Area
of British
Isles Inshore Campaign (see
January 1945, Europe)
1945
JANUARY
1945
ATLANTIC
- JANUARY 1945
Russian
Convoys
- Convoys JW63
and return RA63 passed
through a total of 65 ships
in the month without loss.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 5 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 29,000 tons
in the Atlantic from all
causes; 1 U-boat by USN in
mid-Atlantic
EUROPE
- JANUARY 1945
Royal
Navy - Adm
Sir Bertram Ramsey, Allied Naval
Commander, Expeditionary
Force, architect of the Dunkirk
evacuation and with major
responsibility for the North
African and Sicily landings
as well as command of Operation
'Neptune', was killed in
an air crash in France on the 2nd.
Vice-Adm Sir Harold
Burrough succeeded him.
Western
Front - As
fighting continued all along the
borders of Germany, the
Battle of the Bulge ended. By
month's end the Germans
were back to their start
positions.
6th
- Destroyer "WALPOLE"
was
the
last of the 18 old 'V' and ' W'
class vessels lost or not repaired
in the war. Mined off
the Scheldt Estuary on North Sea
patrol, she was saved
but went to the breakers.
British
Isles
Inshore Campaign
(see
map above)
- As the campaign continued, there
were losses on both sides: 15th/16th
- Off the
Clyde, Scotland on the 15th,
"U-482" torpedoed a merchantman
and badly
damaged escort carrier
THANE
(not repaired and
laid up) ferrying aircraft from
Northern Ireland. After a
long hunt the U-boat was sunk next
day by frigate
"Loch Craggie" and sloops
"Amethyst",
"Hart", "Peacock" and
"Starling" of the 22nd EG. 21st
- After
torpedoing a merchant ship from a
Thames/Bristol Channel
convoy, "U-1199"
was
sunk
close to Lands End by
escorting destroyer "lcarus" and
corvette
Mignonette.
26th - "U-1172" severely
damaged frigate "MANNERS"
(constructive total loss) off the
Isle of Man and was sunk in the
counter-attack by sister
ships "Aylmer", "Bentinck" and
"Calder" of the 4th and 5th EGs. 27th
-
Further south in St George's
Channel, and after attacking
Halifax/UK convoy HX322, "U-1051"
was
sunk
by frigates "Bligh",
"Keats" and "Tyler" of the 5th EG.
One U-boat was lost in UK waters,
possibly mined off the
Moray Firth, and others were
destroyed and damaged in
air-raids on Germany.
Eastern
Front - All
along the Polish Vistula front the
Russians started a
major offensive through Warsaw
directed at Berlin.
Devastated Warsaw fell on the 17th
and by the end of the
month they had gained a huge wedge
of territory taking
them over the border of Germany
to the River Oder
only 60 miles from the German
capital. The Germans were
now cut off in East Prussia and
some 1½ million
servicemen and civilians were
evacuated by the end of the
war. To the south, the Eastern
Allies continued to fight
their way through Czechoslovakia
as the Russians
struggled to capture Budapest in Hungary.
Merchant
Shipping
War - E-boats
and small battle units continued
operating out of Holland
against Allied shipping in the
North Sea and English
Channel, and were now joined by
Seehunde midget
submarines. The new craft enjoyed
some success, but mines
remained the biggest problem for
the Allies at sea.
Allied air and sea patrols and
minesweeping kept all
these dangers under control.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 12 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 47,000 tons
in UK waters.
MEDITERRANEAN
- JANUARY 1945
Italy
-
Eighth Army continued to push
slowly forward on the
east near Lake Comacchio in
preparation for the
Spring offensive.
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - JANUARY
1945
3rd
- The Royal
Navy suffered its last two
submarine casualties due to
enemy action. On patrol to the
north of Sumatra,
"SHAKESPEARE"
surfaced to
engage a merchant ship. Hit by
return gunfire and later
aircraft attack, she reached
Ceylon, but was not fully
repaired. 16th - The last
submarine sinking was on
or around the 16th. Minelayer
"PORPOISE"
on patrol in the Malacca Strait
and minelaying off Penang, was
probably sunk by Japanese
aircraft. (Some sources suggest
the 19th.)
Burma
- Only now
did the Chinese forces in the far
north, pushing
on from Myitkyina reach the old
Burma Road allowing the
Ledo Road link-up to be made. In
the centre, 14th
Army fought on towards Mandalay
throughout January and
February. In the south the
Arakan offensive moved
on by a series of amphibious hops
aimed at occupying
suitable sites for air bases to
support the central Burma
campaign. 3rd/21st, Landings
at Akyab & Ramree
Island
-
Early on
the 3rd, British and
Indian
forces landed at Akyab from
destroyers and smaller
vessels of the Royal, Australian
and Indian Navies to
find the Japanese had gone. On the
21st more
British and Indians were landed on
Ramree Island with
support and cover partly provided
by battleship
Queen
Elizabeth
and escort carrier
Ameer.
The few Japanese resisted in their
usual manner into February.
24th/29th,
Fleet
Air Arm Attack on Palembang - As
the British Pacific Fleet
transferred from Ceylon to
Fremantle en route to Sydney,
Australia, successful strikes were
made by aircraft from
carriers
Indomitable,
Illustrious,
Indefatigable
and
Victorious
on oil installations around
Palembang, southern Sumatra on the
24th and 29th.
Adm Vian was in command.
(HMS
Indomitable in the Far East
1944-45, a Photographic Record)
Luzon,
Northern
Philippines - Three years
after the Japanese landed
at Lingayen
Gulf
on
the
northwest coast of Luzon, Gen
MacArthur's Sixth Army went
ashore early on the 9th, supported
as usual by Seventh
Fleet. As the US forces spread out
and headed south
towards Manila, a secondary
landing was made at the end
of the month on Bataan Peninsula
to stop the Japanese
falling back there as Gen
MacArthur had done in 1942.
Kamikaze attacks continued to
inflict heavy losses
throughout the region, mainly in
ships damaged, but on
the 4th escort carrier
"OMMANEY
BAY" on passage
to Lingayen was sunk off Mindoro.
5th-9th - Off
Lingayen, Australian heavy cruiser
Australia
was
hit
by kamikazes on the 5th, 6th, 8th
and 9th and finally had to be
withdrawn.
Monthly
Loss Summary: Very few Allied
merchant ships were lost in the
Indian and Pacific Oceans
for the rest of the war
FEBRUARY
1945
ATLANTIC
- FEBRUARY 1945
Russian
Convoys - There was
still no let up for the
Russian convoys. Although JW64
reached Kola Inlet
safely on the 13th with
all 26 merchantmen, the
arriving corvette "DENBIGH CASTLE"
was
torpedoed
by "U-992" and
became a total loss. Four days
later on the 17th,
return RA64 was ready to
set out. Just off Kola
Inlet "U-425"
was
sunk
by sloop "Lark" and
corvette "Alnwick Castle", but
later that day "LARK"
was damaged
by "U-963" and
also became a total loss. Corvette
BLUEBELL
was
then
torpedoed by
"U-711" and blew up with only one
man
surviving. Of the 34 ships with
the convoy, one returned,
one went down to U-boats and on
the 23rd,
straggler "Henry Bacon" was sunk
by Ju88
torpedo bombers, the last success
of the war by German
aircraft. The rest of the convoy
arrived at Loch Ewe on
the 28th after a voyage made even
more difficult by
violent storms typical of the
northern waters.
22nd
- In
operations against convoys south
of Portugal, "U-300", one of a
small number of U-boats
scattered across the North
Atlantic was sunk by escorting
minesweepers
Recruit
and
Pincher.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 6 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 39,000 tons
in UK waters, 3 escorts; 3 U-boats
including 1 by US and
French escorts off Morocco
EUROPE
- FEBRUARY 1945
Yalta
Conference -
For a week early in the month,
Prime Minister Churchill,
President Roosevelt and
Generalissimo Stalin met at Yalta
in the Crimea. With the Russians
advancing through
Eastern Europe and agreement on
the future frontiers of
Poland and the division of Germany
into four occupation
zones, the shape of much of
post-war Europe was
determined. Stalin agreed to
declare war on Japan once
the war in the west was over.
Western
Front -
Starting from the north, the
Allies began a series of
offensives aimed at breaking
through the Siegfried Line
and destroying the German armies
west of the Rhine.
British 21st Army Group, which in
addition to the British
and Canadian Armies had the US
Ninth temporarily
attached, began its moves on the
8th. The attacks towards
the Rhine went in from south of
Nijmegen along the River
Maas to Aachen. The US 12th Army
Group was the next to go
on the 23rd, with US First and
Third Armies aiming for
the Rhine between Cologne and
Koblenz.
British
Isles
Inshore Campaign - U-boats
still took a steady toll of
shipping
in the inshore campaign and sank
two corvettes, but a
number were lost, mainly to the
Royal Navy: 3rd-17th
- Frigates "Bayntun",
"Braithwaite",
"Loch Dunvegan" and "Loch Eck" of
the
10th Escort Group patrolling north
of the Shetland
Islands shared in the sinking of
three U-boats in the
next two weeks. The first was
"U-1279" on the 3rd, followed by
"U-989"
on
the 14th, and
"U-1278"
on
the 17th.
4th
- Off the north coast of
Ireland "U-1014"
was
accounted
for by 23rd EG frigates
"Loch Scavaig", "Loch Shin",
"Nyasaland" and "Papua". 9th
-
Submarine "Venturer" on patrol off
Bergen,
Norway sank a second U-boat when
she torpedoed "U-864". The first
was "U-771"
in November 1944. 16th -
Attacking Scottish
coastal convoy WN74 off the Moray
Firth, "U-309"
was
lost to
Canadian
frigate "St
John" of 9th EG. 20th -
"U-208" attacked convoy HX337 in
St
George's Channel between SE
Ireland and Wales, and sank
escorting corvette "VERVAIN". The
U-boat was then hunted down and
destroyed by sloop "Amethyst" of
22nd EG.
"Amethyst" became famous in "The
Amethyst
Incident" involving the Chinese
People's Army in
1949. 22nd - Off Falmouth,
Bristol Channel/Thames
convoy BTC76 was attacked by
"U-1004" and
Canadian corvette "TRENTONIAN"
sent to the bottom of the English
Channel.
24th
- "U-927"
was
lost
in the western Channel area to a
RAF Wellington of No 179 Squadron.
24th - During
the inshore campaign, 10 U-boats
were sunk in the Lands
End area, three in February:
"U-480"
sank
a
merchant ship from coastal convoy
BTC78 on the 24th and was hunted
down and finished off by
frigates "Duckworth" and "Rowley"
of
the 3rd EG.
27th
- Three days later "U-1018"
attacked BTC81 to be sunk by
frigate "Loch Fada" of the 2nd EG.
On the same
day "U-327"
was
detected
by a USN Liberator and
sunk by "Loch Fada" again, working
with
"Labuan" and "Wild Goose". Two
more
U-boats were lost off Norway, one
by accident and the
other mined.
Air
War - As the
Allied strategic bombing campaign
against Germany reached
a peak, the RAF by day and the
USAAF by night struck at
Dresden in mid-month. The
controversial attacks caused
massive firestorms that killed in
the region of 100,000
people, although even now there is
little agreement on
the casualty figures.
Eastern
Front -
Having penetrated into Germany
the Russians pushed
out north towards the Baltic coast
and southwest, so that
by the beginning of March they
were establishing
themselves along the Oder-Niesse
line of rivers. In Hungary,
Budapest finally fell on the 13th.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 19 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 49,000 tons
in UK waters.
MEDITERRANEAN
- FEBRUARY 1945
12th
- Attacks by
German explosive motorboats were
made on shipping in
Split harbour, Yugoslavia, hitting
a flak landing craft
and damaging cruiser "Delhi"
laying alongside.
17th
- Italian
battleship "CONTE DI CAVOUR", sunk
in the 1940 Fleet Air Arm
attack on Taranto
and salvaged but not
recommissioned,
was finally destroyed in RAF raids
on Trieste.
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - FEBRUARY
1945
11th
- Supporting
operations on Ramree Island, south
of Akyab in Burma,
destroyer "PATHFINDER"
was
hit
by Japanese bombers and went into
reserve, the 153rd and last
destroyer or escort destroyer
casualty of the British &
Commonwealth Navies.
British
Pacific
Fleet - Early
in the month, the BPF arrived in
Sydney for
replenishment. Adm Fraser stayed
ashore as C-in-C and his
number two, Vice-Adm Sir Bernard
Rawlings in battleship
King
George V (right -
Maritime Quest), commanded
the Fleet. Rear-Adm
Vian was Flag Officer, First
Aircraft Carrier Squadron.
By this time nearly 60 ships of a
diversity of types and
flags were ready for the Fleet
Train under Rear-Adm D. B.
Fisher. BPF had been allocated
Manus in the Admiralty
Islands as its intermediate base,
which Adm Rawlings
reached by mid-March.
Philippines,
Conclusion
- On Luzon island, Bataan
and Corregidor were taken,
but the Japanese held out in
Manila until early March in
a struggle that wrecked the city.
By now all the
Philippines were under American
strategic control, but to
meet his promise to free all the
islands Gen MacArthur's
forces made amphibious landings on
many smaller ones
through to April. On some,
especially Luzon, fighting did
not end until the Japanese
surrender in August.
Iwo
Jima,
Volcano
Islands - With Adm Spruance
now back in command of
Fifth Fleet, the next assault was
on the tiny island of
Iwo Jima, south of Japan, needed
as an air base to
support the USAAF strategic
bombing campaign. Landings
took place on the 19th, but before
this eight square mile
volcanic island was secured in
mid-March, 6,000 US
Marines and most of the 21,000
defenders were dead. On
the 21st, escort carrier "BISMARCK
SEA"
was
sunk
by
kamikaze attack offshore.
MARCH
1945
ATLANTIC
- MARCH 1945
Russian
Convoys - As Russian convoy
JW65
approached Kola Inlet with 24
merchant ships on the 20th,
waiting U-boats sank two and
"U-716" sank sloop
"LAPWING" of the escort. Return RA65
set out on the 23rd and all 25
ships got through to the
Orkney Islands on the last day of
the month.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 4 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 27,000 tons
in the Atlantic from all
causes, 1 sloop; 1 U-boat by USN
off Nova Scotia
EUROPE
- MARCH 1945
Western
Front - In
March the Allies not only reached
the River Rhine all
along its length, but by the end
were across in strength.
At the beginning of the month, the
British 21st and US
12th Army Groups were still trying
to reach the west bank
and by the 10th stood along most
of its length from
Nijmegen down to Koblenz. By a
stroke of good fortune,
the bridge at Remagen was found
intact on the 7th and
units of US First Army rushed
over. Further south still
the rest of US Third Army on the
14th, followed by the US
Seventh, started to clear the west
side of the river
further down from Koblenz south to
Karlsruhe, surrounding
and taking the Saar region in the
process. This was
achieved in less than two weeks.
Between the 22nd and
31st, from north to south the
Allied armies crossed the
Rhine and moved further into the
Reich. British
21st Army Group aided
by paratroop drops crossed
around Wesel, US First
Army pushed out
from the Remagen salient, US
Third Army crossed
around Mainz, US Seventh
Army near
Mannheim, French First
Army north of
Karlsruhe. The Germans were also
about to lose the Ruhr
industrial centre as US Ninth Army
circled to the north
and US First to the south.
British
Isles
Inshore Campaign - The
campaign continued: 7th -
"U-1302" successfully attacked
Halifax/UK
convoy SC167 in St George's
Channel, but after a long
search off the coast of western
Wales was sunk by
Canadian frigates "La Hulloise",
"Strathadam" and "Thetford Mines"
of
the 25th EG. 10th/12th - Deep
minefields laid by
the Royal Navy to protect UK
inshore waters from the
U-boats claimed two victims. On
the 10th, "U-275"
was
lost
in the English Channel off
Beachy Head. Two days later, the
deep minefields damaged "U-260"
off Fastnet Rock, southern
Ireland, and she had to be
scuttled. 12th-29th - Three
more
U-boats went down close to Lands
End, starting with "U-683" to
frigate "Loch
Ruthven" and sloop "Wild Goose" of
the 2nd
EG on the 12th.
"U-399"
followed on the 26th, sunk by
frigate "Duckworth" and other
ships of 3rd EG.
Then on the 29th, "U-246"
torpedoed and badly damaged
Canadian
frigate "TEME" (constructive total
loss), but was then
hunted down and sunk by
"Duckworth" and the 3rd
EG. 14th - South African
frigate "Natal"
on passage off the Firth of Forth,
Scotland in the North
Sea sank "U-714". 21st/22nd
- Two U-boats were lost
off the north coast of Ireland.
The first was "U-1003" damaged by
Canadian frigate
"New Glasgow" of the 26th EG on
the 21st and
later scuttled. Next day, "U-296"
was
lost to
RAF aircraft of No 120
Squadron. 27th/30th - The
frigates of 21st EG were
split into two divisions, and sank
three U-boats in the
Hebrides area. On the 27th,
"U-965"
was
sunk
by Hedgehog off the northern
end of the islands by the 'first'
division -
"Conn", accompanied by "Deane" and
"Rupert". The same day further
south, "U-722" went down to the
'second' division
- "Byron", "Fitzroy" and
"Redmill". The 'first' division of
21st EG,
still off the northern end of the
Hebrides, sank "U-1021"
on the 30th.
One
more
U-boat was lost to US aircraft in
southern UK waters and
two to the RAF on Northern Transit
Area patrols, but now
the Allied air-raids were really
starting to bite. In
Germany around 12 boats, completed
or in service, were
destroyed in the month mainly by
the USAAF on the night
of the 30th.
German
Heavy Warships
- The end of the remaining German
big ships was in sight.
Battlecruiser "GNEISENAU", out of
service since 1942 and now hulked,
was scuttled as a blockship in
Gdynia (Gotenhafen) on the
27th. Light cruiser "KOLN"
was
sunk
at Wilhelmshaven by Allied
bombing. Only two pocket
battleships, two heavy and three
light cruisers remained, and most
of these would survive
only a few more weeks.
Air
War - As the
V-weapon attack on Antwerp
continued, the last V-2 landed
on London on the 27th, by which
time 1,000 rockets had
killed and wounded nearly 10,000
people in southeast
England.
Eastern
Front - By
the end of March the Russians had
taken most of the
Baltic coast of Germany
and Poland east of
the River Oder and captured Gdynia
and Danzig. They were
now poised along the Oder-Niesse
Line ready for the final
attack towards Berlin. To the
south, the Eastern Allies
continued their progress into Czechoslovakia.
In Hungary
the Germans made their last
important counter-offensive
of the war around the Lake Balaton
area. By mid-month
they had been stopped and the
Russians drioe on towards
eastern Austria.
Merchant
Shipping
War - E-boat
laid mines continued to cause a
high proportion of
merchantmen sinkings.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 23 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 84,000 tons
in UK waters.
MEDITERRANEAN
- MARCH 1945
18th
- Two
ex-Italian torpedo boats and a
destroyer minelaying off
the Gulf of Genoa were engaged by
destroyers
"Meteor" and "Lookout". In the
last
Royal Navy destroyer action of the
Mediterranean, torpedo
boats "TA-24" and "TA-29"
were
sunk.
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - MARCH
1945
Burma
- On the central
front the attacking British and
Indian divisions took
Mandalay on the 20th after a
fierce struggle. As the
Japanese started to retreat, 14th
Army pushed on south
towards Rangoon until early May.
British
Pacific
Fleet - On
the 15th, Adm Rawlings
signalled from Manus to Adm
Nimitz that the British Pacific
Fleet was ready to join
Adm Spruance's Fifth Fleet. Now
known as Task Force 57,
battleships King
George V and Howe,
carriers
Illustrious,
Indefatigable,
Indomitable
and
Victorious,
five cruisers including the New
Zealand
Gambia
and 11 destroyers, two
Australian sailed for Ulithi to
refuel. On the 26th
they were on station off the
Sakishima
Islands
in the Ryukyu group. Their mission
was to prevent the islands being
used as staging posts
for Japanese reinforcements flying
from Formosa to
Okinawa. BPF's main weapon was of
course not the
battleships, but the Seafires and
American-made Avengers,
Hellcats and Corsairs of the
carriers' strike squadrons.
They started their attacks that
day.
(HMS
Indomitable in the Far East
1944-45, a Photographic Record)
APRIL
1945
ATLANTIC
- APRIL 1945
United
States -
Franklin Roosevelt died in America
on the 12th and Vice
President Truman was sworn in as
President of the United
States. Britain and especially
Winston Churchill lost a
great friend who did so much to
bolster the country at a
time when the British Empire stood
alone and many
Americans were staunchly
isolationist. Harry Truman was
soon faced with the decision
whether or not to use the
A-bomb. Starting towards the end
of the month, San
Francisco hosted an international
conference to draw up
the constitution of the United
Nations Organisation. 50
countries signed the UN Charter on
26 June.
29th,
Russia/UK
Convoy RA66, the Last
Convoy Battle of the War
- Kola
Inlet
bound convoy JW66 (22
ships) arrived safely
on the 25th with escort
carriers
Premier
and
Vindex,
cruiser
Diadem,
Home Fleet destroyers and the 8th
and
19th EGs all under the command of
Rear-Adm A. E.
Cunninghame-Graham. Return convoy
RA66 (24 ships)
set out on the 29th with
JW66s escort, some of
which went ahead to clear the 14
U-boats waiting off the
Inlet. Frigates "Anguilla",
"Cotton",
"Loch lnsh" and "Loch Shin" of the
19th EG accounted for "U-307"
followed by "U-286", the last
U-boats sunk by warships
of the Royal Navy. In the action,
frigate "GOODALL" of the 19th EG
was torpedoed by
"U-968" and went down with heavy
loss of life.
She was the last major warship of
the British and
Commonwealth Navies lost in the
war against Germany. RA66
arrived safely in the Clyde on 8th
May
Monthly
Loss Summary: 5 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 32,000 tons
in the Atlantic from all
causes, 1 frigate and 1 US
destroyer off the Azores; 9
U-boats including
7 by USN off east coast of USA,
off the Azores and in
mid-Atlantic
EUROPE
- APRIL 1945
Western
Front -
American forces met at Lippstadt
on the 1st and completed
the encirclement of the Ruhr,
trapping a third of a
million troops. The vital
industrial area was slowly
reduced and on the 18th the
Germans surrendered.
Meanwhile the Allies broke out
through Germany,
eventually to meet up with the
Russians: British 21st
Army Group headed into
northern Holland and Germany,
the Canadians taking Arnhem on the
15th and moving on
Emden. The British captured Bremen
on the 26th and made
for Hamburg and the Baltic coast
at Lubeck. US 12th
Army Group pushed into
central Germany. Ninth
Army passed north of the Ruhr and
reached the River Elbe
opposite Berlin by the 12th where
it stopped. First Army
got to the Elbe at Torgau south of
Berlin on the 25th and
was the first to meet the
advancing Russians. Germany was
now cut in half. General Patton's
Third Army swung south
and raced on to western Czechoslovakia
and
northern Austria. US
Sixth Army Group,
including the French First Army,
occupied southern Germany
and headed for the north Swiss
border and western tip of Austria.
In their advance, the Allies
over-ran Belsen, Buchenwald
and Dachau revealing to the world
the full horror of the
Nazi regime. The Russians had also
captured similar camps
in the east.
U-boat
Campaign -
Throughout
the month over 40 U-boats were
lost in and around the
waters of northwest Europe. The
Royal Navy was directly
involved in 12 of
the sinkings: 5th -
"U-1169" went down off the
southeast coast
of Ireland in a deep-laid
minefield in St George's
Channel. 6th/15th - Two
U-boats were sunk in
Channel operations. The first,
"U-1195",
sank
a
ship
from a convoy off
the Isle of Wight, and was lost to
old escorting
destroyer "Watchman". The second
was "U-1063"
on
the 15th.
Attacking a convoy off Start
Point, she was sent to the bottom
off Land's End by
frigate "Loch Killin" of 17th EG.
8th-15th
- Four more U-boats went
down to the south and
southwest of Ireland, two of them
on the 8th. Frigates
"Byron" and "Fitzroy" of 21st EG
sank "U-1001", and "Bentinck" and
"Calder" of 4th EG accounted for
"U-774". Two days later
"U-873" sailing from still
uncaptured St
Nazaire attacked a UK-out convoy
and fell victim to
escorting destroyer "Vanquisher"
and corvette
"Tintagel Castle". The fourth loss
off Ireland
was "U-285" on the 15th, sunk by
frigates
"Grindall" and "Keats" of the 5th
EG.
12th - Home Fleet
submarines gained another
success when "Tapir" sank
outward-bound "U-486" off Bergen,
Norway. 12th/30th
- Two more were lost in the Irish
Sea northwest of
Anglesey, Wales. "U-1024" was
disabled
by the squid of frigate
"Loch Glendhu" of 8th EG on the
12th. Boarded
by "Loch More", she was taken in
tow but
foundered. Over two weeks later,
on the 30th, "U-242" was detected
by a RAF Sunderland
of No 201 Squadron and sunk by
destroyers
"Havelock" and "Hesperus" of the
14th
EG. 16th - "U-1274"
attacked Forth/Thames convoy
FS1784 off St
Abbs Head, SE Scotland, sinking
one ship, but was then
lost to destroyer "Viceroy" of the
escort. 21st
- Frigates of the 4th EG,
"Bazely",
"Bentinck" and "Drury" sank
"U-636" northwest of Ireland.
Other
U-boats lost were: 6 to RAF and US
aircraft in and around
the British Isles, 1 by accident
and 2 more missing,
cause of loss unknown during the
inshore campaign, 5 in
the Skagerrak and Kattegat, 3 of
them by rocket-firing
Mosquitoes of RAF Coastal Command,
and around 17
completed boats in air-raids on
Germany.
End
of the German
Surface Fleet - April saw
the end of the German
Navy's remaining big ships. In RAF
raids on Kiel early in
the month, pocket battleship
"ADMIRAL SCHEER" capsized and
heavy cruiser "ADMIRAL
HIPPER" and light
cruiser "EMDEN"
were
badly
damaged. A few days later
pocket battleship "LUTZOW"
was
also
put out of action at Swinemunde.
All three damaged ships were
scuttled in the first week
of May. When Germany surrendered,
three cruisers
survived. "Prinz Eugen" was used
in
A-bomb trials in the Pacific,
"Leipzig"
scuttled in the North Sea in 1946
loaded with poison gas
munitions, and "Nurnberg" ceded to
Russia. A dozen or so big
destroyers also stayed afloat.
Eastern
Front - As
the Eastern Allies fought through
Czechoslovakia towards
Prague, Hungary was finally freed
of the Germans, and the
Russians pushed into Austria,
capturing Vienna on the
13th. To the north, as the Western
Allies came to a halt
along the line of the River Elbe,
the Russians started
the final, massive drive into
eastern Germany from the
Oder-Neisse Line. They had
surrounded the German capital
by the 25th and the Battle for
Berlin got
underway.
Germany,
The End of
Adolf Hitler - As the month
drew to a close and the
Allies completed the destruction
of the German Reich,
Heinrich Himmler tried to
surrender to Britain and the
United States through Swedish
intermediaries, but
anything short of unconditional
surrender was refused. On
the 29th in his Berlin bunker,
Hitler married Eva Braun
and nominated Grand-Adm Doenitz as
his successor. Next
day Hitler and his wife committed
suicide and Doenitz
became Fuehrer on 1st May.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 14 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 50,000 tons
in UK waters.
MEDITERRANEAN
- APRIL 1945
Italy
- The last
and decisive Allied offensive
aimed at clearing the
Germans from Italy got underway
with commando assaults
near Lake Comacchio on the 1st. In
these operations the
Royal Marines won their only VC of
the war. + Cpl Thomas
Hunter, 43 Commando, was
posthumously awarded the
Victoria
Cross for gallantry in
action against
German forces on the 2nd. Eighth
Army started towards the Argenta
gap on the 9th, and by the 18th
was through. US
Fifth Army moved on Bologna on the
14th and a week later
captured the city. British,
Brazilian, Indian, New
Zealand, Polish, South African and
US divisions of Fifth
and Eighth Armies then reached the
River Po and raced
across the north of Italy. By the
end of the month,
Spezia, Genoa and Venice had been
liberated. Throughout
the campaign Italian partisans had
waged a bloody war
behind German lines. Near Lake
Como on the 28th, Benito
Mussolini and his mistress were
captured and executed.
Since February senior German
officers had secretly
negotiated with the Allies to end
the war in Italy. On
the 29th April and without
reference to Berlin, a
document of unconditional
surrender was signed to take
effect from 2nd May. 13th
- Torpedo boat "TA-45" was sunk by
coastal forces off
Fiume in the northern Adriatic,
the last major enemy
warship to fall to the Royal Navy
in the Mediterranean.
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - APRIL
1945
Okinawa,
Ryukyu
Islands -
Okinawa was the main island in the
Ryukyu group and half
way between Formosa and Kyushu. It
was needed as a major
base for the coming, bloodiest
invasion of all - mainland
Japan. The Japanese were committed
to defending Okinawa
for as long as possible and with
maximum use of kamikaze
attack. Under Adm Spruance and
Fifth Fleet, the greatest
amphibious operation of the
Pacific war started on the
1st with US Tenth Army including
both Marines and Army
forces landing on the west side of
the island. There was
little opposition to start, but by
the time they had
taken the northern five-sixths of
the island on the 13th,
bitter fighting was raging in the
south, continuing
through April, May and into June.
Air and sea kamikaze
missions led to heavy losses on
both sides. The British
Pacific Fleet did not escape: 1st
- Operating off
the Sakishimas,
Indefatigable
was
hit by a
suicide
aircraft but saved from
serious damage by the armoured
flight deck. 6th -
Japanese launched the first of 10
'kikusui' (floating
chrysanthemum) mass kamikaze
attacks which carried on
until June. US losses in men and
ships sunk and damaged
were severe. On the 6th, British
carrier
Illustrious
was
hit.
Damage was slight and she
continued in service, but this
much-battered ship was
shortly relieved by
Formidable.
BPF continued
attacking the Sakishima Islands as
well as airfields in
northern Formosa, with short
breaks for refuelling. The
Fleet sailed for Leyte on the 20th
to replenish.
(HMS
Indomitable in the Far East
1944-45, a Photographic Record)
Battle
of the
East China Sea - Giant
battleship
"Yamato", a cruiser and destroyers
sailed on a one-way mission for
Okinawa. Overwhelmed by
aircraft of Fifth Fleet on the
7th, "YAMATO", the cruiser and
four destroyers
were sent to the bottom southwest
of Nagasaki.
Monthly
Loss Summary: Pacific Ocean only
- 3 merchant ships of 23,000 tons