civilians
Tag
(92)1940
1941
1943
1944
January
February
March
April
May
June
- 10
- The Oradour-sur-Glane massacreOn 10 June 1944 a company of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich murdered 642 people at Oradour-sur-Glane near Limoges and burned the village.
- The Distomo massacreOn 10 June 1944 troops of the 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division murdered 218 inhabitants of the Greek village of Distomo and burned it down.
July
- 09
- The capture of CaenOn 9 July 1944 British and Canadian troops in Operation Charnwood took ruined northern Caen up to the Orne – a city that was meant to fall on D-Day.
- The end of the fighting on SaipanOn 9 July 1944 Admiral Turner declared Saipan secured. Almost the whole Japanese garrison was dead; in the north hundreds of civilians took their own lives.
August
September
October
November
December
1945
January
February
- 03
- Key eventThe Battle of Manila beginsOn 3 February 1945 US cavalry drove into Manila and freed the internees at Santo Tomás. Japanese sailors held the city for a month, murdering civilians.
- The raid on Berlin of 3 February 1945Around a thousand American B-17s bombed central Berlin. German figures put the dead at nearly 2,900, among them the judge Roland Freisler.
- 13
- The end of the siege of BudapestOn 13 February 1945 the last units in Buda surrendered. Of 28,000 soldiers in the breakout of 11 February, only some 700 reached the German lines.
- Key eventThe bombing of DresdenOn the night of 13/14 February 1945 the RAF, and by day the USAAF, bombed Dresden. A firestorm destroyed the old city; up to 25,000 people were killed.
- The siege of Breslau beginsOn 13 February 1945 troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front closed the ring around Breslau (Wrocław). The siege of Festung Breslau lasted until 6 May.
March
- 03
- The end of the Battle of ManilaOn 3 March 1945 the Americans took the Finance Building, the last centre of resistance in Manila. A month of fighting cost the lives of some 100,000 civilians.
- The bombing of BezuidenhoutOn 3 March 1945 RAF bombers sent to destroy V-2 sites in The Hague bombed the Bezuidenhout district by mistake. More than 500 civilians were killed.
April
- 09
- The capture of KönigsbergOn 9 April 1945 General Otto Lasch surrendered Königsberg after a four-day assault by the 3rd Belorussian Front. The East Prussian capital lay in ruins.
- The raid on KielOn the night of 9/10 April 1945, 591 RAF Lancasters bombed the port of Kiel. The Admiral Scheer capsized; the Admiral Hipper and Emden were badly damaged.
May
- 05
- The Prague uprisingPrague rose against the Germans on 5 May 1945. After four days on the barricades, on 8 May the Czechs agreed with General Toussaint on a German withdrawal.
- The balloon victims at BlyOn 5 May 1945 near Bly, Oregon, a bomb from a Japanese fu-go balloon killed pregnant Elsie Mitchell and five children – the only enemy victims on US soil.
- 09
- The liberation of the Channel IslandsOn 9 May 1945 the German garrison of Guernsey surrendered aboard the destroyer HMS Bulldog, followed by Jersey. Almost five years of occupation were over.
- The surrender on BornholmOn 9 May 1945 a Soviet landing party accepted the surrender of the German garrison of the Danish island of Bornholm, a day after air raids on Rønne and Nexø.