May 1945

[May 1], 1945 (Tuesday)

• Reichssender Hamburg's Flensburg radio station announced that Adolf Hitler had fallen in Berlin while "fighting for Germany". President Karl Dönitz gave a broadcast that night declaring that it was his task to save the German people "from destruction by Bolshevists."
• Joseph Goebbels carried out his sole official act as Chancellor of Germany, dictating a letter to the Soviet commander in Berlin advising of Hitler's death and requesting a ceasefire. When the latter was refused, he and his wife Magda killed their six children and committed suicide themselves. Karl Dönitz appointed Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the new de facto Chancellor of Germany, in the Flensburg Government.
• The U.S. Seventh Army reached Hitler's birthplace of Braunau am Inn, Austria.
• The Battle of Halbe ended in Soviet victory.
• Troops of the Yugoslav 4th Army, together with the Slovene 9th Corpus NOV, entered Trieste.
• An estimated 700–2,500 suicides took place in Demmin, after 80% of the German town had been destroyed by the Soviets during the previous three days.
• In the Pacific War, the Borneo campaign opened with the beginning of the Battle of Tarakan.
• Born: Rita Coolidge, American singer; in Lafayette, Tennessee
• Died: Joseph Goebbels, 47, German Nazi politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda ; Magda Goebbels, 43, wife of Joseph Goebbels ; the six Goebbels children, 4 through 12

  [May 2], 1945 (Wednesday)

• The Battle of Berlin ended in decisive Soviet victory.
• A Holocaust death march from Dachau to the Austrian border was halted under west of Waakirchen by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners.
• Yevgeny Khaldei took the iconic Raising a Flag over the Reichstag photograph, showing Soviet troops raising the flag of the Soviet Union atop the German Reichstag building in Berlin.
• Admiral Dönitz's Flensburg Government was formed, centered in the northern port of Flensburg.
• The Allied Spring offensive in Italy ended with the official surrender of German forces in Italy.
• Pierre Laval left Barcelona by air, forced back to Austria by General Charles de Gaulle who intervened with the Spanish. Laval was arrested by U.S. troops who turned him over to the Free French. He would be tried and executed in October 1945.
• Born: Bianca Jagger, social activist, born Blanca Pérez-Mora Macías in Managua, Nicaragua
• Died: Erich Bärenfänger, 30, German Generalmajor ; Georg Betz, 41, German SS officer ; Martin Bormann, 44, German Nazi official ; Wilhelm Burgdorf, 50, German general ; Walther Hewel, 41, German diplomat ; Peter Högl, 47, German SS-Obersturmbannführer ; Hans Krebs, 47, German general ; Ewald Lindloff, 36, Waffen-SS officer ; Franz Schädle, 38, German commander of Hitler's personal bodyguard ; Martin Strahammer, 54, German Generalmajor ; Joachim von Siegroth, 48, German Generalmajor

  [May 3], 1945 (Thursday)

• The German ocean liner Cap Arcona was sunk by British warplanes in the Bay of Lübeck with 5,000 concentration camp prisoners aboard. Over 400 SS personnel made it to lifeboats and were rescued but only 350 of the prisoners survived.
• Karl Dönitz arranged to send a surrender delegation to Bernard Montgomery's headquarters.
• The British Fourteenth Army captured Rangoon.
• The British Second Army occupied Hamburg unopposed.
• Irish Prime Minister Éamon de Valera offered his condolences to the German Minister in Dublin upon learning of the death of Adolf Hitler.
• At the United Nations Conference on International Organization, in San Francisco four committees began work on a United Nations charter.
• The government of Portugal ordered official flags to fly at half-mast in a day of national mourning for the death of Adolf Hitler.
• The romance film The Valley of Decision starring Greer Garson and Gregory Peck was released.
• Born: Jeffrey C. Hall, geneticist and chronobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017, in New York City; Davey Lopes, American baseball player; in East Providence, Rhode Island

  [May 4], 1945 (Friday)

• German surrender at Lüneburg Heath: At Bernard Montgomery's headquarters, Wehrmacht forces in northwestern Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark surrendered to the Allies, effective at 8:00 a.m. on May 5.
• The Seventh United States Army captured Innsbruck, Salzburg and Berchtesgaden. The Holy Crown of Hungary was recovered in Mattsee, Austria, by the U.S. 86th Infantry Division, and eventually taken to the U.S. Bullion Depository for safe keeping.
• Soviet troops liberated Oranienburg concentration camp.
• Born: N. Ram, Indian journalist; in Madras, British India
• Died: Konrad Barde, 47, German Generalmajor ; Fedor von Bock, 64, German field marshal

  [May 5], 1945 (Saturday)

• Preparation for surrender of German forces in Norway began. With only some 30,000 Allied troops on hand against 350,000 German troops, a surrender was not immediately accepted by General Montgomery, and was later accomplished through preliminary persuasion and negotiation from Sir Andrew Thorne.
• The Prague uprising began when the Czech resistance launched an attempt to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation. The Battle of Czechoslovak Radio began.
• The Bratislava–Brno Offensive ended in Soviet-Romanian victory.
• The Battle for Castle Itter was fought in Austria, resulting in Allied victory.
• Japanese balloon bombs achieved their only success of the war when one killed five children and a pregnant woman near Bly, Oregon.
• The cartoon character Yosemite Sam first appeared in the Bugs Bunny animated short Hare Trigger.
• Born: Kurt Loder, American film critic, author, columnist and television personality; in Ocean City, New Jersey
• Died: Otto-Heinrich Drechsler, 50, German Nazi Commissioner of Latvia

  [May 6], 1945 (Sunday)

• The Siege of Breslau ended after three months with Soviet victory.
• The 16th Armored Division of George S. Patton's Third Army captured Plzeň. Much to Patton's disgust, his men were prevented from advancing any further due to the occupation agreement between the Americans and the Soviets.
• German submarines U-853 and U-881 were lost to enemy action in the Atlantic Ocean.
• In the United States, the midnight curfew for all places of entertainment in effect since February 26 was lifted.
• Born:
• *Jimmie Dale Gilmore, American country musician; in Amarillo, Texas
• *Bob Seger, American musician; in Lincoln Park, Michigan

  [May 7], 1945 (Monday)

• German general Alfred Jodl and admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg signed unconditional surrender documents at 2:41 a.m. at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims. At 2:27 p.m. Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Leading Minister in the rump Flensburg Government, made a broadcast announcing the German surrender. Also this afternoon, American journalist Edward Kennedy broke an Allied embargo on news of the signing.
• The Battle of Kuryłówka was fought in southeastern Poland between anti-communists and Soviet NKVD units. The battle ended in a victory for the underground Polish forces.
• V-E Day celebrations in Halifax, Nova Scotia, got out of control when several thousand servicemen, merchant seamen and civilians went on a rampage and looted the city. Tensions had been high in Halifax for years due to the presence of thousands of servicemen straining the city's resources to the limit.
• Soviet newspaper Pravda carried the findings of a Soviet commission of enquiry into Auschwitz concentration camp, making many details of the conditions there public for the first time but without mention that the majority of the inmates were Jewish; the report was published the following day in the English-language press.
• Francoist Spain severed diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany.
• The U.S. Supreme Court decided Jewell Ridge Coal Corp. v. United Mine Workers of America.
• The British government in India published the report of an official commission of enquiry into the Bengal famine of 1943 stating that it could have been prevented by government action.

  [May 8], 1945 (Tuesday)

• Victory in Europe Day was observed by the Western Allies. At 11:00 p.m. the German Instrument of Surrender was signed in Karlshorst, Berlin, signifying the defeat of Nazi Germany.

• At 3:00 p.m. Winston Churchill announced Germany's unconditional surrender in a radio broadcast from London. "Our gratitude to our splendid Allies goes forth from all our hearts in this Island and throughout the British Empire," Churchill stated. "We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued. The injury she has inflicted on Great Britain, the United States, and other countries, and her detestable cruelties, call for justice and retribution. We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our task, both at home and abroad."
• At 9:00 a.m. U.S. President Harry S. Truman announced the surrender in a broadcast from the Oval Office and declared May 13 to be a national day of prayer. "I call upon the people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory we have won and to pray that He will support us to the end of our present struggle and guide us into the way of peace," the proclamation read. "I also call upon my countrymen to dedicate this day of prayer to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible our victory."
• At 12:30 p.m. President Karl Dönitz announced the surrender to the German people in a speech broadcast from Flensburg, mentioning that the Nazi Party no longer had any role in government.
• Hermann Göring gave himself up to the Americans on a road near Radstadt, Austria. His Mercedes-Benz headed a column of staff cars and lorries carrying expensive luggage, and after being taken into custody he posed happily for photographers, drank champagne and chatted amiably with the American officers. When General Eisenhower learned of the friendly reception he became furious, and Göring soon found himself unceremoniously spirited away to a house in Augsburg for interrogation.
• German submarines were ordered to surface and report to the Allies.
• Canadian troops moved into Amsterdam, after the surrender of German troops.
• The Prague uprising ended with a ceasefire.
• The surrender of the Dodecanese was signed in Symi.
• The Eighth British Army, together with Slovene partisan troops and a motorized detachment of the Yugoslav 4th Army, arrived in Carinthia and Klagenfurt. The Croatian Armed Forces of the disestablished Independent State of Croatia were ordered by their commanders not to surrender to the Yugoslav Partisans, but to attempt to retreat to Austria and surrender to the British, part of the events leading to the Bleiburg repatriations.
• The Massacre in Trhová Kamenice occurred when German troops in the Czech village of Trhová Kamenice shot supposed partisans.
• The Sétif and Guelma massacre began when French police fired on local demonstrators at a protest in the Algerian market town of Sétif. Riots that followed would result in a total of 103 deaths in and around the town.
• The South Tyrolean People's Party was founded in northern Italy.
• Born: Keith Jarrett, American jazz and classical pianist and composer; in Allentown, Pennsylvania
• Died: Ernst-Günther Baade, 47, German general ; Paul Giesler, 49, German Nazi official ; Werner von Gilsa, 56, German military officer ; Wilhelm Rediess, 44, German commander of SS troops in Norway ; Bernhard Rust, 61, German Nazi Minister of Science, Education and National Culture ; Josef Terboven, 46, German Reichskommissar for Norway during the Nazi occupation