered.
1944: Fighting continues in the "Battle of the Bulge", while in the southern portion of the German attack, surrounded US troops continue to hold out against repated German attempts to take the vital road junction at Bastogne.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/december.html

1776 - George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack the Kingdom of Great Britain's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.
1941 - Admiral Chester W Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_25

1855: Kingston Ontario - Soldiers of the Royal Canadian Rifles at the Tête du Pont barracks clear ice from Lake Ontario and use field hockey sticks and lacrosse balls to play first game of ice hockey.
1941: Hong Kong - Japan announces the surrender of the British-Canadian garrison by radio broadcast; 290 Canadian dead, 493 wounded; Canadian survivors spend rest of war in Japanese POW camps; in all, 264 men never return from the camps.
1944: Ravenna Italy - Canadian Army captures Adriatic coast city of Ravenna.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Dec&day=25

December 26

1943: Ordered to sail to the Barents Sea and destroy the Allied convoy JW-55B bound for the Soviet port of Murmansk, the German battle-cruiser Scharnhorst (Vizeadm. Bey) encounters a protective force of the British Home Fleet (Vice-Adm. Burnett) consisting of the cruisers HMS Belfast, Duke of York, Jamaica and Norfolk. After a fierce action, Scharnhorst is sunk, with only 36 of her crew of 1,839 surviving.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/december.html

1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins.
1862 - Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_26

1943 - Seventh Amphibious Force lands 1st Marine Division on Cape Gloucester, New Britain.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesdec.htm

1776: Washington wins first major U.S. victory at Trenton - At approximately 8 a.m. on the morning of December 26, 1776, General George Washington's Continental Army reaches the outskirts of Trenton, New Jersey, and descends upon the unsuspecting Hessian force guarding the city. Trenton's 1,400 Hessian defenders were still groggy from the previous evening's Christmas festivities and had underestimated the Patriot threat after months of decisive British victories throughout New York. The troops of the Continental Army quickly overwhelmed the German defenses, and by 9:30 a.m.Trenton was completely surrounded.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...=Article&id=54

1942: Halifax, Nova Scotia - Canadian-escorted convoy ONS-154 loses 14 ships to German U-boats in mid-Atlantic; gets 32 to Britain by Dec. 30.
1943: London England - General A.G.L. 'Andy' McNaughton 1887-1966 retires as commander of First Canadian Army; will become Minister of National Defence replacing J. L. Ralston.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Dec&day=26

1939: The first squadron of Australian airmen arrives in Britain.
1941: The Philippine capital of Manila is declared an open city by the Americans. Japanese troops cross the river Perak. The Japanese commander General Yamashita, senses that British resistance is weakening in Malaya and is determined to push home his advantage and not allow the British any time to reorganise themselves. This he does by forcing the British troops back down the coast roads until he reaches a defensive position and then outflanks it through the jungle. The Russians land on the Kerch Peninsula in an attempt to relieve the siege of Sevastopol.
1942: The Russians continue their advance on the southern front and claim 56,000 prisoners taken in middle Don region.
1943: US Marines make further landings on New Britain, either side of Cape Gloucester.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

27 December

1941: The Red Army continues its counter-offensive in the Kalinin area 100 miles NW of Moscow.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/december.html

1941: Prime Minister Curtin announces that 'Australia looks to America'. - Once the United States entered the Second World War and the United Kingdom's weakness in South East Asia had been exposed the United States became Australia's main ally; a situation that would endure long after the war ended.
1943: 7th Division capture 'The Pimple', Shaggy Ridge, New Guinea - The four-month battle for Shaggy Ridge culminated with the capture of this Japanese position on the ridge's summit.source:http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1918 - Beginning of Great Poland Uprising, the Poles in Greater Poland (or Grand Duchy of Poznań) rise against the Germans.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_December

1780: Americans raid Hammonds Store - American Brigadier General Daniel Morgan detaches a force of approximately 275 troops commanded by Colonel William Washington to destroy a force of 250 British Loyalists under the command of Colonel Thomas Waters, who had been terrorizing Patriots in the vicinity of Fairforest Creek, on Bush River, South Carolina.
1864: Hood's army crosses the Tennessee River - The broken and defeated Confederate Army of Tennessee finishes crossing the Tennessee River as General John Bell Hood's force retreats into Mississippi.
1942: Germans form the Smolensk Committee to enlist Soviet soldiers - German military begins enlisting Soviet POWs in the battle against Russia. General Andrei Vlasov, a captured Soviet war hero turned anticommunist, was made commander of the renegade Soviet troops.
1966: A United States and South Vietnamese joint-service operation takes place against one of the best-fortified Viet Cong strongholds, located in the U Minh Forest in the Mekong Delta, 125 miles southwest of Saigon.
1969: In the fiercest battle in six weeks, U.S. and North Vietnamese forces clash near Loc Ninh, about 80 miles north of Saigon. Elements of the 1st Infantry Division reported killing 72 of 250 North Vietnamese soldiers in a daylong battle. Loc Ninh, a village of fewer than 10,000 people, was located at the northern limit of national Route 13, only a few miles from the Cambodian border. It was the site of several major battles between U.S. and Communist forces. On April 5, 1972, as part of their Easter Offensive, North Vietnamese forces overtook Loc Ninh during their attempt to capture the An Loc provincial capital to the south.
Source:http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1943: 7th Division capture 'The Pimple', Shaggy Ridge, New Guinea - The four-month battle for Shaggy Ridge culminated with the capture of this Japanese position on the ridge's summit.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

December 28

1940: Mussolini asks Hitler for support of the Italian forces bogged-down in their offensive in Albania.
1942: In the face of the continuing Soviet offensive toward Rostov-on-Don that threatens to cut it off, Heeresgruppe A (Ruoff) is ordered to withdraw its forces from the Caucasus.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/december.html

1941: Rear Admiral Ben Moreell requests authority from the Bureau of Navigation to create a contingent of construction units able to build everything from airfields to roads under battlefield conditions. These units would be known as the "Seabees"-for the first letters of Construction Battalion.
1964: South Vietnamese troops retake Binh Gia in a costly battle. The Viet Cong launched a major offensive on December 4 and took the village of Binh Gia, 40 miles southeast of Saigon. The South Vietnamese forces recaptured the village, but only after an eight-hour battle and three battalions of reinforcements were brought in on helicopters. The operation continued into the first week of January. Losses included an estimated 200 South Vietnamese and five U.S. advisors killed, plus 300 more South Vietnamese wounded or missing. Battles such this, in which the South Vietnamese suffered such heavy losses at the hands of the Viet Cong, convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson that the South Vietnamese could not defeat the communist without the commitment of U.S. ground troops to the war.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1867 - U.S. claims Midway Island, first territory annexed outside Continental limits.
1905 - Drydock Dewey left Solomon's Island, MD, enroute through the Suez Canal to the Philippines to serve as repair base. This, the longest towing job ever accomplished, was completed by Brutus, Caesar, and Glacier on 10 July 1906.
1982 - Recommissioning of USS New Jersey (BB-62), the first of four Iowa-class battleships that were returned to service in 1980s.
1990 - LCDR Darlene M. Iskra becomes commander of USS Opportune, a salvage vessel.
1990 - USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and USS America (CV-66) Carrier Battle Groups deploy from Norfolk, VA, for Middle East to join Operation Desert Shield.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesdec.htm

1837: Toronto Ontario - Upper Canada Governor Francis Bond Head approves raising of six regiments of incorporated militia to head off potential rebellion.
1943: Ortona Italy - Canadians enter the medieval town of Ortona after a week of battling enemy paratroopers in house to house fighting; Germans moved out quickly the night before when they were in danger of being cut off.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Dec&day=28

1940: 6th Division in their first action near Bardia - Bardia, the Second AIF's first battle, involved an attack on an Italian frontier fortress. The preliminary operations began several days before the main attack was launched..
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

December 29

1941: In the eastern Crimea, German troops of Heeresgruppe B (von Schobert) evacuate Kerch and Theodosia.
1943: The British 8th Army (Montgomery) captures Ortona on the Adriatic coast of Italy. The RAF launches a heavy raid on Berlin.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/december.html

1860: Action at Matarikoriko, New Zealand - Sailors from the Victorian Colonial warship, Victoria, take part in the action at Matarikoriko, New Zealand. The Victoria's service in New Zealand waters during the second Anglo-Maori war, represents the first overseas military operation by an Australian unit, the beginning of Australia's overseas war history.source:http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1813 - War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.
1862 - American Civil War: End of the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou.
1940 - Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe firebombs London, killing almost 3000 civilians
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/29_December

1890: The last ever battle between American natives and US troops takes place at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. source: http://www.tnl.net/when/12/29

1778: British capture Savannah, Georgia - British Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell and his force of between 2500 and 3600 troops, which included the 71st Highland regiment, New York Loyalists, and Hessian mercenaries, launch a surprise attack on American forces defending Savannah, Georgia.
1915: French government gives land for British war cemeteries - French National Assembly passes a law formally ceding the land that holds the British war cemeteries to Great Britain. The move ensured even as the war was being fought that its saddest and most sacred monuments would be forever protected.
1962: Saigon announces success of strategic hamlet program - Saigon announces that 4,077 strategic hamlets have been completed out of a projected total of 11,182. The figures also stated that 39 percent of the South Vietnamese population was housed in the hamlets. U.S. officials considered these figures questionable.
Source:http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1813: Buffalo, New York - Major General Phineas Riall attacks villages of Black Rock and Buffalo with a party of Canadian militia and Indians to get revenge on burning of Newark and Queenston on Dec. 10.
1837: Buffalo, New York - Royal Navy Commander Andrew Drew and a group of Canadian militiamen cross the Niagara River to Fort Schlosser, and capture the American supply steamer Caroline used by William Lyon Mackenzie and his rebels on Navy Island; they set the ship ablaze, cut her adrift and send her toward Niagara Falls; incident almost causes war between Britain and US. Legend says she went over the Falls.
1944: France - RCAF Flight Lt. Dick Audet destroys five German planes in ten minutes.
1945: Ottawa Ontario - DND releases World War II casualty statistics; 41,371 Canadians in service killed, 43,178 wounded, 10,844 made prisoners of war, 32 missing in action.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Dec&day=289

1812 - USS Constitution (Captain William Bainbridge) captures HMS Java off Brazil after a three hour battle.
1943 - USS Silversides (SS-236) sinks three Japanese ships and damages a fourth off Palau.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesdec.htm

December 30

1944: Australians of the 25th Battalion occupy Pearl Ridge, Bougainville - The capture of the heavily defended Japanese position on Pearl ridge gave the Australians possession of this important vantage point that provided views over both sides of Bougainville.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield.
1862 - The USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
1972 - Vietnam War: The United States halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_30

1941 - Admiral Ernest J. King assumes duty as Commander in Chief, United States Fleet.
1959 - Commissioning of first fleet ballistic missile submarine, USS George Washington (SSB(N)-59, at Groton, CT.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesdec.htm

1861: St. Andrews New Brunswick - 62nd Wiltshire Regiment despatched to St. Andrews, New Brunswick; as a response to Trent crisis.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Dec&day=30

December 31

1941: Heeresgruppe B halts all further attacks against the Crimean fortress of Sevastopol.
1944: In northern Alsace, 7.Armee (Brandenberger) begins Operation Nordwind, an attack against the southern flank of the US 3rd Army (Patton) that has reached the German border on the Saar river.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/december.html

1969:Vietnam - Australian military commitment to Vietnam reaches a peak of 8,300 service personnel.
source:http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec.
1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union (thus dividing Virginia in two); meanwhile, the Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.
1946 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/31_December

1991: The civil war in El Salvador ends
source: http://www.tnl.net/when/12/31

1862: Battle of Parker's Crossroads - Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest narrowly escapes capture during a raid in western Tennessee. Despite the close call, the raid was instrumental in forcing Union General Ulysses S. Grant to abandon his first attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1968: Bloodiest year of the war ends - At year's end, 536,040 American servicemen were stationed in Vietnam, an increase of over 50,000 from 1967.
1971: U.S. annual casualty figures down - The gradual U.S. withdrawal from the conflict in Southeast Asia is reflected in reduced annual casualty figures. The number of Americans killed in action dropped to 1,386 from the previous year total of 4,204. South Vietnam losses for the year totalled 21,500 men, while the combined Viet Cong and North Vietnamese total was estimated at 97,000 killed in action.
1972: U.S. and communist negotiators prepare to return to the Paris talks - With the end of Linebacker II, the most intense U.S. bombing operation of the Vietnam War, U.S. and communist negotiators prepare to return to the secret Paris peace talks scheduled to reconvene on January 2.
Source:http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1775: Quebec Quebec - American Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery orders the attack on Quebec from the Lower Town at 5 am during a bitterly cold blizzard; he is killed at a fortified gate during the fire fight; Benedict Arnold is wounded. Guy Carleton, Baron Dorchester repels Americans with the aid of Col. Allan Maclean.
1941: Canada - RCAF has 14 squadrons operating overseas, 7 more authorized; plus 16 at home, including 8 on west coast.
1943: Canada - RCAF at peak, with 215,000 men and women, 78 squadrons, including 35 overseas and 6 heading there; Canada has produced 11,000 planes so far.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Dec&day=31

1862 - USS Monitor founders in a storm off Cape Hatteras, NC.
1941 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz assumes command of U.S. Pacific Fleet.
1942 - Commissioning of USS Essex (CV-9), first of new class of aircraft carriers, at Norfolk, VA
1948 - Last annual report by a Secretary of the Navy to Congress and the President filed by SECNAV John L. Sullivan. Thereafter the Secretary of Defense would report annually to Congress.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesdec.htm

January 1

1941: Hitler, in his New Year's order of the day to the German armed forces, promises "...completion, on the Western Front, of the greatest victory in our history..."
1943: German troops of 1. Panzerarmee (von Kleist) in the Caucasus begin withdrawing from the Terek front to avoid being cut off by Soviet forces attacking from the northeast toward Rostov-on-Don.
1944: Field Marshal Rommel is appointed C-in-C of Heeresgruppe B, the German forces in France north of the Loire river.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/january.html

1950 - Mary T. Sproul commissioned as first female doctor in U.S. Navy
1959 - U.S. Naval Observatory introduces system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam atomic oscillators. This measurement has been adopted as standard by the International Committee on Weights and Measures.
1962 - Navy SEAL teams established
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjan.htm

1901: Sunnyside, South Africa - Two companies of the Queensland Mounted Infantry Regiment along with British and Canadian troops attacked a Boer laager on the western border of Orange Free State. The Queenslanders suffered the first casualties of any Australian colony in the Boer War.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1943: England - RCAF No. 6 Bomber Group begins operations from England; RCAF now has 31 squadrons overseas, 36 at home; Canada's largest air formation.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Jan&day=01

1781: Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line - 1,500 soldiers from the Pennsylvania Line--all 11 regiments under General Anthony Wayne’s command--insist that their three-year enlistments are expired, kill three officers in a drunken rage and abandon the Continental Army’s winter camp at Morristown, New Jersey.
1915: In the early-morning hours of New Year’s Day, the 15,000-ton British HMS class battleship Formidable is torpedoed by the German submarine U-24 and sinks in the English Channel, killing 547 men. The Formidable was part of the 5th Battle Squadron unit serving with the Channel Fleet. The Formidable and the seven other battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron were under the command of Admiral Lewis Bayly, and were in the channel for firing practice on New Year’s Eve.
1966: Advance elements of the 1st Regiment of the Marine 1st Division arrive in Vietnam. The entire division followed by the end of March.
The division established its headquarters at Chu Lai and was given responsibility for the two southernmost provinces of I Corps (the military region just south of the DMZ). At the peak of its strength, the 1st Marine Division consisted of four regiments of infantry: the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 27th Marines. It also included the 11th Artillery regiment, which consisted of six battalions of 105-mm, 155-mm, and 8-inch howitzers. Other divisional combat units included the 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Antitank Battalion, 1st Amphibious Tractor Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, and the 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. The division numbered nearly 20,000 marines by the time all elements had arrived in South Vietnam.
1967: Operation Sam Houston begins as a continuation of border surveillance operations in Pleiku and Kontum Provinces in the Central Highlands by units from the U.S. 4th and 25th Infantry Divisions. The purpose of the operation was to interdict the movement of North Vietnamese troops and equipment into South Vietnam from communist sanctuaries in Cambodia and Laos. The operation ended on April 5. A total of 169 U.S. soldiers were killed in action; 733 enemy casualties were reported.
source: :http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

January 2

1942: On the central front in Russia, the Red Army achieves a breakthrough at Rshev.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/january.html

1969 - Operation Barrier Reef began in Mekong Delta, Vietnam
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjan.htm

1943: Buna Government Station captured - The Japanese withdrawal from the Kokoda trail enabled the allies to plan the encirclement of important Japanese positions in the Buna, Sanananda and Gona beachhead. Buna was the second of the three to fall to the allies after weeks of heavy fighting.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1942: Washington DC - Canada signs declaration of unity with 27 other countries at war with the Axis; allies pledge not to make a separate armistice or peace.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Jan&day=02

1863: The battle of Stones River concludes when the Union troops of William Rosecrans defeat Confederates under Braxton Bragg at Murfeesboro, just south of Nashville. This battle was a crucial engagement in the contest for central Tennessee, and provided a Union victory during a very bleak period for the North.
1905: In a crucial turning point of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan captures Port Arthur, a major Russian naval base on the Liaodong Peninsula in China. When Czar Nicholas II’s Russia declined to withdraw its troops from Manchuria after joining with British, French, Japanese, German and American forces to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, Japan became wary of Russia’s territorial ambitions in the Far East. On February 4, 1904, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Port Arthur, beginning the Russo-Japanese War.
1967: In what is described as the biggest air battle of the war to date, U.S. Air Force F-4 Phantom jets down seven communist MiG-21s over North Vietnam. The Phantoms were flying cover for F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bombers, which were attacking surface-to-air missile sites in the Red River Delta. During this operation, Col. Robin Olds shot down one of the MiGs, becoming the first and only U.S. Air Force ace with victories in both World War II and Vietnam ("ace" was a designation traditionally awarded for five enemy aircraft shot down).
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...ryId=leadstory

1941 - World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales.
1941 - World War II: The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program to build freighters in support of the war effort.
1942 - World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_January