http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/03.htm
December 3rd, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Tenacious laid down.
AA cruiser HMS Charybdis commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: U-389, U-420 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
SWITZERLAND: Eggs and products based on eggs are rationed. (William Jay Stone from http://www.geschichte-schweiz.ch/en/worldwar2.html)
BALTIC SEA: Finnish Submarine Vetehinen makes a surface attack on a 7-ship convoy shooting both bow and stern torpedoes. Enemy artillery fire was heavy, no hits on either side. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: General Walther von Reichenau succeeds von Rundstedt as commander of Army Group South.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Brereton returns and is instructed by MacArthur to plan on leaving on 8th December for another trip, this time a 5,733-mile journey to Djakarta, Singapore, Rangoon, and Chunking, to co-ordinate defensive measures with the Dutch, British, and Chinese, and to receive a report on Japanese air activities from Chennault.
Hart personally briefs Lieutenant John Walker Payne, Jr, Commander of the US Yacht Isabel and assigns his ship to the “Defensive Information Patrol”. Payne sails the same day.
(Marc Small)
The men of the 5th Air Base Group at Del Monte field, are joined by two ordnance companies and a second contingent is due on December 10th with ammunition and 110,000 US gallons (91,594 Imperial gallons or 416,395 litres) of aviation fuel. (Jack McKillop)
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Pirie launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Red Deer arrived Halifax from builder Montreal, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: Roosevelt again meets with British Ambassador, Lord Halifax, and indicates the US would enter the war on the British side the British if they were attacked by Japan, but did not explicitly promise this. (Marc Small)
Submarine USS Halibut launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-124 sank SS Sagadahoc. (Dave Shirlaw)