(Europe)
The liberation of Europe began in June 1944 with the D-Day landings in Normandy. The Allies broke through the German lines and began the advance towards Paris and the Belgian border. German civil administrators ordered a retreat and after Brussels was liberated in September 1944, the Belgian-government-in-exile returned. Some areas of Belgium stayed in German hands but after the collapse of the Ardennes Offensive and with the Belgian resistance involvement the whole of Belgium was liberated on the 4th February 1945.
Since D-Day the Allies had advanced up to the borders of Germany. However, the German 19th Army had attacked and held central Alsace, France from November 1944. The Colmar Pocket was formed when the U.S. 6th Army Group (6th AG) liberated northern Alsace and adjacent Lorraine. At the same time the 6th AG liberated southern Alsace. With Alsace/Lorraine bordering on Germany, prime importance for the 19th Army was the defence of the bridges over the Rhine. As part of the Allied attack force the French 1st Army (1st Corp d’Armee) was reinforced by the U.S. XXI Corp. They cleared the pocket of all German forces on the 9th February 1945.
During this campajgn America’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, was awarded to two U.S. soldiers. The first was PFC Jose Valdez who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. The second was the later Hollywood film star First Lieutenant Audie Murphy who was awarded the Medal of Honor. Twenty-year-old Murphy had risen through the ranks after enlisting as an 18-year-old soldier. After being awarded the Medal of Honor, he became the most decorated soldier in the U.S. Army. Having also fought in Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, southern France and the German Rhineland, the United States Army awarded him every military medal available for valour, a total of twelve. He also received a total of six French and Belgian awards for bravery.
(Germany)
With the Nazi-German nation being forced to retreat into Germany on all fronts, the Allies Britain and America, began a series of bombing campaigns in February 1945.
The largest bombing raid on Berlin was on the 3rd February 1945 when 1,500 USAAF B-17 bombers attacked the city. The attack was ordered by the USAAF commander in the belief that the German Panzer Army was passing through Berlin by train on the way to the Eastern Front. The city centre was bombed so densely it caused a massive city fire storm. However, the main railway lines were not included in the damage as they were to the north and south of Berlin. No records can be found as to whether or not the Panzer Army was travelling through Berlin.
On the same day in the Berlin People’s Court, Judge Roland Freisler was conducting a session when the bombing began. He hastily adjourned the court and ordered the prisoners to be escorted to safety. Instead of following the prisoners to a safe place Freisler stayed behind to gather up his court documents. A bomb struck the court building and an internal column was dislodged which crushed Freisler killing him instantly. One of the files later recovered was that of a member of the 20 July Plot who was on trial that day and facing execution. The 20 July Plot was the attempted assassination of Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.
Over a three-day period from the 13th/15th February 1945 the RAF and USAAF bombed the German city of Dresden. Approximately 1,300 heavy bombers dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices. The resulting firestorm destroyed large parts of the city centre and approximately 25,000 civilians were killed. There was a great deal of controversy at the time as to whether the bombing of Dresden was justified. Despite Nazi propaganda that the city was cultural only and the exaggeration of the civilian death toll later emerging events proved otherwise. In March/April 1945 three separate attacks were conducted against the extensive industrial areas outside the city.
Operation Clarion was a joint RAF and USAAF bombing campaign of strategic transport targets of Germany. With two clear days of good weather on the 22nd/23rd February 1945, 3,500 bombers and over 5,000 fighters attacked German transport locations. Docks, bridges, barges, railway tacks and stations were the prime targets. Most of the targets were located in towns that had never been attacked before, and with only minimal German defences the attacks were successful
(Eastern Front)
The Yalta Conference was a meeting of the heads of Government of the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. The conference was held near the city of Yalta in the Crimean region of the Soviet Union. The conference began on the 4th February 1945 and in attendance were British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union. The “Big Three”, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin agreed that defeated Germany would be occupied by Britain, the U.S., the S.U. and France. The four powers, as part of the occupation would control Berlin. French leader Charles de Gaule had not been invited to the Yalta Conference or the later Potsdam Conference. General de Gaule saw this as a diplomatic slight owing to his longstanding personal antagonism with Roosevelt. For de Gaule, this exclusion, began a deep and lasting resentment. As France had not participated fully during the war Stalin objected to the inclusion of France as a full participant of the conference. Also included at the conference they agreed to set up a provisional government in Poland. Liberated countries of Eastern Europe would receive assistance in setting up democratic regimes Upon the surrender of Germany, Stalin agreed to join in the war against Japan. The Yalta Conference ended on the 11th February 1945.
Hungary officially joined forces with the Axis Powers in November 1940. After three years of fighting the Red Army, and with over 200,000 deaths, Hungary was ready to leave the war. Nazi Germany’s response was to send German troops into Hungary in March 1944. With Soviet Union and Romanian troops approaching and the resultant encirclement of Budapest, Hungary’s capital city, a 50-day siege began on the 29th December 1944. During the siege known as the Battle of Budapest, approximately 38,000 civilians died, either by starvation, military action or mass murder of the Jewish population. On the 13th February 1945 the Battle of Budapest ended when the German/Hungarian occupied city unconditionally surrendered. The Soviet victory was a strategic bonus for the Allies in their push toward Berlin.
German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler ordered the German army to enter Prague in Czechoslovakiain March 1939 and the Nazi occupation of the country began. Historically the city of Prague had a multi-ethnic population mostly consisting Czech, German and German speaking Jewish people. Hitler ordered bloody repercussions after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, one of Nazi Germany’s most powerful men, by the Rzech Resistance in 1942. During the occupation most of the Jews were deported and killed in concentration camps or as a result of slave labour.
On the 14th February 1945 Forty USAAF B-17 bombers dropped approximately 150 tons of bombs on the city. The majority of the carpet-bombing casualties were civilians which resulted in the death of approximately 700 people and the wounding of 1,200 more. Most of the city’s factories were not hit but nearly 100 homes and historical sites were totally destroyed. A further 200 buildings were badly damaged. Subsequent events indicate the raid was an accident. At the same time the bombing of Dresden, some 70 miles NW of Prague, was in operation It would appear the forty B-17s were scheduled to bomb Dresden but the onboard radar navi gation system was not functioning correctly. Consequently, a dead-reckoning navigation system was employed. However, high winds experienced en-route, caused the calculations to be inaccurate. Approaching Prague through broken cloud with the occasional glimpse of the ground, convinced the pilots they were at the correct target. From the air Prague and Dresden looked similar and the bombing of Prague was carried out by a “blind attack” using radar. By bombing Prague the Americans had bombed the wrong city.
(Pacific)
In the Philippines the Imperial Japanese Army had defeated and forced the U.S. army to retreat in 1942. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur promised he would be back. By January 1945 with the Japanese retreating on all fronts in the Pacific, MacArthur made good his promise. Beginning in January 1945, MacArthur’s army invaded the main island of Luzon and were advancing towards Japanese defended Manila. Alongside the U.S. Army were Filipino guerrillas eager to take back land occupied by the Japanese. During the Battle of Manila, which begin on the 3rd February 1945, over 100,000 Filipino men, women and children were massacred by the Japanese defenders of the city. The battle ended on the 3rd March 1945 when the Japanese defenders sacrificed their lives and were determined to take as many enemy lives as possible. Manila was defended by approximately 17,000 sailors, marines and soldiers who were facing an invasion of roughly 38,000 U.S/Filipino guerrillas. Japanese losses were in the region of 16,000 killed, and the U.S./Filipino casualties were 1,000 killed and 5,500 wounded.
During May 1942 the U.S. Army surrendered Corregidor Island to the Imperial Japanese Army. This was the beginning of the Japanese conquest in the Philippines Campaign. U.S. General McArthur returned to the Philippines in 1945. He and the U.S. planners thought the island justified a separate invasion owing the proximity to the entrance of Manila Bay. A combined amphibious and airborne attack was MacArthur’s strategy to retake the island. The tadpole shaped island’s most dominant terrain is a hill known as “Topside” which enabled the Japanese to dominate any amphibious landing sites. Although risky the U.S. Military considered an airborne attack was feasible as the Japanese would not expect paratroopers to land on this unlikely target. Prior to the Battle of Corregidor the USAAF began daily bombing attacks on the 25th January 1945 which ended on the 16th February 1945 when the U.S. amphibious attack began. On the same day the first of 1,000 paratroopers landed on “topside”, much to the surprise of the Japanese. Fierce fighting occurred between the Japanese defenders and the U.S. amphibious/airborne attackers. The island was finally recaptured on the 26th February 1945 by the U.S. and Filipino troops. The Battle of Corregidor secured the entrance to Manila Bay.
The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the last major battles in the Philippines Campaign. The island lies approximately 800 miles (1,300 km) due south of mainland Japan and was defended by 21,000 Japanese troops. In March 1944, with the Japanese retreating toward the mainland the Japanese commander ordered that the island be turned into a fortress. The area around Mount Suribachi became a network of bunkers and gun emplacements and connected by underground tunnels. The tunnels protected the defenders from the U.S. naval and airborne bombing prior to the landings. On the 19th February 1945, 30,000 U.S. marines landed on the beaches, overlooked by Mount Suribachi, on the extreme south-east of Iwo Jima. The Japanese open fired on the exposed troops in what was one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific Campaign. When Sherman tanks, armed with flamethrowers, began arriving on the 19th February 1945, they started to clear Japanese positions. On the 23rd February 1945 U.S. marines raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima’s highest point. The U.S. marines paid a heavy price for taking Mount Suribachi as they lost 2,000 troops killed or missing. With 40,000 additional U.S. marines arriving, some advanced to the west coast at the narrowest point completely isolating the defenders of Mount Suribachi. Other marines captured the first of two functioning airfields on the 20th February 1945. The second airfield was captured on the 23rd February 1945. Two days later 300 Japanese troops launched a failed counter-attack on the second airfield. Moving slowly northward the marines encountered the defences of Hill 363 and the Battle of Iwo Jima continued into March1945.
The famous photograph of the marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi was actually the second photograph taken on the day. The first flag was regarded as being too small and a second photograph was ordered to be taken with a larger flag. One of the marines was Pfc Ira Hayes who was an Akim O’odham American Indian. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community stationed in Arizona who joined the U.S. Marine Corps.
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The bombing of Tokyo on the 25th February 1945 was the last of the high-altitude raids. All previous attacks had been high-altitude raids. During the high-altitude daylight raid 174 B-29 bombers, carrying approximately 450 tons of mainly Incendiary bombs, dropped the bombs on the city. The result was that 650 acres of the snow-covered city were totally destroyed. Subsequently the USAAF commanders ordered that future bombers would attack at lower level and at night. The reason being that Japan’s anti-aircraft defences were weaker at the low altitude range and the defensive fighters were ineffective at night.
(Other Theatres)
Most South American nations were basically neutral during the Second World War. They were however, aligned with the Allies for trade but unfriendly to Germany. The United States Lease-Lend agreement protected the Panama Canal which gave the Allies access from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. This resulted in large-scale modernisation and a major economic boost to the area. With both Germany and Japan being forced to retreat by the Allies the following nations declared war on Germany and Japan. Possibly in an effort to boost trade with the Allies, Ecuador declared war on Germany and Japan on the 1st February1945. Paraguay followed suit on the 8th February 1945. This was closely followed when Peru declared war on the 12th February 1945. Finally, Venezuela and Uruguay declared war on the 15th February 1945.
Liberated German occupied countries in the Mediterranean declared war on Germany and Japan. Turkey declared war on the 23rd February 1945, Egypt on the 24th February 1945, Syria on the 26th February 1945 and finally Lebanon on the 27th February 1945.
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The Bay Museum & Research Facility 