World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 9 May 1945

• Feldmarschall Kesselring is captured near Saalfelden, Austria. ww2dbase [Albert Kesselring | TH]
• The United States lifted its war time ban on horse racing. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German cruiser Prinz Eugen surrendered to the Allied forces in Copenhagen, Denmark. ww2dbase [Prinz Eugen | CPC]
• German Reich Commissar for Norway, Josef Turboven, committed suicide in Oslo, Norway. ww2dbase [AC]
• Vidkun Quisling, Norway's pro-Nazi Prime Minister, was captured by the underground. ww2dbase [Vidkun Quisling | AC]
• In New Guinea, the Australians continued to make gains. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | AC]
• Soviet troops captured Stutthof Concentration Camp near Danzig, Germany (now Gdansk, Poland). ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• William Slim indicated to his senior staff at the British 14th Army that he might soon be sacked by Oliver Leese. The senior staff officers leaked out the news. ww2dbase [William Slim | CPC]
• The German garrisons in the Channel Islands surrendered. ww2dbase [Germany's Surrender | TH]
• USS Bailey departed Tarakan Roads bound for Morotai, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Bailey | DS]

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

• Soviet troops entered Prague, Czechoslovakia. A large number of German troops, fleeing Prague, reached the area between villages Milín, Slivice, and Cimelice near the US-USSR demarcation line. ww2dbase [Prague Strategic Offensive | Prague | AC, CPC]
• Karl Hermann Frank surrendered to the US Army in Plzen (Pilsen) in occupied Czechoslovakia. ww2dbase [Karl Hermann Frank | Plzen | CPC]

• The German garrisons at Dunkerque (12,000 men), La Rochelle, Lorient, and Saint-Nazaire surrendered. ww2dbase [Germany's Surrender | TH]

• Nazi German leader Hermann Göring surrendered to US troops in southern Germany. ww2dbase [Hermann Göring | AC]
• Soviet SMERSH agents arrested Käthe Heusermann, chief assistant to Adolf Hitler's dentist Dr. Hugo Blaschke, to assist in the identification of the body retrieved in Berlin, Germany which was suspected to be that of Hitler's. ww2dbase [Adolf Hitler | Berlin | CPC]

• The 20,000-strong German garrison in the Greek islands surrendered. ww2dbase [Germany's Surrender | TH]

• German forces on Guernsey surrendered to the British. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Carbonero arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Carbonero | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Composite Squadron 63 (VC-63) arrived on board. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]
• Destroyer USS Shaw stopped for one night at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii while on her way to the United States for repairs. ww2dbase [Shaw | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• Japanese special attack aircraft damaged two destroyer escorts off Okinawa, Japan and two British carriers (Victorious and Formidable) off Taiwan. On land, the Americans still engaged in vicious close quarter fighting on Okinawa. The Japanese defenders resorted to turning themselves into human bombs, loading themselves with explosives to charge US positions; prisoners were a rarity as the US Marines fired on anything that moved. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | AC]

• German forces on Jersey surrendered to the British. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Armeegruppe Kurland surrendered in Latvia. ww2dbase [Germany's Surrender | TH]

• Submarine USS Tinosa sank the 2,300-ton cargo ship Wakatama Maru along the Korean coast off Donghae. ww2dbase [Tinosa | Sea of Japan | DS]

• Victory was celebrated in Moscow, Russia where two million people watched a parade and firework display. ww2dbase [Germany's Surrender | Moscow | TH]
• Kirill Meretskov was awarded the For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 medal. ww2dbase [Kirill Meretskov | CPC]

• Kamikaze began an escort assignment for cruiser Haguro out of Singapore. ww2dbase [Kamikaze | Singapore | CPC]

• With the war over, the USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh sent 24 aircraft on observation flights to Western Germany. These tours were organized in order to show ground personnel throughout the United Kingdom some of the bomb damage done to the Reich. Needless to say, passengers were highly impressed. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Bombing of Cities in France and Low Countries | RAF Thurleigh | Thurleigh, England | DS]

• Alexander Löhr surrendered to Yugolsavian partisans at Topolsica in the Slovenia region of Yugoslavia. On the same day, he was mentioned in the German Wehrmachtbericht daily radio report. ww2dbase [Alexander Löhr | Topolsica, Slovenia | CPC]

9 May 1945 Interactive Map