The transport ship SS Dorchester was sunk by the U233 off of Greenland. 605 of the 904 men on board died in the attack, including chaplains Methodist minister George L. Fox, Reformed Church in America minister Clark V. Poling, Roman Catholic Priest John P. Washington, and Rabbi Alexander D. Goode.
They gave up their life jackets to others and went down with the ship, arms linked, praying, and singing hymns.
The chaplains are remembered in a stained-glass window in the Episcopal National Cathedral.
Survivors were rescued by the Coast Guard cutters Escanaba and Comanche, with the Escanaba using rescue swimmers for the first time.
The U-265 was sunk by a RAF B-17 in the Atlantic.
German radio informed the German people of the defeat at Stalingrad in a special radio announcement, causing widespread German public consternation. A secret poll conducted thereafter revealed that the Germans wondered why troops had not been evacuated from the city, and why the war situation had been reported as secure only a few months prior.
