25 May 1945
  • USS Iowa arrived off Kyushu, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • Submarine I-369 was taken out of commission for conversion into an aviation gasoline submarine-transport. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • Bataan (Tribal-class) was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • USS Ray sank 2 small Japanese vessels west of Japan with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • USS Blenny reported sinking a small Japanese craft with torpedoes. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • USS Parche began her sixth war patrol, the first half of which would be on lifeguard station south of Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • Operation Olympic, the invasion of Japan, was approved by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, setting the date at 1 Nov 1945. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
  • Japanese special attack aircraft sank destroyer USS Bates and damaged several other ships off Okinawa, Japan. Part of these attacks included an Ohka combat sortie by 11 G4M bombers, most of which were turned back due to poor weather while the few that launched their Ohka weapons reported no hits. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • Australian Private Leslie Starcevitch won the Victoria Cross during the capture of Beaufort, North Borneo by destroying a series of Japanese bunkers that had been holding up the Australian advance. ww2dbase [AC]
  • The destroyer escort USS Bates was sunk by a Japanese special attack aircraft off Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [AC]
  • The Japanese Navy reorganized the 3rd Air Fleet (now with 13th, 25th, and 27th Air Flotillas) and the 5th Air Fleet (now with 12th and 72nd Air Flotillas and 13 air groups). ww2dbase [CPC]
  • Philippe Leclerc was promoted to the rank of corps general. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
Japan
  • 464 American B-29 bombers conducted a raid on Tokyo, Japan. 26 aircraft were lost, which was the highest one-day loss. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • Yukio Araki and the 72nd Shinbu Squadron was relocated to Bansei Airfield, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
Photo(s) dated 25 May 1945
The first US soldiers to return home from France under the ArmyMap noting the progress of the Battle of TarakanPost-liberation identification paper of former Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp prisoner Jacek Jablonski, issued by the US Army on 25 May 1945

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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B-17 Flying Fortress bomber in flight over Mount Rainier, Washington, United States, 28 Jul 1943; note the special external hardpoints modification




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"You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrors. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival."

Winston Churchill