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• US I Corps recaptured Buna on New Guinea. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 | TH]
• Lockwood replaced English as the commanding officer of US Navy submarines in the Pacific. ww2dbase [CPC]
• US Marine Corps and US Army aircraft attacked 10 Japanese destroyer transports west of Rendova, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | CPC]
• Major General Alexander M. Patch Jr. was designated Commanding General XIV Corps with three divisions under his command. His corps headquarters numbered less than a score of officers and men, almost all of whom are taken from the Americal Division staff. Brigadier General Edmund B. Sebree replaced General Patch as commanding General of the Americal Division. ww2dbase [AC]
• Cruisers USS Nashville, USS St. Louis, USS Helena, USS Honolulu, HMNZS Achilles, USS Columbia, and USS Louisville escorted by destroyers USS Fletcher, USS Nicholas, USS O’Bannon, USS Lamson, and USS Drayton departed Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides on a patrol south of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Honolulu | Nicholas | Columbia | Drayton | Nashville | St. Louis | Louisville | Helena (St. Louis-class) | Walden Ainsworth | DS]

• Comandante Cappellini sighted an aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean at 1830 hours; she submerged to avoid detection. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | CPC]

• Destroyer USS Shaw departed Sydney, Australia bound for Wellington, New Zealand. ww2dbase [Shaw | Sydney | DS]

• Destroyer USS Saufley shelled positions at the Tassafaronga and Kokumbona areas of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands under direction of the U.S. Army liaison officer. ww2dbase [Saufley | Tassafaronga, Solomon Islands | DS]

• Submarine USS Thresher departed her patrol area bound for Fremantle, Australia. ww2dbase [Thresher | Java Sea | DS]

• Ion Antonescu of Romania met with Adolf Hitler to discuss the ensuing disaster in Stalingrad, Russia. ww2dbase [Ion Antonescu | TH]
• The construction for U-1133 was ordered. ww2dbase [U-1133 | CPC]

• USS Whale completed a period of repair at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Whale | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Destroyer Yuzuki arrived at Sasebo, Japan for a scheduled overhaul. ww2dbase [Yuzuki | Sasebo Naval Arsenal | Sasebo, Nagasaki | CPC]

• At Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, Commander of Task Force 67 Rear Admiral Walden Ainsworth shifted his flag from USS Louisville to USS Nashville. ww2dbase [Walden Ainsworth | Nashville | Louisville | Segond Channel, Espiritu Santo | DS]

• Submarine USS Spearfish fired four torpedoes at a convoy of two Japanese cargo ships in the Bismarck Sea, damaging Japanese army cargo ship Akagisan Maru. ww2dbase [Spearfish | Bismarck Sea | DS]

• He 111 aircraft stationed at Morozovskaya Airfield, Rostov Oblast, Russia were evacuated. Since the aircraft could not take all the equipment and supplies with them, commanding officer of KG 55 Oberstleutnant Ernst Kühl remained behind with a small staff in the hopes that the ground troops would be able to blunt the Soviet offensive so that the aircraft could return. ww2dbase [Battle of Stalingrad | Morozovskaya, Rostov | CPC]

2 Jan 1943 Interactive Map