Air Operations, Europe

• 6 Mosquitos make cloud-cover raids to widely separated targets. 5 planes bomb, but 1 is lost.
• Hamburg is the target as 256 aircraft are dispatched. A larger force is called for, but bad weather over many of the bases of 1, 4 and 5 Groups prevent their particpation. The total includes 161 Wellingtons, 71 Stirlings and 24 Whitleys. The weather worsens and all of the 165 OTU aircraft are recalled although 3 go on and bomb Hamburg. The remaining bombing force becomes very scattered. More aircraft turn back but 68 bomb the target area. 13 people are killed and 48 injured. 56 fires are started with 15 of those being classified as large. 16 Wellingtons and 9 Stirlings are lost from 3 Group. From the OTU 4 Wellingtons are lost and 1 Whitley crashes at sea.
• In minor operations, 30 Bostons and 13 Blenheims make Intruder flights. 2 Bostons and 1 Blenheim are lost.

Air Operations, Libya

During the night, 1st Provisional Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack Tobruk harbor.

Air Operations, New Guinea

1 22nd Medium Bomb Group B-26 attacks Gona.

Battle of the Atlantic

The unarmed US fishing trawler Ebb (260t) is shelled and sunk by U-754 45 miles east of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia losing 5 of the 17-man crew. The 12 survivors are picked up by the British destroyer Witherington.

Britain, Home Front

Sir Matthew Flinders Petrie, an archaeologist, dies at the age of 89.

China

The Japanese offensive in the province of Chekiang, apparently launched in retaliation for the raids on Tokyo and other towns by Doolittle's aircraft, comes to an end.

Eastern Front

Following the fall of Rostov and Novocherkassk, now officially admitted by the Russians, Stalin begins to implement measures to bolster the resistance of the Red Army with increasingly harsh discipline and by granting officers higher status and authority. Political commissars are subordinated to army officers. Among other things gold stripes are restored to their uniforms, and new decorations are created for officers only, inspired by patriotism, not politics. A few months later the role of political commissars will be reduced even further.

Now the ordinary Russian citizen realizes that the Germans are poised to invade the Kuban and the Caucasus. The Germans have attacked Rostov not from the west, as in 1941, but from the north and northeast, the least strongly defended area. The Russians are seized by panic; whole units have been disbanded, men and officers of all ranks have been shot for desertion. The announcement of the fall of Rostov spreads terror in the Soviet Union. Three days later Stalin declares: 'Not one more backward step!' In fact there will be further withdrawals, but people know that there is little room for them. If the Germans are not stopped at Stalingrad and the foothills of the Caucasus, the war is lost.

The German 6th Army runs out of fuel and grinds to a halt, allowing the Soviet 62nd and 64th Armies to fall back east. In the Caucasus the Southern front is in a complete shambles (it has lost 15,000 killed and wounded in three days), prompting the Stavka to disband it and allocate its units to the North Caucasus Front. The latter has two main formations: Don Group (12th, 37th and 51st Armies) is to halt the 1st Panzer Army; and Coastal Group (18th, 47th and 56th Armies and XVII Cossack Cavalry Corps) is to stop the German 17th Army and protect the Kuban and approaches to Krasnodar.[MORE]

New Guinea

The Australians retake Kokoda, but Japanese reinforcements on the way from the Buna bridgehead make their position precarious. The Japanese Imperial General Staff orders an immediated general offensive for the capture of eastern New Guinea. Plans are made for amphibious operations in Milne Bay and land and sea attacks on Port Moresby.

Soviet Union, Strategy

Stalin issues Order No 227. In this he alludes to his concern about German gains: 'The territory of the Soviet Union is not a wilderness, but people - workers, peasants, intelligentsia, our fathers and mothers, wives, brothers, children. Territory of USSR that has been captured by the enemy and which the enemy is longing to capture is bread and other resources for the army and the civilians, iron and fuel for the industries, factories and plants that supply the military with hardware and ammunition; this is also railroads. With the loss of Ukraine, Belorussia, the Baltics, Donets basin and other areas we have lost vast territories; that means that we have lost many people, bread, metals, factories and plants. We no longer have superiority over the enemy in human resources and in bread supply. Continuation of retreat means the destruction of our Motherland.

'The conclusion is that it is time to stop the retreat. Not a single step back! This should be our slogan from now on.'