Air Operations, Bismarcks

43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack shipping at Rabaul.

Air Operations, CBI

• A 23rd Fighter Group P-40 downs a Ki-45 'Nick' fighter over the airfield at Lashio.

Air Operations, Pacific

The Japanese parachute supplies to their half-starved expeditionary forces on Guadalcanal.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-26s attack Gona and 1 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24 attacks the airfield at Finschhafen.
• 52 Japanese aircraft attack Allied ground troops at Buna, but with no results. 2 D3A 'Val' dive bombers and 11 Japanese fighters (including 3 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighters) are shot down by P-38s with the 35th Fighter Group’s 39th Fighter Squadron. One P-38 crash-lands.

Air Operations, Solomons

Marine Corps F4Fs down 3 A6M Zeros over the airfield at Munda Point, New Georgia.

Air Operations, Tunisia

XII Bomber Command B-17s, escorted by P-38s, attack shipping and port facilites at Sousse and claim direct hits on 4 vessels.

Battle of the Atlantic

After sinking three ships from convoy ONS-154, U-356 is caught on the surface by the Canadian destroyer St Laurent. The U-boat is hit by 20mm and 4.7in shellfire as she dives. The St Laurent makes two depth charge attacks and just before a third attack, the target appeared stopped and a large oil slick appears on the surface.

U-356

Burma

The 14th Indian Div continues its advance on Akyab without opposition, crossing the Mayu River and the range of hills of the same name. Along the coast the 47th Indian Bde reaches Indin and sends out patrols as far as Foul Point, at the end of the Mayu peninsula. The advance then has to be halted for logistic reasons. Part of the 123rd Indian Bde tries to occupy Rathedaung but is thrown back by the recently reinforced Japanese forces there.

Eastern Front

As well as their continuing advance on the Stalingrad fronts, the Soviets are also on the move in the Caucasus, especially around Nalchik where there are 6 armies attacking under the command of Lt-Gens Ivan Maslennikov and Tyulenev. Von Kleist is beginnning to withdraw, fearful of being cut off if the advance of the Stalingrad armies reaches Rostov to the north.

Under German auspices the captured Gen Andrei Vlasov forms the Smolensk Committee to organize Russian opponents of Stalin. This body will later become known as the Liberation Army. The Germans give little real support to Vlasov and fail to understand his position as both a patriotic Russian and an opponent of Stalinism.

December 27, 1942: Germany Forms the Smolensk Committee to Enlist Soviet Soldiers

Germans to Enlist Soviet Soldiers

The 3rd Guards Army deploys along the Bystraya River in preparation of a thrust into the rear of Army Group Don. After heavy fighting the 11th Panzer Division recaptures Tatsinskaya airfield, forcing the II Guards Tank Corps back into Tatsinskaya itself.

The 2nd Guards Army enters Kotelnikovo amid heavy fighting with the rearguards of Group Hoth.

Guadalcanal

The regimental commander, Col LeRoy E. Nelson, decides to use both battalions in the attack. The 3rd Battalion, 132nd Infantry, is to deliver a holding attack. A, B and C Companies are to swing south and east to find the enemy's flanks. The 3rd Battalion moves forward at 0800 but is soon halted by machine-gun fire. The 1st Battalion moves south in column of companies. The battalion becomes confused in the jungle and is ordered to assemble between Hills 29 and 30, but actually assembles in the ravine between Hills 30 and 31, 400 yards too far to the west. The right flank now crowds the left flank of the 3rd Battalion making free maneuver impossible. In the lead, B Company runs into the Gifu line instead of outflanking it. B Company is quickly halted by machine-gun fire. A Company is deployed to the left and meets less fire, because the Gifu's main eastern bulge does not extend east of Hill 30.

New Guinea

The Japanese at Napapo are ordered to evacuate the area by sea and move to Giruwa. 52 Japanese aircraft carry out a raid on Allied positions in the Buna area. 14 are shot down by Allied fighters. More tanks are landed by night in Oro Bay. A regimental group of the American 41st Div arives at Port Moresby from Australian.

A6M3 Model 32 Zero Manufacture Number 3028 Tail V-187 Captured at Buna Airfield (Old Strip) on December 27, 1942 during the Battle of Buna.

Japanese Zero Captured at Buna

North Africa

British 8th Army patrols cross Wadi Tamet.

A German attack in the Medjez el Bab area is repelled by the British 1st Army.