25 May 1939

Yesterday Tomorrow

May 25th, 1939 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signs a mutual defence pact with Poland.

U.S.A.: Submarine USS SEALION is launched.

25 May 1940

May 25th, 1940 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - road/rail communications at Bapaume and oil targets Ruhr. 10 Sqn. Eleven aircraft. All bombed. 51 Sqn. ten aircraft. Nine bombed. 77 Sqn. Eight aircraft, seven bombed. All experienced moderate to severe opposition. 102 Sqn. Seven aircraft, all bombed. One damaged by Flak and one crashed on return.

2 Group - bombing - pontoon bridges across the Lys.

Luftwaffe raids continue, apparently testing out air defences. The North Riding of Yorkshire, and rural parts of East Anglia, were the latest victims. 8 civilians are reported hurt.
Dave Wadman adds: The other bomb was at Wickford, Essex at 0155hrs in the Luftwaffe's dastardly attack against unsuspecting chickens!
The earlier raids in t'north started at 0142 when seven bombs were dropped at Teeside damaging buildings, gas mains and o/head power lines. One bomb hit Dorman Longs resulting in eight civilian injuries. A further six bombs hit Catterick airfied at about the same time but no damage was reported.

Destroyer ORP Slazak (ex-HMS Bedale) laid down.

Corvette HMS Asphodel launched.

NORTH SEA: Minesweeping trawler HMS Charles Boyes mined and sunk in the North Sea.

BELGIUM: German troops break through the Belgian front on the Lys and thrust towards Ypres, threatening to cut the British from the Belgian Army and especially from the coast. Under this threat to his rear, Lord Gort recalls the 5th and 50th divisions from the Lille area and sends them to Ypres to contain the enemy. Blanchard detaches the 2nd Light Mechanical Division for the same purpose.

FRANCE: Germany captures Boulogne and the Allies fall back to Dunkirk.

Lord Gort cancels plans to join Weygand's offensive. Later in the day Weygand cancels his plans, blaming Gort. The French forces on the Somme River have not made any of the attacks claimed.

Destroyer FS L'Adroit bombed and sunk in shallow water off Dunkirk at 1200 by German Heinkel-111s.

The ship didn't explode and lay on the beach of Malo-les-Bains. Only one man was injured, the rest of the crew was safe and served on shore batteries until the French capitulation.

GERMANY: Himmler tells Hitler that through large scale emigration "the concept of the Jew will have completely disappeared from Europe.

U-149, U-150, U-452 laid down.

U-104 launched.

NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN: HMS Illustrious, having passed her acceptance trials, is officially commissioned into the Royal Navy. She will remain at Devonport for minor alterations until June 2. Thoughts are given to committing her to the NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN, but cooler heads prevail, and she will instead embark on a shakedown cruise to the West Indies.

At 1545, HMS Ark Royal (Flagship, Vice-Admiral Air) and HMS Furious depart Scapa escorted by DDs HMS Antelope, HMS Campbell, HMS Amazon, HMS Encounter, and HMS Viscount bound for the Clyde. Meanwhile, HMS Glorious continues her approach to the Narvik area. (Mark Horan)

KENYA: 12 Squadron SAAF arrives at Nairobi with thirteen South African Airways Ju-86 airliners converted for bombing.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Gwin launched.

25 May 1941

May 25th, 1941 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Boom defense vessel HMS Barsound launched.

EUROPE: 100 troop trains are moved every 24 hours as the German High Command builds up its attacking forces on the Russian border.

GERMANY:

U-983, U-984, U-985, U-986, U-987, U-988, U-989, U-990, U-991, U-992, U-993, U-994 ordered.

U-653 commissioned.

GREECE: CRETE: The Wehrmacht High Command announced:

Since the early morning of May 20, German paratroops and airborne troops have been fighting British army units on the island of Crete. In a bold aerial assault, the Germans conquered tactically important points on the island with the support of German fighter, destroyer, bomber and dive-bomber aircraft. After receiving further reinforcements by army units, the German troops went on the offensive. The western part of the island is already solidly in German hands. The German Luftwaffe smashed the British fleet when it attempted to intervene in the struggle for Crete, drove it out of the sea territory north of the island, sank and damaged a large number of enemy war vessels and won control of the air over the entire battle zone.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Sloop HMS Grimsby and the supply ship she is escorting on the run to Tobruk are both sunk by bombers northeast of the port.

BRITISH WEST AFRICA: Night of 25/26 May 1941 U-69 (Jost Metzler) enters Lagos Harbor, going between the armed moles on the surface and lays seven mines. She leaves undetected, and to the consternation of the British, the dredge Robert Hughes is sunk in the entrance after striking a mine on 4 Jun 1941.

FRENCH INDOCHINA: Haiphong: Japanese soldiers remove $10 million worth of American goods from two warehouses.

U.S.A.: The U.S. State Department advises the German Charge d'Affaires in Washington that a U.S. Navy enlisted man has been tried and convicted by court-martial for tearing down the flag over the German consulate in San Francisco, California on 18 January. The sailor is serving "an appropriate sentence."

ATLANTIC OCEAN: In the early hours of the 25th, the BISMARK alters course to the southeast for France and the cruisers lose contact. At this point Admiral Tovey's heavy ships are only 100 miles away.

BISMARK holds her southeasterly course but breaks radio silence. Unfortunately the British radio direction finding service put her on a northeasterly heading. Adm Tovey sails in that direction for a while before turning to the southeast in pursuit. Now he is well astern of his quarry. Only be slowing her down can her destruction become possible. In the meantime, Force H continues to sail north to take up a blocking position between BISMARK and her new goal of Brest.

At 1631, the unescorted Radames was hit in the stern by one torpedo from U-103 after being chased for about five hours and sank slowly by the stern.

SS Wangi Wangi sunk by U-103 at 05.24N, 12W.

25 May 1942

May 25th, 1942 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Escort carrier HMS Slinger laid down.

ITALY: La Spezia: An Italian naval flotilla continues its journey to Lake Ladoga in the USSR. It is loaded onto trucks and driven to Stettin. From there it is loaded on a ship (the German Thielbeck) to Helsinki, towed by sea from Helsinki to Punkasami (through the Saimaa Channel), then by rail to their logistical base at Lahdenpohja, and then finally by their own means to their new operational base at Sortanlahti. (Arturo Lorioli)

INDIA: Elements of the 38th Division of the Japanese Army reach India.

JAPAN: The Japanese army issues orders to several units to begin preparing for an amphibious attack against Hawaii. Training for the assault is to be completed by September 1942. The original operational order (Dairikushi no. 1159) gave notification to the Seventh and Second Divisions to prepare for the invasion. (Johjn Stephen, Hawaii Under The Rising Sun, p117) (Jon Parshall)

PACIFIC OCEAN: Two light carriers and two cruisers leave Hokkaido, Japan to begin diversionary raids on the Aleutian Islands as part of the Japanese Midway operation.

The Japanese submarine HIJMS I-9 launches a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane, Allied Code Name "Glen," to fly a reconnaissance mission over Kiska and Amchitka Islands in the Aleutian Islands.

The light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49), part of a reinforcement group carrying Marine aircraft and personnel to Midway, disembarks Companies C and D of the Second Marine Raider Battalion and a 37mm gun battery of the Third defence Battalion.

US submarines sail to patrol positions from Hawaii to counter the Japanese Midway operation.

MIDWAY ISLANDS: Light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49) arrives and disembarks Companies "C" and "D," 2d Marine Raider Battalion, and a 37 mm gun battery of the 3d defence Battalion.

CANADA: Patrol vessel HMCS Raccoon returned Gaspe Defense Force, escorting Convoys Quebec-Sydney.

U.S.A.: MIS Language School is moved from San Francisco, California to Camp Savage, Minnesota because of the exclusion order, restricting all people of Japanese ancestry from military zones. (Gene Hanson)

GULF OF MEXICO: Another unarmed U.S. merchant freighter is sunk by torpedoes and shellfire from the German submarine U-103.

During a patrol in the Caribbean one man from U-594 was lost during crash-diving. [Matrosengefreiter Walter Kunde].

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1552, USS Blakeley was patrolling off Martinique in the French West Indies, when she was hit by a torpedo from U-156 which carried away 60 feet of her bow. The explosion killed six men and wounded 21, but the ship did not sink and reached Port de France, Martinique for emergency repairs. After additional repairs in Port Castries, Santa Lucia and in San Juan, Puerto Rico the destroyer sailed to Philadelphia where she was refitted with the bow taken from her stricken sister ship USS Taylor and was thoroughly overhauled. She returned to duty in the Caribbean in 1942.

At 0134, the unescorted and unarmed Beatrice was hit by a torpedo from U-558 in moderate seas, which failed to explode. U-558 then surfaced directly astern and opened fire with the 88-mm and the 20-mm guns at the zigzagging ship from a range of about one mile and fired about 30 shells. After the first hits, the master concluded he could not escape and ordered the ship abandoned. The crew of eight officers and 22 men left the ship in one lifeboat and three rafts. One of the rafts drifted into the firing line of the U-boat and presumably one man was killed. At 0305, a PBY Catalina aircraft appeared and dropped depth charges, but U-558 escaped undamaged. The Beatrice was last saw by the survivors afloat and burning, she sank 15 hours after the attack. The lifeboat with 21 men sailed to Pigeon Island, Jamaica. The patrol boat HMS Hauken picked up the nine remaining survivors from one raft and landed them at Kingston, Jamaica.

At 2053, the Persephone sailing in an unknown convoy was torpedoed by U-593 off Barnegat Light and sank later in only eight fathoms of water in 46°15N/74°02W after breaking in two. The bow section was salvaged and towed to New York, where 21,000 barrels of oil were saved by barges. Her midship house was even removed intact and placed on the tanker Livingston Roe. The USCG later blew up the stern section after passing ships collided with it more than once.

At 0416, the Haakon Hauan was hit by one torpedo from U-753 amidships. The U-boat had then to evade an escort vessel and did not find the tanker again. The damaged ship was taken to New Orleans, then towed to Mobile where she was repaired for three months.

25 May 1943

May 25th, 1943 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: The London Gazette, today notifies that in the Arctic, Chief Officer James Arthur Reeves (1911-84) hauled two helpless men from the water and oil-filled engine-room of his torpedoed merchantman. (Albert Medal)

Avro York Ascalon (LV 633) flies the Prime Minister and Allied commanders to Algiers via Gibraltar. This aircraft is flown by No. 24 Squadron at Northolt and is furnished as a flying conference room. (22)

Corvette HMCS Hespeler (ex-HMS Guildford Castle) laid down Leith, Scotland.

Frigate HMCS Teme (ex-HMS Teme) laid down South Bank-on-Tees.

GERMANY: Tonight RAF planes bomb Düsseldorf, but do little damage.

U-289, U-857 launched.

U-1235 laid down.

U.S.S.R.: Baltic Fleet and Ladoga Flotilla: (Sergey Anisimov)(69)Submarine loss. "Sch-408" - by aviation and surface ships gunfire of Ruotsinsalmi and Patrol Boat VMV, close to Vaindlo lighthouse at Keri.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-414 sunk in the western Mediterranean NW of Tenes, in position 36.31N, 00.40E, by depth charges from corvette HMS Vetch.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA:

On Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands, the Americans again attack Fishhook Ridge and manage to take control of the base of the snow covered ridge as well as isolated slopes.

The USAAF's Eleventh Air Force dispatches 12 B-25 Mitchells and 15 B-24 Liberators to fly air-ground support and four B-24s and 20 P-38 Lightnings to fly air cover over Attu. Eighteen P-40s fly a reconnaissance and two attack missions to Kiska and Little Kiska Islands.

U.S.A.: Washington: Churchill and Roosevelt have ended their Trident Conference talks on the next moves against the Axis powers with agreement on the date and place for a cross-channel invasion of German-occupied north-western Europe next year. They have also agreed to press Turkey to join the Allies.

In detail The two sides agree
(1) that the defeat of Germany is still the first priority;
(2) to step up the strategic bombing of Germany and occupied Europe as a preliminary to an invasion of Europe scheduled for 1 May 1944;
(3) to bomb the Ploesti, Romaniaoil fields from bases in the Mediterranean; and
(4) to increase aid to China. Both sides also approve of the U.S. plan for operations in the Pacific.

The invasion should take place by 1 May, with 29 divisions. These details, which must remain a closely guarded secret, were worked out by British and American staff officers, who studied information gained from high-altitude reconnaissance photographs, hundreds of detailed maps and over ten million holiday snaps and picture postcards assembled after a BBC appeal to the public. During a press conference attended by 151 Allied correspondents, Churchill was asked why senior British officers from India had been brought to Washington. He said that the plan was to intensify the war against Japan. From now on, the war in both west and east would be waged with equal force.

Allied superiority over the enemy in munitions production was now beginning to tell, Churchill said Allied air power had become a decisive factor in the war, and the bombing campaign against Germany would be a 24-hours-a-day operation. War would continue until unconditional surrender was obtained "from all those who had molested us". Roosevelt then interrupted Churchill to say that "molested" was the best example of understatement he had heard.]

As well as this they agreed to step up the strategic bombing of Germany and occupied Europe as a preliminary to invasion; to bomb the Ploesti oilfields in Romania, from bases in the Mediterranean and to increase aid to China.

During WW II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) produced numerous documents, most commonly known are the Intelligence Bulletins. The Military Intelligence Special Series continues with "German Infantry Weapons." (William L. Howard)

Frigate USS Peoria laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Cannon launched.

Destroyer escort USS Crouter commissioned.

Destroyer USS Harding commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-467 sunk SE of Iceland, in position 62.25N, 14.52W, by a Fido homing torpedo from a USN VP 84 Catalina. 46 dead (all hands lost).

25 May 1944

May 25th, 1944 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The USAAF's Eighth Air Force in England flies two missions.

Mission 370: 406 bombers and 604 fighters in six forces make visual attacks on rail installations and airfields in Belgium and France; four bombers and 12 fighters are lost; the fighters claim 13-2-3 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 3-0-5 on the ground; unless otherwise indicated, all targets are in FRANCE:

1. 307 B-24s are dispatched to marshalling yards at Belfort (74 bomb) and Mulhouse (134 bomb); 12 hit Tonnere marshalling yard and 37 bomb Bretigny and one bombs Dijon Airfields; two B-24s are lost.

2. 320 B-17 Flying Fortresses are dispatched to Nancy/Essey Airfield (75 bomb) and marshalling yards at Metz (69 bomb), Saarguemines (36 bomb) and Blainville (36 bomb); 56 B-17s hit Thionville marshalling yard and three bomb Liege Airfield, Belgium without loss.

Personal Memory: The 303rd Bomb Group (Hells Angels) furnished only twelve bombers for this mission to bomb a Marshalling Yard at Blainville, France. A rather long mission, so we took off at 0547 double war time and the last one took off at 0558. Twelve B-17s in eleven minutes! The weather at the target was CAVU and our bomb run was eleven minutes. This is when the flak usually gets most intense since the German gunners knew that we would not deviate our course to throw off their aiming lead. But nothing happened. The flak guns had apparently been moved and we got no enemy action. Our lead bombardier did a good job and this was the first time I had seen bombs exploding on the ground And they seemed to be right on target. There was no damage to any of our B-17s and no aborts. Score: Two Milk Runs and one other. (Dick Johnson)

3. 103 B-24s bomb Montignies sur Sambre marshalling yard and nine bomb Alos marshalling yard without loss.

4. In Belgium 247 B-17s are dispatched against marshalling yards at Brussels/Schaerbeck (52 bomb), Brussels/Midi (29 bomb) and Leige/Guillemines (50 bomb); other marshalling yards hit are Brussels/Melsbroek (18 bomb) and Liege/Renory (50 bomb); two B-17s are lost.

5. 18 of 38 B-17s and 18 of 18 B-24s hit Fecamp gun battery without loss.

6. 15 B-17s hit St Valery gun battery without loss.

Escort is provided by 136 P-38s, 181 P-47 Thunderbolts and 287 P-51 Mustangs; P-38s claim 3-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft, 9 P-38s are lost; P-47s claim 4-1-2 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 3-0-5 on the ground; P-51s claim 6-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft, three P-51s are lost.

Mission 371: Four B-17s drop leaflets in France without loss.

The USAAF's Ninth Air Force in England dispatches 225+ B-26 Marauders to attack bridges near Liege, Belgium and airfields at Lille/Nord and Monchy-Breton, France. About 250 P-47s dive-bomb various targets in western Europe.

NETHERLANDS: Two Canadian airmen, Flight Sgt. Joseph Thomas LeBlanc from Quebec and Flying Officer Sidney Glen Peterson from Manitoba, are amongst those killed when their RAF"> RAF Halifax heavy bomber is shot down by a Luftwaffe fighter. Five other airmen on board also die in the crash.

The remains of the airmen and fragments of the aircraft are recovered in the autumn of 2005 from a swampy area near the city of Nijmegan in an effort funded by the Dutch government. At the time of the crash only one body was found. (Ron Babuka)

GERMANY: U-827, U-1021, U-1302 commissioned.

POLAND: An RAF Dakota takes off from Brindisi in Italy and heads for Tarnow in Poland for a night landing. There it is met by a reception party of 400 partisans and the Polish Underground with 50 kilos of components from the stolen rocket, and a Polish engineer who is to accompany the finds to London.

The pilot of the Dakota is F/Lt. Culliford and his Polish co-pilot as F/O Szajer. The Dakota bogs down in mud whilst it is being loaded and a farm cart has to be dismantled and used to provide boards to lay under the wheels, before a takeoff is managed after some considerable difficulty, and the Dakota and its "treasure" makes the long flight back to Hendon. (Alex Gordon)(129)

ITALY: US II Corps meets VI Corps from Anzio.

Terracina: Patrols of the US II and III Corps linked up on the Pontine Marshes near this coastal town, today bringing the four-month ordeal of the beach-head to an end. The race to Rome is on, but the great political prize may prove harder to reach than the battle maps suggest. The Germany army is retreating systematically north-west to new defensive positions - the Caesar Line - after fierce resistance at Cisterna in which more than 950 men of the US 3rd Division were killed or injured.

The American commander, General Mark Clark, is anxious for the beach-head forces to head straight for Rome. However, the Allied supreme commander, General Alexander, has ordered a US attack on Valmontone which, he hopes, will trap the German Tenth Army in a pincer movement with the advance of the British Eighth Army in the south.

Clark has compromised. He has ordered the Anzio commander, Major-General Lucien Truscott, to split his forces and attack both along Highway 7 at Albano with the US VI Corps and at Valmontone to comply with Alexander's orders. The attack on Valmontone - a vital road junction on Highway 6 - began today, but was stopped almost immediately by German tanks and anti-tank guns.

The USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force in Italy sends 340+ bombers to attack targets in France and Italy; B-17s attack the marshalling yard at Lyon, France; B-24s attack marshalling yards at Amberieux, Toulon and Givors, France, and in Italy, the port area at Monfalcone, airfield at Piancenza and industrial area at Porto Marghera; P-38s and P-51s fly 200+ sorties in support.

HUNGARY: Budapest: 138,870 Hungarian Jews have been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and at least half murdered immediately in the gas chambers.

YUGOSLAVIA: The German paratroopers and glider-borne troops, drop on Tito's HQ in Drvar, Bosnia. Tito and Major Randolph Churchill, the prime minister's son, escape successfully, after the Germans surround partisan headquarters in this village. Major Churchill, who is serving with the British military mission here, had left the headquarters a few minutes before the attack. Tito was forced to leave one of his staff officers dying in agony from a head wound.

Two war correspondents, Stoyan Pribichevich of Time-Life and John Talbot of Reuters were captured, although the Time-Life man managed to escape. The attack known as Operation Knight's Move, is believed to have been masterminded by SS Major Otto Skorzeny, the man who rescued Mussolini. Other members of the British mission are understood to have left the headquarters several days earlier.

The strength of the operation, which was preceded by dive bombers and followed up by tanks and infantry, is a sure indication of Germans' frustration at Tito's continual success. The partisan leader himself has escaped on horseback to a mountain hideout, and the Germans have taken out their frustration on the people of Drvar. Almost every villager - women and the smallest children included - was taken to the main square and shot.

CHINA: The Japanese capture Loyang.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Parkes commissioned.

PACIFIC OCEAN: A Shemya-based (Aleutian Islands) B-24 flies reconn and bombing mission in the central Kuriles. Another B-24 aborts due to equipment failure. (Edward S. Miller)
A USAAF B-24 flies a reconnaissance and bombing mission over the northern Kuriles.(56)

CANADA:

U.S.A.: HQ Armored Force to CG, AGF (on the subject of fires in the M4 Sherman tank): "The burning of propelling charges in the fighting compartment is the most serious cause of tank fires," or, "The fire hazard caused by the fuel system, whether gasoline or diesel, is considered to be small compared to the fire hazard caused by the propelling charges of the ammunition." This is why the Army decided to put applique armor on Shermans in the summer of 1943 over the side ammunition bins on Sherman tanks as a temporary expedient, and field new armored ammunition bins with a liquid fill around the ammo (wet stowage) on new production Sherman tanks. (Steve Zaloga)

The motion picture "Mr. Skeffington" is released in the U.S. Based on the Elizabeth von Arnim novel, this soap opera drama, directed by Vincent Sherman, stars Bette Davis, Claude Rains and Walter Abel. In 1914, Davis is a vain New York City society woman who marries Rains to protect her brother. After her brother is killed in WWI, she divorces him, sends her daughter to live with him in Europe and cavorts with sundry lovers. On the eve of WWII, her daughter returns and the soap continues. Rains and Davis are nominated for the Best Actor and Actress Academy Awards respectively.

Corvette HMCS Arrowhead completed forecastle extension refit Baltimore, Maryland.

Corvette HMCS Midland completed forecastle extension refit Galveston, Texas.

Submarine USS Sea Robin launched.

Destroyer minelayer USS Robert H Smith launched.

Submarine USS Cusk laid down.

Destroyer escorts USS Edwin A Howard, Howard F Clark and Paul G Baker commissioned.

Minesweeper USS Ardent commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-853 drove off an attack by three RN Swordfish from MAC ship Empire MacKendrick. All were damaged and one was deemed a total loss on return to the ship and was jettisoned.

U-476 scuttled after aircraft attack the previous day at 0102 NW of Trondheim in position 65.08N, 04.53E, by torpedoes from U-990. 34 killed when U-990 sunk later that day and 21 survivors.

U-990 sunk in North Sea west of Bodö, in position 65.05N, 07.28W, by depth charges from an RAF 59 Sqn Liberator. 20 dead and 33 survivors.

25 May 1945

May 25th, 1945 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Churchill asks all Allied commanders who had received information through "Ultra" to reveal neither the information nor its source.

Submarine HMS Truncheon commissioned.

Frigate HMCS Monnow departed Londonderry for Sheerness.

JAPAN: The USAAF's Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands flies Mission 183: During the night of 25/26 May, 464 B-29 Superfortresses bomb the urban area of Tokyo immediately south of the Imperial Palace just north of that bombed on 23/24 May, including financial, commercial, and governmental districts as well as factories and homes; six others bomb targets of opportunity; they claim 19 Japanese fighters; 26 B-29s are lost on this mission, the highest single-day loss of B-29s in World War II. A total of 3,262 tons of incendiaries are dropped and the resulting fires destroy 16.8 sq mi (43.5 sq km), the greatest area wiped out in any single Tokyo raid.

Mines previously laid by B-29s off Japan sink a Japanese cargo vessel and a merchant tanker.

Off Okinawa, kamikazes sink two U.S. Navy vessels and damage seven others.

- The high-speed transport USS Bates (APD-47, ex-DE-68) is sunk. The ship is attacked by three aircraft at 1115 hours; the first plane dropped a bomb, scoring a near miss which ruptured the starboard hull of the ship, and then crashed into the starboard side of the fantail. The second plane, almost simultaneously, made a suicide hit on the pilothouse. Shortly thereafter the third plane made a bombing run scoring a near miss amidships, portside, rupturing the hull. Twenty-one of her crew were either dead or missing from the attacks. The crew abandoned ship and at 1923, the still burning Bates capsized and sank.

- The medium landing ship LSM-135 is also sunk.

- During the night, the destroyer USS Guest (DD-472) is attacked by a kamikaze which glanced off her mast and crashed alongside causing minor damage.

- At 0905 hours, the destroyer USS Stormes (DD-780) is struck by a kamikaze which crashes into the aft torpedo mount and its bomb explodes in the magazine under her number three 5-inch mount. By noon, repair parties had extinguished the fires and plugged the holes. Twenty-one members of the crew were killed and 15 injured.

- The destroyer escort USS O'Neill (DE-188) is hit by a kamikaze which kills two and wounds 17.

- The high-speed transport USS Barry (APD-29, ex-DD-248) is struck by a kamikaze below her bridge. Twenty-eight of the crew are wounded by shrapnel. The explosion of the plane's gasoline tanks and bomb ignited fuel oil escaping from ruptured tanks and the fire threatens the forward magazine which could not be reached to flood. The abandon ship order is given at 1340 hours and all hands take to the boats. By 1500 hours the water had risen until the forward magazine was covered, minimizing the danger of explosion. A skeleton crew, together with parties from two other ships, reboard Barry and the last fires were extinguished at 0630 hours the next day and she is towed to the anchorage at Kerama Retto.

- The high-speed transport USS Roper (APD-20, ex-DD-147) is struck by a kamikaze and is damaged.

- The high-speed minesweeper USS Butler (DMS-29, ex-DD-636) is struck by bombs from a suicide plane which explode under Butler's keel, killing nine men and blowing out steam lines and flooding the forward fire room causing the loss of all steam and electric power. Power is regained and she proceeds to Kerama Retto tomorrow for temporary repairs.

- The minesweeper USS Spectacle (AM-305) is struck by a diving kamikaze at 0805 hours; the aircraft strikes the ship under her port 40-millimeter gun tub, causing extensive damage and blowing many of her crew overboard. Her rudder is jammed so she drops anchor to avoid running over her men in the water. Spectacle's losses were: eleven killed outright, four who died of wounds, six wounded, and 14 missing in action. She is towed to Ie Shima for temporary repairs.

A Japanese plane torpedoes a U.S. freighter in Buckner Bay killer six merchant sailors and a stevedore.

NORTH BORNEO: Pte Leslie Thomas Starcevich (1918-89), Australian Military Forces, silenced two machine guns holding up his men, repeating the feat later. (Victoria Cross)

AUSTRALIA: Destroyer HMAS Bataan commissioned.

CANADA: Tug HMCS Glendon commissioned Vancouver, British Columbia.

Light cruiser HMCS Ontario completed refit to trials and work-ups.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "The Body Snatcher" is released in the U.S. Based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story, the film is directed by Robert Wise and stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The plot involves a renowned surgeon and teacher of anatomy in Edinburgh who pays a cabman, to clandestinely bring him exhumed bodies of the recently deceased for classroom demonstration purposes. With cemeteries being increasingly guarded, the cabman resorts to murder to provide the doctor with fresh bodies. This was the last film in which Karloff and Lugosi appeared in together.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, after extensive deliberation, issued to General MacArthur, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and Army Air Force General Henry Arnold, the top secret directive to proceed with the invasion of Kyushu. The target date was after the typhoon season.

Submarine USS Chopper commissioned.

Red Cross knitting for war effort

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA - Despite a shortage of wool, the knitting department of the upper Pinellas Red Cross completed a large number of garments last year.

These garments included 296 pairs of walking toe cast socks, 33 turtleneck sweaters, 11 afghans, 60 V-neck sweaters, 113 pairs olive drab socks, 109 pair gray socks for hospital use and 560 washcloths, according to Mrs. William Kuntz, chairman.

The knitting department at the production center in City Park will remain open all summer if the wool supply warrants.

(North Pinellas History is compiled by Times staff writer Theresa Blackwell. She can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com )

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