Air Operations, Bismarcks

50 V Bomber Command B-25s strafe coastal targets between Borgen Bay and Rein Bay.

Air Operations, CBI

• 15 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack Hankow and Wuchang. 3 B-25s attack Changte and 14th Air Force P-40s attack sampans near Nanshien, barracks at Tachai, a town, and targets of opportunity along the Salween River.
• Largely with the support of 14 Air Force aircraft, Chinese Army ground forces retake the city of Changte, which fell to Japanese Army ground forces on December 4.

Air Operations, Marshalls

• 19 VII Bomber Command B-24s based at Funafuti attack the Mille Atoll.
• As Task Force 50 departs from the Marshall Islands area, 4 VF-8 F6Fs down a G4M 'Betty' bomber at sea at 1315 hours.

Air Operations, New Guinea

19 V Bomber Command B-25s and A-20s attack barges and coastal targets around Fortification Point. More than 60 V Fighter Command P-39 fighter-bombers attack targets along the Bogadjim road, coastal targets, and Japanese Army ground positions in the Ramu Valley.

Air Operations, Solomons

Torokina Field on Bougainville is declared operational. The new airfield is only 220 miles from Rabaul.

Bougainville

The newly built American airfield at Cape Torokina becomes operational. The air base is used to provice air cover for Allied troops advancing across Bougainville, but is also only 150 miles from Rabaul, well within the operational range of even fighter aircraft. The 3rd Marine Div begins a series of attack which go on until the end of the month, to take the hills that dominate the beachhead.

China

Chiang Kai-shek, in response to a message from Roosevelt, insists on greater financial aid and on a strengthening of the Allied air force in China. With Japanese forces increasingly over-stretched in the Pacific theater, Chinese Nationalist forces make significant gains within their own country. In a major urban battle which costs the Nationalists more troops that the Japanese, the Chinese recapture Changteh, previously held on 2 occasions by the enemy.

Eastern Front

The Soviets take Mederovo near Znamenka and attack Znamenka itself.

With the XLVIII Panzer Corps bogged down south of the Pripet Marshes, the 4th Panzer Army redeploys, the XIII Corps taking over the recently won positions of the XLVIII.

Italy

German counterattacks near Monte Sammucro are repelled. After 9 days of heavy fighting, the important peaks, Monte Camino and Monte Maggiore, are secured by the American 36th Div as the operation in the Monte Camino sector comes to an end.

Images from December 9, 1943

Australians from the 2/23rd Battalion raise the Union flag over Wareo, New Guinea, 9 December 1943.

Raising the Union Jack Over Wareo, New Guinea

Captured German soldiers being searched by Canadian soldiers December 9th, 1943

Captured Germans Being Searched

Infantrymen of The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada searching German prisoners on the Moro River front

Captured Germans Being Searched

During the fighting to gain San Leonardo Di Ortona, it was essential to put a bridge across the nearby Moro River. The Canadian Engineers constructed one overnight despite enemy shelling.

Canadian Engineers Construct Bridge over the Moro River