March 25th, 1940 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Reconnaissance - Borkum - Wanne - Eickel - Thionville - Ruhr. 102 Sqn. Two aircraft. Heavy opposition over the Ruhr. One aircraft damaged by Flak, crew unhurt. 51 Sq. (K9024) Undershot at Dishforth, crew safe, 102 Sq. N1379 overshot at Dishforth, crew unhurt.London: Crowds flock to the West End, ignoring the blackout and celebrate the Easter holiday. People were besieging restaurants and bars and filling the streets with torch light. By 5pm it was impossible to get a seat for any West End show, queues outside the cinemas were 100 yards long. Impromptu sing-songs began at main line railway stations where troops and evacuees were flocking back from leave or from their weekend in town. A special train took civil servants back to their exiled ministries in Blackpool.
ITALY: Rome: The Hungarian Premier, Count Paul Teleki, has lengthy talks with Count Ciano.
FINLAND: The SFK is disbanded. Marshal Mannerheim promotes General Linder to the rank of ratsuväenkenraali (General of Cavalry) in the Finnish Army. This was a very rare honour. When the Winter War started there were no full generals in active service in the Finnish Army (nor were in Air Force and there were not a single admiral in the Navy), and Linder was the first promoted to the rank since the beginning of the war. (203)