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• Operation Frankton had Royal Navy submarines drop off commandos to raid German shipping up the River Gironde in Bordeaux Harbor, France. ww2dbase [TH]
• American forces at Guadalcanal marked the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor by shelling Japanese positions from dawn to dusk in what they term a "Hate Shoot". ww2dbase [Guadalcanal Campaign | AC]
• The British liner-turned-troopship, SS Ceramic, on her way to Australia with 378 mainly military and nursing passengers, a crew of 278, and 12 children, was torpedoed by U-515 off the Azores. Survivors took to the lifeboats but in heavy seas and a gale force wind, these soon capsize. The U-boat captain, Werner Henke, fished one man from the water for interrogation purposes and left the rest, 655 men, women, and children, to die. U-515 was eventually sunk by American warships in Apr 1944 and the crew captured. Two months later Henke, who had been responsible for sinking 26 Allied ships was shot dead in an attempt to scale the fence of his POW camp in Virginia in the United States. Refusing an order to stop demanded by alerted guards, Henke appeared to deliberately commit suicide rather than face being tried as a war criminal over the Ceramic incident. The one passenger rescued, Royal Engineer Eric Monday, survived the war. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Gunnel ended her first war patrol and departed North African waters. ww2dbase [Gunnel | CPC]

• USS Grayback departed Fremantle, Australia for her fifth war patrol. ww2dbase [Grayback | Fremantle, Western Australia | CPC]

• US B-24 bombers attacked Rabaul, New Britain, causing no damage due to poor weather. ww2dbase [Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• In Operation BG 5, Italian auxiliary ship Olterra launched three manned torpedoes against Gibraltar; they failed to cause any damage. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Workers at Dock No. 4 at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, US Territory of Hawaii began placing sand on top of the rock foundation. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• USS New Mexico departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [New Mexico | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Kamoi arrived at Mili, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Mili | CPC]

• USS Wahoo departed waters off Buka, Solomon Islands for Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Wahoo | CPC]

• Balao-class submarine Bowfin was launched at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire ww2dbase [Bowfin | Portsmouth, New Hampshire | DS]
• The keel was laid for fleet oiler Escambia at the Marinship yard. This was the first keel laid at Marinship for a tanker, the ship type Marinship was primarily intended to build. ww2dbase [Marinship Shipbuilding | Sausalito, California | DS]

7 Dec 1942 Interactive Map