May 14th, 1945 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Springer launched.
ITALY: Trieste: Britain and the United States are taking a firm line with Marshal Tito over the occupation of Trieste - a territory long in dispute between Yugoslavia and Italy. Marshal Tito has protested vigorously against the presence of Allied troops, claiming that his partisans captured the territory and that he would settle the matter with Italy in due course.
JAPAN: The Japanese Supreme Council for the Direction of the War, agrees to enlist the USSR to assist with obtaining peace. The SCDW is known as the Big 6 of the Japanese Cabinet. PM, FM, War Minister, Navy Minister, Army CofS, Navy CofS.About 2,500 tons of incendiary bombs are dropped on Nagoya by 472 US B-29 bombers and 20 Japanese fighters are shot down.
The USAAF Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands flies Mission 174: 472 B-29s bomb the urban area of Nagoya, Japan; 8 others hit targets of opportunity; they claim about 20 Japanese fighters; eleven B-29s are lost. This is the XXI Bomber Command's first four-wing raid as B-29s of the 58th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy) join bombers from the 73d, 313th, and 314th Bombardment Wings (Very Heavy) in a single mission.
Okinawa: US forces capture Yonabaru airfield.
Off Okinawa, a kamikaze damages the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6). The suicide plane destroys the ship's forward elevator, killing 14 and wounding 34 men, forcing Enterprise to retire to the U.S. for repairs.
Jim Verdolini notes in his diary:
May 14, 1945 (Mothers Day)
Again today, heavy attacks. Where do the Japs get all the planes, and men.
Seems we've shot down 10 million, but they keep coming. They come low on the water, now. One plane kept coming at us low on the water.
We fired everything at it, but we thought sure she would hit us just forward of the 5" gun mounts, but she went right over the flight deck and exploded in the water to port.
They come from any direction. Saw one dive into the Enterprise. The plane hit the forward elevator and blew it about 400 feet into the air. Admiral Marc Mitscher, Flag, Task Force 58, after having moved his Flag from the Bunker Hill, three days ago, to the Enterprise, now is moving his Flag to Randolph.
AUSTRIA: The concentration camp at Ebensee, "more horrible than Buchenwald", is liberated.
CANADA: Submarines HMCS U-190 and U-889 commissioned.
U.S.A.: Off Delaware, U-858 became the first German warship to surrender to US forces.
Admiral H. Kent Hewitt begins a "further investigation of facts pertinent to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal asks the admiral to review the proceedings of the Hart Inquiry and the Navy Court of Inquiry to determine if "errors of judgment" were made by "certain officers in the Naval Service, both at Pearl Harbor and at Washington."
Submarine USS Spinax laid down.
Escort carrier USS Siboney commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Frigates HMCS Matane, St Pierre and Monnow detached from Convoy JW-67 to escort 14 surrendering U-boats from Trondheim to Loch Eriboll.