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Military History

Legend has it that on the night of 2 Dec 1777, Philadelphia housewife and nurse Lydia Darragh single-handedly saved the lives of General George Washington and his Continental Army when she overheard the British planning a surprise attack on Washington’s army for the following day. During the occupation of Philadelphia, British General William Howe stationed his headquarters across the street from the Darragh home, and when Howe’s headquarters proved too small to hold meetings, he commandeered a large upstairs room in the Darraghs’ house. Although uncorroborated, family legend holds that Mrs. Darragh would eavesdrop and take notes on the British meetings from an adjoining room and would conceal the notes by sewing them into her coat before passing them onto American troops stationed outside the city. On the evening of December 2, 1777, Darragh overheard the British commanders planning a surprise attack on Washington’s army at Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, for December 4 and 5. Using a cover story that she needed to buy flour from a nearby mill just outside the British line, Darragh passed the information to an American officer the following day. The British marched towards Whitemarsh on the evening of December 4, 1777, and were surprised to find the Continental Army waiting for them. After three inconclusive days of skirmishing, General Howe chose to return his troops to Philadelphia. It’s said that members of the Central Intelligence Agency still tell the story of Lydia Darragh, one of the first spies in American history.

On 4 Dec 1917, well-known psychiatrist W.H. Rivers presented his report The Repression of War Experience, based on his work at Britain’s Craiglockhart War Hospital for Neurasthenic Officers, to the Royal School of Medicine, on this day in 1917. Craiglockhart, near Edinburgh, was one of the most famous hospitals used to treat soldiers who suffered from psychological traumas as a result of their service on the battlefield. By the end of WWI, the army had been forced to deal with 80,000 cases of “shell shock,” a term first used in 1917 by a medical officer named Charles Myers to describe the physical damage done to soldiers on the front lines during exposure to heavy bombardment. It soon became clear, however, that the various symptoms of shell shock including debilitating anxiety, persistent nightmares, and physical afflictions ranging from diarrhea to loss of sight were appearing even in soldiers who had never been directly under bombardment, and the meaning of the term was broadened to include not only the physical but the psychological effects produced by the experience of combat. The most important duty of doctors like Rivers, as prescribed by the British army, was to get the men fit and ready to return to battle. Nevertheless, only one-fifth of the men treated in hospitals for shell shock ever resumed military duty.

On 7 Dec 1941, at 7:55 am Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appeared out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on our naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against our Pacific fleet and drew us irrevocably into WWII.

Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and over 200 aircraft destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 wounded, many while valiantly attempting to repulse the attack. Japan’s losses were 30 planes, five midget submarines, and fewer than 100 men. Fortunately for us, all three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers.

On 8 Dec 1941, as America’s Pacific fleet lay in ruins at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt requested, and received, a declaration of war against Japan. “Yesterday,” the president proclaimed, “December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” Roosevelt’s 10-minute speech, ending with an oath–“So help us God”—was greeted in the House by thunderous applause and stamping of feet. Within one hour, the president had his declaration of war.

On 9 Dec 1987, in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, the first riots of the Palestinian intifada, or “shaking off” in Arabic, began one day after an Israeli truck crashed into a station wagon carrying Palestinian workers in Gaza, killing four and wounding 10. Gaza Palestinians saw the incident as a deliberate act of retaliation against the killing of a Jew in Gaza several days before, and on December 9 they took to the streets in protest, burning tires and throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli police and troops. At Jabalya, an Israeli army patrol car fired on Palestinian attackers, killing a 17-year-old and wounding 16 others. The next day, crack Israeli paratroopers were sent into Gaza to quell the violence, and riots spread to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

On 10 Dec 1941, during WWII, 4,000 Japanese troops landed on the Philippine Islands, while Japanese aircraft sunk the British warships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Guam, an American-controlled territory, was also seized. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill finally exclaimed, “We have lost control of the sea.”

On 10 Dec 1864, during our Civil War, Union General William T. Sherman completed his “March to the Sea” arriving in front of Savannah, Georgia.

On 10 Dec 1898, in France, the Treaty of Paris was signed, formally ending the Spanish-American War and granting the US its first overseas empire. The once-proud Spanish empire was virtually dissolved as we took over much of Spain’s overseas holdings. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to us, the Philippines were bought for $20 million, and Cuba became a US protectorate. Philippine insurgents who fought against Spanish rule during the war immediately turned their guns against the new occupiers, and 10 times more US troops died suppressing the Philippines than in defeating Spain.

On 11 Dec 1941, Adolf Hitler declared war on the US, bringing America, which had been neutral, into the European conflict. The bombing of Pearl Harbor surprised even Germany. Although Hitler had made an oral agreement with his Axis partner Japan that Germany would join a war against the US, he was uncertain as to how the war would be engaged. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor answered that question.

On 13 Dec 2003, after spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured. Saddam’s downfall began on March 20, 2003, when we led an invasion force into Iraq to topple his government, which had controlled the country for more than 20 years.

Despite proclaiming in early March 2003 that, “it is without doubt that the faithful will be victorious against aggression,” Saddam went into hiding soon after the American invasion, speaking to his people only through an occasional audiotape, and his government soon fell. After declaring Saddam the most important of a list of his regime’s 55 most-wanted members, we began an intense search for the former leader. On July 22, Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay, who many believe he was grooming to one day fill his shoes, were killed when US soldiers raided a villa in which they were staying in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Five months later, on December 13, 2003, our soldiers found Saddam Hussein hiding in a six-to-eight-foot deep hole, nine miles outside his hometown of Tikrit. The man once obsessed with hygiene was found to be unkempt, with a bushy beard and matted hair. He did not resist and was uninjured during the arrest. A soldier at the scene described him as “a man resigned to his fate.”

On 16 Dec 1773, in Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded three British tea ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

The midnight raid, popularly known as the “Boston Tea Party,” was in protest of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the East India Company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders, and many colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny.

When three tea ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver, arrived in Boston Harbor, the colonists demanded that the tea be returned to England. After Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused, Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized the “tea party” with about 60 members of the Sons of Liberty, his underground resistance group. The British tea dumped in Boston Harbor on the night of December 16 was valued at some $18,000.

On 16 Dec 1930, in the wake of the massive Chinese intervention in the Korean War, President Harry Truman declared a state of emergency. Proclaiming that “Communist imperialism” threatened the world’s people, Truman called upon the American people to help construct an “arsenal of freedom.”

In November, there was the intervention of hundreds of thousands of communist Chinese troops. Prior to their arrival, our forces seemed on the verge of victory in Korea. Just days after General Douglas MacArthur declared an “end the war offensive,” however, massive elements of the Chinese army smashed into the American lines and drove our forces back. The “limited war” in Korea threatened to turn into a widespread conflict.

The Soviet Union, which Truman blamed for most of the current world problems in the course of his speech, blasted us for “warmongering.” Congress, most of America’s allies, and the American people appeared to be strongly supportive of the President’s tough talk and actions. Truman’s speech, and the events preceding it, indicated that the Cold War–so long a battle of words and threats-had become an actual military reality. The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953.

On 16 Dec 1944, during WWII, with the Anglo-Americans closing in on Germany from the west and the Soviets approaching from the east, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered a massive attack against the western Allies by three German armies—this was the Battle of the Bulge.

Fighting was particularly fierce at the town of Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne Division and part of the 10th Armored Division were encircled by German forces within the bulge. On December 22, the German commander besieging the town demanded that the Americans surrender or face annihilation. US Major General Anthony McAuliffe prepared a typed reply that read simply:

To the German Commander:

Nuts!

From the American Commander

The Americans who delivered the message explained to the perplexed Germans that the one-word reply was translatable as “Go to hell!” Heavy fighting continued at Bastogne, but the 101st held on. On December 26, Bastogne was relieved by elements of General Patton’s 3rd Army. A major Allied counteroffensive began at the end of December, and by January 21 the Germans had been pushed back to their original line.

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