Air Operations, Europe

• 5 Mosquitos make individual flights to Holland and France attacking mostly trains. There are no losses.

• 227 aircraft are sent to Turin: 115 Lancasters, 47 Halifaxes, 40 Wellingtons and 25 Stirlings.
• This is a disappointing raid as the Pathfinders are not as efficient as on the previous night; smoke from the fires still burning from the previous night make marking the target difficult; reports from the ground say 73 people are killed and 99 are injured.
• 2 Wellingtons and 1 Lancaster are lost.

• 2 Stirlings lay mines in the Frisians and there are 12 OTU sorties.
• 1 OTU Whitley is lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-26s take part in a final preparatory bombardment at Buna as Allied ground forces prepare to mount an all-out ground assault.
• V Fighter Command P-40s attack targets along the Sanananda-Soputa Trail.
• Allied aircraft take part in a pre-assault bombardment that helps an Australian Army brigade mount a successful final assault on the last Japanese Army defenses at Gona.
• The 374th Troop Carrier Group airlifts a US Army infantry batallion to the Buna front.

Air Operations, Solomons

AirSoPac B-17s attack the airfield at Munda Point, New Georgia.

Battle of the Atlantic

The British corvette Marigold, escorting Convoy MKS-3Y, is sunk by a German aircraft torpedo west of the Gibraltar Straits with the loss of 49 crew members. 43 of the crew are rescued.

Eastern Front

The German pincers at Belyi meet, trapping the I Mechanized and the VI Rifle Corps.

Fighting on the Chir intensifies as the 11th Panzer Division counterattacks at Oblivskoye, crushing another Soviet bridgehead. The 5th Tank Army suffers heavy casualties as it attempts to break through the Chir line.

The pressure against the 6th Army relaxes as the Soviets assess the results of the last few days' fighting. It is becoming apparent to the Stavka that the 90,000 men they thought they had encircled are in fact closer to a quarter of a million. This impacts upon Operation SATURN as the encirclement battle demand a greater number of forces. Therefore, the Stavka modifies the objectives to the destruction of the Italian 8th Army and isolation of Group Hollidt. The new plan is codenamed LITTLE SATURN.

Guadalcanal

The exhausted 1st Marine Div under Gen Alexander A. Vandergrift is relieved by Gen Alexander M. Patch's XIV Corps. The 1st Marine Division is gradually withdrawn during the month for rehabilitation. The Marines begin to leave for Australia and, as not all Patch's force is assembled, there is a continued lull in the land fighting. By the end of December 58,000 US soldiers will be on Guadalcanal opposed by about 20,000 poorly equipped Japanese.

US Army Major General Alexander Patch (center) succeeds Vandegrift (right) on 9 December 1942.

Patch Takes Over From Vandegrift

The Marines leave Guadalcanal by assault craft for the ships waiting offshore, December 1942

Marines Leaving Guadalcanal

On its resupply mission, I-3 surfaces off Cape Esperance and is attacked by PT-59. The submarine is hit by 2 torpedoes and blows up leaving only one ensign to swim ashore to Guadalcanal to report. The submarine supply system continues and is more successful than supply by destroyer. The problem is the amount of supplies is not enough for more than a drop in the bucket for the 15,000 starving troops on Guadalcanal.

New Guinea

After bombardment by aircraft and artillery the Australian 21st Bde finally overcomes the desperate resistance of the last Japanese units in the Gona area. The battle ends at 4:30p.m. The Japanese leave 630 dead on the field while the Australian casualty count is 530. A battalion of the American 32nd Div is air-lifted into the Buna sector in readiness for the final attack on Buna village.

North Africa

Italian torpedo aircraft attack enemy shipping at anchor in the Algiers roadsteads and hit 2 merchant ships.

A sudden thrust by British armored cars in the Tebourba area is driven off by the enemy.