December 8th, 1942 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The British Parliament lowers the conscription age, by 6 months, to 18. The manpower shortage in Britain is becoming severe.
Messages exchanged between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, pledging their two nations to complete defeat of Japan.
A USAAF Eighth Air Force VIII Bomber Command study of air attacks on submarine pens in France indicates that available U.S. bombs are incapable of penetrating roofs of the pens from any bombing level low enough to maintain accuracy.
NORTH SEA: During the night of 8/9 December, 19 RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines in the Kattegat, the broad arm of the North Sea between Sweden and Denmark.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 8/9 December, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off three areas: 19 lay mines in the Frisian Islands with the loss of one; and five each lay mines in the Cadet Channel, with the loss of one, and The Sound.
DENMARK: During the night of 8/9 December, one RAF Bomber Command aircraft lays mines off Copenhagen while four lay mines in the Great Belt, the strait between Sjaelland and Fyn Island.
GERMANY: During the night of 8/9 December, RAF Bomber Command lay mines off four areas: four aircraft lay mines in the Heligoland Bight off Heligoland Island, two each lay mines in the River Elbe Estuary and Kiel Harbor, and one lays mines in the Fehmarn Channel in the western Baltic.
U.S.S.R.: Polar Fleet and White
Sea Flotilla: Shipping loss.
SKR-14 (ex-RT-86 "Indiga") - wrecked close to vill. Rosta (later raised)
Baltic Fleet, Ladoga and Onega Flotillas: Shipping loss. Floating Base "Kahanovich"
- wrecked, in Leningrad. (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
SPAIN: Madrid: General Franco says that the world has a choice between communism and fascism, and he chooses the latter.
ITALY: During the night of 8/9 December, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 133 aircraft, 108 Lancasters, nine Halifaxes, nine Wellingtons and seven Stirlings, to bomb Turin; 119 aircraft bomb the target with the loss of one Lancaster. The Pathfinders illuminate the target well and bombing is very accurate. Residential and industrial areas are both extensively damaged. Turin reports 212 dead and 111 injured. Fires from this raid are still burning the following night.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Three Italian midget submarines attempt to attack British shipping in Gibraltar harbour, but fail.
TUNISIA: U.S. Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander Allied Force, gives British Lieutenant General K. A. N. Anderson permission to withdraw the British First Army from areas west of Tebourba and east of Medjez el Bab to more favorable positions slightly to the west from which to prepare for the move on Tunis.
General Gause leads German forces in capturing Bizerta. They capture four French destroyers, nine submarines and three other warships.
ALGERIA: USAAF Twelfth Air Force fighters patrol in the Oran-La Senia-Tafaraoui area. Weather prevents operations of all bomber and fighter units in eastern Algeria.
LIBYA: USAAF Ninth Air Force P-40s fly fighter-bomber missions in the battle area east of El Agheila; the American claim seven enemy aircraft shot down.
CHINA: Taihu: Kuomintang forces shoot down a plane carrying top Japanese officers to Wuhan.
NEW GUINEA: In Papua New Guinea, the Australian 39th Battalion, 7th Division, supported by artillery and mortars, attacks Gona and by nightfall, half of the Japanese perimeter defenses and the center of the garrison area have been taken. During the night of 8/9 December, the Japanese try to withdraw from Gona to Giruwa and about 100 of them are killed. An Allied supply party reaches the roadblock on the Soputa- Sanananda trail against bitter opposition. Urbana Force (two battalions of the U.S. 126th and 128th Infantry Regiments, 32d Infantry Division), continuing the battle for Buna Village, concentrates on a bunker position on the southern edge. Newly arrived flame throwers proves so ineffective that the weapon is not used again during the campaign. The Japanese fail in an attempt to reinforce the garrison of the village with troops from the mission. On the Warren Force (based on U.S. 128th Infantry Regiment, 32d Infantry Division) front, preparations are made to move guns closer to the Japanese bunkers as two more 25-pounder (88 mm) guns arrive by sea. The Navy agrees to provide corvettes for movement of fresh troops to Warren front.
In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs and B-25 Mitchells pound antiaircraft positions at Buna and the area around Buna Mission and Cape Endaiadere as ground forces attack bunker positions on the southern end of Buna. P-38 Lightnings hit a wrecked vessel off Gona. Six Japanese destroyers carrying troops to reinforce the Buna-Gona beachhead are bombed by B-17 Flying Fortresses and a lone B-24 Liberator and turn back to Rabaul, New Britain Island, Bismarck Archipelago.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: The US 132nd Infantry Regiment lands on Guadalcanal. This brings the Americal Division to full strength there.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb the airfield at Gasmata on the southern coast of New Britain Island.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: An attempted bombing mission of Attu and Kiska Islands by six Eleventh Air Force B-24 Liberators and six B-26 Marauders, escorted by eight P-38 Lightnings, is forced back by weather. An uneventful reconnaissance is flown by a B-24 and a B-26 over Attu, Agattu, Amchitka, Kiska and the Semichis Islands.
U.S.A.: The Joint Chiefs of Staff present to President Franklin D. Roosevelt a proposal for the recapture of all Burma, Operation ANAKIM. The President agrees that Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General U.S. China-Burma-India Theater of Operations, Chief of Staff to Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, and Commander in Chief Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC), must be provided means for his part of the operation in northern Burma, Operation RAVENOUS.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-254 (Type VIIC), Kptlt Hans Gilardone, CO, was rammed and sunk by U-221, Kptlt. Hans-Hartwig Trojer, Knights Cross, CO, while both boats were manoeuvring on the surface in preparation for attacks on the 26-ship New York City to Liverpool convoy HX-217. U-254 sank southeast of Cape Farewell, Greenland in position 58.20N, 033.25W with the loss of 41 of her crewmembers. Four men, including the CO, survived. The convoy was attacked and two of its 26 merchant ships were sunk, including the large tanker, Empire Spencer (8,194 GRT), carrying 10,000 tons of benzene.
U-611 (Type VIIC) Sunk in the North Atlantic southeast of Cape Farewell, at position 57.25N, 35.19W, by depth charges from a British Liberator aircraft (Sqdn. 120/B). 45 dead (all crew lost). (Alex Gordon)