Air Operations, Europe

• 5 Pathfinder Mosquitos and 55 Lancasters of Nos. 1 and 5 Groups are sent to Essen.
• The Oboe equipment of the first Mosquito to arrive over the target area fails, and the other Mosquitos are late. As a result the bombing is done on dead reckoning. Some bombs do fall in Essen where 20 houses are destroyed or seriously damaged and 9 people are killed. Bombs also fall in Neviges, Remscheid, Solingen and Wuppertal, towns 12-20 miles south of Essen. 19 people are killed in Remscheid.
• 1 Lancaster is lost.

• 32 aircraft lay mines off the Biscay ports without a loss.

Air Operations, New Guinea

90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount single-plane attacks against Finschhafen and Madang.

Air Operations, North Africa

B-17s wreck buildings and aircraft on Castel Benito airfield near Tripoli, while escorting P-38s rout 20 defending Me-109s.

Air Operations, Solomons

• AirSoPac B-26s, P-38s, P-39s and P-40s attack the airfield at Munda Point, New Georgia. 2 B-26s are lost.
• P-39s attack Japanese Army ground forces on Guadalcanal.

Aleutians

Amchitka Island, only 69 miles from Japanese-held Kiska, is occupied by a small American force under Gen Lloyd E. Jones, but the destroyer Worden is lost in an accident when it runs on some rocks. The island gives the US an advanced fighter base to begin offensive operations against Kiska and Attu.

US Destroyer Worden(DD-352) Sinking off Amchitka, Alaska, 12 January 1943

Eastern Front

The Soviet Voronezh and Bryansk Fronts, under Gens Yuvgeny Golikov and M. Z. Reiter, attack the Hungarian 2nd and the German 2nd Army respectively. The Hungarian defenses are quickly shattered and the Russians are soon driving toward Kharkov. Farther south, von Manstein's Army Group Don is also under heavy pressure as the Russians attempt to cut off the Caucasus by an advance to Rostov. Even more dangerous for the Germans is the possibility that the Russians may be able to drive south from around Kharkov, cutting off both von Manstein and von Kleist. Almost all the supplies for these German units have to come through Dnepropetrovsk, which the Russians in fact nearly reach in mid-February.

In the northern sector, the Russian Leningrad and Volkhov forces consolidate the corridor opened south of Lake Ladoga. The narrow strip, which will not be widened for another year, is pounded by German artillery so murderously that it becomes known as 'death corridor'.

The Red Army launches Operation ISKRA, designed to push the German 18th Army out of the Schlusselburg-Mga salient and thus reopen a supply line to the besieged city of Leningrad. The 67th Armu (130,000 troops) attacks from south of the city, and the 2nd Shock Army (114,000 troops) assaults from the Volkhov. In between line German troops in well-entrenched positions.

The Don Front's attack at Stalingrad has incurred 26,000 casualties, but Paulus has lost 60,000 troops and massive stocks of weapons. In the Caucasus, attacks by the Soviet 18th and 46th Armies encounter heavy resistance.[MORE]

Guadalcanal

The 27th Infantry, 25th Div, continues its attack on Galloping Horse, replacing the 3rd Battalion with the 2nd, and makes limited progress toward Hill 53. C Company, 35th Infantry, starts westward toward the corps objective along a ridge southwest of Sea Horse but is soon halted by enemy fire. The efforts of the 2nd Battalion to break through the Gifu are frustrated by strong resistance.[MORE]

New Guinea

Two battalions of the Australian 18th Bde, with tank support, attack enemy positions northwest of Gona. Japanese anti-tank guns knock out the Australian tanks, but the infantry press the attack, though with heavy losses. During the night the Japanese commander orders a withdrawal.

North Africa

Montgomery sends a 'Personal Message' to the men of the 8th Army, calling for supreme effort to drive the Italians from Tripoli, their last African stronghold. 'Our families and friends .... will be thrilled when they hear we have captured that place.'

Leclerc's Free French are now in complete control of southern Libya.

A Cautious Advance

A United States soldier advances cautiously at left with a sub-machine gun to cover any attempt of the German tank crew from escaping their fiery prison inside their tank following a duel with US and British anti-tank units in Medjez al Bab area, Tunisia, on January 12, 1943.(AP Photo)