December 1941 (74 page)

Roosevelt had also sent a Christmas message to the Armed Forces of America and if there was anyone who needed prayers at the time, it was the boys and girls in blue and khaki:

To the Army and Navy: In the crisis which confronts the Nation, our people have full faith in the steadfastness and the high devotion to duty demonstrated by the men of all ranks of our Army and Navy. You are setting an inspiring example for all the people, as you have done so often in the past. In sending my personal Christmas greeting to you I feel that I should add a special measure of gratitude to the admiration and affection which I have always felt and have expressed in other years. I am confident that during the year which lies before us you will triumph on all fronts against the forces of evil which are arrayed against us.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Commander in Chief.
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That evening, Churchill joined the Roosevelts for Christmas Eve dinner, where instead of the British favorite of goose, he dined on turkey and cranberries.
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CHAPTER 25
THE TWENTY-FIFTH OF DECEMBER

Government and U.S. Forces May Leave Manila;
200,000 Japanese Estimated Landed on Luzon

Washington Post

Japs Claim Capture of Hong Kong

Birmingham News

Submarines Attack More U.S. Vessels

Evening Star

War Cast Shadow Over Christmas Joy Throughout Land

New York Times

T
he enemy was closing in on Douglas MacArthur from what seemed to be all sides. Enemy troops were coming ashore at Lamon Bay and Cavite, both near Manila, and a half dozen other hard-to-pronounce but easy-to-understand locations. Ferocious ground fighting was everywhere and large armadas of transports filled with fresh Japanese troops ready to come ashore were reported south of Manila. No one in the American military had anticipated or prepared for this avalanche of enemy soldiers. They certainly hadn't been sighted.

Japanese planes had swarmed over Luzon most of the day and were deliberately bombing the business and civilian areas of the island. Discussions were held to consider declaring Manila an “open city” so as to halt the bombing. Brussels, Paris, Belgrade, and other cities had been declared in such a manner so as to save the lives of civilians while preserving the culture and architecture of those cities. The Quezon government fled the city.
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MacArthur was now facing possibly 200,000 Japanese fighting men who had landed on the island since the beginning of hostilities, and they were advancing quickly on American and Filipino strongholds. “Japanese hordes swarmed toward Manila from all directions today and this city was thrown into a supreme battle for its freedom on Christmas Day. . . .” A message the night before “told of heavy Japanese reinforcements lying off Luzon; at least 100 enemy transports accompanied by strong naval and air escort. . . .”
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The War Department issued a brutally frank statement. “Though American and Philippine troops are greatly outnumbered, they are offering stiff resistance to the Japanese forces in a series of delaying actions.”
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Delaying actions only meant to delay the inevitable. The number of War Department communiqués was going up, but American morale was going down.

Given the situation on the ground, the U.S. announced that it might have to withdraw its forces from the Philippines. That made it one of the lousiest Christmases for Franklin Roosevelt and the American citizenry in recent memory, certainly since 1777 and Valley Forge, in which the embers of a newborn nation were nearly snuffed out, or the Christmases of 1812 and 1813 or 1861 through 1863, again when those embers almost died.

There was an additional sense of loss and distress because of Wake Island. Post-mortems were filed in many papers, speculating on what happened to the surviving marines. “What became of the little garrison is not known.”
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The Japanese were not known for their charity toward prisoners of war. Profiles of the fearless commander, Major James Devereaux, along with his wife and ten children began appearing in the press. Devereaux was a career Marine and hailed from a family of military men.

Military leaders had wanted a base on Wake because it had a protected cove which they were dredging of coral heads and, once constructed and outfitted with oil tankers, runways, buildings, docks and the like, would be an excellent forward base of operations against the Japanese in the Pacific. It was a link in a chain from the West Coast to Hawaii to Midway to Wake to Guam to Manila. Now the chain was broken.

Just a few days earlier, no one in America knew Wake Island from Treasure Island. It was a dot in the middle of the vast Pacific and only became more widely known after Pan Am had erected a seaplane operation there a few years earlier. Human footprints were rarely found on the island. It was a strategic defeat in a young war in which America had yet to win anything. In relation to its small size, the island's loss was an outsized psychological blow to the morale of Americans, who knew the flag of the Rising Sun now flew over former U.S. territory. The defenders of Wake had held out two days longer than the defenders of the Alamo, a fact which the marines noted with solemn if disconsolate pride.

The tattered British garrison at Hong Kong finally succumbed to the Japanese as well, making this Christmas lousy for Winston Churchill and the British too. The Japanese government made the announcement of the British capitulation, and London did not deny the claim. Tokyo's propagandists twisted the knife when they announced on state radio that the island was a “Christmas gift” from the military to the Japanese people.
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Of course the Japanese were not Christian but rather Shinto and Buddhist.

“The last-ditch defense of Hong Kong has broken under relentless assault by land, sea and air and the crown colony which for a century has been a British bastion off the southeast China coast has fallen to the Japanese. So ends a great fight against overwhelming odds,” the British Colonial Office said.
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By the early evening of the twenty-fifth, Japanese officials were meeting with the British governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, to discuss the terms of surrender and the disposition of civilians and combatants.
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A confidential memo from British Ambassador Lord Halifax to Franklin Roosevelt spelled out the problems in Hong Kong. “During previous 24 hours enemy kept up incessant attacks and local raids accompanied by intensive bombardment by artillery mortars and dive bombers. Troops very tired.” Halifax told FDR that water had been cut off, “food supplies greatly reduced by enemy action.” The memo went on to review the world, in the eyes of the British, and with the exception of Libya, and it wasn't very pretty.
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Churchill was quickly becoming a popular boarder in the White House. He often got up early as he was still on London time—five hours ahead—but he worked diligently and quietly, armed with an endless supply of Cuban cigars. Around 4:00 p.m., he would take a break and retire for a nap that would last an hour or two and then go back to work, often by transatlantic telephone or cable, until 1:00 a.m. “He has endeared himself to the White House staff with his sense of humor, his entertaining quips, and an amazing vitality and capacity for work.”
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He was also without shame. As Jon Meacham noted in “Franklin and Winston,” “Churchill, fresh from his bath, was in his guest room at the White House, pacing about naked—‘completely starkers,' recalled Patrick Kinna, a Churchill assistant who was taking dictation from the dripping prime minister. There was a tap at the door, and Churchill said, ‘Come in.' Roosevelt then appeared and, seeing the nude Churchill, apologized and began to retreat. Stopping him, Churchill said, ‘You see Mr. President, I have nothing to hide from you.' Roosevelt loved it.

‘Chuckling like a school boy, he told me about it later,' said presidential secretary Grace Tully. ‘You know Grace . . . I just happened to think of it now. He's pink and white all over.'”
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Churchill went to church in the same car as Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. The prime minister was in “dark blue topcoat” and carried a cane for the 11:00 a.m. service. Security was extremely tight and government agents and police were everywhere; only a few of the onlookers caught a glimpse of the two men. Many regular congregants had to stand outside of their own place of worship, the Foundry Methodist Church, unable to get in. FDR walked in holding a cane in one hand and the arm of his ever-present naval aide, Captain John Beardall on the other. While in church, they were spotted singing out the carols, Churchill wearing his reading glasses and FDR with his trademark pince-nez eyewear.
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After the service, Churchill and Roosevelt spent much of the day in war planning. The White House let it leak out that Roosevelt was “too busy” to open his Christmas gifts but even the most ardent Rooseveltians had to roll their eyes at this too obvious public relations ploy. “Although a day behind schedule, aides said he expected to find a spot during today's heavy engagement calendar to call Fala, his Scotty, and open their presents.”
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The White House looked surreal that evening. Most windows had been shrouded in blackout fabric as seen from the south. No other lights appeared except those on the Christmas tree on the South Lawn and some ground lights that illuminated the South Portico.

Given the news of the day, Christmas dinner was somber, though the meal itself was sumptuous enough. The menu included oysters on the half shell, soup with sherry, roast turkey with chestnut dressing, giblet gravy, venison sausage, olives and fresh vegetables, sweet potato casserole, grapefruit salad, cheese crescents, plum pudding, cake and ice cream, and even bon bons.
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Churchill and the Roosevelts were joined by Harry Hopkins and his daughter, Diane, for the dinner, along with 60 guests according to his schedule. It was followed by “movies and carols.” That night, he and Churchill met alone in the Prime Minister's room for over and hour, past 1:00 a.m.
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Hopkins' wife, Barbara, had died of cancer in 1937, and he and his daughter now lived in a suite in the private residence of the White House. Hopkins had three older sons, all of whom served, including Stephen, a Marine, who was killed in the Pacific.

Following dinner the plan was to call friends and family members separated by the war. The Roosevelts were keen to speak with their far-flung sons. Via a transatlantic phone call, the prime minister's wife, Clementine, and their daughters “sent their greetings” to their father and husband.
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Roosevelt also sent “Mrs. Churchill” a cablegram wishing her a Merry Christmas. “It is a joy to have Winston. He seems very well and I want you to know how grateful I am to you for letting him come. Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
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Clementine Churchill responded two days later, thanking the Roosevelts for their kindnesses, mentioning “how good you both have been” to her husband.
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Roosevelt received a note from Lord Halifax conveying the Christmas wishes of “His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent: ‘My very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year—George.”
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Even with a world at war, Christmas was celebrated around the globe in some fashion or another, even as in many war zones and battle fields no truces had been called. The Philippines were, it was noted, “the only Christian Nation in [the] Orient.”
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A little girl there asked her mother if the Japanese would allow Santa Claus through. No packages for servicemen had made it through the Japanese blockade. Of course, no lights were allowed on to celebrate the day of enlightenment.
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“Lack of food and materials, the separation of families, the blackouts, and other restrictions reduced festivities in many lands.”
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Even so, pilgrims streamed into Bethlehem as bells pealed “amid the crags of the Judean Hills” to attend services at the Church of the Nativity, praying for peace on an earth that, as of December 25, had virtually no peace. “Hundreds of pilgrims, among them uniformed Czechs, Polish, Greek, Yugloslav, Free French and British soldiers, stood outside the adjacent church of the Covenant of St. Catherine where the Latin patriarch, Msgr. Louis Barlassina, intoned the pontifical high mass accompanied by a Franciscan choir.”
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Bethlehem was celebrating a Christmas for those who prayed for peace more than anyone else, the soldier.

The atheistic Soviets saw the propaganda value in Christmas. They distributed cards with the caption “Tannenbaum, Tannenbaum” complete with a “dead German soldier under a lighted, snow-laden Christmas tree.” The newspaper of the Russian Army, the
Red Star
, “published its own Christmas card. It portrayed Santa Claus giving Hitler a calendar opened at the date December 22. It said ‘Congratulations Herr Führer! Today is just six months since the start of your six-week march on Moscow.”
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In England, Brits went back to London to attend religious services in many bombed-out places of worship. They were warned that the Germans may attack at any time but returned nonetheless to their “shell-bruised churches.” Worldwide, British subjects were celebrating Christmas Day as best they could. “In Africa the British troops who were pursuing the Axis legions westward in Libya had no time for Christmas celebrations, except for a hasty gulp of plundered Italian and German wines which they found on the way. Hundreds of cases of beer and other luxuries, however, were flown from Egypt to British units in the rear.”
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