May 25 in Military History — On This Day

The Landing at Busan

Konishi's First Division came ashore at Busan and demanded passage to China. The garrison commander Jeong Bal refused and was killed with his men; at Dongnae, Song Sang-hyeon wrote on a wooden placard, 'It is easy to die, but hard to let you pass,' and died defending the wall. Both fortresses fell in a day.

Korea had not fought a real war in two centuries; Japan had just finished fighting one for a hundred years. The gap showed instantly. Every Japanese soldier who landed was a veteran of the Sengoku wars and a third of them carried arquebuses, a weapon the Korean army had essentially no answer to. Within three weeks the Japanese would be in Seoul.

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Czechoslovak Legion Seizes Trans-Siberian Railway

The Czechoslovak Legion — 40,000 former prisoners of war trying to travel east to Vladivostok and sail to the Western Front — revolted when Bolshevik authorities tried to disarm them. Within weeks the Legion seized control of the entire Trans-Siberian Railway from the Volga River to the Pacific, a stretch of nearly 6,000 miles. This gave the White movement access to Siberia's resources and enabled the Allied intervention, opening a vast new front against the Bolsheviks in the east.

The Legion's uprising transformed a localized power struggle into a full continental civil war, giving the White movement control of Siberia and triggering British, French, American, and Japanese military intervention.

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⚔️📍 London, England1940

Churchill Orders Dunkirk Evacuation — Operation Dynamo

With 400,000 Allied troops trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk by the German advance, Churchill approved Operation Dynamo — the evacuation of as many men as possible using naval vessels and civilian boats. The operation began the following day.

Dunkirk's 'miracle' saved the British Army and allowed Britain to continue the war; Churchill's subsequent 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech galvanized the nation.

Outcome

338,226 soldiers evacuated; heavy equipment abandoned

Battles of Latrun

Israel launched three frontal assaults on the Latrun police fortress, which the Arab Legion used to control the main road to Jerusalem. All three attacks failed with heavy losses. New immigrants who had arrived just days earlier from Holocaust-survivor camps were thrown into battle with minimal training. Col. Mickey Marcus, an American volunteer serving as Israel's first general, was accidentally killed by a sentry the night before the first ceasefire.

Latrun was Israel's costliest defeat of the war and a rare Arab Legion success. Unable to take the fortress, Israel instead built the 'Burma Road' — a bypass through the hills — to break the Jerusalem siege. The fortress itself remained in Jordanian hands until 1967.

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Sinking of HMS Coventry and Atlantic Conveyor

May 25 was Argentina's national day, and the Argentine air force mounted its most ambitious attacks. HMS Coventry, operating as a radar picket to protect the San Carlos beachhead, was struck by three 1,000-lb bombs dropped by A-4 Skyhawks in a devastating low-level run; she capsized in minutes, killing 19 of her crew. Within hours, a Super Étendard fired an Exocet that struck the Atlantic Conveyor — a merchant container ship converted to carry helicopters and vital logistic supplies — killing 12 and destroying three Chinook and six Wessex helicopters. The loss of the Chinooks forced the British infantry to 'yomp' across the island on foot.

The double blow on May 25 was Argentina's most successful single day of the war. The loss of the Chinooks had strategic consequences, forcing British troops to yomp across the island and delaying the final assault. Yet both ships' crews displayed remarkable discipline and courage in the chaos.

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