Air Operations, CBI

• 13 10th Air Force B-25s and 35 P-47s attack troops, anti-aircraft batteries, motor vehicles, and supplies in and right behind the Japanese Army battle lines.
• 66 P-47s attack transportation targets and a bridge in central Burma.
• 12 P-47s attack a bypass bridge.

• 6 14th Air Force P-51s attack road targets at Hwayuan and a bridge at Ha Coi, French Indochina.
• During the night, 63rd Heavy Bomb Squadron SB-24s sink a Japanese Navy frigate off the China coast.

• 4 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack a bridge at Song Rang.
• A three-month campaign by 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s against rail bridges in northern French Indochina is formally concluded primarily because of a lack of worthy remaining targets. Since December 11, 1944, the B-25s have undertaken 23 missions that have accounted for 21 major bridges destroyed and 17 major bridges damaged—at a cost of 4 B-25s lost, 31 B-25s damaged by anti-aircraft fire, 20 crewmen killed, and 12 crewmen wounded.
• 12 V Bomber Command B-25s sink a tanker and a cargo ship in Tourane Bay.

Air Operations, East Indies

44 XX Bomber Command B-29s attack oil stores at Samboe and Sebarok Island in Sumatra, and Bukum Island in Malaya.

Air Operations, Europe

• 1,108 aircraft including 748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes and 68 Mosquitos attack Dortmund. This is another new record to a single target, a record which will stand to the end of the war. Another record tonnage of bombs, 4,851, is dropped through cloud on to this unfortunate city. The RAF 'earthquake' bomb is dropped for the first time. The 10-ton weapon is used to knock out the Bielefeld viaduct. The only details available from Dortmund state that the attack fell mainly in the center and south of the city. A British team which investigated the effects of bombing in Dortmund after the war says that, 'The final raid … stopped production so effectively that it would have been many months before any substantial recovery could have occurred'.
• 2 Lancasters lost.

• 81 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, and 3 each to Halle, Magdeburg and Stendal, 16 Lancasters and 3 Halifaxes lay mines in the Kattegat, and there are 2 RCM sorties.
• 3 mine-laying Lancasters are lost.

Air Operations, Formosa

• V Bomber Command B-24s and V Fighter Command P-38s attack Takao and Tainan.
• V Fighter Command P-51s attack Tainan and several power plants.

Air Operations, Japan

5 28th Composite Bomb Group b-24s attack targets in the Kurabu Cape airfield area.

Air Operations, Pacific

The US strategic bombing campaign against Japan continues. During the night the city of Osaka is wiped out by a raid of 274 US bombers.

Air Operations, Philippines

• FEAF B-24s attack Ipo, Malabang and Mercedes.
• B-25s attack Japanese Army troops and supplies at 2 locations.
• A-20s and fighter-bombers attack numerous targets throughout Luzon.
• Fighter-bombers attack Caballo Island.

Burma

Myotha, southwest of Mandalay, falls to the 20th Indian Div as they also mop up in the area.

Eastern Front

Stalin, in his 300th Order of the Day, announces that after violent fighting, the 1st Belorussian Front has taken Küstrin, one of the few bridgeheads on the east bank of the Oder left to the Germans and only about 50 miles from Berlin. Apart from that small area in the north near Stettin the Soviets now hold the whole of the Oder-Neisse line as far south as Görlitz. The reduction of the other bridgehead east of Stettin continues. The 2nd Belorussian Front continues to press on towards the Baltic, threatening Danzig and Gdynia. In the Polish Corridor they capture Tczew. In Hungary, the German thrust between Lake Venelcei and Lake Balaton is completely exhausted. There are signs of disaffection among the troops, even amoung the elite SS Panzer corps. Hitler is beside himself with anger, and orders that the division of his personal bodyguard be stripped of their distinctive privileges.

Operation SPRING AWAKENING peters out in the face of fuel shortages, Soviet resistance and water-logged terrain. However, Hitler orders a resumption of the attack.

Elements of the 1st Guards Tank Army reaches the outer defenses around Gotenhafen. Only the remnants of the VII Panzer Corps oppose them.

The German offensive in Hungary has virtually ground to a halt, the attacking units having exhausted themselves after a week of bitter fighting. Hitler is furious at the failure to break through to the Danube and orders the attack to be resumed, raging against both the army and the SS.

Iwo Jima

The Americans launch the final attacks against the Japanese fortifications in the center and east of the island.

Philippines

On Luzon the Americans begin attacks in force on the Shimbu line.

The occupation of Mindanao continues; there is hard fighting northeast of San Roque, in a village tenaciously held by the Japanese. Small American units land on Simara and meet with no opposition from the Japanese.

Western Front

In the northern part of the Remagen bridgehead, the 78th Div, III Corps, US 1st Army, succeeds in holding off several counterattacks by the German 7th Army against Honnef, and opens an offensive eastward toward Kalenborn. In the center, the 9th Div is heavily engaged in the vicinity of Hargarten, but manages to take the village by the evening and on the southern flank of the bridgehead the 99th Div succeeds in advancing in the area between Hargarten and Höningen.

In the US 3rd Army sector, the VIII Corps completes the occupation of the west bank of the Rhine, while the XII And XX Corps prepare to cross the Moselle.

Images from March 12, 1945

Sherman Firefly Ic, British Army Operation PLUNDER, Wesel Germany, 12 March 1945

Sherman Firefly Ic

The London Blitz - V2 Rocket Bomb Incident at Chinatown, Limehouse, East London, March 1945. Damage caused by the V-2. In the foreground, a man inspects the propulsion unit of a 'V' rocket bomb

Inspecting Propulsion Unit of a V-2

On the night of 12 March 1945, a tornado rolled through Kalaikunda airstrip, Kharagpur, India

Tornado in India

A Pershing T26E3 of A Company, 14th Tank Battalion, is transported aboard a pontoon ferry across the Rhine, 12 March 1945

Crossing the Rhine

Bomb-damaged Dresden, commuters boarding a tram, 12 March 1945

Commuters Boarding a Tram

Colonel Taylor (now Brigadier General) (16th Infantry) receives the Croix de Guerre from General Le Clerc

Receiving the Croix de Guerre

The Polish city and port of Swinoujscie suffered extensive bombing at the hands of the US Air Force in WWII, and all in just one day. On 12 March 1945, the German-controlled city, which numbered many refugees amongst its population, was heavily bombarded. It has been estimated that between 5,000 and 23,000 people lost their lives in this extremely destructive raid.

The Polish City and Port of Swinoujscie

4th Marine Division post office, established in a canvas covered dugout on Iwo Jima, Japan, March 12, 1945

4th Marine Division Post Office