| On the Western Front... The last German forces resisting in the Ruhr Pocket surrender. Field Marshal Model, commanding German Army Group B inside the pocket, commits suicide. About 325,000 German prisoners have been taken in this area by the Allied forces. Meanwhile, the US 9th Army captures Magdeburg and troops of US 3rd Army cross the Czechoslovakian border after a rapid advance.
Over Germany... British RAF bombers strike Heligoland --
dropping 5000 tons of bombs.
In Germany... Oberst Steinhoff (176 victories) suffers
severe burns when his Me262 crashes near Munich. [He recovers and
ultimately become Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe of the
Federal Republic of Germany in the postwar era.]
On the Eastern Front... Except in a small area along the axis of advance of 1st Ukrainian Front, the Soviet forces engaged in the battle for Berlin have advanced less than 10 miles toward the city. However, the German defense is being worn down. In
the Ryukyu Islands... American Ernie Pyle, Pulitzer Prize winning
war correspondent, is killed on Ie Shima at age 45. |
