Long Haul In A Bailed-Out Lifeboat

TUE 5 JAN 1943
Pacific
TG 67.2 (Rear Admiral Walden L. Ainsworth) bombards airfield and installations at Munda, New Georgia, Solomons. After the rest of TF 67 joins TG 67.2, Japanese planes attack the force, near-missing light cruiser Honolulu (CL 48) and damaging New Zealand light cruiser HMNZS Achilles, 18 miles south of Cape Hunter, Guadalcanal. In the action, light cruiser Helena (CL 50) becomes the first U.S. Navy ship to use Mk. 32 proximity-fuzed projectiles in combat, downing a Japanese Aichi Type 99 carrier bomber (VAL) with her second salvo.

USAAF B-17s and B-24s bomb Japanese shipping at Rabaul, New Guinea.

Atlantic
Last nine survivors (including the Armed Guard unit commander) of U.S. freighter Alaskan, sunk by German submarine U-172 on 28 November 1942, utilizing a bailed-out lifeboat, reach Cayenne, French Guiana.