Eighty years ago the Kriegsmarine fails to redeem itself in Hitler's eyes

 

The Kriegsmarine attacked the convoy JW51B bound for the Kola Inlet with supplies for the USSR. This was the first such convoy since the invasion of North Africa had absorbed allied shipping. The Germans fielded two heavy cruisers, Hipper and Lutzow, and six destroyers against a close escort of six Royal Navy destroyers and two corvettes with two cruisers providing distant cover. In a confused action - the Battle of the Barents Sea -  each side lost a destroyer, Hipper was damaged and HMS Onslow severely hit. The commander of the escort Captain Sherbrooke was badly wounded on Onslow and later awarded the Victoria Cross. All the merchant ships reached port safely and Hitler was left disgusted by the poor performance of his surface ships despite their superiority in material.

 A US division under Lt.-General Robert Eichelberger captured the Japanese stronghold of Buna on New Guinea after a difficult and costly battle. Eichelberger had been given direct responsibility for the attack by theatre commander Douglas MacArthur and he had then assumed personal command of the division when its commander had been wounded. MacArthur had instructed Eichelberger, "Take Buna, or don't come back alive." His success left only a single Japanese position on the island.

Churchill replicated what had been a successful move in appointing a resident minister to the Middle East by appointing one for North Africa. He chose Harold Macmillan from the left of the Conservative party, who had been a firm anti-appeaser but not a particular ally of his. Macmillan's main job would be to act as the prime minister's personal representative to the Americans, now deployed in force in the European  theatre, but with very different strategic plans: an early attack on France. He would also have to deal with the ambiguous position of the two competing non-Vichy French leaders, generals de Gaulle and Giraud. He declined Churchill's wish for him to wear military uniform and stuck resolutely to his dark suit. As Churchill put it he chose the bowler hat as he had no (Field-Marshal's) baton.