Air Operations, Bismarcks

• V Bomber Command B-24s attack Cape Gloucester.
• 475th Fighter Group P-38s down 7 G4M 'Betty' bombers, 1 Ki-61 'Tony' fighter, and 1 A6M Zero over the Arawe and Cape Gloucester areas between 1355 and 1400 hours. 348th Fighter Group P-47s down 1 B5N 'Kate' torpedo bomber and 5 Zeros near Arawe between 1645 and 1700 hours.

Air Operations, CBI

• 9 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and 11 14th Air Force P-40s attack Owchihkow. 4 B-25s on an anti-shipping sweep attack a freighter and the port area at Tunguan. 15 P-40s strafe the airfield at Pailochi. 11 P-40s attack small craft near Nanhsien. 6 449th Fighter Squadron P-38s strafe a troop train near Changanyi and small craft on the Yangtze River.

Air Operations, Europe

• 483 Lancasters and 15 Mosquitoes are sent to Berlin. 30 planes abort. The time over the target is 19:58-20:12. About 1,773 tons of bombs are dropped which include 925 tons of high explosives and 848 tons of incendiaries.
• The worst damage from the Berlin raid occurs inside a rectangle 4 miles long and one half mile wide in the south central area of the city. 720 people are killed or missing of which only 438 are Germans. The remainder are foreign forced workers. The total aircrew casualties in the bad weather landings in England are 127 killed and 34 injured. This is the worst day for landing casualties for Bomber Command in the war and becomes known as 'Black Thursday'.
• 25 Lancasters are lost in the raid, but 34 more are wrecked in collisions or crashes or abandoned by their crews in bad weather over England. Aircrew casualties from all incidents include 294 killed, 14 POWs and 7 interned in Sweden.

• 91 aircraft are sent on mine-laying missions with no aircraft being lost.

Air Operations, Gilberts

CenCATS (Marine Corps Central Pacific Combat Air Transport Service) transport aircraft begin operating from Starmann Field on Butaritari and the newly operational O'Hare Field on Abemama.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-25s and B-26s attack Kelana and Sio. V Fighter Command P-40s attack the Timoeka area.

Air Operations, Solomons

• A VF(N)-75 F4U night-fighter downs an A6M2-N 'Rufe' fighter-bomber near Cape Torkina at 0105 hours. 14 XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack Monoitu while smaller B-24 formations attack the Bonis airfield on Bougainville, Poporang, and Sohano Island.
• 5 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack Sankau Island.
• US Navy PVs attack Green Island and several areas on Bougainville.
• AirSols SBDs and fighters attack Sohano Island and antiaircraft batteries at Bonis and fighters strafe targets of opportunity on Bougainville.

Eastern Front

Novoseltsy, southeast of Cherkassy, is captured by the Russians.

The XLVIII Panzer Corps has redeployed and again attacks the 1st Ukrainian Front, aided by the LIX Corps. The main attack hits Meleni, the Germans virtually isolating what they believe is a single Soviet corps but what is lated revealed to be a considerably superior concentration. The fighting rages through the next week, the Germans struggling to overcome the numerically superior defending units.

Italy

The US 36th Div takes Monte Lungo, and attacks continue on San Pietro, where the positions are not easy to defend now that Monte Lungo has fallen. To cover their withdrawal the Germans launch powerful counterattacks, lasting the whole night. In the VI Corps sector patrols sent out by the 45th Div enter Lagone, which the retreating Germans have abandoned.

Mediterranean

The German submarine U-73 is sunk by the US destroyers Trippe (DD-403) and Woolsey (DD-437) off Oran, Algeria.

Pacific

The Japanese submarine I-179 is sunk by US naval land-based aircraft (VP-52) off New Britain.

Images from December 16, 1943

NZ soldiers watch returning Italian family unearthing crockery, 16 December 1943

NZ Soldiers and Italian Family

On the Orsogna-Ortona road—the German tanks that didn't get away, 16 December 1943

Destroyed German Tanks

New Zealand Infantry personnel take a break at an ammunition dump in the forward areas in Italy, 16 December 1943

NZ Soldiers Take a Break

Typical peasant women from one of the villages just behind. the forward areas on the Italian Front, 16 December 1943

Typical Peasant Women in Italy

Action stations on a NZ anti-aircraft gun on the Italian Front, 16 December 1943

Anti-Aircraft Gun Crew

626 Squadron pilots being briefed and discussing a route before the Berlin raid of December 16, 1943.

626 Squadron Pilots Being Briefed

A battle patrol of the 1st East Surreys rest after returning from enemy territory, 16 December 1943. They are armed with Thompson SMGs, grenades and a captured German MP40.

East Surrey Battle Patrol Resting

German soldiers in the Soviet Union during a December 1943 Soviet offensive on the eastern front.

Germans During Soviet Offensive