Saturday, February 3, 1945. When you see those photos of a Red Army sergeant raising the Soviet flag over Berlin, and the city looks wrecked, it wasn't actually the ground combat that caused that.

Berlin sustained the heaviest bombing raid upon it during World War Two when 1,500 USAAF bombers dropped over 2,000 tons of bombs on the city.f

Bombing would destroy large section of the city.  By the time the Red Army took it, it was already in ruins.

One of the casualties of the raid was the despicable Nazi judge Karl Roland Freisler.

US and French units took Colmar.

 "American infantrymen of the 2nd Infantry Division advance through fog into the town of Schoneseiffen, Germany, past an enemy antiaircraft gun abandoned when the Germans retreated. 3 February, 1945. 2nd Infantry Division. Photographer: T/4 L. B. Moran, 165th Signal Photo Co."  These soldiers are wearing L. L. Bean Maine Hunting Shoes, which were oddly called "shoe packs" by many people of this era.

The Red Army took Landsberg and Bertenstein.

The Battle of Manila commenced with a flying column of the 1st Cavalry Division reaching the city.  The US conducted an airborne drop in the Tagaytay Ridge region.

"Arriving in Rome, in their Special Service bus are the feminine members of the cast of "Pardon Me", a new USO musical show which will open soon at the U.S. Army Rest Center and the Barberini Theater in Rome. 3 February, 1945. Photographer: Kleinerman, 3131st Signal Service Co."

The weekend magazines, which are largely still subject to the incredibly long US copyright protection laws, noted on its cover that the struggle against Franco was ongoing, demonstrating how by this point Franco was clearly associated with the Axis.

Last edition:

Friday, February 2, 1945. Malta concludes, FDR and Churchill depart for Yalta. German murders.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Auschwitz, Burma, German Resistance Movements, Heroes, July 20 Plot, Malta Conference, Merrill's Maurauders, The Holocaust, Vistula–Oder Offensive, World War Two, Yalta Conference