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.

Air Operations, Tunisia

• XII Bomber Command B-17s, escorted by P-38s, attack shipping and port facilities at Bizerte.
• A-20s, escorted by P-38s, attack German Army tanks in the Teboura-El Bathan area.
• 2 Ju-52 tri-motor transports are downed by a pair of 14th Fighter Group P-38 pilots near Sfax.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The British liner Ceramic (18,713t) is sunk by U-515. Stormy weather prevents the launching of lifeboats. More than 500 people are lost. There is 1 survivor.
• The US freighter James McKay (6762t), attempting to join Convoy HX-217 in heavy seas east of Newfoundland, is torpedoed and sunk by U-600. The U-boat reports seeing two boats clearing the ship's side with survivors, none of the 48-man crew or the 14-man Armed Guard are ever found.

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 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

The Australian 30th Brigade relieves the Australian 16th Brigade on the Sanananda front where troops are greatly weakend by malaria as well as protracted fighting. Companies C, D. and L of the US 126th Infantry are relieved in the front line by the Australian 49th and 55/53rd Battalions. Americans, except those garrisoning the roadblock and holding positions west of it, are ordered to the rear of the Australian forces. Fresh Australian troops attack at once toward the block but cannon reach it. A further effort to supply the block is also futile.

Col Clarence M. Tomlinson takes command of Urbana Force, relieving Col Grose. After heavy air and artillery preparation, Urbana Force again attacks Buna Village and clears a trench at the southern edge. Elements on the coast repel enemy attacks from the village and mission. Gen Eichelberger, who is in the process of moving his headquarters from Henahamtubi to Simemi Village and of combining the headquarters of I Corps and the 32nd Division into Headquarters Buna Force, selects Brig George F. Wootten, CG Australian 18th Brigade, who is at Milne Bay, to command future operations of Warren Force.

Montgomery at Benghazi

Pacific

The US submarine Kingfish (SS-234) sinks the Japanese transport No. 3 Hino Maru (4391t) west of the Bonins.

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