Day 1029 June 25, 1942

Overnight in the Atlantic 720 miles Northeast of St. Kitts, Windward Islands, U-153 sinks British MV Anglo-Canadian (1 killed). U-153 uses a spotlight to help lifeboats collect survivors in the water and gives them drinking water and cigarettes. 49 survivors reach St. Kitts.

At 1.16 AM 75 miles off Cape Lookout, North Carolina, U-404 attacks a convoy of 10 ships, sinking Panamanian SS Nordal (all 32 hands survive) and badly damaging American SS Manuela. SS Manuela floods but remains afloat (2 killed, 40 survivors on 1 lifeboat and 3 rafts rescued by US Coast Guard ships CG-408 and CG-483). 1 wounded crewman accidentally left on SS Manuela is rescued by US Coast Guards who come aboard at 9 AM to prepare a tow. SS Manuela founders and sinks next day while in tow by CG-252.

Egypt. Allied and Axis troops clash West of Mersa Matruh. Having lost confidence in General Ritchie's ability to command 8th Army, General Auchinleck (C-in-C Middle East Command) takes personal command of the defense of Egypt. He inspects the defenses at Mersa Matruh and decides to abandon Ritchie's plan to hold Rommel there. Auchinleck’s plan is to withdraw instead to the railhead at El Alamein to take advantage of the terrain and a shortened supply line.

Siege of Leningrad Day 291. Soviet 2nd Shock Army (starving in marshland on the Volkhov River, surrounded by Germans on and off since May 30) ceases organized resistance. As German artillery annihilates his men, General Vlasov orders them to break up into small parties and begin an uncoordinated breakout East. Of 180,000 Soviet troops in the “Volkhov Pocket”, only 120,000 will make it out over the next 3 weeks.

3 US floatplanes land at Constantine Harbor, Amchitka Island (Aleutian Islands) to rescue the remaining 27 crew from US submarine S-27, which ran aground on June 19.

60 miles south of Tokyo Bay, US submarine USS Nautilus sinks Japanese destroyer Yamakaze with 2 torpedoes (all 226 hands lost).

Overnight, 1,067 RAF Bomber Command and Coastal Command bombers (including 24 Bostons and 4 Mosquitos, previously sent only on daylight raids) attack Bremen, targeting the Focke-Wulf aircraft factory, shipyards and docks. Despite cloud cover, pathfinder planes equipped with Gee radio navigation drop incendiary bombs and the resulting fires guide waves of bombers dropping high explosives (572 houses destroyed, 6,108 damaged, 85 civilians killed, 497 injured, 2,378 made homeless). The Focke-Wulf factory is hit multiple times, with 7 buildings destroyed or seriously damaged. 53 RAF bombers are lost.