Air Operations, CBI

• 16 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s and nearly 100 14th Air Force fighters harass Japanese Army units withdrawing from southern China and attack numerous other targets across southern and eastern China.

Air Operations, East Indies

XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Manggar and Sepinggang airfields on Borneo, and the Sidate airfield on Celebes.

Air Operations, Formosa

• V Bomber Command B-24s attack the airfields at Matsuyama and Nanseiho.
• B-25s and V Fighter Command P-51s attack bridges, rail yards, and alcohol plants while sweeping the island.

Air Operations, Japan

• 41 VII Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack the Atsugi airfield on Honshu.
• During the night 318th Fighter Group P-47s based on Ie Shima mount the first group attack in a series of ongoing heckling missions over Kyushu.

Air Operations, Marshalls

Fleet Carrier Air Group 87 (USS Ticonderoga) attacks Taroa Island in Maloelap Atoll—a training mission.

Air Operations, Pacific

USAAF P-51 Mustang fighters make a low-level attack on Atsugi airfield, Tokyo, and destroy or damage 42 Japanese aircraft with the loss of 1 of their number to anti-aircraft fire.

Air Operations, Philippines

V Fighter Command fighter-bombers mount more than 130 effective sorties against the Ipo Dam area of Luzon.

Air Operations, Ryukyus

• US Navy and Marine Corps and Royal Navy aircraft support US 10th Army ground forces on Okinawa and attack airfields in the Sakishima Islands.
• A US radar picket destroyer is moderately damaged by a kamikaze at 1930 hours.
• A VMTB-232 TBF downs an unidentified airplane over Okinawa at 0305 hours.
• US Marine Corps F4Us down a K5Y 'Willow' trainer and a Ki-46 'Dinah' reconnaissance plane off Okinawa during the morning.
• VMF-323 F4Us down 2 D3A 'Val' dive bombers north of Okinawa between 1900 and 1910 hours.

Marshall Islands

The carrier Ticonderoga attacks targets on the Japanese held islands of Taroa and Maleolap in what is virtually a training exercise in view of the weakness of the defense. The damage by the attack is immense.

New Guinea

Dutch troops land on Tarakan Island, reinforcing the Australians who had encountered stiff opposition from the Japanese defenders.

Okinawa

In the US 10th Army sector, Gen Simon Bolivar Buckner takes over command of all land forces, while Adm Harry W. Hill replaces Adm Richmond K. Turner in command of Task Force 51 with all air and naval forces under him. In the sector of the III Amphibious Corps the 6th Marine Div, though by now badly battered, continues the assaults for the capture of the Sugar Loaf after Japanese positions have been heavily bombarded by aircraft, field guns and warships. The 5th Regiment of the 1st Marine Div captures the western part of the valley of the Wana River but is unable to take the ridge that encloses it. Units of the 77th Div, XXIV Corps, carry out a surprise attack on Ishimmi Ridge, west of the village of Ishimmi, but are left dangerously exposes to enemy fire.

?The US destroyer Douglas H. Fox (DD-779) is damage by a suicide plane in the Okinawa area.

Philippines

On Luzon in the XI Corps sector, the US 152nd Infantry dig in favorable positions on Woodpecker Ridge, from which the Japanese are retiring. After intensive artillery preparation, the 43rd Div takes the Ipo Dam intact.

Images from May 17, 1945

A German girl holds her nose as she walks by the 800 exhumed bodies of forced laborers murdered by SS men, near Nammering, Germany, 17 May 1945

Exhumed Bodies of Murdered Laborers

A demolition crew from the 6th Marine Division watch dynamite charges explode and destroy a Japanese cave on Okinawa, May 1945.

Demolition Crew from the 6th Marine Division

17 May 1945 collision of Satan’s Second Sister (338196 A – right) and Chapel in the Sky (339124 E – left) on a perimeter track of Station 153 (Framlingham, UK). Both planes were salvaged.

Plane Collision at Framlingham

U-1228 surrendering at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 17 May 1945

U-1228 Surrendering