city center in April 1945.
1 January:
Operation Bodenplatte supported the last major German offensive,
Operation Nordwind, with inconclusive results.
5 January: The first mission of
Operation Cornflakes begins when a mail train to
Linz was bombed. Fake mailbags containing anti-Nazi propaganda were then dropped on the wreckage in the hope the letters would be unwittingly delivered by the
Reichspost. The
OSS dropped two million
Das Neue Deutschland () propaganda newspapers during this
psychological warfare operation; which ended in February.
3 February: The USAAF conducts its largest raid of the war against
Berlin. The attack is led by Major
Robert Rosenthal of the
100th Bombardment Group (Heavy). Judge-President of the
People's Court Roland Freisler is killed in the bombing.
8-19 February: Allies begin attacks on 200 targets with 20,000 bombers and escort fighters to assist with
Operation Veritable,
Grenade, and
Operation Clarion.
3 March: The RAF mistakenly
bombed the densely populated Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in the Dutch city of
The Hague. The bomber crews had intended to bomb the
Haagse Bos district, where the
Germans had installed
V-2 launching facilities that had been used to attack English cities. 511 residents were killed and approximately 30,000 were left homeless.
12 March: The RAF drop 4,851 tonnes of bombs on
Dortmund using 1108 aircraft (748
Lancasters, 292
Halifaxes, 68
Mosquitos). Up to 98% of buildings in the city center are destroyed. It would be the heaviest raid on a single target in World War II.
14 March: A railway viaduct at
Bielefeld is destroyed by the first
Grand Slam bomb to be dropped in combat by an
Avro Lancaster. The attack by
No. 617 Squadron RAF succeeds after 54 attacks using smaller bombs had failed.
17 March:
Adolf Hitler orders the
SS to fire
V-2 rockets at the
Ludendorff Bridge during the
Battle of Remagen. All 11 missiles miss; none land closer than from the bridge.
18 March: The largest number of
Me 262s to date launch their most concentrated attacks against Allied bomber formation. Mission 894 attacking Berlin (1,329 bombers and 733 fighters) loses 13 bombers and 6 fighters. The AAF claim 25 Luftwaffe aircraft.
22 March: Two hundred
L-4 Grasshopper spotter planes each carrying one armed infantryman (instead of an observer) cross the
Rhine to form a bridgehead for the
US 3rd Army near
Oppenheim.
10 April: An
Arado Ar 234, based in
Nazi-occupied Denmark, conducts an unmolested reconnaissance mission over
northern Scotland. It is the final
Luftwaffe operation over the
British Isles.
19 April: The last RAF air operation using Grand Slam bombs in Europe takes place over
Heligoland. Twenty aircraft from 617 Squadron, six with Grand Slams and the remainder with smaller
Tallboy bombs, along with 16 aircraft from 9 Squadron attack the island's coastal gun-batteries. No aircraft were lost. A total of 42 Grand Slams were dropped in air operations over Germany.
25 April: The last
Eighth Air Force full-scale mission in the
ETO hit the
Škoda Works at Pilsen in Czechoslovakia (B-17s), while B-24s bombed rail complexes surrounding Hitler's
Berchtesgaden.
2 May: An RAF
Mosquito from
608 squadron in
Norfolk conducts the last British bombing raid of the war over Nazi Germany. It dropped a
4,000lb bomb on the naval port at
Kiel.
3 May:
Typhoons of
83 Group from the
2nd Tactical Air Force attack the passenger liners
Cap Arcona,
Thielbek,
Athen, and
Deutschland moored in the
Bay of Lübeck (
Baltic Sea). Hundreds of
concentration camp prisoners are killed on the sinking ships because intelligence they are on board is not passed on to the flight crews.
7 May: The final European dogfight of World War II, between a small American
L-4 Grasshopper liaison aircraft using personal
.45 caliber pistols, and a small German liaison aircraft, a
Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, forced the German aircrew to land and surrender. ==References==