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WWII On This Day: December 5

What happened on December 5 during World War II? This date brings together 2 events from 1941 and 1943, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
Soviet troops during the Moscow counteroffensive in December 1941.
Soviet troops during the Moscow counteroffensive in December 1941. Public domain in Russia · via Wikimedia Commons Source
The Battle for Moscow

The Soviet counteroffensive opens

Kalinin Front attacked on 5 December and the Western Front's main counteroffensive followed on 6 December. Soviet armies struck German formations that had spread across extended salients north and south of Moscow after exhausting their offensive strength. The Red Army still carried the losses of the summer and autumn, yet Stavka had rebuilt enough formations to create a local reserve advantage at the decisive moment. German intelligence had underestimated the scale of that regeneration. The attacks forced withdrawals from the northern approaches and the Tula sector and transferred the initiative…

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1943
A P-51B Mustang of the U.S. Army Air Forces in flight in early 1944.
U.S. Army Air Forces, 342-FH-3A16458-53135AC / NARA, NAID 204889474 · Public domain in the United States
Big Week and Air Superiority

The Mustang reaches the escort war

The P-51B flew its first Eighth Air Force escort mission on 5 December 1943. The date does not mark the instant when the Luftwaffe lost control of the skies; it marks the arrival of a fighter whose range allowed the American escort system to extend much farther into Germany. External tanks mattered as much as the aircraft's reputation. Fuel carried for the long transit could be jettisoned before combat, allowing the fighter to reach the interception area with enough endurance left to fight and return. The new range changed German…

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