337 Western troops from the US, Italy, Japan and Russia arrived in Beijing. The entry was not opposed, but not welcome.
The governing body of the Free Church of Scotland voted 592 to 29, to unite with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland creating the United Free Church of Scotland.
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The forced expulsion of ethnic Germans from Brno began.
The French Army took control of the parliament building in Damascus while French aircraft bombed other parts of the city.
On Okinawa US forces reached Shuri and the southeast edge of Naha.
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Chocolate Drop Hill on Okinawa was taken by U.S. troops. The final fighting was in interconnected tunnels.
The 1st Marine Division captured Wana Ridge on Okinawa. Marines also conducted mopping up operations on Horseshoe and Half Moon using flamethrowers, resulting in a desperate Japanese counterattack that ends with 200 Japanese troops killed.
The US took Malaybalay on Mindanao.
The Japanese Army evacuated Hochih, China as the Imperial Japanese General Staff decided to deploy forces closer to the Japanese Home Islands.
The Japanese had secured enormous territorial gains in China with a just completed offensive, and yet there was a massive amount of China left, the same problem the Japanese had been faced with since 1932 when they first began to fight in the country. In many ways, for the Japanese, World War Two was principally about China, and now it was faced with the reality that being tied down there was contributing enormously to its losing in the war.
The Soviets appointed Soviet authorities appointed Dr. Arthur Werner as the Oberbergermeister of the Berlin. The appointment would be shortly confirmed by the Western Allies.
He was not a Communist and had not been a Nazi. An engineer, he had lost his teaching position in 1942.
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A Marine Corps raid on Koh Tang island took back the Mayaguez, which they found deserted, while a Navy air raid destroyed the now Khmer Rouge run Cambodian navy.
Eighteen Marines were killed in combat and an additional 23 in a helicopter crash in the raid. Khmer forces were much larger than anticipated and resistance heavy. The helicopter passengers were not fully accounted for when the withdrawal occurred and it was later determined that three of the Marines (Joseph N. Hargrove, Gary L. Hall, and Danny G. Marshall) a shall) and two Navy medics (Bernard Guase and Ronald Manning) may have been alive when they were left behind on the island.
Sailing under a white flag, a Cambodian vessel brought thirty Americans to the destroyer USS Wilson.
It is really this date, and not the one that was declared several days earlier, that should be regarded as the end of the Vietnam War Era, as this was really the last combat in the US's involvement in the Indochinese War, of which the Vietnam War was part. It interesting came to an end somewhat in the way in which it had started in earnest, with Marines being deployed over a ship, as they would be because of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
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Operation Eagle Pull took place with the US closure of its Cambodian embassy and the insertion of 180 Marines into Phnom Penh to start the evacuation of US civilians. Approximately 300 people were evacuated, of which 82 were Americans.
Deputy Prime Minister Sisowath Sirik Matak refused to leave, stating in a letter to the American Ambassador, "I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion....I have only committed this mistake of believing in you, the Americans."
The ARVN deployed aircraft against NVA units at Xuan Loc, with the South Vietnamese air force flying up to 120 sorties per day.
Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland
Josephine Baker died at age 68.
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North Vietnam took control of the Spratly Islands, which had been controlled by the Republic of Vietnam. The landing forces consisted of NVA special forces, but the islands were lightly defended. Interestingly, Communist Vietnam today still recognizes a South Vietnamese defense of the islands against China, which are also claimed by China, as heroic.
While portrayed in Vietnamese propaganda as a great victory, the operation was only a success due to the extreme distress that South Vietnam was then in, and the fact that the U.S. Navy didn't intervene. Additionally, and importantly, the islands had no strategic value to the ongoing offensive, but with South Vietnam collapsing, the North Vietnamese no doubt correctly guessed that if they did not take the islands, China would.
I should note that this is somewhat confusing, as there are numerous small islands in the chain, and not all of them are occupied by the Vietnamese.
Some tourism of the islands takes place today.
A White House conversation took place regarding Operation Eagle Pull.
President: I would like to be brought up to date on where we are and what we are going to do. We will restrict ourselves to Cambodia. I am optimistic and I think we will make it.
Schlesinger: “Eagle Pull” will commence at 0900 local. They will be on the ground one hour and 20 minutes total. It will be completed by 11:30 p.m. our time if all goes well.
There’ll be 33 helicopters, including three for search and rescue. The first twelve will hold 346 Marines.
President: Will Long Boret go?
Kissinger: “Eagle Pull” will collapse the Government. Even if Long Boret doesn’t, enough of his people will go that it will collapse.
President: Do we know if there will be much fighting? There will be a crowd gathering, but there is a better than 50% chance of getting out without fighting.
Brown: There will be air cover but it will only return fire if fire is directed on the evacuation and only to protect the evacuation. The helicopters will come in a stream from the Carrier Ubon and peel off from hold points. We can do it all in one lift unless there are too many Khmer.
Schlesinger: We must do it all in one lift.
Brown: The Khmer have quite a lift capability of their own.
Kissinger: Do the Khmer think it is over or is this an American decision?
Brown: It is a U.S. decision. Our intelligence thinks tomorrow will be the last day, but probably it would come on the 13th, an auspicious time.
President: There will be air cover?
Buchen: Yes. They will be under positive control all the time and under FAC.
President: By what authority is this being done?
Schlesinger: The rescue operation is to protect American lives, any fire is to protect American lives and Khmer evacuation is incidental to the American evacuation.
Buchen: Yes. The Khmer evacuation is incidental.
Marsh: We would use the same force anyway, wouldn’t we?
Schlesinger: If we had gotten it down to 50 Americans, we would have used a much smaller force and got them out in 10 minutes.
Kissinger: I think we should say we are stretching the law so we don’t run counter to the President’s request of last night.2
Rumsfeld: Don’t use “incidental”—because there are five times as many Khmers and it will be seen as a subterfuge.
Schlesinger: The original list contained 50 Khmer. That has swollen to 1,100. It is there we might be vulnerable.
President: I would think there would be a crowd gathered.
Schlesinger: We can use Red Cross agents. And they have C130’s.
Buchen: Why do we take them out then?
Schlesinger: Ask State.
Kissinger: It was assumed that the airfield would be unusable. We didn’t want to pull the plug by talking to them about evacuation.
[The statements to be read and given to Congress were reviewed.]
President: There is no connection between this and the Vietnam evacuation. There is no connection at all. This is a unique situation.
Brown: Unless we give orders, the Marine Commander may load up with Khmer and leave the Marines, thus necessitating a second flight.
President: I agree. The Commander should be told that all Americans must be aboard the last chopper.
The ARVN put up still resistance at Xuan Loc.
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US troops, ultimately to include members of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, landed on Okinawa in Operation Iceberg. The initial landing of 50,000 men saw little resistance.
The Red Army took Sopron, Hungaria.
The Battle of Kassel began between the U.S. Army's 80th Division and German defenders.
British commandos began Operation Roast in an effort to push the Germans across the Po and out of Italy.
Hitler moved his headquarters to the Führerbunker..
The hospital ship Awa Maru was sunk in a case of mistaken identity by the USS Queenfish leading to the loss of 2003 of its 2004 passengers and crew.
And this wild communications item was introduced.
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The vehicle did see use in the Vietnam War.
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World Airlines made its fourth and last refugee evacuation flight from Da Nang. The flight was designed to take out refugees, but 400 ARVN soldiers forced their way onto the plane. At the same time, the NVA entered the city center.
Of the ARVN in I Corps, 16,000 of the 160,000 in the area managed to escape. And of course, while they could not know it, for the most part all of the people escaping would soon simply be further south in the country when the Communist prevailed.
Da Nang had been the site of the first U.S. Marine Corps landings in Vietnam on March 8, 1965.
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The 9th Army took Neuss, Roermond and Venlo.
The 3d Army took Trier.
The U.S. Navy bombarded the Rhyku Islands, vis naval artillery and airstrikes, for 48 hours.
The U-3519 was sunk by a mine.
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Saudi Arabia declared war on the Axis powers.
The Red Army too Neustettin.
The Third Army too Bitburg.
The US conducts landings at Puerto Princesa on Palawan.
John Harlan Willis performed the actions that resulted in his being conferred a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Platoon Corpsman serving with the 3d Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, during operations against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 28 February 1945. Constantly imperiled by artillery and mortar fire from strong and mutually supporting pillboxes and caves studding Hill 362 in the enemy's cross-island defenses, Willis resolutely administered first aid to the many marines wounded during the furious close-in fighting until he himself was struck by shrapnel and was ordered back to the battle-aid station. Without waiting for official medical release, he quickly returned to his company and, during a savage hand-to-hand enemy counterattack, daringly advanced to the extreme frontlines under mortar and sniper fire to aid a marine lying wounded in a shellhole. Completely unmindful of his own danger as the Japanese intensified their attack, Willis calmly continued to administer blood plasma to his patient, promptly returning the first hostile grenade which landed in the shell-hole while he was working and hurling back 7 more in quick succession before the ninth exploded in his hand and instantly killed him. By his great personal valor in saving others at the sacrifice of his own life, he inspired his companions, although terrifically outnumbered, to launch a fiercely determined attack and repulse the enemy force. His exceptional fortitude and courage in the performance of duty reflect the highest credit upon Willis and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
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