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• Oberleutnant Heinz Schäffer of U-977 decided to head for Argentina instead of returning home per President Karl Dönitz's orders. ww2dbase [U-977 | CPC]
• German General Blaskowitz surrendered all German forces in the Netherlands at the Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen to Canadian General Charles Foulkes. In Denmark, the German occupation forces surrendered. In Italy, German Armeegruppe C surrendered. ww2dbase [Germany's Surrender | CPC]
• Japanese balloon bombs floated across the Pacific Ocean, landing and detonating in Oregon in the United States, killing 6. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Soviet Army launches a final assault in Moravia region of Czechoslovakia against what remains of German Armeegruppe Mitte. ww2dbase [TH]
• German submarine U-853 torpedoed and sank American collier Black Point Off Block Island, Rhode Island, United States, killing 12, 34 were later rescued; Black Point was the last American merchant ship to be lost in WW2. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Allied aircraft conducted raids across Borneo in preparation of the Australian invasion. ww2dbase [Borneo Campaign | CPC]
• Walter Krupinski was captured by the Americans. ww2dbase [Walter Krupinski | CPC]
• USS Missouri departed Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Missouri | CPC]
• USS Hawkbill departed Fremantle, Australia for her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [Hawkbill | CPC]
• At a meeting attended by SS-Obergruppenführer von Herff and representatives of the Gestapo and SD, Heinrich Himmler outlined his plans to establish an SS government in Schleswig-Holstein which would conduct independent peace negotiations with the western powers. ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | AC]
• Lavrentiy Beria removed Viktor Abakumov from his position as the head counterintelligence chief of Soviet 3rd Byelorussian Front. Three generals were named to replace Abakumov: Colonel General Arkadii Apolonov, Lieutenant General Ivan Gorbatyuk, and Lieutenant General Fyodor Tutushkin. ww2dbase [Lavrentiy Beria | CPC]
• Nazi German Gauleiter Karl Hanke escaped Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) via a Storch aircraft. ww2dbase [Silesian Offensive and the Siege of Breslau | CPC]

• US 11th Armored Division entered Mauthausen Concentration Camp in occupied Austria region of Germany. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp | Mauthausen, Oberdonau | CPC]
• Edward Brooks accepted the surrender of the German 19th and 24th Armies in Innsbruck, Austria. ww2dbase [Edward Brooks | Innsbruck | CPC]

• Motoki Yamazaki was named the President of the South Manchuria Railway. ww2dbase [CPC]

• US Third Army captured Karlsbad and Pilsen in occupied Czechoslovakia. ww2dbase [Southern Germany Campaign | TH]
• The Council of Jewish Elders at Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia, operating under Commandant Karl Rahm, met with the commandant for the last time. The council was dissolved after that meeting. Later that day, Rahm fled the camp ahead of the advancing Soviet troops. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Theresienstadt Concentration Camp | Terezín, Cechy | CPC]
• Czech resistance leaders made a radio broadcast, asking all resistance groups in Czechoslovakia to rise up against the Germans. ww2dbase [Prague Strategic Offensive | AC, CPC]

• SMERSH agents attached to Soviet 3rd Shock Army found two burned bodies in a bomb crater near the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany and buried them without much thinking. ww2dbase [Reich Chancellery | Adolf Hitler | Berlin | CPC]
• Soviet 2nd Byelorussian Front captured Swinemünde, Pommern, Germany (now Swinoujscie, Poland) and Peenemünde Army Research Center, both located on the island of Usedom. ww2dbase [East Pomeranian Offensive | Peenemünde Army Research Center | Peenemünde, Pommern | CPC]
• U-822 was scuttled in Wesermünde, Germany. ww2dbase [U-822 | Wesermünde, Ost-Hannover | CPC]

• USS Marcus Island departed Guam, Mariana Islands with damaged aircraft on board. ww2dbase [Marcus Island | CPC]

• The Hiro Naval Arsenal in Kure, Japan was destroyed by US B-29 Superfortress bombers. ww2dbase [Bombing of Tokyo and Other Cities | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]

• Yukio Araki along with the rest of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron was ordered to relocate from the current base at Heijo (now Pyongyang), Korea to Metabaru Airfield in Saga Prefecture, Japan. ww2dbase [Yukio Araki | Heijo | CPC]

• 400 American B-17 bombers dropped food and other supplies over the Netherlands. ww2dbase [Operations Manna, Chowhound, and Faust | CPC]

• US B-25 bombers attacked Matsuyama Airfield in Taihoku (now Taipei), Taiwan. ww2dbase [Matsuyama Airfield | Taihoku | CPC]
• US B-24 bombers based in the Philippine Islands struck Shinchiku Airfield (now Hsinchu), Taiwan. ww2dbase [Shinchiku Airfield | Shinchiku | CPC]

• Canadian frigate HMCS Teme (K 458), torpedoed by German submarine U-315 on 29 Mar 1945 and already declared a constructive total loss, was returned to the British Royal Navy. ww2dbase [England | CPC]

• USS New Jersey arrived at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for an overhaul. ww2dbase [Puget Sound Navy Yard | New Jersey | Bremerton, Washington | DS]

5 May 1945 Interactive Map