Air Operations, Bismarcks

A 19th Heavy Bomb Group B-17 sights a Japanese convoy, including transports, leaving Rabaul heading for northern New Guinea.

Air Operations, CBI

In response to a request for support for Chinese ground forces, 2 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack Linchwan, held by the Japanese Army.

Air Operations, Europe

Capt Antonio Lavat, commander of the Esquadra Azul, Blue Squadron, a Spanish volunteer fighter unit in Russia, is killed in action.

• 20 Bostons, flying in pairs at low levels in a new form of operation, hunt for targets of opportunity. 14 planes bomb various targets. 7 Wellingtons and 3 Lancasters are sent to Essen, but none drops bombs. 5 Hampdens have 'roving commissions' over Germany. 2 Bostons, 1 Wellington and 1 Hampden are lost in the day's operations.
• 40 Halifaxes, 31 Stirlings and 28 Lancasters are sent to bomb the Vulkan U-boat yard at Vegesack. The target is completely covered in clouds and all planes bomb using Gee. Later photographs show that no bombs fall in Vegesack, but Bremen, a few miles away, reports that two military storehouses are completely destroyed. 3 Halifaxes are lost on the raid.
• In minor operations, 19 Wellingtons lay mines off Lorient, St Nazaire and La Pallice. 1 plane is lost.

Battle of the Atlantic

The final 2 U-boats went to operate off the United States' East Coast are ordered to other areas after a period of no success because of the improved convoy operations.

China

Gen Stilwell asks Gen Chiang Kai-shek for Chinese help in the recapture of Burma as a condition for increased American aid to China.

Eastern Front

The German forces of Army Groups A and B continue to make rapid progress. In the last few days they have captured Kamensk and Voroshilovgrad and have reached the Don as far east as Tsimlyansky. The Russians concentrate their forces on the Don to defend Stalingrad. The Germans are still advancing on Rostov.

To carry out the attack in the Don Elbow the 6th Army is substantially reinforced and replenished with 1 panzer and 1 infantry corps. The objectives of the 1st and 4th Panzer Armies are again amended. Instead of advancing toward Rostov from the east, the armies will cross the Don between Tsimlyansk and Rostov and advance on a broad front directly into the Caucasus.

Germany, Strategy

Adm Dönitz recalls the last 2 U-boats from the US eastern seaboard for lack of targets and in order to concentrate on shipping in the North Atlantic.

Mediterranean

The British cruisers Dido and Euryalus and 4 destroyers bombard Mersa Matruh in Egypt.

Occupied France

SS Chief Oberg issues 'The Family Hostage Law'. If any identified French 'terrorist' does not surrender within 10 days of his crime, all his adult male relatives will be executed, females will be sent to 'work camps' and children under 17 will be sent to reform schools.

Occupied Poland

Heinrich Himmler, SS chief, orders the start of Operation REINHARD. Its objectives are: to kill Polish Jews; to exploit the skilled or manual labor of some Polish Jews before killing them; to secure the personal property of the Jews (clothing, currency, jewelry); and to identify and secure immovable assets such as factories, apartments and land. The camps used for the extermination will be Belzec (opened March 1942), Sobibor (opened May 1942) and Treblinka (opened July 1942). In total 1.7 million Jews will be killed during REINHARD, plus an unknown number of Poles, gypsies and Soviet prisoners of war.

Southwest Pacific

A force of 1,800 Japanese troops embarks at Rabaul, New Britain to capture Buna and Gona in New Guinea.