http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/6/25.htm
July 25th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
GERMANY: Potsdam: Churchill, Eden and Attlee fly home for the election results.
Potsdam: Truman orders the atomic bomb be dropped on Japan as soon as possible after 3 August.
JAPAN: During the night of 25/26 July, the US Twentieth Air Force dispatches106 B-29 Superfortresses to fly 1 bombing and 1 mining mission against Japan and Korea; 1 B-29 is lost.
- Mission 291: 75 B-29s attack the Mitsubishi Oil Company and Hayama Petroleum Company at Kawasaki destroying 33% of the storage tanks units and other facilities; 1 B-29 hits an alternate target and 1 suffers a direct flak hit over the target and goes down.
- Mission 292: 29 B-29s mine the waters at Nanao, Fushiki, Obama Island, Tsuruga, and Seishin, Japan, and Pusan, Korea; 1 other mines an alternate target.
Off Japan:
- Carrier-based aircraft of Task Force 38 continue air strikes in the Inland Sea area sinking 7 ships and damaging 6 others including the heavy cruiser HIJMS Aoba; carrier-based aircraft from the Royal Navy’s Task Group 37.2 also attack targets in the Inland Sea area. Carrier strikes are cancelled in the afternoon due to weather.
- The 4 light cruisers and 6 destroyers of Task Group 35.3 bombard the Kushimoto Seaplane Base and adjacent facilities on Honshu.
- Task Group 95.8 arrives off Japan; the TG consists of:
USS Chenango (CVE-28) with Escort Carrier Air Group Twenty Five (CVEG-25)
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) with Marine Carrier Air Group Two (MCVG-2)
USS Hoggatt Bay (CVE-75) with Composite Squadron Ninety Nine (VC-99)
USS Manila Bay (CVE-61) with VC-71
USS Suwanee (CVE-27) with CVEG-40
NEW GUINEA: In Borneo, the USAAF supports Australian troops by dispatching B-24s to bomb Pontianak and Kuching Airfields while B-25s and fighters attack a dispersal area in the Jesselton Airfield area.
U.S.A.: Henry Kaiser and Joseph Frazer announce plans to form a corporation to manufacture automobiles. Kaiser is famous for his shipbuilding feats while Frazer is an executive with Packard Auto.
Production begins in 1946 and they manufacture 11,000 cars that year. The company was sold to Willys in 1953.
All this bombing sounds good but it echoes to Iwo Jima and many other islands. The enemy is dug in and it will cost lives.
Just curious: why does it seem that we’re all awaiting something? Can’t figure it out...