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• Japanese Navy Captain Chiaki Matsuda relieved Rear Admiral Gihachi Takayanagi as the commanding officer of Yamato; Takayanagi was reassigned as the Chief of Staff of the First Fleet. ww2dbase [Yamato | CPC]
• Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden reported to the British House of Commons of the mass murder of Jews by the Germans; this would be followed almost immediately by a US declaration that these crimes would be avenged. ww2dbase [Anthony Eden | TH]
• Axis forces largely completed their evacuation from the Marsa Brega and El Agheila region in Libya. ww2dbase [Second Battle of El Alamein | CPC]
• Archibald Wavell met with Joseph Stilwell; during the meeting, despite Stilwell's insistence, Wavell refused to expand his current attack on Arakan, Burma into a larger coordinated joint-Chinese-American-British campaign. ww2dbase [Archibald Wavell | CPC]
• Hubert Lanz stepped down as the commanding officer of 1. Gebirgs-Division. ww2dbase [Hubert Lanz | CPC]
• Chiaki Matsuda was made the commanding officer of old battleship Yamato. ww2dbase [Chiaki Matsuda | CPC]
• USS Bailey arrived at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. ww2dbase [Bailey | DS]

• USS S-35 set sail for Adak, US Territory of Alaska. ww2dbase [S-35 | Kiska | CPC]

• Gato-class submarine USS Silversides departed Brisbane, Australia on her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [Silversides | Brisbane | DS]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Rabaul, New Britain. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• Troops of the US Army 132nd Infantry Regiment captured Mount Austen, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Meanwhile, troops of the 35th Infantry Regiment of the US Army 25th Division arrived on the island. ww2dbase [Guadalcanal Campaign | Guadalcanal | CPC]
• The Japanese completed a 4,700-foot long airstrip at Munda Point, New Georgia, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | Munda Point, New Georgia | CPC]

• US aircraft attacked Lashio Airfield, Burma for the first time. ww2dbase [Lashio Airfield | Lashio | CPC]

• Jewish violinist Julius Stwertka, a former leading member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and co-leader of the Vienna Philharmonic, passed away in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in occupied Czechoslovakia. ww2dbase [Theresienstadt Concentration Camp | Terezín, Cechy | CPC]

• Comandante Cappellini departed Bordeaux, France at 1500 hours and arrived at Pauillac, Aquitaine, France at 1730 hours. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | Bordeaux, Aquitaine | CPC]

• Kamoi departed Mili, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Mili | CPC]

• At Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, Task Force 67 commanded by Rear Admiral Walden Ainsworth formed around cruisers USS Nashville, USS Helena, USS Honolulu, and USS Columbia escorted by destroyers USS Fletcher, USS Dayton, USS Lang, and USS Saufley. Task Force 67 departed Espiritu Santo on a patrol of the waters north of the New Hebrides. ww2dbase [Columbia | Walden Ainsworth | Helena (St. Louis-class) | Honolulu | Saufley | Nashville | Espirtu Santo | DS]

• USS St. Louis crossed the 180th Meridian at 20 18S latitude. ww2dbase [St. Louis | DS]
• While making her way toward Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i, submarine USS Saury crossed the International Date Line and thus repeated Dec 17th. ww2dbase [Saury | DS]

• The keel of Anguilla Bay was laid down by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company in Vancouver, Washington, United States. ww2dbase [Kaiser Vancouver Shipyard | Corregidor | Vancouver, Washington | CPC]

17 Dec 1942 Interactive Map