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• Allied troops captured Zutphen, Leeuwarden, and Zoutkamp in the Netherlands. ww2dbase [CPC]
• US First Army captured Leuna and Merseburg, Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• In Czechoslovakia, Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front assaulted toward the Mührisch-Ostrau industrial region of Moravia, while Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front moved towards Brno. ww2dbase [TH]
• USAAF bombers dropped napalm bombs on the German stronghold in Royan, France. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German ships evacuated 20,000 people from East Prussia, Germany. ww2dbase [East Prussian Offensive | CPC]
• USS Charr completed minelaying off Pulo Island, Vietnam. ww2dbase [Charr | CPC]
• Troops of F Company, 2nd Battalion, 405th Regiment, US 102nd Infantry Division discovered the aftermath of the massacre committed by German SS and Luftwaffe troops two days prior near Gardelegen, Saxony, Germany. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Operation Kikusui No. 3 was launched off Okinawa, Japan, participated by about 120 Japanese Navy and 45 Japanese Army special attack and escorting aircraft. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | CPC]
• About 200 aircraft of the US 14th Air Force attacked Japanese targets across a large area of eastern China, targeting bridges, river traffic, railroads, gun positions, warehouses, and troop concentrations. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Field Marshal Model, Commander-in-Chief of German Army Group B, ordered all young soldiers and old soldiers to be discharged from the army. As civilians they were to make their own way home. ww2dbase [Walter Model | AC]
• Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front advanced toward Graz in occupied Austria. ww2dbase [Battle of Vienna | CPC]
• USS Iowa arrived at Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Iowa | CPC]
• Pierre Barjot was promoted to the rank of counter admiral. ww2dbase [Pierre Barjot | CPC]
• Cruiser USS Phoenix with destroyers USS Nicholas and USS O’Bannon conducted a pre-invasion bombardment of Carabao Island at the entrance to Manila Bay, Philippines. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 2 | Phoenix | Nicholas | DS]

• King Christian X secured the release of 423 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in occupied Czechoslovakia. ww2dbase [Christian X | Theresienstadt Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Terezín, Cechy | 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 [RAF Thurleigh | Bombing of Cities in France and Low Countries | Royan | DS]

• French First Army captured Kehl and Offenburg, Germany. On the same day, Dwight Eisenhower ordered US 3rd Army under George Patton and US 6th Army Group under Jacob Devers to make a thrust toward Austria. ww2dbase [Southern Germany Campaign | TH, CPC]
• British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany, which had about 40,000 prisoners at the time. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp | Bergen, Ost-Hannover | CPC]
• Eva Braun arrived in Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Eva Braun | Berlin | CPC]
• Oberstleutnant Gerhard Prawitt, the commandant of the Oflag IV-C prisoner of war camp at Colditz Castle in Germany, received the order to transfer the prisoners in his charge toward the east. As he moved to carry out the order, the prisoners refused to cooperate as they knew the European War was coming to an end. By the evening, as US 9th Armored Division neared Colditz, SS guards began to flee without orders. ww2dbase [Colditz Castle | Colditz, Sachsen | CPC]
• Hermann Florstedt, former Majdanek Concentration Camp commandant, was executed at Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany by a SS firing squad. He had been found guilty for having embezzled wealth left behind by murdered Jews. ww2dbase [Buchenwald Concentration Camp | Hermann Florstedt | Weimar | CPC]
• Oberleutnant zur See Heinrich Niemeyer was named the commanding officer of U-1233, relieving Hans-Joachim Kuhn. ww2dbase [U-1233 | CPC]

• USS Capitaine arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Capitaine | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• US II Corps advanced toward Bologna, Italy in two columns along Highway 64 and Highway 65. British troops launched another attack across the Fossa Marina canal east of Argenta, Italy. ww2dbase [Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast | Emilia-Romagna | CPC]

• American carrier aircraft struck Japanese airfields in southern Kyushu, Japan while 300 US Army B-29 bombers conducted raids on Kawasaki and Tokyo. ww2dbase [Preparations for Invasion of Japan | CPC]

• Rear Admiral Haruo Katsuta was named the chief of staff of Chinkai Guard District in southern Korea. ww2dbase [Chinkai Guard District | Chinkai, Gyeongsangnam | CPC]

• USS Ancon arrived at Saipan, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Ancon | Saipan | CPC]

• USS Shamrock Bay launched four FM-2 Wildcat fighters, which shot down six Japanese aircraft 50 miles north of Okinawa, Japan; some of the six aircraft might have been special attack aircraft aiming for destroyer USS Laffey. ww2dbase [Shamrock Bay | CPC]

• Destroyer USS Shaw entered Auxiliary Repair Dock ARD-2 for underwater inspection and removal of port propeller. ww2dbase [Shaw | San Pedro Bay, Leyte | DS]

• At a conference in Moscow, Russia to discuss the war in the Far East, Joseph Stalin told Ambassador Averell Harriman that the forthcoming Soviet offensive will be aimed at Dresden, not Berlin, as he had already told Dwight Eisenhower. ww2dbase [Joseph Stalin | Moscow | AC]

• US B-24 bombers based in the Philippine Islands struck Shinchiku Airfield (now Hsinchu), Taiwan. ww2dbase [Shinchiku Airfield | Shinchiku | CPC]

• USS Nashville departed Hunters Point, San Francisco, California, United States for US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Nashville | San Francisco, California | CPC]

15 Apr 1945 Interactive Map