Finland - Winter War

Day 71

On the central Isthmus Soviet infantry supported by ski-borne armored sheets manage to reach the front of the Finnish positions in Summa. By midnight, however, the Soviets have been forced to withdraw leaving behind about 150 armored sheets. On the eastern Isthmus 2 Soviet divisions launch an assault in Taipale at 10:15a.m. The Soviet artillery is directed at the eastern part of Kirvesmäki and the western strongholds in Terenttilä. Besides the Soviet artillery, the Finnish position are also bombed and strafed by Soviet aircraft. In the fighting 2 of the Terenttilä strongholds are lost to the Russians. Finnish casualties are 32 killed and 187 wounded. The Soviet assault on Kirvesmäki fails with them losing 2 assault tanks. In the north, 1500 Russians are killed in Kuhmo. On the Ladoga Karelia the Soviets wipe out a Finnish ski battalion to the northeast of Lake Ladoga. To the east of Nietjärvi a Russian detachment of about 250 men is surrounded.

Ladoga Karelia: the enemy wipes out a Finnish ski battalion to the northeast of Lake Ladoga. Photo: SA-KUVA Finnish Ski Battalion Destroyed

France, Home Front

Paris police raid the Soviet Press Agency and discover that it is being used as a cover for a pro-German propaganda agency.

Occupied Poland

It is announced that in the town of Lodz hundreds of thousands of Jews will be sent to live in a specially created ghetto. The city, which is home to 230,000 Jewish residents, will become the site of Poland’s second largest Nazi ghetto, and the only one to completely cut off its inhabitants from any outside access. The result is a people unprepared for what they would find behind the walls of the notorious Lodz Ghetto. Establishment of the ghetto is kept secret for months. The Nazi regime was looking for a way to herd the Jewish population in a controllable area, for easy deportation once a final solution for the 'Jewish problem' was reached. Lodz: Creation of a Nazi Ghetto

Secret War

'Harry Sawyer' (William G. Sebold) arrives in New York to head German spy network in the United States. His special equipment includes 'microdots'. (Sebold is a double agent, working for the FBI.)

Western Front

2 French soldiers capture a German patrol in the Forbach Woods (see Jan 10, 1943).