Air Operations, CBIBURMA
Air Operations, East IndiesXIII Fighter Command P-38s attack Tarakan and a tank farm at Lingkas, Borneo. [ | ]Air Operations, EuropeRussian and RAF fighter planes join together from the east and west for the first time while attacking a train near Dresden. RAF BOMBER COMMAND
Air Operations, Formosa
Air Operations, Japan
Air Operations, Philippines
Air Operations, Ryukyus
Allied PlanningGen Carl A. Spaatz, commander of US Strategic Air Forces in Europe, announces that all strategic operations have ceased and air units will henceforth merely engage in mopping-up action against Germany. [ | ]Baltic SeaIn the greatest maritime loss in history, during the night 6,220 refugees from Danzig drown when the German 5,230-ton transport Goya is sunk by the Soviet submarine L-3. The ship is torpedoed near Cape Rixhöft (Rozewie) and quickly sinks. A total of 18,000 Germans were lost when the refugee ships in the Baltic were subjected to constand Allied air and naval attack. 16 such vessels were sunk between January and May. [ | ]Battle of the Atlantic
BurmaAdvanced guards of the 5th Indian Div, IV Corps, occupy Shwemyo without meeting any resistance, but are held up on the outskirts of the town by intense Japanese fire. In the Arakan, Taungup falls to the British forces. [ | ]Germany, Home FrontHitler orders that 'he who gives the order to retreat is to be shot on the spot.' Since the first of the month Allied forces on the western front have captured 755,573 German troops. [ | ]Germany, StrategyHitler issues his order of the day regarding the new Soviet offensive against Berlin: 'For the last time our deadly enemies, the Jewish Bolsheviks, have launched their massive forces to the attack. Their aim is to reduce Germany to runis and to exterminate our peoples... If every soldier on the Eastern front does his duty in the days and weeks which lie ahead, the last assault of Asia will crumple, just as the invasion by our enemies in the West will finally fail, in spite of everything.' []ItalyThe offensives of the US 5th and British 8th Armies toward the Lombard plain make progress. [ | ]OkinawaThe 6th Marine Div, US III Amphibious Corps, sends its 7 battalions to attack the Yae-Take heights in the Motobu peninsula. The fighting is savage and the outcome remains uncertain all day. At 8:00a.m., after air and naval bombardment, the US 77th Div begins the landing at Ie Shima, west of the Motobu peninsula. The assault troops advance quickly into the interior, more held up by the mines than by the Japanese, and capture two-thirds of the island, including the airfield; Japanese counterattacks are driven off. Despite the air raids on Kyushu, renewed again today, kamikaze pilots attack American ships off Okinawa in force, sinking the destroyer Pringle (DD-477), seriously damaging the aircraft carrier Intrepid (CV-11) and, less seriously, the battleship Missouri (BB-63), the destroyers Bryant (DD-665) and McDermut (DD-677), the destroyer escort Bowers (DE-637), the high-speed minesweepers Hobson (DMS-26) and Harding (DMS-28) and the minesweeper Champion (AM-314). [ | ]PacificThe Japanese coast defense vessel No. 73 is sunk by the US submarine Sunfish (SS-281) off Honshu, Japan. [ | ]PhilippinesOn Luzon the 158th Regimental Combat Group repels several strong Japanese counterattacks at San Francisco, and occupies the southern point of the Bicol peninsula, make the northern entrance to the San Bernardino Strait safe for American shipping. In the I Corps sector, the US 37th Div overcomes the dogged resistance of the Japanese on the hills north of San Francisco and advances north along the west coast. In the XIV Corps sector, the 511th Inf of the 11th Airborne Div takes Mount Malepunyo and Mount Dalaga, while the 1st Cav Div shuts up some of the Japanese units in a number of pockets north and northwest of Mount Mataasna Bundoc. After a 2-day air and naval preparation, a battalion of the 151st Inf lands unopposed on Carabao Island, the last objective in Manila Bay not yet secured, and occupies it. The Americal Div makes slow progress on Cebu against the Japanese positions on the hills around Cebu City. The Japanese retire during the following night. In the Sulu archipelago units of the US 41st Div eliminate the remaining Japanese resistance. [ | ]Western FrontThe II Corps of the Canadian 1st Army take Groningen. In the British 2nd Army sector, the XXX Corps is coming close to Bremen, while at Ülzen units of the VIII Corps meet with vigorous resistance from the German 20th Army. The XVIII Airborne Corps, US 1st Army, pushes on further in the Ruhr pocket, where German resistance is quickly weakening; many units surrender, and so far the Americans have taken at least 20,000 prisoners. The VII and V Corps extend their bridgehead on the east bank of the Mulde River; units of the 9th Arm Div, V Corps, enter Colditz, while the 69th Div advances northeast toward Leipzig. In the sector in which the units of the US 7th Army are engaged, the XV Corps advances toward Nuremberg and reaches the outskirts of the city. The special POW camp at Colditz is freed by other Allies units. [ | ]Eastern FrontAfter receiving Eisenhower's March 28 message Stalin has become convinced that the British and Americans will not head for southern Germany but go for Berlin. He has, therefore, ordered preparations for the last great offensive to take the German capital to be hurried forward. Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front and Ivan Konev's 1st Ukraine Front are to lead the attack with support from Konstantin Rokossovsky in the north. Perhaps in an effort to divide the glory and retain credit for himself and not the army or any one of its leaders, Stalin has not made it clear whether Zhukov or Konev has to make the final assault on the city. Between them the two Soviet marshals have well over 2,000,000 men, more than 6,000 tanks and self-propelled guns, a similar number of aircraft and almost 16,000 guns one gun for every 13 feet of the front on which the assault will take place. Although the Germans have about 1,000,000 men deployed in fairly strong and well-prepared positions overlooking the west bank of the Oder and Neisse, they are totally outmatched in the air and on the ground they have nothing to compare with the lavish scale of Soviet equipment. The German troops are organized in Gen Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group Vistula and Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner's Army Group Center. At 5:00a.m. the 1st Ukraine Front opens the offensive against Berlin with a massive bombardment of the positions of the German 4th Panzer Army, Army Group Center, on the Neisse River in the Triebel area. At 7:00a.m. the tanks and infantry go in, taking a bridgehead over the river. There are powerful attacks also in the area of Ratibor. At 6:15a.m. the 1st Belorussian Front attacks the sector held by the Vistula Army Group north and south of Frankfurt-on-the-Oder. The Russian 33rd Army, south of the town, makes the most progress, advancing several miles. In Austria the 3rd Ukraine Front presses on west of Vienna, taking St Pölten and Fürstenfeld. The 2nd Ukraine Front gains ground in Czechoslovakia southeast of Brno. Hitler sends his last Order of the Day to his Eastern Front armies: 'He who gives the order to retreat is to be shot on the spot.' GERMANYThe Soviet Berlin Offensive begins. For this assault the Soviets have amassed 2.5 million troops, 41,000 artillery pieces, 6,200 tanks and assault guns, 100,000 motor vehicles and 7,200 aircraft, divided between the 1st Belorussian, 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts. Facing this host is Army Group Vistula (3rd Panzer and 9th Armies with the LVI Panzer Corps in reserve 200,000 troops, 750 tanks and assault guns and 1,500 artillery pieces) and the northern flank of Army Group Center (4th Panzer Army 100,000 troops and 200 tanks and assault guns). The 1st Belorussian Front (Polish 1st, 1st Guards Tank, 2nd Guards Tank, 3rd, 3rd Shock, 5th Shock, 8th Guards, 33rd, 47th, 61st and 69th Armies) launches its initial attack against the Seelow Heights, bu the Germans have anticipated this move and withdrawn some way back, thus the Soviet artillery 'punches air', and Zhukov's tactics of using searchlights to aid the attack actually illuminates the attackers. As the 8th Guards Army struggles forward, Zhukov commits the 1st Guards Tank and 2nd Guards Tank Armies, which creates chaos. Although the Soviets inch forward, they lose many tanks. The 1st Ukrainian Front (Polish 2nd, 3rd Guards, 3rd Guards Tank, 4th Guards Tank, 5th Guards, 13th, 28th and 52nd Armies), at the Neisse River, has more success, establishing a bridgehead.[MORE] [ | ]Images from April 16, 1945
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[April 15th - April 17th] |