4 December 1942

NETHERLANDS: During the night of 4/5 December, 22 RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines in the Frisian Islands.

BALTIC SEA: During the night of 4/5 December, two RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off the Danish island of Bornholm off the south-eastern tip of Sweden.

POLAND: In Warsaw, a group of Polish Christians put their own lives at risk when they set up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews led by two women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz. The fates of Kossak and Filipowicz are unclear so it is uncertain whether their mission is successful, but the very fact that they established the Council is evidence that some brave souls are willing to risk everything to help persecuted Jews. Kossak and Filipowicz are not alone in their struggle to help; in fact, only two days after the Council is established, the SS rounds up 23 men, women, and children, and locked some in a cottage and some in a barn-then burned them alive. Their crime: suspicion of harbouring Jews.

During the night of 4/5 December, one RAF Bomber Command aircraft lays mines off Gdynia.

ITALY: Submarine HMS Traveller is lost after being sent on a reconnaissance to the harbour approaches in the Gulf of Taranto. This is in preparation for Operation Principal- an attack by chariots on the Italian ports. Traveller is believed to have been mined. There are no survivors. (Alex Gordon)(108)

One cruiser is sunk in the harbour at Naples during airstrikes of the US 9th Air Force. This is the first US strike on mainland Italy. One Montecuccoli-class light cruiser Muzio Attendolo, was sunk. Cruiser MONTECUCCOLI was badly damaged. Cruiser EUGENIO DI SAVOIA and four destroyers were less seriously damaged. (Ric Pelvin)

EGYPT: Cairo: In the first US raid on Italy's mainland, twenty USAAF Ninth Air Force B-24 Liberator bombers today attacked Naples, sinking the cruiser R.N. MUZIO ATTENDOLO and damaging two other light cruisers R.N. Raimondo Montecuccoli and Eugenio di Savoia, and four destroyers. Hits are also scored on numerous harbour installations and a railroad yard. Some 159 people died and 358 were injured. The raid by long-range Liberators has changed the Mediterranean strategic scene. Naples has been free of raids since Rommel took Allied coastal airfields in North Africa six months ago. Now its back in range.

TUNISIA: Chougui: Acting Wing-Cdr. Hugh Gordon Malcolm (b.1917) was shot down and killed while leading ten Blenheim Vs of No. 18 Squadron RAF to attack the airfield at Chougui. He had led his bomber squadron with great daring in previous weeks.
As they approached the airfield, they were attacked by a large number of German aircraft and all were shot down. (Victoria Cross)(22)

USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb shipping and docks at Bizerte while B-26 Marauders, with fighter escort, attack the same target 30 minutes later. B-17s and F-4 and P-38 Lightnings fly reconnaissance, while other P-38s attack vehicles and troop concentrations, mainly in the Gabes and Sfax area.

ALGERIA: Algiers: Admiral Darlan claims the leadership of the imperial council of France on the grounds that Marshal Petain is a prisoner of the Germans.

NEW GUINEA: In Papua New Guinea, the Japanese maintain pressure against the block on the Soputa-Sanananda trail. Advance elements of the 127th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 32d Infantry Division, reach Dobodura. Lines on Urbana Force (two battalions of the U.S. 126th and 128th Infantry Regiments, 32d Infantry Division) and Warren Force (based on U.S. 128th Infantry Regiment, 32d Infantry Division) fronts are rearranged to permit units operating under battalions other than their own to return to parent battalions.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Guadalcanal: US 2d Marine Raider Battalion (Carlson's Raiders), reach the Lunga perimeter, having marched west from Aola Bay and complete a month of foraging in which they killed 400 Japanese at the cost of 17 of their own number.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Seven USAAF Eleventh Air Force B-24 Liberators and nine B-26 Marauders escorted by 16 P-38 Lightnings takeoff based on a Navy PBY Catalina report of a surface force southeast of Amchitka Island. At the interception point, the area is searched without results. The PBY pilot later reports he saw "clouds." Reconnaissance is flown over Attu, Agattu, Semichi, Kiska and Amchitka Islands.

U.S.A.: 244 US Congressmen present a petition for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine to President Roosevelt.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Depression.

Submarine USS Bashaw laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Fogg laid down.

Destroyer USS Eaton commissioned.

Corvette USS Prudent launched.