April 22nd, 1945 (SUNDAY)
GERMANY: Himmler meets with Count Bernadotte of the Swedish Red Cross, with a peace proposal. He offers a German surrender to the British and Americans, but not the Russians.
The US 7th Army crosses the Danube at Dillingen and Baldingen.
The final American offensive in Europe begins with Patton's Third Army and Patch's Seventh Army driving toward southern Germany and Austria.
The Allies believe that some German troops, notably SS Storm troopers, may plan to retreat to the Alps for a deadly last stand in a "National Redoubt." Eisenhower wants to overrun the region before the diehard Nazis organize.
Weather prevents combat operations by the Ninth Air Force's 9th Bombardment Division and IX Tactical Air Command. The XIX Tactical Air Command flies armed reconnaissance over eastern Germany and western Czechoslovakia, flies area cover over the Wurzburg-Bayreuth areas, patrols the Third Army front (the Bayreuth-Nurnberg areas), and the XII Corps in the German-Czech border area near Weiden.
Berlin: Zhukov and Konev, having overcome the fanatical resistance of the defence zone before Berlin, are moving rapidly to put a ring of tanks round the capital. Zhukov's 47th Army and Konev's Fourth Guards Tank Army, are both west of the city, and only 25 miles separate them. Rokossovsky, after being held up crossing the Oder marshes, is preventing the 3rd Panzer Army from coming to Berlin's aid from the north.
Units of the Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front have penetrated into the northern and eastern suburbs of Berlin.
A Soviet mechanized corps reaches Treuenbrietzen, 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Berlin, liberates a PoW camp and releases among others, Norwegian Commander in Chief Otto Ruge.
FührerBunker: During a three hour military conference in the bunker where his generals inform him that no German defence was offered to the Russian assault at Eberswalde, Hitler let loose a hysterical, shrieking denunciation of the Army and the 'universal treason, corruption, lies and failures' of all those who had deserted him. The end had come, Hitler exclaimed, his Reich was a failure and now there was nothing left for him to do but stay in Berlin and fight to the very end.
His staff attempted without success to convince him to escape to the mountains around Berchtesgaden and direct remaining troops and thus prolong the Reich. But Hitler told them his decision was final. He even insisted a public announcement be made.
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels then brought his entire family, including six young children, to live with Hitler in the bunker. Hitler began sorting through his own papers and selected documents to be burned.
Personnel in the bunker were given permission by Hitler to leave. Most did leave and headed south for the area around Berchtesgaden via a convoy of trucks and planes. Only a handful of Hitler's personal staff remained, including his top aide Martin Bormann, the Goebbels family, SS and military aides, two of Hitler's secretaries, and long-time mistress and companion Eva Braun. (Gene Hanson)
The USAAF combines technical and post-hostilities intelligence objectives under the Exploitation Division with the code name Lusty. Operation Lusty begins with the aim of exploiting captured German scientific documents, research facilities and aircraft. The operation has two teams. One, under the leadership of Col. Harold E. Watson, a former Wright Field test pilot, collected enemy aircraft and weapons for further examination in the United States. The other team recruited scientists, collected documents and investigated facilities. (William L. Howard)
ITALY: The US II and IV Corps reach the Penaro River.
General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, German commander in Italy, decides to surrender. His armies have lost most of their tanks and guns during a chaotic retreat across the Po.
The entire night and day effort by the Twelfth Air Force is concentrated against German forces retreating north across the Po River in face of Allied forces which send advance elements racing to the south bank; B-25s fly 16 missions against ferries and pontoon bridge sites on the Po between Casalmaggiore and Polesella; XXII Tactical Air Command A-20s and A-26 Invaders, fighter-bombers, and fighters maintain night and day attacks on Po crossings and enemy movement; the command claims 900+ motor and horse-drawn vehicles destroyed.
258 Fifteenth Air Force P-51s and P-38s fly armed reconnaissance over northeastern Italy, bombing marshalling yards, bridges, railroads, highways, and several buildings and strafing an airfield, rail and road traffic, and numerous other targets of opportunity; other P-38s fly reconnaissance while P-51s escort reconnaissance and supply missions.
CHINA: 2 Fourteenth Air Force B-24s bomb targets of opportunity at Canton and in Bakli Bay on Hainan Island; 5 B-25s bomb Hsuchang and hit the area to the northwest; 19 P-51s and P-47s attack trains, trucks, troops, horses, and town areas at or near Linfen, Luan, Sincheng, Fentingtukou, Taiku, Chenghsien, Sinsiang, and Kaifeng.
BURMA: Toungoo in the Sittang Valley falls to the British 5th Indian Division.
General Hyotaro Kimura evacuates Rangoon and prepares to make a last stand against the British 14th Army near the Burmese-Thai border.
Bad weather again cancels scheduled air strikes by the Tenth Air Force but 464 transport sorties fly 664 tons of supplies to forward areas.
JAPAN: The VII Fighter Command flies effective sorties during a fighter attack from Iwo Jima against Akenogahara and Suzuko Airfields; they claim 10 aircraft downed and 15 destroyed on the ground.
The XXI Bomber Command flies Missions 91 to 95 against airfields; 87 B-29 Superfortresses bomb airfields at Izumi, Kushira, Miyazaki, Tomitaka, and Kanoya and 6 others hit targets of opportunity; 1 B-29 is lost.
OKINAWA: USN ships are again attacked by Japanese aircraft. Support landing craft LCS-15 is sunk by aircraft; kamikazes sink minesweeper USS Swallow (AM-65), and damage destroyers USS Hudson (DD-475) and USS Wadsworth (DD-516); destroyer USS Isherwood (DD-520) and minesweeper USS Ransom (AM-283); and light minelayer USS Shea (DM-30); minesweeper USS Gladiator (AM-319) is damaged by strafing and near-miss of a kamikaze.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The US 31st Division lands at Mora Gulf. They gain control of Cebu Island and overcome Japanese resistance on Jolo.
Numerous missions in support of ground forces are flown by the Far East Air Forces against targets on Luzon, Cebu, and Negros Islands. USMC PBJ Mitchells and SBD Dauntlesses attack Japanese positions on Mount Daho on Jolo Island.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: On Borneo, Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb Manggar and Jesselton airfields, B-25s bomb Tarakan and P-38s hit Kuching; 10USNPV Venturas attack various targets.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The Japanese lose 4 ships and have a cruiser damaged at sea:
- Submarine USS Cero (SS-225) sinks a guardboat west of Tori Jima.
- Submarine USS Hardhead (SS-365) sinks a cargo vessel off Chimpon.
- Dutch submarine HMNLS O 19 torpedoes Japanese heavy cruiser HIJMS Ashigara as the latter proceeds in company with destroyer HIJMS Kamikaze toward Batavia.
- A guardboat is sunk by U.S. aircraft in Ise Bay.
- USAAF P-51s sink an auxiliary submarine chaser south of Toshi Jima.
U.S.A.: Soviet Foreign Minister V.M. Molotov arrives in Washington for talks with Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.
Destroyer USS Charles P Cecil launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German submarine U-518 is sunk in the North Atlantic northwest of the Azores, in position by depth charges from the US destroyer escorts USS Carter (DE-112) and USS Neal A. Scott (DE-769).
All 56 men on the sub are lost.
At 0450, U-997 fired Gnats on two destroyers and claimed one destroyer sunk, but only end-of-run detonations were observed by the USSR Karl Libknecht and patrol craft USSR BO-225. At 0508, the U-boat torpedoed and damaged the Idefjord and eight minutes later sank the Onega. Idefjord was struck by one torpedo on the port side in the bow. One British gunner was lost and the crew abandoned ship in the lifeboats, but most of them returned after the Norwegian M/S-trawlers KNM Tromøy and Karmøy had investigated the damages. The ship was taken in tow stern-first, arriving in Murmansk at 0400 on 23 April for temporary repairs. Five crewmembers from the Onega were lost. Patrol craft USSR BO-220 and BO-228 picked up 37 survivors.