25 January 1944

BARENTS SEA: SS Fort Bellingham, Canadian-owned, British-registered merchantman torpedoed and sunk in position 73.25N, 025.10E, by U-360, Kptlt Klaus Becker, CO, and U-957, OLtzS Gerhard Schaar, Knights Cross, CO. Thirty-nine members of her crew were lost. Fort Bellingham was proceeding to the Kola Inlet, Russia, as part of the 20-ship Convoy JW-56A. She and 2 other ships were sunk from this convoy, which arrived on 28 Jan 44. In total, the 3 ships' cargoes amounted to 21,650 tons of military stores.

At 1833, destroyer HMS Obdurate was damaged by a Gnat from U-360 while escorting the convoy JW-56A to North Russia. The U-boat missed the damaged destroyer with a coup de grâce at 1844.

At 2012, U-278 fired a spread of three FAT torpedoes at Convoy JW-56A in snow squalls about 115 miles from the North Cape and claimed the sinking of two ships with 7000 tons each after hearing two detonations and sinking noises. In fact, both torpedoes hit SS Penelope Barker in station #12 on the port side. One struck in the #5 hold, blew off the hatch cover and beams, destroyed the port lifeboats and knocked the port AA gun out of its tub. The other hit in the engine room, toppled the stack, damaged the bridge area and engine compartment. The eight officers, 35 crewmen, 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and one passenger (a Royal Navy doctor, who was on board to treating one of the armed guard for appendicitis) began to abandon ship in two lifeboats, but the ship sank by the stern within ten minutes so that some men were forced to jump overboard. Some time before the ship sank the armed guard officer and the doctor went below to assist trapped seamen, both men were lost. In all, one officer, nine crewmen, five armed guards and the passenger were lost. The survivors were picked up 40 minutes later by HMS Savage and taken to Murmansk. The Penelope Barker had left New York in convoy HX-270, arriving at Loch Ewe on 26 Dec 1943. She had left Loch Ewe on 12 Jan 1944 for Iceland, where she arrived seven days later.

U.S.S.R.: The Red Army captures the railway junction at Krasnogvardeisk, south-west of Leningrad.

The unescorted SS Fort la Maune was struck by one torpedo from U-188 and sunk ESE of Socotra Island. The master, 48 crewmembers and seven gunners landed on the Arabian coast and were brought by corvette HMS Nigella to Aden, arriving on 6 Feb 1944. Fort La Maune was a North Sands-class freighter built by North Van Ship Repair Ltd., at North Vancouver, BC She was completed in Oct 42. Fort La Maune was one of 90 North Sands-class freighters built in Canada for American order under the Hyde Park Declaration and subsequently provided to Great Britain under the Lend-Lease Agreement. Hain Steamship Co., Ltd., of London managed the ship for the British government. Twenty-two of these ships were sunk and another seven were damaged. The cargo of a 10,000-ton ship equated to the carrying capacity of 300 train cars. One voyage produced enough revenue to pay for the ship. A single cargo could contain: enough food stuff to feed 225,000 people in the U.K. for a week; enough military vehicles to equip one infantry battalion; enough bombs to load 950 medium or 225 heavy bombers; or enough aluminum to built 740 fighters, plus, carried as deck cargo: two medium bomber aircraft; and sufficient lumber to build 94 four-bedroom houses. Canadian shipyards built 354 10,000-ton cargo ships, resulting in Canada having the world’s fourth largest merchant fleet at the end of the war. The oft-repeated claim is made that Canada possessed the third largest navy by war's end but the RCN was mainly comprised of small escort vessels, many of which were of dubious value. In terms of total tonnage and combat capability, the RCN probably did not rank in the top ten navies of the world. In contrast, the Canadian merchant fleet consisted of large freighters and tankers.

GILBERT ISLANDS: 26th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) with B-24's moved from Nukufetau to Tarawa and then to Kwajalein on 14 Apr 44.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Eighty-three Japanese planes and numerous ships are destroyed by an Allied raid on Rabaul.

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Wentworth arrived Halifax, Nova Scotia from builder Esquimalt, British Columbia.

Destroyer escorts USS Edwin A Howard and Frybarger launched.

Destroyer escort USS Forster commissioned.

Destroyer minelayer USS J William Ditter laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Jaccard laid down.

Anti-Aircraft cruiser USS Flint launched.

Destroyer USS Taussig launched.