The British and Soviet forces near Wismar on the Baltic coast, 3 May 1945
Karl Dönitz arranged to send a surrender delegation to Bernard Montgomery's headquarters.
The Portuguese government ordered official flags to fly at half-mast in a day of national mourning for Adolf Hitler.
The British Army entered Hamburg unopposed.
The German liner Cap Arcona was sunk by the RAF in the Bay of Lübeck. It was carrying 5,000 concentration camp prisoners. Over 400 SS personnel made it to lifeboats and were rescued but only 350 of the prisoners survived.
The British Army took Rangoon.
US troops landed near Santa Cruz in the Gulf of Davao.
The "great jet massacre" occurred in which Allied aircraft shot down fifty Me 262s causing the Luftwaffe to abandon the aerial defense of Berlin.
The last reconnaissance flight over the UK was flown by the Luftwaffe, using a Ar234.
US Army Corporal Rick Carrier discovered Buchenwald leading to its liberation the following day.
" Eating K rations somewhere in Germany are, left to right: Pfc. Marvin Beard, Reeves, Tenn., and Pfc. Philip Isaacs, New Haven, Conn. Großfahner, Germany. 10 April, 1945. Company E, 385th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division. Photographer: T/5 Sam Gilbert, 166th Signal Photo Co."
The US 84th Infantry Division took Hanover. The 9th Army took Essen.
The Battle of Authion began in the French Alps
The RAF sank the U-878 in the Bay of Biscay.
Despite severe wreckage, no casualties were suffered when poor visibility caused this C-54 to crash on Yonton airfield, Okinawa. Many usable parts were salvaged from the plane. 10 April, 1945.
The 96th Infantry Division seized part of Kakazu Ridge.
The 14th Corps reached Lamon Bay and captured Mauban on the Philippines.
Operation Varsity, part of Operation Plunder, saw British, Canadian and American airborne troops drop around Wesel, Germany.
Little remembered, and sometimes criticized, the successful operation remains the largest airborne operation ever conducted on a single day and in one location. Much of the criticism has been based on the operation perhaps being unnecessary, but it's notable that by the end of this day, Montgomery's forces of Operation Plunder, which included American, British and Canadian troops, had established a bridgehead over the Rhine five miles deep.
German troops in Hungary were retreating in disorder.
The Red Army took Spolot on the Baltic coast between Gdynia and Danzig.
Task Force 58 raided Okinawa.
The Allied Chinese New 1st Army links up with the Chinese 50th Division near Hsipaw, bringing the campaign in northern Burma to an end.
Hitler approved withdrawing German forces across the Rhine, but the order came too late to avoid 50% of those troops already being lost on the opposite bank.
"Infantrymen of the 1st Allied Airborne Army are briefed at the marshalling area prior to taking off for the Rhine crossing and Wesel landing. Mourmelon, France. 23 March, 1945. 17th Airborne Division. Photographer: Forney."
U.S. and Filipino troops captured San Fernando on Luzon.
The Indian 20th Infantry Division took Wundwin, Burma.
"These First U.S. Army infantrymen, known as "Grover's Ghosts", are a combat patrol of the 121st Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division. They captured the German town of Seilsdorf using Nazi weapons and equipment after their own ammunition ran out. Hermulheim, Germany. 13 March, 1945." 121st Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division. Photographer: Pvt. H. Jaquith, 165th Signal Photo Co.
The Battle of Kiauneliškis ended in a Red Army victory with the destruction of the Lithuanian partisan bunkers.
The British Indian 62nd Bde took the last Japanese rail link to Mandalay.
"En route from Kunming, China, to Kai Yuan, China, in the Petrified Forest area. 13 March, 1945.
Entire convoy personnel of Maj. Gen. R. B. McClure, C.G. of C.G.C. and Gen. Ho Ying Chin, Supreme Commander of the Chinese Armies. Photographer: Pfc. E. J. Frayne, Jr."
The Battle of Kiauneliškis between Lithuanian partisans and the Red Army.
The British 36 Division took Mongrmit, Burma.
"Men of the 32nd Division are standing outside the Information and Education Tent at the Headquarters of the 32nd Division. Taytay, Luzon, P.I. 11 March, 1945. 32nd Infantry Division."
Operation Spring Awakening was launched by the Germans. It would be their last major offensive. An Eastern Front offensive, oil reserves were the target.
King Michael of Romania installed Petru Groza as Prime Minister of Romania due to Soviet pressure.
The Soviets began to arrest or kill anyone associated with the Polish Government In Exile or the Polish Home Army.
The famous tank battle in Cologne between a German Panther and a M26 named Eagle 7 took place. It's one of the best known American v. German tank battles of World War Two, and ironically took place in a large urban environment.
The battle was, unusually, completely filmed.
The crew of Eagle 7, after the battle.
"The crew of an M26 Pershing tank, nicknamed "Eagle 7," of the 3rd Armored Division pose for a photo after their famous victorious tank duel against a German Panther tank in Cologne, Germany, March 1945. Commander - Sgt. Robert M. Earley of Fountain, Minn Gunner - Cpl. Clarence E. Smoyer of Lehighton, Pa Loader - Pvt. John S. Deriggi of Scranton, Pa Driver - T/5 William D. McVey of Jackson, Mich Assistant Driver - Pvt. Homer L. Davis of Morehead, Ky.
The Chinese 1st Army took Lashio, Burma.
"The crew of the Ninth U.S. Army Sherman tank who escaped injury though their vehicle was hit by four German 88 shells in action during the capture of Hottorf, near Erkelenz, Germany. L to R: Tec 5 John Helbo, driver, South Plainfield, N.J.; Tec 5 William B. Paff, cannoneer, Morrisville, Pa.; Sgt. Matteo Fortino, tank commander, Bronx, New York; Pfc. Leo V. Digangi, gunner, Jackson Heights, Long Island, N.Y.; and Pfc. Steve Raguseo, assistant driver. 6 March, 1945."
The British Indian 17th Division took Tahlaing and the Thabuktong airfield.
A midnight curfew on bars, nightclubs and all other places of entertainment went into effect in the US in order to save coal.
USAAF Gen. Millard Fillmore Harmon Jr. and Brig. Gen. James Roy Andersen disappeared in an aircraft over the Pacific.
"With the gun crew riding on top, a tank destroyer chassis tows a huge Seventh Army 8-inch rifle through a French town, on the way to the front. 26 February, 1945. Monnenheim, France. 575th Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Field Artillery Group."
"Crosses are erected over Protestant and Catholic graves, the Star of David over those of the Jewish faith, in this U.S. military cemetery somewhere in the European Theater of Operations. 26 February, 1945. Foy, Belgium. Photographer: T/5 Billy Newhouse."
The USS Bismark Sea was sunk by kamikazes off of Iwo Jima.
The Battle of Baguio began in the Philippines.
" While the town of Portz, Germany, burns in the background, 10th Armored Division jeeps of the 3rd Army advance on Saarburg, Germany. 21 February, 1945. 10th Armored Division. Photographer: T/5 L. G. Crabtree, 166th Signal Photo Co."
The British 17th Indian Division begins a breakout at Myaungu. The British take Myitson.
The Yalta Conference started in Yalta, in the Crimea, under the unfortunate circumstance of the Red Army only being 40 miles from Berlin. It was, of course, halted.
The postwar order and the war with Japan were the topics. It would be one of the most consequential conferences of the 20th Century.
Even in the photograph above it's easy to tell that Franklin Roosevelt was not well. The truth is, he was on death's door, and knew it. Those around him knew it too. At least one of those around him were far more friendly to a Communist world view than was known, except to the Soviets themselves.
Manila was being closed in on by the US Army from two directions.
The Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations began in Burma.
The USS Barbel was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Palawan.
The USAAF raids Iwo Jima for a second day with B-24s and B-29s.
The Malta Conference ended. Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to withdraw two divisions from Greece and three from Italy to commit them to northwest Europe.
They left for Yalta.
The Vistula–Oder Offensive ended in Soviet victory with a voluntary halt of the Red Army. Curiously, the Red Army was only 43 miles from Berlin, and the city was undefended.
The liberation of Auschwitz was mentioned for the first time, in Pravda, which failed to note that the inmates were mostly Jewish.
German politician Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was hung for his role in the July 20 plot.
Catholic Priest Fr Alfred Delp was executed as well.
Adoration of God is the road that leads man to himself.
Fr. Alfred Delp,
Soviet POWs made a mass escape from the Mauthausen concentration camp.
"Snow-caped infantrymen the 60th Inf. Regt., 9th Inf. Div., U.S. First Army, move towards Dedenborn, Germany, as Nazis retreat during heavy fighting on this sector. 2 February, 1945.
Lt. Jack L. Knight, a cavalryman of the Mars Task Force performed the actions which resulted in his being awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor while in combat at LoiKang, Burma.
He led his cavalry troop against heavy concentrations of enemy mortar, artillery, and small arms fire. After taking the troop's objective and while making preparations for a defense, he discovered a nest of Japanese pillboxes and foxholes to the right front. Preceding his men by at least 10 feet, he immediately led an attack. Single-handedly he knocked out 2 enemy pillboxes and killed the occupants of several foxholes. While attempting to knock out a third pillbox, he was struck and blinded by an enemy grenade. Although unable to see, he rallied his platoon and continued forward in the assault on the remaining pillboxes. Before the task was completed he fell mortally wounded. 1st Lt. Knight's gallantry and intrepidity were responsible for the successful elimination of most of the Japanese positions and served as an inspiration to officers and men of his troop.
"Reading his first mail since moving into frontline position is Sgt. John W. Carter of Gastonia, N.C., Battery C, 616th F.A. Bn., 10th Mtn. Div. 31 January, 1945. Cutigliano area, Italy.
Battery B, 616th Field Artillery Battalion, 10th Mountain Division.
The Red Army closed to within fifty miles of Berlin.
The Battle for Kapelsche Veer ended in a victory for the Canadian Army.
The Waffen SS murdered over 160 Polish POWs at Podgaje. The Polish troops were members of the Communist Polish People's Army.
The Battle of Hill 170 ended in a victory for the British and Indian Armies.
Destroyed Japanese tank on Luzon, January 31, 1945.
The 11th Airborne was landed, by sea, near Nasugbu without opposition.
The execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik, about which there's been much handwringing, was carried out. He had been convicted of desertion and is the only US soldier to be executed for the same since the Civil War. Desertion was becoming a problem in the U.S. Army, contrary to the way we'd like to remember the war (draft dodging was as well), and he was made an example of.
Female Red Army sniper Roza Shanina died of wounds sustained from artillery fire the prior day. She is reported to have killed 50 Axis soldiers during her service. She was 20 years of age.
While not really well depicted in film, artillery was the great killer of the Second World War, not rifle fire or close combat. This was so much the case that for a long period of time after the war artillery came to be seen as the predominant conventional combat arm, with this really only changing after the US began to appreciate the lessons of the Vietnam War which showed a shift back to close combat wounds.
The Germans killed Italian generals Giuseppe Andreoli, Emanuele Balbo Bertone, Ugo Ferrero, Carlo Spatocco, Alberto Trionfi, Alessandro Vaccaneo in Kuźnica Żelichowska.
The 8th Air Force conducted raids over the Ruhr.
The first supplies to cross the Ledo Road enter China.
