DENMARK: 6 Eighth Air Force B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions in Denmark.
THE NETHERLANDS and GERMANY: US Eight Air Force Mission 944: During the night of 12/13 Apr, 9 of 10 B-24s drop leaflets.
GERMANY: The 9th US Army crosses the River Elbe at Magdeburg. Patton's forces take Erfurt.
The men of the US 100th Infantry Division enter the city centre of Heilbronn after an amphibious assault crossing of the swift flowing Neckar river. This was achieved under constant observation and direct fire of dozens of guns emplaced on the hills surrounding the town to the east. (William L. Howard)
Occupied GERMANY: It was too much to take, even for America's three toughest generals. As they toured the Ohrduf concentration camp today. Eisenhower and Bradley burst into tears. General Patton, the most battle-scarred of them all, was overcome by the sight and smell of the piled-up corpses; gagging at each fresh horror, in the end he simply bent down and vomited.
American troops are experiencing the same nausea. Yesterday they uncovered Buchenwald. One of Hitler's older camps, opened to house his opponents in 1938, it soon became another site for race murder. In 1941, 1,200 Jewish prisoners from Buchenwald were among the first to be gassed experimentally in the search for an efficient method to effect the "final solution" to the "Jewish question."
The GIs cannot believe their eyes. There are piles of unburied corpses, stacked higher than a man, at every turn. Inside the huts there are 20,000 skeletal slave labourers lying in bare wooden pigeonholes that stretch from floor to ceiling. When a soldier opens the door, the prisoners, too weak to move, turn their heads feebly. Their eyes, peering out over hollow cheeks, look mournful, confused and resigned. There is no joy in survival.
These pathetic scraps of humanity are some of occupied Europe's leading intellectuals and politicians. They come from Hungary, Russia, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium; there are even French deputies who opposed the Vichy government and anti-Franco Spaniards.
As the Americans approached the camp, the Nazis hurriedly evacuated all the Jewish inmates, many of whom only arrived a few months ago from Auschwitz or other camps to the east. Most of them are now at Flossenburg. Himmler is keeping them alive as potential bargaining counters in what he still hopes will be peace negotiations with the allies.
167 A-20s, A-26s and B-26s of the Ninth Air Force, escorted by 95 Eighth Air Force P-51s, attack the Hof rail bridge, Kempten ordnance depot, and Goppingen marshalling yard, plus a town area and a casual target of opportunity; 275+ planes abort because of weather; fighters escort the bombers, attack the town of Kothen, fly armed reconnaissance and sweeps over wide areas and support ground forces; fighters also support the US III, XVI, and XVIII Corps as they continue to reduce the Ruhr pocket, the 9th Armored Division on the Saale River near Werben and Bad Lauchstadt, the XX Corps from the Saale River N and S of Jena E across the Weisse Elster River, the VIII Corps along the Saale further S of Jena, the XII Corp SE of Coburg on the Hasslach River, the 2d Armored Division across the Elbe River near Randau S of Magdeburg, the 5th Armored Division on the W bank of the Elbe at Wittenberge, and the XVI Corps as it continues fighting in the Duisburg and Dortmund areas.
ITALY: The British 8th Army achieves 3 separate bridge heads over the
River Santerno.
ITALY and AUSTRIA: The US Fifteenth Air Force dispatches 400+ B-17s and B-24s to hit communications in N Italy and S Austria, attacking railroad bridges at Padua, Ponte di Piave and Nervesa della Bataglia, Italy, and Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria, an ammunition dump at Malcontenta, and supply dump at Peschiera del Garda, Italy; 124 P-51s provide escort. 123 P-38s bomb railroad bridges at Unzmarkt and Arnoldstein, Austria; 128 B-24s, with P-51 escort, sent against N Italian communications abort due to bad weather. 38 P-51s escort MATAF B-25s on raids in N Yugoslavia.
ITALY and YUGOSLAVIA: During the night of 11/12 Apr, US Twelfth Air Force A-20s and A-26s hit Po River crossings; medium bombers, restricted by low clouds, bomb approaches to the Maribor, Yugoslavia bridge, hit targets along the Brenner rail line, and support the British Eighth Army in the Argenta area; fighter-bombers attack NE Italian railroad lines, including fuel dumps and communications targets in the Po Valley.
BURMA: British IV Corps makes progress in the Sittang Valley.
L/Naik Islamud-Din, 9th Jat Regt., having already shown great
gallantry on 24 March, threw himself on a grenade to save his comrades. (George
Cross)
75 fighter-bombers of the US Tenth Air Force continue to pound targets in the C
Burma battle area; troop concentrations, gun positions, supplies, vehicles, and
general targets of opportunity are attacked along the battlefront, behind enemy
lines, and along roads S of the bomb line; 369 air supply sorties are flown
throughout the day.
CHINA and FRENCH INDOCHINA: 12 US Fourteenth Air Force B-24s supported by 14 P-51s, bomb the Wuchang railroad yards and airfield; 7 B-25s bomb the Hsuchang railroad yards, 3 hit Loning, 2 attack Likuanchiao, 2 bomb Tenghsien, and a single B-25 attack storage areas at Pingyao and Huaiching. 100+ fighter-bombers attack troops, horses, bridges, river shipping, trucks, and railroad targets at several locations in French Indochina and at points scattered over S and E China.
FORMOSA: Far East Air Force B-24s attack Tainan and bomb Okayama Airfield.
JAPAN: The US Twentieth Air Force flies four missions.
Mission 63: 94 B-29s, escorted by 90 P-51s, strike the Nakajima aircraft factory at Tokyo while 11 hit the secondary target, the Shizuoka engine plant; B-29s gunners claim 16 fighters downed. The P-51s claim 15-6-3 Japanese aircraft; 4 P-51s are lost.
Mission 64: 66 B-29s hit a chemical plant at Koriyama and 9 hit targets of opportunity.
Mission 65: 70 B-29s hit a second chemical plant at Koriyama and 6 hit targets of opportunity; 2 B-29s are lost.
Mission 66: During the night of 12/13 Apr, 5 B-29s mine Shimonoseki Strait.
VOLCANO ISLANDS: During the night of 12/13 Apr, 6 Iwo Jima-based fighters of the VII Fighter Command, operating singly at intervals, bomb and strafe targets on Kita, Chichi, Haha, and Ani Jima Islands.
On Okinawa the fighting continues, US forces make little progress against the Shuri Line.
Three Kamikaze attacks achieve some results against the radar picket
ships.
The destroyer USS Mannert L. Abele (DD-733) is sunk by a Baka - she is the first
US Navy ship to be sunk by that type of weapon; destroyer
USS Stanley (DD-478) is damaged by a Baka; high speed minesweeper USS Jeffers
(DMS-27) is damaged by a Baka and a kamikaze; kamikazes sink support landing
craft LCS-33 and damage battleship USS Idaho (BB-42); battleship USS Tennessee
(BB-43), destroyers USS Purdy (DD-734), USS Cassin Young (DD-793) and USS
Zellars (DD-777) and destroyer escort USS Riddle (DE-185); , 27°17'N,
127°50'E; destroyer escorts Rall (DE-304), USS Walter C. Wann (DE-412),
and USS Whitehurst (DE-634) and light minelayer USS Lindsey (DM-32); minesweeper Gladiator (AM-319) is also damaged by the near-miss of a kamikaze. Kamikazes
also attack U.S. freighter SS Minot Victory, but Armed Guard gunners inflict
sufficient damage on the suicider that it only strikes the ship a glancing blow
and then disintegrates; there are no fatalities on board the merchantman among
the 57-man merchant complement, the 27 Armed Guard sailors and 9
passengers.
The following
is from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Mannert L. Abele
resumed radar picket duty 8 April, patrolling station No. 14 about 70 miles
northwest of Okinawa, accompanied by two LSMRs. Midway through the afternoon
watch on 12 April, Mannert L. Abele caught the full fury of the kamikazes. Three Vals attacked at 1346, but her lethal gunfire drove off two and set fire to the
third which splashed after attempting to crash an LSMR. By 1400, between 15 and
25 additional planes "had come down from the North and the ship was
completely surrounded." Except for one light bomber which challenged and
was damaged by the destroyer's fire, the enemy kept outside her gun range for
more than half an hour.
At about 1440 three Zekes broke orbit and closed to attack. Mannert L. Abele
drove off one and splashed another about 4,000 yards out. Despite numerous hits
from 5-inch bursts and antiaircraft fire, and spewing smoke and flame, the third
kamikaze crashed the starboard side and penetrated the after engine room where it
exploded.
Immediately, Mannert L. Abele began to lose headway. The downward force of the blast, which had wiped out the after engineering spaces, broke the destroyer's keel abaft No. 2 stack. The bridge lost control and all guns and directors lost power.
A minute later, at about 1446, Mannert L. Abele took a second and fatal hit from a Baka bomb a piloted, rocket powered, glider bomb that struck the starboard waterline abreast the forward fire room. Its 2.600 pound warhead exploded, buckling the ship, and "cutting out all power lights, and communications."
Almost immediately, Mannert L. Abele broke in two. her midship section obliterated. Her bow and stern sections sunk rapidly. As survivors clustered in the churning waters enemy planes bombed and strafed them.
However LSMR-189 and LSMR-I90, praised by Comdr. Parker as "worth their weight in gold as support vessels," splashed two of the remaining attackers, repulsed further attacks, and rescued the survivors.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: 24 Seventh Air Force B-24s, based on Angaur Island hit a personnel area at Kabacan on Mindanao Island. Far East Air Force operations include dispatching P-38s and A-20s to support ground troops on Cebu and Negros Islands. On Mindanao Island, B-24s bomb Sapakan, Kabacan and the Davao Bay areas and P-38s hit Cotabato and also Kabacan. On Luzon Island, B-24s, B-25s, A-20s, and fighter-bombers pound targets throughout the Cagayan Valley, blast defences at Balete Pass and in the Baguio area, and hit troops, communications targets, and defences at numerous points in SW and SE Luzon Island.
PACIFIC OCEAN: 5 Japanese ships are sunk at sea:
- Submarine USS Silversides (SS-236) sinks an auxiliary submarine chaser east of Tanega Jima south of Kyushu.
- British submarine HMS Stygian sinks an auxiliary minesweeper off the north coast of Bali.
- Mines sink the submarine HIJMS RO 64 off Kobe, Japan and a merchant cargo ship off Wakamatsu, Japan.
- A B-24 aircraft (service and nationality unspecified) sinks a merchant ship off Badjowe, Borneo.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: US Eleventh Air
Force P-38s shoot down a Japanese paper bomb-balloon over Attu Island.
U.S.A.: Washington: President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only American president ever elected four times,
died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, this afternoon
while he was sitting for a portrait, his last words being 'I have a
terrific headache' before dying in his bedroom. He was 63. The whole country is
mourning the Democratic president who offered the United States a "New
Deal" of expansionist policies to end the economic crisis of the 1930s and
then led it out of isolationism towards victory in a world war.
Although a decline in the president's health had been widely noticed in recent months, his death came as a shock to Washington. Around the world, some American soldiers and sailors refused to believe that he was dead.
His widow Eleanor said: "I am more sorry for the people of the country and of the world than I am for us." The words of his constant adversary, the Republican Senator Robert Taft, were typical of the response in Congress. Taft called the late president "the greatest figure of our time", removed "at the very climax of his career". "We were fortunate," said Harold Ickes, the secretary of the interior, "to have given to civilization the greatest leader in the history of our country."
Harry S. Truman, the vice-president, was sworn in as the 33rd president of the United States at the White House this evening. "Boys," the new president told reporters, "if you ever pray, pray for me now." He said he felt as if "the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me". Minutes after the swearing-in, the secretary of war, Henry Stimson, told Mr Truman that the United States has developed a new explosive "of incredible power". Many here express worries about the former senator from Missouri's lack of experience. But the speaker, Sam Rayburn, said: "Truman will not make a great, flashy president like Roosevelt, But, by God, he'll make a good president, a sound president. He's got the stuff in him."