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• USS Tirante sank Japanese cargo ship Juzan Maru and her two escort vessels. ww2dbase [Tirante | CPC]
• George Patton was promoted to the permanent rank of general. ww2dbase [George Patton | CPC]
• The Ruhr Pocket was cut in two near Hagen, Germany. ww2dbase [Fall of the Ruhr | TH]
• Former Chancellor Franz von Papen and three German generals were captured in a raid by American gliderborne troops led by Lieutenant James Watson. ww2dbase [Franz von Papen | TH]
• French troops began their final assault on Bordeaux, France. ww2dbase [TH]
• Canadian forces assumed military control in the Netherlands, minding those German forces still holed up in Atlantikwall fortifications. Arnhem and Zwolle were captured by the Canadians on this date. ww2dbase [TH]
• British Second Army reached Bremen, Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• Japanese special attack aircraft damaged a battleship and two destroyers off Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | CPC]
• USS Charr began laying naval mines off Pulo Island, Vietnam. ww2dbase [Charr | CPC]
• Seven G4M bombers approached American ships off Okinawa, but all were shot down before they were able to launch their Ohka payloads. ww2dbase [MXY7 Ohka | CPC]
• General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in North West Europe, announced that Berlin, Germany was no longer a military objective. ww2dbase [Dwight Eisenhower | AC]
• The Soviet Union's top propagandist, Ilya Ehrenburg, was formally reprimanded, in an unprecedented editorial in the Soviet military newspaper Red Star, by his chief, Alexandrov, for broadcasting and distributing leaflets that encourage Red Army soldiers to commit atrocities against German civilians. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Sennet attacked a Japanese patrol boat south of Japan; the single torpedo missed. ww2dbase [Sennet | CPC]
• Brigadier George Webb, the talented head of the British XXX Corps Rear Headquarters, was killed when his Jeep hit a pothole and ran into a tree. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Bailey departed Mindoro as escort to repair ship USS Culebra Island bound for Morotai, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Bailey | DS]

• Anglo-Indian troops captured Taungdwingyi, Burma. ww2dbase [Battle of Rangoon | Taungdwingyi | CPC]

• On this day and the next, 423 Danish Jews were transferred from the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in occupied Czechoslovakia back to their home country via trucks hired by the Swedish Red Cross. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Theresienstadt Concentration Camp | Terezín, Cechy | CPC]

• Lorraine began a week-long bombardment of German positions in the Gironde estuary in western France between La Rochelle and Bordeaux. ww2dbase [Lorraine | Aquitaine | CPC]
• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against shore batteries at the mouth of the Garenne River in Royan, France in advance of French troops landing there. ww2dbase [Bombing of Cities in France and Low Countries | RAF Thurleigh | Royan | DS]

• In Germany, US Third Army captured Bayreuth and Gera. ww2dbase [Southern Germany Campaign | TH]
• As Allied troops advanced, Heinrich Himmler ordered all prisoners at Dachau Concentration Camp in southern Germany be exterminated. ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | Dachau Concentration Camp | Dachau, München-Oberbayern | CPC]
• US 102nd Infantry Division captured Gardelegen, Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• The underground aircraft factory at Tarthun south of Magdeburg, Germany, which produced He 162 jet fighters among other weapons, was discovered by Private 1st ClassJames Prenger and Warrant Officer Joseph Crocker. ww2dbase [He 162 Volksjäger | Tarthun, Magdeburg-Anhalt | CPC]
• Captain Clayton Kelly Gross led 8 P-51 fighters on a fighter sweep over the Bad Hersfeld-Mühlhausen-Weimar region in central Germany. The Americans shot down the Me 262 jet fighter flown by Kurt Lobgesong of German Jagdgeschwader 7 wing; Lobgesong would survive the engagement. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Jürgen Stroop met with Heinrich Himmler in Himmler's private train near Prenzlau, Germany, proclaiming that he would lead Werwolf resistance groups with total loyalty after the end of the war. ww2dbase [Jürgen Stroop | Prenzlau, Mark Brandenburg | CPC]
• As the US Army approached Oflag VII-B PoW camp at Eichstädt, Bavaria region, Germany, the British officers were marched out of the camp (just two days before it was liberated). Tragically, just a short distance from, the camp the column was attacked by American aircraft who mistook it for a formation of German troops. Fourteen British officers were killed and 46 others were wounded. ww2dbase [Eichstädt, Franken | AC]
• In the morning, damaged Emden was towed from Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany to the nearby Heikendorfer Bucht. After observing a 15-degree list to port due to flooding, her crew sealed the hull and beached her to prevent sinking. ww2dbase [Emden | Deutsche Werke Kiel | Schleswig-Holstein | CPC]

• USS Tunny arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her eighth war patrol. ww2dbase [Tunny | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• British advances in northern Italy were held up at Bastia and the Fossa Marina canal, frustrated by the German 15th Panzergrenadier Regiment. On the same day, after a heavy aerial and artillery bombardment, US IV Corps began to attack on the western end of the German line. German 29th Panzergrenadier Division arrived in the Reno River area as reinforcement; earlier in the day, Adolf Hitler had rejected a request to withdraw German forces north of the Po River. ww2dbase [Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast | TH, CPC]

• I-400 departed Kure, Japan for Dalian, China, disguised as a frigate complete with dummy naval guns and machine guns. She was tasked with bringing back fuel from the Dalian storage tanks. ww2dbase [I-400 | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]

• USS Gabilan sank a Japanese freighters in the South China Sea in the morning, hitting her with 2 of 4 torpedoes fired. In the evening, she sank another freight in the same area, hitting her with all 4 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Gabilan | South China Sea | CPC]
• USS Spot sank two Japanese trawlers with her deck gun in the East China Sea. ww2dbase [Spot | East China Sea | CPC]
• USS Sunfish fired three torpedoes at a Japanese ship off Japan; all three torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Sunfish (Gato-class) | CPC]

• German submarine U-1206, built in 1944 at Schichau Yard in Danzig, was lost in the North Sea just off the coast of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom following an accident. At 70 feet below the surface, Kapitänleutnant Karl-Adolf Schlitt had decided to use the toilet without consulting a rating trained in its complicated operation. Something went wrong, and when the specialist arrived he misunderstood the situation and opened the wrong valve, which resulted in large quantities of seawater entering the boat. The water reached the batteries directly under the toilet and caused production of chlorine gas. As a consequence, the U-1206 was forced to surface immediately. However, when the submarine surfaced, she was discovered and bombed by British patrols. Schlitt ordered the crew to destroy secret equipment and papers, scuttle the submarine and abandon ship. Three men drowned in the heavy seas and 46 were taken prison by the British. The name "shitwreck" was coined shortly after the news reached the British. ww2dbase [Ellon, Scotland | HM]

• USS Hoe entered Mare Island Navy Yard, California, United States for overhaul. ww2dbase [Hoe | Mare Island Navy Yard | Vallejo, California | CPC]

14 Apr 1945 Interactive Map