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August 25th, 1939 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:
For the first time in seven and a half years, the base rate of the Bank of England is increased, from 2% to 4%.

Coventry: Five people are killed and there is extensive damage when an IRA bomb explodes in Broadgate.

Dahlerus arrives in London.

A treaty of mutual assistance is formally signed between Poland and Great Britain.

18 trawlers are provisionally allocated to Fleetwood command for minesweeping and anti-submarine patrols. 8 of these are sent to Larne. Milford Haven Command gets 15 trawlers and assigns 2 to Belfast. Operational Command at Belfast is vested in the FOIC Belfast, who sets up his headquarters at the Custom House.

GERMANY:
Ambassador Attolico tells Hitler that Italy will not support Germany without German help with arms. On hearing of this and the formal alliance between Britain and Poland, Hitler cancels his invasion date, 0430 the following morning.

The Panzerschiffe "Deutschland" sails from Wilhelmshaven in preparation for raider activities in the North Atlantic in the event of a declaration of war. (Alex Gordon)


POLAND:
Numbers of border incidents increase.

In Makeszowa, near Katowice, German soldiers took over the court house and railway station; Poles broke into an wrecked the offices of a German newspaper.

More reservists are called up and cars and horses requisitioned.

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25 August 1940

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August 25th, 1940 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The first RAF Bomber Command raid on Berlin occurred during the night of 25/26 August. The participants were:

1. Nine Vickers Wellington Mk Is of No. 99 Squadron based at Newmarket, Suffolk, and

2. Eight Vickers Wellington Mk Is of No. 149 Squadron based at Mildenhall, Suffolk, and

3. Twelve Handley Page Hampdens Mk Is of No. 61 and No. 144 Squadrons, both based at Hemswell, Lincolnshire, and

4. Nine Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk Vs of No. 51 Squadron (4 Group) and five Whitley Mk Vs of No 78 Squadron (4 Group), both based at Dishforth, Yorkshire.

4 Group (Whitley) Reports: Bombing - industrial targets at Berlin and the Ruhr.
51 Sqn. Nine aircraft to Berlin. Weather atrocious, two bombed primary.
58 Sqn. Ten aircraft. Three returned early, four bombed primary, three bombed alternative targets.
78 Sqn. Five aircraft. None bombed due to adverse weather.
Whitley and Wellington crews are told that their main target "is the Siemens and Halske factory at Siemenstadt, producing 85% of the electrical power used by the German forces." Hampden crews are told to demolish Berlin's Klingenberg power station. Other objectives are the Henschel Aircraft Factory, the Bucker training aircraft factory at Rangsdorf, Tempelhof aerodrome and Tegel's gasworks.

Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Attacks on RAF Driffield and Airfields in south-east, south and south-west (Warmwell), the bombers are heavily escorted.

No large raids appear until 16:00, when a strong force heads for Weymouth. 

10 and 11 Groups face it with all available aircraft between Tangmere and Exeter. 87 and 609 Squadrons defend Portland and 17 Sqn. protects Warmwell. The Ju88s of II/KG 51 and II/KG 54 protected by Bf110s split into three groups to attack Weymouth, Portland and Warmwell. 87 Sqn. takes on the Portland Ju88s leaving the 110s to 609 Sqn. But the 110s are in turn escorted by Bf109s of JG53. 17 Sqn. found the bombers impossible to reach through the dense fighter screen. 

One Ju88 was shot down but the RAF lost 12 fighters and 8 pilots. 

The only other sizeable raid of the day develops over Kent around 18:00. Six 11 Group squadrons are in action, 32 Sqn operating from Hawkinge, and engaging a dozen Do17s until Bf109s drove them off and destroyed a Hurricane.

Losses: Luftwaffe, 20; RAF, 16.

GERMANY: U-110 launched.

BALTIC SEA:
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are formally incorporated into the Soviet Union.

NORTH AFRICA: The remaining French airborne units, the 601st and 602nd GIA are disbanded. (Stuart Millis)

U.S.A.: The first parachute wedding ceremony is performed by Reverend Homer Tomlinson at the New York World's Fair for Arno Rudolphi and Ann Hayward. The minister, bride and groom, best man, maid of honour and four musicians were all suspended from parachutes.

Secretary of State Hull appeals for national unity behind the defence program and related foreign policies.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-100 sank SS Jamaica Pioneer.
U-124 sank SS Fircrest, Harpalyce and damaged SS Stakesby in Convoy HX-65A.
U-48 sank SS Athelcrest and SS Empire Merlin in Convoy HX-65A.
U-37 sank SS Blairmore and SS Yewcrest in Convoy SC-1.
U-57 sank SS Pecten in Convoy HX-65B.

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25 August 1941

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August 25th, 1941 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: In his broadcast this evening, Churchill accused the Germans of perpetrating the wholesale massacre of civilians in occupied Soviet territories. "Whole districts are being exterminated," Churchill said. "Since the Mongol invasions of Europe in the 16th century there has never been methodical, merciless butchery on such a scale. We are in the presence of a crime without a name."
Churchill made no mention of Jews beings the main victims; to have done so would have let the Germans know that British intelligence is intercepting secret reports to Berlin from the Nazi extermination squads in the field. These conscientiously list the locations and numbers of those shot and thrown into ditches, often several thousand at a time.

The production of the Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber has now been subcontracted to to a number of firms, including English Electric at Preston, Rootes at Speke, Fairey at Stockport and the London Aircraft Production Group. The first of these aircraft, a MK II (V 9976), flies today. (22)

Minelayer HMS Welshman commissioned.
Corvette HMS Loosestrife launched.

NORTH SEA: The German submarine U-452 is sunk in the southeast of Iceland, in position 61.30N, 15.30W, by depth charges from the RN antisubmarine trawler HMS Vascama and depth charges from an RAF Catalina J of No. 209 Squadron based at Reykjavik, Iceland. All hands, 42-men, on the U-boat are lost.

GERMANY: Rastenburg: In talks with Mussolini, Hitler rails against Spain's refusal to join the war. Count Galeazzo Ciano, son-in-law and Foreign Minister is also in attendance. Also today, Hitler receives Count Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador, for consultation. Film

U-313, U-314, U-315, U-316, U-367, U-368, U-369, U-370, U-399, U-400, U-429, U-430, U-681, U-682, U-683, U-719, U-720, U-721, U-722, U-747, U-748, U-749, U-750, U-865, U-866, U-867, U-868, U-869, U-870, U-871, U-872, U-873, U-874, U-875, U-876, U-925, U-926, U-927, U-928, U-1059, U-1060, U-1061, U-1062, U-1131, U-1132, U-1161, U-1162, U-1191, U-1192, U-1193, U-1194, U-1195, U-1196, U-1197, U-1198, U-1221, U-1222, U-1223, U-1224, U-1225, U-1226 ordered
U-333 commissioned.

FINLAND: A sudden counter-attack by two Soviet divisions stops the advance of Light Brigade T north-east of Viipuri. The brigade commander Col. Tiiainen is lethally wounded and the brigade is forced back. After two days of intense fighting the 12nd ID manages to stop the Soviet attack.

Saukko collides with German S 28 off Helsinki and must remain in dock for almost the rest of the sailing season.

U.S.S.R.: The Bryansk front commander, General Eremenko, tells Stalin, "I will smash this scoundrel Guderian, no doubt about it."

General Heinz Guderian commander of the 2nd Panzer Army launches his forces south to encircle Kiev. (Jeff Chrisman)

U-752 sank Soviet minesweeper T-898/No 44 (ex-RT 411).

SPITZBERGEN: Small British-Canadian force destroys radio and weather stations and coal supplies to destroy anything of use to the Germans.

IRAN: The British land troops at Bandar Shapur, Abadan and Khoramshahr, Iran. The Soviets move into Iran with one column advancing on Tabriz, which is bombed. Two additional Soviet columns are advancing around the Caspian Sea.
Iran had been invaded, its prime minister, Ali Mansur, told the Mejlis [parliament] this afternoon, by Soviet columns from the north and British ones from the south. There are condemnations from all over the Middle East. 
The attack began in the early hours of this morning. While Soviet columns under General Novikov headed for Tabriz and Kazvin, Indian troops crowded onto steamers and motor boats, silently approached the port of Abadan. Another force, under Major-General Slim, crossed the border near Kermanshah. Iranian troops have resisted, but apart from the gallant Admiral Bay Endor, who died at his post, not much.
Since Britain and Russia divided Iran into two spheres of influence in 1908, Iranians have looked to Germany to escape the Anglo-Russian vice. There are many Germans in Iran, running posts, telegraphs and railways, as the Allies claim, but most have been here for years.
As Iran is neutral the Allies have compromised that neutrality. Britain justifies its action by its need for oil from Abadan, while the USSR needed a supply route from the Persian Gulf.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Galt departed St John's with Convoy SC-41 to Iceland.
Corvette HMCS Moose Jaw arrived St John's to join NEF.

U.S.A.: Submarine USS Finback launched.

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25 August 1942

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August 25th, 1942 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

London: The Duke of Kent, an RAF air commodore and the youngest brother of King George VI, has become the first member of the Royal Family to die on active service and perhaps the first to die in an air disaster. He was killed today when a Sunderland flying boat in which he was travelling crashed in the north of Scotland. An official announcement said that the Duke, attached to the staff of the inspector-general of the RAF, was on his way to Iceland, on duty.

A total of 14 people lost their lives when the big aircraft hit a hillside at 1400 near Eagle Rock, Dunbeath in misty conditions, caused by navigational error but the exact cause is never found. Shepherds heard the engines cut and the sound of a crash, and saw a spurt of flame. The bodies were recovered at dawn today. One survivor was found wandering in the hills, burnt and shocked. He is Flight-Sergeant Andrew Jack, aged 21, of Grangemouth, the crew's rear gunner. The aircraft was en-route to Iceland. The duke, attached to the staff of the inspector-general of the RAF, was on his way to Iceland, on duty. The duke, who was born in 1902, served in the Royal Navy from 1916 to 1929 He left for medical reasons and started flying as a hobby a year later. He was married to Princess Marina of Greece. Their third child, Prince Michael, was born seven weeks ago. The death of the Duke is the first in 500 years that the son of a King of England is killed while on active duty. The investigation is classified as secret.  The records of the investigation are not released when the date for release is reached is 1957. The surviving crew member, Flight-Sergeant Andrew Jack, consistently refused to discuss the flight . Some reports show 15 people dead in the wreckage. This one additional person to the number on the manifest and the 32 minutes to travel 60 miles (97 kilometres) to the crash site result in some lingering questions.  (John Nicholas, Andy Etherington and Jack McKillop)

The aircraft was Shorts S-25 Sunderland Mk. III, msn S-2298, RAF s/n W4026 assigned to No. 228 Squadron, based at Oban Shorts S-25 Sunderland Mk. III, msn S-2298, RAF s/n W4026 assigned to No. 228 Squadron, based at Oban.

USAAF 308th Fighter Squadron moves to Westhampnett, Sussex.

Sloop HMS Whimbrel launched. Escort carrier HMS Trumpeter laid down.
Destroyer HMS Penylan commissioned.
Destroyer HMCS Haida launched Newcastle-on-Tyne.

FRANCE: German military service is made compulsory in Alsace-Lorraine.

GERMANY: U-903 laid down.
U-339 commissioned.

GREECE: US Army Middle East Air Force B-24s attack the Corinth Canal. 

U.S.S.R.: Mozdok on the Terek River is the scene of heavy fighting. 

Stalingrad: The battle for Stalingrad has begun. Paulus's Sixth Army reached the steep banks of the Volga, to the north of the city, two nights ago and it seems that the garrison formed by General Lopatin's army is in danger of being rolled up.

With the bridges over the Volga within artillery and mortar range, the Russians' problems of supply and reinforcement seem insurmountable. Rather than commit the army to costly street fighting, however, the Luftwaffe has been called in to deliver the coup de grace to the besieged city. For the last two nights von Richthofen's Luftlotte 4 has mounted the heaviest strikes since the first day of Barbarossa. He-111 and even Junkers Ju52 transports have been brought in to add their weight to the Stukas. Stalingrad has been blitzed, with 40,000 people killed by air raids.

Yet Stalingrad refuses to surrender under the hail of bombs. With the enemy at the gates of the city the regional party committee has proclaimed a state of siege today: "We shall never surrender the city of our birth to the depredations of the German invader. Each single one of us must apply himself to the task of defending our beloved town, our homes and our families. Let us barricade every street; transform every district, every house into an impregnable fortress. 

6th Army Order of Battle Stalingrad (before the encirclement as forces added afterwards from 4th Panzer Army obviously would not have been part of the "Shock Army.").

XI Corps

376th Infantry Division

44th Infantry Division

384th Infantry Division

VIII Corps

76th Infantry Division

113th Infantry Division

60th Motorized Infantry Division

XIV Panzer Corps

3d Infantry Division (Motorized)

16th Panzer Division

94th Infantry Division

LI Corps - this was the corps actually fighting in Stalingrad itself, which included so many divisions accordingly, many of which having been reduced in strength greatly by the fighting.

389th Infantry Division

14th Panzer Division

305th Infantry Division

24th Panzer Division

100th Jäger Division

295th Infantry Division

71st Infantry Division

79th Infantry Division

(John McGrath)

U-209 and U-255 shelled a radio station at Cape Zhelania, Novaya Zemlya.

PORTUGUESE SOUTH AFRICA: Five USN nurses, who had been held as POWs by the Japanese, are repatriated to the diplomatic corps at Mozambique. The five, Lieutenants (jg) Leona Jackson, Lorraine Christiansen, Virginia Fogerty and Doris Yetter, under the command of Chief Nurse Marion Olds, had been captured on Guam on 10 December 1941. They continued caring for casualties at the U.S. Naval Hospital on Guam until 10 January 1942 when they were transported to Japan. Held for three months in the Zentsuji Prison on Shikoku Island, they were moved to the Eastern Lodge in Kobe on 12 March until being placed on the Swedish-America line ship SS Gripsholm and brought to Mozambique.

NEW GUINEA: IJA troops landed on Goodenough Island from Buna, last night. They are heading for a landing at Milne Bay, New Guinea.  7 Japanese landing barges bound for Milne Bay from Buna are stranded on Goodenough Island when USAAF P-40s of the Allied Air Force based at Milne Bay destroy all of them. P-40s also attack a convoy proceeding from New Ireland Island toward Milne Bay but are hampered by bad weather and fail to halt landings at 3 points east of Rabi during the night of 25/26 August. P-400 Airacobras hit the airfield and AA positions at Buna.
DD HMAS Voyager (I) lost and demolished following grounding at Betano, East Timor (Daniel Ross)

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The last act of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons is played out today. The convoy bearing elements of General Kawaguchi's 35th Brigade, under command of Admiral Tanaka in Jintsu, is turned back. The convoy, intended to reinforce Guadalcanal, is bombed with two transports, light cruiser Jintsu damaged and one destroyer, Mitsuki, sunk. Jintsu is damaged by a Marine SBD from Henderson Field, Admiral Tanaka is knocked unconscious in the explosion. Mitsuki is sunk during a level bombing by B-17s. The Japanese, realizing the cost of daylight naval operations within range of Henderson Field, turn to high speed destroyer runs at night for resupply efforts. These will become known as "The Tokyo Express".

The IJN and USN aircraft carriers have retired but the Japanese invasion force sailing towards Guadalcanal is hit hard by 4 USMC and 3 USN SBD Dauntlesses, and 4 USMC F4F Wildcats 125 mi (201 km) from the island at 0835 hours; a Marine SBD pilot hits the light cruiser HIJMS Jintsu and another damages the transport Boston Maru while a USN SBD pilot mortally damages the large transport Kinryu Maru. At 1015 hours, 8 B-17s from Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Island sink the destroyer HIJMS Mutsuki as it is attempting to sink the damaged transport. In the afternoon, USN SBDs attack 2 transports and their 5 escorts as they retreat back to Rabaul.  Thus this battle ends as a clear victory, both tactical and strategic, for the US.

Japanese troops occupy Nauru Island in the Gilbert Islands and Goodenough Island in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands.

NAURU ISLAND: Japanese troops occupy undefended Nauru Island. Nauru, an 8 square mile (21 square kilometre) island located about 380 nautical miles (704 kilometres) west-southwest of Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), has large phosphate deposits.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: Aleutians: A US 11th Air Force photo reconnaissance B-24 Liberator flies over Kiska, Attu and Adak Islands, then turns back because of mechanical failure.

CANADA: Submarines HMCS Venturer and Telemachus laid down. Minesweeper HMCS Fort William commissioned.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Gansevoort commissioned.
Escort carrier USS Sangamon commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-130 sank SS Viking Star.
U-164 sank SS Stad Amsterdam in Convoy WAT-15.
U-558 sank SS Amakura in Convoy WAT-15.
U-176 damaged SS Empire Breeze in Convoy ON-122.
U-438 sank SS Empire Breeze and damaged SS Trolla in Convoy ON-122.
U-605 sank SS Katvaldis and SS Sheaf Mountain in Convoy ON-122.
U-604 sank SS Abbekerk.
 

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25 August 1943

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August 25th, 1943 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The US Eighth Air Force is assigned to the role of bombing important Luftwaffe targets in Operation STARKEY, designed to contain enemy forces in the west to prevent their transfer to the Eastern Front, and to serve as a dress rehearsal in the Pas de Calais, France area for the invasion of western Europe. The Allies hope to provoke the Luftwaffe into a prolonged air battle.

The VIII Air Support Command flies Missions 34A and 34B against two targets in France. 
(1) 21 B-26B Marauders bomb the power station at Rouen at 1832 hours and 
(2) 31 B-26s attack Tricqueville Airfield at 1834 hours; they claim 1-8-5 Luftwaffe aircraft.

London: Lord Louis Mountbatten appointed supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia.

Corvette HMCS Kincardine (ex HMS Tamworth Castle) laid down South Bank, Stockton-on-Tees.

Minesweeper HMS Clinton commissioned.
Escort carrier HMS Khedive commissioned.
Destroyer escorts HMS Fessenden and Fiske commissioned.
Frigates HMS Rupert and Stockham laid down.
 

GERMANY: The Arado 234 V3 jet bomber makes its first flight. This aircraft has a pressurized cabin, an ejector seat and RATOG (Rocket Assisted Take-Off Gear). (21)

U-292, U-1061 and U-1161 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviets capture Akhtyrka and Zenkov near Kharkov.

U-625 sank Soviet Shkval.

ITALY: During the day, 135 Northwest African Strategic Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, escorted by 140 P-38 Lightnings, bomb airfields at Foggia with the loss of two bombers. During the night of 25/26 August, RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group attack two targets: 75 bomb the marshalling yard at Taranto with the loss of one aircraft while two bomb a target of opportunity at Scalea. Meanwhile, four RAF Liberators drop leaflets over Naples.

Destroyer HMCS Athabaskan damaged by HS93 radio guided bomb. 4 killed and 36 injured.

CHINA: 8 B-25s, with fighter escort, bomb Kowloon Docks at Hong Kong.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Allied offensive operations on New Georgia and its surrounding islands end after the move by Japanese forces to evacuate from Kolombangara and Vella Lavella. The decision follows recent Japanese air and surface defeats in the region, crippling Japan's ability to protect supplies to its garrisons.

Most significant has been the loss of Munda airstrip and, five days ago, the destruction of 170 Japanese planes as they stood wing-to-wing on the tarmac at Wewak, in New Guinea. Japanese losses in the New Georgia campaign are estimated at 2,500 dead and 17 warships, compared with Allied losses of 1,000 men and six ships.

13 US Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells, along with 40+ USMC SBDs and an escort of fighter aircraft, pound barge centers at Webster and Ringa Coves on New Georgia Island. 6 B-24s, along with 24 USMC fighters, hit Kahili Airfield on Bougainville Island. Other P-40s strafe large motor vessels and a barge in the northwestern part of the Slot. 

CANADA: Quebec: Lord Louis Mountbatten, the 43-year-old head of Combined Operations, has been appointed supreme Allied commander in South-east Asia, it was revealed here today. He will be responsible for operations based on India and Ceylon. The appointment suggests that commando operations will play a major part as Britain strikes back at Japan from its form bases on the subcontinent and Ceylon, both of which have been under separate commands until now.

Frigate HMCS Kokanee laid down Esquimalt, British Columbia. Frigate HMCS Saint John launched Montreal Province of Quebec.

U.S.A.: The US Navy Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet is renamed to V Amphibious Corps. (Gordon Rottman)

The USAAF 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) is inactivated.

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

German submarine U-523 is sunk west of Vigo, in position 42.03N, 18.02W, by depth charges from the RN destroyer HMS Wanderer and the corvette HMS Wallflower. 37 of the 54-man crew of the U-boat survive.

U-340 rescued 5 Luftwaffe airmen off Spain. Shortly afterwards the boat was attacked by an aircraft and a few men were wounded, the boat being damaged.

German HS 293 glider bombs are used unsuccessfully against an anti-submarine vessel hunting U-Boats in the Bay of Biscay. This is the first operational use of this weapon.

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25 August 1944

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August 25th, 1944 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: 

The US Eighth Air Force in England flies 4 missions.

- Mission 570: 1,191 bombers and 708 fighters, in 3 forces, make visual bombing attacks against aircraft component plants, Luftwaffe experimental stations and the synthetic oil industry; 18 bombers and 7 fighters are lost; numbers in parenthesis indicate number of bombers attacking the target. 
(1) B-24s attack aircraft component plants at Rostock (116), Schwerin (106), Wismar (91) and Lubeck (81); 11 others hit Grossenbrode Airfield and 4 hit targets of opportunity; 5 B-24s are lost; escort is provided by 243 P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs; they claim 11-2-3 aircraft; 1 P-51 is lost. 
(2) B-17s bomb the Rechlin Experimental Station (179) and oil refinery at Politz (169); 6 others hit targets of opportunity; 8 B-17s; escort is provided by 215 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 4-0-2 aircraft; 4 P-51s are lost. 
(3) B-17s attack the Peenemunde Experimental Station (146), Neubrandenburg Airfield (108) and Anklam Airfield (73); 21 others hit Parow Airfield and 5 hit targets of opportunity; 5 B-17s are lost; escort is provided by 171 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 36-0-28 aircraft; 2 P-51s are lost.

- Mission 571: 10 B-24s fly an Azon glide bomb mission to Moerdijke, the Netherlands but the target is missed. Escort is provided by 36 P-47s.

- Mission 572: 107 bombers and 172 fighters are dispatched to make visual attacks on liquid oxygen and ammonia plants in Belgium and northern FRANCE: 
(1) 31 38 B-17s hit Henin Littard; and 
(2) B-24s bomb Willerbroeck (18), Tertre (17), Tiller/Liege (12) and La Louviere (10); 4 others hit St Trond Airfield and 1 hits a target of opportunity. Escort for Mission 572 is provided by 152 P-38s and P-51s.

- Mission 573: 6 B-17s drop leaflets on France and Belgium during the night.

- 1 C-47 Skytrain flies a CARPETBAGGER mission during the night.

Major Glenn Miller christens a B-17G bomber for his famous theme song, "Moonlight Serenade" in Knettishall.

FRANCE: The second "Red Ball Express" is activated from the Normandy beachhead.
The French 4th Armored Division enters Paris. German General Choltitz disobeys orders to fight for the city and surrenders, avoiding damage to the city.

Paris: Paris is free. At 2,30 this afternoon the German commander of the Paris area, General Dietrich von Cholitz, surrendered to Lieutenant Henri Karcher of the French 2nd Armoured Division, commanded by General Leclerc, the first Allied unit to enter Paris. German snipers are still active, but late this afternoon General Charles de Gaulle also entered the city.

The first of Leclerc's men drove their Sherman tanks into Paris last night to be greeted by cheering Parisians. Shortly after 7.00am today, Leclerc and the rest of his troops entered, with units of the US 4th Infantry Division. Karcher and his men stormed the German headquarters in the Hotel Meurice, shot up a picture of Adolf Hitler and overcame the garrison with a phosphorous grenade and a flame-thrower. Karcher found von Cholitz sitting behind a table. Karcher asked von Cholitz if he was ready to surrender. The German answered simply "Ja". "Then you are my prisoner," said Karcher.

The liberation of Paris has been won by not only the regular Allied forces but the people of Paris itself who backed an uprising called by the Resistance on 18 August. Some 500 Resistance fighters and 127 other civilians have been killed. Many Germans also died - 50 were killed defending the French foreign office building. It has also been a time of summary justice for suspected collaborators. Tonight the retribution continues, along with a vast explosion of joy which will culminate tomorrow in parades. But behind the celebrations, a grim power struggle has been taking place.

De Gaulle had appealed to Eisenhower to take Paris without delay. Ike refused; he did not want to risk a bloody street-by-street battle, nor was he ready to take responsibility for feeding four million people. But de Gaulle argued that the  uprising against the Germans in Paris and the denunciation of "collaborators" were being used by the communists as a cover for eliminating their opponents. He ordered Leclerc to detach his 2nd Armoured Division from the Allied command and head for Paris.

Paris: The relative swiftness of the liberation of Paris is in large measure owing to the bravery of the French capital's own citizens. At least 3,000 were killed over the last week, along with 2,000 Germans.

On 18 August, the Resistance announced a general strike. The next day, French policemen occupied the Prefecture of Police and a general insurrection was declared by the Parisian Liberation Committee (CPL) and the National Council of the Resistance (CNR). On 20 August barricades went up, the Hotel de Ville [City Hall] was captured and German troops and installations were attacked. Soldiers were killed and military vehicles set alight. General von Cholitz, the German military commander of Paris, agreed to an offer from the Resistance of a ceasefire "until the German evacuation of Paris."

But SS units refused to co-operate, and on 22 August the Resistance leaders decided to break the truce. Hitler was also sending von Cholitz orders to crush the uprising. Paris, said the Fuhrer, must be held of "fall into the hands of the enemy only as a heap of rubble."

At nine o'clock last night, however, the church bells of Paris announced that the first units of Leclerc's 2nd Armoured Division had reached the Hotel de Ville. Von Cholitz ignored Hitler's orders. The Parisians had won.

The British XXX Corps enters Vernon on the Seine. The XII Corps prepares to cross at Louviers. Canadian forces liberate Elbeuf.

The US VIII Corps begins a major attack on Brest. This attack is assisted by HMS Warspite bombarding with HMCS Assiniboine forming part of the screen.

Troops from the US 3rd Infantry Division entered Avignon in southern France today as the liberation gains pace. Grenoble has also fallen, and though German forces still hold out in the ports of Toulon and Marseilles, elsewhere their compatriots are in retreat.

The Allied advance in southern France began on 15 August with the Operation DRAGOON landings on the Riviera between Toulon and Cannes. From the outset the Allies encountered little German resistance; the Nineteenth Army under General Friedrich Wiese had only seven divisions to cover the entire coastline. Within three days nearly 100,000 troops from the US Seventh Army under Lt-Gen Alexander Patch, including the French Army B under General jean de Tassigny, were ashore. Inland the Maquisard [Resistance] fighters were also active, tying up German reserves (and being the first to enter Grenoble).

With the Nineteenth Army weakened by withdrawals to fight the Allies in Normandy, the Germans were in no position to defend on the southern flank, and for once Hitler recognized this. On 16 August the Fuhrer gave the order for the gradual withdrawal of German forces in southern France to a line from Sens through Dijon to the Swiss border. The coded order, which in effect told the Allies that their progress would be unimpeded, was deciphered and conveyed to their land forces.

The Allied forces have advanced in two directions: by the mountains via Digne and Gap to Grenoble, and the coast towards Avignon from where the US Seventh Army and French II Corps plan to head up the Rhone valley to Lyons. With Hitler's order, and  the success of Operation DRAGOON, the collapse of Vichy France has been swift. The Vichy premier, Pierre Laval, was compelled to leave Paris on 17 August, after refusing to leave in the hope of negotiating with the Allies; Marshal Petain was abducted from Vichy four days later. Both men are now being held in Belfort.

- The US Ninth Air Force sends about 240 A-20 Havocs and B-26s to attack various enemy strongholds in and around Brest supporting the ground forces' attempt to capture Brest harbor; fighters provide air cover for 5 divisions, fly armed reconnaissance along the Seine River, and sweeps in wide areas around Paris which is liberated; fighters of the IX Tactical Air Command raid, and set afire with napalm tanks, the reported HQ of Field Marshall Walter Model (Commander-in-Chief West) and Verzy.

- A-20s of the US Twelfth Air Force hit targets of opportunity during the night of 24/25 August, and during the day fly armed reconnaissance over the Rhone Valley and hit ammunition stores; B-25s and B-26s attack Rhone River bridges at Avignon, Culoz, Saint-Alban-du-Rhone, Pont d'Ain, and Loyes, and hit gun positions around Marseille.

- U-178 is scuttled at Bordeaux, France as she was not seaworthy in time to escape the Allied advance.

- U-667 is sunk in the Bay of Biscay near La Rochelle, in position 46.00N, 01.30W, by a mine in the minefield Cinnamon. All 45 men on the U-boat are lost.

 

GERMANY: U-3015 laid down.
U-3505 and U-3006 launched.
U-2328 commissioned.
U-242 sank Soviet survey ship KKO-2 and barge VRD-96 Del'fin.
U-480 sank SS Orminster.
U-764 sank HMS LCT-1074 with two GNAT torpedoes.

AUSTRIA: One USAAF Fifteenth Air Force heavy bomber based in Italy bombs a railroad bridge as a target of opportunity. 


 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators of the USAAF Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy bomb four targets, three of them in Brno: 82 bomb the Kurim aircraft factory at Brno, 80 bomb Brno Airfield and 79 bomb the Lison aircraft engine factory at Brno; one bomber is lost. The fourth target is Prostejov Airfield which is hit by 71 bombers with the loss on one. 

HUNGARY: Three bombers of the USAAF Fifteenth Air Force hit targets of opportunity including a railroad bridge. 

FINLAND: The Finnish ambassador in Stockholm G. A. Gripenberg meets the Soviet ambassador Alexandra Kollontay and hands her a letter written by Foreign Minister Enckell. In the letter Enckell informs the Soviet government that Finland is willing to start peace negotiations in Moscow. On the same day Finland officially informs Germany that the promise made by the ex-President Risto Ryti to Ribbentrop (that Finland shall not make peace unless in full agreement with Germany) is in force no more.

 

ESTONIA: Tartu is liberated by Soviet forces under Masiennikov. This is an important point in the German defence lines.

ITALY: The British 8th Army begins a new offensive across the River Metauro in Italy, towards the Gothic Line. This involves the British V Corps, the Polish Corps and the Canadian I Corps and makes good progress. The Germans, taken by surprise, offer only ineffective oppostion.

73 RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group visually bomb the marshalling yard and canal at Ravenna.

The US Fifteenth Air Force in Italy attacks targets in CZECHOSLOVAKIA: 300+ B-17s and B-24s supported by P-38s and P-51s bomb aircraft factories at Brno and Kurim and airfields at Brno and Prostejov.

From an olive grove overlooking an Italian valley, Winston Churchill watched today as his Eighth Army began its advance towards the Gothic Line. "This was the nearest I got to the enemy and the time I heard most bullets in the Second World War," he recorded later.

The offensive has been planned by General Oliver Leese, the Eighth Army's commander. He has moved his forces from the west of Italy to attack on the eastern flank of the Apennines. The aim is to cross the Foglia river, break through the newly-completed defensive line near the Adriatic coast and clear the way for a mass tank breakout into the flood-plain of the Po valley. A tough fight is expected. Ten German infantry divisions face the Allies.

BLACK SEA: U-18 and U-24 are scuttled at Konstanza in position 44.12N, 28.41E. 8 men are killed on the U-18.

CHINA: 3 US Fourteenth Air Force B-24s bomb Kowloon docks in Hong Kong.

KURILE ISLANDS: a US Eleventh Air Force B-24 flies reconnaissance over Shasukotan, Onnekotan, and Harumukotan Islands but drops no bombs due to accurate AA fire.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Bob Hope was at Biak on 25 August 1944 putting on a special show for the Air Corps. He is seen in the "Jolly Rogers" staff car holding a captured Japanese flag which was presented to him. The Jolly Roger's squadron got all the limelight. (Denis Peck)

 

US Seventh Air Force B-24s from Saipan Island hit the airfield on Iwo Jima Island and a B-24 bombs Yap Island. 

US Far East Air Force B-24s strike Koror and Malakal Islands, Palau Islands, Caroline Islands.

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Capilano commissioned.
Frigate HMCS Royalmount commissioned.

 

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25 August 1945

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August 25th, 1945 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The new prime minister, Clement Attlee, is tonight preparing to warn the nation to brace itself for a long period of unprecedented peacetime austerity. Shortages of food and much else will be more acute than during the war.

Britain faces its gravest-ever financial crisis as a result of President Truman's sudden cancellation of US Lend-Lease four days ago. Under this mutual aid programme, begun by President Roosevelt in 1941, Britain has been getting food imports without cash payment.

It was stated grimly in Whitehall that on account of the American action there must be immediate reductions in imports of food, cotton, tobacco, petrol and many manufactured goods. Also, things produced in Britain for home consumption will increasingly be reserved for export. A high-level British delegation will leave for Washington next week in a bid for transitional arrangements to ease the situation. US diplomats pointed out that  the president was obliged by American law to end Lend-Lease as soon as the war was over. They also said that Britain can now probably now get a massive new American loan. This buttered no parsnips in Whitehall.

Mr. Churchill is known to share Mr. Attlee's concern that the president acted without prior consultation. They see the crisis as a bitter legacy caused by having almost to bankrupt the nation in the effort to win the war.

London: The war may be over, but many problems are just beginning. That is the bleak view that the British government conveyed to the House of Commons this week. It sees a world where the difficulties go deeper than the inevitable detritus of warfare, refugees and devastated cities.

Ernest Bevin, the new British foreign secretary, said last Monday that economic reconstruction was the primary objective of foreign policy. Not just overseas, though: reports published in Britain this week stated that 700,000 houses in London alone needed repairs from bomb damage. And the next day economic problems came closer to home for Britain when President Truman abruptly cancelled the Lend-Lease programme which had sustained Britain during the war. "Very grave and disquieting," was the verdict of Winston Churchill, now the opposition leader, for the move implies severe shortages of food and prolonged rationing.

Britain's political leaders are also united in foreboding about the prospect of the USSR establishing subservient communist satellites in eastern Europe. Mr. Bevin spoke of uncertainty over promises of free elections in Poland and "one kind of totalitarianism being replaced by another" in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Nor is the advance of communism confined to Europe. In China, with Japan defeated, there have been warnings this week from the Communists, led by Mao Tse-tung, to the Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, not to provoke a civil war.

Yet potentially dwarfing all this was a report on Wednesday from the Japanese News Agency that the numbers dying daily from burns caused by the atomic bombings is still increasing. It now seems that the bombs caused far more deaths through radiation than scientists had predicted.

GERMANY: British forces in Germany are redesignated the British Army of the Rhine.

BURMA: Rangoon: The war in Burma effectively ended before Japan announced it intention of surrendering, but next week it becomes official. Lt-Gen Takazo Numata, the chief of staff to the ailing Field Marshal Count Terauchi, Japan's Southern Army commander, is to fly here from Saigon to surrender formally. Britain's Twelfth Army under Lt-Gen Montagu Stopford thwarted attempts by General Honda's Thirty-third Army to escape across the Sittang Bend towards Malaya three weeks ago; since then there has been only sporadic fighting, with isolated Japanese units unaware of the emperor's call to "endure the unendurable."

CHINA

For no apparent reason, John Birch, an American missionary before the war and an Army captain during the war. is killed by the Chinese communists. Birch, a Baptist missionary in China when the war started, was commanding an American Office of Strategic Services team when ordered to halt by Communist troops. A scuffle ensued and Birch was shot dead. In the 1950s, Robert Welch created a right-wing anticommunist organization named the John Birch Society.

Shanghai: The liberation of China by its people has become a desperate race between the rival Nationalist and Communist forces. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang troops today entered Shanghai and Nanking, the pre-war capital, as Communist forces were reported to be marching on both cities.

A Kuomintang dispatch claims that Nationalist troops had occupied western Shanghai. But Communists claim that 50,000 Chinese workers are occupying factories in Shanghai and putting up posters to welcome Communist forces.

At Nanking, where Chiang wants to re-establish his capital, Kuomintang troops have accepted the Japanese surrender with Communist troops three miles from the city. In the south the Communists claim to be advancing in Canton and near Hong Kong, and are close to Tientsin in the north.

At government level discussions between the two groups have reached stalemate. The Communist leader Mao Tse-tung refuses to answer Chiang's appeal to come to Chungking for discussions. Mao counters by offering Chou En-lai as his representative.

FRENCH INDOCHINA: As the Japanese surrendered to the Allies, the Communist  Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh aimed to take power. Due to Emperor Bao Dai's Japanese associations, Ho Chi Minh was able to persuade him to abdicate today, handing power to the Viet Minh, an event that greatly enhanced Ho's legitimacy in the eyes of the Vietnamese people. Bao Dai was appointed "supreme advisor" in the new government in Hanoi, which asserted independence on 2 September 1945. 

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: General YAMASHITA Tomoyoki, Commander of the 14th Area Army, informs the commander of the US 32d Infantry Division that he has ordered all Japanese troops in the Philippines to lay down their arms. 

 

JAPAN: There are reports of large numbers of people "committing hara-kiri before the Imperial Palace in Tokyo."  

In the Kurile Islands, Soviet troops occupy Paramushiru Island. USN PB4Y-2 Privateers continue their photographic missions over Onekotan, Shasukotan and Harumukotan Islands.

In Japan, carrier-based USN aircraft begin daily patrols over airfields and attempt to locate and supply POW camps. This operation continues until 2 September.

Two 7th Fighter Squadron P-38 Lightnings, one flown by Lieutenant Colonel Clay Tice, Jr., Commanding Officer of the 49th Fighter Group based at Motuba Airfield on Okinawa, lands at Nittagahara on Kyushu at 1205 hours local. The second aircraft was low on fuel and could not return to Okinawa. 

The two had been part of a six-plane element flying over Japan. At 1305 hours, the American were contacted by officers and men of the IJA and although conversation was difficult, they were greeted in a friendly manner. Prior to landing, Colonel Tice had contacted an SB-17 Flying Fortress of the of the 6th Air Sea Rescue Squadron and advised him of the situation. The SB-17 landed at approximately 1315 hours and with a fuel pump and hose furnished by the Japanese, the Americans transferred approximately US 260 gallons (984 liters) of gas from the SB-17 to the P-38. The SB-17 and two P-38s took off at 1445 hours and landed on Okinawa at 1645 hours.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Elm Lake launched Sarnia, Ontario.

U.S.A.: US Vice-Admiral Willis Augustus Lee Jr., succumbs to a fatal heart attack while in his launch, returning to his flagship, USS WYOMING (AG-17), off the coast of Maine. (Skip Guidry)

Lee had been Commander, Battleships, Pacific Fleet from April 1943 to December 1944 and then commanded Battleship Squadron Two (BatRon 2) until June 1945. He was sent to the Atlantic to command a special unit researching defenses against the Kamikaze threat. He is buried, with honors, at Arlington National Cemetery. 

     The seven German POWs convicted of hanging a fellow German submariner in the shower room of Compound 4 at Camp Papago, 8 miles east of downtown Phoenix, Arizona, on 12 March 1944, are executed at Fort Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas.

Destroyer USS Holder launched.
Heavy cruiser USS Macon commissioned.
Submarine USS Cochino commissioned.

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