Black Sea

The Soviet light cruiser Chervonaya Ukrania is sunk by a German bombing attack at Sevastopol.

Eastern Front

(13th?)There is an important conference of German commanders at Orsha at which Gen Halder presents the final plans for the culminating offensive against Moscow. The II Panzergruppe under Guderian is to advance from Tula towards Kolomna. The 2nd Army will protect its flank. The 4th Army will make a frontal assault in order to engage the maximum number of Russian forces. The III Panzergruppe under Hoth is to cross the Moscow-Volga canal and outflank Moscow to the north, then turn southeast to meet up with Guderian's force. The left flank will be protected by the 9th Army. The generals who will have to execute the scheme are not entirely happy with it but their opposition is fairly half-hearted and the plan is agreed.

The temperature is 12 below zero and will drop even more on the 13th. Many Germans suffer from frostbite. Tula is captured by the Russians.

The Soviets counterattack at Tikhvin with the 4th Army, and the Soviet 52nd Army attacks at Malaya Vyshera.[MORE]

Germany, Strategy

A conference of army group and army commanders at Orsha decides that Army Group North will assume a defensive posture while Army Group Center will continue the attack against Moscow. Army Group South will capture Rostov and then drive into the Caucasus.

Mediterranean

In Operation Perpetual, a further 34 Hurricanes are flown off the British carriers Argus and Ark Royal to Malta.

Soviet Union, Strategy

Zhukov, realizing that Moscow is still in danger, places the Western Front on high alert. This formation has lost 750,000 troops since October and numbers only 250,000 men. It comprises the 30th, 16th, 5th, 33rd, 49th and 50th Armies. To the front's north is Konev's Kalinin Front (22nd, 29th and 31st Armies).

Vichy France

The Vichy government orders the internment at Fort Portalet, in the Pyrenees, of Léon Blum and Edouard Daladier, former French Prime Ministers, and Gen Gamelin, the former Commander-in-Chief of the French army.

Former Vichy Minister of War Charles Huntziger is killed in an air crash near Nîmes. He was 61.