Admiralty Islands

A final elaborate US attack by US Cavalry units supported by aircraft, artillery, tanks, bazookas and flame-throwers on Manus crushes most of the remaining Japanese forces. On Los Negros too, only scattered groups and individuals fight on.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

V Fighter Command P-40s attack a Japanese Army headquarters in the Cape Hoskins area.

Air Operations, CBI

• 8 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack supply dumps at Mogaung. More than 50 10th Air Force A-31s attack artillery batteries and occupied villages around Homalin and Kalewa. 12 P-40 fighter-bombers attack the Kamaing area.
• 5 Japanese bombers and 30 fighters attack Allied airfields at Anisakan, Chittagong (India), and Cox’s Bazaar (India).
• 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s down 7 Japanese fighters over the airfield at Anisakan at 1000 hours.

• 6 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack a motor pool and fuel dump at Mangshih.

Air Operations, Europe

• 192 aircraft including 92 Halifaxes, 47 Lancasters, 37 Stirlings and 16 Mosquitos attack the railway yards at Aulnoye, France.
• There are no losses.

• 22 Lancasters of No. 5 Group are sent to the aircraft engine factory at Lyons, 10 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin and 2 to Hamm, 14 Stirlings lay mines from Brittany to the Frisians, and there are 7 Serrate patrols and 5 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, Japan

2 28th Composite Bomb Group B-25s attack targets on Onnekotan Island.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-24s attack targets in the Babo-Urarom area. More than 100 B-25s and A-20s attack numerous targets in the Wewak area. A-20s attack Bunabun. Also, 5th Air Force reconnaissance aircraft complete photographic coverage of Hollandia-area airfields.
• The 417th Light Bomb Group, in A-20s, makes its combat debut.

Burma

US and Chinese forces capture Shaduzup in the Mogaung Valley.

Eastern Front

Forces of 1st Ukraine Front take Proskurov, now Khmelnitski, on the southern Bug, northwest of Vinnitsa. The Red Army has already penetrated into Galicia. Gen Hans Hube, connanding 1st Pzr Army is not obeying von Manstein's orders to attack west to prevent encirclement resulting from the Soviet gains at Proskurov and to the southwest.

Heavy fighting rages at Tarnopol. The 1st Guards Army overruns the Zagrobela suburb west of the Seret River.

Manstein and Kleist fly to Berlin for a meeting with Hitler. Talks are cordial, but privately Hitler is angered by the fact that Army Groups South and A have retreated before the Russian offensive.

Mediterranean

The British destroyer Inglefield is sunk by a German glider bomb off Anzio with the loss of 35 of her crew. 157 are rescued.

New Guinea

Japanese air force headquarters in New Guinea are transferred from Wewak to Hollandia.

Pacific

The Japanese submarine chaser No. 54 is sunk by the US submarine Pollack (SS-180) north of the Bonin Islands.

Images from March 25, 1944

USS Oyster Bay Tending PT Boats in Seeadler Harbor, Admiralty Islands, 25 March 1944

One of the First Panthers Examined by the Western Allies was this Panther Ausf. A, Captured in Running Condition by French Forces in Italy, 25 March 1944

First Panther Examined by the Western Allies

25 Pounder from 5th New Zealand Field Regiment behind Monte Trocchio

Panther ‘823’ of the 5th SS Wiking Division covers the progression of Panzergrenadiers in the spring of 1944

Covering Movement of Panzergrenadiers