23 April 1945

Frigate HMCS Carlplace arrived Londonderry.

HMC ML 081 of 79th ML Flotilla completed refit.

Frigate HMCS Meon paid off and returned to RN at Southampton. Retained in post-war RN.

Submarine HMS Seneschal launched.

Berlin: Albert Speer bids Hitler farewell, confessing that he sabotaged the "scorched-earth" directive, and has preserved German factories and industry for the post-war period.

The Red Army has broken into Berlin from the north, east and south. Massed Russian artillery is shelling the central and western areas of the city. Buildings are collapsing piece by piece. Sturmovik aircraft dive over the rubble to silence German strongpoints. Latest reports say that Russian assault troops are smashing their way through the inner ring of SS resistance near the Stettiner railway station, one mile from the Unter den Linden.

Frankfürt am der Oder: After 6 days of heavy defensive fighting, the defenders of the city, assisted by 11.SS-Armee Korps [Kleinheisterkamp], gave very little ground to Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front. Massive and continuous artillery bombardments on the town from 20 to 22 April, 1945, reduced vast parts of the city to a wasteland of burning rubble. Still, the defensive perimeter remained intact. Zhukov's 1st Byelorussian then sought to bypass and find a way around and behind the stubborn defenders. By 22 April the near breakup of 9th Armee into three isolated segments was dangerously close.
Hitler, at the insistence of Gen. Heinrici, allowed 9th Army to remove itself from continued [suicidal] holding of the Oder line-position, which allowed the extrication of the beleaguered and nearly surrounded garrison of 'Festung-Frankfurt' aided by elements of 11.SS-Armee.Korps, at the very last moment. The Russians [actually a Polish Tank Brigade of the Red Army] took possession of the city on 23 April 1945. Detonations and fire in the city centre area went on for a number of days beyond this, and have been attributed to both unexploded Allied aerial ordnance [The RAF raided Frankfurt a. Oder in late March and early April 1945], as well as to last ditch Hitler-Jugend attacks by the so-called 'Werwolf' organisation. (Russ Folsom)

Reichsjugendführer Artur Axmann gives a personal order that battalions of Hitler Youth be raised to defend the Pichelsdorf bridges across the River Havel in Berlin to keep the way open for Wenck's phantom army.

Elements of the 2nd US Cavalry Group, 90th and 97th US Infantry Divisions liberate the 1,526 prisoners who remain in the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp near Weiden in NE Bavaria.

About 1,000 German civilians are massacred by the Red Army in the occupied town of Treuenbrietzen. Men are gathered together, taken to nearby woods and shot. A number of women are also raped and killed. Nearly every family in the town loses relatives.

Five kilometres up the road near the village of Nichel retreating German soldiers shoot 127 Italian forced labourers who had just escaped from a munitions factory in Treuenbritzen.

In May 1938,'Konzentrationslager'(KL)Flossenbürg in the district of Neustadt on the Waldnaab was established.(*) At first it was intended for "criminal and asocial elements", but later the camp contained mostly political prisoners, in particular foreign nationals from the areas occupied by Germany during the war. The original camp was made up of 16 long, single level, wooden barracks, the kitchen, the laundry and disinfection buildings, the workshops, the camp prison (punishment block), crematorium, and roll call area. During the first years, prisoners were used primarily to build the camp and to labour in the granite quarry. After the war began, the prisoners were increasingly put to work in the armaments industry.

Eventually, the camp administered nearly a hundred satellite camps and external labour commands, some of which were quite a distance from the central camp at Flossenbürg, as far away as Bohemia and Saxony. Some 5,000 prisoners were held in the satellite camps, approximately one third of them were women.

"According to records found in the camp, from 1939 on, 54,890 men and over 10,000 women were held prisoner in KL Flossenburg. In the 14 month period preceding 20 April, 1945, 14,000 inmates died from starvation, exhaustion, mistreatment and various diseases. The prisoners worked in stone quarries and a nearby Messerschmitt Airplane Factory. On 20 April, 1945, 15,000 inmates, including children and elderly people, were marched away. Those that could not keep up the march were killed by the wayside. Less than 2000 were left in the camp when US troops arrived. Among those reported to have been in the camp were Kurt Von Schuschnig, former Chancellor of Austria; Leopold, King of Belgium, Prince Albrecht of Austria and Hjalmar Schacht, Reich Minister of Finances."

A camp memorial was built between 1946 and 1948. The foundations, as well as a few complete prison barracks and the remains of the wall around the prison courtyard have been preserved. Two cells have been reconstructed in their original form on the west side of the prison barracks. Many well-known participants of the German [July 20th] resistance movement, including Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and Generalmajor Hans Oster were imprisoned and executed at the Flossenbürg Camp in April 1945.

(*)Neustadt an der Waldnaab is in the Oberfalz region of NE Bavaria near the Czech border. (Russ Folsom)

ITALY: The US 5th and the British 8th Army reach the River Po. The 5th Army crosses south of Mantua.

BURMA: The First Division of the Indian National Army, fighting with the Japanese, surrenders en masse to the Allies.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Units of the US 37th Division reach the outskirts of Baguio, Luzon.

JAVA SEA: U-183 sunk at 1300 in the Java Sea, in position 04.50S, 112.52E, by a torpedo from submarine USS Besugo. 54 dead and 1 survivor.

BORNEO: The US Navy's Patrol Bombing Squadron One Hundred Nine (VPB-109) based at Puerto Princessa, Palawan, Philippine Islands, launches the Special Weapons Ordnance Device (SWOD) Mk. 9 for the first time against an enemy target. The SWOD Mk. 9, or "Bat" missile, is a glide bomb consisting of a 1,000 pound (453.6 kg) bomb casing equipped with wings, twin tail and internal radar to guide it. Two Bats are launched by a VPB-109 Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer against Japanese shipping in Balikpapan harbour in Borneo but both are defective and do not hit any targets.

U.S.A.: At 12:15pm U-853, five miles southeast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, torpedoes and sinks USS Eagle (PE-56). The Eagle was at a dead stop. The explosion amidships sends a geyser of steam and water 200 feet skyward, breaking the ship in two and sinking her within minutes. 49 seamen are killed. (More on the Eagle boats.)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1535, U-1023 fired a spread of two LUT torpedoes at Convoy TBC-135 and heard one detonation and sinking noises. In fact, the Riverton was only damaged.

The unescorted Katy was torpedoed and damaged by U-857 east of Kitty Hawk. She was towed to Lynnhaven, Hampton Roads on 26 April and repaired. It is also possible that U-879 torpedoed this ship, but both U-boats were lost during April 1945 in that area and this success can not be definitely assigned to one of the boats.

U-396 reported missing from weather-reporting duties. No explanation exists for its loss. 45 dead (all hands lost).

U-1055 reported missing in the North Atlantic or the English Channel. No explanation exists for its loss. 49 dead (all hands lost).

Minesweeper HMCS Vegreville damaged by mines off French coast and headed for Devonport for repairs. The damage to her port engine was considered to be beyond economical repair and was declared a constructive total loss 6 Jun 45.

U-716 depth charged in the Arctic by a hunter-killer group. Due to the damage incurred the boat had to return to base.