This day in military history..

All kinds of history

April 10th

1941: German troops capture Zagreb in Yugoslavia. Ante Pavelic, Croatian Fascist leader, returns from Italian exile and proclaims the independent state of Croatia, with him as Poglavnik (leader).
1944: German forces of Heeresgruppe Ukraine evacuate Odessa on the Black Sea and withdraw to the west bank of the Dnestr river. In the West, Us and British air forces begin an offensive against German airfields and communications in France and Belgium.
1945: The US Ninth Army (Simpson) captures Essen in the Ruhr. In another heavy attack against Kiel, the RAF sinks the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer. The US 8th Air Force launches its heaviest raid to date (1,232 bombers) against Berlin.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1941: 6th Division engage the Germans in Greece - The Greek campaign, involving forces from Greece, Britain, New Zealand and Australia, resulted in heavy losses to the 6th Australian Division and ultimately an evacuation of Allied forces from beaches in southern Creece.
1941: Siege of Tobruk, Libya, begins - Tobruk was surrounded on three sides by the German Afrika Korps in April and remained besieged, but able to be re-supplied by sea, until December. Most Australian, however, left Tobruk between August and October.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1741 - War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia defeats Austria in the Battle of Mollwitz.
1865 - American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.
1941 - World War II: The Axis Powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić's Ustase fascist insurgents in power.
1944 - Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape from Auschwitz II death camp.
1972 - Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967 American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_10
 
April 11th

1945: Continuing bitter fighting in the center of Vienna, as well as in Breslau. In the West, the US Ninth Army captures Bochum in the Ruhr and Goslar in the Harz Mountains.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1917:First battle of Bullecourt, Western Front - The 4th Australian Division and 62nd English Division attempted to penetrate the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt where they were unsuccessfully supported by tanks. Over 1,000 Australians became prisoners of war, the largest number in a single action in the First World War. 3,000 became casualties.
1951:General MacArthur dismissed from command in Korea - MacArthur was dismissed from his command in Korea for the perception in Washington that he was too intemperate and likely to escalate the war.
1970:HMAS Vendetta returns to Sydney - HMAS Vendetta was the only one of three Australian Daring class destroyers to serve on the gunline in Vietnamese waters. The ship served one tour.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp


1241 - Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Muhi.
1512 - War of the League of Cambrai: French forces led by Gaston de Foix was victorious in the Battle of Ravenna.
1713 - War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War): Treaty of Utrecht.
1945 - World War II: United States forces liberate Buchenwald concentration camp.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_11

1814: Former French leader Napoleon Bonaparte exiled to the island of Elba
1898: President McKinley asks for Spanish-American War declaration
1899: Treaty of Paris ratified. Spain cedes Puerto Rico to US.
1941: Belgrade, in Yugoslavia, occupied by German forces during World War 2
1945: At the end of World War 2, the Red army enters the Austrian city of Vienna
source: http://www.tnl.net/when/4/11

1940: Royal Navy submarine Spearfish puts pocket battleship Lutzow out of action for a year. RAF raid Stavanger airfield on Norway’s west coast. King Haakon VII of Norway appeals to all Norwegians to fight. The first British troop's sets sail for Norway, although they have been mistakenly embarked without much of their heavy equipment.
1941: Rommel makes an attempt to capture Tobruk off the march. However, the 9th Australian Division repulses the attack, forcing the Germans to think again. By now the Germans are pretty exhausted after 3 weeks of continuous action and their vehicles in serious need of an overhaul. Bristol is bombed by the Luftwaffe. Italian forces begin their effort to push down the Yugoslav coast in order to link up with their forces in Albania.
1942: Progress continues as German relief forces push nearer the surrounded Kholm garrison. The Russians try to land troops near Eupatoria in the Crimea, but are stopped dead by the Germans.
1943: The British First Army takes Kalrouan, 100 miles South of Tunis.
1944: The majority of New Britain is now held by the Allies. An RAF Mosquito raid, hits the Gestapo HQ in the Hague. Russian troops capture Kerch in the Crimea. While units of the 4th Ukrainian Front liberate Dsjankoi.
1945: The Russians now reaches the centre of Vienna, capturing the parliament and town hall buildings. The U.S. Third Army takes the historic town of Weimar. The British Second Army takes Celle, 30 miles Northeast of Hanover, cutting the road to Hamburg. The U.S. Ninth Army capture Essen, Bochum and Goslar in the Harz Mountains. The U.S. Seventh Army reaches Schweinfurt, 80 miles to the East of Frankfurt.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
Lots of different stuff!

April 12th

1941: Geran troops enter Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia. In Libya, the Afrikakorp approaches Tobruk.
1943: German troops of Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Kluge) evacuate Vjasma. The British Eighth Army captures Sousse in Tunisia.
1944: German forces in the Crimea withdraw to Sevastopol.
1945: President Roosevelt dies at Warm Springs, Georgia, Vice President Truman is sworn in as the new President. In the West, the US First Army (Hodges) reaches the Elbe near Magdeburg; the British Second Army captures Celle 60 miles S of Hamburg.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1918: Battle of Hazebrouck, Western Front - Hazebrouck, a crucial rail centre, 30 kilometres west of Armentieres, was threatened by a renewel of the German offensive. The 1st Australian Division were able to hold the town against several German attacks.
1941: ANZAC Corps reformed in Greece by General Blamey - Australian and New Zealand troops fought alongside soldiers from Greece and Britain in the ill-fated Greek campaign. Blamey, however, conducted a skillful evacuation of the ANZAC Corps from southern Greece at the end of the campaign.
source:http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
1864 - American Civil War: Fort Pillow massacre -- Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest kill most of the African American soldiers who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
1865 - American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
1975 - Khmer Rouge troops capture Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_12

1204: Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople Or was it Instanbul?
source: http://www.tnl.net/when/4/12

1917: Canadians capture Vimy Ridge - After three days of fierce combat and over 10,000 casualties suffered, the Canadian Corps seizes the previously German-held Vimy Ridge in northern France. Many historians have pointed to the victory at Vimy Ridge during World War I as a moment of greatness for Canada, when it emerged from Britain’s shadow to attain its own measure of military achievement. As a result of the victory, earned despite the failure of the larger Allied offensive of which it was a part, Canadian forces earned a reputation for efficiency and strength on the battlefield.
1975: U.S. Embassy in Cambodia evacuated - U.S. ambassador and his staff leave Phnom Penh when the U.S. Navy conducts its evacuation effort, Operation Eagle. On April 3, 1975, as the communist Khmer Rouge forces closed in for the final assault on the capital city, U.S. forces were put on alert for the impending embassy evacuation. An 11-man Marine element flew into the city to prepare for the arrival of the U.S. evacuation helicopters. On April 10, U.S. Ambassador Gunther Dean asked Washington that the evacuation begin no later than April 12.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1940: Norway announces German control of Kristiansand, Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim in the south, Narvik in the north.
1941: German armoured units complete the encirclement of Tobruk and push on up the coast road towards the Egyptian frontier. The Yugoslav capital Belgrade, surrenders. Greek and British forces fall back to the Mount Olympus line in Greece.
1942: Japanese troops capture Migyaungye in Burma, which exposes the western flank of 1st Burma Corps at put the oilfields at Yenangyuang under threat. Both German and Russian forces pause for breath after an extremely difficult winter (temperatures dropped to a nippy Minus 30C). The Russians have outrun their supply lines and exhausted their supply store of tanks and guns, which has allowed the initiative to slip back to the Germans. However, the Germans are aware that they can no longer take Moscow with a knockout blow and so choose another alternative. They intend to drive southward as part of a "grand pincer" movement through the Caucasus to link up with Rommel's Afrika Corps, which will solve their oil problems, disable the Russian economy, and menace the Middle East.
1943: The Eighth Army take Sousse, to the East of Kairan and claim that 20,000 axis prisoners have been taken in Tunisia since the 20th March. German radio announces that 4,150 Polish officers that were deported by the Russian authorities in 1940 have been found in mass graves near Smolensk.
1944: Finland rejects the heavy Russian demands for the ending of the war. Hitler authorises a withdrawal of 230,000 German and Romanian troops to the fortress of Sevastopol. However, this is four days too late and the delay results in many unnecessary losses.
1945: A German war communiqué confesses that Königsberg did surrender and announces the death penalty for the fortresses commander, General Lasch. In Yugoslavia the Germans evacuate Zenica. The U.S. Ninth Army crosses the Elbe, taking Brunswick. The U.S. Third Army takes Erfurt. French troops take Baden-Baden on the southern flank. The U.S. 6th Armoured Division overruns Buchenwald concentration camp. The British Second Army captures Celle 60 miles to the South of Hamburg.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
It was 50 years ago when I started that fatal trip a few dozen of us boarded an empty train at Aldershot which was heading towards the docks at Southampton, as the train passed through the English country side we we made the odd stop here and there to pick up some more pour souls heading out on the same journey and by the time we had reached Southampton the train was full of young men in uniform all heading for the same ship. On arrival we were disembarked and right in front of us was a fairly large troopship and we had a look at the name it was the Empire Ken. This troopship had a fair amount of history. It had built back in the late 1920 for a German Shipping line and during WW2 it had been used as a hospital ship and then a U Boat tender, and now joy of joys it had been pressed into service the British Government as a troopship. As our small section would be the first to disembark we got the worst quarters on the boat, it was right at the back of the boat at the back end of the hold right over the propellers. there were no portholes any where and the only fresh came through the door at top of a long flight of stairs. The bunks went up wards like sky scrapers which we found to be a bit deadly as the voyage progressed, it was found that if you were on the bottom bunk the vomit would get so deep you could be sleeping in it, and if you where on the higher ones it was advisable to strap your self in with your webbing. As the boat left Southampton nearly every one was on deck watching the land slip away and all wondering just when we would see it again. As we stood there on deck we watched another four troopships come back in into home waters bringing back the lads who had just spent two years abroad on active service. Needless to say there was plenty of banter between the ships as they passed each other. those going in were shouting out that they they had four to five days to go before demob and asking us just how long we had to do, which caused much laughter on the boats going in to harbour, still they had done there bit, and we had ours to do, such is life, but while standing there watching all this you could not wonder just how many times this had happened over the years.
 
A busy day for WW II

April 18th

1945: The British Second Army captures Ülzen and Lüneburg. The US Third Army captures Nürnberg and advances into Bohemia. In the East, the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front captures Forst on the Neisse river. North of Frankfurt, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front continues its attack to take the Seelow Heights, gradually wearing down the outnumbered German defenders.

1941:Tempe (or Pinios) Gorge, Greece - The 2/2nd and 2/3rd Battalions AIF and New Zealand 21st Battalion stemmed a German advance in a rearguard action that enabled the main Allied force in Greece to establish a new defensive line across the Thermopylae Peninsula.
1942:General Blamey appointed to command Allied land forces in the South West Pacific - In reality General MacArthur kept Blamey from having control over United States land forces in the Pacific during the Second World War.

1775: Revere and Dawes warn of British attack - British troops march out of Boston on a mission to confiscate the American arsenal at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from the city to warn Adams and Hancock and rouse the Minutemen.
1915: Germans shoot down French pilot Roland Garros - A member of the German Bahnschutzwache, or Railway Protection Guard, shoots down the well-known French airman Roland Garros in his flight over German positions in Flanders, France, on a bombing raid.
1942: Doolittle leads air raid on Tokyo - 16 American B-25 bombers, launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet 650 miles east of Japan and commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, attack the Japanese mainland. The now-famous Tokyo Raid did little real damage to Japan (wartime Premier Hideki Tojo was inspecting military bases during the raid; one B-25 came so close, Tojo could see the pilot, though the American bomber never fired a shot)--but it did hurt the Japanese government's prestige.
1945: Ernie Pyle killed at Okinawa - Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima off the coast of Okinawa. Extremely popular, especially with the average GI, whose life and death he reported on (American infantrymen braved enemy fire to recover Pyle's body), Pyle had been at the London Blitz of 1941 and saw action in North Africa, Italy, France, and the Pacific. A monument exists to him to this day on Ie Shima, describing him simply as "a buddy."

1797 - Battle of Neuwied resulted in the victory of French under General Louis Lazare Hoche against Austrians under General Wermecek.
1945 - World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany, leaving nothing standing.
1988 - U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in retaliation for the April 14 mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58 in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. The one-day action is the world's largest naval battle since World War II.

1940: British submarine Starlet sunk off Norway. Germans advance further north of Oslo. More British troops are landed at Aandalesnes in Norway with the plan of co-operating with the British and French troops already at Namsos to surround and then retake Trondheim. However, the Norwegian commander, General Ruge persuaded the Aandalesnes force, to move south in order to give support to his troops still holding out at Lillehammer.
1941: The German 12th Army forces a crossing of the river Aliakmon between the Greek First Army and the British forces. Athens is placed under martial law. Greek Prime Minister, Alexandros Korizis commits suicide.
1942: The entire US eastern seaboard is ordered to black-out its lights at night, in an attempt to reduce the success of the U-boats at night.
1943: US fighter aircraft in a planned raid, intercept Admiral Yamamoto’s plane over Bougainville and shoot it down, killing the Admiral. The German 17th Army begins its attacks to eliminate the Russian beachhead at Novorossiysk, but fails and gives up on the 23rd April.
1944: The first reinforcements for the British garrison at Kohima begin to arrive. Japanese forces launch a new offensive in central China. The Russians take Balaclava.
1945: The British Fourteenth Army in central Burma captures the Chaulk oil centre on the Irrawaddy. Between Stettin and Schwedt the 2nd Belorussian front breaks through the Oder defenses, pressuring Army Group Weichsel even more. The 1st Ukrainian Front captures Forst on the Neisse river. North of Frankfurt, while the 1st Belorussian Front continues its attack to take the Seelow Heights, gradually wearing down the vastly outnumbered German defenders. The Ruhr pocket is finally annihilated, with 317,000 Germans being captured, including 29 generals. The U.S. Ninth Army takes Magdeburg. The U.S. First Army enters Düsseldorf. General De Lattre’s French troops link up at Freudenstadt behind the Black Forest. The British Second Army captures Ülzen and Lüneburg. The US Third Army captures Nürnberg advancing units across the German/Czechoslovakian frontier.
 
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A busy day for WW II

April 28th

1940: British and French forces that were landed on the coast of Norway are evacuated by the Royal Navy.
1945: The Canadian First Army (Crerar) captures Emden and Wilhelmshaven, while the US Seventh Army (Patch) occupies Augsburg, Regensburg and Ingolstadt. In the battle of Berlin, the Red Army reaches the Anhalt Station and is within half a mile of the Führerbunker. Hitler marries his mistress, Eva Braun, and dictates his political testament in which he justifies the political and military actions of his 12-year-rule, blaming the war on international Jewry and exhorting the German people even after defeat to adhere to the principles of National Socialism, especially its racial laws; he appoints Grossadmiral Dönitz as his successor. In the English Channel, German U-boats have sunk 8 Allied ships, 3 destroyers and 2 corvettes.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1952: Australia ratifies peace treaty with Japan and official ending of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) - From the end of 1948 Australia had taken on the largest role in BCOF. When the state of occupation ended the Commonwealth organisation in Japan was redesignated British Commonwealth Forces Korea and continued supplying and administering Commonwealth forces then fighting in Korea.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1789 - Mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
1796 - The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, the King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
1862 - American Civil War: Admiral David Farragut captures New Orleans, Louisiana.
1970 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_28

1972: North Vietnamese press South Vietnamese at Hue and Kontum - The North Vietnamese offensive continues as Fire Base Bastogne, 20 miles west of Hue, falls to the communists. Fire Base Birmingham, 4 miles to the east, was also under heavy attack. As fighting intensified all across the northern province of South Vietnam, much of Hue's civilian population tried to escape south to Da Nang. Farther south in the Central Highlands, 20,000 North Vietnamese troops converged on Kontum, encircling it and cutting it off. Only 65 miles north of Saigon, An Loc lay under siege and continued to take a pummeling from North Vietnamese artillery, rockets, and ground attacks. To the American command in Saigon, it appeared that South Vietnam was on the verge of total defeat by the North Vietnamese, but the South Vietnamese were able to hold out.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1940: Allied reinforcements arrive in Aandalesnes, Norway.
1941: The British evacuation of Greece is completed.
1942: At what turns out to be its last meeting, the puppet Nazi Reichstag passes legislation proclaiming Hitler "Supreme Judge of the German People," formalising the Fuhrer's position as being above the reach of the law. Coastal "dimouts" go into effect along a fifteen-mile strip on the Eastern Seaboard, in response to German U-boat activity of the U.S. Atlantic coast.
1943: British forces repulse a last, desperate Panzer counter blow in Tunisia.
1944: Chinese forces retreat in central China.
1945: Russian forces are fighting in the Wilhelmstrasse and reach the Anhalt Station which is just half a mile of the Führerbunker. The U.S. Fifth Army take Brescia, 30 miles East of Milan. The British Eighth Army reaches Venice. Italian Partisans capture Mussolini, his mistress Clara Petacci and 12 of his cabinet members in a German convoy trying to reach Switzerland. All are shot in nearby village. The Canadian First Army captures Emden and Wilhelmshaven, while the U.S. Seventh Army takes Augsburg and reaches the Austrian border to the South.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
End of World War II is near

April 29th

1945: The British Second Army crosses the Elbe at Lauenburg, 20 miles E of Hamburg, and advances toward Schwerin and Wismar in Mecklenburg. The French First Army (de Tassigny) captures Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. In the battle of Berlin, the Red Army has now captured most of the city except for the area around the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichskanzlei and the Reichstag which is still fiercely defended by isolated units of the Waffen-SS.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1915: HMA Submarine AE2 sunk in the Sea of Marmara - AE2 was the first submarine to penetrate the Dardanelles. For five days the AE2 carried out orders to disrupt Turkish shipping. When her torpedoes were exhausted and she was attacked by Turkish gunboats the submarine was scuttled and her crew captured.
1965: Prime Minister Menzies announces the commitment of an infantry battalion to Vietnam - Australia's involvement in Vietnam was a gradual process of commitment. By April 1965 there were 100 members of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam in Vietnam. The commitment of a battalion represented a major step in Australia's involvement and precipitated further increases in the number of Australians serving in Vietnam until reductions in their number began in 1970.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans.
1672 - Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
1862 - American Civil War: New Orleans falls to Union forces under Admiral David Farragut.
1945 - World War II: The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
1945 - World War II: Start of Operation Manna, supply drops into Holland.
1970 - Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
source:

1776: Nathanael Greene takes command of Long Island - Shortly after the American victory at Boston, Massachusetts, General George Washington orders Brigadier General Nathanael Greene to take command of Long Island and set up defensive positions against a possible British attack on New York City.
1916: British forces surrender at Kut, Mesopotamia - In the single largest surrender of troops in British history to that time, some 13,000 soldiers under the command of Sir Charles Townshend give in on April 29, 1916, after withstanding nearly five months under siege by Turkish and German forces at the town of Kut-al-Amara, on the Tigris River in the Basra province of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq).
source:

1917: Chemin des Dames Offensive ends. A month long series of mutinies break out amongst the French army.
1940: King Haakon VII and his government are evacuated from Molde and taken to Tromso in northern Norway, from where they can continue the fight.
1941: Another Brigade from the British 10th Indian Division lands at Basra, ignoring Iraqi's protests. The Iraqi Army lays siege to The RAF base at Habbaniyh, although RAF planes fly numerous air strikes against them. British intelligence 'Ultra', intercept numerous messages giving a positive indication that the Germans plan to attack Crete.
1942: Japanese troops capture Lashio, thereby cutting the vital 'Burma Road' supply route into China. The Japanese continue to land reinforcements on Mindanao Island as they step up attacks against the Filipino garrison. The shelling of Corregidor increases as the Japanese prepare to invade the Island. Another sixteen Spitfires are delivered to Malta by Force H. The Belgian resistance destroys Tenderloo chemical works, killing more that 250. Executions by the Germans reported to be running at 25-30 a month in Belgium.
1943: U-boats begin a six-day attack on Convoy ONS5, during which 13 allied ships are finally sunk for the loss of six U-boats. A series of minor attacks by the Red Army near Novorossiysk, drives the Germans back slowly.
1944: The US Navy pounds the Japanese base at Truk, destroying 120 planes.
1945: Convoy RA-66 sailing from the Kola Peninsula to Loch Ewe is attacked by at least 2 U-boats north of Kola. The British destroyer HMS Goodall, which was lend-leased by the US in 1943 is sunk by U-286 (Oblt.z.S. Willi Dietrich), for 1,150 tons, marking this as the last convoy to come under attack in the war. The U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau Concentration Camp. During the night Hitler marries Eva Braun, his mistress, writes a will and appoints Admiral Donitz as his successor. The 2nd Belorussian front advances fast in the Stralsund direction and seizes Anklam. In Berlin furious fighting takes place around the Reichstag, Chancellery and along Potsdamer Strasse. In Cottbus, South of Berlin, German troops are still holding the Russians back. The bodies of Mussolini and Clara Petacci are brought to Milan and hung upside down from lamp-posts in the square where 15 Partisans were executed a year ago. The bodies are shot and spat upon. The Germans armies in Italy sign surrender terms at The Royal Palace, Caserta, but German officers do not guarantee acceptance, the ceremony takes only 17 minutes. The British Eighth Army secures Venice and advances towards Trieste. The U.S. Fifth Army enters Milan and makes contact with the Eighth Army at Padua. The British Second Army crosses the Elbe near Hamburg, less than 100 miles west of the Russian forces in Mecklenburg. The U.S. Seventh Army reaches Munich. The French First Army captures Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.
 
The end of WWII in Europe is near.

May 4th

1943: Hitler postpones Operation Zitadelle, the powerful German counter-attack against the large Soviet bulge between Kursk and Belgorod, from May 9 to mid-June.
1944: The RAF carries out a night raid against Budapest.
1945: The German forces in northwestern Germany, Holland and Denmark surrender to the Allied 21st Army Group whose C-in-C, FM Montgomery, meets with a German delegation headed by Generaladmiral von Friedeburg at his HQ on Luneburg Heath 30 miles S of Hamburg. The British Second Army occupies Kiel. In the East, fierce fighting continues in Moravia, the Vistula delta and in Kurland.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1915:Australian attack on Gaba Tepe, Gallipoli - The attack on Gaba Tepe by men of the 11th Battalion was an ill-conceived venture to deny the Turks a vantage point from which they could observe operations around ANZAC Cove. The venture ended in failure.
1945:German forces in the Netherlands, northern Germany and Denmark surrender - Hitler's successor, Grand Admiral Dönitz, attempted, by piecemeal surrenders to the British and Americans, to give German forces on the Eastern Front time to escape westwards, away from the Russians.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1471 - Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury – Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Chancellorsville – The battle ends with a Union retreat.
1869 - The Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place in Japan.
1910 - The Royal Canadian Navy is created.
1942 - World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea – The battle begins with the launch of attack aircraft from American and Japanese aircraft carriers.
1945 - World War II: Liberation of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg by the British Army.
1945 - World War II: Surrender of the North Germany Army to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_4

1864: Army of the Potomac crosses the Rapidan - On May 4, the Army of the Potomac moved out of its winter encampments and crossed the Rapidan River to the tangled woods of the Wilderness. Grant had with him four corps and over 100,000 men. The plan was to move the Federal troops quickly around Lee's left flank and advance beyond the Wilderness before engaging the Confederates. But logistics slowed the move, and the long wagon train supplying the Union troops had to stop in the Wilderness.
1916: Germany agrees to limit its submarine warfare - Germany responds to a demand by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson by agreeing to limit its submarine warfare in order to avert a diplomatic break with the United States.
1945: As the Nazi threat dies, the Red Army rises - Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov informs U.S. Secretary of State Stettinius that the Red Army has arrested 16 Polish peace negotiators who had met with a Soviet army colonel near Warsaw back in March. When British Prime Minister Winston Churchill learns of the Soviet double-cross, he reacts in alarm, stating, "There is no doubt that the publication in detail of this event...would produce a primary change in the entire structure of world forces."
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1942: Akyab on the Burmese coast is abandoned by the British. The Japanese Port Moresby invasion force leaves Rabaul, in New Britain. With its naval support stripped away, the Japanese invasion fleet at Tulagi is attacked by aircraft from the American carrier Yorktown. 1 destroyer is disabled, while 3 minesweepers and 4 landing barges are sunk for the loss of just 3 US aircraft. Admiral Fletcher, now doubled back to meet up with the Lexington in the Coral Sea.
1943: Hitler decides to postpone Operation 'Citadel' in order that more Tiger and Panther tanks can be deployed in the offensive. This is against the advice of a number of leading Generals who fear that the Russian defenses will become too strong if the offensive is delayed any further.
1944: The British counter-attacks at Kohima, are repulsed by the Japanese. The RAF carries out a night raid against Budapest.
1945: SEAC announces that Rangoon was taken so quickly that the Japanese had no time to destroy the installations there. Kamikaze flyers sink 17 U.S. ships in 24 hours off Okinawa. Grand Admiral Dönitz, now the newly designated leader of the Reich, orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases (to go into effect fully at 0800 on 5th May): "You have fought like lions!" The U.S. Fifth Army reaches the Brenner Pass. Admiral von Friedeburg arrives at Montgomery’s HQ on Lüneburg Heath with German plenipotentiaries. At 8.15pm SHAEF announce that ‘Field Marshal Montgomery has reported to the supreme allied command that all enemy forces in Holland, Northwest Germany and Denmark, have surrendered. The U.S. Ninth Army breaks up the German Ninth and Twelfth Armies. The U.S. Seventh Army takes Innsbruck, Salzburg and Berchtesgarten, which is still smoking after an RAF raid. Field-Marshal von Kleist gives himself up to the U.S. Third Army near Straubing.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
May 6th

1945: The US Third Army (Patton) occupies Pilsen in Bohemia and halts all further advances. After an 82-day siege, the remaining defenders of Breslau finally surrender to Soviet forces.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1917: Corporal G.J. Howell, VC - Corporal Howell, originally of Enfield, NSW, wins the Victoria Cross near Bullecourt.
1945: Tarakan town and airstrip captured - General MacArthur instructed Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead to seize and hold Tarakan Island and destroy the enemy forces there. The Netherlands East Indies Government was to be re-established, Tarakan's oil producing capacity was to be conserved and the island's airfields put into use. The operation was codenamed Oboe 1.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1757 - Battle of Prague - A Prussian army fought an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends, with a defeat of the Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker by Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson.
1942 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
1945 - World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
1945 - World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_6

1915: Second Battle of Krithia, Gallipoli - After a first attempt to capture the village of Krithia, on the Gallipoli Peninsula, failed on April 28, 1915, a second is initiated on May 6 by Allied troops under the British commander Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston. Fortified by 105 pieces of heavy artillery, the Allied force advanced on Krithia, located at the base of the flat-topped hill of Achi Baba, starting at noon on May 6. The attack was launched from a beach head on Cape Helles, where troops had landed on April 25 to begin the large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula after a naval attack on the Dardanelles failed miserably in mid-March. Since the first failed attempt on the village, Hunter-Weston’s original force had been joined by two brigades of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) to bring the total number of men to 25,000. They were still outnumbered, however, by the Turkish forces guarding Krithia, which were under the direct command of the German Major-General Erich Weber.
1942: All American forces in the Philippines surrender unconditionally - U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders all U.S. troops in the Philippines to the Japanese. The island of Corregidor remained the last Allied stronghold in the Philippines after the Japanese victory at Bataan (from which General Wainwright had managed to flee, to Corregidor). Constant artillery shelling and aerial bombardment attacks ate away at the American and Filipino defenders. Although still managing to sink many Japanese barges as they approached the northern shores of the island, the Allied troops could hold the invader off no longer. General Wainwright, only recently promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and commander of the U.S. armed forces in the Philippines, offered to surrender Corregidor to Japanese General Homma, but Homma wanted the complete, unconditional capitulation of all American forces throughout the Philippines. Wainwright had little choice given the odds against him and the poor physical condition of his troops (he had already lost 800 men).
1972: South Vietnamese defenders hold on to An Loc - The remnants of South Vietnam's 5th Division at An Loc continue to receive daily artillery battering from the communist forces surrounding the city as reinforcements fight their way from the south up Highway 13. The South Vietnamese had been under heavy attack since the North Vietnamese had launched their Nguyen Hue Offensive on March 30. The communists had mounted a massive invasion of South Vietnam with 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to An Loc in the south, were Quang Tri in the north, and Kontum in the Central Highlands.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?
 
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Battle of Coral Sea begins

May 7th

1941: The Luftwaffe launches the first of two consecutive night raids against the British port of Hull.
1943: 5.Panzerarmee evacuates Tunis and Bizerta.
1944: The US 8th Air Force (Doolittle) launches a 1,500-bomber raid against Berlin. In the East, the Red Army recaptures Sevastopol in the Crimea.
1945: This day marks the end of hostilities between the Wehrmacht and the Allied armies in Europe. At 2:41 a.m. CET, Generaloberst Jodl signs the instrument of unconditional surrender of all German forces in a schoolroom at Rheims, France, to be effective at noon the following day. Off the Firth of Forth, U-2336 sinks the last Allied ships of the war, the coastal vessels Sneland and Avondale Park, while an RAF Catalina sinks U-320, the last German submarine destroyed in WWII, near Bergen off the coast of Norway.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1429 - Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning wounded to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.
1937 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrive in Spain to assist Franco's forces.
1954 - Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_7

1915: German submarine sinks Lusitania - The earlier German attacks on merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area or take simple evasive action, such as zigzagging to confuse U-boats plotting the vessel's course. The captain of the Lusitania ignored these recommendations, and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7, in the waters of the Celtic Sea, the 32,000-ton ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship's boilers. The Lusitania sank within 20 minutes.

1941: The Luftwaffe launches the first of two consecutive night raids against the British port of Hull.
1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins, as the Japanese Striking Force (Admiral Inouye), which consists of the carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku, 2 cruisers and 6 destroyers make the first strike. This is against the oiler Neosho and her escorting destroyer, which are on their way to rendezvous with Admiral Fletchers Task Force 17, which includes the carriers Yorktown and Lexington, 8 cruisers and 11 destroyers. The Neosho takes serious damage and eventually has to be scuttled. Admiral Fletcher then orders a cruiser squadron consisting of HMAS Australia, Hobart, USN Chicago and 2 destroyers to attack the Port Moresby invasion force, but this soon comes under Japanese air attack, although it did divert Japanese attention away from the American carriers. At the same time, Admiral Inouye orders the Invasion Force to turn away from the Jomard Passage until the American carriers have been dealt with. Admiral Fletcher now launched a strike from the Yorktown against what he thought was a major Japanese task force, but which turned out to be only 2 light cruisers and 2 gunboats. However, aircraft from the Lexington spotted the Japanese carrier Shoho and sank her. Later that afternoon the Japanese launched 27 aircraft against the US carrier Task Force, but they failed to locate their targets and only 6 returned safely. At midnight, Admiral Inouye decided to postpone the invasion of Port Moresby for two days. Vichy French resistance ends in Madagascar.
1943: Tunis falls to British First Army. In a speech to Nazi Party Reichsleiters and Gauleiters in Berlin, Hitler says tht U-boat warfare will be stepped up as the surest way to "cut the arteries of the enemy." Even as the Fuhrer speaks, however, the calamity of "Black May" for the U-boat force is unfolding in the Atlantic.
1944: 300,000 Japanese troops begin their preliminary moves prior to an offensive from the Canton and Hankow area in eastern China, with the aim of capturing allied airfields. The US 8th Air Force launches a 1,500-bomber raid against Berlin.
1945: General Böhne announces the unconditional surrender of German troops in Norway. The British Eighth Army crosses the Italian/Austrian border. British troops enter Utrecht to a tumultuous reception.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
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Usefullidiot said:
Not sure on this but isnt today the day 500 years ago the Swiss Guard were hired to defend the papal state?
Click to expand...

Yeah, exactly, around this time 500 years ago. They just renewed a solemn oath the other day in St Peter's Square. Touching.
 
Busy day in 1945!

May 9th

1940: Hitler orders Fall Gelb (Operation Yellow), the great offensive in the West, to begin at 5:35 a.m. the next day. The French submarine Doris is sunk by U-9 (Oblt. Lüth) off the Dutch coast.
1941: The Luftwaffe launches a massive night raid (507 bombers) against London which causes many fires and cripples the rail system in the city, while the RAF attacks Hamburg with little effect. U-110 is forced to the surface by depth-charges of HMS Aubretia; a top-secret Enigma cipher machine is recovered before she sinks while being towed.
1942: In the East, the Red Army launches a counter-offensive toward Charkov.
1944: Allied air forces begin a campaign of large scale raids against German airfields and rail communications in France in preparation for D-Day.
1945: German forces in Kurland, the Greek islands and the still undefeated garrisons of St. Nazaire, La Rochelle, Lorient, La Pallice and the British Channel Islands surrender.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1943:Point Stuart bombed - Point Stuart, Northern Territory, bombed by Japanese aircraft for the 1st time.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1915 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
1920 - Polish-Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły celebrated their capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreschatyk.
1942 - Belgrade becomes the first Axis-conquered city to murder or eliminate its Jewish Population, largely with the help of Serbian collaborators.
1945 - The final German surrender to Marshal Georgy Zhukov at Berlin-Karlshorst is signed by Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine. Vidkun Quisling is arrested in Norway. Red Army enters Prague (capitulation of Nazi occupation troops). The Soviet Union marks Victory Day.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_9

1940:Hitler orders 'Operation Yellow', the great offensive in the West, to begin at 5.35am the next day.
1941: A peace treaty is signed between Vichy France and Thailand, which cedes back portions of Indochina that had been lost by Thailand 40 years earlier. A British Brigade sized column (Habforce), moves across the Iraqi border from Palastine. Liverpool has its 7th consecutive night air raid. Belfast, Clydeside and Humberside also suffer in a heavy week of raids. The RAF attacks Bremen and Hamburg, but with little effect.
1942: Another 60 Spitfires are landed in Malta by the aircraft carriers USN Wasp and HMS Eagle.
1943: The unconditional surrender of all axis troops in Tunisia takes place at 11am.
1944: Allied air forces begin a campaign of large scale raids against German airfields and rail communications in France in preparation for D-Day. The Russians capture Sevastopol as Hitler finally changes his mind and orders evacuation of the city.
1945: A British naval squadron arrives in Copenhagen harbour to receive the surrender of the remains of German fleet. Stalin announces the end of war. German forces of Army Group Kurland surrender. German forces in the Greek islands surrender. The German garrisons at Lorient, St Nazaire and La Rochelle on the French Atlantic Coast finally surrender. Reich Marshal Goring and his wife, children and staff, surrender to Brigadier General Stack, of the U.S. 36th Division, near Salzburg. Field Marshal Kesselring, C-in-C West, is captured by U.S. troops at the village of Saalfelden, in western Austria. The German garrison in the Channel Islands agree to surrender to British troops after five years of occupation. The surrender terms are signed aboard the destroyer HMS Bulldog, which is moored off St. Hellier.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
May 10th

1940: At 5:35 a.m. CET, the Wehrmacht begins Operation Yellow, the invasion of Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg, employing Heeresgruppe A (von Rundstedt) and B (von Bock), with Heeresgruppe C (von Leeb) in reserve. The attacking forces comprise 10 armored, 5 motorized, and 75 infantry divisions. The 3 Panzerkorps - XIX. (Guderian), XX. (Hoth) and XLI. (Reinhardt) - field 2,445 tanks, most of which are of the light Marks I, II, 35(t) and 38(t) type, against 3,373 French and British tanks. Airborne troops seize airfields and strategic bridges near Amsterdam and Rotterdam in Holland. The Luftwaffe, using hundreds of level and dive bombers, attacks Allied airfields, troop assembly areas and rear communications. In Britain, Prime Minister ("Hitler missed the bus!" - in Norway, that is) resigns and is replaced by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, who forms a coalition government with the Labour and Liberal parties.
1941: Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy and former WWI fighter pilot, flies from Augsburg to Scotland to persuade anti-Churchill politicians that England should stop the war with Germany, adopt a neutral attitude and allow Germany to eliminate the Bolshevik menace and gain Lebensraum in the East. He is taken to a secret location, interrogated and then held incommunicado at various places until the end of the war, later to be charged and condemned as a major war criminal at Nuremberg.
1945: The Red Army occupies Prague.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1900:Zand River -New South Wales Mounted Rifles in action at Zand River, South Africa
1943:Point Stuart bombed -Point Stuart, Northern Territory, bombed by Japanese aircraft for the 2nd time.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1775 - American Revolutionary War: Fort Ticonderoga is taken by a small force led by Colonel Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen.
1796 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France wins a decisive victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the River Adda in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.
1801 - The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States.
1864 - Colonel Emory Upton leads a 10-regiment "Attack-in-depth" assault against the Confederate works at The Battle of Spotsylvania.
1865 - Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
1865 - Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill in Kentucky, who lingers until his death on June 6.
1940 - The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
1969 - The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_10

1871: Treaty of Frankfurt am Main ends Franco-Prussian War - The humiliating defeat of Louis Napoleon’s Second Empire of France is made complete on, when the Treaty of Frankfurt am Main is signed, ending the Franco-Prussian War and marking the decisive entry of a newly unified German state on the stage of European power politics, so long dominated by the great empires of England and France.
1972: Intense air war continues over North Vietnam - President Richard Nixon's decision to mine North Vietnamese harbors is condemned by the Soviet Union, China, and their Eastern European allies, and receives only lukewarm support from Western Europe. The mining was meant to halt the massive North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam that had begun on March 30. In the continuing air war over North Vietnam, the United States lost at least three planes and the North Vietnamese 10, as 150 to 175 American planes struck targets over Hanoi, Haiphong, and along rail lines leading from China. Lt. Randy Cunningham and Lt. Willie Driscoll, flying a Navy F-4J Phantom from the USS Constellation knocked down three MiGs in one combat mission. This made Cunningham and Driscoll the first American aces of the Vietnam War.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1941: The Luftwaffe launches a massive attack against London, the heaviest so far received by the capital. One third of all streets within Greater London are rendered impassible and 155,000 family's are left without gas, water and electricity. Westminster Abbey, House of Commons, Tower of London and the Royal Mint are all hit. A record 1,436 people are killed and 1,792 are seriously injured.
1942: General William Sharp, commanding the Central Philippines orders the surrender of the remaining US and Filipino forces to the Japanese, thus ending resistance throughout the whole of the Philippines. Winston Churchill warns that Britain will use poison gas on Germany if the Germans do so on the Soviet Union. The battle for Sevastopol rumbles on, with the Russian Coastal Army fielding 106,000 men, 600 guns, 100 mortars, 38 tanks, and 55 planes. The Germans hurl 204,000 men, 670 guns, 450 mortars, 720 tanks, and 600 aircraft at Sevastopol. The Germans also move in 19 motor torpedo boats, 30 patrol boats, eight ASW boats, and a unit of 150 bombers trained in anti-shipping operations. German artillery ranges from 76mm field guns to mammoth 800-mm railway-mounted super-heavy siege mortars. Kesselring declares that Malta has been neutralised. However, that same day the Axis airforces found themselves outnumbered for the first time in the sky over Malta, losing 12 aircraft in return for 3 RAF Spitfires. This marked a definite turning point in the fortunes of Malta with Axis air activity slackening noticeably as aircraft were drawn off to Russia.
1943: The British First Army reaches Hammamet.
1945: The Fourteenth Army moves South in central Burma and links up with troops from Arakan in the west, trapping all Japanese to the west of the river Irrawaddy. The first U-boat to surrender, U-249 puts in at Portland. Russians troops are now in control of Prague after five days of fierce street fighting between German troops and Czech Partisans comes to an end, during which 5,000 civilians have been killed.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
May 11th

1940: In the West, German troops occupy the Duchy of Luxemburg. A glider-borne parachute detachment of 1.Fallschirmjäger-Rgt. led by Hptm. Koch and Lt. Witzig capture the "impregnable" Belgian border fortress of Eben-Emael.
1941: German troops complete the ocupation of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.
1944: In Italy, the US Fifth (Clark) and the British Eighth Armies begin an offensive against the Gustav Line at Cassino.
1945: The Red Army launches a final assault against the remnants of Heeresgruppe Mitte (Schörner) still holding out in Moravia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1945:Wewak captured - Wewak was captured by the 6th Division in a combined land and amphibious operation. Its capture marked the beginning of the end of the Aitape Wewak campaign, the last major campaign on mainland New Guinea in the Second World War. source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1745 - War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy – At Fontenoy, French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army.
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Yellow Tavern – Confederate General JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
1943 - World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_11

1689 : Battle of Bantry Bay, French & English naval battle
1690 : English troops of W Phips conquer Port Royal Nova Scotia
source: http://www.thisdaythatyear.com/may/events11.htm

1961: President Kennedy approves sending 400 Special Forces troops and 100 other U.S. military advisers to South Vietnam. On the same day, he orders the start of clandestine warfare against North Vietnam to be conducted by South Vietnamese agents under the direction and training of the CIA and U.S. Special Forces troops. Kennedy's orders also called for South Vietnamese forces to infiltrate Laos to locate and disrupt communist bases and supply lines there.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1940: Allied troops land in Dutch West Indies.
1941: The RAF launches a heavy raid against Hamburg.
1942: British retreat across Chindwin completed. The Luftwaffe sinks three British destroyers, Lively, Kipling and Jackal to the South of Crete. German troops continue their attack at Sevastopol, surrounding some defenders at Ak-Monay. The Luftwaffe is making about 1,800 sorties per day.
1943: The British evacuate Maumgdaw before the monsoon arrives in the Arakan. All ground gained since September 1942 for the loss of 5,000 battle casualties is lost.
1944: 72,000 Chinese begin an advance along the Burma Road.
1945: In a new offensive, the U.S. Tenth Army reaches the suburbs of Naha, the capital of Okinawa. The Red Army launches a final assault against the remnants of Army Group Centre, which is still holding out in Moravia. The German garrison at Dunkirk surrenders to Czech troops.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
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