Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
GERMANY: Hermann Göring sends a radio message to Hitler offering to take war leadership of the Reich if Hitler is unable to continue while the siege continues. Hitler is infuriated and orders Goring arrested. Hitler dismisses Reichsmarschall Göring as Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe and installs Generaloberst Robert Ritter von Greim in his place after first promoting the Generaloberst to Generalfeldmarschall. Flugkapitän Hanna Reitsch, flying a Fiesler Storch, then flies von Griem into beleaguered Berlin for a conference with Hitler. After the conference they are able to fly out again, becoming the last people to get out of the encircled city.
Albert Speer bids Hitler farewell, confessing that he sabotaged the "scorched-earth" directive, and has preserved German factories and industry for the post-war period.
Reichsjugendführer Artur Axmann gives a personal order that battalions of Hitler Youth be raised to defend the Pichelsdorf bridges across the River Havel in Berlin to keep the way open for Wenck's phantom army.
148 RAF Lancasters of No 5 Group set out to attack the railway yards and port area at Flensburg but the operation was abandoned because of cloud which covered the target on the bomb run. All aircraft returned safely.
60 RAF Mosquitos dispatached to Kiel; none lost.
38 RAF Mosquitos to Rendsburg, 32 to Travemünde and 8 to Schleissheim airfield, 45 RCM sorties, 35 Mosquito patrols. No aircraft lost.
General Galland's JV 44 increases its pilots and machines when Obstlt. Heinz Bär and his III./EJG 2 arrive from Lechfeld after their airfield is overrun by ground troops of General Patch's 7th Army. The Me 262s of I./KG 51 also arrive to bring JV 44's strength to over forty aircraft, much more than a Staffel, along with about ninety pilots. The other Gruppen of EJG 2 are sent to Prague-Ruzyn to combine with the jet fighters of JG 7.
EASTERN FRONT: The Red Army has broken into Berlin from the north, east and south. Massed Russian artillery is shelling the central and western areas of the city. Buildings are collapsing piece by piece. Sturmovik aircraft dive over the rubble to silence German strongpoints. Latest reports say that Russian assault troops are smashing their way through the inner ring of SS resistance near the Stettiner railway station, one mile from the Unter den Linden.
Frankfürt am der Oder: After 6 days of heavy defensive fighting, the defenders of the city, assisted by 11.SS-Armee Korps [Kleinheisterkamp], gave very little ground to Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front. Massive and continuous artillery bombardments on the town from 20 to 22 April, 1945, reduced vast parts of the city to a wasteland of burning rubble. Still, the defensive perimeter remained intact. Zhukov's 1st Byelorussian then sought to bypass and find a way around and behind the stubborn defenders. By 22 April the near breakup of 9th Armee into three isolated segments was dangerously close. Hitler, at the insistence of Gen.Heinrici, allowed 9th Army to remove itself from continued [suicidal] holding of the Oder line-position, which allowed the extrication of the beleaguered and nearly surrounded garrison of 'Festung-Frankfurt' aided by elements of 11.SS-Armee.Korps, at the very last moment. The Russians [actually a Polish Tank Brigade of the Red Army] took possession of the city on 23 April 1945. Detonations and fire in the city centre area went on for a number of days beyond this, and have been attributed to both unexploded Allied aerial ordnance [The RAF raided Frankfurt a.Oder in late March and early April 1945], as well as to last ditch Hitler-Jugend attacks by the so-called 'Werwolf' organisation.
About 1,000 German civilians are massacred by the Red Army in the occupied town of Treuenbrietzen. Men are gathered together, taken to nearby woods and shot. A number of women are also raped and killed. Nearly every family in the town loses relatives. Five kilometres up the road near the village of Nichel retreating German soldiers shoot 127 Italian forced labourers who had just escaped from a munitions factory in Treuenbritzen.
WESTERN FRONT: Elements of the 2nd US Cavalry Group, 90th and 97th US Infantry Divisions liberate the 1,526 prisoners who remain in the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp near Weiden in NE Bavaria.
At 1535, 'U-1023' fired a spread of two LUT torpedoes at Convoy TBC-135 and heard one detonation and sinking noises. In fact, the 'Riverton' was only damaged.
The unescorted 'Katy' was torpedoed and damaged by 'U-857' east of Kitty Hawk. She was towed to Lynnhaven, Hampton Roads on 26 April and repaired. It is also possible that 'U-879' torpedoed this ship, but both U-boats were lost during April 1945 in that area and this success can not be definitely assigned to one of the boats.
'U-396' reported missing from weather-reporting duties. No explanation exists for its loss. 45 dead (all hands lost).
'U-1055' reported missing in the North Atlantic or the English Channel. No explanation exists for its loss. 49 dead (all hands lost).
Minesweeper HMCS 'Vegreville' damaged by mines off French coast and headed for Devonport for repairs. The damage to her port engine was considered to be beyond economical repair and was declared a constructive total loss 6 Jun 45.
'U-716' depth charged in the Arctic by a hunter-killer group. Due to the damage incurred the boat had to return to base.
First Tactical Air Force (Provisional): HQ 71st Fighter Wing moves from Vittel, France to Heidelberg, Germany. Ninth Air Force: Weather cancels combat operations by the 9th Bombardment Division. In Germany, fighters patrol the Magdeburg area and the US Third Army front (E of the Bayreuth-Nurnberg area), fly armed reconnaissance over E Germany and W Czechoslovakia, and operate in conjunction with the XII Corps as it presses forward N of Regensburg between the Danube River and Czech Border. P-47 unit moves in Germany: 411th and 412th Fighter Squadrons, 373d Fighter Group, from Venlo, the Netherlands to Lippstadt; 509th, 510th and 511th Fighter Squadrons, 405th Fighter Group, from Ophoven, Belgium to Kitzingen.
MEDITTERANEAN: The US 5th and the British 8th Army reach the River Po. The 5th Army crosses south of Mantua.
Albert Speer bids Hitler farewell, confessing that he sabotaged the "scorched-earth" directive, and has preserved German factories and industry for the post-war period.
Reichsjugendführer Artur Axmann gives a personal order that battalions of Hitler Youth be raised to defend the Pichelsdorf bridges across the River Havel in Berlin to keep the way open for Wenck's phantom army.
148 RAF Lancasters of No 5 Group set out to attack the railway yards and port area at Flensburg but the operation was abandoned because of cloud which covered the target on the bomb run. All aircraft returned safely.
60 RAF Mosquitos dispatached to Kiel; none lost.
38 RAF Mosquitos to Rendsburg, 32 to Travemünde and 8 to Schleissheim airfield, 45 RCM sorties, 35 Mosquito patrols. No aircraft lost.
General Galland's JV 44 increases its pilots and machines when Obstlt. Heinz Bär and his III./EJG 2 arrive from Lechfeld after their airfield is overrun by ground troops of General Patch's 7th Army. The Me 262s of I./KG 51 also arrive to bring JV 44's strength to over forty aircraft, much more than a Staffel, along with about ninety pilots. The other Gruppen of EJG 2 are sent to Prague-Ruzyn to combine with the jet fighters of JG 7.
EASTERN FRONT: The Red Army has broken into Berlin from the north, east and south. Massed Russian artillery is shelling the central and western areas of the city. Buildings are collapsing piece by piece. Sturmovik aircraft dive over the rubble to silence German strongpoints. Latest reports say that Russian assault troops are smashing their way through the inner ring of SS resistance near the Stettiner railway station, one mile from the Unter den Linden.
Frankfürt am der Oder: After 6 days of heavy defensive fighting, the defenders of the city, assisted by 11.SS-Armee Korps [Kleinheisterkamp], gave very little ground to Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front. Massive and continuous artillery bombardments on the town from 20 to 22 April, 1945, reduced vast parts of the city to a wasteland of burning rubble. Still, the defensive perimeter remained intact. Zhukov's 1st Byelorussian then sought to bypass and find a way around and behind the stubborn defenders. By 22 April the near breakup of 9th Armee into three isolated segments was dangerously close. Hitler, at the insistence of Gen.Heinrici, allowed 9th Army to remove itself from continued [suicidal] holding of the Oder line-position, which allowed the extrication of the beleaguered and nearly surrounded garrison of 'Festung-Frankfurt' aided by elements of 11.SS-Armee.Korps, at the very last moment. The Russians [actually a Polish Tank Brigade of the Red Army] took possession of the city on 23 April 1945. Detonations and fire in the city centre area went on for a number of days beyond this, and have been attributed to both unexploded Allied aerial ordnance [The RAF raided Frankfurt a.Oder in late March and early April 1945], as well as to last ditch Hitler-Jugend attacks by the so-called 'Werwolf' organisation.
About 1,000 German civilians are massacred by the Red Army in the occupied town of Treuenbrietzen. Men are gathered together, taken to nearby woods and shot. A number of women are also raped and killed. Nearly every family in the town loses relatives. Five kilometres up the road near the village of Nichel retreating German soldiers shoot 127 Italian forced labourers who had just escaped from a munitions factory in Treuenbritzen.
WESTERN FRONT: Elements of the 2nd US Cavalry Group, 90th and 97th US Infantry Divisions liberate the 1,526 prisoners who remain in the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp near Weiden in NE Bavaria.
At 1535, 'U-1023' fired a spread of two LUT torpedoes at Convoy TBC-135 and heard one detonation and sinking noises. In fact, the 'Riverton' was only damaged.
The unescorted 'Katy' was torpedoed and damaged by 'U-857' east of Kitty Hawk. She was towed to Lynnhaven, Hampton Roads on 26 April and repaired. It is also possible that 'U-879' torpedoed this ship, but both U-boats were lost during April 1945 in that area and this success can not be definitely assigned to one of the boats.
'U-396' reported missing from weather-reporting duties. No explanation exists for its loss. 45 dead (all hands lost).
'U-1055' reported missing in the North Atlantic or the English Channel. No explanation exists for its loss. 49 dead (all hands lost).
Minesweeper HMCS 'Vegreville' damaged by mines off French coast and headed for Devonport for repairs. The damage to her port engine was considered to be beyond economical repair and was declared a constructive total loss 6 Jun 45.
'U-716' depth charged in the Arctic by a hunter-killer group. Due to the damage incurred the boat had to return to base.
First Tactical Air Force (Provisional): HQ 71st Fighter Wing moves from Vittel, France to Heidelberg, Germany. Ninth Air Force: Weather cancels combat operations by the 9th Bombardment Division. In Germany, fighters patrol the Magdeburg area and the US Third Army front (E of the Bayreuth-Nurnberg area), fly armed reconnaissance over E Germany and W Czechoslovakia, and operate in conjunction with the XII Corps as it presses forward N of Regensburg between the Danube River and Czech Border. P-47 unit moves in Germany: 411th and 412th Fighter Squadrons, 373d Fighter Group, from Venlo, the Netherlands to Lippstadt; 509th, 510th and 511th Fighter Squadrons, 405th Fighter Group, from Ophoven, Belgium to Kitzingen.
MEDITTERANEAN: The US 5th and the British 8th Army reach the River Po. The 5th Army crosses south of Mantua.