Air Operations, Carolines

• 5th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack targets on Koror Isand in the Palau Islands.
• 307th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack small ships in the harbor at Malakal in the Palau Islands.
• A 30th Heavy Bomb Group B-24 based at Saipan attacks the Yap Atoll.
• One 307th Group B-24 is shot down by Japanese Navy fighters, and 2 B-24s are lost on the return flight when they collide in bad weather.
• During the night, 868th Heavy Bomb Squadron SB-24s attack Japanese airfields and defenses in the Palau Islands.

Air Operations, CBI

• 9 10th Air Force B-25s attack Kondangyi.
• 4 10th Air Force P-47s attack a bridge near Bhamo.
• 2 P-51s attack a factory at Hopin.
• P-51s organized into 6 separate flights attack Kyagyigon and Pinlon.
• 32 P-51s support Allied ground forces at Ingyingon and along the Hsai-hkao and Nansang rivers.

• 3 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the port area at Kowloon.
• 4 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 21 14th Air Force P-40s attack troops and buildings in and near Anjen.
• 3 B-25s and 12 P-40s attack troops and buildings in and around Yangtien.
• 2 B-25s attack the airfield at Leiyang.
• 2 B-25s attack Nanyo.
• 40 P-51s and P-40s attack numerous targets in east-central and southeastern China, and northern French Indochina.
• 5th CACW Fighter Group P-40s down 3 Ki-44 'Tojo' fighters in an engagement near Chenghsien between 1110 and 1130 hours.

Air Operations, East Indies

• V Bomber Command B-24s attack the Lolobata airfield on Halmahera.
• B-25s attack shipping in Lembeh Strait off Celebes.
• B-25s attack shipping in the Lesser Sunda Islands.

Air Operations, Europe

• 140 Halifaxes, 16 Lancasters and 5 Mosquitos attack 5 launch or storage sites in the Pas de Calais. The results are varied.
• 2 Halifaxes and 1 Lancaster are lost.

• 412 Lancasters of Nos. 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups are sent to hit the Opel motor factory at Rüsselsreim. The Pathfinder marking is accurate and the raid is over in 10 minutes. An official German report says that the forge and the gearbox assembly departments were put out of action for several weeks, but 90 per cent of the machine tools in other departments escaped damage. The assembly line and part of the pressworks were able to recommence work 2 days later and truck assembly was unaffected because of considerable stocks of ready-made parts.
• 15 Lancasters are lost.
• 190 Lancasters and 6 Mosquitos are sent to Darmstadt which has not been seriously attacked by Bomber Command to this point in the war. The 'No. 5 Group method' raid is a failure. The Master Bomber has to return early and his 2 deputies are shot down. The flares are dropped too far west and the low-level Mosquito marker aircraft can not locate the target. 95 buildings are hit and 8 people are killed by the few bombs that do hit Darmstadt. 33 of the Lancasters bomb other targets including at least 13 planes which join in the successful raid on nearby Rüsselsreim.
• 7 Lancasters are lost.
• 334 aircraft including 284 Halifaxes, 32 Lancasters and 18 Mosquitos of Nos. 4, 6 and 8 Groups attack 8 coastal battery positions near Brest. Most of the bombing is accurate.
• 1 Halifax and 1 Lancaster are lost.

The harbor at Brest was the subject of many attacks by Bomber Command during this month, but the enemy also attempted to destroy as much of the harbor as possible before being forced to leave in an effort to make it unusable for Allied shipping.

The Harbor at Brest

Another view of the enemy's attempts to render Brest unusable.

The Harbor at Brest

• Support and 2 Mosquitos are on preliminary reconnaissance of targets, 182 training craft make a diversionary sweep over the North Sea, 36 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin and 22 more to 5 other targets, 6 Halifaxes lay mines off La Pallice, 6 aircraft are on Resistance operations, and there are 68 Mosquito patrols and 47 RCM sorties. This is the first time No. 100 Group sent out more than 100 aircraft.
• 1 RCM fortress is lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command A-20s and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack Otawiri, Sagan, and the airfield at Babo.
• P-39s attack Japanese Army ground troops near But.
• Japanese aircraft mount their first attack against US forces in the Vogelkop Peninsula area.

Air Operations, Volcano Islands

30th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s based on Saipan attack Iwo Jima.

Atlantic

The British battleship Warspite bombards Brest.

Balkans

The German forces in Greece and the Aegean are regrouped as Army Group E, under Gen Alexander Löhr, with headquarters at Thessaloniki. But, operationally, they are under the southeastern sector commanded by Field-Marshal Maximilian von Weichs, the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group F, with headquarters at Belgrade. Following the defection of Rumania and the fall of Bulgaria, now seen as inevitable, the Aegean islands are going to lose some of their strategic and political value as a guarantee against Turkish hostility. Hitler, yielding for once to pressure from the military, agrees to their evacuation. The withdrawal is to take place on September 2. The Peloponnese is to be evacuated at the same time, except for Athens and the port of Piraeus, the possession of which is necessary until the evacuation of the Aegean islands is over.

Diplomatic Relations

Rumania declares war on Germany.

Following a Luftwaffe air raid, the Romanian Government declares war on Germany and orders all German troops to be disarmed and imprisoned. This threatens 315,000 German troops in Greece, Yugoslavia and in the Aegean.

The Finns begin peace negotiations with the Russians.

The Finnish Government agrees armistice terms with Moscow, conditional on German forces leaving Finnish territory by September 15.

Agreements are signed between Britain, France and the US concerning civil administration of liberated territory.

Eastern Front

In Estonia troops of the 3rd Baltic Front under Ivan I. Maslennikov take Tartu, an important position in the German defense lines between the Velikaya River in the east and the stronger Sigulda line prepared around Riga.

Tartu falls, to the Soviet 67th Army.

Heavy fighting continues around Warsaw as the Soviet 47th Army attacks the IV SS Panzer Corps.

German forces in the Leovo Pocket fail to break out, as does Group Meith at Husi.[MORE]

Italy

8th Army begins a new offensive against the 'Gothic' Line over the River Metauro on the Adriatic sector. The German defenders, Gen Traugott Herr's LXXVI Pzr Corps are caught by surprise and only put up a patchy defense. Good progress is made by the offensive. The V British Corps, the Polish Corps and I Canadian Corps provide the attacking units.

New Guinea

Gen Walter Krueger announces officially that operations in the Aitape beachhead area are completed. In the course of the bitter fighting the Allies have lost 3,000 killed, wounded and missing. The Japanese have lost 8,821 dead and 98 prisoners. The Japanese 18th Army has thus lost more the 2 divisions in their efforts to recapture the beachhead, and by now it is no longer a serious threat to the Americans and Australians.

In the northwest of the Vogelkop peninsula, now called Djazirah Doberai, the Japanese carry out their first daylight air raid since the day of the landing.

Northern France

At 7:00a.m. Gen Leclerc's French 2nd Arm Div enters Paris from the southwest, and half an hour later the US 4th Div moves toward the center of the city from the south. The German commander Gen Dietrich von Choltitz disobeys orders to fight fiercely for the city which includes the mining of public building, museums and bridges. Rather than engage in a protracted but useless resistance, at 3:15p.m. he surrenders to the French Gen Leclerc.

While the 15th Div of the British XII Corps prepares to cross the Seine opposite Louviers, south of Rouen, the British 43rd Div establishes a bridgehead across the river at Vernon and the Canadians take Elbeuf.

At 1:00p.m., 3 divisions of the American VIII Corps, the 2nd, 80th and 90th, begin the offensive against Brest, in Brittany, after an hour-long aerial bombardment. The garrison, formed from units of the XXV Corps, is not giving up without a fight. The battleship Warspite shells targets in the town.

Pacific

The Japanese destroyer Yunagi is sunk by the US submarine Picuda (SS-382) in the Philippine Islands area.

Southern France

Avignon is taken by the US 3rd Div. The majority of Gen Friedrich Wiese's 19th Army is now withdrawing rapidly northward up the Rhône valley. The fighting in Marseilles and Toulon continues, however.

Images from August 25, 1944

Near the Opera, German officers taken prisoner at the nearby Kommandantur. Paris. 25 August 1944. (Cartier-Bresson)

Taking Prisoners in Paris

General De Gaulle with General Leclerc and other French officers at Montparnasse railway station in Paris, 25 August 1944

French Officers at Montparnasse

Brimming with anger, a French man attacks a German soldier being marched through the streets of Paris following his capture by members of the French Resistance. After the entry of the French 2nd Armored Division of the Free French Forces and the US Third Army, numerous pockets of German snipers who refused to surrender had to be rooted out in street fighting. Paris, Île-de-France, France. 25 August 1944. (Image by Robert Capa)

Civilian Anger

Parisians Celebrate Their Liberation, 25 August 1944

German POWs Are Led through the Streets of Paris

General De Gaulle Leads Paris in a Victory Parade, 25 August 1944

US 4th Infantry Div Jeep Passes through Paris, 25 August 1944

Paris Was Liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division, 25 August 1944

General de Gaulle and his entourage proudly stroll down the Champs Élysées to Notre Dame Cathedral for a Te Deum ceremony following the city's liberation, 25 August 1944

General de Gaulle and His Entourage

German high-ranking officers at the Hôtel Majestic, headquarters for the Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich, the German High Military Command in France. They requested to be made prisoners only by the military and surrendered to Battalion Chief Jacques Massu of the 2e DB

HQ of the German High Military Command in France

Three French boys looking at a knocked-out German Panther tank in the Falaise pocket, 25 August 1944

Looking at a Knocked-out German Tank

Ernest Hemingway in Paris, Talking to 4ID officers, 25 August 1944