http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/dec42/f10dec42.htm
Allies shaken by German offensive
Thursday, December 10, 1942 www.onwar.com
In Tunisia... The German troops continue to attack Medjez el Bab, the Allies barely hold them off.
On the Eastern Front... A small German counterattack in the Rzhev area achieves little.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
December 10th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM:
Aircraft carrier HMS Implacable launched.
Destroyer HMS Roebuck launched.
Submarine HMS Surf launched.
ASW trawlers HMS Bream and Colstream launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: U-193, U-952 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Luftwaffe LT Sta (See) 222 loses one of its massive Blohm und Voss Bv 222 flying boats (V8) when it is shot down by RAF Beaufighters between Italy and Tripoli when flying in company with the V1 and V4 flying-boats. (21)
U.S.S.R.: Little ground is gained at Rzhev by a small German counterattack.
TUNISIA: British and Free French defenders drive off a strong German attack on Medjez el Bab.
NEW GUINEA: Papua: Australian troops yesterday took Gona, a key Japanese defensive position on the north Papuan coast from which the Japanese launched their ill-fated campaign to take Port Moresby. The savagery of the action against the fanatical resistance of the Japanese garrison at Gona is indicated by the 638 bodies found after the battle.
The four Australian battalions of the 21st Brigade assigned to take Gona have suffered dangerously high casualties. Already sharply reduced in numbers by earlier battle casualties and high illness rates from heat exhaustion, malaria and other tropical disease, they suffered a further 530 killed and wounded, more than 40%.
U.S.A.:
Minesweeper USS Symbol commissioned.
Escort carrier USS Core commissioned.
Corvette USS Alacrity commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-128 transferred three captives to the milk cow U-461.
U-174 transferred an ill crewmember to U-461. (Dave Shirlaw)