Air Operations, CBI

• 6 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack rail yards at Sinsiang.
• 4 B-25s and 4 81st Fighter Group P-47s attack a bridge.
• 20 14th Air Force fighter-bombers attack river shipping, a bridge, and several other targets.
• 18 P-51s attack warehouses, river shipping, and other targets around Yoyang.

Air Operations, East Indies

• FEAF B-24s and XIII Fighter Command P-38s attack troops on Tarakan Island.
• B-24s, B-25s, and P-38s attack various targets on Borneo.

Air Operations, Formosa

• All four V Bomber Command B-24 groups attack Takao.
• V Fighter Command fighter-bombers sweep coastal areas.

Air Operations, Japan

• 458 XXI Bomber Command B-29s attack Osaka with 2,788 tons of incendiary bombs. 16 B-29s attack other targets.
• 10 B-29s are lost.
• While on their way to escort B-29s to Osaka, 148 VII Fighter Command P-51s based at Iwo Jima run into unexpectedly bad weather and proceed on instruments rather than abort. Flying blind, several P-51s collide and others become lost or are driven down by the extremity of the weather. In all, 27 P-51s and 24 pilots are lost, including 15 P-51s and 12 pilots from the 506th Fighter Group alone. This is the largest single weather-related loss of the war. Only 27 of the surviving P-51s actually are able to locate the B-29s and complete the mission.
• A 15th Fighter Group P-51 downs a Ki-45 'Nick' fighter over Koriyama at 1110 hours.

Air Operations, Philippines

• V Bomber Command B-25s and A-20s, and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack various targets and support US 6th Army ground forces on Luzon.
• In the largest mission of its kind to date in the Mindanao Campaign, 88 Marine Air Group 24 SBDs based at Titcomp Field on Mindanao mount a saturation-bombing attack against a Japanese Army defensive position facing elements of the US X Corps. Employed for the first time by Marine aviation units, this saturation mission is so successful that US Army infantrymen advancing in the wake of the air attack encounter no fire from the objective.

Air Operations, Ryukyus

• US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft support US 10th Army ground forces on Okinawa and attack airfields in the Sakishima Islands.
• A VF-25 F6F downs a Ki-46 'Dinah' reconnaissance plane near Miyako Shima at 1820 hours.

Air Operations, Pacific

• 27 P-51s collide during a thunderstorm en route to Osaka.
• The Japanese city of Osaka is devastated by a huge B-29 raid in which 3,000 tons of incendiary bombs are dropped. Osaka becomes a non-functioning city, as most of its workforce has been dispersed.

Austria

British troops begin the forcible repatriation of the Cossack Corps to Judenborg in the Russian zone of Austria. A pitched battle occurs and about 700 Cossacks are trampled or commit suicide. This action is known as the Peggetz 'Massacre'.

Burma

The British 12th Army joins the 14th Army.

Okinawa

With the fall of the castle and village of Shuri, Gen Mitsuru Ushijima, who has lost his best men, withdraws the rest of his forces on to the Oroku peninsula, just south of Naha, and on to the hills of Yaeju, Yuza and Mezado, in the extreme south of the island. The conditions are frightful, and there is an extreme shortage of rations; there is even some discontent among the Japanese troops, something unheard of in the Japanese army. Units of the US 1st Marine Div cross the Koruba River, south of Naha. The divisions of the XXIV Corps, on the left of the American line, pursue the enemy southward, while some units mop up the area of Shuri.

Pacific

Over the next 2 weeks the carrier groups of TF 38 now under Adm John S. McCain's command, continue to give support to the Okinawa operation. There are also attacks on June 3 on airfields on Kyushu and agains on the 8th. On the 9th and 10th there are attacks on Okino-Daito-Shima and Minami-o-Shima. Both these targets are bombarded by battleship and cruiser forces.

The ninth wave of kamikaze attacks on the US forces around Okinawa occurs between June 3 and 7 when one battleship, one cruiser and one escort carrier are all hit. The fast-carrier groups suffer heavily from the effects of a typhoon on the 5th. The cruiser Pittsburgh loses 110 feet from its bows and all the ships of TG 38.1 are damaged in some degree. After completing the program of attacks TF 38 returns to Leyte on June 13 after three months of nearly continuous operations in which the carriers and their supports have almost constantly kept the sea and been supplied and rearmed by the well-organized work of the fleet train.

Palau Islands

A US naval air facility is established on Peleliu in the Palau Islands.

Philippines

In the US I Corps sector, the 37th Div advances rapidly in the Cagayan valley, in Luzon. On Mindanao, operations continue in the area north of Davao.

Images from June 1, 1945

Co. B LVT commanded by Bowie with marking 4-1 moving along beach during rehearsal on 1 June 1945, 727th Amphibian Tractor Bn

727th Amphibian Tractor Bn

On hand to greet their master when he returned from the front lines on Okinawa were these puppies. They present a housing problem to Marine tankman Private Bruce Rutherford, of Bristol, Tenn.

Housing Problem

A squadron of B-25 Mitchell bombers prepares to take off from Clark Field on a mission against Japanese forces on Formosa. 1 June 1945

Taking Off For Formosa

A B-29 over Osaka, 1 June 1945

A B-29 over Osaka