Air Operations, CBI

• 10th Air Force B-25s attack stores near Lashio.
• More than 40 10th Air Force fighter-bombers attack a Japanese Army headquarters, troops, motor vehicles, town areas, and supplies at 7 locations.
• More than 20 P-47s attack bridges at 6 locations.
• 6 14th Air Force B-25s attack Kutkai.
• Fighter-bombers attack Wan Pa-Hsa.

• Several 14th Air Force fighter-bombers attack the Yangtong airfield with napalm.
• Several dozen fighter-bombers attack various targets at Changsha, Hengyang, Hochih, Kweilin, and several other locations.

• 14th Air Force fighter-bombers attack Chiengmai.

Air Operations, East Indies

• FEAF B-24s attack the Kendari airfield on Celebes.
• B-25s attack 3 airfields in the Molucca Islands.

Air Operations, Europe

• 140 Lancasters of No. 3 Group are sent on a G-H raid to the Ruhrstahl steelworks at Witten. German fighters intercept the force in the target area and 8 Lancasters are lost. It is the town's first major raid of the war. The steelworks are not hit and bombs fall all over the town, destroying 126 houses and 5 industrial premises.

•   349 Lancasters, 163 Halifaxes and 28 Mosquitos of Nos. 1, 4 and 8 Groups are sent to Essen. This is the last heavy night raid by Bomber Command on Essen. During the post-war interrogations of Albert Speer, Hitler's Armaments Minister, he was asked which forms of attack were most effective in weakening the German war effort. After referring to the effectiveness of daylight raids and to some of the Oboe Mosquito attacks, Speer paid a compliment to the accuracy of this raid on Essen: "The last night attack upon the Krupp works, which was carried out by a large number of 4-engined bombers, caused surprise on account of the accuracy of the bomb pattern. We assumed that this attack was the first large-scale operation based on Oboe or some other new navigational system."
• 6 Lancasters are lost.

• 49 Mosquitos are sent to Osnabrück, and there are 43 Mosquito patrols and 43 RCM sorties.
• A V-2 hits the Rex Cinema in Antwerp killing 492 people and seriously injuring about 500 others.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command A-20s attack the airfield at Efman.

Air Operations, Philippies

• FEAF B-24s attack the Bacolod airfield on Negros.
• V Bomber Command B-25s attack the San Roque airfield on Mindanao.
• VMF(N)-541 F6F night-fighters intercept 33 Japanese aircraft attempting to attack a US Navy convoy in Ormoc Bay at 0720 hours. The Marine pilots down 11 Japanese aircraft without loss to themselves, and the remaining Japanese aircraft are unable to hit any of the American ships.
• Marine Air Group 12 F4Us and USAAF P-40s continue to attack a Japanese reinforcement convoy off northeastern Panay. 1 destroyer is sunk and 1 ship is set on fire.
• 49th and 475th Fighter group P-38s down 3 G4M 'Betty' bombers and 2 A6M Zeros in the Leyte area between 1400 and 1710 hours.

Air Operations, Volcano Islands

24 11th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Iwo Jima.

Burma

A British offensive begins in the Arakan. The attacking unit is XV Corps attempting to free the coastal sector of the Arakan, where bases will be set up for the recapture of Burma. The 25th Indian Div advances in the Mayu peninsula toward Akyab, the 82nd West African Div penetrates into the Kalapanzin valley near Buthidaung, the 81st attacks near Kyauktaw.

Eastern Front

The Stavka orders the 3rd Ukrainian Front to support the attacks by the 2nd Ukrainian fRont upon Budapest. It transfers command of the 46th Army to the 3rd Ukrainian Front. While Malinovsky pins the Germans north of the city, Tolbukhin is to slice through the weaker defenses between Lake Balaton and Budapest, then swing north to envelop the German and Hungarian forces inside the city. The 2nd Ukrainian Front is also to push its 40th and 27th Armies and 4th Romanian Army from the Hungarian border into Slovakia to threaten the 8th Army.

Greece

After taking heavy setbacks in the recent fighting the Greek communists as for terms for a cease fire. It is demanded that the communists surrender their arms. On December 16 Gen Ronald Scobie publishes the text of the Caserta agreement in which the guerrillas had promised to work with the established government (then in exile). (See September 26, 1944) On December 20 Scobie warns civilians to stay away from areas occupied by the ELAS troops because he may find it necessary to bomb them. On December 25, as the fighting begins to die down with the British very much in control, Churchill and Eden arrive for talks with the Greek leaders. It is decided to establish a regency.

Italy

During the night, the 6th Arm Div, XIII Corps, US 5th Army, begins the second stage of its offensive, throwing in the units of the 61st Bde against Tossignano. In the 8th Army sector, the 5th Arm Div and 1st Div of infantry, Canadian I Corps, advance from Fosso Vecchio to the Canale Naviglio; the 1st Div establishes a bridgehead north of Bagnacavallo.

Philippines

On Leyte during the night 2 task groups from the US 7th Fleet sail from Leyte for Mindoro. Fighting continues south of Limon and in other areas in the northwest of the island. The American destroyer Caldwell (DD-605) is damaged off Leyte by a Japanese suicide aircraft. Two Japanese ships are sunk in the day's action, the destroyer Uzuki by surface craft and the transport No. 159 by Army and Marine aircraft.

Western Front

In the US 1st Army sector, the 104th Div takes the village of Pier, forcing the 5th Panzerarmee to withdraw over the Rur, while units of the 9th Div and 3rd Arm Div complete the occupation of a good deal of the region west of the Rur, and of the town of Düren.

The advance of the XV Corps of the US 7th Army is halted at Hottvillers-Bitche on the Maginot Line.

Images from December 12, 1944

The Wehrmacht was also a shadow of its former self. Poorly trained members of the Volkssturm arrive to take over a position in Moselle, December 1944

Volkssturm Members Arrive in Moselle

The German armed forces were on the defensive in both the East and West. A Pak gun position in Budapest.

A Pak Gun Position in Budapest

Men of Company I stand guard over exhausted and cold German veterans of the Hurtgen Forest campaign. Captured at Jungersdorf on December 12, they were organized and marched out of the front lines that morning by the equally exhausted survivors of Company I, 39th Infantry Regiment

Guarding German Veterans

An American Soldier from Company I, 2-39th Infantry speaks to a hollow-eyed German prisoner of war. Jungersdorf, December 12, 1944

US Soldier Speaking to German POW

The veterans of Company I slog through the mud and ruins of Jungersdorf at the end of their tenure in the Hurtgen Forest. There would be no respite for these men. Fresh from the horrors of the Hurtgen campaign, they were thrust into the path of the 6th SS Panzer Army and played a key role in the defense of the Bulge’s North Shoulder during the German Ardennes Offensive–which started less than a week after this photo was taken.

9th Infantry Div Soldiers near Jungersdorf

USS North Carolina (BB-55) in heavy seas as seen from USS Ticonderoga (CV-14), off the Philippine Islands, December 1944

USS North Carolina

A VF-11 F6F getting a wave off while another Hellcat taxies out of the way, Dec. 1944 on USS Hornet (CV-12).

F6F Getting a Wave Off

British Sherman 'Firefly' Tank in Namur on the Meuse River, December 1944