The Soviet pressure is inexorable. In one day, the Nazis retreat 11 miles from Moscow. The scenes of shivering Germans staggering back in the snow resemble Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812. Aware that his army is at the edge of annihilation, Hitler orders his men to stand at all costs. Soviet troops maintain their blistering offensive in front of Moscow, eliminating whole German divisions.
Nazi intelligence is baffled, completely unaware of the Soviet reserves.
Its task is to establish, within six months, if an atomic bomb can be produced by the United States, and if so, at what cost. That afternoon, Japan sends a the first segments of a 14- part message to its embassy in Washington, ordering them to present their final demands to the United States at 1 p.m. Washington time, tomorrow. This message is intercepted and decoded by the Americans faster than the Japanese can do it. This intelligence lands in the hands of Lt. Cdr. Alvin Kramer of the Navy's Cryptographic Department, who drives around Washington that evening, showing the message to top officials.