March 9th, 1945 (FRIDAY)
GERMANY: US forces capture Bonn.
U-2548 is launched.
JAPAN: US B-29s raid Tokyo with 1650 tons of incendiary bombs. This is the first of many fire bombing raids on various Japanese Cities.
This was the XXI Bomber Command's Mission Number 40 flown by the 73d, 313th and 314th Bombardment Wings (Very Heavy). During the night of 9/10 March, 325 B-29s are dispatched from the Mariana Islands to hit the Tokyo urban area; the bombers flew in a stream rather than in bomber formation. The bombers carry neither bomb bay fuel tanks nor guns and ammunition except for the tail turret guns. The bombers departed at sunset and attacked Japan between 0100 and 0300 hours on 10 March; 279 bombers hit the primary target with 1,665 tons of incendiary bombs from an altitude between 4,900 and 9,200 feet (1,494 and 2,804 meters). Twenty B-29s hit secondary targets and targets of opportunity. Fourteen B-29s are lost, one to AA, five ditched, one made it back but was scrapped and seven were missing. This is the first of the night fire bomb raids on Japanese cities and results in 15.8 square miles (40.9 square km) of Tokyo being burned out and an estimated 83,000 Japanese killed.
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: Frigate SAS Natal commissioned.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Furse launched.