2 Dec 1942
- British Army Major Herbert Le Patourel won the Victoria Cross for single-handedly taking an enemy position near Tunis in which he was seriously wounded. ww2dbase [AC]
- US Air Transport Command began flying "the Hump" into China. ww2dbase [Burma Road and the Hump | CPC]
- General Hitoshi Imamura arrived in Rabaul, New Britain to take command of the Japanese South Pacific Area and the Seventeenth Army. ww2dbase [Hitoshi Imamura | CPC]
- The US merchant ship SS Coamo was sunk by German submarine U-604 off Bermuda while on route to New York from Gibraltar. The ship was detached from the convoy she started in and was never heard from again. A total of 186 lives were lost in what was the greatest loss aboard any US flag merchant vessel during WW2. ww2dbase [AC]
- Georgios Tsolakoglou was removed as the Prime Minister of the German puppet Hellenic State. ww2dbase [Georgios Tsolakoglou | CPC]
- Konstantinos Logothetopoulos was made the Prime Minister of the Hellenic State. ww2dbase [Konstantinos Logothetopoulos | Athens | CPC]
- Two transports arrived at Auschwitz Concentration Camp on this date. The first transport from Westerbork Concentration Camp in the Netherlands arrived with 826 Jews; 77 of them were registered into the camp, and the remaining 749 were gassed. The second transport from Grodno ghetto arrived with 1,000 Jews; 178 men and 60 women were registered into the camp, and the remaining 762 were gassed. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]
- British 2nd Parachute Battalion engaged elements of 3rd Battalion of German 5th Parachute Regiment at El Fedja, Tunisia. ww2dbase [Advance into Tunisia | CPC]
- Enrico Fermi's atomic reactor Chicago Pile-1 at the University of Chicago, Illinois, United States initiated the world's first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. ww2dbase [Operation Trinity and Manhattan Project | Chicago, Illinois | CPC]
- USS Harder was commissioned into service with Commander Samuel Dealey in command. ww2dbase [Harder | CPC]
- Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier USS Card departed Puget Sound, Washington bound for San Diego, California. ww2dbase [Puget Sound Navy Yard | Card | Puget Sound, Washington | DS]

2 Dec 1942 Interactive Map
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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