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• » 9 Apr 1945

• Hans von Dohnanyi passed away. ww2dbase [Hans von Dohnanyi | CPC]
• Allies launched 1,200 bombers to raid 10 German jet airfields and oil storage facilities. ww2dbase [CPC]
• General Otto Lasch surrendered the city of Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany to the Soviet forces. The surrender caused a massive panic among the civilians of the city. As the roads were crowded with refugees, Soviet forces attacked, killing many civilians. Fighting ceased by midnight as Soviet forces eliminated all remaining German resistance. 80% to 90% of the city lay in ruin by this time. ww2dbase [East Prussian Offensive | TH]
• German Armeegruppe E was now completely cut off, but continued to fight against Yugoslavian partisans. ww2dbase [TH]
• Moringen Concentration Camp was liberated by Allied troops. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• The Liberty ship Charles Henderson, loaded with aircraft bombs, blew up in Bari harbour in Italy, killing 360 and injuring 1,730. ww2dbase [AC]
• Rifleman Ali Haidar took out two gun positions at Fusignano, Italy, being wounded on each occasion. But his actions enabled the advance to continue across the Senjo River and earned him the Victoria Cross. ww2dbase [AC]
• During the crossing of the Senjo River Indian Private Namdeo Jadhav carried two wounded comrades under heavy fire through deep water and across a minefield. He then recrossed the river, destroyed three machine gun posts and directed other companies safely across, thereby securing a bridgehead. His extraordinary conduct would earn him the Victoria Cross. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Snook failed to respond to a message sent by USS Tigrone. ww2dbase [Snook | CPC]
• USS Guitarro departed Fremantle, Australia for her fifth and final war patrol. ww2dbase [Guitarro | CPC]
• Soviet troops began assaulting the central region of Vienna, Ostmark, Germany. ww2dbase [Battle of Vienna | CPC]
• The German Kampfgeschwader 55 wing was disbanded. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Parche fired 7 torpedoes at a Japanese Minesweeper No. 3 and a transport off Kobe, Japan, damaging the minesweeper with 1 hit. ww2dbase [Parche | CPC]
• Z43 was struck by a Soviet bomb, but it failed to detonate. ww2dbase [Z43 | CPC]

• Wilhelm Canaris was executed by hanging by piano wire at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Flossenbürg, southern Germany. ww2dbase [Flossenbürg Concentration Camp | Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Wilhelm Canaris | Flossenbürg, Bayreuth | CPC]
• Fähnrich Hans Guido Mutke, flying a Me 262 jet fighter, claimed to have reached supersonic speed while diving on a P-51 fighter. This claim would be disputed by most. ww2dbase [Me 262 Schwalbe | CPC]
• While under repair at Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, Emden was damaged by a near miss of a bomb from an Allied aircraft. ww2dbase [Deutsche Werke Kiel | Emden | Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein | CPC]
• The guards of Marlag und Milag Nord prisoners of war camp in Westertimke, Germany departed. They were replaced by older men, presumably local Volkssturm personnel. ww2dbase [Marlag und Milag Nord | Westertimke, Weser-Ems | HM]

• In the early afternoon, 825 Allied heavy bombers and 1,000 other aircraft dropped bombs behind the Senio River in northern Italy. Between 1520 and 1910 hours, 1,500 artillery pieces bombarded German positions five times. At dusk, New Zealand, Indian, and Polish troops attacked. ww2dbase [Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast | TH, CPC]

• The Japanese Navy scored a notable success against the Americans when a large Shinyo Motor Boat packed with explosives charged out of Naha harbour, Okinawa, Japan to ram the USS Charles J. Badger putting the destroyer out of the war with both engines utterly unserviceable. A landing-craft was sunk on the same night and, from the fringes of the destroyer screen, came a report of swimmers armed with hand-grenades, although whether these were, in fact, Fukuryu ("Crawling Dragons") suicide-frogmen still remained uncertain. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | Shinyo-class | Okinawa | AC]

• USS Tirante sank Japanese troop transport Nikko Maru and damaged Japanese coastal defense vessel No. 102; the latter was later towed back to port by transport Kiyokawa Maru. ww2dbase [Tirante | Yellow Sea | CPC]
• USS Sea Robin took on 10 survivors of a sinking Japanese trawler damaged by Allied aircraft in the South China Sea. ww2dbase [Sea Robin | South China Sea | CPC]
• USS Sunfish damaged a Japanese ship off Mutsu harbor (Ominato Guard District naval base), Japan, hitting her with 1 of 4 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Sunfish (Gato-class) | CPC]

• Charles Burnett passed away from a coronary thrombosis at the Princess Mary Hospital at RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Charles Burnett | Halton, England | CPC]

9 Apr 1945 Interactive Map