Air Operations, Carolines

• 20 318th Fighter Group P-47s strafe and rocket airfields, the seaplane base, and other targets in the Truk Atoll.
• 24 11th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack airfields, barracks, the radio station, and other targets in the Truk Atoll.
• A 318th Fighter Group P-47 downs an H8K 'Emily' flying boat over the Truk Atoll at 1100 hours.

Air Operations, CBI

• 6 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 9 14th Air Force P-47s attack rail yards at Taiyuan.
• More than 50 fighter-bombers attack various targets across southern and eastern China.

Air Operations, East Indies

• XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Malimpoeng and Manggar airfields on Borneos and sink a small Japanese Navy seaplane tender.
• Fleet Air Wing 10 PVs attack various targets on Borneo.
• XIII Fighter Command P-38s attack Tarakan.

Air Operations, Formosa

• V Bomber Command B-24s attack the airfields at Okayama, Tainan, and Takao.
• 42 B-24s attack oil stores at Toshien.
• 38th Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack Taito.
• V Fighter Command P-38 escorts attack many targets of opportunity.
• P-51s attack the airfield at Okayama.

Air Operations, Japan

• 69 73rd and 313th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack the Tachikawa airfield on Honshu with 378 tons of bombs, and 25 B-29s attack other targets.
• 56 314th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack the Kanoya, Kokubu and Oita airfields on Kyushua and those at Saeki and Tomitaka. 2 B-29s attack other targets.

Air Operations, Philippines

5th and 13th air force B-24s, B-25s, A-20s, and fighter-bombers attack targets throughout Cebu and Luzon.1st Marine Aircraft Wing PBJs, SBDs, and F4Us support the US X Corps on Mindanao. US 8th Army ground troops capture the Daliao airfield on Mindanao.

Air Operations, Ryukyus

• Japanese Army artillery fires 28 rounds at Okinawa's Kadena Field at 0015 hours.
• US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft support the US 10th Army on Okinawa.
• Task Unit 52.1.3 and Task Unit 52.1.1 TBMs and F6Fs attack airfields in the Sakishima Islands.
• A VF-9 F6F downs a G4M 'Betty' bomber and a J1N 'Irving' fighter at sea at 0100 hours.
• A VMF(N)-542 F6F downs an A6M Zero 30 miles northwest of Okinawa at 0335 hours.
• 2 VBF-85 F4Us and a VF-83 F6F down a D4Y 'Judy' dive bomber and a P1Y 'Galaxy' bomber near Task Force 58 at 0800 hours.
• A VF-33 F6F downs a Ki-61 'Tony' fighter over the Miyara airfield at midnight.
• By this date, since the last week of March, Task Force 58 carrier aircraft have completed 24,393 sorties in support of the Okinawa invasion (of which 10,711 have been against shore targets), and escort- carrier-based aircraft have completed 18,133 sorties (of which 9,361 have been against shore targets). During April, land-based US Marine Corps day fighters completed 3,300 effective combat air patrol sorties and 609 ground-support sorties, and USMC night-fighters completed 221 night sorties.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The German submarine U-548 is sunk by the US destroyer escorts Thomas (DE-102), Bostwick (DE-103) and Coffman (DE-191) and the frigate Natchez (PF-2) off the coast of Virginia.
• US naval land-based aircraft (VPB-63) sink the German submarine U-1055 west of France.
• Other German submarines sunk during April by US and British aircraft include U-677, U-906, U-982 and U-3525 in the Baltic area; U-1131, U-1227 and U-2516 at Kiel, Germany; and U-2532 and U-2537 at Hamburg, Germany.

Burma

In the British IV Corps sector, the 17th Indian Div penetrates into the town of Pegu and begins mopping up there. Forces from the British XV Corps sail from Rangoon for Operation DRACULA.

China

The Chinese 58th Div is forces to retire on prepared positions in the Wa-wu-tang area, under Japanese pressure.

Eastern Front

At 3:30p.m. dressed in a new Nazi uniform and modestly bemedaled, Hitler takes a cyanide capsule while seated on a counch in the Chancellery Bunker in Berlin. So ended the 'Thousand Year Reich'. His new wife, Eva Braun, also take poison. Their bodies were doused in gasoline and burned. Only the Russians saw their remains, and it is still not known what became of the final evidence of Hitler's death. Goebbels and his wife killed themselves and their 6 children at the same time. Most of the world rejoiced at the news of Hitler's death, but it was by no means a universal feeling. In neutral Portugal, for example, the government ordered 2 days of national mourning and flags were flown at half-staff.

There is no more news of the 9th Army, while all hope is given up of any possibility that Walther Wenck's 12th Army can reach the city. After very severe fighting lasting all day, at 10:50p.m. 3 assault battalions of the Russian 150th Div capture the Reichstag; Lt Berest and 2 sergeants plant the Soviet flag on the equestrian statue that represents Germany in triumph. During the night Gen Hans Krebs, Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht, asks to be allowed to negotiate the surrender of the city to Gen Zhukov, commander of the army operating in the Chancellery area.

In Czechoslovakia, the Russians take Moravska-Ostrava after a long struggle by the 4th Ukraine Front.

The German army is half destroyed; Army Group South, under Lothar Rendulic since April 6, 600,000 men strong, and Army Group Center, under Ferdinand Schörner, with 1,200,000 men, are still able to fight. Fight they do, but only to clear a way through the enemy armies and make their way back to the west. Army Group South is successful, and a good part of it reaches the American lines.

In the north, in the 2nd Front sector the Russians advance from Anklam on Stralsund, Peenemünde and Ribnits; from Prenzlau on Neustrelitz and Waren; and from Angermünde on Templin. The struggle for Breslau continues; the German garrison is surrounded but does not surrender.

Troops of the Soviet 3rd Shock Army engage SS soldiers in a vicious room-by-room fight for the Reichstag. Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide, and their bodies are cremated.[MORE]

Indian Ocean

A Japanese convoy is annihilated by British destroyers in the Indian Ocean.

Italy

The 92nd Div, US 5th Army, reaches Turin, while in the east units of the II Corps reach Treviso. The British XIII Corps presses on toward Trieste while Tito's Partisans occupy the city. Marshal Graziani is executed by Italian partisans.

Occupied Holland

Seyss-Inquart meets Allied representatives to discuss the prevention of starvation among the civil population.

Okinawa

On the western flank of the US XXIV Corps the 1st Marine Div relieves the battle-weary 27th Div. The 77th Div, taking over from the 96th, pursues the costly battle for the Maeda Escarpment. There is no progress on the Kochi Ridge.

Another American destroyer, the Bennion (DD-662), and the minelayer Terror (CM-5) are damaged by Japanese suicide aircraft off Okinawa. US Navy losses in this sector since March 26 amount to 20 ships sunk and 157 damaged. Even for such a powerful fleet as the American, this is a disturbing hemorrhage. In the same period the Japanese have lost over 1,100 aircraft, counting only those shot down by the US Navy.

Philippines

On Luzon in the US XIV Corps sector the Americans take Mount Malepuny, but there are still pockets of Japanese resistance.

On Mindanao, the US 24th Div, X Corps, advances to within 4 miles of Davao, taking Talomo and the airfield at Daliao.

Western Front

In the British 2nd Army sector, while the VIII Corps extends and reinforces the bridgehead over the Elbe at Launeburg, units of the XVIII Airborne Corps begin to acvance from the Elbe toward the Baltic Sea. Munich is taken by the XV Corps, US 7th Army; the XXI and VI Corps push on toward the Austrian frontier in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Resenheim sectors.

The French 1st Army enters Austria in the vicinity of Bregenz.

Images from April 30, 1945

Red Army soldiers Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria of the 756th Rifle Regiment raising the Flag of the Soviet Union over the Reichstag building during the Battle of Berlin, April 30, 1945. (Photograph by Yevgeniy Khaldey)

Raising the Soviet Union Flag over ther Reichstag

The last known picture of Adolf Hitler, surveying the ruins outside his bunker in Berlin, some days before his suicide.

Last Known Picture of Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. His wife Eva (née Braun) committed suicide with him by ingesting cyanide.

Hitler Commits Suicide by Gunshot

The ditch where the corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun were believed to have been burned after their suicides on 30 April 1945

Ditch Containing the Corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun

On this day in 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head

Adolf Hitler Commits Suicide

Citizens of Munich greet the 7th Army as liberators, April 30, 1945

Citizens of Munich

Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the streets Berlin, April 30, 1945

Marshal Georgy Zhukov

The Red Army battles for the ruins of the Reichstag, April 30, 1945

The Ruins of the Reichstag