(Britain)

Operation Oyster consisting of 93 Royal Air Force (RAF} light bombers attacked the Philips factory at Eindhoven in the Netherlands on the 6^th December 1942. Three types of twin-engine bombers were used for the raid. 47 U.S. Lockheed Ventura medium bombers, 36 U.S. Douglas A-20 Havoc bombers (service name Boston) and 10 U.K. de Havilland Mosquito bombers. As a major producer of electronics equipment in the Netherlands, the Philips Company had been taken over since the German occupation of May 1940. The British Ministry of Economic Warfare in consultation with the Air Ministry considered the Philips factory to be a priority target comparable to any targets in Germany. Night-time bombing raids by Lancaster bombers was not a viable option. Many Dutch workers were indispensable to the production process at Philips and were retained by the Nazi German occupiers as forced labour. The production procedures at Philips were carried out at two separate sites half a mile apart and would have to be attacked separately. A daylight raid was chosen to minimise the civilian casualties. To achieve this No. 2 Group RAF was selected to carry out the raid which was to be known as Operation Oyster. As part of RAF Bomber Command the function of No. 2 Group RAF was to conduct daylight bombing raids. No. 2 Group RAF took off from their various airfields at 11.15-11.30 am and formed into their attack positions. They kept below 100 feet and in radio silence. The attack was to be conducted firstly by the Boston bombers, followed a few minutes later by the Mosquito bombers. The slower flying Ventura bombers were the last to attack the factories. The plan was to hug thground to avoid radar detection, select their individual factories and then climb to 1,500 feet in order to release their bombs. The first Boston bombers delivered their bombs at approximately 12.30pm. By the time the Ventura bombers had released their incendiary bombs both factories were ablaze and thick smoke emanated from the buildings. All aircraft after the raid independently flew at low level back to England. Reconnaissance photographs obtained later show both factory complexes had their production halted owing to the significant damage caused by the bombs. Although the raid was a success it came at a cost as approximately 150 civilians were killed. Sixty-two aircrew and fifteen aircraft were lost and 57 aircraft were damaged by anti-aircraft fire from the defenders. To assist the most successful No. 2 Group RAF raid, the American Eighth Air Force launched diversionary raids as B-24 bombers attacked a German airfield at Abbeville and B-17 bombers attacked the rail yards at Lille.

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Operation Frankton was a Royal Marine Commando raid on German occupied France’s port of Bordeaux Harbour sixty miles inland on the Gironde River. The raid was conducted between the 7^th/12^th December 1942. All trade between Germany and Japan was forced to be transported to and from the Far East via South Africa after the Trans-Siberian Railway had closed. Bordeaux was the ideal port for the two sides to exchange commodities needed. Prime Minister Winston Churchill had been enthusiastic for the raid to be implemented. Major Herbert “Blondie” Hasler had proposed the audacious raid in September 1942. The raid was given approval and twelve men of the Royal Marines Commandos began to train for the ordeal. Six crews of two would paddle the 16 feet long semi-collapsible canoes and attach limpet mines to ships in Bordeaux Harbour. Three crews consisting of canoes Catfish, Crayfish and Conger formed “A” Division. “B” Division comprised Cuttlefish, Coalfish and Cachelotte.

On the 7^th December 1942 the fully trained Commandos were unloaded from submarine HMS Tuna at the mouth of the Gironde estuary. However, Cachelotte was damaged whist being unloaded and therefore did not take a part in the raid.

On the 12^th December 1942 only two crews reached the harbour to attach the limpet mines. They were Catfish and Crayfish. Limpet mines were attached to cargo ships Tannewfels, Dresden, Alabama and Portland. They were also attached to a German minesweeper and a fuel tanker. When the limpet mines exploded Dresden sank. The remainder were damaged but eventually repaired before being back in action for the Axis war effort. They did disrupt the flow of much needed commodities between Germany and Japan.

Each crew was to make their own escape after the successful attack and abandoning their canoes. Only Hasler and Marine Bill Sparkes from Catfish eventually reached London on the 2^nd April 1943 by way of the French resistance. None of the other four crews came home. Canoe Conger was overturned by a large tidal surge on route and Cpl Sheard/Marine Moffat drowned.

 Six Commandos were captured and executed, as per German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler’s previous order that any British Commando would be executed following the U.K. Commando raid on Sark during October 1942. Those executed were Cpl Laver/Marine Mills from Crayfish, Lt. Mackinnon/Marine Conway from Cuttlefish and Sgt Wallace/Marine Ewart from Coalfish. The crew of Crayfish after they had laid the limpet mines, and the crews of Cuttlefish and Coalfish before they reached Bordeaux Harbour. Not one of the executed Commandos revealed the purpose of the mission and the Germans only found out when the first of the limpet mines exploded. As survivors of the raid and actions during the raid on Bordeaux, Hasler was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and Sparkes was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM). As the action had not been conducted in the face of the enemy, the Victoria Cross was not awarded although many people thought they should have been honoured.

There were only four survivors in total, two from the raid itself plus the two non-combatants. They were Marines Elery/Fisher from Cachellotte. Operation Frankton, or the “Cockleshell Heroes” as they subsequently became famous, was a success but came as a terribly high price in British Commandos lives.

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Warships of the British Royal Navy and the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) engaged in an action at the Battle of Barents Sea on the 31^st December 1942. Two German heavy cruisers and six destroyers attempted to stop Convoy JW51B from reaching the Kola inlet in the U.S.S.R. The convoy was protected by the Royal Navy and consisted of two light cruisers, six destroyers, two corvettes, one minesweeper and two trawlers. Convoy JW51B, consisting of fourteen merchant vessels carrying war materials to the Red Army. Convoy JW51B sailed from Loch Ewe in Scotland on the 22^nd December 1942 where they were met by the escort vessels on the 25^th Dec 1942. By the 28^th/29^th December 1942, the convoy and escorts encountered heavy gales causing them to lose station. Five merchantmen and two escorts were found to be missing and one escort vessel was dispatched to search for them when the weather moderated. Two merchantmen independently proceeded to the Kola inlet and the other three merchantmen re-joined the convoy on the 30^th December 1942. The convoy had been spotted by German reconnaissance aircraft on the 24^th December 1942. Based at Altafjord in northern Norway, German Vice-Admiral Oskar Kummetz was ordered to engage with the convoy. On the 31^st December 1942 Kummetz sailed and immediately split his forces into two divisions. The engagement began at 08.00, but owing to the long polar night of the region, both British and German forces were scattered and unsure of the positions of their own forces. Despite the confusion of the battle and despite all German efforts the fourteen merchantmen reached their destination at the Kola inlet undamaged. The convoy delivered 202 tanks, 2,046 vehicles, 87 fighters and 33 bombers. Also delivered was 11,500 tons of fuel, 12,000 tons of aviation fuel and 54,000 tons of other supplies. Britain had one destroyer and one minesweeper sunk one destroyer damaged with the loss of 250 men. The Germans had one destroyer sunk and one heavy cruiser damaged for the loss of 330 men. Captain Robert Sherbrooke of HMS Onslow was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the battle.

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(America)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt imposed a nationwide petrol rationing scheme across the U.S. on the 1^st December 1942. Shortage of fuel was not the problem as America had plenty of fuel. The problem was the shortage of rubber, because many of the traditional sources were in Japanese hands. Fuel rationing on the eastern coast of America had begun in May 1942. Voluntary rationing had been unsuccessful in persuading the U.S. citizens not to use their private vehicles. Despite many complaints from American citizens Roosevelt considered rubber was more important to the military and consequently U.S. fuel rationing was continued until the end of the war.

America officially entered the Second World War in 1941. On the 7^th December 1942, at the 1^st anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, America had transformed from supplying military equipment and food to the Allies. They were committed to the war in Europe and heavily involved in the war against Japan in the Pacific theatre of war.  

On the 7^th December 1942, the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbour, USS New Jersey was launched. She was ordered as an Iowa-class “fast battleship” on the 1^st July 1939. She was built in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and her keel was laid down on the 16^th September 1942. When commissioned in in May 1943 she was armed with nine 16” guns, twenty 5” guns, eighty 40mm anti-aircraft guns and forty nine 20mm anti-aircraft guns. She was the most decorated battleship in the U.S. Navy’s history. She served during the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Lebanese Civil War. In 1991 USS New Jersey was decommissioned. She is now a museum ship, named Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial, and is moored at Camden waterfront in New Jersey.       

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(Eastern Front)

During the Battle of Stalingrad the 290,000 German and Romanian soldiers were completely surrounded by the Soviet Army following Operation Uranus on the 19^th November 1942. Nazi German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler was aware that if Stalingrad was lost it would never be retaken. As a result, on the 20^th November 1942 he ordered a new Army Group Don to be formed under the command of Field-Marshall Erich von Manstein. The task of Army Group Don was to mount a relief operation code named Operation Winter Storm. On the 12^th December 1942 Manstein’s Army Group Don attempted to open a passage to the entrapped German army in Stalingrad. At first Operation Winter Storm made rapid progress catching the Soviet army by surprise as they had not expected a German offensive so soon. Army Group Don was assisted by the Forth Panzer Army who had overran their supply line in the attempt to take the oil fields of the Caucasus. However, the Soviets allocated as many resources possible to isolate the entrapped German army. In the meantime, on the 13th December1942 the Luftwaffe attempted to supply the German forces by air. Many of the fleet of 500 transport aircraft were hardly serviceable and more cargo planes were destroyed by accident than by Soviet aircraft. Consequently the entrapped army received less than 20% of the daily rations of 680 tons of supplies. Despite Army Group Don’s efforts to relieve the entrapped German army, Manstein was forced to retreat. On the 24^th December 1942, Operation Winter Storm collapsed and Army Group Don was forced onto the defensive.     

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(North Africa) 

Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, Germany’s Desert Fox began the retreat from El Alemein on the 3^rd November 1942. In doing so, he defied Hitler’s order to “Stand to the Last”, and thus saved the remainder of his force. Rommel’s retreat from El Alamein was via Tobruk and Benghazi. Regretfully Rommel ordered the destruction of the Benghazi port facilities as Benghazi was crucial for supplies for the German army in North Africa. They were pursued by the British Eighth Army, commanded by Lt General Bernard Montgomery, and by the 11^th December 1942 Rommel had reached El Agheila. The pursuing British had difficulty supplying the Eighth Army but eventually caught up with the axis powers at El Agheila on the 11^th December 1942. A British reconnaissance force engaged the Germans/Italians behind the lines at Merduma, 60 miles (97 km) west of El Agheila. Rommel decided he needed to withdraw and by the evening of the 12^th December 1942 the withdrawal had begun. Isolated engagements occurred between the two combatants and by the 17^th December 1942 the bulk of the Axis army had withdrawn from El Agheila. Fierce fighting took place in a short-lived engagement at Nofaliya 100 miles (160 km) west of El Agheila on the 18^th December 1942 which brought the Battle of El Agheila to an end.

Admiral Francois Darlan, a Vichy-French government official who signed an agreement with the Allies on the 10^th November 1942, was also Commander-in-Chief of the French Armed Forces. All the Vichy-French forces in North Africa and French West Africa obeyed Darlan’s order. However, he was unpopular with the Allies who considered him pompous and arrogant. He was also unpopular with the Free French. Whilst at his headquarters in Algiers in French Algeria, Darlan was shot by Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle on the 24^th December 1942. Later that day Darlan died of his wounds. Bonnier de La Chapelle was a 20 year old anti-Vichy monarchist who wished to see Royalty restored to the throne of France. For the assassination of Darlan, Bonnier de La Chapelle was arrested on the 24^th December 1942. He was executed by firing squad on the 26^th December 1942 following his trial and conviction the previous day. On the 21^st December 1945 Bonnier de La Chapelle was posthumously pardoned by the Court of Appeal in Algeria. Its ruling was the assassination had been “in the interest of the Liberation of France”.

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(Pacific) three

During the Guadalcanal Campaign a night-time naval battle took place just before midnight on the 30^th November 1942 just off Guadalcanal. Five U.S. cruisers and four destroyers intercepted eight Japanese destroyers attempting to deliver food to their troops on Guadalcanal. Immediately three of the American destroyers fired torpedoes at the Japanese in a surprise attack and all the Americans ships opened fire. It took about seven minutes for the unsuspecting Japanese to respond. When they did respond two American cruisers were hit by torpedoes within a minute and a further cruiser hit ten minutes later. All three damaged cruisers retired from the action. Cruisers USS Northampton and USS Honolulu continued the action alongside the four destroyers. In the early hours of the 1^st December 1942 Northampton was struck by two Japanese torpedoes. She began to list after taking in water from a gaping hole in her port side which damaged her decks and bulkheads. She began to sink stern first three hours later and she had to be abandoned. The loss of life was light as the abandonment was orderly with most of the survivors being picked up within an hour by the American destroyers. About 40 crew members spent the night in two life rafts and were rescued by torpedo boat PT 109. Technically the Japanese had scored a victory after they retired from the action. They had lost one destroyer Takanami sunk in exchange for the loss of USS Northampton and damaging three cruisers. However, the engagement did deny the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal from receiving any major reinforcements.

The United States and Imperial Japanese forces engaged in a series of battles known as the Battle of the Gifu during the Guadalcanal Campaign, in the jungle area of the hills near the Matanikau River. The Gifu was the most strongly fortified position on Guadalcanal and consisted of a series of camouflaged pill boxes sited to provide mutual support to the others. The battles were for Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse and the Sea Horse and were ridges near the river which were fought over between the 15^th December 1942 and 23^rd January 1943. The 1,514 foot ridge known as Mount Austen was heavily defended by the Japanese, whose artillery threatened the American air base of Henderson Field. On the 15^th December 1942 American marines began their assault on Mount Austen and the surrounding fortified positions. The marines were pinned down by Japanese rifle and machine gun fire at the base of the ridge. When reinforcements arrived they were too exhausted to attack the Japanese owing to the rugged dense jungle they had to negotiate.  The reinforcements were only able to take limited quantities of ammunition and supplies which had to be hand carried through the dense jungle. They were also forced to leave their support weapons such as heavy mortars and machine guns behind. Camouflaged Japanese defences again halted the marines the following day and even American fighter-bomber attacks had little effect. By the end of December 1942 the Japanese defenders prevented the Americans from making any headway in their attempt to overrun the Gifu positions. The battle continued until the Japanese began to withdraw from Guadalcanal on the 23^rd January 1943.  

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(Other Theatres)

The Port of Naples in Italy was a principle trading centre for routes to Africa. As such it was subjected to various sporadic bombardments by the Allies from 1941. America’s initial bombing of Naples on the 4^th December 1942 was carried out by B-24 Liberator bombers whereby three Italian cruisers, the Muzio Attendola, the Eugenio di Savio and the Raimondo Monteguccoli were hit and damaged. Also damaged were homes, churches hospitals and offices. On the 7^th December 1942 all schools were closed and the city’s underground tunnels began to provide shelter for the citizens. American bombing continued until the allied invasion of Italy in September 1943.

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As the year draws to a close, things look much brighter for the Allies than they did a few months previously. Rommel is trapped in Tunisia, the Germans are encircled south of Stalingrad, and the Japanese appear ready to abandon Guadalcanal.

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