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• Sunken cruiser Köln's turrets fired against enemy troops advancing at Wilhelmshaven, Germany (near Neuenburg and Bockhorn). ww2dbase [Köln | CPC]
• Canadian First Army captured Emden and Wilhelmshaven, Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• Himmler's attempts to negotiate peace with the Western Allies was discovered Hitler, who stripped him of all his titles and ranks and ordered for his arrest. ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | CPC]
• Mussolini was hanged by Italian partisans along with his mistress Clara Petacci and a dozen of his cabinet members. ww2dbase [Benito Mussolini | TH]
• A group of Austrian resistance fighters became the last victims of gassings at Mauthausen Concentration Camp. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• Japanese special attack aircraft damaged 5 destroyers, 2 hospital ships, and victory ship Bozeman Victory off Okinawa, Japan. None of the four G4M bombers carrying Ohka special attack aircraft hit their targets. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | CPC]
• USS Sennet sank Japanese repair ship Hatsushima south of Japan, hitting her with 2 of 3 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Sennet | CPC]

• In Burma, the XV Corps, which had been leapfrogging islands along the coast, reached and captured Taungup. ww2dbase [Third Battle of Arakan | Taungup | AC]
• Anglo-Indian troops captured Allanmyo, Burma. Elsewhere, Indian 17th Division reached the heavily-defended Pegu, where the Japanese built the final major stronghold north of Rangoon, which was 47 miles to the south. ww2dbase [Battle of Rangoon | Pegu | CPC]

• USS Alabama arrived at Ulithi, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Alabama | Ulithi | CPC]

• American bombers attacked Japanese shipping at Saigon, Indochina, sinking 1 tanker and 6 other vessels. ww2dbase [Saigon, Cochinchine | CPC]

• US Seventh Army captured Augsburg, Germany. ww2dbase [Augsburg | TH]
• In Berlin, Germany, Marshal Ivan Koniev's men had virtually cleared the Potsdamer Strasse and Soviet troops were now within a mile of the Chancellery and the Reichstag, spurred on by Joseph Stalin's explicit wish that the Soviet flag should fly there in time for the May Day celebrations. In the bunker under the Chancellery, Adolf Hitler awaited reports for the progress of the counterattack he had ordered Walther Wenck to commence; he would receive no such report as he counterattack never took place. ww2dbase [Battle of Berlin | Reich Chancellery | Berlin | CPC, AC]
• Robert von Greim departed Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Robert von Greim | Berlin | CPC]
• Martin Gottfried Weiss fled from Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany. ww2dbase [Nuremberg Trials and Other Trials Against Germany | Martin Gottfried Weiss | München-Oberbayern | CPC]
• The Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany was seized by Soviet troops. With Berlin surrounded and much of the southern suburbs already in Russian hands, Adolf Hitler's last exit route had now been closed off. ww2dbase [Battle of Berlin | Berlin | AC]
• SS-Untersturmführer Johannes Otto was named the commandant of Dachau Concentration Camp in southern Germany, replacing Eduard Weiter. Within hours, SS-Untersturmführer Heinrich Wicker was made the commandant. Outside the camp, escapees of the camp and a rebel unit of the Volkssturm staged an armed revolt in the town of Dachau; it was quickly and brutally put down by SS troops. Finally, also on this date, International Red Cross representative Victor Maurer negotiated an agreement for the Germans to surrender Dachau Concentration Camp to US troops. ww2dbase [Dachau Concentration Camp | Dachau, München-Oberbayern | CPC]
• The column of prisoners of war that SS-Feldgendarmerie personnel forced out of Marlag und Milag Nord prisoners of war camp in Westertimke, Germany on 2 Apr 1945 arrived at Lübeck, Germany. ww2dbase [Marlag und Milag Nord | Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein | HM]

• USS Sunfish arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her eleventh war patrol. ww2dbase [Sunfish (Gato-class) | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• In Italy, British Eighth Army captured Venice and US Fifth Army captured Brescia. German Colonel General Heinrich von Vietinghoff dispatched a messenger from Bolzano, Italy toward the Allies lines seeking a ceasefire. ww2dbase [Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast | TH, CPC]
• Brazilian infantry and US tanks attacked the remnants of German 148th Infantry Division at Fornovo di Taro, Italy. ww2dbase [Battles of Collecchio and Fornovo di Taro | Fornovo di Taro, Emilia-Romagna | CPC]

• Captain Chojuro Takahashi was relieved as the commanding officer of light carrier Ryuho; Captain Hojima was assigned to oversee the damaged carrier until the end of the war. On the same day, the carrier was attacked by US aircraft at Etajima near Kure, Japan, receiving no damage. ww2dbase [Ryuho | Etajima, Hiroshima | CPC]
• USS Springer attacked Japanese transports in the harbor at Tomie (now part of Goto), Nagasaki, Japan; she scored no hits on the transports, but she was able to sink Submarine Chaser No. 17 during the counterattack, hitting her with 1 or 2 of 6 torpedoes. ww2dbase [Springer | Tomie, Nagasaki | CPC]
• The keel of landing ship No. 165 was laid down by Osaka Zosen; this craft would not be completed. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]

• In Holland an unofficial truce commenced, allowing British and Canadian convoys through the German lines unmolested to deliver food, fuel and vital supplies to the starving Dutch civilian population. ww2dbase [AC]

• USS Trepang sank landing ship No. 146 in the East China Sea about 20 miles southwest of Goto Islands, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, hitting her with 1 of 8 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Trepang | East China Sea | CPC]

• Hungarian Count István Bethlen was transferred to Moscow, Russia for interrogation due to his past pro-British tendencies. ww2dbase [Moscow | CPC]

• USS Franklin entered New York Navy Yard, New York, United States for repairs. ww2dbase [New York Navy Yard | Franklin | Brooklyn, New York | CPC]

28 Apr 1945 Interactive Map