March 25th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Grantham: The government has its first by-election defeat since September 1939.
FRANCE: Major Cecil P Lessig
becomes the first USAAF pilot to fly a mission over France in World War II.
Flying a Spitfire Mk. VB with RAF No. 64 Squadron from Hornchurch, Essex,
England, Lessig participates in a 36-aircraft fighter sweep that is recalled
when 50 Luftwaffe fighters challenge them.
During the day, nine RAF Bomber Command Bostons, with fighter escort, carry
out accurate bombing at Le Trait shipyard. No Bostons are lost. During the night
of the 25th/26th, 26 of 27 aircraft dispatched bomb the port area at St. Nazaire,
38 aircraft dispatched lay mines off Lorient, 30 aircraft drop leaflets over
France, and one bomber hits Lannion Airfield.
NETHERLANDS: One RAF Bomber Command aircraft dispatched on the night raid on Essen, Germany, bombs Haamstede Airfield.
GERMANY: During the night, RAF
Bomber Command dispatches 254 aircraft, 192
Wellingtons, 26 Stirlings, 20
Manchesters, 9 Hampdens, 7 Lancasters, to attack Essen, the largest force sent
to one target so far; 190 aircrew claim they hit the target many claiming hits
on the Krupps works, but bombing photographs showed that much of the effort was
drawn off by the decoy fire site at Rheinberg, 18 miles (29 kilometres) west of
Essen. Essen's report says that only nine high-explosive bombs, 700 incendiaries
and 1,627 leaflets were dropped there. One house was destroyed and two seriously
damaged. Five people were killed and 11 injured.. Nine aircraft, five
Manchesters (out of the 20 dispatched), three Wellingtons, and a Hampden, are
lost. Other targets bombed include Duisburg (by seven aircraft), Oberhausen (by
two aircraft) while individual aircraft bomb Gladbeck and Hamborn.
BURMA: The Chinese 200th Division
is virtually besieged in Toungoo. Elements of the Temporary 55th Division
(T-55th) of the Chinese 6th Army, arrive north of the town but do not attack.
The Burma I Corps is ordered to concentrate in the Prome-Allanmyo area.
AUSTRALIA: An advanced flight echelon of B-26s assigned to the 22d Bombardment Group (Medium) arrives at Archerfield Airdrome, Brisbane via the Pacific ferry route.
General Douglas
MacArthur">
MacArthur
finally consents to see Lieutenant General George Brett who commands all Allied
air units in Australia. Brett later recalls, “
MacArthur went into a dissertation
on the air forces. It was evident that he had nothing but contempt and criticism
for them. ‘They lack discipline, organization, purposeful intent,’ he said.”
Brett’s assessment is that the key to
MacArthur’s speech is that the Philippine
campaign had been lost-but “through no fault of his.”
Jean
MacArthur goes shopping in Melbourne, Victoria, to buy clothes, and
finds out that most Australians have no idea of what they've been through. The
Myer Emporium salesgirl looks her over, shakes her head sadly, and says, "SSW.
Well, I don't know whether we've got anything." What does SSW mean? "Small-sized
woman. They're hard to fit." Another shopper recognizes Mrs.
MacArthur, and
says, sympathetically, "Won't your clothes soon be arriving from Manila?"
An advance air echelon of the USAAF 22d Bombardment Group (Medium) equipped
with B-26 Marauders arrives at Archefield Airdrome near Brisbane, Queensland,
via the South Pacific ferry route. These are the first B-26s to reach an active
war zone. The ground echelon has been in Australia for a month.
NEW GUINEA: On 21 March, RAAF No. 75 Squadron arrived at Seven Mile Aerodrome at Port Moresby with 17 Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk. IA (= USAAF P-40E) fighters. Today, only seven of the original aircraft are operational.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Three Japanese merchant ships are sunk by U.S. submarines: (1) USS Drum (SS-228) sinks a cargo ship about 120 miles (193 kilometres) south southwest of Tokyo, Japan; (2) USS Pompano (SS-181) sinks a tanker about 70 miles (113 kilometres) northwest of Naha, Okinawa; and (3) USS Tautog (SS-199) sinks a transport about 460 miles (740 kilometres) southeast of Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands.
SOCIETY ISLANDS: The U.S. 162d Infantry of the 41st Infantry Division, arrives at the 14 square mile (36 square kilometer) Bora Bora Island in French Polynesia. Bora Bora Island is about 2,650 miles (6683 kilometres) south southeast of Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.
MIDWAY ISLANDS: Light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49) arrives and disembarks Companies "C" and "D," 2d Marine Raider Battalion, and a 37 mm gun battery of the 3d Defense Battalion.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Japanese submarine HIJMS I-9 launches a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane (later assigned the Allied Code Name “Glen”), to reconnoiter Kiska and Amchitka Islands.
CANADA: British Columbia Security Commission initiates scheme of forcing men to road camps and women and children to "ghost town" detention camps.
U.S.A.: The 77th Infantry Division of the United States Army is activated at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. (Marc James Small)
GULF OF MEXICO: An unarmed U.S.
freighter is torpedoed and shelled by German submarine
U-103 about 75 miles (121
kilometres) west northwest of Jamaica, and abandoned. U-103 surfaces and her
commanding officer asks the Americans for the name and speed of their ship, and
if all of her men have been accounted for, before he provides them with
cigarettes. The freighter sinks early the following morning, after which time
the U-boat departs.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The destroyer USS Blakely
(DD-150) is torpedoed by German submarine
U-156 off Martinique, French
West Indies. The explosion carries away 60 feet (18 meters) of her bow. Six men
are killed and 21 wounded, but the ship makes it to Port de France, Martinique,
for emergency repairs.
German planes attack convoy PQ 16 as it proceeds toward Murmansk, USSR,
from Reykjavik, Iceland; an armed U.S. freighter is damaged by near-misses and
she leaves the convoy under tow of British trawler HMS Northern Spray.