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• USS Blenny reported sinking a small Japanese craft with her deck gun in the morning; in the evening at about 2200 hours, she sank a destroyer escort with two torpedoes (three were fired). ww2dbase [Blenny | CPC]
• USS Rock departed Fremantle, Australia for her fifth war patrol. ww2dbase [Rock | CPC]
• The RaLa Experiment of the Manhattan Project yielded evidence that spherical implosion was possible for compression of the plutonium pit of an atomic bomb. ww2dbase [Operation Trinity and Manhattan Project | CPC]
• Otto Skorzeny took command of German Armored Brigade 150. ww2dbase [Otto Skorzeny | CPC]
• US Congress established the rank of Fleet Admiral in the active list of the US Navy and the rank of General of the Army in the active list of the US Army. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Marcus Island's air group shot down one Japanese aircraft. ww2dbase [Marcus Island | CPC]
• USS Astoria escorted fleet carriers east of Luzon, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Astoria (Cleveland-class) | CPC]

• By special permission of King George VI, Lieutenant General William Slim was knighted in a ceremony at Imphal, India by Field Marshal Archibald Wavell in the presence of Vice-Admiral Louis Mountbatten. ww2dbase [William Slim | Imphal, Manipur | AC]

• HMS Aldenham became the last British destroyer to be sunk during the war, with the loss of 121 officers and men, after hitting a mine in the Adriatic Sea. ww2dbase [Adriatic Sea | AC]

• USS Alabama escorted US carriers off Luzon, Philippine Islands as carrier aircraft began attacking Japanese positions in the area. ww2dbase [Alabama | CPC]
• One of USS Columbia's 127-millimeter guns misfired during combat off the Philippine Islands, killing four. ww2dbase [Columbia | CPC]
• USS Preston guarded carriers while the carriers launched strikes against Luzon, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Preston (Fletcher-class) | CPC]
• The US Navy Fast Carrier Task Force arrived 90 miles east of Luzon, Philippine Islands and began to launch aircraft to cover the landings on Mindoro. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 2 | CPC]

• USS Honolulu arrived at Balboa, Canal Zone. ww2dbase [Honolulu | Balboa | DS]

• USS Ticonderoga launched Air Group 80 aircraft for 7 strikes against Japanese positions in northern Luzon, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Ticonderoga | DS]
• Fearing they were about to be invaded, Japanese defenders in Palawan in the Philippine Islands murdered 145 American prisoners of war by shooting, bayoneting, clubbing and setting them on fire while still alive. ww2dbase [Canopus | Philippines Campaign, Phase 2 | Puerto Princesa, Palawan | AC]
• USS Wasp's aircraft attacked Japanese airfields on Luzon, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Wasp (Essex-class) | CPC]
• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) rendezvoused with the other carriers and began launching air strikes on Luzon, Philippines. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign | Yorktown (Essex-class) | DS]

• The Supreme Soviet Presidium of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ordered all non-Russian-language district names in Krym (Crimea), Russia to be given Russian-language names. ww2dbase [Deportation of Crimean Tatars | Krym | CPC]

• USS S-38 was decommissioned from service. ww2dbase [S-38 | CPC]

14 Dec 1944 Interactive Map