World War II Chronology 1945

January
9. Americans invade Luzon at Lingayen Gulf.
16. American 1st and 3rd Armies meet at Hauffalize, Belgium, after separation by enemy bulge 
since December 16.
17. Soviets take Warsaw.
19. Soviets capture Cracow and Lodz.
20. Hungary signs armistice with Allies.
28. Ledo-Burma road opened to convoys to China.
		




February
4. Americans enter Manila.
4-11. Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin confer at Yalta.
10. Americans take Roer dam at Schwammenauel after Nazis opened sluices.
13. German garrison at Budapest surrenders to Soviets.
15. Americans land on Bataan. Land on Corregidor next day.
19. United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.
21-Mar. 8. Twenty American republics meet in Mexico City; hold Inter-American Conference 
on Problems of War and Peace.
23. Turkey declares war on Germany, Japan. Japanese resistance in Manila ends.
24. Egypt declares war on Germany, Japan.



March
3. Act of Chapultepec signed in Mexico City. Finland declares war on Germany in an act 
dated March 1.
7. American 1st Army seizes Cologne; crosses Rhine at Remagen bridge.
14. Soviets cross Oder River north of Frankfurt an der Oder.
16. Marines complete conquest of Iwo Jima.
18. American 3rd Army takes Rhine city of Coblenz.
21. British take Mandalay.
22-23. Allied troops cross Rhine.
27. Argentina declares war on Germany, Japan. Soviets penetrate Danzig.



April
1. United States Army, Marines land on Okinawa.
5. Soviet Union cancels 1941 neutrality pact with Japan.
8-13. Soviets capture Vienna.
12. President Roosevelt dies.
16. Americans enter Nuremberg. Enter Leipzig next day.
18. Americans cross Czech border.
21. Soviets enter Berlin. Allies take Bologna, Italy.
24. United States refuses Himmler's offer to surrender.
25. San Francisco Conference to form United Nations opens. American, Soviet patrols meet 
near Torgau.
26. British 2nd Army captures Bremen. Soviets take Stettin on the Baltic.
28. Italian partisans execute Mussolini.
29. Germans in northern Italy, southern Austria, surrender, but announcement withheld 
until May 2.



May
1. Hitler reported dead; Doenitz proclaims himself Fuehrer.
2. Berlin surrenders.
3. Hamburg surrenders to British. Rangoon falls to British.
4. Nazis surrender Denmark, Netherlands, all northern Germany to Montgomery.
5. Large German force surrenders to United States Sixth Army Group.
7. Germans surrender unconditionally at Reims.
8. Surrender of Germany ratified in Berlin.
23. Heinrich Himmler, German Gestapo chief, commits suicide.



June
21. Americans complete conquest of Okinawa.
26. Fifty nations sign charter of United Nations at San Francisco.
28. MacArthur announces liberation of Luzon.



July
5. United States, Britain recognize provisional Warsaw government. MacArthur announces 
complete liberation of Philippines.
14. Navy bombards Honshu and Hokkaido.
16. United States Army explodes experimental atomic bomb on New Mexico desert.
17-Aug. 2. Truman, Churchill (later Attlee), Stalin meet at Potsdam; agree to decentralize 
Germany.



August
2. Japan hit by largest B-29 attack, made by 800 Superfortresses.
6. American plane drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
8. Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
9. Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
10. Japan sues for peace.
15. Japan accepts Allied surrender terms.
27. American occupation force enters Japan.



September
2. Japan surrenders formally aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.