Air Operations, CBI

• With the fall of Rangoon this day to Allied ground forces (following the Japanese withdrawal from the city), 10th Air Force offensive operations in Burma are effectively brought to a close. USAAF aircraft will continue to operate against pockets of resistance in the country, but regional aviation headquarters begin planning for the transfer of the 10th Air Force to China, where it will serve as a tactical air force in support of Allied ground forces.

• 9 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 6 14th Air Force fighter-bombers attack rail lines and bridges at 3 locations and motor-vehicle convoys in the Hsiang Valley and near Changsha, Hengyang, and Pauching.
• More than 90 fighter-bombers attack numerous targets across southern and eastern China.

• 47 90th and 380th Heavy Bomb group B-24s attack shipyards and oil stores at Saigon.

Air Operations, East Indies

• XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Manggar airfield on Borneo.
• B-24s, 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s, and Fleet Air Wing 10 PVs mount numerous small attacks against targets on Borneo and Celebes.
• B-25s and Royal Australian Air Force aircraft support Australian Army ground forces on Tarakan Island.
• XIII Fighter Command P-38s and US Navy carrier aircraft attack warehouses in the Brunei Bay area.

Air Operations, Japan

• 59 314th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack airfields on Kyushu.
• 5 B-29s attack other targets.
• One B-29 is lost.
• During the night 88 313th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s sow mines in Shimonoseki Strait while 3 B-29s mine other waters.

Air Operations, Philippines

• V Bomber Command B-24s and A-20s, and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers support US 6th Army ground forces on Luzon.
• 1st Marine Aircraft Wing PBJs, SBDs, and F4Us support the US X Corps on Mindanao.
• In a single attack in the Ipo River area, several hundred P-38, P-47, and P-51 sorties are flown against a heavily fortified area, 5 miles square, with napalm and high-explosive bombs dropped from altitudes ranging from 50 to 100 feet. US X Corps ground troops capture the Kibawe airfield on Mindanao, which is put to immediate limited use as a forward supply terminus.

Air Operations, Ryukyus

• US Navy, Marine Corps, and Royal Navy aircraft support US 10th Army ground forces on Okinawa and attack airfields in the Sakishima Islands.
• A VF-12 F6F downs a Ki-61 'Tony' fighter over the Wan airfield on Kikai Shima 0525 hours.
• A VF-23 F6F downs a Ki-46 'Dinah' reconnaissance plane near Yoron Shima at 1620 hours.
• A VC-96 FM downs a Ki-51 'Sonia' bomber near Kerama Retto at 1815 hours.
• VMF-311 and VMF-323 F4Us down a Ki-84 'Frank' fighter, a D4Y 'Judy' dive bomber, and a Ki-48 'Lily' bomber at sea off Okinawa between 1900 and 1910 hours.
• During a sunset attack, kamikaze aircraft based on Kyushu sink a US radar picket destroyer and a landing ship. Also a US radar picket destroyer is damaged beyond repair and 4 other ships are damaged in varying degrees. 86 officers and men are killed aboard the lost and damaged vessels.

Burma

The 20th Indian Div enters Rangoon and Syiram, on the opposite bank of the river; both have been evacuated by the Japanese. Allied paratroopers and amphibious forces converge on the city. Farther north on the Irrawaddy, Prome is taken by XXXIII Corps. The war in Burma is effectively ended with the recapture of Rangoon. The campaign to retake Burma cost 4,115 British and Indian dead, 13,764 wounded, in addition to smaller numbers of US and Chinese casualties. Japanese losses in the campaign were about 100,000.

Denmark

The German cruiser Admiral Hipper is scuttled in Kiel Bay, having been previously damaged by an air raid.

Eastern Front

Russian forces wipe out last nests of resistance in Berlin. Advancing into Mecklenburg and Brandenburg on a wide front, Konstantin Rokossovsky's armies, 2nd Belorussian Front, reach the line Wismar-Wittenberg, linking up with units of the Allied 21st Army Group under Montgomery. Southeast of Wittenberg forces of the 1st Belorussian Front are met on the Elbe by units of the US 9th Army. In Czechoslovakia the 2nd and 4th Ukraine Fronts advance northeast of Brno and southwest of Moravska-Ostrava.[MORE]

Holland

The Queen and Princess Juliana return.

Ireland

(when?)Prime Minister De Valera calls at the German Legation to offer his condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler.

Italy

New Zealand troops advance into Trieste and are confronted by Yugoslav Partisans, and the two sides face each other in a potentially ugly showdown.

Occupied Czechoslovakia

A civilian uprising begins in Prague.

Okinawa

The 1st Marine Div, the 77th Div and the 7th Div persist all day in their attacks against the Maeda Escarpment and Kochi Ridge, but are pinned down by murderous Japanese fire. During the night the Japanese launch their only large-scale offensive of the campaign, attempting to land forces behind the American lines both on the east and on the west coast. The amphibious operation fails: almost all the landing craft are destroyed and the small forces that manage to land are wiped out. the effort costs the Japanese about 700 men. As requested by Gen Mitsuru Ushijima, the counteroffensive is preceded by the sinking 3 American destroyers, the Luce (DD-522), the Morrison (DD-560) and the Little (DD-803), and damaging the light cruiser Birmingham (CL-62), the destroyers Bache (DD-470), Ingraham (DD-694) and Lowry (DD-770), the high-speed minesweeper Macomb (DMS-23) and the light minelayer Aaron Ward (DM-34). The transport Carina (AK-74) is hit by an explosive boat and the minelayer Shea (DM-30) by a piloted flying bomb.

Pacific

• Throughout the month, off Okinawa, TF 58 is now organized in three groups of 13 carriers altogether and two groups are present at all times in this period. The British TF 57 makes attacks on Sakashime Gunto on 11 days. Escort carrier groups continue this work when the British carriers are replenishing. Among the damage done in the Japanese attacks are hits on the Bunker Hill, Enterprise, Victorious and Formidable. The escort carrier Sangamon Bay has to be written off after Kamikaze damage incurred on the 3rd.
• There are four main spells of Japanese attacks, May 3-4, May 10-13, May 24-25 and May 27-28. Altogether the Japanese send 560 Kamikaze planes in these periods. As well as the carrier casualties the battleship New Mexico is hit on the 10th, several destroyers are sunk and many more small warships or transports badly damaged. On May 24 two groups of TF 58 attack the airfields used by the Kamikaze forces on Kyushu. On May 28 Adm Halsey takes command of the US naval forces involved in the operations and they return to being known as 3rd Fleet and TF 58 becomes TF 38.
• The Japanese coast defense vessel No. 25 is sunk by the US submarine Springer (SS-414) in the Yellow Sea.

Philippines

On Luzon the US XIV Corps continues the liquidation of the remaining Japanese forces in the Bicol peninsula. In the US I Corps sector units of the 25th Div prepare to attack Mount Haruna, an important height west of the Balete Pass.

Units of the US 24th Div occupy the ruins of Davao, on Mindanao Island, and advance as far as Santa Ana, while advanced guards of the 31st Div take Kibawa, with its airfield, and advance along the Talomo track.

On Negros the Americal Div is mainly engaged in the south of the island, where the Japanese have succeeded in cutting its supply lines.

Portugal

Salazar orders a day of mourning for Hitler's death.

Western Front

While Field-Marshal Montgomery refuses to accept the surrender of the German forces in the north, including those on the Eastern Front, the British XII Corps, 2nd Army, receives the surrender of Hamburg. 59 merchant ships and 600 small craft are scuttled. The VIII Corps follows up the enemy toward the Kiel Canal, while the XVIII Airborne Corps finishes off its offensive operations when it reaches the Baltic west of Klütz. In the US 3rd Army sector, units of the XIII Corps push on in the direction of Linz. The 65th Div, XX Corps, crosses the Inn, while the whole corps moves on eastward and makes contact with the Red Army. The XV Corps, US 7th Army, advances rapidly toward Salzburg and the XXI Corps crosses the Austrian border and reaches the Reisach area. In the VI Corps sector, negotiations for the surrender of Innsbruck are still going on.

Images from May 3, 1945

Field Marshal Montgomery (second from the left) greets the German delegation (L to R – Admiral von Friedeburg, General Kinzel and Rear Admiral Wagner) on 3 May 1945 at Lüneburg Heath

Montgomery and the German Delegation

Dutch civilians loading a Canadian-supplied truck with food, following agreement amongst Germans, Dutch and Allies about the distribution of food to the Dutch population, 3 May 1945, Wageningen, Netherlands (vicinity)

Loading a Truck with Food

A German civilian holds the remains of a child in his arms, Warstein, 3 May 1945. Twelve years after the massacre, the men who carried out the killings were finally put on trial. Even though the German court concluded that the motive was 'a lust for blood', the majority of the accused were acquitted on the basis of 'superior orders'. (Source: National Archives, Washington

Loading a Truck with Food

Men of 6th Airborne Division greet the crew of a Russian T-34/85 tank during the link-up of British and Soviet forces near Wismar on the Baltic coast, 3 May 1945

Another Link-up of British and Soviet Forces

Narrow Escape (3 May 1945). Photographed at Guam, Army Nurse First Lieutenant Mary Jensen of San Diego, California, looks up through the hole in the concrete and steel deck of the Navy hospital ship Comfort, punctured when a Japanese suicide pilot dive-crashed into the ship off Okinawa with his bomb-laden plane. Nurse Jensen, who had stepped out of the main surgery supply room less than one minute before it was completely demolished by the explosion, is standing three decks below where the crash occurred.

Kamikaze Damage

Universal carriers of British 1/5th Queen's Regiment, 7th Armored Division, Hamburg, Germany, 3 May 1945

British Troops in Hamburg

Cromwell tanks of British 7th Armored Division, Hamburg, Germany, 3 May 1945

Cromwell Tanks in Hamburg

US Army M24 Chaffee light tank fighting in Salzburg, Austria, May 3, 1945

Action in Salzburg