January 17
Africa, Libya
The Axis garrison of Halfaya, besieged throughout the British Operation Crusader, finally falls and 5500 Germans and Italians are captured.

Sea War, Arctic
U-boats make their first attack on an Allied Arctic convoy. U-454 sinks the destroyer Matabele and a merchant ship from convoy PQ-8.

January 18-27
Eastern Front, Ukraine
Soviet South and Southwest Front forces, under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, make an attack aiming to cross the Donets River and then swing south toward the Sea of Azov to trap units of the German Sixth and Seventeenth Armies. The Donets River is crossed by the 24th, but the Soviet advance is halted by the 27th.

January 20
Final Solution, Germany
At the Wannsee Conference, Berlin, deputy head of the SS Reinhard Heydrich reveals his plans for the 'Final Solution' to the so-called 'Jewish problem.' Heydrich receives permission to begin deporting all Jews in German-controlled areas to Eastern Europe to face either forced labor or extermination. The killing of Jews in Eastern Europe is already commonplace. Execution by shooting, however, is proving inefficient and a strain for the troops engaged. A more efficient way of killing using poison gas will soon become widespread.

Sea War, Pacific
In Japan's ongoing offensive against Allied possessions in the Far East, four carriers begin air strikes on Rabaul, New Britain (soon to become a major Japanese naval base), and two submarines shell Midway Island. US and Australian warships sink a Japanese submarine off Darwin. Japanese amphibious landings are made on Borneo, New Ireland, and the Solomons on the 23rd.

January 21-29
Africa, Libya
General Erwin Rommel begins his second desert offensive in North Africa, moving from El Aghelia to Agedabia on the 22nd. The British Eighth Army is caught unawares and the Germans capitalize on this by driving it back. Benghazi falls on the 29th.

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