Status - John Skinner - USS St. Croix
The St. Croix, now commissioned, was doing the various provisioning and ship preparations that were required for deploying to the South Pacific. The ship had left (or would soon leave) on a shakedown cruise up and down the US West Coast, ending in San Diego.
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Fighting intensifies throughout the Philippines during December. The US Navy suffers greatly from kamikaze attacks on its ships.
On December 18th, the US Third Fleet encounters a typhoon northeast of the Philippines. Three destroyers are sunk and a number of other ships are damaged. This typhoon was likely part of the inspiration for the central scene of the book (and later movie) The Caine Mutiny.
The Battle of the Bulge began on December 16th as Allied troops were pushed back in Belgium and France. German advances had been mostly blunted by the end of December, and General Eisenhower was planning his counter-offensive for the new year.
More Information:
- Official Navy Chronology, pp. 586-601.
- The Liberation of the Philippines, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 1 136
- USS_Saint_Croix
- Events of December, 1944
NEXT POST: JANUARY 15TH
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