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http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/4/25.htm

May 25th, 1945 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Churchill asks all Allied commanders who had received information through “Ultra” to reveal neither the information nor its source.

Submarine HMS Truncheon commissioned.

Frigate HMCS Monnow departed Londonderry for Sheerness.

JAPAN: The USAAF’s Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands flies Mission 183: During the night of 25/26 May, 464 B-29 Superfortresses bomb the urban area of Tokyo immediately south of the Imperial Palace just north of that bombed on 23/24 May, including financial, commercial, and governmental districts as well as factories and homes; six others bomb targets of opportunity; they claim 19 Japanese fighters; 26 B-29s are lost on this mission, the highest single-day loss of B-29s in World War II. A total of 3,262 tons of incendiaries are dropped and the resulting fires destroy 16.8 sq mi (43.5 sq km), the greatest area wiped out in any single Tokyo raid.

Mines previously laid by B-29s off Japan sink a Japanese cargo vessel and a merchant tanker.

Off Okinawa, kamikazes sink two U.S. Navy vessels and damage seven others.

- The high-speed transport USS Bates (APD-47, ex-DE-68) is sunk. The ship is attacked by three aircraft at 1115 hours; the first plane dropped a bomb, scoring a near miss which ruptured the starboard hull of the ship, and then crashed into the starboard side of the fantail. The second plane, almost simultaneously, made a suicide hit on the pilothouse. Shortly thereafter the third plane made a bombing run scoring a near miss amidships, portside, rupturing the hull. Twenty-one of her crew were either dead or missing from the attacks. The crew abandoned ship and at 1923, the still burning Bates capsized and sank.

- The medium landing ship LSM-135 is also sunk.

- During the night, the destroyer USS Guest (DD-472) is attacked by a kamikaze which glanced off her mast and crashed alongside causing minor damage.

- At 0905 hours, the destroyer USS Stormes (DD-780) is struck by a kamikaze which crashes into the aft torpedo mount and its bomb explodes in the magazine under her number three 5-inch mount. By noon, repair parties had extinguished the fires and plugged the holes. Twenty-one members of the crew were killed and 15 injured.

- The destroyer escort USS O’Neill (DE-188) is hit by a kamikaze which kills two and wounds 17.

- The high-speed transport USS Barry (APD-29, ex-DD-248) is struck by a kamikaze below her bridge. Twenty-eight of the crew are wounded by shrapnel. The explosion of the plane’s gasoline tanks and bomb ignited fuel oil escaping from ruptured tanks and the fire threatens the forward magazine which could not be reached to flood. The abandon ship order is given at 1340 hours and all hands take to the boats. By 1500 hours the water had risen until the forward magazine was covered, minimizing the danger of explosion. A skeleton crew, together with parties from two other ships, reboard Barry and the last fires were extinguished at 0630 hours the next day and she is towed to the anchorage at Kerama Retto.

- The high-speed transport USS Roper (APD-20, ex-DD-147) is struck by a kamikaze and is damaged.

- The high-speed minesweeper USS Butler (DMS-29, ex-DD-636) is struck by bombs from a suicide plane which explode under Butler’s keel, killing nine men and blowing out steam lines and flooding the forward fire room causing the loss of all steam and electric power. Power is regained and she proceeds to Kerama Retto tomorrow for temporary repairs.

- The minesweeper USS Spectacle (AM-305) is struck by a diving kamikaze at 0805 hours; the aircraft strikes the ship under her port 40-millimeter gun tub, causing extensive damage and blowing many of her crew overboard. Her rudder is jammed so she drops anchor to avoid running over her men in the water. Spectacle’s losses were: eleven killed outright, four who died of wounds, six wounded, and 14 missing in action. She is towed to Ie Shima for temporary repairs.

A Japanese plane torpedoes a U.S. freighter in Buckner Bay killer six merchant sailors and a stevedore.

NORTH BORNEO: Pte Leslie Thomas Starcevich (1918-89), Australian Military Forces, silenced two machine guns holding up his men, repeating the feat later. (Victoria Cross)

AUSTRALIA: Destroyer HMAS Bataan commissioned.

CANADA: Tug HMCS Glendon commissioned Vancouver, British Columbia.

Light cruiser HMCS Ontario completed refit to trials and work-ups.

U.S.A.: The motion picture “The Body Snatcher” is released in the U.S. Based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story, the film is directed by Robert Wise and stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The plot involves a renowned surgeon and teacher of anatomy in Edinburgh who pays a cabman, to clandestinely bring him exhumed bodies of the recently deceased for classroom demonstration purposes. With cemeteries being increasingly guarded, the cabman resorts to murder to provide the doctor with fresh bodies. This was the last film in which Karloff and Lugosi appeared in together.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, after extensive deliberation, issued to General MacArthur, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and Army Air Force General Henry Arnold, the top secret directive to proceed with the invasion of Kyushu. The target date was after the typhoon season.

Submarine USS Chopper commissioned.

Red Cross knitting for war effort

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA - Despite a shortage of wool, the knitting department of the upper Pinellas Red Cross completed a large number of garments last year.

These garments included 296 pairs of walking toe cast socks, 33 turtleneck sweaters, 11 afghans, 60 V-neck sweaters, 113 pairs olive drab socks, 109 pair gray socks for hospital use and 560 washcloths, according to Mrs. William Kuntz, chairman.

The knitting department at the production center in City Park will remain open all summer if the wool supply warrants.

(North Pinellas History is compiled by Times staff writer Theresa Blackwell. She can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com )