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WWII On This Day: March 25

What happened on March 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
A German Panzer IV of the 11th Panzer Division advancing into Yugoslavia in April 1941.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-770-0280-20 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Invasion of Yugoslavia, April 1941

Yugoslavia signs the Tripartite Pact

In Vienna, Prime Minister Dragiša Cvetković and Foreign Minister Aleksandar Cincar-Marković signed Yugoslavia’s accession to the Tripartite Pact after weeks of German pressure and diplomatic isolation. The terms included German and Italian assurances concerning Yugoslav sovereignty and territorial integrity and a commitment that Axis troops would not demand transit through Yugoslav territory. Yugoslavia was also exempted from providing military assistance under the pact. The government treated those reservations as a way to avoid an immediate military confrontation while remaining outside active Axis operations. The settlement carried little political legitimacy among…

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1944
Wrecked rolling stock in the severely damaged marshalling yard at Juvisy-sur-Orge after Allied air attacks in 1944.
Bridge B (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Imperial War Museums, CL 4170 · Public domain · Source
The Transportation Plan

The air chiefs make their final cases

Tedder backed the rail-centre plan. Spaatz made a final argument for oil, warning that German fighters would defend fuel plants but could decline battle over railway targets. Eisenhower concluded that there was no convincing alternative for giving the air forces a direct effect on the opening weeks of the invasion.

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1945
U.S. Third Army infantrymen cross the Rhine near Boppard in a Navy LCVP, 25 March 1945.
U.S. Third Army infantrymen cross the Rhine near Boppard in a Navy LCVP, 25 March 1945. U.S. Army / National Archives · Public domain Source
The Rhine Crossings

The other southern crossings

Third Army crossed again at Boppard before daylight on 25 March and at St Goar and Oberwesel on 26 March, where the far bank rises steeply and the current runs hard. Seventh Army crossed at Worms on 26 March. U.S. Navy landing craft, brought overland from the Channel by lorry, ferried troops and vehicles at several of these sites. Sea-going craft helped sustain the assault while engineers built the heavier crossings behind them.

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Company L, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division moves through Uckerath toward the front on 25 March 1945, the opening day of First Army’s breakout.
Company L, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division moves through Uckerath toward the front on 25 March 1945, the opening day of First Army’s breakout. Pvt. R. W. Hurley, 165th Signal Photo Co. · U.S. Army Signal Corps / NARA · Public domain Source
The Ruhr Pocket

First Army breaks out from Remagen

Five infantry and two armoured divisions opened First Army’s breakout from the Remagen bridgehead on 25 March. The attack expanded the bridgehead eastward and gave Courtney Hodges room to exploit beyond the Rhine defensive zone. German strength had been concentrated heavily against the northern shoulder of the bridgehead, while the American advance developed more rapidly elsewhere. That uneven resistance created the room from which 12th Army Group could later turn First Army north toward the Ruhr.

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