Air Operations, CBI

• 12 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 6 14th Air Force P-51s attack 2o bridges near Hankow.
• 4 B-25s attack rail targets near Lohochai and between Kinkiang and Koishan.
• 3 B-25s attack several motor-vehicle convoys.
• More than 80 fighter-bombers harass withdrawing Japanese Army units and lines of communications across southern and eastern China.

Air Operations, East Indies

XIII Bomber Command B-24s, 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s, and XIII Fighter Command P-38s attack several targets on Borneo.

Air Operations, Formosa

• V Bomber Command B-25s and V Fighter Command P-38s sweep western Formosa.
• 4 Fleet Air Wing 17 PVs attack a tunnel, rail lines, and freight cars at Koryu.

Air Operations, Japan

During the night 29 9th Very Heavy Bomb Group B-29s sow mines in the Shimonoseki Strait and off Fukuoka, Fushiki, and Karatsu.

Air Operations, Pacific

US bombers raid Tokyo again, dropping 3,252 tons of bombs and destroying the Ginza district and the surroundings of the Imperial Palace. Over 35 square miles of the city, more than half of it, have now been flattened. Many factories have been destroyed and the production of some war materials is down by 80 per cent.

Air Operations, Philippines

• V Bomber Command B-24s attack Echague and Tuguegarao.
• A-20s and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack targets on Luzon.
• XIII Fighter Command fighter-bombers support US 8th Army ground forces on Cebu.

Air Operations, Ryukyus

• US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft support US 10th Army ground forces on Okinawa and attack airfields in the Sakishima Islands.
• 318th Fighter Group P-47s down 2 D4Y 'Judy' dive bombers north of Okinawa between 1515 and 1520 hours.
• 2 VMF-113 F4Us down a Ki-61 'Tony' fighter near Izena Shima at 1535 hours.
• Light kamikaze attacks damage several vessels in the Okinawa area.

Burma

Britain's XXXIII Corps occupies Bassein, an important railway town 80 miles to the west of Rangoon.

China

In the course of their general withdrawal the Japanese evacuate Nanning, capital of Kwangsi province. They no longer have any land communication with Indochina. The Chinese re-occupy the city.

Germany

SHAEF HQ is transferred from Rheims to Frankfurt-am-Main.

Okinawa

The Japanese withdrawing from the Shuri line are heavily bombarded from air, land and sea. One regiment of the 7th Div advances south along the east coast as far as a range of hills, but the other units suffer heavy losses in an attempt to Dick Hill, one of the Japanese strongpoints in the defensive line east of Chan.

Two US destroyers, Anthony (DD-515) and Braine (DD-630), the high-speed minesweeper Forrest (DMS-24), the submarine chaser PC-1603 and the surveying ship Dutton (AGS-8) are all damaged by Japanese suicide aircraft off Okinawa.

Pacific

The Japanese submarine chaser No. 172 is sunk when it hits a US mine off Honshu, Japan.

Philippines

On Luzon in the US I Corps sector, units of the 25th Div eliminate Japanese resistance in a gorge north of Balete Pass and enter Santa Fe. In the XI Corps sector, the road to Guagua is completely clear, but the American units approaching the position are driven back by the intense Japanese fire.

Images from May 26, 1945

Spectacular crash at Byoritsu oil refinery, Formosa, was photographed by a B-25 of the 5th Air Force's 345th Bomb Group on 26 May 1945. Just as it released its string of parafrags B-25 NO. 192 was hit by flak from a camouflaged battery and trails smoke. A gaping hole is visible on the pilot's side.

Crash at Byoritsu Oil Refinery

The Berghof, Hitler’s retreat at Berchtesgaden, three weeks after cessation of hostilities. The Berghof had been bombed repeatedly in the final months of the war. In the photograph, a P-47 Thunderbolt of the US Army 12th Air Force may be seen flying low over the crumbled ruins. The crater in the background is enormous; it demonstrates that the Allies used significant weaponry at Berchtesgaden.

Hitler’s Retreat at Berchtesgaden

Old National Guard Ill. members of the 123rd FA Bn in active service since 1941 shown grouped around their 155mm artillery piece. Near Baguio Mt. Province, Luzon, P.I. 26 May 1945. Photo: National Archives.

Artillery in the Philippines

Sugar Loaf Hill, Okinawa, 26 May 1945. During one of the many rainy spells on Okinawa, the First Battalion, Fourth Marines command post was established on Sugar Loaf Hill.

Sugar Loaf Hill, Okinawa

Tokyo burns under B-29 firebomb assault, 26 May 1945

Tokyo Burns

26 May 1945. Corporal Yukio Araki, holding a puppy, with four other pilots of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron at Bansei, Kagoshima. Araki died the following day, at age 17, in a suicide attack on ships near Okinawa.

Pilots of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron

People conduct a funeral at a makeshift altar in central Tokyo after a US bombing raid, 26 May 1945.

A Funeral in Tokyo