May 1945

May

• 01

  • The death of the Goebbels familyOn 1 May 1945 Joseph and Magda Goebbels poisoned their six children in the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery and then took their own lives.
  • Tito in TriesteOn 1 May 1945 the Yugoslav 4th Army and IX Corps entered Trieste, followed on 2 May by New Zealanders. Forty days of Yugoslav rule brought arrests and killings.
  • The landing on TarakanOn 1 May 1945 the Australian 26th Brigade, with US and Dutch units, landed on Tarakan off Borneo. The fight for the oil island lasted until June.
• 02

  • The flag over the ReichstagOn 2 May 1945 the German garrison of the Reichstag surrendered. The red banner had flown on the roof since 30 April; Khaldei's famous photograph was staged.
  • Key eventThe surrender of BerlinOn 2 May 1945 General Helmuth Weidling surrendered Berlin to General Chuikov and ordered the garrison to lay down arms. Krebs's talks the day before had failed.
  • The surrender of German forces in ItalyAt 2 p.m. local time on 2 May 1945 the Caserta surrender came into force. German forces in Italy were the first whole front of the Reich to lay down arms.
  • The breakout from the bunkerOn the night of 1–2 May 1945 the occupants of Hitler's bunker tried to break out of Berlin. Krebs and Burgdorf shot themselves; Bormann died while fleeing.
• 03

  • The liberation of RangoonOn 3 May 1945 the Indian 26th Division, landed from the sea in Operation Dracula, took Rangoon unopposed; the Japanese had left a few days earlier.
• 04

  • The end of the U-boat warOn 4 May 1945 Dönitz ordered the U-boats to cease fighting. The day before, the Admiral Hipper had been scuttled at Kiel; crews scuttled over 200 U-boats.
  • The surrender at Lüneburg HeathOn 4 May 1945, in Montgomery's tent near Lüneburg, the Germans signed the surrender of their forces in the Netherlands, north-west Germany and Denmark.
  • Neuengamme and the Cap ArconaOn 3 May 1945 the RAF sank ships holding Neuengamme prisoners in the Bay of Lübeck, killing some 7,000. On 4 May the British entered the empty camp.
• 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 surrender at WageningenOn 5 May 1945 at Wageningen General Blaskowitz received the Canadian terms for the German forces in the Netherlands to lay down arms. They were signed on 6 May.
  • The liberation of MauthausenOn 5 May 1945 a patrol of the US 11th Armored Division reached Gusen and Mauthausen. At least 90,000 people died in the camp complex.
  • Kamikaze off Okinawa in MayOn 3–4 May 1945 the fifth Kikusui operation sank the destroyers Luce, Morrison and Little off Okinawa. On 11 May kamikaze hit the carrier Bunker Hill.
  • 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.
• 06

  • The last American battles in EuropeOn 6 May 1945 the Americans entered Plzeň as German resistance in the Alps died away. Isolated clashes went on on 7 and 8 May, until the surrender took effect.
• 07

  • The shooting on Dam SquareOn 7 May 1945 German sailors fired on a crowd celebrating liberation on Dam Square in Amsterdam. At least 32 people were killed and over 100 wounded.
  • Key eventThe surrender at ReimsAt 2.41 a.m. on 7 May 1945, at Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of all German armed forces.
  • Göring taken prisonerOn 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.
• 08

  • Key eventVictory in Europe DayOn 8 May 1945 the West celebrated Germany's surrender in London, Paris and New York. The guns fell silent at 11.01 p.m.; in Poland, joy was clouded by doubt.
  • The surrender of CourlandOn 8 May 1945, on Dönitz's orders, General Carl Hilpert's Army Group Courland surrendered to the Leningrad Front. Some 190,000 men went into captivity.
  • Key eventThe surrender at KarlshorstOn 8 May 1945 in Berlin-Karlshorst, Keitel, Friedeburg and Stumpff signed Germany's final act of unconditional surrender before Zhukov and Tedder.
  • The surrender of the Tiso governmentOn 8 May 1945, at Kremsmünster in Austria, Prime Minister Štefan Tiso's fugitive government of the Slovak Republic submitted to the US XX Corps.
  • The division of Indochina at the 16th parallelOn 8 May 1945 in San Francisco the US assured France it did not dispute French sovereignty over Indochina. The 16th-parallel division was agreed in July.
• 09

  • Victory Day in the USSRA decree of 8 May 1945 made 9 May Victory Day in the USSR. That evening Stalin announced the end of the war with Germany, and Moscow fired a 30-salvo salute.
  • The Red Army in PragueOn the morning of 9 May 1945 Konev's tanks entered Prague. By 11 May Army Group Centre had surrendered, while the Americans halted on a line near Plzeň.
  • 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.
• 11

  • The capture of WewakOn 11 May 1945 the Australian 6th Division took Wewak, the Japanese 18th Army's last major base on New Guinea. Its remnants fought on in the hills until August.
• 14

  • The Nagoya raid of 14 MayOn 14 May 1945, 472 B-29s burned northern Nagoya and its castle by day. On 16/17 May the south burned; the two raids killed some 3,900 people.
  • Fighting in the southern PhilippinesIn mid-May 1945 the US Eighth Army and Filipino guerrillas fought the Japanese on Mindanao, Negros and Cebu. The heaviest fighting was around Davao.
• 15

  • The Battle of the Malacca StraitOn the night of 15/16 May 1945 British destroyers sank the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro off Penang. Between about 750 and over 900 men were killed.
• 20

  • The end of the Texel uprisingOn 20 May 1945 the Canadians finished disarming the Germans on Texel, where mutinous Georgians of the Wehrmacht had fought since April. Some 1,500 died.
• 23

  • The arrest of the Flensburg governmentOn 23 May 1945 at Flensburg-Mürwik, British troops acting on Eisenhower's orders arrested Dönitz, Jodl and the ministers of the Third Reich's last government.
  • The death of HimmlerDetained on 21 May 1945 with false papers, Himmler revealed his identity in a British camp. On 23 May at Lüneburg he bit a cyanide capsule and died.
• 25

  • The last battles in YugoslaviaOn 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.
• 29

  • The raid on YokohamaIn late May 1945 B-29s burned Tokyo (nights of 23/24 and 25/26 May) and Yokohama (29 May, 454 bombers escorted by P-51s). Thousands of civilians died.
  • The Levant crisisOn 29 May 1945 French troops attacked the parliament in Damascus and shelled the city. British intervention forced the French back to their barracks.