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• Kapitän zur See Hans Meyer took command of cruiser Köln. ww2dbase [Köln | CPC]
• Italian troops fought off an attack by British troops north of El Agheila, Libya in a rear guard action. ww2dbase [Second Battle of El Alamein | CPC]
• American troops captured Buna, New Guinea. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 | CPC]
• "Millions of human beings, most of them Jews, are being gathered up with ruthless efficiency and murdered", reported American journalist Edward R. Murrow. "There are no longer 'concentration camps' - we must speak now only of 'extermination camps'." ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• S-36 suffered a leak with the exhaust valve. ww2dbase [S-36 | CPC]

• Amagiri and Yugure arrived at Shortland Islands, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Amagiri | Yugure | Shortland Islands | CPC]

• Irako sailed south from off Mizunoko Lighthouse, Oita, Japan with minelayer Nuwajima in escort. ww2dbase [Irako | Oita | CPC]

• Three miles off Nauru island, submarine USS Saury fired two torpedoes at a Japanese merchant ship laying off the island. A motor launch with 15 troops beside the merchant ship may have been destroyed (uncertain) and one torpedo exploded upon hitting the beach. Saury continued on her way to Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i, crossing the equator later in the day. ww2dbase [Saury | DS]

• The British Admiralty announced the loss of the Hunt-class destroyer HMS Penylan (Lieutenant-Commander J. H. Wallace DSC, RN) which had been torpedoed and sunk off Start Point, Devon, England, United Kingdom by German E-Boat S-115 on 3 December 1942, while escorting convoy PW-257. ww2dbase [AC]
• The Enigma codebooks captured by HMS Petard from the sinking German submarine U-559 arrived at Bletchley Park's Hut 8 and within one hour intercepts of German submarine signals allowed the British Admiralty to instantly pinpoint the location of fifteen U-Boats. ww2dbase [Enigma Code Broken | Bletchley Park | Milton Keynes, England | AC]

• American survivors of Panamanian steam merchant ship Plaudit, sunk by German submarine U-181 in the Indian Ocean on 8 Nov 1942, were repatriated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States aboard the American merchant ship Doncaster. ww2dbase [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | HM]

13 Dec 1942 Interactive Map