March 6th, 1945 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Whilst
dived and calibrating instruments, miniature submarine XE-11 collides with a BDV
in Loch Striven, Scotland and sinks to the bottom. 2 of the crew are able to
escape using DSEA, but the remaining 3 are casualties. (Alex Gordon)(108)
Frigate HMCS Sussexvale arrived Londonderry to join EG-26.
NETHERLANDS: Resistance fighters ambush and attempt to execute SS General Hans Rauter, the arch-persecutor of the Dutch.
GERMANY: The entire front of the US 9th Army has now reached the Rhine River.
Cologne: Tanks and infantry of the US First Army drove into Cologne today to reach the Rhine in the cathedral district. A Panzer hit by an American shell was burning up in front of the cathedral, its ammunition exploding in erratic bursts. The infantry pushed into the southern suburbs, where remains of the city's defenders are on the retreat to Bonn.
About three-quarters of the city has been destroyed by bombing and shell-fire. Remarkably, the 13th-century Gothic cathedral is hardly damaged; a priest and a Franciscan monk have continued to hold regular services in the vestry. Of the city's peacetime population of almost a million, fewer than 150,000 remain.
Z.28 German Destroyer, Sunk at 11pm in Sassnitz Roads by RAF air raid. (James Paterson)
U.S.S.R.: Submarine USSR SC-307 received the Red Banner Award. Her commander M.S. Kalinin received the honourable rank of The Hero of the Soviet Union.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: General Mac Arthur meets his wife Jean and son Arthur in Manila Harbor aboard the Columbia Express.
VOLCANO ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: VII Fighter Command, United States' Seventh Air Force bases the 15th Fighter Group with P-51Ds at South Field.
CANADA: HMS LST 3555, 3556, 3557, 3558, 3559 ordered in Canada. Cancelled 18 Aug 45.
Canadian Park Steamship Company freighter SS Green Hill Park caught fire and exploded while loading cargo in Vancouver, British Columbia. In explosion two crewmembers and six longshoremen were Lost. The ship was declared a Constructive Total Loss but was sold to a Greek owner who had the hulk repaired and operated under the name Phaeax II.
U.S.A.: Florida:
DAV resolutions will endorse rest camps
CLEARWATER - Resolutions will be offered tomorrow night at a meeting of Clearwater chapter, Disabled American Veterans, for the group's endorsement of the proposed use of state parks and game preserves as rest camps for returned veterans who are discharged as a result of battle strain. Commander Roy F. Mains will outline the program to the chapter. (William L. Howard)
Toothpaste tubes will be diverted to troops
CLEARWATER - Local druggists have been advised by salesmen for wholesale firms that toothpaste in tubes may disappear entirely before the beginning of summer. The reason, they said, was the heavy use of tubes to pack all sorts of ointments and other supplies issued to troops before embarkation to battle zones. The GI issues include a special ointment to be used in gas attacks. According to the drug salesmen, each soldier gets five tubes - with the result that nearly all dental cleaners soon will consist of powders or liquids packed in cardboard cartons or glass bottles. (William L. Howard)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:U-681 shot a T-5 at an ASW trawler, but missed.
SS Empire Geraint damaged by U-775 at 51N, 05W.