December 6th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The war in the air has reached a stage where German bombers hardly venture into British skies, while Bomber Command pounds German cities every night.
It is, however, a time of some concern for the RAF. Bomber losses during the year have been high with 1,453 aircraft lost and 2,724 damaged in action. There are still only 200 Lancaster in service, and the Germans have learnt how to jam Gee, the navigational device.
There is also some confusion about the future role of Bomber Command. Sir Charles Portal, the Chief of the Air Staff, has urged the formation of an Anglo-American force of 4,000-6,000 bombers.
The result, he says, would be "25 million Germans rendered homeless, 900,000 killed and one million seriously injured." The plan has met fierce opposition.
In other areas, Fighter Command continues its often costly offensive sweeps across France; Coastal Command, the "Cinderella" command, is at last getting the aircraft it needs; and in the Middle East the RAF has learnt how to support an army in the field.
NETHERLANDS: Bomber Command flies Operation OYSTER, a special raid carried out by all of the operational day-bomber squadrons in No. 2 Group. Their targets are the Philips radio and valve (electron tube) factories in the town of Eindhoven. Ninety three aircraft take part in the raid, 47 (PV-1) Venturas Mk. Is of RAF No. 21, RAAF No. 464 and RNZAF No. 487 Squadrons, 36 (A-20) Boston IIIs of Nos. 88, 107, and 226 Squadrons and ten Mosquito Mk. IVs of No.105 and No.139 Squadrons; 83 aircraft actually bomb. One of the Mosquitos is a photographic aircraft. Eindhoven is well beyond the range of any available fighter escort thus the raid is flown at low level and in clear weather conditions. Bombing is accurate and severe damage is caused to two factories in the complex, which is situated in the middle of the town. Because the raid is deliberately carried out on a Sunday, there are few casualties in the factory but several bombs fall in nearby streets and 148 Dutch people and se ven German soldiers are killed. Full production at the factory is not reached again until six months after the raid. The bomber casualties are heavy: nine Venturas, four Bostons and a Mosquito are lost over the Netherlands or the sea. This is a loss rate of 15 percent for the whole force; the Venturas, the aircraft with the poorest performance, suffer 19 per cent casualties. Three more aircraft crashed or force-land in England and most of the other aircraft are damaged, 23 by bird strikes! (22)
During the night of 6/7 December, 13 RAF Bomber Command Lancasters and Wellingtons lay mines in the Frisian Islands without loss.
FRANCE: The USAAF Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 24: 103 heavy bombers are dispatched with 19 attacking Drucat Airfield at Abbeville; six bomb the target with one aircraft lost; 66 are dispatched against the Atelier d'Hellemmes locomotive works at Lille; 36 bomb the target with the loss of one aircraft. Eighteen other aircraft fly a diversion.
GERMANY: During the night of 6/7 December, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 272 aircraft, 101 Lancasters, 65 Halifaxes, 57 Wellingtons and 49 Stirlings, to Mannehim; 229 bomb the city and one bombs Karlsruhe. Ten aircraft Mannheim, five Wellingtons, three Halifaxes, a Lancaster and a Stirling, are lost, 3.1 per cent of the force. Four more aircraft crash in England. The target area is found to be completely cloud-covered. Most of the Pathfinders withhold their flares and many of the 220 crews who bomb do so on dead-reckoning positions. Mannheim reports only 500 or so incendiary bombs and some leaflets. There are no casualties in Mannheim.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Italian submarine R.N. Porfido is torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS/M Tigris (N 63) about 80 nautical miles (129 kilometers) north-northeast of Bone, Algeria.
LIBYA: USAAF Ninth Air Force B-24 Liberators sent to attack shipping at Tobruk fail to locate the target due to bad weather, but a few bombers manage to bomb Misurata and two Aix airfields. Meanwhile, P-40s fly top cover for RAF aircraft attacking Marble Arch.
TUNISIA: German attacks push
Allied forces back near Medjez el Bab. These German attacks will
continue over the next four days.
German troops push back the US 1st
Armoured Division, Combat Command B, in the El Guessa heights.
OKW and the overall theatre commander in Rome, (Oberbefehlshaber Sud) Luftwaffe GFM 'Smiling' Albert Kesselring, directly orders the local military commander in Tunis, Gen. d. Pz. Truppe Walther Nehering to mobilize all Jewish labour for fortification work. The order specifies that the Jewish leaders are to select the manpower and that the Jewish community are to furnish equipment and food for the men. The labour columns are to be detached to the German commanders in Bizerte, Tunis-North and Tunis-South for work on the main defensive line (Hauptkampflinie). Italian Jews are to be excepted on the protest of the Italian Consul General. (252, p.412) (Russell Folsom)
USAAF Twelfth Air Force DB-7 Bostons, with fighter escort, bomb the bridge over the Medjerda River at El Bathan. F-4 and P-38 Lightnings fly patrols and reconnaissance missions over parts of Algeria and Tunisia.
NEW GUINEA: Allied units reach the beach east of Buna. Australian forces mount another attack on Japanese positions at Gona. Other Japanese forces are attempting to move a relief column along the coast, but progress is slow.
The Japanese frustrate an effort to supply the beleaguered roadblock on the Soputa-Sanananda trail with rations and ammunition. The garrison is near the end of its resources. The Urbana Force (two battalions of the U.S. 126th and 128th Infantry Regiments, 32d Infantry Division) prepares for another attack on Buna Village and places the first "time on target" fire of the campaign on Buna Mission. Since frontal attacks by the Warren Force (based on U.S. 128th Infantry Regiment, 32d Infantry Division) have been futile and costly, it is decided to soften Japanese positions by attrition and infiltration while awaiting the arrival of tanks. In the Gona area, three Australian battalions attack the town but the attack bogs down and one company is virtually wiped out.
USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb Lae Aerodrome, Papua New Guinea. Amelia Earhart took off from this airfield in 1938.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb Lakunai Airfield and the town of Rabaul on New Britain Island.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: USAAF P-39 Airacobras strafing Munda on New Georgia Island discover trucks, steam rollers and other construction equipment, and evidence of two airfields under construction. B-17 Flying Fortresses will bomb Munda 21 times in December and continue to hit it in January 1943, as the Japanese continue to work at building the airstrips despite the constant air strikes.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: USAAF Eleventh Air Force aircraft fly reconnaissance over Attu, Agattu, Amchitka, Kiska and the Semichis Islands.
CANADA: Frigate HMCS Waskesiu launched Esquimalt, British Columbia.
U.S.A.: At the Manzanar Relocation Camp For Ethnic Japanese, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Bishop, California, the arrest of prisoners accused of beating informer Fred Tayama leads to a protest and violence. Military police fire into the crowd, killing two protesters and wounding at least ten more.
Destroyer USS Thatcher launched.
Corvette USS Brisk commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-155 sank SS Serooskerk in Convoy ON-149.
The 18,713 ton troop ship SS Ceramic is torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-515 about 620 nautical miles (1 148 kilometers) west-northwest of Lagens Field, Azores Islands, in position 40.30N, 40.20W. The ship had departed Liverpool, England, on 23 November and steaming independently to Australia carrying 633 crewmen, troops and nurses. There is only one survivor, Royal Engineer sapper, Eric Munday, who is taken on board the U-boat to spend the rest of the war in a German POW camp. The rest of the crew and passengers are left to perish in the stormy seas. Allied propaganda claims that the Ceramic's survivors are machine-gunned in the water; this is a big lie. It is many months before the British Admiralty learns what happened to the Ceramic as she sank before any distress signal could be sent.