Air Operations - Bismarcks

90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount single-plane attacks against Cape Hollman and Cape St. George, New Britain.

Air Operations - CBI

• 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the town of Thazi and a rail junction near Mandalay
• B-24s returning from a reconnaissance flight to Thailand attack the dock area at Bassein.
• 51st Fighter Group P-40s and 1 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25 attack Kamaing.

Air Operations - New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-25s attack dumps at Lae and Toeal and barracks at Toeal.
• 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount single-plane attacks against Finschhafen, Lae, and Madang.
• 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s attack Japanese Army ground troops near Kurenada.

Air Operations - Solomons

11th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s, escorted by 347th Fighter Group P-38s and P-40s, attack the Munda Point airfield on New Georgia.

Eastern Front

The Russian offensive on the Voronezh Front continues to make rapid progress. Kamensk Shakhtinsky on the northern Donetz, Valuyki, a railway junction east of Kharkov, and Urazavo are recaptured, while in the rear a pocket of Hungarian troops are driven from Ostrogozhsk. So far the Russians have taken more than 50,000 prisoners on this front but only 2,500 are German; of the total 27,600 are Hungarians, 22,000 Italians. Von Manstein and his Don Army Group perform miraculously against Soviet forces 7 times superior in numbers, as does von Weichs with his Army Group B east of Kharkov. Near the Don, west of Pavlovsk, the Hungarian 2nd Army is caught in two pockets by the Russians, and the same happens to the German 2nd Army further north at Kastornoye.

Novgorod, south of Leningrad, is occupied by the Russian 59th Army, forcing the German Army Group North to fall back or risk entrapment east of Lake Peipus (Chudskoye).

The encircled units of the Hungarian 2nd Army surrenders at Ostrogozh, 50,000 marching into Soviet captivity. The offensive has in a week cost the Axis 89,000 captured and 140,000 killed or wounded.

Voronezh Front extends its attacks against Army Group B, elements of the 3rd Tank Army taking Vayluki and Urazovo. Advanced units of the VII Cavalry Corps enters Vayluki, massacring the Italian forces there.

At Stalingrad the 21st Army is just tow miles from Gumrak, bringing the airfield under heavy arty fire.

Guadalcanal

The 182nd Infantry, on the CAM Div left, has gained a little more than 1,000 yards since entering the line on the 17th, but a gap exists between it and the 6th Marines. The 147th Infantry, upon relief at Koli Point by the Americal Reconnaissance Squadron, moves to the Point Cruz area. The Japanese in the Gifu strongpoint are beginning to weaken under blows of the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, 25th Div.

E Company resumes its attack, but a pillbox and machine-gun defense holds it down. A 37-mm antitank gun and an 81-mm mortar hits one of 2 pillboxes discovered in front of Hill 27 by an F Company patrol. G Company reports it has located 12 pillboxes in its front. E Company, which had begun its attack at 0800, reports at 1615 that it has killed 6 Japanese, knocked out 4 machine guns, and located 12 machine-gun positions and pillboxes on a small ridge. An hour later they report they have destroyed 3 more positions, but 9 more, 10 to 12 feet apart, are holding it back. Grenades fail to damage them and E Company digs in for the night.

New Guinea

Gen Yamagata leaves the Sanananda front by sea after he orders his forces to pull out of Sanananda and retire westwards the next day. Gen Oda and a colonel are killed directing their units' disengagement. Yet the Australians still cannot break down the final Japanese resistance along the coast west of Sanananda and on the outskirts of Giruwa. The Japanese manning the fortified line along the Soputa-Sanananda road are surrounded in three separate pockets, but still will not surrender to the American 163rd Inf Regt. Other Japanese units are landed at Wewak.

North Africa

8th Army's offensive continues. Tarhuna is captured and the German defense line between there and the sea is outflanked. 8th Army occupies Homs. The left column presses toward Tarhuna. The 22nd Armored Bde, in reserve at Zliten, prepares to drive through the 51st Div, the coastal force.

Panzers launch a diversionary attack through Ousseltia Valley, but are held by the French Foreign Legion and tanks of Combat Command B. As the German offensive continues to press the French XIX Corps back toward Rebaa Oulad Yahia, the British 1st Army refuses its southern flank to conform with the French withdrawal. British and US reinforcements are sent forward, to come under French command upon arrival. The 36th Brigade Group of the British 78th Div is given the mission of interdicting the road to Rebaa. Combat Command B, US 1st Armored Div, moves north from Sbeïtla to Maktar during the night.

A Grant tank ready for movement onboard a Scammell transporter. January 19, 1943.

Transporting a Tank

Occupied Holland

Princess Margriet is born in Ottawa. She is the third child of Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

Pacific

The 'Cactus Striking Force', 4 American destroyers, commence regular bombardment of Japanese positions on Guadalcanal.