(Britain)
During October 1944 a string of crimes were committed near Staines in Middlesex culminating in the murder of taxi driver George Edward Heath. Karl Hulten, a Swedish born deserter from the U.S. Army met an 18-year-old Welsh waitress Elizabeth Jones and they joined forces and became partners. Both had troubling and unruly upbringings resulting in illusions of grandeur about their lives. He was awol from the army and considered himself to be a dangerous gangster, she on the other hand, was a potential stripper in a nightclub. After meeting and for six days beginning on the 28th October 1944 they lived out their fantasies. Driving a stolen army truck, they knocked over a nurse cycling along a country lane and robbed her. After, they picked up a female hitchhiker, knocked her unconscious, robbed her then threw her into a river. She did not drown and survived the ordeal. Finally, they murdered Heath, robbing him of £8.00, then stealing his taxi after abandoning the army truck. The murder became known as “The cleft chin murder” on account of Heath having a cleft chin. They were eventually caught with the taxi still in Hulten’s possession and both charged with murder. The Americans waived the “Visiting Forces Act” allowing him to be tried in a British court. They were both found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang. Hulten was executed at Pentonville Prison on the 8th March 1945 and Elizabeth Jones was reprieved and her ultimate fate is uncertain.
(Liberated Europe)
During October 1944, German V2 rockets and launching units had been relocated to the Dutch city of The Hague. The prime targets for the rockets were London and Amsterdam. On the 3rd March 1945 the Allies attempted to destroy the V2 launching sites plus any V2 rockets waiting to be launched. They were unsuccessful as the Allied pilots were given the wrong co-ordinates. By the 15th March 1945 V2 rockets continued to hit London and Antwerp. Over 3,000 V2 rockets were launched at England and the whole of liberated Europe. The final rocket exploded at Orpington in Kent, killing one civilian, on the 27th March 1945.
(Germany)
In retaliation for the bombing of London during the blitz of 1940/41, the Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed the city of Cologne on 262 separate air raids. During the second world war Cologne was the fourth largest city in Germany, and the largest city on the River Rhine. By the time the RAF carried out their last air on the 2nd March 1945, most of the city had been destroyed. Cologne was a heavily industrialised city producing war supplies and as such was an important military target. On the 5th March 1945, U.S. armoured and infantry divisions were approaching the city and on the 6th March 1945 they moved toward the city centre. A single German Panther tank ambushed two U.S. Sherman tanks, one of which was slowed down by a pile of rubble in a narrow street. Two shells from the Panther took out the first Sherman and a third shell hit the tracks of the second Sherman. A U.S. Pershing tank approached and destroyed the Panther as the German tank commander hesitated possibly believing it was a German tank. By the 7th March 1945 all of Cologne west of the Rhine was captured by the Allies. In 1942, RAF Commander-in-Chief Sir Arthur (Bomber) Harris made his now famous statement, “They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind”. Rightly or wrongly the bombing of Cologne was Germany’s WHIRLWIND!![O1]
The Battle of Remagen began on the 7th March 1945 when U.S. troops captured, intact, the Ludendorrf Bridge over the Rhine. For the next ten days the Germans tried many tactics to destroy the bridge, including aircraft. By the 14th March 1945 the air offensive had failed. Hitler ordered that V2 rockets be fired against the bridge. When the bridge finally collapsed on the 17th March 1945, American combat engineers had built temporary bridges across the Rhine. Over 125,000 U.S. combat troops and equipment crossed the Rhine and the eighteen-day battle ended on the 25th March 1945.
By March 1945 the Allies had advanced into Germany and approaching the River Rhine. The city of Mainz was bombed by the RAF on the 27th February 1945, damaging large parts of the city. However, the main targets of the air raids were the railway facilities, which were undamaged. Multiple Allied air raids had rendered approximately 80% of the city destroyed and many of the defenders withdrew across the Rhine. U.S. General George Patton’s troops captured the city on the 22nd March 1945 and what remained of the German defenders surrendered without a fight.
Rivalry between Patton and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery dictated Patton’s next move. He sneaked U.S. troops across the Rhine at Oppenheim on the 22nd March 1945. The attack was successful as they were not opposed by German forces
On the 23rd March 1945, Operation Plunder was a joint British-Canadian-U.S. crossing of the Rhine and commanded by Montgomery. The operation was an attack of the lower Rhine and consisted of an airborne assault, an artillery barrage and Anglo-American bombers. On the 24th March 1945 Operation Varsity was launched, which consisted of over 16,000 Allied paratroopers. They landed east of the Rhine, consolidated, and finally met up with the Allied ground forces. Success in the lower Rhine region ensured an Allied victory for Operation Plunder on the 27th March 1945.
The Battle of Frankfurt began on the 26th March 1945. U.S. soldiers approached to city from the south and found the bridge crossing the River Main mostly intact. The River Main eventually merges into the Rhine River. Under fire and supported by U.S. tank artillery on the 27th March 1945, the U.S. troops fought the Germans in fierce house to house combat forcing them out of the city. The three-day battle ended on the 29th March 1945 when the Americans took control of Frankfurt. Accompanying the U.S. army was a female war correspondent, Lee Millar. She was the first correspondent, from the front line, to report to the U.S. press of the liberation of Frankfurt. Lee was one of six British and American War Correspondents who had been reporting events since 1936. Their theatre of operation was Europe and not the far east. Even then the U.S. assignments were regulated by the U.S. military.
With the Germans in general retreat, the Red Army was closing in on Germany from the east. Danzig (modern day Gdansk) is one of the oldest cities in Poland, which became a “Free City” following the Napoleonic wars. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, they officially annexed the “Free City”. The Siege of Danzig occurred when the Red Army approached the city on the 13th March 1945 and ended on the 30th March 1945 when Danzig was captured.
Heinrich Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. After joining the Nazi Party in 1923 he rose through the ranks to become Reichsfuhrer-SS in 1929. He also became a principal architect for the Holocaust, the extermination of the Jews and other so-called inferior races. Himmler was primarily a master organisational officer and under his leadership the Gestapo and Waffen-SS w developed. Hitler appointed him as commander of the hastily formed Army Group Vistula on the 25th January 1945. However, Himmler did not have the military and combat experience to halt the Red Army advance. Eventually, after some delaying tactics, a counter-attack was launched against the Red Army on the 16th March 1945. The attack was halted by heavy rain, mud, minefields and strong anti-tank defences. Under pressure from Hitler as to why the mission was not accomplished, Himmler was unable to provide a viable alternative. Accusing him of not following orders, Hitler held Himmler personally responsible. The military command of Himmler ended on the 20th Match 1945 when Hitler replaced him with General Gotthard Heinrici. Hitler’s response to Himmer’s failure marked a serious deterioration in the relationship between the two leaders
(Eastern Front)
In Denmark, resistance fighters in Copenhagen had asked for a long time for the British to conduct a raid on Shellhus in the city centre. The building was being used by the Germans as Gestapo headquarters. Plans were approved for a low-level raid, and code-named Operation Carthage. On the 21st March 1945 eighteen de Haviland Mosquito fighter-bombers conducted the raid. They were escorted by 30 Royal Air Force (RAF) Mustang fighters and two RAF Mosquito Film Production Units to record the results of the attack. The attack was conducted at roof-top level. On the first wave of six aircraft one Mosquito hit a lamppost and crashed into a school just short of the target. The crash set the school alight killing 123 civilians, many of them children. Shellhus was destroyed by the remaining aircraft, eighteen resistance prisoners escaped and Gestapo operations in Denmark were severely disrupted. Over 100 Danish employees of the Gestapo, Danish prisoners and German soldiers died during the attack. For the Allies, four Mosquito bombers and two Mustang fighters were lost and nine airmen died on the raid.
(Burma-Pacific)
Near the end of the Burma Campaign, two separate battles, the Battle of Meiktila and the Battle of Mandalay were decisive engagements. The Japanese supply lines had been extended and troops had suffered heavy losses in the mountains after the battles of Imphal and Kohima in 1944. The Allies were pursuing the retreating Japanese south along the Burma spine. The Japanese losses included conscripts who were not ready for battle. The air force was reduced to a few dozen aircraft and the tank regiment only had about twenty tanks to face the Allied advance.
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With disastrous Japanese losses their military realised they needed to make sweeping changes to their commanders. On the 28th February 1945 the Japanese began preparing for the defence of Meiktila as they became aware of the threat of the Allied advance. The Indian 17th Division captured the city of Meiktila on the 3rd March 1945. The Japanese re-enforcement troops, when they arrived, were dismayed to find they would need to capture Meiktila again. Battle weary troops were weak after the preceding weeks heavy fighting. Meiktila was besieged and the siege ended when the Japanese commander was ordered to abandon the siege during the final days of March 1945. At the same time, they were ordered to prepare to resist further Allied advances to the south.
For his actions during the Battle of Meiktila on the 18th March 1945, Lieutenant Karamjeet Singh Judge was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross (VC). He was 21 years old and serving in the 4th Bn. 15th Punjab Regiment, Indian Army. The platoon he was leading was held up by machine-gun fire from tunnels and bunkers. With complete disregard for his own safety he went forward and directed the supporting tanks to destroy the first bunker. After ten bunkers had been destroyed another three were located. A smoke bomb directed a tank to the first bunker, he led a few troops to mop-up after requesting the tank to cease fire. Within a few yards of the bunker a machine-gun opened fire and he was mortally wounded.
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Japanese troops had been ordered to abandon the Siege of Meiktila and reinforce the city of Mandalay, and defend the city to the last man. Japanese military honour would be a loss of prestige should the city be abandoned. South of the city, were large supply dumps, which the Japanese could not afford to lose. A battalion of 4/4th Gurkha Rifles stormed Mandalay Hill on the 8th March 1945. Fighting their way into the city the Gurkhas faced Japanese defenders who were located in tunnels and bunkers. The Japanese defenders were gradually over-run until Mandalay was liberated on the 20th March 1945. With the loss of Mandalay, the Burmese population turned against the Japanese. Guerilla forces would continue in Burma until the end of the war in September 1945
(Pacific)
The first raid on Tokyo was the daylight raid of the 25th February 1945 when 174 USAAF B-29 bombers dropped incendiary bombs destroying approximately 643 acres of the snow-covered city. On the 9th March 1945 the most destructive raid on Tokyo, code named Operation Meetinghouse, was conducted by the U.S. military. With a change of tactics, 324 B-29 bombers flew at night and at a lower altitude of 2,000-2,500 ft. (610-760 m). Mostly the bombs dropped were 500lb (230 kg) cluster bombs which contained incendiary bomblets. The first B-29’s to arrive dropped the bombs in a large “X” pattern in Tokyo’s city centre which included the dock area. Approximately 15.8 square miles of central Tokyo’s densely populated area was destroyed. The destruction was caused by individual fires mixing and creating one huge fire. The result was that approximately 100,000 were killed and over one million homeless. Of the 339 B-29s launched for Meetinghouse, 282 reached the target. What happened to the remainder is not known. 27 were lost by being caught up in fire updraft, mechanical failures or being shot down by Japanese air defences. Sometime during March 1945, Emperor Hirohito’s tour of the destroyed areas of Tokyo was the beginning of his involvement in the peace process between Japan and the U.S.A.
In Nagoya, the Mitsubishi Aircraft Works was the major target for the USAAF a ir raids. The Doolittle Raid in April 1942 was the first raid. The second phase created the most serious bomb damage during the aerial attacks of 1944 and 1945. Twenty-one separate raids dropped nearly 20,000 tons of bombs between the 13th December 1944 and the 24th July 1945. Prior to that another phase of precision bombing on Mitsubishi factories were launched on the 13th and 18th December 1944 respectively. Two further attacks were launched on 3rd and 14th January 1945. On two separate dates, the 11th and 18th March 1945, there were large scale air raids culminating into widespread firestorms. The raids on the Mitsubishi Aircraft Works in Nagoya continued into April 1945.
During the Battle of Iwo Jima, following the capture of the second Japanese built airfield on the 23rd February 1945, the U.S. marines slowly moved northward. Located at the extreme north of the island was Hill 363 where the marines encountered more Japanese defenders. Clearing the fortified ridges of Hill 363 and the area around Hill 382, known as the “Meatgrinder” was difficult as the defenders were often hidden underground. By the 7th March 945 the marines had taken both hills and Iwo Jima was finally declared secure on the 26th March 1945. However, a few Japanese soldiers remained in isolated strongholds until the end of March 1945. The suicidal defence of Iwo Jima by 20,000 Japanese troops was part of the Japanese code of not surrendering, but to die for the emperor. Of the 1,000 who did not die approximately 850 were taken prisoner, owing mainly to their injuries. For the marines the battle was the bloodiest in the Pacific Campaign. They had approximately 22,000 casualties of which 7,000 were killed in action. Their casualties were actually more than the Japanese casualties.
(Other Theatres)
Saudi Arabia was a neutral country during the course of the war, who rapidly expanded their petroleum industry. This expansion was largely due to investment from the Allies to ensure the supply of oil to the Allied forces. In February 1945 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt met the Saudi king and an agreement was reached that the Saudis would join forces with the Allies. On the 1st March 1945 with both the Axis powers in full retreat, Saudi Arabia declared war on Germany and Japan.
The Bay Museum & Research Facility 