April 20th, 1945 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The first production de Havilland Vampire F. 1 jet fighter (TG 274) makes its maiden flight at Samlesbury, Lancashire. (22)
GERMANY: Berlin: At his 56th birthday party, Hitler is stooped and trembling, his uniform stained with food. The cheerless luncheon is attended by Göring and Himmler, who then flee the city, after giving the Führer their birthday congratulations.Adolf Hitler celebrates his 56th and last birthday in the ruins of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The cheerless luncheon ceremony is attended by various high ranking Nazi satraps, including Göring and Himmler, who then flee the doomed city amidst a mass exodus directly after the giving the Fuhrer their birthday congratulations. Both will be accused of treason and dismissed from all official offices by Hitler in little more than a week's time.
After an air-raid interruption by marauding RAF Mosquitos, Hitler, accompanied by one-armed Reich Youth Leader Artur Axmann, decorates a group of Hitler-Youth boys with the Iron Cross for bravery against the Russians (who are at the same moment steadily investing the outlying suburbs to the south and east of the city). The occasion is filmed by the propaganda cameras for the weekly 'Wochenschau', and will be the last photographic sequence taken of Hitler, his hands shaking and palsied by Parkinson's disease, before his suicide ten days later. After the ceremony, the Hitler-Youth boys aged 10-16, are sent back into defence of the city where most will perish. (Russ Folsom)
After an air-raid interruption by marauding RAF Mosquitos, Hitler, accompanied by one-armed Reich Youth Leader Artur Axmann, decorates a group of Hitler-Jugend with the Iron Cross for bravery against the Russians. The occasion is filmed by the propaganda cameras for the weekly 'Wochenschau', and will be the last photographic sequence taken of Hitler, his hands shaking and palsied by Parkinson's disease. After the ceremony, the Hitler-Jugend boys aged 10-16, are sent back into defence of the city where most will perish. (Russ Folsom)
The Second Byelorussian Front under Marshal Rokossovsky has
now reinforced the offensives launched by Zhukov and Konev four days ago. Today
Rokossovsky battled over marshy ground to cross the western branch of the Oder
towards Neubrandenburg, Stralsund and Rostock,
effectively preventing the 3rd Panzer Army from reinforcing the defence of
Berlin. Konev crosses the River Spree, and takes Calau on the
approach to Berlin from the south followed by Zossen, the Wehrmacht high command
headquarters. Although the direct eastern attack by Marshal
Zhukov's First Byelorussian Front has encountered strong resistance near Seelow,
Germany's Ninth Army is being squeezed between the advancing armies of Zhukov
and Konev. However Hitler has resisted pleas that it should be allowed to
withdraw. Some government departments are being moved to southern Germany and
Schleswig-Holstein, but Hitler rejected suggestions that he should also leave.
Zhukov takes Prötzel.
The French 1st Army advances rapidly in the Stuttgart area, taking the city.
Nuremberg, site of the ostentatious NSDAP 'Partei Tag' rallies, is captured by the US 7th Army.
At Flossenburg KZ, approx. 15,000 prisoners are assembled to make a forced march in the direction of Dachau concentration camp. Thousands are killed on the way, and the paths that they marched are littered with dead. As the already starved and weakened prisoners fell from exhaustion, SS guards bringing up the rear would kill them by a shot in the back of the head. Death was also caused by beatings. The prisoners marched from Friday to Monday with many perishing from exhaustion. On the 23rd of April they were liberated en route by American troops between the towns of Cham and Roding.
(Nuremberg document 2309-PS)
On the night of April 20th, near Hamburg, 20 children, ten boys and ten girls, originally from Auschwitz and used in medical experimentation, are transported from the Neuengamme KZ to the Bullenhuser Damm School in the Rothenburgsort district and murdered in the cellar by the SS. A few hours later 24 Soviet prisoners are also murdered there. (Russ Folsom)
The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 962: 837 bombers and 890 fighters are dispatched to hit rail targets north-northwest to south-southwest of Berlin, Bavaria and Czechoslovakia; they claim 7-0-4 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 B-17 is lost:
- 82 B-17s are sent to hit the rail industry at Nauen and 77 bomb the marshalling yards at Wustermark, 57 hit Neuruppin and 82 Oranienburg; 1 hits Neuruppin Airfield, a target of opportunity. Escorting are 258 P-51s; 1 is lost.
- Marshalling yards are the target of 289 B-17s as 137 bomb Brandenburg, 66 hit Seddin (66) and 82 attack Treuenbrietzen; 1 B-17 is lost. The escort is 227 P-51s.
- 56 B-24s hit a rail bridge and junction at Zwiesel, 53 hit a marshalling yard and rail junction at Muhldorf while 56 bomb the railroad and rail junction at Irrenlohe and 54 attack Klatovy; 1 hits the secondary target, the marshalling yard at Straubing. 228 P-47s and P-51s escort.
564 Ninth Air Force A-20s, A-26 Invaders and B-26s strike oil storage at Deggendorf and Annaburg, marshalling yards at Memmingen and Wittenberg, ordnance depots at Nordlingen and Straubing, and other targets including flak positions; fighters escort the bombers, fly patrols, sweeps, and armed reconnaissance, attack special targets, and cooperate with US ground forces including the VII Corps west of Dessau, the VIII Corps between Plauen and Chemnitz, the XII Corps in the Grafenwohr area, the XX Corps attacking toward the Danube River and Regensburg, and the XIX Corps in the Magdeburg-Barby area.
ITALY: The US Fifth Army fights its way out of the Apennines and onto the Po River plain. Without Hitler's authorization, General Heinrich Von Vietinghoff orders his army to retreat across the Po.
Allied air forces commence Operation CORNCOB today. This is a three-day attack on the bridges over the rivers Adige and Brenta to cut off German lines of retreat on the peninsula. During the night of 19/29 April, Twelfth Air Force A-20s and A-26s on night intruder missions continue to pound Po River crossings and vehicle movement throughout the Valley; B-25s and B-26s considerably damage 4 of 6 railroad bridges and fills attached on the Brenner line, and also hit HQ in the battle area and 2 Reno River bridges north of Bologna.
Fifteenth Air Force bombers again pound railway systems and
road bridges in an effort to hinder the supply or withdrawal of enemy forces in
northern Italy; 700+ B-24s and B-17s hit railroad bridges at Campodazzo, Ponte
Gardena, and Campo di Trens, a viaduct at Avisio, marshalling yards at Vipiteno,
Fortezza, and Brennero, and road bridges at Lusia, la Carrare, and Boara Pisani,
and in Austria, the Mariahof viaduct and Innsbruck marshalling yard. 115 P-38s
dive-bomb the Innsbruck, Austria-Rattenberg, Austria-Rosenheim, Germany railroad
line, hitting marshalling yards at Hall, Schwaz, Jenbach, Kundl, and Worgl,
Austria and Kiefersfelden, Germany, 4 rail bridges, and several box cars, and
cut rail lines at 42 places between Innsbruck and Rosenheim.
CHINA: 7 Fourteenth Air Force B-25s hit the town of Neihsiang and attack railroad targets of opportunity from Saiping to Lohochai and from Linying, Burma to Hsuchang; 9 B-25s bomb Loyang and Luchou; 100+ P-51s, P-40s, and P-47s concentrate attacks against town areas throughout southern and eastern China, also hitting troops, gun positions, river traffic, and other targets of opportunity.
BURMA: 32 Tenth Air Force P-38s knock out 3 bridges and damage 5 others in central Burma behind the enemy lines; 12 P-47s hit a troop concentration and ration dump at Tonglau, 18 attack a troop concentration around a monastery at Kengkawmanhaung, and 12 attack troops along a stream near Wan Nahpeit; 497 transport sorties land or drop 784 tons of supplies in forward areas.
JAPAN: III Corps completes its capture of Northern Okinawa. Attacks against the
Shuri Line in the south begin.
A new US offensive on Okinawa has run into heavy resistance from General
Ushijima's 80,000-man defence force concentrated on the southern end of the
island. Despite intense bombardment, Lieutenant-General John Hodge's XXIV Corps,
advancing on Machinato and Yonabaru airfields, has gained only 1,800 yards in
two days, with the defenders operating from a vast network of tunnels and caves.
US forces control the rest of Okinawa and Ie Shima, an offshore island needed as
an air base, has been taken after a six-day battle.
B-29 bombers destroy the Musashi aircraft factory assembly plants. This stops production of the Nakajima Hayate Ki84-Ia fighter plane. (Ron Babuka)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: U.S. Army troops, supported by USAAF aircraft and USN vessels, land on Catanduanes Island (13.45N, 124.15E) in the Philippine Islands.
Far East Air Forces aircraft support of the ground forces on Luzon, Cebu, and Negros Islands continues. USMC F4U Corsairs and SBD Dauntlesses attack targets on Mindanao and SBDs attack Japanese infantry positions on Jolo Island's Mount Daho.
BONIN ISLANDS: 11 VII Fighter Command P-51s from Iwo Jima bomb Haha Jima.
In a heavy ground fog five USAAF P-61s and three US Marine PBYs crash.
EAST INDIES: Submarine USS Guitarro (SS-363) lays mines in Berhala Strait off the northeast coast of Sumatra.
Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb Sepinggang and Labuan Island Airfields on Borneo while USN PV Ventura attack various targets. P-38s and B-25s hit Tarakan Island.
FORMOSA: Fifth Air Force B-24s bomb Tainan Airfield while P-51s attack Koshun Airfield.