Air Operations, Europe

• 4 Mosquitos are sent on cloud-cover raids to Germany. 1 bombs a factory in the area south of Grevenbroich. There are no losses.
• 93 Wellingtons, 45 Lancasters, 39 Stirlings and 38 Halifaxes are sent to bomb Duisburg. There are heavy clouds over the target area and flares dropped by leading aircraft are scattered. Some bombs do fall in Duisburg causing damage to some housing and killing 65 people. 3 Wellingtson, 2 Lancasters and 2 Stirlings are lost on the raid.
• In minor operations, 8 Blenheim Intruders make attacks and 13 aircraft are involved in mine-laying flights. 2 Intruders are lost.

Air Operations, Libya

1st Provisional Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Benghazi harbor. 1 crewman is killed when the B-24 in which he is riding crashes upon return to its base.

Air Operations, New Guinea

5th Air Force B-17s, 22nd Medium Bomb Group B-26s, 3rd Light Bomb Group A-24s and 5th Air Force P-39s and P-40s attack ships, landing barges, dumps, antiaircraft batteries and Japanese troop concentrations at Buna and Gona. The 5th Air Force fighters also strafe Salamaua.

Air Operations, Pacific

3 7th Air Force B-17s, staging through Canton Island, conduct a photo reconnaissance mission over Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands.

Air Operations, Solomons

11th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s manned by USMC photographers from VMO-251 mount their first pre-invasion photo reconnaissance missions over Gavutu, Guadalcanal and Tulagi Islands. The bombers are attacked by Gavutu-based A6M2-N float fighters (known to the Allies as 'Rufe'), but there is no damage.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The main approaches to the Mississippi River are mined by a German submarine.
• The unarmed US freighter Onondaga (2309t), bound for Havana, Cuba, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-129 5 miles north of Cayo Guillermo losing 19 of the 33-man crew along with the lone passenger. The Cuban fishing boat Laventina rescues the 14 survivors.

Eastern Front

There is heavy fighting along the Don from Rostov to Tsimlyansk, especially around Novocherkassk. The Russians still fight back desperately west of Stalingrad.

Hitler orders simultaneous operations against Stalingrad and the Caucasus, thereby compromising the chances of capturing either objective. Hoth's 4th Panzer Army is ordered to abandon its direct advance on Stalingrad, leaving 6th Army without some of its vital support, and push south to assist von Kleist's 1st Panzer Army to cross the Don River. Hitler dismisses von Bock, Commander-in-Chief of Army Group B on the Don front.

With the 42nd Army pinning down the 18th Army, Sviridov's 55th Army also attacks.

The 6th Army's attacks are causing the Soviet 62nd and 64th Armies to break apart. At Rostov the 13th Panzer and 5th SS Wiking Divs tighten their grip around the city. Buoyed by these successes, Hitler issues Directive No 45. It states: 'The next task of Army Group A is to encircle enemy forces which have escaped across the Don in the area south and southeast of Rostov, and to destroy them. Two armored formations of Army Group A (including 24th Panzer Div) will come under command of Army Group B for further operations southeastward.

'After the destruction of enemy forces south of the Don, the most important task of Army Group A will be to occupy the entire eastern coastline of the Black Sea, thereby eliminating the Black Sea ports and the enemy Black Sea Fleet. For this purpose the formations of 11th Army already designated (Romanian Mountain Corps) will be brought across the Kerch Straits as soon as the advance of the main body of Army Group A becomes effective, and will then push southeast along the Black Sea coast road.

'At the same time a force composed chiefly of fast-moving formations will give flank cover in the east and capture the Grozny area. Detachments will block the military road between Osetial and Grozny, if possible at the top of the passes. Therafter the Baku area will be occupied by a thrust along the Caspian coast. These operations by Army Group A will be known by the cover name EDELWEISS.

'The task of Army Group B is, as previously laid down, to develop the Don defenses and, by a thrust forward to Stalingrad, to smash the enemy forces concentrated there, to occupy the town, and to block the land communications between the Don and the Volga, as well as the Don itself. Closely connectied with this, fast-moving forces will advance along the Volga with the task of thrusting through to Astrakhan and blocking the main course of the Volga in the same way. These operations by Army Group B will be known by the cover name HERON.'

Malta

The island continues to be hammered by Axis bombers.

New Guinea

The Japanese advance across the track across the mountains and make contact with Australian defensive positions on the Kokoda Trail near Awala, forcing them to fall back towards Wairopi. (Wosida?).

North Africa

Over the next few days fierce fighting continues between Axis and British troops on the El Alamein front, but the overall tactical picture remains unchanged. Gen Auchinleck, like Rommel, is mainly concerned with the 'reconstruction' of his forces.

At 0700 the 9th Indian Brigade begins another series of attempts to capture Deir el Shein and Point 63. These also fail with heavy casualties.

World Affairs

In a broadcast US Secretary of State Cordell Hull urges the formation of an international peace-keeping organization by the United Nations after the war.