Air Operations, Bismarcks43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack Rabaul and the Lakunai airfield at Rabaul. [ | ]Air Operations, EuropeBOMBER COMMANDDaylight Ops:
Air Operations, New GuineaV Bomber Command B-25s attack the airfield at Lae. [ | ]Air Operations, SolomonsAirSoPac P-39s strafe the airfield at Munda Point, New Georgia. [ | ]Air Operations, Tunisia
Eastern FrontSOUTHERN SECTORPaulus is brought under sustained attack as the Don and Stalingrad Fronts probe the German defenses. Lucht's 336th Infantry Division takes up defensive positions along the Chir north of Balck's 11th Panzer Division which is at Nizhne Chirskaya. Knobelsdorf intends to operate in tandem with Hoth's relief attack from Kotelnikovo. [ | ]Holland, PoliticsQueen Wilhelmina promises domestic autonomy within the Dutch Commonwealth to the Indonesians after the war. []New GuineaAfter more vicious fighting the Allied troops manage to reach the beach on the east side of Buna. They now are waiting for some tanks to arrive to renew their attack on the Japanese. The Australian forces again attack at Gona but with little success. Japanese attempts to push a relieving force along the coast from farther west make some progress. The troops manning the road-block on the Soputa-Sanananda track, surrounded by the Japanese, are almost out of rations and ammunition. [ | ]North AfricaTUNISIAThe Allied forces are pushed back near Medjez el Bab by renewed German attacks which continue for the next 4 days. 2 German Panzer columns attempt to retake Medjez, 56 km southwest of Tunis in torrential rains. Grant tanks and Allied fighters halt 1 column, and the second is smashed by artillery in the outskirts of the town. German troops penetrate the positions of Combat Command B, US 1st Arm Div, in the El Guessa heights sector. Combat Command B is cut off and attempts to escape across the Borj Toun Bridge, only to lose most of its vehicles in deep mud. The battle of Tebourba causes heavy Allied losses: 72 tanks and 1,100 prisoners, according to an Italian bulletin, not the 25 tanks and 400 prisoners originally claimed. [ | ]United States, Home FrontClaude R. Wichard is appointed War Food Administrator. [ | ] |
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[December 5th - December 7th] |