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prisoners of war
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1943
February
25
The Featherston camp massacre
On 25 February 1943 guards at the Featherston POW camp in New Zealand opened fire on striking Japanese prisoners. 48 prisoners and one soldier died.
April
04
The escape from the Davao Penal Colony
On 4 April 1943 ten American POWs and two Filipino convicts escaped from the Davao Penal Colony on Mindanao. Their accounts exposed the death march.
September
08
Operation Achse
On the evening of 8 September 1943, minutes after Italy's surrender was announced, Germany launched Operation Achse and disarmed the Italian army within days.
21
Key event
The massacre of the Acqui Division on Kefalonia
On 21 September 1943 the Germans on Kefalonia began shooting surrendering men of the Italian Acqui Division. Thousands died, General Antonio Gandin among them.
27
The Germans take Corfu
After two weeks of resistance the Italian garrison on Corfu gave in. On 27 September 1943 the Germans shot its commander, Colonel Lusignani, and many officers.
October
03
The Germans take Kos
On 3 October 1943 the Germans landed on Kos and next day took the island with the only Allied airfield in the Dodecanese. They shot about 100 Italian officers.
07
The Wake Island massacre
On 7 October 1943, after an American air raid, the Japanese garrison of Wake shot 98 American civilians on the orders of Captain Shigematsu Sakaibara.
November
12
The Battle of Leros
On 12 November 1943 the Germans landed on Leros and dropped paratroops. After five days of fighting, the British and Italians surrendered on 16 November.
1944
January
03
Gregory Boyington shot down
On 3 January 1944 Major Gregory Boyington, leader of the “Black Sheep”, was shot down over Rabaul. Saved by a Japanese submarine, he survived the war as a POW.
30
The Battle of Cisterna
On 30 January 1944 two Ranger battalions were ambushed near Cisterna. Of 767 men, six returned, and the attack from the Anzio beachhead stalled.
August
05
The Cowra breakout
On 5 August 1944 some 1,100 Japanese prisoners rushed the wire of the camp at Cowra in Australia. 231 Japanese and four Australians were killed.
14
The Fort Lawton riot
On the night of 14–15 August 1944 Black soldiers attacked Italian prisoners at Fort Lawton in Seattle. In the morning Guglielmo Olivotto was found hanged.
20
Allied airmen at Buchenwald
On 20 August 1944, 168 downed Allied airmen were brought to Buchenwald, branded “terrorists” by the Germans rather than treated as prisoners of war.
November
30
The Thiaroye massacre
On 30 November 1944 General Dagnan massed troops near Dakar against ex-POWs demanding back pay. On the morning of 1 December they opened fire at Thiaroye.
December
14
The Palawan massacre
On 14 December 1944 Japanese soldiers at Puerto Princesa drove 150 American prisoners into shelters, doused them in petrol and set them alight. Eleven survived.
17
The Malmedy massacre
On 17 December 1944, at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy, men of Kampfgruppe Peiper shot dozens of American prisoners – 84 of them died.
1945
January
01
The Chenogne massacre
On 1 January 1945, in the Belgian village of Chenogne near Bastogne, soldiers of the US 11th Armored Division killed some 60–80 German prisoners.
02
The B-29 raid on Bangkok
On 2–3 January 1945 B-29s from India attacked the Rama VI Bridge in Bangkok – the only rail crossing of the Chao Phraya – and put it out of action for a time.
February
23
The raid on Los Baños
On 23 February 1945 US paratroopers, amphibious tractors and Filipino guerrillas freed 2,147 internees from the Japanese camp at Los Baños.
28
The landing on Palawan
On 28 February 1945 the US 186th Infantry landed unopposed at Puerto Princesa on Palawan and found traces of the December 1944 massacre of prisoners.
April
28
The surrender of the 148th Division
At Collecchio and Fornovo di Taro the Brazilians trapped the German 148th Division and remnants of Italian divisions. On 29 April 1945 some 15,000 surrendered.
May
07
Göring taken prisoner
On 7 May 1945 Hermann Göring, freed from SS arrest, surrendered to the Americans in Austria. He hoped to meet Eisenhower but ended up in prison and in the dock.
25
The last battles in Yugoslavia
On 25 May 1945 the Yugoslav Army broke Ustaše resistance at Odžak. Ten days earlier the NDH forces' retreat had ended at Bleiburg; prisoners were murdered.
June
13
The death of Admiral Ōta
On 13 June 1945 Rear Admiral Minoru Ōta and his staff killed themselves in the Oroku tunnels. On 6 June he had sent a famous telegram on the Okinawans’ fate.
August
22
The surrender of the Kwantung Army
By 22 August 1945 the Kwantung Army had surrendered to the Red Army; the Soviets took Manchuria down to Port Arthur and sent over 500,000 POWs to the USSR.
31
MacArthur in Japan
On 30 August 1945 MacArthur landed at Atsugi and settled in Yokohama. On 31 August he welcomed there Generals Wainwright and Percival, freed from captivity.
September
12
The surrender at Singapore
On 12 September 1945, in Singapore’s Municipal Building, Mountbatten accepted the formal surrender of Japan’s forces in South-East Asia, signed by Itagaki.