Soviet troops encircled at Vyasma are ordered to break out at all costs, after having been refused permission to retreat before being surrounded. Instead, they are decimated by German artillery and air bombardment, particularly Stukas. Germans have reduced the Vyasma pocket from 75 x 35 km to 20 x 20 km. Further South at Bryansk, Soviet 3rd and 13th Armies mount a counteroffensive and break through the weak cordon held by Guderian's Panzergruppe 2 which is exhausted after months of fighting.
British bombers (830 Squadron from Malta attack) attack an Italian convoy from Naples to Tripoli (escorted by Italian destroyers Granatiere, Bersagliere, Fucliere & Alpino) and sink steamers Zena & Casaregis about 100 miles north of Tripoli.
A series of disasters begins for Soviet submarines. Shchuka class submarine ShCh-322 which departed Kronstadt near Leningrad yesterday, is lost in the Baltic Sea presumably to a mine (all 40 hands lost).
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