UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Unruly laid down.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Stroma launched.
FRANCE: Paris: Gare du Nord: Dr. Michel congratulates the 100,000th French worker to volunteer for a job in Germany. The man, a truck driver, has been presented with a travel kit and a watch.GERMANY:
LIBYA: Units of the British 7th Armoured Brigade easily reach Sidi Rezegh, while other units are held up by stiff German defenses. The British 4th Armored Brigade looses heavily to the 21 Panzer Division. The British 22nd Armoured Brigade meets the Italian Ariete Division at Bir el Gubi and also loses heavily.
INDIAN OCEAN: Shark Bay, in Western Australia. Modified Leander class light cruiser HMAS Sydney D 48) and German raider, the auxiliary cruiser, HK Kormoran exchange gunfire, about 409 nautical miles (758 kilometres) northwest of Perth in position 26.32.34S, 111.00E.
The Kormoran with 11 ships and 68,300 tons to her credit, and Sydney both sink. 320 crew from Kormoran survive to tell the story, with 78 dead about 20 killed in action and the rest when an overloaded raft capsizes, there are no survivors of Sydney's 644 man crew.
The Kormoran was flying the Dutch flag and going under the name Streat
Malakka.
After escorting the troopship Zealandia to the Sunda Strait, the Sydney
encountered Kormoran on the return passage to Fremantle, 130 miles off Carnarvon,
Western Australia.
It was not until the ships were within a mile of each other that the Kormoran
hoisted the Swastika ensign and opened fire.
The Sydney was hit, her bridge and gunnery director tower badly damaged with the
result that (possibly from flooding magazines in response to the turret
penetration) SYDNEY's firepower was reduced to half. KORMORAN also hit SYDNEY
with a torpedo. For the
next half hour the ships exchanged fire. The Kormoran, holed and badly damaged
is forced to scuttle.
KORMORAN's survivors reported that a couple of hours or so (IIRC) after SYDNEY
had disappeared from their sight there was a bright flash on the horizon in the
direction of her disappearance. The implication of course is that SYDNEY may
have suffered a magazine explosion from uncontrolled fires. If the majority of
her surviving crew were still aboard at this time, that might go far to explain
why no survivors were found. (Brooks Rowlett, Alex Gordon and Ric Pelvin)(198)
The official version is: At about 1600 hours local, the German auxiliary cruiser HK Kormoran, ship 41 also known to the British as Raider G, sights the HMAS Sydney and turns away. HMAS Sydney follows, approaches to within 1,500 yards (1 372 meters) and requests Kormoran to identify herself, which she does as the Dutch freighter SS Straat Malakka. When asked for her secret call sign Kormoran drops her camouflage, hoists the German ensign and opens fire which apparently knocks out Sydney's fire control system and forward turrets, and probably killed her captain and many others on the bridge. The battle lasts from approximately 1730 to 1825 hours Both ships are crippled and on fire. HMAS Sydney steams slowly south-southeast, still ablaze, and is never seen again; all 645 crewmen are lost. German survivors later say that they saw a glow on the southern horizon followed by a bright flash around 2400 hours; this could possibly be caused by the cruiser's magazines exploding. HK Kormoran drifts for approximately five hours before being scuttled by her crew with explosive charges; 85 crewmen are lost but 315 make it to Australia where they are held as POWs. This is a controversial subject in Australia with some believing the government is covering up the sinking. The truth and fate of HMAS Sydney will probably never be known.
JAPAN: The Japanese Foreign Ministry sends the following message to their embassy in Washington, D.C.: "When our diplomatic relations are becoming dangerous, we will add the following at the beginning and end of our general intelligence broadcasts: (1) If it is Japan-U. S. relations, "HIGASHI;" (2) Japan-Russia relations, "KITA;" (3) Japan-British relations, (including Thai, Malaya and N. E. I.); "NISHI." The above will be repeated five times and included at beginning and end. Relay to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, San Francisco."
One submarine of the Support Group, Advance Group, Pearl Harbor Strike Force, HIJMS I-26, departs Yokosuka. On 7 December, HIJMS I-26 is underway between the Hawaiian Islands and California.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES:
Hart informed
senior officers of Asiatic Fleet that the war would be fought from Manila.
CANADA: Patrol vessel HMCS Caribou damaged by serious galley fire Lunenburg , Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.: The Office of Public Opinion Research (OPOR) asked: "If our present leaders and military advisors say that the only way to defeat Germany is for this country to go into the war, would you be in favor of this country's going into war against Germany?" Yes - 70%, No - 24%, No opinion - 6%. (Will O'Neil) (135)
Destroyer USS Bache laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Cruiser HMS Dunedin is torpedoed and sunk by U-124 in the Atlantic 900 miles off of Freetown, at 03N 26W. There are 420 casualties, but 72 survivors are found by the US Nishama on 6 Carley floats. (Alex Gordon)(108)
USN destroyer USS Destroyer Leary (DD-158), with Task Unit 4.1.5, escorting convoy HX-160 (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to U.K.), depth charges a sound contact.