November 25th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS Orestes launched.
HS Miaoulis (ex-HMS Modbury) commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: Five RAF Bomber Command bombers lay mines in the Frisian Islands during the night of 25/26 November.
GERMANY:
NORWAY: Five hundred thirty one Jewish women and children are seized and deported from Oslo and Bergen to Auschwitz concentration camp in the suburbs of Oswiecim, Poland . Of the 740 Jews deported from Norway, only 12 survive the war. As many as 930 Norwegian Jews escape into Sweden.
U.S.S.R.: Luftwaffe supply flights into the Stalingrad pocket begin today.
GREECE: A British Special Operations Executive (SOE) team uses 400 pounds (181 kilograms) of plastic explosives to blow up the Gorgopotamos Railway Bridge over the river of the same name. Up to 50 trains a day carrying supplies to support the Axis forces in North Africa rumble over the bridge in central Greece bound for the port of Piraeus. The bridge is located on the Salonika-Athens rail line about 130 miles (209 kilometers) from Athens. Protective cover is provided by two mutually suspicious Greek guerrilla detachments, one made up of E.D.E.S. nationalists and the other of E.L.A.S. Communists. In reprisal, 14 Greek hostages are executed by the Italian occupation forces. Ever since, Communists and rightists have argued about whose guerrillas deserved the greater glory at the bridge and in the war generally.MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
U
class submarine HMS Utmost is depth charged by Italian destroyer Groppo in the
Mediterranean off Marittimo and sunk. There are no survivors. (Alex Gordon)(108)
ASW trawler HMS Leyland sunk in a collision off Gibraltar.
ALGERIA: USAAF Twelfth Air Force Spitfires and P-38 Lightnings fly widespread reconnaissance missions over coastal regions.
LIBYA: USAAF Ninth Air Force P-40s escort minesweepers in the vicinity of Bengasi harbor. During the night of 25/26 November, RAF bombers bomb Tripoli harbor.
TUNISIA: The British First Army attacks toward Tunis. On the north, the 36th Brigade of the 78th Division advances from Djebel Abiod toward Mateur. In the center, Blade Force (British 17/21 Lancers Regimental Group) penetrates Axis positions between Mateur and Tebourba; attached elements of Combat Command B, U.S. 1st Armored Division, raid Djedeida Airfield, 5 miles (8 kilometers) east of Tebourba, destroying 30 planes. The 11th Brigade of the 78th Division recaptures Medjez el Bab.
CHINA: USAAF Tenth Air Force's China Air Task Force B-25 Mitchells and P-40s cripple three freighters on the Pearl River near Canton.
NEW GUINEA: In Papua New Guinea, firm Japanese opposition on the entire front has resulted in a virtual stalemate. Artillery fire is exchanged and patrols are active in some sectors. In the air, USAAF Fifth Air Force P-38 Lightnings hit the airfield at Lae.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Japanese submarine HIJMS I-17 lands 11 tons (10 metric tonnes) of supplies at Kamimbo Bay, Guadalcanal. Submarine missions to supply the beleaguered Japanese garrison on Guadalcanal will continue through the end of November.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The Japanese 18th Army (Lt-Gen Adachi) arrives in the South-West Pacific theatre. (Michael Alexander)
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: After eight months of work, the Alcan Highway is completed.
USAAF Eleventh Air Force aircraft fly reconnaissance is flown over the Semichi Islands and Japanese-held Kiska and Attu Islands.
CANADA: Algerine-class minesweepers HMS Coquette (ex-HMCS Bowmanville), HMS Courier (ex-HMCS Arnprior), HMS Felicity (ex-HMCS Copper Cliff), HMS Flying Fish (ex-HMCS Tillsonburg), HMS Golden Fleece (ex-HMCS Humberstone), HMS Lioness (ex-HMCS Petrolia), HMS Prompt (ex-HMCS Huntsville), HMS Lysander (ex-HMCS Hespeler), HMCS New Liskeard and HMCS Fort Frances ordered from Ontario shipyards.
Minesweeper HMCS Transcona commissioned.
Corvette HMCS Cobourg laid down Midland, Ontario.
U.S.A.: The motion picture Gentleman Jim is released. Directed by Raoul Walsh, this biography of boxer Jim Corbett stars Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, William Frawley, Ward Bond and Arthur Shields.
Santa Fe: The decision was taken today to take over a 50,000-acre site at Los Alamos, in the Jemez mountains in New Mexico, 20 miles from here, to house a secret laboratory for research into the atomic bomb. The site, formerly a boarding school for boys, is on top of a 7,200-foot plateau.
The site was chosen by the director, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, appointed in spite of his left-wing politics. Dr. Oppenheimer says that his two great loves are physics and desert country; now he can enjoy both at once.
During WW II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) produced numerous documents, most commonly known are the Intelligence Bulletins. The Military Intelligence Special Series continues with "Artillery in the Desert." (William L. Howard)
Minesweeper USS Skylark commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: A lookout on U-566 broke his arm and the commander of U-608 was also injured as a result of very bad weather.