A haggard-looking Franklin D. Roosevelt broadcasts a message to the American people just before Christmas in 1943. He said, in part, “The war is now reaching the stage when we shall all have to look forward to large casualty lists — dead, wounded, and missing.” Wikipedia.
By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
On December 24, 1943, U.S. Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. In a radio broadcast, President Roosevelt tells the American people: “The war is now reaching the stage when we shall all have to look forward to large casualty lists — dead, wounded, and missing. War entails just that. There is no easy road to victory. And the end is not yet in sight.” He gives some insights from the just-completed Cairo and Tehran Conferences and says plans have been laid for the invasion of Europe and its post-war reconstruction. In Europe, the Soviets begin the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive, intended to recapture all Axis-occupied territory in Ukraine and Moldova.
On December 25 — Christmas Day — the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst, part of a task force under the command of Adm. Erich Bey, sets sail from northern Norway to attack Arctic convoy JW 55B (sailing from Scotland to the Soviet Union), which has been discovered by German air and submarine patrols. Bey is unaware that the British battleship HMS Duke of Yorkis in distant support of the convoy.
The German battlecruiser Scharnhorstis sunk on December 26 off North Cape, northern Norway, by gunfire from British cruisers and torpedoes from British destroyers after engaging in a firefight with the battleship HMS Duke of York. Only 36 of Scharnhorst’s crew of 1,839 survive. Lost as well in the fighting is Adm. Bey. In the Pacific, U.S. Marines make landings on both sides of Cape Gloucester, on New Britain island.
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, on December 27 is also officially named as the head of “Operation Overlord,” the planned invasion of Normandy, in France. In its former League of Nations mandated colony of Lebanon, France transfers most of her powers there to the local Lebanese government. President Roosevelt signs an order seizing the railroads of the U.S. in advance of a strike over wages scheduled for December 30. The U.S. Army takes control of the rail lines potentially affected by the impending walkout.
On December 28, British, Indian and West African troops have some success in the opening of the Second Arakan Campaign, an offensive intended to clear the Japanese out of northern Burma.
U.S. Marines secure Cape Gloucester airfield on New Britain island on December 29. In Germany, the eighth 2,000-tons-of-ordnance air raid is flown against Berlin by the RAF on the third anniversary of the fire-bombing of London. Gen. Eisenhower cables orders to all Allied commanders, directing them to avoid, as far as possible, attacking the historic monuments of Italy. He advises, however: “If we have to choose between destroying a famous building and sacrificing our own men, then our men’s lives count infinitely more, and the buildings must go.”
India-liberation activist Subhas Chandra Bose on December 30 sets up an “independent” Provisional Indian Government at Port Blair, on Japanese-occupied South Andaman Island, over 500 miles from the Indian mainland. Chinese troops continue to press towards Burma’s Taping River. Gen. Eisenhower and Free French Gen. Charles de Gaulle meet in Algiers. Eisenhower agrees to de Gaulle’s request that French troops be allowed to participate with other Allied forces in the liberation of Paris.
