Air Operations, Carolines

During the night, 11th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s based in the Marshall Islands attack the Truk Atoll.

Air Operations, Central Pacific

During the night, VII Bomber Command B-24s based at Kwajalein stage through Eniwetok to attack Wake Island.

Air Operations, CBI

• 13 10th Air Force P-47s attack Haungton, Mawlu, and Myintha.

• 11 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Nanking.
• 12 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack barracks at Mangshih.
• 12 B-25s attack Kweiyang.
• 6 B-25s attack the town area and rail facilities at Hengyang.
• 14th Air Force P-51s and P-40s mount nearly 120 effective sorties against numerous targets across broad areas south of the Yangtze River.
• 15 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s transport fuel from India to Kunming, 1 B-24 transports fuel to Liuchow and 1 B-24 transports fuel to Yungning.

Air Operations, East Indies

• FEAF B-24s attack the Kendari airfield on Celebes and the Namlea airfield on Boeroe.
• B-25s attack the Langoan airfield on Celebes.
• V Bomber Command A-20s attack stores and bivouac areas at Kaoe Bay.
• FEAF P-38s attack Boela and Kairatoe.

Air Operations, Europe

• 872 aircraft including 430 Lancasters, 397 Halifaxes and 45 Mosquitos are again sent to bomb defensive positions at Calais. Low cloud is again encountered and only 287 aircraft drop their bombs.
• There are no losses.
• 70 Halifaxes of No. 4 Group start a series of flights to carry petrol in jerricans from England to airfields in Belgium, in order to alleviate the severe fuel shortage being experienced by Allied ground forces. No. 4 Group will fly 435 such sorties during an 8-day period. Each Halifax carries about 165 jerricans, approximately 750 gallons of fuel, on each flight. The total amount of fuel carried during the period is approximately 325,000 gallons, about the same amount of fuel that the Halifaxes themselves consume.
• No aircraft are lost during these operations.

• 5 Hudsons are on Resistance operations and there are 4 RCM sorties.

• 48 Mosquitos are sent to Mannheim and 4 to a chemical factory at Höchst, just west of Frankfurt, and there are 30 Mosquito patrols and 3 RCM sorties.
• 1 Mosquito is lost on the Mannheim raid.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-25s and A-20s attack the airfields at Sagan and Urarom.
• V Fighter Command P-40s attack Kaimana.

Air Operations, Volcano Islands

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

Atlantic

The US minelayer Miantonomah (CM-10) is lost in the Normandy area when it hits a mine.

China

After so much hesitation, and stung by Roosevelt's candid message, Chiang Kai-shek refuses to entrust the operational command of the Chinese Nationalist army to Gen Joseph Stilwell.

Eastern Front

In Estonia the Baltic port of Haapsalu falls to the Russians. In Yugoslavia the Partisan forces take Banja Luka.

Haapsalu falls to the 8th Army. The Germans take around 11,500 men across the straits to the Moonzund Islands.

Tito's partisans capture Banja Luka.

Germany, Home Front

The Allies exhort an estimated 12 million foreign worders and slave laborers in Germany to rise against their tormentors.

Hitler formst the Volkssturm (home guard) to operate under the Nazi Party rather than the military. Himmler and Bormann are to oversee the organization.

Hitler orders the formation of the Volkssturm ('People's Militia') to defend Germany. Men up to 65 are pressed into the last-ditch defense force.

Italy

Although forced back to the north by the massive, unrelenting Allied offensive, the German units of Joachim Lemelsen's 14th Army and Heinrich von Vietinghoff's 10th Army continue to fight back determinedly against the American divisions of Gen Mark Clark, on the west of the front, and Oliver Leese's British divisions in the east. But the position of von Vietinghoff's divisions is becoming more and more critical. He has now no more than 90 battalions of infantry, only 10 of which are more than 400 strong, while at least 38 of them can only deploy some 200 men.

Palaus

The 7th Marines and 321st Inf attack on the left flank to dislodge the Japanese from the northwest part of the island. The 5th Marines also attack along the coast on the right flank. The Americans make some gains in the north of Peleliu on Mount Amiangal after attacks employing tanks and flame throwers.

On Angaur, finding that their raids and their shelling are equally ineffective in the Lake Salome area, the 322nd Inf and the engineers begin to build a road so that they can get at the enemy pocket from the northeast.

Western Front

Troops from British 2nd Army take Helmond and Deurne only a few miles east of Eindhoven. This illustrates well on how narrow a front XXX Corps has been compelled to advance to Arnhem. It is decided to evacuate as many as possible of the surviving Arnhem paratroops across the Rhine in small boats. During the night 2,400 of the 10,000 who landed get away. About 1,100 have been killed and 6,400 are taken prisoner. Some few more are sheltered by Dutch families until the Allies advance again despite dreadful food shortages and the terrible danger of discovery.

On the Channel coast after an intense artillery bombardment the Canadian 3rd Div attacks Calais where the German garrison still holds out.

The Allied landings in the south of France which are still continuing have now contributed 324,000 men to the AEF along with 68,000 vehicles and 490,000 tons of supplies. Much of the supplies for the southern armies along the German border are still coming through Marseilles.

Images from September 25, 1944

A member of the PAN (Partisan Action Netherlands) guides British troops to German positions near Valkenswaard, 25 September 1944

Dutch Guide for British Troops

British paratroops being marched away by their German captors. Some 6,400 of the 10,000 British paratroops who landed at Arnhem were taken prisoner, a further 1,100 had been killed. (German photograph)

Captured British Paratroops

A group of survivors from the Arnhem Operation arriving at Nijmegen after the evacuation and having their first drink. One of them, Captain Jan Linzel (second from left) is a member of the Dutch Royal Navy attached to No 10 Commando

Arnhem Survivors

Captured British Paratroopers Escape

Four British paratroops clamber ashore from a small rowing boat at Nijmegen. They were captured at the Van Limburg Stirum School alongside Arnhem Bridge and taken to a transit camp at Emmerich in Germany, but escaped and found a rowing boat, in which they made their way down the Rhine and into the Waal to Nijmegen and freedom. Left to right: Cpl John Humphreys, Cpl Charles Weir, Lt Dennis Simpson, and Captain Eric Mackay, all of the 1st Para Squadron, Royal Engineers; they are shown here recreating the moment of their arrival at Nijmegen for the camera.

Airborne Troops Taken Prisoner at Arnhem

A German Picture of Men Captured at Arnhem

The shattered hull of the building which served for two days as the Headquarters of the 1st (British) Airborne Division.

Building That Was British HQ

The 384th Bomb Group Mission 198 was also known as Eighth Air Force Mission 644. The Buslee crew flew this mission aboard aircraft 42-39888, 'Hot Nuts'. The primary target was the railroad marshaling yards in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany.

September 25, 1944 – 384th BG Mission 198