http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/oct40/f25oct40.htm
Italian bombers over Britain
Friday, October 25, 1940 www.onwar.com
Over Britain... During the day, formations of high-flying German Me109 fighter-bombers make several attempts to raid London, however, very few penetrate the RAF fighter screen. Heavy casualties are reported when a loaded tramcars are hit. At dusk, German He111 bombers make a surprise raid on Montrose airfield in Scotland. During the night, London is attacked by about 150 German aircraft. Also, the Italian expeditionary air corps (Corpo Aereo Italiano), operating from bases in Belgium, is engaged for the first time in a raid on Harwich. Of 16 Fiat bombers sent on the mission, 3 are lost. Limited damage is reported.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 421 October 25, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 108. Overnight, while RAF bombs Hamburg and Berlin causing considerable casualties, 16 Italian Fiat BR20M bombers of the Corpo Aereo Italiano bomb Felixstowe and Harwich from bases in Belgium (1 crashes on take off, 2 others get lost on the return flight and crash). During the day, clouds lift and visibility improves. Luftwaffe steps up activity, with increased reconnaissance flights and patrols in the English Channel. 4 groups of 50-200 Messerschmitt Bf109s sweep over Kent and of up to 30 fighters reach London. However, there is little damage to airfields or towns, including London. Germans lose 14 Bf109s and 10 RAF fighters are shot down (3 pilots killed). Minesweeping trawler HMT Lord Inchcape hits a mine and sinks off Plymouth. At dusk, He111 bombers raid Montrose airfield, Scotland. Overnight, London and Birmingham are the main targets, but Pembroke, Cardiff and Liverpool and the Midlands are also bombed. A German bomber is shot down by 219 Squadron in the English Channel near Brighton.
3 RAF Lockheed Hudson bombers attack U-46 in the Atlantic, wounding Matrosengefreiter (Able Seaman) Plaep who dies next day.
British gunboat HMS Aphis bombards Italian troops 15 miles East of the Italian garrison at Sidi Barrani, Egypt.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/25.htm
October 25th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe attacks the airfield at Montrose (Scotland). Last night the Germans reluctantly allow the Italian Expeditionary Force (based in Belgium) to join in the bombing of Harwich, but with dismal results.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 20; RAF, 10.
RAF Bomber Command: Heavy raids on Berlin and Hamburg.
London: The Belgian Prime Minister, Hubert Pierlot, and his Foreign Minister, Paul-Henri Spaak, have arrived in London after fleeing from Vichy France and escaping from arrest in Spain.
After the armistice, Pierlot and Spaak stayed on in France to maintain diplomatic links with the Vichy Regime. But Vichy, under German orders, broke off relations. The two Belgians spent two nights in a field between the French and Spanish borders before being admitted to Spain, there to find themselves under arrest.
Their chance for freedom came on 18 October. Spanish guards who had been ordered to keep the Belgians under strict surveillance in a Barcelona hotel, slipped up when they left their prisoners - who had promised faithfully not to try to escape - in order to watch an important football match. As soon as the game started, Spaak and Pierlot sneaked out of the hotel in a van supplied by the Belgian consulate. For 24 hours they hid underneath the driver’s seat; finally, exhausted but relieved, they arrived at Lisbon. Yesterday a British seaplane took them to Bournemouth. They will now start to co-ordinate Belgian efforts to resist the Nazi occupation and, more importantly, to help the British war machine.
London: Churchill to Roosevelt:
...There seems to be a desperate struggle going on between Petain and Laval. If the French fleet and
French bases on the African shore are betrayed to Germany our task will become vastly more difficult and your dangers will grow. I have a feeling that things are hanging in the balance at Vichy. .... a message to him [Petain] from yourself would greatly strengthen his position...
Minesweeper HMS Burnie launched.
Destroyer USS Wickes recommissioned as HMS Montgomery; part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. (Dave Shirlaw)
VICHY FRANCE: Baudouin (Acting as Foreign Minister with responsibility for non-Axis powers , i.e. neutrals and Great Britain through intermediaries and third states) resigns over Laval’s ‘coup’ in bringing about the Montoire Petain-Hitler meeting; Pierre Laval, who was already responsible for relations with Axis powers, becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs.
CANADA:
Corvette HMCS Morden laid down Port Arthur, Ontario.
Corvette HMCS Sherbrooke launched Sorel, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: Inglewood, California: The North-American NA-73, the prototype P-51 (Mustang), makes its maiden flight.
Washington: Roosevelt to Churchill:
...I have instructed the American Charge d’Affaires to repeat to the Marshal my previous message to him.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: 3 Hudson aircraft from the 228th RAF Squadron attacked U-46 and one man was fatally wounded and died the next day. [Matrosengefreiter Plaep]. (Dave Shirlaw)