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July 25th, 1943 (SUNDAY

UNITED KINGDOM: Both the US VIII Air Support Command and the VIII Bomber Command fly missions.

VIII Air Support Command Mission Number 3: 18 B-26B Marauders are dispatched against the coke ovens at Ghent, Belgium; 13 hit the target at 1458 hours.

VIII Bomber Command Mission Number 76: Three locations in Germany are targeted; 19 heavy bombers are lost, mostly to effective formation attacks by German fighters. The raid on Hamburg is part of six Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) missions against that port city and follows a raid of the previous night during which nearly 750 Royal Air Force (RAF) heavy bombers did tremendous damage to the target. The three targets are:

1. 123 B-17s are dispatched against the diesel engine works at Hamburg but due to cloud cover, 100 hit the shipyard at 1630-1645 hours; they claim 38-6-27 Luftwaffe aircraft; 15 B-17's are lost.

2. 59 B-17s are dispatched against the Kiel Shipyard but return because of cloud cover.

3. 141 B-17s are dispatched against the aviation industry at Warnemunde; 118 hit the Kiel Shipyard at 1630-1700 hours; they claim 6-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; 4 B-17's are lost.

GERMANY: Hamburg was the target of the RAF overnight with 2300 tons of bombs. The USAAF follows today with daylight raids. This raid and those on Hamburg which follow tomorrow and the next 2 nights introduce the use of "Window", strips of metal foil, to confuse the German radar.

Rastenburg: Hitler orders mass production of rockets for attacks on London to avenge today's Hamburg bombing.

ITALY, Rome: Mussolini meets with the King and is relieved of his offices. He is arrested after the meeting. Marshal Pietro Badoglio is chosen by the King to form a new government and command the military.
Benito Mussolini, the Fascist who led his country into a disastrous war, was stripped of his office today by King Vittorio Emmanuel III after being outvoted by his former supporters on the Fascist Grand Council, following a two-day meeting. The king has taken command of the armed forces and appointed an anti-Fascist, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, as prime minister. The heavy-jowled Mussolini arrived back from his meeting with Hitler to find Rome bombed and rebellion in the air. He did not expect to be placed under armed guard after making a courtesy visit to the palace. The king was part of a far larger conspiracy to depose the dictator. Mussolini was content to ignore his rubber-stamp council; but he dared not ignore the king.

The latter-day Caesar is under arrest tonight, his whereabouts unknown. Before the palace guard took him away in an ambulance, the king told him: "My dear Duce ... my soldiers don't want to fight anymore ... at this moment, you are the most hated man in Italy."

Badoglio has said: "The war continues." However, with anti-war demonstrations sweeping through the industrial north and the Allies storming Sicily in the south, there is little will left for fighting in Italy.

The heavy bombing of Rome and other major cities was the last straw. The people are angry. The Fascists who claimed "Viva il Duce!" in their millions are disillusioned. Il Duce promised them victories; they see only defeats in East Africa, Albania, Greece, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Ordinary Italians fear the inevitable invasion of the mainland which will bring war to every town and village. The questions in every mind are: how will Hitler react to the news that he has lost his faithful junior partner? And what will the Allies do?

Resistance is growing on the north coast of Sicily against US forces. The US 9th Divison and the British 78th Division are landed to reinforce Sicily.

The US Seventh Army makes slow progress along the northern coastal road, while the British Eighth Army's 30 Corps takes part in hard fighting in the Agira area.

In the air, Ninth Air Force B-25s bomb docks and shipping at Milazzo and almost 100 P-40s strafe and bomb Milazzo, Taormina, and Catania harbor. Meanwhile, Northwest African Tactical Air Force medium and light bombers, and fighters during night and day raids, attack shipping and docks at Milazzo and in the Santo Stefano di Camastra-Orlando area, and hit roads and motor transport, bridges and armor concentration in the Orlando-Adrano-Troina-Nicosia areas.

U.S.S.R.: Polar Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: MS "T-904" (ex-RT-94 "Zdanov") - mined in Matochkin Shar strait(Sergey Anisimov)(69)

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Units of the 25th Division are added to the 43th and 37th Divisions on New Georgia.
On New Georgia Island, the final push on the Japanese base at Munda opens with a bombardment by 7 destroyers and the heaviest air attack in the South Pacific (SOPAC) Theater to date; 171 B-17s, B-24 Liberators, B-25s, TBF Avengers, and SBD Dauntlesses, covered by 70+ fighters, pound the target thoroughly, dropping more than 145 tons of bombs in little more than a half hour; later in the afternoon 10 B-24s with fighter cover, bomb Bibolo Hill, and 54 SBDs and 53 TBFs dive-bomb gun positions; and later in the day, gun positions northeast of Kindu Village are hit. The 43d and 37th Infantry Divisions open the ground assault against the firmly entrenched enemy.
The Japanese try to hit US forces on Rendova Island and send 30-40 Aichi D3A Navy Type 99 Carrier Bombers, Allied Code Name "Val," and 30 A6M "Zeke" fighters to hit US forces on Rendova Island but Allied fighters shoot down several Zekes (8 claimed) and force the enemy bombers to drop their bombs indiscriminately. This is the last mission flown by Navy F4F Wildcats in the Solomons. 



TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS:  - The Eleventh Air Force dispatches 40 P-40s to fly 7 attack missions, 2 by Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) pilots, against Kiska Island, bombing and strafing North Head AA batteries, the runway, Main Camp, and Little Kiska Island.
 - US Navy Task Groups 16.21 and 16.22 consisting of 2 battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser and 9 destroyers fights the "Battle of the Pips" 90 miles (145 km) south of Kiska. The ships pick up targets on radar and fire 518 14-inch (356 mm) and 487 8-inch (203 mm) shells at the "targets." The only ship that does not fire is the light cruiser USS Santa Fe (CL-60) which has the newest, most modern radar; the only targets her radar picks up are the shells fired by the other ships. Nobody has ever determined what caused the seven pips on the ship's radar.
 - The Japanese rescue force tasked with evacuating the personnel from Kiska, Operation "KE GO," arrives at the standby point, 500 miles (805 km) southwest of Kiska by mid afternoon. They dash in to rescue the garrison. Because of the expenditure of fuel and ammunition fighting the "pips", the UAN's TG 16.21 retires to refuel and rearm leaving the door open to the Japanese.

U.S.A.: Launching of USS Harmon, first ship named for an African-American.

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