July 25th, 1942 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The Allies agree to invade North Africa (Operation Torch) rather than open a second front in Europe.
Escort Group C3 (HMCS Saguenay, Skeena, Galt, Sackville, Wetaskiwin and Louisburg depart Londonderry to escort Convoy ON 115.
U.S.S.R.: The German Army Group A completes the capture of Rostov, USSR.German troops occupy Novocherkassk.
Moscow: Soon after the 32,000-strong Second Soviet Assault Army surrendered to the Germans east of Leningrad, a Russian peasant came to German intelligence officers with an intriguing piece of information. The commander-in-chief of the Assault Army, General Andrei Vlasov, awarded the Order of the Red Banner by Stalin as one of the saviours of Moscow, wished to join the fight against Communism.
Vlasov, quietly efficient and unassuming, has impressed his interrogators. He is, however, only the latest of thousands of Red Army men, many of them senior officers, who have given up the fight for the Red Army. The 436th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Major I. N. Kononov, a Cossack, has offered its services to the Germans.
Hitler's orders are that no Slav Untermensch [subhuman] can be allowed to carry arms. But German generals in the field have other ideas. They have been using ex-Red Army men as auxiliaries, and many have been in action against their former comrades.
Now it is being put about that Cossacks are not, after all, Slavs, but a Germanic people. Hitler has enthusiastically accepted this fable. The mass defections are a direct consequence of Stalin's liquidation of thousands of senior Red Army officers in the years of the great purges.
EGYPT: Aircraft of the USAAF 344th and 2 HQ aircraft arrive.
PACIFIC: Daily search and photographic reconnaissance missions by USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-26 Marauders and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Hudsons over the southern Solomon Islands are begun from New Caledonia Island. USMC photographers using USN cameras often fly on these missions.
NEW GUINEA: USAAF B-25 Mitchells and P-39Airacobras pound barges and concentrations at
Gona and Japanese troops on the Gona and Kokoda trails advancing towards Port Moresby;
Japanese forces push to Oivi, within 6 miles (9.7 km) of Kokoda.