Air Operations, CBI

The Japanese begin their air assault on Rangoon. 14 3rd AVG Fighter Squadron P-40s and 16 RAF Buffalo fighters intercept a Japanese strike force over Rangoon and the Rangoon/Mingaladon Airdrome. 10 Japanese Army Ki-30 light bombers and 1 Japanese Navy A5M fighter are shot down between 1000 and 1035. 2 P-40s and their pilots are lost.

Battle of the Atlantic

The Belgian steamer Leopold II (2902t) sinks on a mine off Great Yarmouth with the loss of 35 of her crew.

Borneo

There are Japanese landings at Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. Two transports (Hokkai Maru and Hiyoshi Maru) are sunk and two (Nichiran Maru and Katori Maru) damaged by a Dutch submarine (K-XIV). A second submarine sinks a Japanese destroyer but is then sunk in turn. The small British force at Kuching resists for 2 more days and then withdraws.

Burma

There are the first Japanese air attacks on Rangoon. The Allied air forces in Burma only have two fighter squadrons at this stage, one from the RAF, and one from Chennault's American Volunteer Group.

Diplomatic Relations

Mexico severs diplomatic relations with Bulgaria, Hungary and Rumania.

Eastern Front

In the Crimea, after heavy fighting, the Germans capture the outer ring of forts around Sevastopol. The garrison is being strengthened, however, in various Soviet naval operations during this time. Altogether over 14,000 men are brought in as well as supplies.

Heavy fighting rages at Sevastopol as the Germans pound the city with artillery and sustained attacks.

Hong Kong

Despite tough resistance, the British positions are cut in two by the attacking Japanese.

Mediterranean

• The British destroyer Hasty and Hotspur sink U-79 off Bardia, Libya. 44 of the crew are rescued.
• U-559 sinks the British steamer Shuntien (3059t) northeast of Tobruk. The steamer had a crew of 70 and was carrying about 850 prisoners of war. The British corvette Salvia rescues a number of survivors, but are all lost the next day when the corvette is sunk. An unknown number of survivors are picked up by the British destroyer escort Heythrop.

North Africa

The Axis forces evacuate Benghazi. The Allied advance has reached Barce.

Pacific

The Japanese submarine I-21 sinks the American tanker Montibello (8272t) 6 miles off Cambria, California. The entire crew are rescued.

Six miles off the California coast, a Japanese submarine sank the American oil tanker S/S Montebello, shown here at sea, on December 23, 1941 – barely two weeks after Pearl Harbor.

Oil Tanker Sunk Off California Coast

Philippines

On Luzon MacArthur transfers his own headquarters to the fortified island of Corregidor, at the mouth of Manila Bay. At Lamon Bay, the Japanese land another 10,000 troops.

South China Sea

• The American submarine Seal (SS-183) sinks the Japanese steamer Soryu Maru (856t) off Badoc, Philippines.
• The Dutch submarine K-14 sinks the Japanese transport Katori Maru (9849t) and damages several others off Kuching, Malaya.

Wake Island

A Japanese naval landing force of 1,500 men takes 11 hours to overcome the outnumbered Americans. Although the American garrison fights back they are compelled to surrender later during the day. Adm Kajioka accepts the surrender and officially takes possession of the island re-naming it the 'Island of Birds'. The carriers of the US Pacific Fleet, Task Force 14, have been sent on a mission to Wake, but they are still 425 miles away when the island surrenders. It is diverted to Midway.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt give a joint press conference in the Oval Office of the White House, 23 December 1941. (FDR Presidential Library)

Churchill and Roosevelt