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WWII On This Day: December 5

What happened on December 5 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1941, 1942 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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1942
Major General Charles Allfrey with two officers near the British front in Tunisia, photographed on 5 December 1942 after the drive toward Tunis had been checked.
Major General Charles Allfrey with two officers near the British front in Tunisia, photographed on 5 December 1942 after the drive toward Tunis had been checked. Sgt Frederick Wackett / IWM NA 203 · UK Government public domain Source
Operation Torch and the Tunisian Campaign

First Army reforms after the failed Tunis thrust

By early December, Anderson’s forces were rebuilding their forward line after being pushed back from Tebourba. British infantry and attached units still held the hill country west of Tunis but lacked the strength for an immediate renewed drive. Major General Charles Allfrey and fellow officers were photographed near the forward area on 5 December. The image records the state of the command after the advance had stalled, not the 1 December counter-attack itself.

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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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