West of Stalingrad, November 23rd, 1942
Advancing units of the Soviet 21st army met these of the 51st army. The encirclement of Stalingrad was complete. 22 German and 2 Romanian divisions with neatly 300,000 men had been caught in the pocket. The Romanian 3rd and 4th armies and the German divisions that had stood on the way of the Soviet attack had already been shattered.
Berlin, November 24th, 1942
The OKW or at least many in it wanted the encircled German forces at Stalingrad to try an immediate breakout in hoped of escaping. It would likely cost most their material but it was thought or hoped at any rate, that the men would be saved to fight another date. But Hitler was adamantly opposed to the idea. A counterattack would be organized instead to break the encirclement, Erich von Manstein would be brought over from the siege of Leningrad to lead it. But till the encirclement was broken the Stalingrad pocket needed an estimated 750tons of supplies per day, for the German forces to make it through. The Luftwaffe was confident it would be able to provide it by air. A huge fleet of nearly 700 transport aircraft [1] would indeed be gathered over the following weeks but it would fail to transport more than 200 tons of supplies at any time to the pocket.
Domokos, Thessaly, November 25th, 1942
The little town, fell to the Greeks I Infantry division. German and Italian reinforcements had managed to slow down the allied advance to a degree, but the liberation of Domokos signaled the Allied forces breaking through Mount Othrys into the plains of Thessaly. Given the massive Allied advantage in armor this was not likely to prove a good thing for the defending Axis units...
Thessaloniki, December 1st, 1942
The German army, formed Heeresgruppe E to command German forces in the Balkans and the Near East. Field marshal Erwin Rommel would become its first commander. Despite the growing emergency in the Soviet Union more German divisions were moving in the Balkans, with the German advance to 5he Caucasus having failed Ploesti remained Germany's main source of oil while Turkey was her main source of chrome. But no matter the reinforcements the Axis forces were still retreating northwards.
Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, December 1st, 1942
Work on the battleship Shinano, continued unabated. Proposals to suspend construction back in December 1941, had not been accepted after Hood and Prince of Wales had beaten off air attacks against them and it had been required to commit battleships against them. Then back in July it had been proposed after the defeat in the battle of Midway to convert the ship to an aircraft carrier. This too had not passed, the fleet had already lost two Kongo class battleships by this point, two more battleships were slated for carrier conversion and Shinano already too far along in construction, or so it had been thought. With two more battleships lost in Guadalcanal it looked like it had been the right decision.
Chicago, December 2nd, 1942
The world's first nuclear reactor went critical. For four and half minutes, the reaction had to be dampened afterwards and producing perhaps half a watt in power output. But still history was made. The scientists and engineers working on the project remained concerned what their German counterparts were doing. They should not but would learn so only postwar.
[1] No battle of Crete hence a significant portion of the transport aircraft lost there is still available. On top of that no aircraft used moving men to Tunisia. But neither would suffice to significantly alter the results of the German supply effort.
Larisa, December 4th, 1942
The 9th Australian division liberated the city. The Germans, Italians and Bulgarians were in full retreat with rear guard actions trying to gain them time. It was clear the Rommel and general Carlo Geloso the Italian commander in Greece had given up on Thessaly and lively hoped to form a new defensive line on the Olympus. The question was whether they would succeed doing so...
Beirut, December 5th, 1942
Second lieutenant
Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San received his promotion to lieutenant. The lieutenant had joined the Free French army after helping out in the liberation of Reunion, where he had lived since 1916, back in January.
