Battle of the Atlantic

• The German blockade runner Bahia Blanca (8558t) hits an iceberg and sinks northwest of Iceland. Her crew is rescued by the Icelandic trawler Hafstein.
• The German destroyers Karl Galster, Anton Schmidt, Richard Beitzen and Friedrich Ihn lay mines off Newcastle.
• The German destroyers Bruno Heinemann, Wolfgang Zenker and Erich Koellner lay mines off Cromer. 3 merchant ships of 11,155 tons are lost in this field.

Finland - Winter War

Day 42

In northern Finland the Russian 122nd Div begins to fall back from Salla towards Märkäjärvi. On the Ladoga Karelia troops of the Finnish IV Army Corps cut the road connections of the Russian 56th Army near Pitkäranta. This action traps the bulk of the 56th Army inside the Kitelä-Syskyjärvi-Koirinoja triangle, giving rise to the great Kitelä 'motti'.

The author Hella Wuolijoki travels to Stockholm to begin unofficial negotiations with the Soviet Ambassador there, Alexandra Kollontai.

Northern Finland: another crushing Finnish victory is recorded in the north, this time at Suomussalmi. A second enemy division is destroyed as Finnish troops push onwards to the border. Photo: SA-KUVA Victory at Suomussalmi

Germany, Planning

Hitler tells all 3 of his service chiefs, Göring (air force), Raeder (navy) and von Brauchitsch (army) that he plans to attack the Western Front on Jan 17.

Western Front

2 German officers, Maj Helmut Reinberger and Maj Erich Hoenmans, carrying copies of the plan for the attack in the west are forced down when their plane strays off course because of fog. They land at Mechelen-sur-Meuse, Belgium. They are unable to destroy their documents and the Belgian authorities pass on details to the British and French. This alerts the Allies to a possible German attack through Belgium and the Netherlands.