Air Operations, Bismarcks

1 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17 attacks a Japanese submarine at sea near Rabaul.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-25s and A-20s and 35th Fighter Group P-400s attack Buna and Sanananda.
• During the night 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack the airfields at Lae and Salamaua.

Air Operations, Solomons

• Following several weeks of intense photographic surveillance, AirSoPac intelligence officers confirm that the Japanese are well along in the construction of a well-camouflaged airfield at Munda Point, New Georgia.
• 8 Marine Corps SBDs and 7 VMSB-131 TBFs attack 10 Japanese destroyer-transports in New Georgia Sound. 1 destroyer is slightly damaged and 1 TBF and its crew are lost. 2 F4Fs each down 3 F1M 'Pete' reconnaissance float planes and 347th Fighter Group P-39s down 4 F1M 'Petes' over New Georgia Sound, all around 1830 hours.

Battle of the Atlantic

The British destroyer Penylan, escorting Convoy PW-257, is sunk in the English Channel by German motor torpedo boat S-115 with the loss of 36 of her crew.

Eastern Front

Russian troops break through German positions west of Rzhev.

The 5th Tank Army has established a bridgehead across the Chir at Nizhne Kalinovski. Romanenko halts to regroup and consolidate. The 51st Army launches strong attacks upon the rail terminals at Kotelnikovo, bringing the sidings under heavy fire. Elements of the LVII Panzer Corps are detraining as the 51st Attacks and in fierce fighting it throws the Soviets back. The arrival of the 6th Panzer Division surprises the 51st but also alerts the Stavka to the concentration of fresh German forces on this axis.

As the fighting escalates, the Stavka confirms its intentions for Operation SATURN. The offensive calls for the Southwest and Voronezh Fronts to isolate the Italian 8th Army and advances south to take the German airbases supplying Stalingrad before Rostov is captured and Army Group Don and A against the Azov Sea and in the Caucasus.

Guadalcanal

The movement of Aola Force, less the 2nd Raider Battalion, to Koli Point, where an airfield is to be constructed, is completed. Aola Force is joined by the 18th Naval Construction Battalion and the rest of the 9th Defense Battalion.

Tanaka in his flagship the Naganami along with 10 other destroyers sails again to supply Guadalcanal. 7 ships are loaded w/supplies, 3 are for escort. 12 Zeros are also assigned to escort duty. Late in the afternoon this force is attacked by American fighters, bombers and torpedo bombers. Each side loses several planes. A near miss on the destroyer Makinami causes minor damage and kills several men but does not impair the ship's capacity. The fleet steams on. They reach the Guadalcanal coast at midnight and begin dumping their drums overboard. The only opposition encountered comes from several PT boats, but the 3 escorts keep them away and the supply ships do their job. The supply mission is not really a success because of Vandegrift's troops on shore which keep a large portion of the Japanese troops from reaching the shore to retrieve the drums. Only 300 of the 1,500 dropped actually come into Japanese hands. The rest are washed out to sea or sunk by machine gun fire of the Cactus Air Force.

Mediterranean

The German steamer Menes (5609t) is sunk by torpedo off the Libyan coast.

New Georgia

American bombers based on Henderson Field begin an almost daily series of raids on Munda Point to prevent the Japanese from constructing an airfield.

New Guinea

The road-block set up by the US 126th Inf on the Soputa-Sanananda track is now threatened by unceasing Japanese assaults. MacArthur has ordered the troops to prepare a large-scale offensive to begin on December 5th.

North Africa

During the night Gen Jürgen von Arnim's German forces from the 10th Pzr attack again and succeed in taking Tebourba. The 11th Brigade, British 78th Div, whose positions are penetrated suffers heavy losses and withdraws north of Medjez el Bab. Combat Command B, US 1st Armored Div, engages the enemy on the El Guessa heights, southwest of Tebourba. In the south, French and American forces take Faïd Pass.

A Valentine tank crew in Tunisia reading letters by the side of their vehicle, December 1942.

Letters From Home