Battle of the Atlantic

• U-126 sinks the British steamer Peru (6961t) southwest of Cape Palmas, Liberia. The entire crew of 60 are picked up by the South African whaler Uniwaleco.
• The Soviet destroyer Surovy sinks on a mine off Hango, Finland.

Diplomatic Relations

China requests that the British fly air cover over the Burma Road.

Eastern Front

German and Rumanian troops make an unsuccessful attempt to take Sebastopol by storm.

There is heavy fighting around Tikhvin while the 52nd Army continues to attack the XXXVIII Corps near Malaya Vyshera. The temperature is minus 22 degrees Centigrade.

Mediterranean

The British force that delivered some aircraft to Malta is attacked by 2 U-boats, U-81 and U-205, on its return to Gibraltar. Ark Royal is hit once by a torpedo from U-81, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Guggenberger, and badly damaged, but is able to continue towards Gibraltar. Also suffering damages from the U-boat attack is the battleship Malaya.

Torpedoed direct under the command tower by U-81 off Gibraltar, a severe list causing cumulative flooding on the starboard side which choked the boiler uptakes and stopped Ark Royal in the water. She eventually capsized and sank only 25 miles off Gibraltar.

Sinking of the Ark Royal

United States, Politics

Changes in the Neutrality Laws pass Congress. US merchant ships may now be armed and enter war zones and to unload munitions in British ports. These administration-sponsored measures only pass by a small margin even after the Kearny incident and other development in the Atlantic have been carefully presented as German aggressions. The small margin shows that the US is not yet ready to go to war.