May 10th, 1945 (THURSDAY)
GERMANY: General Heinz Guderian is taken prisoner by US forces.
NORWAY: Quisling and some supporters are arrested by resistants. They will be held until trial and execution.Reich Commissar Terboven and the German Chief of Police in Norway commits suicide.
Reichkommissar Joseph Terboven and SS General Riedess blew themselves up in a bunker located in the residence of the Crown Prince, which Terboven had taken over for his own use during the occupation. Jonas Lie, the Norwegian minister of police, and head of the Norwegian SS shot himself dead in a school house in western Oslo, after being surrounded by Milorg men. One Nasjonal Samling member who was a prison director, killed his two children, his wife and himself in fear of what awaited him, and his family. When the prison director's elderly father heard what had happened, he and his wife took their own lives as well. (Alex Gordon)
The remaining German garrison comprises 312,000 Wehrmacht troops, of which 190,000 are Heer, 75,000 Kriegsmarine (66% of whom are coastal defence troops) and under 50,000 Luftwaffe. Adding the non-Wehrmacht organisations like the SS, Organisation Todt, Transportflotte Speer etc yields another 15-30,000 depending on sources (a footnote in Heibe and Glantz's "Hitler and his generals" says 29,000) for a grand total of 351,000. (Louis Capdeboscq)
U-977, in Norwegian waters when Germany surrendered, put ashore those men who did not wish to accompany the rest of the crew on a desperate voyage to Argentina.
AUSTRALIA: Air Commodore Cobby, fighter ace of the 1914-1918 War, is relieved of command of the RAAF.
JAPAN: Off Okinawa, kamikazes damage the destroyer USS Brown (DD-546) and light minelayer USS Harry F. Bauer (DM-26).
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The U.S. 108th Regimental Combat Team, 40th Infantry Division, lands unopposed at Macjalar Bay, Mindanao Island. Filipino guerrillas assist in establishing the beachhead.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-255 had proceeded to Taloma Bay with the Davao Gulf First Re-Supply Echelon with a cargo of 155-mm ammunition on board, for the use of the 24th Division, US Army in their operations against the Japanese. (DS)
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Poplar Lake launched New Westminster, British Columbia.
U.S.A.: We also remember the death of Arnold Lloyd Gladson, USMC 2nd Div. (1999)
Destroyer USS Damato laid down.
Destroyer USS Cone launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-889 surrender, at sea, to RCAF. U-889 hoisted the black flag of surrender to the RCAF Liberator. It took two low passes by the Liberator before the flag went up. They were arming depth charges and setting the bombsight when she made the hoist. The Liberator stood by until RCN ships appeared. U-889 Kptlt Friedrich Braeducker, CO had sailed from Germany by way of Norway in early April. After an uneventful weather ship patrol and at the end of hostilities in accordance with instructions U-889 surfaced and was spotted by an RCAF Liberator some 250 miles SE of Flemish Cap on 10 May 45. Subsequently HMCS Oshawa, Rockcliffe, Saskatoon and Dunvegan intercepted U-889 that day 175 miles SSE of Cape Race. Rockcliffe and Dunvegan were instructed to escort U-889 into Shelburne , Nova Scotia. However, 24hrs after the interception, the 2 ships passed their charge to the frigates HMCS Buckingham and Inch Arran of EG-28 some 140 miles SSE of Sable Island. An "official" surrender of U-889 took place 13 May 45 off the Shelburne Whistle Buoy, 7 miles from the antisubmarine boom gate. HMC ML 121 then escorted U-889 into Shelburne. U-889 was commissioned HMCS U-889 on 14 May 45, for testing and evaluation. Of particular interest were her acoustic torpedoes and highly developed German GHG hydrophone array. U-889 was one of 10 U-boats assigned to the US, as a result "a Canadian steaming crew". Sailed on 11 Jan 46 for Portsmouth, New Hampshire. U-889 was Paid off 12 Jan 46 and turned over to the USN.