Air Operations, CBI

• More than 70 10th Air Force P-47s and 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack numerous targets across central Burma.

• 9 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack port facilities at Canton and Kowloon, and targets of opportunity at Bakli Bay.
• 13 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack a bridge and various targets of opportunity.
• 8 B-25s attack rail yards at Sinyang and various targets of opportunity; and 19 14th Air Force P-51s attack targets of opportunity.
• A small number of FEAF B-24s attack coastal targets in China and French Indochina.

• 2 449th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack motor vehicles at Dien Bien Phu.

Air Operations, Europe

The 8th Air Force attacks jet fighter bases in the Munich and Berlin areas over the next 2 days. 367 German fighters are destroyed on the ground.

Daylight Ops:

• 57 Lancasters of No. 5 Group attack oil-storage tanks (40 aircraft) and U-boat shelters (17 aircraft of No. 617 Squadron with Grand Slams and Tallboys) at Hamburg. Both attacks are successful.
• 2 Lancasters are lost on the raid on the oil tanks.

• 591 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos of Nos. 1, 3 and 8 Groups are sent to Kiel. This is an accurate raid, made in good visibility on two aiming points in the harbor area. Photographic reconnaissance show that the Deutsche Werke U-boat yard is severely damaged, the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is hit and capsizes, the Admiral Hipper and the Emden are badly damaged. The local diary says that all 3 shipyards in the port were hit and that the nearby residential areas were severely damaged.
• 3 Lancasters are lost.

• 22 Halifaxes make a diversionary raid to Stade, 44 Mosquitos are to Berlin, 37 to Plauen and 24 to Hamburg, 70 Lancasters and 28 Halifaxes lay mines in Kiel Bay and the Little Belt, and there are 37 Mosquito patrols and 45 RCM sorties.
• 1 Halifax on the diversionary raid crashes in France.

Air Operations, Japan

16 313th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s sow mines in Shimonoseki Strait.

Air Operations, Philippines

• 22 494th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack troops at Kabacan.
• FEAF B-24s and XIII Fighter Command fighter-bombers support US 8th Army ground forces on Cebu and Negros.
• V Bomber Command A-20s and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers support US 6th Army ground forces on Luzon.
• US 8th Army ground forces from Mindanao conduct a shore-to-shore amphibious assault of Jolo Island in the Sulu Archipelago. 1st Marine Aircraft Wing F4Us and SBDs based at Moret Field on Mindanao cover and support the landing with 15 tons of bombs, 7,000 pounds of napalm, and more than 18,000 rounds of machine-gun ammunition.

Air Operations, Ryukyus

• US Navy carrier aircraft support US 10th Army ground forces on Okinawa.
• Aircraft from Task Unit 52.1.3 attack airfields in the Sakishima Islands.
• A VF(N)-90 F6F downs a D3A 'Val' dive bomber at 1908 hours.
• A US picket destroyer is damaged by a kamikaze.
• 11 Marine Air Group 31 F4Us are lost in operational accidents through the day, largely the result of bad-weather operations. 12 TBMs and F6Fs are lost aboard the USS Chenango as a result of a landing accident. The ship is badly damaged, but she will be repaired at sea within forty-eight hours.

Eastern Front

In East Prussia, the 3rd Belorussian Front finishes off the operations against Königsberg. In the evening the fortress commander, Gen Otto Lasch, orders his troops to surrender. He is condemned to death in absentia, and the German High Command also dismisses Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller. The defense of the city has cost the Germans 42,000 dead and 92,000 prisoners, and the Russians have captured 3,675 guns and mortars. Part of the German 4th Army prepares to resist to the last man on the Samland peninsula, north of the city. The battle continues in Vienna, where Tolbukhin's troops take one isolated post after another. The German 6th Army and 6th SS Panzer Army try in vain to stop the Russians from spreading out toward southern and western Austria.

The units of Army Group E under Alexander Löhr, already cut off, still go on fighting against Tito's forces in Yugoslavia.

The commander of Königsberg, Gen Lasch, surrenders, German losses are 42,000 troops and 25,000 civilians killed and 92,000 troops captured. Hitler sentences Lasch to death in absentia and orders the arrest of his family and relatives.

With his force on the verge of total annihilation, Gen Lasch surrenders Konigsberg. More than 92,000 Germans soldiers are captured while 42,000 soldiers and 25,000 civilians have died during the battle. Hitler descends into a furious rage at news of Lasch's surrender and orders the arrest of his family and relatives. Lasch is sentenced to death in absentia and Muller, commander of the defunct 4th Army, dismissed, The last vestiges of the 4th Army continue to resist in Samland.

Germany, Home Front

Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Adm Wilhelm Canaris, former chief of the Abwehr, and Maj-Gen Hans Oster are hanged at the Flossenburg Concentration Camp.

Italy

In the evening Gen Richard McCreery's British 8th Army launches a big offensive, with Gen Sir Charles Keightley's V Corps on the right fland and Gen Wladyslaw Anders' Polish II Corps in the Imola sector. The main units of 8th Army will be directed toward Ferrara but the left flank will reach to Bologna. 8th Army's offensive begins with attacks by II Polish Corps along Route 9 toward Imola and by British V and X Corps to the right and left of the Poles. They succeed in establishing bridgeheads over the Senio in the Lugo sector and in the area of San Severo-Felisio. While Gen Kirkman's British XIII Corps stays on the defensive on the left flank. Hawkssorth's British X Corps and the Italian Friuli Combat Groups launch an offensive across the Senio during the night.

A US Liberty ship loaded with aircraft bombs blows up in Bari harbor. 360 are killed and 1,730 are injured.

Okinawa

In the XXIV Corps sector, units of the US 96th Div attack Kakazu Ridge, a strongpoint in the Shuri line, but are driven back with heavy losses by artillery fire and counter-attacks by the Japanese infantry. The US 27th Inf Div lands on the island. In the north, units of the 6th Marine Div begin to penetrate into the Motobu peninsula.

US ships damaged in the Okinawa area this day include the escort carrier Chenango (CVE-28) by a crash of a friendly aircraft, the destroyer Sterett (DD-407) by a suicide plane, the destroyer Porterfield by friendly fire, the high-speed transport Hopping (APD-51) and the landing craft LST-557 by coastal gunfire.

Pacific

British Pacific Fleet planes attack Japanese air fields on Formosa which are used to launch raids on US ships off Okinawa.

Philippines

On Luzon on the Villa Verde track the 32nd Div, US I Corps, presses its attack against the Salacsac Pass to gain access for the American forces to the valley of the Cagayan, which runs from south to north, west of the Sierra Madre, where the mass of the Japanese forces are concentrated. In the XI Corps sector, aircraft and artillery continue to hammer Mount Mataba.

Both on Cebu and on Negros the American troops get ready to eliminate the Japanese forces which have taken up positions in the mountains of the interior. In the Sulu archipelago, following 2 weeks of air bombing and a preliminary naval bombardment, the 163rd Regt of 41st Div lands on Jolo Island without meeting any resistance and proceeds to occupy it. Other 41st Div units land at Busuanga in the Calamian group.

Western Front

In the British 2nd Army sector, while the XXX Corps advances east and northeast of Lingen, the XII and VIII Corps reach the Weser River, in the Hoya sector, and the Leine River.

The units of the XIII Corps, US 9th Army, launch the assault on Hanover from north, northwest and west. In the Ruhr pocket other 9th Army units penetrate into Essen and reach the famous Krupp factories.

All the corps of the US 1st Army continue to advance toward the Elbe. The VII Corps makes swiftly for Nordhausen and the Leine River in the Göttingen area.

The US 7th Army pushes on in the area of Schweinfurt, reaching the Kocher River near Weissbach and, farther south, a line from Ingelfelden to Weldingsfeld.

Images from April 9, 1945

The body of Volkssturm Bataillonsführer Walter Doenicke lies next to a torn portrait of Hitler. Doenicke committed suicide in the city hall, Leipzig, Germany shortly before the arrival of allied troops on 9 April 1945

Suicide of Walter Doenicke

Infantry of the Regiment de Maisonneuve moving through Holten to Rijssen, both towns in the Netherlands. 9 April 1945.

Canadian Troops in the Netherlands

Churchill Crocodile flamethrower tank supporting infantry of 2nd New Zealand Division during the assault across the River Senio, 9 April 1945.

Flamethrower Tank in Italy

A dead German soldier lies in the foreground. Devastated Koenigsburg. April 1945. After the massive Russia assault. April 6-9, 1945

Devastated Koenigsburg

Jolo, Sulu Archipelago, P-Day, 9 April 1945

Jolo, Sulu Archipelago

War ravaged Koenigsburg in April 1945 after the encircled Germans finally surrendered after months of brutal fighting.

War ravaged Koenigsburg

German soldiers in Koenigsberg surrender after the Soviet army stormed it on April 9, 1945

German POWs in Koenigsberg

General Otto Lysh, the German officer in defense of Konigsberg after he signs the surrender on April 9, 1945. He observed, 'I never thought that a first-rate fortress like Konigsberg would fall so soon under the blows of the Soviet army.

General Otto Lysh, Defender of Konigsberg