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• US First Army finally broke out of Remagen bridgehead in Germany. 140 kilometers to the north, British Second Army captured Wesel, Germany. ww2dbase [Crossing the Rhine | TH]
• Retreating USAAF personnel blew up the Laohokow air base in China to prevent Japanese capture. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British General Montgomery issued a non-fraternization order as British troops entered Germany. ww2dbase [Bernard Montgomery | CPC]
• USS Wake Island arrived about 100 kilometers south of Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Wake Island | CPC]
• USS Bailey departed Leyte Gulf bound for Subic Bay, Luzon, Philippines. ww2dbase [Bailey | DS]

• USAAF B-24 bombers sank the 1,183-ton Japanese steam cargo ship Kori Go Maru in the Yangtze estuary near Shanghai, China. ww2dbase [Shanghai | HM]

• During a Soviet bombing of the port of Danzig-Neufahrwasser (now Gda?sk-Nowy), the refugee ship Ubena was able to escape, but the two ammunition ships 999-ton Weser and 665-ton Bille were hit and exploded. In total, 250 German military were killed. ww2dbase [HM]

• Winston Churchill, accompanied by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, crossed the Rhine River in Germany, visiting HQ 21st Army Group and delivered a characteristic message to officers and men. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | AC]
• Maximilian von Weichs stepped down as the commanding officer of German Armeegruppe F. ww2dbase [Maximilian von Weichs | CPC]
• An order was given to destroy the facilities of Deutsche Werke Kiel in Germany before Allied capture, but it would not be obeyed. ww2dbase [Deutsche Werke Kiel | Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein | AG]
• Togo departed Swinemünde, Germany (now Swinoujscie, Poland). ww2dbase [East Pomeranian Offensive | Togo / Coronel | Swinemünde, Pommern | CPC]

• USS Springer arrived at Guam, Mariana Islands, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Springer | CPC]

• USS Finback arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her twelfth and final war patrol. ww2dbase [Finback | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• At 1030 hours, British 26th Destroyer Flotilla (HMS Saumarez, HMS Virago, HMS Vigilant, and HMS Volage) commanded by Captain Manley Power intercepted a Japanese convoy in the Andaman Sea and commenced an attack with gunfire and torpedoes at 1059 hours, all of which missed. At 1129 hours, Powers radioed for air support, seeking the destructure of the convoy. Two RAF Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers soon arrived and in a low-level bombing attack and sank the 398-ton Teshio Maru, killing 11. However, one B-24 aircraft was caught in the blast of its own bombs and crashed into the sea. At 1150 hours, HMS Volage sank Risui Maru, while HMS Saumarez veered off to rescue the crew of the downed B-24 bomber. At 1230 hours, HMS Virage and HMS Vigilant opened fire on submarine chasers CH-34 and CH-63; shortly after, Vigilant fired eight torpedoes on the submarine chaser, one of which hit and sank CH-63. CH-34 scored a hit on HMS vigilant before being destroyed by gunfire at 1630 hours. ww2dbase [Andaman Sea | HM, CPC]

• USS Sargent Bay arrived in Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Sargent Bay | Okinawa | CPC]
• Tadamichi Kuribayashi passed away on Iwo Jima, Japan. He reportedly committed ritual suicide, but his body was never found. ww2dbase [Tadamichi Kuribayashi | Battle of Iwo Jima | Iwo Jima | CPC]
• USS Tirante sank Japanese tanker Fuji Maru. ww2dbase [Tirante | CPC]
• Aircraft from US Task Force 58 sank the Japanese merchant cargo ships Okinoyama Maru No. 5 and Chokai Maru near Naha, Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Naha, Okinawa | HM]

• The British Fairmile B-class motor launch boat ML-466, built in 1942 by Itchenor Shipyard and owned by British Royal Navy, was sunk by a mine, off Walcheren, Netherlands. ww2dbase [HM]

• 18 US A-20 bombers from Luzon, Philippine Islands attacked a factory at Kyoshito District (now Qiaotou District), Takao (now Kaohsiung), Taiwan. ww2dbase [Takao | CPC]

• German V-2 rocket hit Whitfield Street in St Pancras, London, England, United Kingdom in the late afternoon, killing 9 and seriously injuring 46. The Whitfield Memorial Chapel at Tottenham Court Road was badly damaged. In the evening, at 2300 hours, another rocket hit Broadfield Square in Enfield, London, killing 7 and seriously injuring 100. ww2dbase [Vergeltungswaffe 2 | V-Weapons Campaign | London, England | CPC]

• The second FR Fireball prototype aircraft was destroyed in a crash. ww2dbase [FR Fireball | CPC]
• In Farmington, Michigan, 15 miles from Detroit, a small fire was observed in an open field that sputtered briefly like a magnesium fire but soon went out. Later, a casing from a Japanese 5kg incendiary bomb from a Japanese Fu-Go balloon was found. This is the farthest east that any of the Japanese balloon bombs were known to have traveled. Separately, a captured and reinflated Fu-Go balloon was on a test flight from Lakehurst, New Jersey when it was lost by its chase airplanes. It was last seen heading out to sea over the Atlantic. ww2dbase [Japanese Attacks on the Continental United States | Fu-Go | Farmington, Michigan | DS]

25 Mar 1945 Interactive Map