Air Operations, CBI

• 12 10th Air Force B-25s attack a bridge and troops dispersed behind Japanese Army battle lines in central Burma.
• 8t 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack a supply dump at the Nansang airfield.

• 30 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 9 14th Air Force P-51s attack rail yards at Shihkiachwang.
• 12 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack rail yards at Sinyang.
• 6 B-25s attack gun positions and a bridge at Sienning.
• 6 B-25s attack stores at Samah Bay, Hainan and a bridge near Ninh Binh, French Indochina.
• 4 B-25s attack rail yards at Yanglowtung.
• Several B-25s and nearly 125 fighter-bombers attack numerous targets across southern and eastern China and northern French Indochina.
• 26 P-51s attack the airfield at Ningpo.
• 13 V Bomber Command B-24s attack port facilities and shipping at Yulin, Hainan. 2 merchant ships are claimed.

Air Operations, East Indies

• XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack Oelin.
• XIII Fighter Command P-38s harrass airfields in North Borneo.

Air Operations, Europe

• 469 aircraft including 361 Lancasters, 100 Halifaxes and 8 Mosquitos of Nos. 1, 6 and 8 Groups attempt to attack the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg, where the new types of U-boats are being assembled, but the target area is completely cloud-covered. The local report describes 'considerable damage' to houses, factories, energy supplies and communications over a wide area of southern Hamburg and Harburg.
• 8 Lancasters and 3 Halifaxes are lost, a number being victims of an unexpected intervention by the Luftwaffe day-fighter force. This is Bomber Command's last double-figure aircraft loss of the war from a raid on one city.

Air Operations, Formosa

• 13 V Bomber Command B-24s attack port facilities and shipping at Kiirun.
• 23 22nd Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the airfield at Matsuyama with 20-pound fragmentation bombs.
• 26 312th Light Bomb Group A-20s strafe and drop napalm on the Saiatan military camp.
• V Fighter Command P-51s sweep waters between Luzon and Formosa.

Air Operations, Japan

• In hopes of diverting attention from the imminent Okinawa invasion, 137 of 149 73rd and 314th Very Heavy Bomb wing B-29s dispatched attack the Omura airfield on Kyushu and a machine works at Tachiarai.
• 1 B-29 is lost.

Air Operations, Philippines

• XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack Bongao Island.
• FEAF B-24s, A-20s, and fighter-bombers attack various targets on Cebu.
• V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack various targets on Luzon.
• Plans for XIII Bomber Command B-24s to attack pre-invasion targets in and around Legaspi, Luzon, are curtailed by bad weather.

Air Operations, Ryukyus

• Task Force 58 and Task Group 52.1 carrier aircraft attack numerous pre-invasion targets on Okinawa. Task Force 57 Royal Navy carrier aircraft attack targets in the Sakishima Islands.
• Anti-aircraft defenses for Task Force 57 prove inadequate when the Royal Navy carriers are attacked by kamikazes, but HMS Indefatigable is saved from more than superficial damage when a kamikaze crashes into her armored flight deck. Another kamikaze crashes into the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, flagship of the US 5th Fleet commander, Adm Raymond A. Spruance, who transfers to the battleship USS New Mexico.
• A VF-84 F4U downs a Ki-84 'Frank' fighter over Okinawa at about 0600 hours.
• VF-83 F6Fs down 1 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter and 1 Ki-84 'Frank' fighter near Zampa Misaki between 0715 and 0720 hours.
• A VF-23 F6F downs a Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter near Okinawa at 0730 hours.
• A VBF-83 F4U downs an E13A 'Jake' reconnaissance plane at sea at 1020 hours.
• 2 VBF-6 F4Us down an A6M Zero at sea at 1300 hours.

Burma

Northeast of Mandalay the British 36th Div and units of the Chinese 6th Army take Kyaukme. The Burma Road from Mandalay to Lashio is now clear.

Eastern Front

In Upper Silesia Konev's 1st Ukraine Front takes Ratibor. The 4th Ukraine Front, pressing against the German Army Group Center, advances slowly on Moravska-Ostrava (Ostrava). The 2nd Ukraine Front takes Nitra and forces the crossing of the Vah River, seizing Galanta, a little more than 30 miles from Bratislava. The right flank of the 3rd Ukraine Front, under Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin, is on the point of taking Sopron in Hungary and advances into Austria toward Wiener Neustadt; some units, in the Raba River valley, occupy Vasvar, Körmend and Szentgotthard. The Germans counterattack where they can, but are only able temporarily to slow down the inexorable advance of the Red Army steamroller.

The 7th Guards Army crosses the Vah River off the march while supporting forces take Nitra. Galanta also falls to second echelon elements of the 7th Guards. On the Austrian border Kormend and Szentgotthard falls to the 27th Army while Sopron is attacked by the 6th Guards Tank.

German deployment on the eastern front stands at 32 panzer, 15 panzer grenadier and 132 infantry divisions.

Pacific

• The US heavy cruiser Pensacola (CA-24) is damaged in a collision in the Okinawa area. Also in the Okinawa area Japanese suicide planes damage the US light minelayer Adams (DM-27), the attack transport Hinsdale (APA-120) and landing craft LST-724 and LST-884.
• The Japanese submarine I-8 is sunk by the US destroyers Morrision (DD-560) and Stockton (DD-646) in the Okinawa area.

Philippines

On Luzon there is fighting near Salacsac Pass No. 2, where the Americans lose ground, and on Mount Myoko. In the US XI Corps sector units of the 43rd Div advance in the Santa Maria valley, making contact with the 1st Cav Div.

Ryukyu Islands

The 77th Div leaves Kerama Retto, now in American hands. American losses are 31 dead and 81 wounded; Japanese, 530 dead and 121 prisoners. 1,200 enemy civilians are also interned. 350 Japanese 'suicide boats' are captured and destroyed on Kerama and other neighboring islands.

Western Front

Units of the newly formed 15th Army take over responsibility for the French coast and for troops stationed there, with the task of 'controlling' the besieged fortresses of Lorient and St Nazaire.

Units of the 3rd Arm Div, VII Corps, US 1st Army, continue their offensive against Paderborn.

In the American 3rd Army sector, the XX Corps is heavily engaged by units of the German 7th Army on the line of the Fulda and Eder Rivers. The 6th Arm Div continues to advance toward Kassel, with Mühlhausen as its immediate objective; the 80th Div is also advancing on Kassel, while the XII Corps move against various objectives in the area of Eisenach, 4th Arm Div, and advances along the line Nieder Jossa-Kruspis-Grossenmoor.

During the night Gen Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, Commander of the French 1st Army, opens an offensive across the Rhine in the area of Speyer and Germersheim with the French II Corps.

Forces of French 1st Army begin to cross the Rhine near Speyer. To the north all the Allied armies maintain their advance.

German troops begin withdrawing from the Netherlands.

Images from March 31, 1945

A Cromwell tank of the British 7th Armored Division passes a roadblock in the devastated town of Stadtlohn, 31 March 1945

A British Cromwell Tank in Stadtlohn

M5A1 Stuart tanks of the 11th Armored Division, Third U.S. Army, advance along the German autobaun, near Frankfurt, 31 March 1945

Stuart Tanks on the Autobahn near Frankfort

Loading rockets at Aka Shima, Ryukyu Islands, 31 March 1945

Loading Rockets

The Cromwell command tank of Brigadier Wingfield, commanding 22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, 31 March 1945

Cromwell Command Tank of Brigadier Wingfield

Jeep with two Wehrmacht officers as prisoner alongside a M5 Stuart tank of the United States in the town of Hersfeld, Germany, March 31, 1945

Jeep with 2 Wehrmacht Officers as POWs

March 31, 1945: US Army Signal Corps photographer Sgt. William E. Tear of Pasadena, California, makes motion pictures of the ruins caused by heavy bombardment on Frankfurt, Germany

Filming Ruins in Frankfort

A Messerschmitt Me-262 is photographed at an airfield in Frankfurt after her test pilot chose to surrender to US forces on March 31, 1945. The Me-262 was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft and claimed 542 Allied kills during her brief deployment in 1945. This particular unit was transported back to the US but it crashed during testing in 1946. The test pilot ejected safely

A Messerschmitt Me-262

Center of Frankfurt, Germany, 31 March 1945

Center of Frankfurt, Germany