Air Operations, CBI

5 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s, escorted by P-40s, attack Bhamo and 23d Fighter Group P-40s attack targets of opportunity at Bhamo, Loiwing, and Wanling.

Air Operations, Europe

• 12 Venturas are sent to attack the Ijmuden steelworks, 12 Bostons the Abbeville airfields and 7 Mosquitos railway targets at Mons and Rouen. The Abbeville force is recalled, but all other targets are bombed. 1 Mosquito is lost.

Photograph taken from one of the Venturas ivolved in the attack on the steelworks at Ijmuiden in Holland.

Attack on the Steelworks at Ijmuiden

• 2 Pathfinder Mosquitos and 50 Lancasters of 5 Group are sent to Essen.
• Reports from Essen indicate a concentrated bombing in or near the city center with 127 buildings being destroyed or seriously damaged. 28 people are killed.
• 3 Lancasters are lost.
• 121 aircraft including 78 Halifaxes, 41 Wellingtons and 2 Stirlings are sent to lay mines in the Frisians, the German Bight and the Kattegat. 97 aircraft report success in their designated areas.
• 4 Halifaxes are lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

5th Air Force and RAAF aircraft attack the Japanese convoy as it departs to the east from Lae. Since the convoy was first attacked on January 6, 2 transports have been sunk, and 80 Japanese covering aircraft have been shot down. 5th Air Force fighters and bombers also attack dumps and airfields at Lae and Salamaua.

Axis Diplomacy

Japan and the Nanking regime sign an agreement abolishing all extraterritorial rights in China and providing for the return of all concessions and settlements to Chinese control.

Britain, Home Front

Flt-Lt Richard Hilary, author of 'The Last Enemy' is killed on active duty. He was 23.

Diplomatic Relations

The Puppet 'Central Government of China' declares war on Britain and the USA.

Eastern Front

The Don Front prepares to begin Operation KOLTSO. The Don Front has 281,000 men, 257 tanks and nearly 10,000 arty pieces against 6th Army's 191,000 effectives, 7,700 arty pieces and mortars and 60 panzers. At the time of the attack the temperature is -35 degrees.

In the period since November 23 Paulus has lost 40,000 killed or missing, suffered 29,000 wounded while 7,000 specialist troops have been flown out of the pocket. No longer able to feed his own men adequately, Paulus orders all captives to be returned to the Soviet lines. Many, fearing NKVD and OGPU retribution, remain behind the German lines, shunned by both armies.

Sappers Looking for Mines, 9 January 1943

Guadalcanal

The XIV Corps completes its preparations for the attack on the 10th. The 25th Div, which is to lead off, moves forward to the line of departure, the 27th Infantry, on the right of the division, takes up positions for the assault on a hill mass called the Galloping Horse, between the northwest and southwest forks of the Matanikau. The 35th Infantry, on the left, prepares to make its main effort against Hills 43 and 44, called Sea Horse, lying between the Gifu and the Galloping Horse, while exerting pressure against the Gifu. The 3rd Battalion, followed by the 1st, completes a wide circling movement about the southern flank of the Gifu to the line of departure for the attack on the Sea Horse. The 2nd Battalion and the Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop take up positions about the eastern part of the Gifu, relieving the 132nd Infantry, Americal Div. The Americal Div holds the perimeter defense. Capt Beach's 147th Infantry Task Force lands at Beaufort Bay and establishes beach defenses.[MORE]

New Guinea

The Australian 17th Bde is airlifted to Wau to establish a forward base for the next phase of the Allied offensive which will take place when the capture of Buna and Sanananda is achieved and consolidated. In that sector the Americans take Tarakena village and try to establish a bridgehead over the Konombi River, but are driven back by intense Japanese fire. The convoy that brought reinforcements and supplies to Lae leaves again, still under Allied attack. 2 Japanese transports are sunk and about 80 aircraft destroyed.

Wreckage of an American B-17 Flying Fortress

Picking through the wreckage of an American B-17 Flying Fortress destroyed in a Luftwaffe raid on an Algerian airfield, January 9, 1943. Costly German raids forced all B-17's westward to safer fields near Oran, which meant a twelve hundred-mile roundtrip bombing run to Tunis.

United States, Home Front

The maiden flight of the Lockheed C-69 military transport, the forerunner of the Constellation airliner, takes place.