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WWII On This Day: December 24

What happened on December 24 during World War II? This date brings together 6 events from 1941, 1942 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
New Zealand infantry and Matilda tank crews meeting outside Tobruk during Operation Crusader, photographed 2 December 1941.
Captain Geoffrey Keating / No. 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit · Imperial War Museums E 6918 · UK Government public domain
Tobruk and Operation Crusader

The Eighth Army retakes Benghazi

British troops entered Benghazi again on 24 December as the Axis retreated from eastern Cyrenaica. The port’s recovery was an important logistical and political gain, but its facilities and approach routes still required repair and protection before they could supply an advancing army efficiently. Crusader had relieved Tobruk and recovered much of Cyrenaica without eliminating Rommel’s army. The troops pushing west were reaching the same supply limits that had earlier afflicted the Axis advance; in January 1942 the opposing army would counter-attack once more.

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1942
American infantry aboard a landing craft approaching Oran, Algeria, in November 1942 during Operation Torch.
Lt F. A. Hudson / Royal Navy / Imperial War Museums A 12661 · UK Government public domain
Operation Torch and the Tunisian Campaign

Darlan is assassinated in Algiers

Admiral François Darlan was assassinated in Algiers on 24 December 1942. The death ended the personal political arrangement that had enabled ceasefire orders and French cooperation after Torch. Henri Giraud assumed senior authority among the French military leaders in North Africa, while the relationship with Free French representatives remained contested. French formations continued to fight alongside the Allies on the Tunisian front.

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1944
Men of the 101st Airborne Division moving toward Bastogne on 19 December 1944 as Allied reserves enter the Ardennes battle.
101st Airborne Division on the road between Bastogne and Houffalize, 19 December 1944 · US Army Signal Corps SC 329953 · NARA · Public domain · Source
The Battle of the Bulge

The furthest point

By 24 December elements of 2nd Panzer Division had reached the Celles area, roughly four miles from the Meuse near Dinant. This was the deepest penetration achieved by the German offensive. The forward elements were short of fuel and separated from supporting formations, but fuel alone did not stop them. American armour, British blocking forces, artillery and Allied aircraft were closing the routes while the division's supply line stretched back through the narrowing salient. The Meuse was geographically close and operationally farther away. Reaching the river required more than moving…

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The Battle of the Bulge

Christmas Eve in the town

Bastogne remained under artillery and air attack through Christmas. A German raid during the night struck the town and hit a medical facility on the Rue de Neufchâteau, killing wounded personnel and Belgian nurse Renée Lemaire among others. Civilian losses throughout the Ardennes came from German and Allied fire, air attack, shelling and deliberate killings. Stavelot and nearby communities suffered murders by SS units as the northern spearhead moved through the area. These deaths belong inside the operational page because the battle was fought through inhabited towns whose roads and…

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Red Army combat engineers building a pontoon bridge across the Oder beside a destroyed bridge, photographed 22 January 1945.
Semyon Alperin / RIA Novosti RIAID 42325 · Public domain (per Commons file record)
The Vistula–Oder Offensive

Guderian asks for strength to be moved east

The request came while German armoured forces were still committed in the Ardennes and Soviet concentrations were visible along the Vistula. Guderian warned Hitler that the Soviet buildup north of the Carpathians was the largest yet assembled and asked for the fading Ardennes offensive to be ended so reserves could move east. Hitler refused to weaken the western operation immediately and continued to treat voluntary withdrawal in the east as evidence of failing will.

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The Battle of the Bulge

Peiper abandons his vehicles

Kampfgruppe Peiper had become isolated around La Gleize after American forces regained Stavelot behind it and bridge demolitions closed alternative routes. Fuel, ammunition and recovery capacity were running down inside the pocket. During the night of 23–24 December Peiper abandoned the remaining heavy vehicles and led roughly eight hundred men east on foot through American lines. The armour left behind included Panthers, half-tracks and Tiger IIs that could not be extracted over the available routes. The episode is often reduced to 'running out of petrol.' Isolation was the larger problem.…

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