Norfolk Virginia, December 16th, 1941
USS Yorktown and USS Wasp were ordered into the Pacific ocean.
Sirte, Libya, December 16th, 1941
Threatened to be outflanked by the British 4th Armoured brigade, Rommel ordered a general retreat towards Tripoli. In the three weeks since taking command general O'Connor had gotten the British 8th army's act together and German and Italian casualties had kept mounting. Over 28,000 men and 190 tanks had been lost already. British tank losses were over twice as many, but unlike the Afrika Korps they were far better able to absorb them, while they had lost far fewer men, less than 10,000 so far.
Sevastopol, December 17th, 1941
Further to the north, the Germans had been stopped cold in front of Moscow with Soviet troops counterattacking against them. But here in the south the Germans continued to have the upper hand and kept the pressure on Sevastopol. The city defenders had so far beaten back two assaults. Now a third was launched and unlike the previous ones start making headway against the defences. But after a week of fighting a Soviet landing in the Kerch peninsula and reinforcements to the garrison would stabilize the situation. Sevastopol would hold for the time being...
Scapa Flow, December 20th, 1941
The battleship Lorraine, escorted by 4 destroyers sailed away for Gibraltar to join the RN's Force H, since HMS Malaya its single battleship currently was taking the risky route across the Mediterranean to reach Alexandria, as soon as Lorraine reached Gibraltar. The Allied navies still had 23 battleships operational. But with the Axis having 16 battleships of their own their margin of superiority had been at its thinnest since the start of the war.
Smyrna, December 22nd, 1941
The Greek Archipelago division landed in the city and was immediately rushed to the frontline. The transports that had brought it would be filled with civilians to make the trip back to Piraeus the next night. The reinforcements were sorely needed, Magnesia had fallen the previous day and Axis forces were pushing hard against Mount Sipylus, the defenders had taken more than 13,000 casualties in two weeks of fighting, almost as many as the previous two assaults put together.
Colombo, Ceylon, December 23rd, 1941
HMS Formidable and HMS Indomitable, joined the Eastern fleet. Four old Revenge class battleships were already waiting in Colombo, while HMS Warspite was on the way. Despite Churchill's misgivings, admiral James Somerville would take over command of the fleet.
Philippines, December 24th, 1941
The previous day general MacArthur had declared Manilla an open city. Now his forces pulled into the Bataan peninsula. It was just one more failure in what appeared to be an endless string of defeats against the Japanese so far. Wake island had also fallen on the 23rd while the Japanese had landed on Sarawak on the same day. In Malaya the British were in headlong retreat. The Royal Navy's Force Z had sailed out from Singapore in an attempt to disrupt Japanese communications. It remained to be seen whether they would manage anything...
Alexandria, December 25th, 1941
Salamis, Lemnos, HMS Illustrious and their escorts took to the sea towards Malta. HMS Malaya, a number of fast transports and their destroyer escorts were on their way from the other side of the Mediterranean. If all went well, the transports would drop off to Malta, while Malaya would join the squadron coming out from the east...
Libya, December 25th, 1941
Advance elements of the British 8th army entered Misrata. By now the British had advanced nearly 560 km since the start of the offensive and were facing serious supply issues. But they were only 210 km away from Tripoli and if it fell, the Axis position in North Africa was unsustainable. Besides the Axis had its own problems. Between the British cruisers operating out of Malta and allied submarines Libya was being starved of supplies. Two weeks ago an Italian convoy bound for Tripoli had lost 4 out of its 8 ships the rest turning back. A new convoy had just sailed out this time with all three active Italian battleships escorting it.
Mudros, Lemnos, December 25th, 1941
Rauf Orbay had taken personal command of his fleet, as he brought it back from the Black sea to the Aegean. Marshal Fevzi Cakmak had been anything but happy with the navy, for failing to interfere with the Greeks transferring reinforcements to Smyrna and if Turkish politics since 1919 had proven anything, it was that it was ill advised to be on the wrong side of the marshal's ire. Despite the reinforcements, the army was still pushing forward but it was becoming increasingly hard, further reinforcements had to be stopped at all costs. At least if German intelligence was to be believed, the Greek battleship and one of the heavy cruisers was unavailable. And German and Italian reports from Egypt had grown very accurate in the past two months. Apparently there was a mole of some short in Cairo. This presented opportunities...
