Friday, May 18, 1945. Paying the consequences.

" Five East Massachusetts boys set up an 81mm mortar. Front row, left to right: Pfc. Albert Bartolussi, 56 Dow St., Framingham; S/Sgt. Louis Zompa, 211 Elm Street, Lawrence; rear row, left to right: Armand Lesage Jr., 24 Mason Street, Lawrence; Cpl. Roger L. Leavitt, 113 Franklin Street, Lynn; and Pfc. Leopold Freda, 221 Cheslsea Street, East Boston. They are all fighting with the 306th Regiment, 77th Infantry Division. Okinawa. 18 May, 1945. 306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division. Photographer: Roberts, 1st Information and Historical Service"

The U.S. Army took Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the deportation of Fritz Julius Kuhn of the German American Bund to Germany.  His citizenship had been revoked in 1943.  His family had already been repatriated, during the war, to Germany.

The entire series of events would crush him.  He sought to return to t he US without success.  He was arrested and tired by the post war German government.  He died in 1951 a broken figure.

The Chinese Army reoccupies Foochow.

Karl Karl Dönitz issues a statement expressing horror at the Holocaust and distancing the German military from it.

Yeah. . . whatever.

William Joseph Simmons, founder of the second KKK, died at age 65.

Irish Prime Minister Eamon De Velera, announces a $12 million food and clothing aid program for Europe.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 17, 1945. The emerging post war world.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Battle of Manila, Burma, Catholic, Christianity, Communism, Croatia, Denmark, Dutch Army, French Army, Japan, Lebanon, Marshall Islands, Okinawa, Philippines, religion, World War Two, Yugoslavia

Thursday, May 3, 1945. Dönitz sends a surrender delegation.

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.

Work commenced on the United Nations Charter.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 2, 1945. Berlin taken.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Austria, British Army, Dachau, Eamon de Valera, Ethnicities, Italy, Karl Dönitz, Photography, Racism, Rangoon, Red Army, The Holocaust, World War Two

Wednesday, May 2, 1945. Berlin taken.

The Red Army took Berlin.

Yevgeny Khaldei took the staged Raising a Flag over the Reichstag photograph, showing Soviet troops raising the flag of the Soviet Union atop the Reichstag.  The unretouched variant is shown above, i which one soldier is wearing two watches, which was later edited out of the photo as at least one of them was no doubt picked up somewhere.

The Nisei 552nd Field Artillery Bn liberated a Dachau death march.

The Germans surrendered in Italy and Southern Austria. Among those going into Allied captivity is Dr. Wernher von Braun.

Admiral Dönitz's formed the Flensburg Government.

Eamon de Valera paid a visit to Dr Eduard Hempel, the German minister in Ireland, to offer his condolences on the death of Hitler.  Nobody has ever been able to grasp this.

Erich Bärenfänger, 30, German Generalmajor, Martin Bormann, 44, German Nazi official; Wilhelm Burgdorf, 50, German general; Walther Hewel, 41, German diplomat; Hans Krebs, 47, German general; and Franz Schädle, 38, German commander of Hitler's personal bodyguard, killed themselves.

Peter Högl, 47, German SS-Obersturmbannführer, Ewald Lindloff, 36, Waffen-SS officerMartin Strahammer, 54, German Generalmajor; and Joachim von Siegroth, 48, German Generalmajor were killed in action.

The British landed on Rangoon.

Last edition:

Tuesday, May 1, 1945. German radio reports Hitler dead.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Battle of Tarakan, Borneo, Germany, Joseph Goebbels, Karl Dönitz, Operation Oboe, Radio, Rape and the Red Army, The Battle of Halbe, World War Two

Tuesday, May 1, 1945. German radio reports Hitler dead.

General situation map, May 1, 1945.

Reichssender Hamburg's Flensburg radio station announced that Adolf Hitler had died in Berlin while "fighting for Germany". 

Hmmm. . . 

 

Dönitz gave a broadcast that night declaring that it was his task to save the German people "from destruction by Bolshevists."

New Chancellor of German Joseph Goebbels sent a letter to the Soviet commander in Berlin advising of Hitler's death and requesting a ceasefire. 

The Soviets refused.

He and his wife Magda then murdered their six children and committed suicide.  Dönitz then appointed Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the new de facto Chancellor of Germany, in the Flensburg Government.

Mass suicides occurred in Demmin following the Red Army taking and destroying the town. Between 700 and 2,500 people killed themselves.  As was common, the Red Army engaged in rapes and murders upon entering the town.

The Battle of Halbe ended in a Soviet victory.

The Australian Army landed on Tarakan off of Borneo.

Last edition:

Monday, April 30, 1945. Adolf Hitler commits suicide.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, boats and ships, Eva Braun, Italian partisans, Joseph Goebbels, Karl Dönitz, Nazi Germany, Weapons, World War Two

Monday, April 30, 1945. Adolf Hitler commits suicide.

A post war PPK, the same type of pistol that Hitler used to end his life.

The man responsible for the deaths of millions in Europe, Adolf Hitler committed suicide with a .32 ACP PPK.  His wife of one day, Eva Braun, also killed herself. Both deaths occurred  around 3.30 p.m..

Their bodies were taken outside of the bunker, liberally doused with gasoline, and burned in a pit.

The Red Army was less than 500m from the Führerbunker.  Soviet troops reached the Reichstag.

Karl Dönitz and Joseph Goebbels took on Hitler's former roles as Head of State and Head of Government of Germany in accordance with his wishes.

Such was the engine of the German state that, even though the Nazis would never have come to power without Hitler, and the war would never have occurred without Hitler, the war nonetheless continued on without him.

The Battle of Bautzen ended in a localized German victory.

The U-879, U-1107 and U-326 were all sunk.

Actors Osvaldo Valenti and Luisa Ferida were killed by Italian partisans due to their links to fascism.

Last edition:

Sunday, April 29, 1945. Dachau.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Dachau, Eva Braun, German SS, Italian partisans, Italy, Netherlands, Operation Chowhound, Operation Manna, Royal Air Force, The Holocaust, U.S. Air Force

Tuesday, April 24, 1945. Berlin surrounded.

The Red Army surrounded Berlin.

The Battle of Halbe in the Spree Forest.

The Germans began the final evacuation of Dachau.

Railyards in Nurnberg, Germany. 24 April, 1945.  Photographer: T/4 Sidney Blau, 163rd Signal Photo Co.

The U-546 sank the USS Frederick Davis and then was sunk itself.  The loss caused Admiral Dönitz to disband the wolfpack it was part of.

The RAF raided Berchtesgaden, it's last significant action in Europe in World War Two.

Ernst-Robert Grawitz, age 45, German physician and SS officer killed himself and his entire family with grenades.

Major League Baseball cancelled the 1945 All Star game due to travel restrictions.

"Pfc. Robert A. Vincent, L.I., N.Y., offers K rations to Okinawan children, found in Gusukuma during the drive to Machinato airstrip. 24 April, 1945."

Last edition:

Monday, April 23, 1945. Where's Hitler?

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Berlin Germany, boats and ships, Ethnicities, Freeman Field Mutiny, Hermann Göring, Nazi Germany, Okinawa, Pacific, Racism, The Holocaust, Weapons, World War Two