SOVIET ARMY FLANKING RAIL JUNCTIONS; ALLIES HIT 10 SHIPS IN MEDITERRANEAN (12/24/42)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 12/24/42 | Ralph Parker, Henry Shapiro, Drew Middleton, Frank L. Kluckhohn, F. Tillman Durdin, more

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Papua, New Guinea, 1942
Attack on Buna Mission, 18-28 Dec. 1942
The Solomons: Guadalcanal and Florida, 1942
Tunisia 1942: The Race for Tunisia-Situation 1 January 1943, and Operations Since 17 November 1942
North Africa, 1941: Pursuit to Tunisia, November 1942-February 1943
Southwest Russia, 1942: Soviet Winter Offensive, Operations, 13 December 1942-18 February 1943
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Status of Forces and Allied Theater Boundaries, 2 July 1942
India-Burma, 1942: Allied Lines of Communication, 1942-1943

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Millerovo in Peril (Parker) – 2-3
Stalingrad Chief Lays ‘Miracle’ to Red Army’s Refusal to Retreat (Shapiro) – 3
Strike by Air, Sea – 4-5
R.A.F. in Tunisia Hails Americans (Middleton) – 5
Allied Generals in Tunisia Ponder What Rommel’s Next Move Will Be (Kluckhohn) – 5
Pursuit of Enemy in Libya Continues – 6
War News Summarized – 6
Japanese Plight ‘Desperate’ at Buna, MacArthur Reports – 7
Buna Battlefield Reflects Grim War (Durdin) – 7-8
Our Boys Aid a Wounded Ally in North Africa (photo) – 8
A United States Aircraft Carrier Fights Off a Japanese Air Attack in the Pacific (photos) – 9-12
The Pacific Campaign-III (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 13
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones – 14-15

[Rebelbase]

Christmas Eve, 1942 bump.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/dec42/f24dec42.htm

Allies defeat Japanese near Buna
Thursday, December 24, 1942 www.onwar.com

In New Guinea... The Allied forces break the new defensive position of the Japanese near Buna with heavy casualties.

In Burma... Japanese advances in the two areas of the Chin Hills are repelled by Allied troops.

On the Eastern Front... The Soviet drive Hoth back. Despite stubborn resistance, Generalovsky is retaken. In Stalingrad, fresh forces attached to 62nd Army retake the Red October Factory.

In Free French North Africa... Admiral Darlan is shot by Bonnier de la Chapelle who supports both royalist and Gaullist policies.

In Tunisia.. The fighting continues. Longstop Hill is taken once again by British forces.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm

December 24th, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: The Vickers type 432 high-altitude fighter F.7/41 (DZ 217) is flown by test pilot Tommy Lucke. It has several defects including the impossibility of making a three-point landing. (19)
ASW trawler HMS Herring launched.

Corvette HMS Smilax launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: Peenemunde: The German research station here today chalked up a successful test firing of a new type of surface-to-surface weapon system. This is a “flying bomb”, known as the FZG 76 or Fi 103. Looking like a small aircraft, with a fuselage length of just over 25 feet and wingspan of 18 feet, it is powered by a pulse jet engine. Today the system was catapulted into the air from a 230-foot ramp and flew some one and half miles. More test flights are planned to iron out technical bugs in the system.
U-489, U-490 launched

U-805 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.S.R.: The Russian 62nd Army receives fresh reinforcements and retakes the Red October tractor factory in Stalingrad. The German relief column finds itself pushed back as the Russian’s recapture Generalovsky.

The Russians push Hoth’s 4th Panzer Army back from the Myshkova river where it was halted in its attempt to rescue German forces trapped in Stalingrad.

Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: Submarine “L-24” - mined, close to cape Kaliakria. (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

ALGERIA: Algiers: Admral Jean-François Darlan was assassinated here today by a young student, Fernand Bonnier de la Chappelle.

The admiral, the titular high commissioner who was in effect the head of what has been called a Vichy regime with Allied support, left his villa this afternoon to drive to the Palais d’Ete. At the door of his office he was shot by his assassin, who is 20 years old.

Bonnier de la Chapelle is apparently an ultra-right-winger, a member of a group called the Free Corps of Africa, and associated with Henri Astier de la Vigerie, a local monarchist leader. Bonnier will go before a court-martial tomorrow afternoon.

TUNISIA: A unit of the British Coldstream Guards captures Longstop Hill.

BURMA: Japanese forces in advance in the Chin Hills area. They are pushed back by Allied forces.

NEW GUINEA: The new Japanese defensive positions near Buna are broken by Allied forces. The few supporting tanks are lost in this action.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Blairmore arrived Halifax, from builder, Port Arthur, Ontario. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: Destroyer escorts USS Fleming and Sederstrom laid down.

Submarines USS Cabrilla and Cisco launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

[PAR35]

More on the Australian designed and built tank:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinel_tank

[Homer_J_Simpson]

the Sentinel was powered by the combined output of three Cadillac 346 in³ (5.7 L) V8 petrol car engines installed in clover-leaf configuration (two engines side-by-side to the front and a single to the rear: all three feeding a common gearbox).

Mileage was obviously not the primary concern.

[PAR35]

Most of the Pacific Islands are fairly small - shouldn’t have to drive them very far from the beach.

Tiny guns, though, for a tank of that era. And I thought the idea of ‘cruiser’ tanks was pretty much dead by that point.

[henkster]

Merry Christmas, Homer. Thanks again for another year of great posts.