World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 21 Mar 1945

• Soviet forces captured Braunsberg near Königsberg in East Prussia, Germany. ww2dbase [East Prussian Offensive | TH]
• US First Army advanced toward Siegburg, Germany. ww2dbase [Advance to the Rhine | TH]
• The Japanese made the first operational sortie with the Yokosuka Ohka (Cherry Blossom) suicide aircraft. The sixteen Mitsubishi G4M2e bombers of 321st Squadron launched aircraft were intercepted short of their target and were forced to jettison their piloted weapons. ww2dbase [MXY7 Ohka | AC]
• USS Preston departed for Ryukyu Islands. ww2dbase [Preston (Fletcher-class) | CPC]

• An intact Japanese Fu-Go balloon bomb was located near Dillingham, Alaska. ww2dbase [Fu-Go | Dillingham | DS]

• USS Wake Island departed Ulithi, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Wake Island | Ulithi | CPC]

• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against the airfield at Rheine, Germany. ww2dbase [RAF Thurleigh | Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Rheine | DS]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Air Group 53 arrived on board. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]

• Soviet forces captured Székesfehérvár (German: Stuhlweißenburg), Hungary. ww2dbase [Budapest Strategic Offensive Operation | Székesfehérvár | TH]

• In a Disney operation, three B-17 Fortresses attacked the E-boat pens at IJmuiden, Netherlands with rocket-assisted bombs. ww2dbase [Schnellboot-class | Disney | IJmuiden | DS]

• USS Baya fired three torpedoes at a Japanese transport in the South China Sea; all torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Baya | South China Sea | CPC]
• USS Corregidor began an anti-submarine patrol in the vicinity of Wotje and Maloelap, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Corregidor | CPC]

• USS Kimberly departed San Pedro Bay, Philippine Islands for radar picket duty. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 2 | Kimberly | San Pedro Bay | CPC]

• Allied convoy JW-65 arrived at the Kola Inlet near Murmansk, Russia. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | Murmansk | CPC]

• German V-2 rocket hit the Packard factory in London, England, United Kingdom at 0939 hours, destroying it and damaging 13 factories and 662 houses; it killed 32, seriously injured 100, and lightly injured 460. Another rocket hit Primrose Hill in St Pancras (though officially listed as in Hampstead), London, damaging the reservoir and injuring 14 people. ww2dbase [Vergeltungswaffe 2 | V-Weapons Campaign | London, England | CPC]

• USS Carbonero departed New London, Connecticut, United States. ww2dbase [Carbonero | New London, Connecticut | CPC]
• Captain Atherton Macondray, Jr. relieved Commander John T. Corwin as the commanding officer of the cruiser USS Nashville and would remain in command for the rest of Nashville’s time in the United States Navy. ww2dbase [Nashville | Bremerton, Washington | DS]
• Escort carrier USS Card arrived at Quonset Point, Rhode Island where she would spend the next 9 weeks conducting carrier landing qualifications in Narragansett Bay involving 4,742 aircraft landings with only one fatal mishap ww2dbase [Card | Quonset Point, Rhode Island | DS]

21 Mar 1945 Interactive Map