UNITED KINGDOM: London: Churchill's fears about Stalin's post-war ambitions grew today with news of the signing of a mutual assistance pact between the USSR and its client Polish government based in Lublin. Meeting in Washington, the Big Three's foreign ministers, Eden, Stettinius and Molotov, have set out their positions, with Britain and America insisting on the widening of the government into one of National Unity.
Molotov refuses to budge, and Eden has written to Churchill: "No sign of progress. My impression is that the Soviet government is still cavalier in its attitude and will not accept the seriousness of the situation, unless it is brought up sharply against realities."
Frigate HMCS Royalmount and corvette HMCS Orangeville departed UK with escort for Convoy ONS-48.
Frigate HMCS St Pierre arrived Londonderry with convoy SC-172.
GERMANY: Zhukov's leading units reach the Berlin suburbs.
In the East: the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front captures Bautzen and Cottbus 70 miles (113 km) southeast of Berlin while Soviet forces fighting south of Berlin, at Zossen, assault the headquarters of the German High Command.
The only remaining opposing "force" to the Russian invasion of Berlin are the "battle groups" of Hitler Youth, teenagers with anti-tank guns, strategically placed in parks and suburban streets. In a battle at Eggersdorf, 70 of these Hitler teens strove to fight off a Russian assault with a mere three anti-tank guns. They were bulldozed by Russian tanks and infantry.
The town of Treuenbrietzen is occupied by the Russians.
In East Prussia, remnants of AOK Ostpreussen (von Saucken) are
still resisting in the port of Pillau, the Frische Nehrung and the Vistula delta
between Danzig and Marienburg.
Hitler announces he will remain in Berlin. Göring, Himmler and
other top Nazis flee so they can surrender to the Americans or
British.
Göring takes his last trip by his personal train ASIEN. From Karinhall he travels to Berchtesgaden to his lodge on the Obersalzberg.
In the West, Stuttgart is overrun by De Lattre de Tassigny's
1st French Army while there is continued German resistance around Elbingerode in
the Harz Mountains.
British Guardsman Edward Charlton is later posthumously awarded the
last Victoria Cross of the war for saving the lives of several men trapped in
their tank during a battle in the village of Wistedt. He is so badly wounded
during his act of heroism that he dies shortly after being taken prisoner. A
total of 182 Victoria Crosses--Britain's highest honour for valour--were finally
awarded for World War II.
The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 963: 532 bombers and 444
fighters are dispatched to attack jet fighter airfields and rail targets in
south-eastern Germany; 2 bombers and 2 fighters are lost:
- 111 B-17s hit the marshalling yard at Munich, a target of last
resort, with H2X radar. Escorting are 90 P-51s.
- 186 B-24s are sent to hit the Salzburg marshalling yard and rail
bridge but abort the mission due to 10/10 cloud cover; 1 B-24 is lost. The
escort is 99 P-51s.
- 6 B-17s hit the secondary target, the Amlech Airfield at
Landsberg; 212 hit a target of last resort, the town of Ingolstadt; 1 B-17 is
lost. 144 P-51s escort; 2 are lost.
The lost B-24 was the last American bomber shot down over Germany during World War II. The 'Black Cat' was hit at 22,000 feet and broke into pieces.
One of the crewmembers was Howard Goodner.
Twenty-one year old Goodner had no parachute. He came down in freefall alongside bombs and oxygen tanks, spinning toward the Bavarian village of Scharmassing.
He landed in a field outside the town, his body striking the earth so hard that it left a crater nearly six inches deep.
Maria Wittig, then 19, saw him there. He was athletic looking, fair-skinned, handsome. Long fingers.
"I can see him before me," she told an interviewer, a half century later, so clear was her memory. Shown a picture of the entire crew, she picked out Goodner immediately. "That's him," she said, her voice breaking. (Drew Philip Halevy)
The Ninth Air Force dispatches 121 B-26 Marauders to hit the
Attnang-Puchheim marshalling yard; fighters fly escort, patrols, armed
reconnaissance and cooperate with the US VIII Corps as elements of the 6th
Cavalry Group cross the Czechoslovakian border to reach Hranice and Trojmezi,
the XII Corps in the Grafenwohr-Weiden area, and the XX Corps east of Nurnberg.
Fifteenth Air Force bombers bomb the marshalling yard at Rosenheim
while 138 P-38s bomb railroad lines and facilities in the Munich and Rosenheim,
Germany-Rattenberg, Austria areas
Wustrow: Himmler meets Norbert Masur of the World Jewish Congress and refuses to free the Jews under his control.
Ruhr: Three days ago the commander of German forces in the Ruhr, Field Marshal Walter Model, drove to the forest beyond Dusseldorf, left his car, drew his service pistol and shot himself. A few months ago, when he took over the western command, he issued a ringing call to battle: "None of us gives up a square foot of German soil while still alive ... Long live our Germany and our beloved Führer!"
Now the Battle of the Ruhr has ended, with 325,000 prisoners in Allied hands; these include 30 generals and an admiral. Eisenhower, in an order of the day, says that "21 enemy divisions, including three Panzer, one Panzergrenadier and three Parachute divisions" have been smashed.
During an air raid on Kiel, U-2539 commander Oblt Erich Jewinski was killed.
U-2552 commissioned.
AUSTRIA: Weather curtails daytime
operations but Twelfth Air Force B-25s score hits on the Matrei am Brenner
bridge on the Brenner rail line.
About 200 Fifteenth Air Force bombers, with P-51 escort, bomb
marshalling yards at Attnang-Puchheim, Spittal an der Drau, and Vocklabruck.
NORWAY: U-2511 put in to Bergen with diesel engine trouble.
U.S.S.R.: A Mutual Assistance Pact between the USSR and the Lublin Polish Government is signed.
ITALY: Bologna is captured by the Polish II Corps.
It was 5.50am when the last of the German garrison motored out of this university city. Bologna slept. Fifteen minutes later, advance units of the Polish II Corps drove in from the east and hoisted their national flag on the town hall, just a few minutes before American tanks rumbled in from the north, soon to be joined by Italian troops of the Eighth Army, their British steel helmets adorned with flowers and feathers.
Only then did Bologna awake to go noisily, crazily, mad with joy and relief. A stiff street-by-street battle had been expected. The German commander had received the now almost rubber-stamped order to fight to the last man. Instead, it seems that he made a deal with the city's archbishop and the Fascist mayor. If partisans did not molest his retreating troops, he would not demolish Bologna's public services.
As the Poles advanced along the Via Emilia, a coded signal had to be sent to the partisans to rise up. Anticipating this, the Germans arrested and shot two of their leaders. Today, as Bologna went wild, the partisans shot two leading Fascists in revenge.
San Terenzo: US 2nd Lt. Daniel K. Inouye (442nd Infantry) while leading his platoon in an attack on German positions on Mount Musatello, performs acts of heroism which later result in him being awarded the MOH. Inouye is wounded in the right arm by a grenade and the right leg by another bullet.
During the night of 20/21 April, Twelfth Air Force A-20s and A-26 Invaders bomb Po River crossings with good results and in the late afternoon hit Po River crossings; XXII Tactical Air Command fighters and fighter bombers, grounded most of the day, fly close support to the US Fifth Army which drives into Bologna (a longstanding objective) and begins to push rapidly across the plain toward the Po River.
ARCTIC OCEAN: In the Arctic Sea,
an Allied U-boat hunter group attacked
U-997 with depth charges. Due
to some damage to the periscope, the boat had to return to base.
BURMA: Bad weather over central
Burma causes cancelling or aborting of all Tenth Air Force combat missions
however, transports complete 464 sorties, landing or dropping 682 tons of
supplies to forward areas.
CHINA: 5 Fourteenth Air Force B-25s bomb Loyang; a
single B-24 hits targets of opportunity in Bakli Bay on Hainan Island; 30 P-51s
and P-47s attack railroad and road targets, barracks area, buildings, and
bridges at or near Paoching, Chihsien, Taiku, Hsihhsiassuchi, Shaho, Linfen,
Luan, Yutze, and Shanhsien. C-47 Skytrains commence Operation ROOSTER, the
movement by air of a Chinese infantry division to the Chichiang area.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: On Borneo, Thirteenth Air Force B-24s
bomb Miri, Kudat, Manggar, and Sepinggang Airfields and P-38s hit Tarakan Island
and Sandakan, Miri Airfield, oil storage near Lutong, and, with B-24s, attack
targets of opportunity along the southwest Celebes coast. USN PV Venturas also
attack various targets on Borneo.
U-183 sailed from Surabaya on her final patrol.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The US 37th Division makes some gains in heavy fighting near Baguio, Luzon.
The Fifth and Thirteenth Air Force continue large scale
support of ground forces on Luzon, Cebu, Negros, and Jolo Islands. USMC F4U
Corsairs and SBD Dauntlesses attack highways and roads supporting the US X Corps
on Mindanao. USMC SBDs also attack Japanese positions on Mount Daho on Jolo
Island.
RYUKYU ISLANDS: Organized Japanese resistance on Ie
Shima ends. Nearly 5,000 Japanese have been killed, 149 captured. The Americans
have suffered 1,000 casualties.
JAPAN: The XXI Bomber Command
flies Missions 82 to 90 bombing airfields in Japan; 217 B-29 Superfortresses
blast airfields at Oita, 2 at Kanoya, Usa, Kokubu, Kushira, Tachiarai, Izumi,
and Nittagahara; 21 other B-29s hit targets of opportunity including the city of
Kagoshima.
Off Okinawa, the destroyer USS
Ammen (DD-527) is damaged by a bomb that misses.
NORTH PACIFIC: 18 Seventh Air Force Guam Island-based B-24s bomb Marcus Island.
U.S.A.: Minesweeper USS Wheatear launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-636 sunk in the North Atlantic west of Ireland, in position 55.50N, 10.31W, by depth charges from frigates HMS Bazely, Drury and Bentinck. 42 dead (all hands lost).
1997: The death of Ben Prime, USAAF; graduated Aviation Cadet School May 22, 1944. He flew the Hump and was a member of this list. October 29, 1923 - April 21, 1997.