Skip to content
WW2 Theatres Theatres of the Second World War
Home

World War II calendar

WWII On This Day: April 25

What happened on April 25 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1941, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
German paratroopers descending on Crete during Operation Merkur in May 1941.
Bundesarchiv Bild 141-0864 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Battle of Crete

Hitler authorises Operation Merkur

Directive No. 28 ordered the capture of Crete by an airborne operation after the German conquest of mainland Greece had placed Luftwaffe bases within range of the island. Hitler wanted to deny Britain a forward position in the eastern Mediterranean and secure Crete for Axis air operations. The operation was placed under Luftflotte 4, with XI Fliegerkorps organising the airborne assault and follow-up by mountain troops. The plan depended on seizing an airfield quickly enough to fly in heavier infantry formations and supplies, while a smaller seaborne effort was intended…

Continue in Battle of Crete →
1944
American troops land on a beach in England during Exercise Tiger, 25 April 1944.
American troops land on a beach in England during Exercise Tiger, 25 April 1944. U.S. Signal Corps · Library of Congress cph.3c32795 · Public domain Source
Exercise Tiger

Assault troops practise the landing

American assault troops came ashore on the Devon training beach while landing craft cycled between ships and shore. A US Signal Corps photograph dated 25 April records the rehearsal itself and provides the hero image for this page.

Continue in Exercise Tiger →
The cratered clifftop at Pointe du Hoc photographed after the assault, June 1944.
The cratered clifftop at Pointe du Hoc after the assault · US Army Signal Corps · NARA · Public domain · Source
Pointe du Hoc

The Germans move the guns

Repeated bombing of the point convinced the battery commander that the casemates were untenable. The six 155 mm guns were withdrawn about half a mile inland to a hedged orchard, camouflaged, and left ready to fire on the beaches. Telegraph poles were placed in the empty casemates. Allied air photographs continued to show what looked like a battery in position, and the plan went forward on that basis.

Continue in Pointe du Hoc →
1945
Yevgeny Khaldei's photograph of Soviet soldiers raising a Soviet flag over the Reichstag in Berlin on 2 May 1945.
Yevgeny Khaldei / TASS · 2 May 1945 · CC BY 4.0 via the Russian Ministry of Defence · Source
The Battle of Berlin

Berlin is fully encircled

On 25 April Soviet spearheads met west of Berlin and completed the ring around the capital. The same day American and Soviet troops made contact on the Elbe near Torgau, physically dividing the remaining German-controlled territory. The Berlin garrison, Ninth Army and the German commands farther north were no longer parts of one continuous front. Communication and movement between them depended on narrow routes, radio, aircraft or assumptions that were already becoming obsolete. Hitler nevertheless elevated the relief of Berlin above other missions. The operational map had become a record…

Continue in The Battle of Berlin →