16 Dec 1944 in WW2

World War II Database

American prisoners marching along a road somewhere on the western front, Dec 1944

 

Mauthausen Concentration Camp's satellite camp Gusen III began operations in the town of Lungitz with 262 prisoners; it would eventually grow to house 67,667 prisoners before the end of the war, about half of which would not survive. [Main Article | CPC]

Royal Indian Artillery Sergeant Umrao Singh won the Victoria Cross for defending his advanced gun battery against a determined Japanese attack in Burma. The fighting was frequently hand-to-hand and when Sergeant Singh was found wounded and exhausted, ten enemy bodies surrounded his gun. [AC]

A German V2 rocket fell on the Rex Cinema in Antwerp, Belgium which was packed for the matinee performance. The blast killed 567 people, 296 of them Allied servicemen, and injured 291, half of them soldiers. It took six days to dig out all the bodies, many of which were still sitting upright in their seats. It was the highest death toll from a V-weapon attack during the entire war and resulted in the cinemas and theatres of Antwerp being closed "for the duration" and gatherings of more than 50 people in any one place being banned. [AC]

The US Navy Fast Carrier Task Force retired from Philippine waters after three consecutive days of air operations. [Main Article | CPC]

USS Finback attacked a Japanese convoy in the Western Pacific, firing a total of 20 torpedoes but making only 2 hits, sinking a transport. [Main Article | CPC]

Dwight Eisenhower learned that he was about to be promoted to the rank of 5-star general. [Main Article | CPC]

Caroline Islands

• USS Astoria set sail for Ulithi, Caroline Islands. [Main Article | CPC]

Germany

• German troops launched Operation Wacht am Rhein, crossing the German border toward Belgium, opening the Battle of the Bulge. [Main Article | TH, CPC]
• German Army engineers were awarded at the Peenemünde Army Research Center in Germany. [Main Article | CPC]

Dead American soldiers laying face down at a crossroad in

 Belgium, Dec 1944