FRIDAY, 25 MAY 1945
ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force): Two B-24s fly a radar ferret
mission over Matsuwa and bomb the Tagan Cape area; another B-24 flies
armed weather reconnaissance.
ZONE OF INTERIOR: The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) approve the directive for
Operation Olympic the invasion of Japan scheduled to commence on November 1, 1945.
CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): Five B-25s and two P-51s knock out a bridge
N of Kioshan, damage another N of Changtuikuan, and pound railroad targets around
Sinyang, Saiping, Sinantien, Hsuchang, and Chenghsien; 16 fighter-bombers on
armed reconnaissance hit various targets of opportunity in the Nanyang, Burma
and Anyang, Hantan, Chenghsien, Kaifeng, Linfen, Shihkiachwang, Sinsiang, Miyanghsien,
Tenghsien, Loning, Sichuan, and Hsuchang, China areas. The 322d Troop Carrier
Squadron, Fourteenth AF, moves form Kunming to Loping, China with C-47s.
INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): Unit moves: 83d Bombardment Squadron
(Medium), 12th Bombardment Group (Medium), ceases operating from Magwe, Burma
with B-25s, and returns to base at Fenny; 427th Night Fighter Squadron,
Tenth AF, moves from Myitkyina to Dinjan with P-61s (a detachment
is operating from Kunming).
HQ AAF (Twentieth Air Force): By concurrence of Commander-in-Chief, Pacific
Ocean Areas (CINCPOA), the VII Fighter Command, with its subordinate units,
is assigned to operational and administrative control of HQ Twentieth AF. 100 Iwo Jima based P-51s fly 73 effective strike sorties against Matsudo and Tokorozawa
Airfields, Japan claiming 8-0-1 Japanese aircraft in the air and 10-0-40 on
the ground; 3 P-51s are lost. Mission 183: During the night of 25/26 May, 464
B-29's pound 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; 6 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.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: On Luzon Island, B-25s,
A-20s, and fighter-bombers fly numerous strikes and ground support missions.
Fighter-bombers support ground force on Cebu. In Borneo, B-24s bomb Oelin, Ft Brook, and Tarakan while B-25s and P-38s hit Kudat and P-38s
also support ground action on Tarakan.
