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1 DECEMBER 1996
A recovery team locates the remains of crew members killed when Royal Canadian Air Force Dakota KN-563 crashed during a monsoon on June 21, 1945. The plane had been flying supplies to British troops in Burma (now Myanmar).

2 DECEMBER 1968
The Canadian submarine Rainbow (2^nd) is commissioned. Purchased from the United States, she was originally known as the USS Argonaut, launched in 1944.

HMCS Bonaventure

PHOTO: CF PHOTO

3 DECEMBER 1969
Tragedy strikes as the Canadian aircraft carrier Bonaventure is being decommissioned. The ship’s aviation fuel tanks are emptied and cleaned, but one tank does not vent properly, and the first two sailors who enter the tank are overcome by deadly fumes. Two other sailors lose their lives during the rescue attempt.

HMCS Sioux

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

4 DECEMBER 1950
Canadian warships Cayuga, Athabaskan (2^nd) and Sioux are part of a United Nations force covering the withdrawal at Chinnampo, Korea.

5 DECEMBER 1944
After entering the city the day before, Canadians settle into the historic city of Ravenna, Italy.

6 DECEMBER 1917
Canadians sailors exhibit great bravery when the French-registered SS Mont Blanc, laden with explosives, collides with the Belgian relief ship Imo in Halifax Harbour. Sparks from the collision ignite highly flammable benzol aboard Mont Blanc. Sailors from HMCS Niobe try to tow the burning ship away from the crowded waterfront, but a violent explosion rips into the ship and destroys much of the city. More than 2,000 people die.

7 DECEMBER 1941
Japanese forces attack the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

8 DECEMBER 1941
Japanese aircraft attack Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport.

9 DECEMBER 1941
A key position on the Shing Mun Redoubt is attacked and later captured by Japanese forces invading Hong Kong.

Major-General Hoffmeister

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

10 DECEMBER 1943
In Italy, Brigadier B.M. Hoffmeister orders the Loyal Edmonton Regiment to secure an intermediate objective half way across the San Leonardo plateau. The regiment is ordered to push on to the Cider Crossroads, a key intersection near Ortona.

11 DECEMBER 1941
Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr. of the Royal Canadian Air Force is killed when his Spitfire collides with another aircraft during training. Magee is best known as the author of the sonnet High Flight, one of the most famous poems of the Second World War. “Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.”

12 DECEMBER 1944
In Italy, Canadian forces fight across steeply diked watercourses. After 10 days of combat, the Canadians reach the Senio River, successfully diverting German reserves away from the main Allied effort near Bologna.

13 DECEMBER 1943
The Canadian River-class frigate Saint John is commissioned.

Major Paul Triquet

PHOTO: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

14 DECEMBER 1943
Major Paul Triquet earns the Victoria Cross for his valour and bravery during the fighting at Casa Berardi near Ortona, Italy.

15 DECEMBER 1956
The Canadian destroyer Saguenay (2^nd) is commissioned.

16 DECEMBER 1972
Huron (2^nd), a Tribal-class destroyer, is commissioned into the Canadian navy.

17 DECEMBER 1939
In Ottawa, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand sign the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan agreement.

18 DECEMBER 1941
Japanese forces invade the island of Hong Kong.

Company Sergeant-Major John Robert Osborn

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

19 DECEMBER 1941
Company Sergeant-Major John Robert Osborn of the Winnipeg Grenadiers earns the Victoria Cross during fighting at Hong Kong. After a brave rearguard action on Mount Butler, Osborn dies after throwing himself onto a grenade that threatens the lives of fellow his soldiers.

20 DECEMBER 1915
Continually pressed by Turkish forces, the Newfoundland Regiment is evacuated from Suvla Bay, Gallipoli.

21 DECEMBER 1943
The Second Canadian Infantry Brigade, supported by Three Rivers Regt. tanks, enters Ortona, Italy. The Canadians soon encounter fresh troops from the elite 1^st Parachute Division. For seven days the brigade fights house to house, using innovative tactics until the Germans, defeated in the streets and nearly outflanked to the west by 1^st Cdn. Inf. Bde., abandon the town.

22 DECEMBER 1977
Ottawa approves construction of new naval frigates, but it will take years to get the ships into the water.

23 DECEMBER 1915
As the second Christmas of the war approaches, the soldiers of the Canadian Corps suffer through a cold and wet winter.

Survivors from HMCS Clayoquot.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

24 DECEMBER 1944
The Canadian minesweeper Clayoquot is torpedoed by U-806 off Halifax. Seventy-six survive. Eight perish.

25 DECEMBER 1941
Hong Kong surrenders to the Japanese.

26 DECEMBER 2004
Approximately 230,000 die as a tsunami, triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean, slams into the coastlines of more than a dozen countries.

HMCS Chilliwack

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

27 DECEMBER 1942
The Canadian destroyer St. Laurent and corvettes Battleford, Chilliwack and Napanee sink U-356 in the North Atlantic while escorting a westbound convoy. Credit for the sinking only comes after the war.

28 DECEMBER 1961
No. 446 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force is established at North Bay, Ont. It is the first of two units to be equipped with BOMARC missile.

29 DECEMBER 1944
Royal Canadian Air Force Flight Lieutenant Richard Joseph Audet of 411 Squadron shoots down five German planes in one action.

Sir Winston Churchill

PHOTO: NATIONAL FILM BOARD

30 DECEMBER 1941
In Ottawa, Winston Churchill delivers an inspirational speech that helps galvanize wartime resolve.

31 DECEMBER 1943
The Royal Canadian Air Force is at its peak with 215,000 people, including 15,000 members of the Women’s Division.

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