Air Operations, Bismarcks

43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack a tanker off Gasmata.

Air Operations, Europe

• 36 aircraft lay mines from the southern Biscay coast to the Frisians. This is the first operation of this kind by Group 4 aircraft.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-25s attack targets in and around Buna and the airfield at Lae. 43d Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack a ship off Gona.
• Japanese Navy bombers attack the US Army’s 2nd Field Hospital in Port Moresby in retaliation for the inadvertent bombing of a Japanese field hospital at Buna some days earlier.
• 8th and 35th Fighter group P-39s down 6 D3A 'Val' dive-bombers and 5 A6M Zeros over Buna between 1120 and 1150 hours. A little later, between 1320 and 1330 hours, 49th Fighter Group P-40s down 6 Japanese Navy bombers, also over Buna.

Air Operations, North Africa

Axis aircraft bomb the Philippeville harbor and the RAF bomb Tripoli.

Air Operations, Pacific

Japanese aircraft make 3 attacks on US and Australian field hospitals in the Buna-Gona area of New Guinea. Dates of the attacks: November 28, December 2 and December 7. There are 36 fatal casualties from the raids.

Air Operations, Solomons

13 Marine Corps SBDs attack 11 Japanese destroyer-transports in New Georgia Sound at 1635 hours. 1 destroyer is severely damaged while 2 others are slightly damaged. 1 SBD is shot down by an F1M 'Pete' reconnaissance float plane and its crew is lost.

Battle of the Atlantic

The liner Ceramic (18,700t) is sunk by U-515. Stormy weather prevents the launching of lifeboats. More than 500 people are lost. There is 1 survivor.

Eastern Front

There are several Soviet attacks to gain bridgeheads over the Chir River and threaten the German airfields which are the bases for the supply operation to Stalingrad. The German 11th Pzr Div is in the area and a sequence of maneuver battles it brings the Soviet advance to a halt, but only at considerable cost.

The Germans unleash a fierce counterattack against the southern edge of the 41st Army's Belyi salient, the 19th Panzer Division slicing through the Soviet lines to isolate the I Mechanized and VI Rifle Corps. Bitter fighting rages as the Soviets fight to prevent encirclement.

Elements of the 5th Tank Army force their way across the Chir near Surovikino, to the left of the 336th Infantry Division. Balck's 11th Panzer Division moves up and its lead units check the Soviet advance. The 5th Shock Army arrives to reinforce the embattled units along the Chir Front.

France

British Marine Commandos use canoes to attack the Gironde River estuary in France.

Guadalcanal

The third drum supply mission begins. The 7 destroyers are sent under a divisional commander, Capt Torajiro Sato. The Cactus Air force finds the force and attacks. Sato reports in the night that a bomb blew in the side of the Nowaki. It is detached and sent back under tow by the Naganami escorted by 2 other destroyers. As Tanaka arrives on the scene he finds the destroyers under concentrated attack by PT boats. Float planes from damaged cruisers are aiding them by finding the supply ships and dropping flares which illuminate the targets for the PT boats. This harrassment causes many casualties and persuades Capt Sato to turn around and go back to Buin without delivering his supplies. Tanaka concurs on the dscision.

Japanese machine gun position manned by seamen of the Imperial Navy on Guadalcanal.

Japanese Sailors on Guadalcanal

I-3 leaves Buin for a resupply mission.

US 155-mm howitzers pound Japanese positions from dawn to dusk. The action to commemorate the Pearl Harbor anniversary is called 'Hate Shoot'

Mediterranean

During the night an attempt by 3 Italian 'pigs', mini-submarines, to enter Gibraltar harbor fails. Of the 6 men who compose the crews, 3 are killed in action, 2 are taken prisoner and only 1 succeeds in returning with his craft to the support ship Olterra.

New Guinea

There are fierce Japanese counterattacks at Buna which are only just beaten off by the US forces. The Australian 30th Bde takes the place of the 16th on the Sanananda front. The 16th has seen action for a lengthy period of time and a large number of troops are sick with malaria. Australian efforts to relieve the Americans cut off in the road-block between Soputa and Sanananda fail. The other American front-line troops are replaced by Australian units.

General Montgomery, GOC 8th Army , inspecting a coastal defence gun at Benghazi, 7 December 1942.

Montgomery at Benghazi

United States, Production

The USS New Jersey (BB-62) is launched, the largest battleship in the US Navy with a displacement of 54,889 tons and featuring a main armament of 9 16-in guns set in 3 triple turrets