UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweepers HMS TOURMALINE and HMS STRENUOUS are laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: U-901 is laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
AUSTRIA: Fuel rations for factories in Vienna are cut to a sixth of the required amount.
SWITZERLAND: Fresh milk is rationed. Adults receive 5 decolitres per day, children 7 decolitres. (William Jay Stone from http://www.geschichte-schweiz.ch/en/worldwar2.html)
FINLAND: Red Army starts an offensive against the Finns on the Maaselkä Isthmus between the Lake Onega and White Sea. Objective is to recapture the town of Karhumäki (Medvezhjegorsk) and the western stretch of Murmansk railway. The defending Finnish II Corps has two divisions (4th and 8th) and one brigade (1st Jäger), the Soviet attackers seven divisions and two brigades.
The Finnish troops are still suffering from the effects of six-month long offensive, and the men are eagerly waiting to go home - a partial demobilization had been promised after the Finnish offensive ended in December. The Soviet offensive is able to penetrate the Finnish defences near the village of Krivi, and the fighting rages on for weeks. In early February, after both sides had suffered considerable losses, Finns are able to push the Red Army back. (Mikko Härmeinen)
U.S.S.R.: German forces counterattack near Kerch in the Crimea. The Red Army in turn, presses on with the counter-attack which it launched on December 28th.
CANADA: Commissioned for Fisherman's Reserve from the seized local Japanese fishing fleet - HMCS Billow (ex Kurashio) and HMCS Comber (ex CSC II). They will be sold in 1945.
HMCS Scaterie and Valinda are chartered for wartime service. They will be returned to their owners in 1946. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: UN established as representatives of 26 countries meet in Washington, DC to endorse the principles of of the Atlantic Charter. The United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China are among the signatories. They agree to fight the Axis and not to conclude a separate peace.
Besides the four major Allied war powers, the signatory countries included four nations of the British Empire - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa - the governments in exile of eight European countries overrun by Germany - Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Yugoslavia - and nine Latin American republics - Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The "united nations", with four-fifths of the world's population, subscribed to the principles of the Atlantic Charter signed by President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill last summer.
The United States government order the cessation of manufacture of automobiles and trucks for civilians to save steel.
Joseph Stalin named "Time" magazine's "Man of the Year" (Gene Hanson)
Minesweepers USS VITAL and USS USAGE are laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-333 is attacked by an Allied aircraft but is not damaged. (Dave Shirlaw)