Air Operations - Europe

31 Wellingtons are sent to hit the warships at Brest. There are no special results claimed although one bomb pierces the hull of the Gneisenau and floods two compartments. 1 aircraft is lost.

In minor operations, 18 Hampdens patrol over Northern Germany, 11 Whitleys are sent to Stavanger airfield, 5 Wellingtons to Cherbourg and there are 16 OTU sorties. There are no losses in the minor operations.

Baltic States

A typhus outbreak reaches epidemic proportions in Lithuania.

Battle of the Atlantic

U-701 sinks the British steamer Baron Erskine (3657t) 360 miles east-southeast of Cape Farewell with the loss of her entire crew of 41.

Britain, Home Front

Lord Woolton, Minister of Food, declares that, thanks to the success of the Government's food policy, the British people are 'fighting fit'. Black marketeers have caused some problems, but those responsible are 'having a diet at Wormwood Scrubs'. Emergency feeding arrangements now include 1,170 'British Restaurants'.

China

Chiang Kai-shek asks Washington to name a senior American officer to be chief of staff of the Allied troops (American and British) operating in China.

Eastern Front

Near Leningrad, after crossing ice, the Russians recapture Hogland Island in the Gulf of Finland. The Spanish volunteer 'Blue Division', fighting on the Leningrad front, has suffered heavy casualties, including many frostbite victims.[MORE]

Punishment for Partisan Activity

The Nazi's viewed all 'Slavs' as 'sub human' and quite apart from their genocide against the Jews readily killed anyone connected with any form of 'partisan activity', real or imagined. As the Soviet Army began to push back the German invaders in some areas in late 1941 and the beginning of 1942 they started to uncover numerous instances of atrocities committed against ordinary citizens. Controversially the Soviet state did not distinguish between crimes committed against people because they were Jewish and other crimes against Soviet citizens. On the 6th January 1942 the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov began to put these wide ranging incidents on the official record with a document promising ultimate retribution.

Malaya

In the western sector Indian troops are moved in to defend the Selangor River. In the east the troops that evacuated Kuantan continue their withdrawal.

North Africa

The British 1st Arm Div becomes operational in Cyrenaica. The inexperience of this formation is to be an important factor in the coming operations. This unit takes position at Antelat in Cyrenaica. Derna harbor is reopened to traffic. The German retreat through Cyrenaica comes to an end. The Italians and Germans are deployed along a line from El Agheila to Marada. The British advance has reached Mersa Brega and is temporarily halted east of El Agheila. 8th Army's first offensive is successful inflicting a severe defeat on Rommel's forces which suffered 38,000 killed, wounded and missing. It is the first victory for the British over the Germans in World War II.

Batteries of an advanced Italian position near Tobruk, Libya, on 6 January 1942. (AP Photo)

Italian Artillery Near Tobruk

Philippines

Artillery fire is exchanged on Luzon in the area of Layac at the base of the Bataan peninsula. The Japanese enter Dinalupihan, already evacuated by the Americans and Filipinos. The air offensive against Corregidor is temporarily halted except for some minor nuisance attacks.

United States, Planning

Washington announces that US troops will be stationed in Britain.

United States, Politics

In his State of the Union address, Roosevelt says cooperative military planning will dictate strategy during the war: 'We shall not fight isolated wars, each nation going its own way. . . . The militarists of Berlin and Tokyo started this war, but the massed, angered forces of common humanity will finish it.' He also asks Congress for an extraordinary appropriation which will allow the US to produce by the end of 1943, 125,000 aircraft, 75,000 tanks, 35,000 guns and 8 million tons of shipping.(ck on these numbers- in 42 60,000 planes and 8 million tons merchant shipping; in 43 125,000 planes and 10 million tons merchang shipping)