Friday, May 11, 1945. The USS Bunker Hill.

The USS Bunker Hill was badly damaged by kamikaze attacks, something that had been an unrelenting feature of the Japanese defense of Okinawa as part of Operation Ten-Go.

The Battle of West Henan–North Hubei ended in tactical stalemate but a Japanese operational victory.

Soldiers of the US Army who had commenced combat with Operation Torch and who had gone on to serve in Europe were exempted from further combat deployment.  Fighting was still raging all over the Pacific, with troops meeting stiff resistance in New Guinea, the Philippines, and Okinawa as examples.

Soldiers at a familiarization course for newly arrived soldiers on Okinawa, May 11, 1945.

The Australians took Wewak, New Guinea.

The Red Army continued to encounter German units that had not yet surrendered.  In Yugoslavia German Group Ostmark refused to surrender and kept fighting Yugoslav forces.

German forces began to surrender in the Aegean.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 10, 1945. Guderian surrenders.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Channel Islands, Czechoslovakia, France, Luzon, Okinawa, Prague Czechoslovakia, Prisoners of War, Red Army, World War Two

Saturday, April 7, 1945. Desperate efforts.

The Japanese Imperial Navy launched an ill advised doomed kamikaze attack with ten warships, including the Yamato off of Okinawa.  The Yamato was sun k with a loss of 2,055 of its 2,332 crewmembers, and five other Japanese ships went down as well.

The Luftwaffe also engaged in a suicide mission, sending out 120 student pilots about against a 1,000 plane US raid.  They were to ram their aircraft into the Americans ones, and hopefully parachute out.

Most of the pilots missed their targets and most were shot down.

Operation Amherst commenced which saw the Free French and SAS launch an effort to capture Dutch canals, bridges and airfields intact.

Kantarō Suzuki replaced Kuniaki Koiso as Prime Minister of Japan.

Last edition:

Friday, April 6, 1945. Operation Ten-Go.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Australian Army, Bougainville, Imperial Japanese Navy, Italy, Kamikaze, Okinawa, Operation Grapeshot, Operation Ten-Go, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Friday, April 6, 1945. Operation Ten-Go.

Operation Grapeshot, the Allied Spring offensive in Italy, began.

Australians on Bougainville, where fighting was still ongoing, prevailed in the Battle of Slater's Knoll.

"Men of U.S. Tenth Army make their way through a mine field, detonating mines with their own cannon. Okinawa. 6 April, 1945. 6 April, 1945."

Massive kamikaze attacks take place off of Okinawa in Operation Ten-Go, a full scale suicide attack involving surface and aircraft assets.  The Yamamoto leaves for Okinawa with only enough fuel to get there, where the plan is to beach the ship and fight in that fashion.

American destroyers Bush, Colhoun, Leutze, Morris, Mullany, Newcomb, Rodman and Witter hit by kamikazes off Okinawa. The Bush and Colhoun were sunk and the Leutze and Necomb were subsequently declared constructive total losses.

The Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze was beached at Amoy after an attack by American B-25s.

Last edition:

Thursday, April 5, 1945. Rebellion of the Georgian Legion.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, boats and ships, Chester Nimitz, Diplomacy, Douglas MacArthur, Freeman Field Mutiny, German Wehrmacht, Japan, Operation Downfall, Pacific, Racism, U.S. Air Force, USSR, World War Two