December 1941

by Craig Shirley

  Following the press conference, reporters filed out and political and military aides filed in for a two-hour meeting. No real details were made public at the time but the two men wanted to address “all questions related to the concerted war effort.”77

  What Roosevelt and Churchill had in mind was a “Victory Program” to create an Allied Force of such magnitude it would simply roll over Axis opposition. They were talking in terms of producing 1,500 four-engine bombers a month, a Supreme Commander in the Far East (MacArthur was the popular and logical choice) as well as a Supreme Commander in Europe and a standing army of 20,000,000 men among all the Allied Powers. They also divided the world into four war zones; “Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, The North Atlantic and The Pacific and Far East.”78

  Speculation was rife that Hitler would mount a renewed offensive against Russia, or would invade England, or would invade Spain. There were also rumors of discord within his military command. The fact was that little was really known of what the next plans were for the Third Reich. Churchill had told war planners, “That he looked for a new German offensive in some theatre to counter-balance the humiliating reverses in Russia. He mentioned a thrust towards the Mediterranean and an invasion of Britain . . . but said frankly that he did not know where it would come.”79

  Attending the “War Council” meeting were all the top administration officials including the Secretary of War Henry Stimson, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, the Chief of Naval Operations Harold Stark, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, the new commander in chief of the fleet, Admiral Ernest King, and as always, FDR’s friend and confidant, Hopkins. Attending for the British were Sir Dudley Pound, Admiral of the fleet; Sir Charles Portal, Air Chief Marshal; and Sir John Dill, Field Marshal.80 The goal was straightforward: The eradication of Hitlerism from the world, as Roosevelt said. They saw Japan as an extension of Germany. “The matter of immediate urgency is, of course, the Battle of the Pacific. . . .”81 This was untrue.

  A plan was coming together to accomplish total victory though: “Worldwide strategy and worldwide supply leading to worldwide victory.”82

  FDR and Churchill had mutually decided that nothing less than unconditional surrender of the Axis scourge would be acceptable.

  CHAPTER 24

  THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF DECEMBER

  Californians See Sub Attack U.S. Ship

  Evening Star

  Wake Marines, Fighting to End, Sink Two Ships

  Washington Post

  Fall of Philippine Isles Inevitable Japanese Boast

  Birmingham News

  Winston Churchill, FDR’s guest in the White House, was surprised to find he was served not one but two eggs with his breakfast. All of Great Britain had been on a ration of one egg per day and to set an example, Churchill followed suit. “Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt confided today that the White House’s distinguished guest had interrupted war conferences with President Roosevelt to eulogize his breakfasts—breakfasts of fruit juice, eggs, bacon, toast and coffee that are just routine in many American homes this side of the Atlantic.” In addition to his solitary egg, the prime minister normally had only toast and tea. This was a gustatory moment, and he enthused about it “with boyish glee.”1

  The reviews were coming in for their performance the day before from the press and they were all favorable. “Two great statesmen-showmen, sharing the star parts in a world drama that will be read and studied for centuries to come, played a sparkling and unique scene at the White House yesterday. There were President Roosevelt, debonair and facile as usual, and Britain’s Prime Minister Churchill, jaunty and ruddy. Their audience was composed of 200 hand-picked Washington correspondents, described by Mr. Roosevelt as the ‘wolves’ of the American press, and including a score of foreign journalists.”2 It was a surreal scene, reporters milling about, letting their cigarette ashes fall to the floor.

  Still, both men made it abundantly clear that the Allies were on the defensive and would be for a long time before they could engage in offensive operations and begin rolling back the Axis. “Mr. Churchill promised the utmost in defensive operations until such time as favorable conditions permit the beginning of a general offensive.”3

  His appearance was of some fascination to the media and the American public. As was often then case when someone meets a person whom they had only known through photos and newsreels. “He has a pinkish complexion, blue eyes and a wisp of reddish-gray hair remaining on his nearly bald head. These features, plus a roundish countenance, give him a look that has been described as cherubic. There are times when he assumes an expression that has led his countrymen to hail him as the personification of Britain’s bulldog courage. His mouth tightens into a straight line, his jaw hardened and his blue eyes flash.” A reporter used the American slang “lick” which Churchill was not familiar with, but otherwise it had been a smashing performance.4

  Christmas Eve promised to be a busy day for the president and the first lady and their extraordinary guest, as well as all of official (and some of unofficial) Washington. It was also, as all knew, the busiest day of the year for a flying wonder of the world whose permanent home was someplace north of the Arctic Circle.

  The good-natured Santa Claus planned to make a visit to Sing Sing, the notorious maximum-security prison in Ossining, New York, to give its hardened inmates talcum powder, safety razors, candy, clean white shirts, shaving cream, and tobacco. “The 29 men in the death house awaiting execution would receive the same gifts—except for the razors.”5

  The navy suspended its annual custom of inviting poor children on board their ships because of the war but would still host parties for the children of its various posts.6

  Mrs. Roosevelt’s itinerary was crammed. In the morning there was the Central Union Mission where twelve hundred children would be “entertained.” At 12:30 p.m. she would speak to the Volunteers of America party where some five hundred baskets would be distributed to the needy of Washington. Then there was the Salvation Army at 1:30; she was to hand out the first of the toys for poor children. Following that, she would participate in the lighting of the tree on the South Lawn at 4:30 p.m., after which Christmas carols would be sung. There was also the White House Christmas party to attend to as well as her own family with a new grandbaby boy, courtesy of their son, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.7

  Roosevelt spent the day in meetings with Churchill. Much of the discussion centered on how to best allocate the resources of the other members of the Allied Powers in combating the Axis. “The American and British experts in strategy working here together on the master-plan for the war against the Axis are fitting Russia and the other allies closely into their world-wide battle scheme. . . .”8

  They also went over a detailed memo analyzing the political state of the world, including relations between the Third Reich and the Arab World. “The Führer has always supported the Arab cause and deplored the vicissitudes suffered by the Arabs at the hands of the British and the Jews.” The memo noted the “Mufti” had been given a place of honor on the occasion of the delivery of Hitler’s speech of December 11.”9 From an intercepted Arab news report: “The Tripartite powers are fighting against the Anglo-Saxon plutocrats, the Jews and the Bolsheviks and are therefore fighting for the Arab cause.”10 This was temporary expediency on the part of the Nazis, of course. Little did the Arabs fathom Hitler’s true contempt for what he regarded as their unclean, inferior race. In his mind, a German “solution” would come to the swarthy tribes of the Middle East, in good time.

  FDR also reviewed piles of paperwork, including a memo from John Franklin “Jack” Carter, Roosevelt’s personal aide, whose job it was to snoop around government bureaus and Washington and report exclusively back to the president. Carter generated a mound of confidential memos, all for Roosevelt’s eyes alone. On the twenty-fourth, Carter asked FDR to give him a letter which he could present to government bureaucrats which would explain his “authority . . . to avoid embarrassment.”11 He also gave FDR a me
mo on security problems in the “Long Beach Naval Defensive Sea Area.”12

  Earlier that day, the White House announced that Churchill and Roosevelt would attend church together the next day at the Foundry Methodist Church for the 11:00 a.m. service. Security would be tight. Unless someone were a regular congregant or a member of the prime minister’s entourage or the White House staff, or they held a special ticket, there was little chance of getting in. Special tickets were printed and had to be shown to get into the building. “Even cabinet members who have not obtained tickets will be barred by secret service men who will direct admission.”13

  Mrs. Roosevelt had sympathized earlier that day with Churchill that it was too bad he was “so far away from home on Christmas.” He replied, “Holidays and work days are just the same. Until this war is over, there is nothing else but work that can be in our minds.”14

  As far as the rest of the city, “The glad tidings of Christmas will be sung in the half-darkened streets of Washington this week, but the upsurge of the season’s spirit already is expressed in excited announcements of events to be both gay and religious.”15 Charity seemed to be everywhere with no one high-hatting, at least for one day. Except of course for Hollywood.

  Warner Brothers studios gave itself a gift as only the moguls of Tinsel Town knew how. Assuming it was a prime target for high-level enemy bombers, the studio built itself a bomb shelter to outdo all other bomb shelters. It was actually four cavernous underground havens, large enough to house thirty-five hundred employees. “The completed shelters are concrete basements, reinforced with sandbags, and equipped with hospital units, beds, water in gas-proof containers, kitchens and gas protection.”16 They also had access to ambulances and “field telephones have been installed all over the lot.”17

  Whether champagne and bartenders were available in the plush shelters is uncertain. But one thing was certain: the immigrant Jews who invented the motion picture business and founded Hollywood saw World War II as their biggest chance yet to gain long-coveted legitimacy in American society. The war was an opportunity to banish their sense of being outsiders and to prove that they were loyal Americans. For their part, the Warners wired President Roosevelt that “personally we would like to do all in our power within the motion picture industry and by use of the talking screen to show the American people the worthiness of the cause for which the free peoples of Europe are making such tremendous sacrifices.”18 Patriotic pictures also were good box office.

  In the nation’s capital—as in the rest of the country—movie attendance, gift giving and other forms of consumer activity were up over the previous year. The department stores—especially in Washington—were jammed with last-minute shoppers. Nationwide, public school and parochial school kids were already out for Christmas break.

  Even the “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the Son of Heaven” Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura put his pants on leg at a time. This was also true with his underwear which is why an attaché still at the Japanese Embassy in Washington went shopping for “drawers” for Nomura. The attaché was surrounded by a “brace of FBI agents.” The day before, a Christmas tree had been spotted being delivered to the Embassy.19 FDR had received a letter that very day from Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, expressing his gratitude to Roosevelt and explaining his idea for a “Supreme War Council” to effectively fight the Axis and, especially, the Japanese.20

  The Germans were less celebratory of the Christmas season. In the town of Folkestone, England, in the Kentish Coastal District, as children sang Christmas carols in some of the towns that dotted the White Cliffs of Dover, huge explosions punctuated the tranquil evening. The Germans, with their big guns in France, were lobbing shells at the civilian targets, all the way to the South of England, some twenty-two miles across the English Channel. “The children’s voices trembled, but they sang on while the explosions echoed along the cliffs of Dover.”21

  The RAF, possessed of more Christmas spirit than the Germans, suspended their bombings for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.22

  British radio intercepted a German message in which they announced completion of “intensive fortification works along the Atlantic coast of Europe” after eighteen months of labor. Miles and miles of reinforced batteries and “bombproof shelters for submarines [were] built and camouflage shelters erected for land troops.” Ideally, they could be used for “a complete base and support for offensive operations against Britain.” Also, the Germans noted the emplacements would not only give them an offensive capability but also “security against invasion of Europe.”23

  Two more commercial ships were attacked along the West Coast, one American and one Canadian. The Absaroka and the Rosebank—both freighters—had been torpedoed within an hour of each other. The Absaroka was apparently sinking, and all hands had abandoned ship. The attack was in the morning and spectators on the shore could clearly see the attacking submarine on the surface. “Onlookers on shore watched as a crew of approximately 35 took to lifeboats.”24 The Rosebank had been thought to have been sunk but it was later learned it had limped back to a harbor.

  The President Harrison had been in “Far East waters” when the war broke out and while many civilians liners made it through safely, the Japanese did capture this ship.25 Packet boat service between Los Angeles and Catalina Island was suspended because of the repeated attacks.26

  Another commercial ship, the Lahaina, had been torpedoed repeatedly by a Japanese sub on December 11, hitting the huge freighter as many as twelve times before it sank. Thirty of the crew made it into a lifeboat designed for seventeen men and then drifted for over twenty days—armed with only a makeshift sail and a single compass. They finally washed up on the shore at Maui, where they were first mistaken for invaders. A couple of the men had died at sea from exposure, though their tiny boat was well-supplied with vegetables and fruits.27 For these men to wash up on a speck of an island in the middle of the enormous Pacific had to be considered a Christmas miracle.

  Navy officials had not heard from Wake Island for more than a day and conceded it had probably been lost to the Japanese. The navy would only say that “an enemy force effected a landing on Wake Island the morning of the 23rd.”28 The fourteen-day battle by the U.S. Marines was the stuff of legends. Commanded by Major James P. S. Devereux, the garrison had no more than 385 men on three little islands not much bigger than the campus of a small university. Together, the three totaled some 2,600 acres. Devereux only had twelve fighter planes at his disposal and a “small quantity of weapons.”29 He had some anti-aircraft guns also, but that was about it.

  One of the last reports from Wake was they had managed to sink two more Japanese ships before apparently succumbing to the invaders. The enemy had already claimed they had conquered the territory and conceded that they’d lost two ships.30 The Japanese may have been aided by the cover of a dark and stormy Monday evening.

  All knew the garrison could not hold on indefinitely but still, the loss was yet another blow. A small amount of solace could be taken in the moral victory that the marines had held on so long and that they had taken so many Japanese men and so much materiel down with them, but the United States already had plenty of moral victories. It was time for some real victories.

  The navy issued a one-sentence statement: “Radio communication with Wake Island has been severed.”31 The Japanese had also restarted their shelling of Palmyra Island and Johnston Island.

  The British were in no better shape in Hong Kong but were fighting just as valiantly as the American marines. The attempts by the Chinese to relieve the British troops had not come. As far as London knew, the Chinese contingent was too small and too far away to be of much good to the struggling and dug-in Brits, Indians, and Canadians in the “crown colony.” They were given “little chance of holding out unless aid could be gotten through to them.”32 “The hopelessly outnumbered defenders . . . were losing heavily, and the situation was acknowledged to be critical.”33

  On the
Malayan Peninsula, the British seemed to have regrouped and had, it appeared, slowed the Japanese drive toward Singapore.

  The Dutch in the Western Pacific knew something about real victories. So far, they had averaged sinking one Japanese ship per day with their fighter and bomber planes. The Netherland government announced that “the Japanese, in retaliation, had bombed and machine-gunned outlying Netherland islands, inflicting civilian casualties.”34

  In the Philippines, the situation was worsening quickly. Overnight, the Japanese had landed more men “in heavy numbers.” They were also bringing tanks ashore now. General MacArthur’s forces were now outnumbered, and in at least four areas on Luzon murderous fighting was going on. “Enemy airplanes have been particularly active in supporting landing and shore operations.”35 Air raids had become a commonplace occurrence and the Japanese bombing campaigns had created numerous fires near Ft. McKinley. “The enemy is exerting ‘great pressure’ an army spokesman said of the Lingayen battle.”36

  The islands were impossible to defend, especially with the relatively small army MacArthur had at his disposal. He’d estimated that he needed at least 500,000 men to adequately defend the country, and he had far less than that, even including the Filipino troops at his disposal. “With the Philippine defenders said to be outnumbered and hard pressed north and south of the capital, the War Department announced the appearance of enemy troop ships off Batangas on the southern tip of Luzon Island, about 65 miles southwest of Manila.”37 The Japanese propagandists claimed they had complete dominion over all aspects of the Battle for the Philippines.