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WWII On This Day: December 24

What happened on December 24 during World War II? This date brings together 5 events from 1941 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
Chinese soldiers defending positions during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937.
Chinese defenders during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937 · Public domain · Photograph pending verification
The Second Sino-Japanese War

The Third Battle of Changsha

Seventeen days after Pearl Harbor, Japan's Eleventh Army attacked Changsha for the third time, intending to tie down Chinese forces while Hong Kong was taken. Xue Yue, who had twice already held the city, evacuated all but 160 civilians and lured the attacking divisions into an encirclement. The Japanese retreat that followed was the first clear Allied land victory anywhere after Pearl Harbor, at a moment when Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaya and the Philippines were all falling in the same weeks. Claire Chennault of the Flying Tigers called Xue Yue…

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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Soviet armour advancing across Poland, January 1945.
Soviet armour in Poland, January 1945 · RIA Novosti archive · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photograph pending verification
The Vistula–Oder Offensive

Guderian asks for strength to be moved east

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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