25 May 1945
  • USS Blenny reported sinking a small Japanese craft with torpedoes. ww2dbase [Blenny | CPC]
  • Operation Olympic, the invasion of Japan, was approved by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, setting the date at 1 Nov 1945. ww2dbase [Preparations for Invasion of Japan | 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 [Okinawa Campaign | 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]
  • Submarine I-369 was taken out of commission for conversion into an aviation gasoline submarine-transport. ww2dbase [I-369 | CPC]
  • Bataan (Tribal-class) was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Bataan (Tribal-class) | CPC]
  • 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]
  • USS Iowa arrived off Kyushu, Japan. ww2dbase [Iowa | CPC]
  • USS Ray sank 2 small Japanese vessels west of Japan with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Ray | CPC]
  • USS Parche began her sixth war patrol, the first half of which would be on lifeguard station south of Japan. ww2dbase [Parche | CPC]
  • Philippe Leclerc was promoted to the rank of corps general. ww2dbase [Philippe Leclerc | 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 [Bombing of Tokyo and Other Cities | Tokyo | CPC]
  • Yukio Araki and the 72nd Shinbu Squadron was relocated to Bansei Airfield, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. ww2dbase [Yukio Araki | Kaseda, Kagoshima | 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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Plan of Howaldtswerke Kiel shipyard, 1907; the year 1907 could not be verified because the texts such as slip dimensions were added much later


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"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You win the war by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!"

George Patton, 31 May 1944


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