January 17th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Anti-aircraft shells and shrapnel kill 23 people and injure 60 during a raid on the city by 118 German planes; six are reported lost.
Minesweeper HMS Steadfast launched.
FRANCE: Brothels should be established at all Waffen-SS garrisons in occupied France. This is the view of Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer, who believes that what he calls "this naturalness" will increase the performance of his men, presumably in their military duties.
Himmler's order was conveyed in a letter to Karl Albrecht Oberg, the head of the police and the SS in occupied France, on 5 January. he is apparently worried by the increase is sexual diseases amongst the SS soldiers; prostitutes in the brothels, however, would come under regular medical supervision.
GERMANY: Raiding Berlin for the second night in a row, the RAF drops 8,000-pound bombs on the city; the BBC broadcaster Richard Dimbleby flies as an observer.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet Navy lists submarine L-23 Black Sea Fleet Karkinitski zaliv (mined off Yevpatoeria by German ASW aircraft).
CHINA: Chungking: In a move to strengthen the alliance with China and end a long-standing Chinese grievance, Britain and the US have surrendered their century-old neo-colonial territorial rights to the international settlements. The decision made by Britain and America, formally agreed last week, abrogates their citizens' rights to immunity from Chinese law and national rights to station troops under the so-called "unequal treaties", legacies of the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion. The deal was the result of pressure from the Chinese Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-shek, who said that the humiliation of a century had been wiped away.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: 37 105mm and 12 155mm artillery pound the Gifu with 1,700 shells between 1430 and 1600 into the "Gifu", an area of 1000 square yards, on Guadalcanal. An all out assault is precluded due to the hour, which wastes the effect of this barrage. US troops 300 yards from the pocket are dazed by the concussion. US forces also use loudspeakers to broadcast a demand for surrender.
U.S.A.: Light fleet carrier USS Cowpens launched.
Destroyer escort USS Flaherty launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Vestfold, while in Convoy HX-222 with HMS LCT 2239, 2267 and 2344 as deck cargo, torpedoed and sunk by U-268.