25 October 1941
Atlantic Ocean : Battle of Convoy HG-75 (Homebound Gibraltar) started. Italian submarine Galileo Ferraris attacked Allied convoy HG-75 500 miles west of Gibraltar and was discovered by a RAF Coastal Command PBY Catalina aircraft. After being attacked with depth charges by the aircraft and badly damaged plus destroyer HMS Lamerton arriving on the scene , Galileo Ferraris’ crew surfaced their boat and then scuttled the submarine ; 6 Italians were killed in the engagement, 44 survived.
Later in the same day, German submarine U-563 attacked HG-75, but she was driven away by Royal Navy corvette HMS Heliotrope.
Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy minelayer HMS Latona was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe JU-87 Stuka dive bombers off Tobruk though almost all crew and passangers (1.000 Polish troops) were safely evacuated
Italian cargo ship Monrosa was torpedoed and sunk by Royal Navy submarine HMS Triumph in Aegean Sea. 148 Italian troops wre killed.
Black Sea : Romanian minesweeper B and German minesweeper Theresa Wallner struck mine and both sunk
Ukraine : Romanian troops set a warehouse, full of Ukrainian civilians, mostly Jews, on fire at Dalnik, Ukraine.
Russia : On October 25, deep snow fell on the Moscow front. On the following day, in Minsk, the Germans staged the first public hanging, intended to deter partisan activity. Three partisans were executed, Kirill Trus, Volodya Shcherbatseyvich and Maria Bruskina. A seventeen-year-old Jewish girl, Maria Bruskina had been working as a nurse in a field hospital for Russian officers and who had been taken prisoner in the battle for Minsk. Her ‘crime’ was to have smuggled into the hospital forged identity papers and clothes, enabling several prisoners-of-war to escape.
US : The US State Department issued a bulletin denouncing German practice of rounding up and executing civilians in retaliation of partisan attacks.
UK : New Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales departs for Singapore.
Canada : A Canadian brigade consisted two battalions under the command of Brigadier John Lawson MC sailed from Vancouver, Canada to reinforce the garrison on Hong Kong