Louis J. Hauge Jr. performed the actions that resulted in his being awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Leader of a Machine-Gun Squad serving with Company C, First Battalion, First Marines, First Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Okinawa Shima in the Ryūkyū Chain on 14 May 1945. Alert and aggressive during a determined assault against a strongly fortified Japanese Hill position, Corporal Hauge boldly took the initiative when his company's left flank was pinned down under a heavy machine-gun and mortar barrage with resultant severe casualties and, quickly locating the two machine guns which were delivering the uninterrupted stream of enfilade fire, ordered his squad to maintain a covering barrage as he rushed across an exposed area toward the furiously blazing enemy weapons. Although painfully wounded as he charged the first machine-gun, he launched a vigorous single-handed grenade attack, destroyed the entire hostile gun position and moved relentlessly forward toward the other emplacement despite his wounds and the increasingly heavy Japanese fire. Undaunted by the savage opposition, he again hurled his deadly grenades with unerring aim and succeeded in demolishing the second enemy gun before he fell under the slashing fury of Japanese sniper fire. By his ready grasp of the critical situation and his heroic one-man assault tactics, Corporal Hauge had eliminated two strategically placed enemy weapons, thereby releasing the besieged troops from an overwhelming volume of hostile fire and enabling his company to advance. His indomitable fighting spirit and decisive valor in the face of almost certain death reflect the highest credit upon Corporal Hauge and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.
Marines reached the top of Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa and captured the airfield at Yonabaru.
The Battle of Poljana commenced outside of Poljana, Slovenia between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, consisting of members of the Wehrmacht, the Croatian Armed Forces, the Montenegrin People's Army, the Serbian Volunteer Corps, the Slovene Home Guard, and the 15th Waffen SS Cossack Cavalry Corps.
Army Group Kurland surrendered to the Red Army.
The provisional government of Austria nullified the 1938 Anschluss, abolished the Nazi Party and repealed all Nazi-era laws.
U-boat commander Wolfgang Lüth, age 31, German U-boat ace was shot and killed by a German sentry of the still functioning Mürwik Naval Academy when he failed to return a call sign. He was given a state funeral.
The US Army announced the discovery of millions of dollars worth of stolen ar by the Nazis and 100 tons of gold bars and currency hidden in a salt mine located on the Losa Plateau in Austria.
The concentration camp at Ebensee was liberated.
Marines reached the top of Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa and captured the airfield at Yonabaru.
Herbert J. Grant, president of the LDS church, died at age 88. He was the lasts surviving member of the LDS Council of Fifty and the last one to have been a polygamist, although he enforced the LDS change in the position. At the time of his death, only one of his three wives was living.
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Labels: 1940s, 1945, British Army, Burma, Chile, German Wehrmacht, Mussolini, Okinawa, the spoken word, Winston Churchill, World War Two
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