Air Operations, Aleutians

2 Japanese A6M2-N 'Rufe' figher-bombers bomb and strafe Amchitka Island.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount single-plane attacks against the Cape Gloucester and Gasmata airfields on New Britain.

Air Operations, CBI

• 6 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the dock area at Rangoon.
• 5 22nd Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack a bridge under construction at Myitnge.
• 3 B-25s attack the marshalling yard at Mandalay and 3 more B-25s attack the marshalling yard at Naba.

Air Operations, Europe

• 12 Bostons attack the Flushing docks.
• 1 Boston is lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-25s attack supply dumps and antiaircraft emplacements at Lae.
• 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount single-plane attacks against a beached ship and the airfield at Finschhafen.
• 3d Light Bomb Group A-20s attack Japanese Army ground troops throughout northeastern Papua.

Air Operations, Solomons

• XIII Bomber Command B-17s attack the airfield at Ballale.
• XIII Bomber Command B-26s and 339th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack Munda Point airfield on New Georgia and a wharf.
• P-38s bomb Rekata Bay.
• When 30 A6M Zeros attack Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, VMO-251 F4Fs down 3 and 347th Fighter Group P-38s down 2. 4 US fighters are lost.

Air Operations, Libya

9th Air Force P-40s mount several missions in support of the British 8th Army.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The US submarine Shad (SS-235) torpedoes the German blockade runner Nordfels in the Bay of Biscay, the torpedo fails to explode.
• U-575 torpedoes and sinks the US freighter City of Flint (4963t), straggling from a Casablanca-bound convoy, UGS-4, about 300 miles south of the Azores. 4 of the 24 Armed Guard sailors are lost.

Eastern Front

The attacking Russian forces meet in the middle of Stalingrad. There are 2 pockets of German resistance remaining, holding 36 square miles in all. Voronezh is captured by the Red Army along with 52,000 prisoners.

SS Troops Attempting to Retreat West, near Moscow, January 1943

Stalin issues Order of the Day: in 2 months the Red Army has routed 102 enemy divisions and advanced 402 km. 'Forward to the rout of the German invader and their expulsion from . . . our Motherland.'

After heavy fighting the 2nd Guards Army bridgehead at Manychskaya is destroyed. This German success alleviates the threat to the Rostov sector, preventing the early isolation of Army Group A and enabling the 1st Panzer Army to continue its withdrawal into the Donbas.

The Soviets sent emissaries forward to 6th Army to demand its surrender. Paulus again refuses.

Guadalcanal

The XIV Corps, in Field Order 2, directs the CAM Div to pass through the 25th Div as the Poha River and pursue the enemy who are confining themselves to rearguard actions to cover their withdrawal. The 25th Div, continuing its advance with the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 27th Infantry, upon relief of the 3rd by the 6th Marines on Hills 98 and 99, reaches the Poha on the right and secures Hills 105 and 106 on the left. The 161st Infantry protects the corps southern flank.[MORE]

New Guinea

The American Gen Horace Fuller takes over operational control of all Allied troops in the Gona and Oro Bay areas. The Australian 7th Div and and the American 32nd Div are gradually withdrawn and transferred to Port Moresby.

North Africa

Gen Giovanni Messe is appointed to take over from Field-Marshal Rommel in overall command of Axis forces in Africa.

The British 7th Armored Div presses westward from Tripoli in order to drive the Axis forces into Tunisia. Some British units reach Zavia.

A lorry carrying infantry leaving the outskirts of Tarhuna during the advance towards Tripoli, 25 January 1943.

Troops Leaving Tarhuna

Casualties are treated after an enemy dive-bombing attack during the advance on Tripoli, 25 January 1943.

Casualties Being Treated after Air Raid

Gen K. A. N. Anderson, British 1st Army commander, becomes responsibility for all Allied forces in Tunisia as Gen Giraud agrees to place the French XIX Corps under his command. Benito Mussolini designates Gen Giovanni Messe to succeed Field Marshal Rommel, commander of the German-Italian Panzer Army, who is to be withdrawn because of protracted service and ill health, but the shift does not take place for some time. In the French XIX Corps sector, Combat Command B, US 1st Armored Div, and elements of the US 1st Infantry Div, under the command of Col Stark, commander of the 26th Regimental Combat Team, begin clearing rear-guard resistance form the Ousseltia Valley.