Air Operations, Bismarcks

• Despite bad weather that forces 11 of 61 V Bomber Command B-24s and 73 of 81 V Fighter Command P-38s to abort, 50 B-24s and 8 475th Fighter Group P-38s attack targets in the Rabaul area and claim an estimated 20 aircraft destroyed on the ground. 1 B-24 is shot down and all but 2 of its crew are rescued by a Patrol Wing 10 PBY.
• A 475th Fighter Group P-38 downs an A6M Zero over the Vunakanau airfield at Rabaul at 1215 hours.

Air Operations, CBI

• 6 14th Air Force P-40s strafe shipping at Haiphong. 2 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and 4 P-40s attack shipping in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Air Operations, Europe

• 23 Stirlings lay mines in the Kattegat without a loss.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-24s mount a light attack against Manokwari. 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s attack Japanese Army ground troops near Lae.

Air Operations, Solomons

31 AirSols SBDs, 18 TBFs, and 30 fighters attack the runway and antiaircraft batteries at the Ballale airfield.

Eastern Front

Malinovsky launches a powerful attack across the Dniepr at Dnepropetrovsk and Dneprodzerzhinsk. Both towns are taken comparatively easily along with the Dnepropetrovsk Dam because the German forces there have been weakened to meet Konev's attacks and von Kleist's forces have not yet been brought into line from the Crimea. Berlin admits the German position in Russia to be 'extremely grave'.

Fighting at Dnepropetrovsk leaves the XXX Corps shattered, the town falling to the 46th and 8th Guards Armies of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. Dneprozherzinsk also falls. Elements of the 5th Guards Tank Army of the 2nd Ukrainian again reaches Krivoi Rog but heavy rain impedes the advance.

Italy

Allied forces are directd to press offensive actions and engage a maximum number of Germans who might be massing for a counteroffensive.

New Guinea

The Japanese have no more forces to throw into the attack and begin to withdraw to their strongpint of Sattleberg, north of Finschhafen.

North Sea

The British minesweeping trawler William Stephen is sunk by German motor torpedo boat S-74 off Cromer. In return, British motor gunboats MGB-607 and MGB-603 sink S-63 and S-88.

Occupied Burma

The Burma-Siam Railway ('Death Railway') is completed by Allied PoWs and native coolies. The Japanese project to build a track through dense jungle forests is achieved at tremendous human cost. A fifth of the 61,000 Allied prisoners on the project die as a result of accidents, abuse, disease and starvation. This is the largest of Japan's many projects across Asia. The Japanese captors show complete indifference to the sufferings of their captives. Despite the massive construction project, the railway delivers much less capacity than originally intended.

Pacific

US Vice-Adm Spruance issues his first plan for Operation GALVANIC, the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.

Scenes from October 25, 1943

Russian Infantry in Battle on the Banks of River Dnieper

Gun crew with their Ordnance QF 17-pounder anti-tank gun of the 57th Battery, 1st Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, near Campobasso, Italy, 25 October 1943.

Gun Crew with 17-pounder Anti-tank Gun

Italy. Campania. Naples. American troops during the liberation of Naples. October 1943. (Photographer: Robert Capa)

Americans during Liberation of Naples