March 1945
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This article covers current news and events in March 1945 .
Continuous month: the Second World War ; In March 1945 the advance of the Red Army continued in the east and the Western Allies on the centers of Germany in the west. In the so-called final phase crimes , thousands of the prisoners of the Nazi regime from concentration and forced labor camps are driven through the country on death marches in front of the population and hundreds of them are murdered. When individual attempts to escape by soldiers from the Wehrmacht are discovered (often in the event of an unauthorized extension of a home leave or so-called desertion ; often in the direction of their home town), death sentences are very often imposed by improvised courts of the Nazi party or Wehrmacht and carried out immediately.
Daily events
Saturday March 3, 1945
- Manila , Philippines: The Battle of Manila is the final battle between US and Philippine forces and Japanese troops. The heavily destroyed city is taken.
- Finland declares war on the Axis powers
- Allied planes accidentally bomb Basel and Zurich by their own account .
Wednesday March 7, 1945
- Remagen : US troops succeed in revenue from Ludendorff Bridge ; the first undestroyed Rhine bridge enables a bridgehead to be quickly expanded to advance into the Ruhr area. See the 1969 US war film The Bridge at Remagen .
Friday March 9, 1945
- Tokyo : The US Air Force undertakes a heavy night attack, Mission 40 (Operation Meetinghouse II); the bombardment kills over 100,000 civilians, a similar number of seriously injured and up to ten times as many homeless people, making it the heaviest air strike in history. See the overview of air raids on Tokyo
Friday March 16, 1945
- Würzburg is 75% destroyed by an air raid. The attack claims around 5,000 civilian deaths.
Sunday March 18, 1945
- Kolberg is taken by the Red Army. The place name had become a catchphrase for the perseverance demanded by the regime in the German Reich through the propaganda film of the same name .
- Berlin : Hitler orders all traffic, communications and industrial facilities that could fall into the hands of the Allies to be destroyed. This is the so-called Nero command .
- Berlin: 1,250 American bombers fly an air raid on the city.
Monday March 19, 1945
- Destruction of Hanau (southeast of Frankfurt a. M.) by British air raids
- A US air strike destroys Nagoya .
Thursday March 22, 1945
- Hildesheim : The historic half-timbered old town is almost completely destroyed in an Allied bombing raid, including the well-known bone carving office .
Friday March 23, 1945
Saturday March 24, 1945
- Wesel : The Allies cross the Rhine ( Operation Plunder )
Wednesday March 28, 1945
- Wiesbaden is occupied by US troops.
Thursday March 29, 1945
- The Battle of Heiligenbeil ends in East Prussia . Around 50,000 German soldiers were taken prisoner by the Soviets .
- In southern Burgenland , around 60 Hungarian Jews who were used as forced laborers are murdered in the massacre of German riflemen (a final phase crime ).
- US troops occupy Mannheim as an industrial site in southern Germany .
Friday March 30, 1945
See also
- Nekrolog March for deaths this month
- List of annually recurring commemorative and action days in March
- Category for commemorative days, holidays or action days in March
- Chronology of the Second World War, March 1945
Web links
- Chronicle 1945 (Living virtual museum online at dhm.de)
- Digitized newspapers from 1945 in the newspaper information system (ZEFYS) of the Berlin State Library