Battle of Bunker Hill, Okinawa, World War II, May 1945. Wikipedia.
By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
On Okinawa, the U.S. 6th Marine Division, part of the U.S. Tenth Army (a joint Army-Marine command), on May 18, 1945, captures most of Sugar Loaf Hill, on the south of the island, after days of bitter fighting. In China, Chinese troops reoccupy Foochow, in Fukien Province. In Germany, Grand Adm. Karl Dönitz, president of the Third Reich, striving to distance the military from Nazi atrocities, issues an “Order of the Day” to German troops expressing horror at revelations concerning Nazi concentration camps.
French troops arrive in Syria on May 19. Arab nationalists launch protest demonstrations against the landings there and in Lebanon. In Flensburg, Germany, about 4 miles from the Danish border, Alfred Rosenberg, formulator of ideological policies for the Nazi Party — including its racial theory, persecution of Jews and others, and abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles — is arrested. The Australian 26th Brigade Group ends the Japanese occupation of the Tarakan oil fields in the Dutch East Indies.
On May 20, on Okinawa, American troops — using flamethrowers and hollow-charge weapons — battle Japanese defenders in caves, hollows and interlocking tunnels between positions.
The Japanese on Okinawa on May 21 begin the evacuation of Shuri, the center of their defenses. Their losses so far are estimated at 48,000 killed out of a garrison of 85,000. Former Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (in disguise as a Wehrmacht sergeant) is arrested at a British Second Army checkpoint at Bremervörde, in northwestern Germany. Hermann Göring, former Reichsmarschall of the Luftwaffe, is transferred from a prisoner-of-war camp in Augsburg, Germany, to the Palace Hotel in Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxembourg, where he joins other senior Nazi officials awaiting Allied interrogation. (Göring, under a death warrant issued by Hitler’s deputy, Martin Bormann, had surrendered on May 6 to elements of the U.S. Army’s 36th Infantry Division at Radstadt, Austria, about 43 miles southeast of Salzburg.) A unit of the Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) raids the Soviet NKVD (secret police) prison camp at Rembertów, in the eastern suburbs of Warsaw and frees over 500 Polish political prisoners being held there. In London, the Labour Party decides to withdraw its support from Winston Churchill’s coalition government, forcing a national election.
Units of the U.S. 6th Marine Division reach the outer suburbs of Naha, the capital of Okinawa, on May 22. The British government announces that domestic rations of bacon, cooking fats and soap are to be cut further — British supplies will be shared with liberated European countries. In Washington, D.C., President Truman reports to Congress on the Lend-Lease Program: Up to March 1945, the United Kingdom has received supplies worth almost $12.8 billion, and the Soviet Union almost $8.5 billion. Reverse Lend-Lease to the U.S., mostly from the U.K., has been worth $5 billion.
In the heaviest air raid so far on the Japanese homeland, USAAF bombers on May 23 drop 4,500 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo. Almost 21% of the capital city is now burned out, but the firebombing continues for four more days. American planes also heavily bomb Yokohama, a major port and naval base. In Europe, the Allies arrest all members of the Dönitz government and the remnants of the German High Command at Flensburg, in far northern Germany near the Danish border. Heinrich Himmler commits suicide while being interrogated at British Second Army headquarters at Lüneburg Heath by biting down on a cyanide capsule hidden in his mouth. At the request of King George VI, Winston Churchill resigns as the United Kingdom’s prime minister and forms a “caretaker government” until national elections take place on July 5. Strikes and rioting continue in Lebanon and Syria; both governments — already recognized as independent by the U.S., the U.K., and the U.S.S.R. — pledge to resist the presence of French troops within their borders.
On Okinawa, on the night of May 24, 12 Japanese commandos survive the crash landing of their transport plane on American-held Yontan airfield. (Four other transport planes carrying 56 more commandos are shot down either by U.S. fighter planes or anti-aircraft fire.) Being merely harassed by wild gunfire from panicked pilots and ground crewmen not used to being in a firefight, the dozen Japanese succeed in igniting a fuel depot containing 70,000 gallons of aviation gasoline, destroying nine aircraft and severely damaging 26 others before being wiped out by a U.S. Marine infantry unit that arrives at dawn the next morning. In New Guinea, Australian troops surround Wewak. Among the Allies, an exchange of Soviet prisoners of war for U.S. and British POWs begins at pre-arranged points in Germany. Over Japan, 550 U.S. bombers drop 4,500 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo. German Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim, the last commandant of the Luftwaffe, commits suicide in a Salzburg, Austria, prison.
On May 25, the U.S. Joint Chiefs complete the plan for “Operation Olympic,” which sets the date to invade the Japanese mainland as no later than November 1, 1945. American B-29 bombers drop 3,000 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo, starting a firestorm that engulfs almost 17 square miles of the city, killing over 1,000 people. Flames reach the Imperial Palace, the residence of the emperor.
In Europe, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces is transferred from Reims, France, to Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, on May 26. Over Japan, 500 U.S. bombers drop yet another 4,000 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo.
Chinese troops on May 27 occupy Nanning, the capital of Kwanghsi Province in south China, cutting the main Japanese supply route from French Indochina, Thailand, Malaya and Burma, leaving some 200,000 troops of the Imperial Japanese Army stranded.
Widespread fighting breaks out between French troops and locals in Syria on May 28. The headquarters of the British Twelfth Army is set up in Rangoon, Burma. In Flensburg, Germany, near the Danish border, William Joyce (“Lord Haw-Haw”) is captured. The American-born, British fascist is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime propaganda broadcasts for the Nazis on German radio.
Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces reports on May 29 that there are an estimated 4.25 million displaced persons in the Anglo-American area of occupation. In the Middle East, fighting between Syrians and the French escalates, and French forces bombard Damascus. Negotiations between the sides begin at the urging of the British. The result of the talks is that French troops will depart Syria by April 1, 1946. Over 450 B-29 bombers of the U.S. 20th Air Force drop 2,570 tons of bombs on Yokohama, Japan, destroying 85% of the city.
On Okinawa, American forces are south of the former Japanese positions at Shuri on May 30. Two battalions of U.S. Marines reach the edge of Naha, the island’s capital. The government of Iran demands that, since the war in Europe is over, all American, British and Soviet troops leave the country. French troops take over the Syrian parliament building in Damascus. In Lebanon, the government asks for volunteers to fight the French.
U.S. military intelligence determines on May 31 that Osaka, Japan, has been mostly burned out by incendiary bombs. Organized Japanese resistance ends on Negros Island, the Philippines. In China, Chiang Kai-shek resigns as the nation’s premier but retains the offices of president and generalissimo of the Chinese military. Winston Churchill warns French president Charles de Gaulle that British troops have been ordered to actively intervene in the Levant (Syria, Lebanon and Iraq) to end bloodshed and to protect Allied supply lines to the Pacific. A general cease-fire for the region is arranged, and French troops are ordered into their barracks. As fighting in Damascus between the French and Syrians quiets, the death toll stands at over 2,000 civilians. The Norwegian government arrives in Oslo after five years of exile in London. In the British capital, the United Nations War Crimes Commission meets. Sixteen nations are represented; over 4,000 individuals are charged with committing war crimes.
