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• Goebbels' speech for Hitler's birthday promised that Germany would ultimately prevail in the face of all misfortune and Allied strength. ww2dbase [Joseph Goebbels | TH]
• 617 Lancaster, 332 Halifax, and 20 Mosquito aircraft attacked Helgoland, Germany; 3 Halifax bombers were lost. The attack prompted Germany to evacuate civilians from the island to the mainland. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | CPC]
• A major attack was launched against Japanese positions on Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | CPC]
• Aleksandr Vasilevsky was awarded the Order of Victory for the second time. ww2dbase [Aleksandr Vasilevsky | CPC]
• USS Sennet sank Japanese cargo ship Hagane Maru and an escorting vessel south of Japan, hitting them with 2 of 3 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Sennet | CPC]
• Ivan Bagramyan was awarded the Order of Suvorov for the second time. ww2dbase [Ivan Bagramyan | CPC]
• USS Hackleback fired an acoustic seeking torpedo at a Japanese patrol vessel south of Japan; the torpedo missed. ww2dbase [Hackleback | CPC]
• USS Cero sank a Japanese patrol vessel south of Japan, hitting her with 1 of 2 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Cero | CPC]
• A He 162 jet fighter shot down one British fighter, but it was in turn shot down by a British Tempest fighter. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Xiao Yisu was awarded the Legion of Merit of the United States. ww2dbase [Xiao Yisu | CPC]

• German submarine U-548 was sunk south east of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada by depth charges from the destroyer escorts USS Reuben James (DE-153) and USS Buckley (DE-51). Oberleutnant zur See Erich Krempl and his crew of 57 all perished. ww2dbase [HM]

• German submarine U-251 was sunk in the Kattegat south of Göteburg, Sweden by rockets fired from eight RAF and RNAF Mosquito aircraft from 325, 248, and 143 Squadrons. 39 of the boats crew were killed; four survivors were picked up. ww2dbase [Kattegat | HM]

• British troops wiped out 500 Japanese troops at Mount Popa, Burma west of Meitkila after 20 days of heavy fighting. ww2dbase [Battle of Meiktila-Mandalay | Mount Popa | CPC]

• A Royal Canadian Air Force Catalina crashed in Labrador in northeastern Canada. In the following operation to rescue the seven crewmen, a US Coast Guard HNS1 helicopter would be deployed to assist. This was one of the first rescue operations undertaken by a rotary wing aircraft. ww2dbase [Newfoundland and Labrador | AC]

• USS Bailey arrived at Morotai, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Bailey | Morotai | DS]

• American B-24 bombers attacked Japanese shipping off Saigon, Indochina. ww2dbase [Saigon, Cochinchine | CPC]

• US First Army captured Halle and Leipzig in Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• British Second Army attacked Bremen, Germany across the Elbe River while Canadian troops captured the Luftwaffe base of Stade, 40 kilometers west of Hamburg, without opposition. ww2dbase [Bremen, Weser-Ems | TH]
• The final transport arrived at Dachau Concentration Camp in southern Germany. ww2dbase [Dachau Concentration Camp | Dachau, München-Oberbayern | CPC]
• The 2,823-ton German cargo steamship Dammtor was bombed and sunk off Pagensand at the river Elbe estuary, Germany by RAF bombers. ww2dbase [HM]
• Units of German 15th Panzergrenadier Division positioned tanks and artillery next to Marlag und Milag Nord prisoners of war camp in Westertimke, Germany. The remaining prisoners of the camp responded to the threat of a battle by digging slit trenches. ww2dbase [Marlag und Milag Nord | Westertimke, Weser-Ems | HM]
• 16,000 of the 25,000 to 30,000 prisoners still in the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp system were ordered to march toward Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany by rail and on foot. ww2dbase [Flossenbürg Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Flossenbürg, Bayreuth | CPC]
• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against rail facilities at Falkenberg, Germany. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | RAF Thurleigh | Falkenberg | DS]

• USS Dragonet departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her second war patrol. ww2dbase [Dragonet | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | CPC]

• US 5th Army reached the Po plateau in Italy. ww2dbase [Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast | CPC]
• Italian frogmen piloting British-built Chariot manned-torpedoes sank the uncompleted aircraft carrier Aquila to prevent the Germans from scuttling the ship to block the entrance to Genoa harbour, Italy. ww2dbase [Chariot-class | Genova, Liguria | AC, CPC]

• I Canadian Corps, after some sharp skirmishes with retreating German units, took Barneveld, the Netherlands and also arrived at the outskirts of Amersfoort, on the fortified Grebbe Line, which ran from the Lower Rhine to the flooded area on the IJsselmeer. Here their advance was stopped as it was calculated that the risks involved with any further advances in the western Netherlands far outweighed any conceivable advantages. ww2dbase [Amersfoort | AC]
• In what would be the last RAF bombing attack of the war over the Dutch coastal area, two 1,563 steel barges, the Walsom 10 and the Boetak were sunk in Terschelling harbour. The Walsom 10, loaded with explosives blew up and destroyed the Boetak which had been loaded with goods looted from Dutch houses by the German occupiers. ww2dbase [Terschelling, Friesland | HM]

• USS Sunfish sank Japanese ships Kaiko Maru and Taisei Maru south of Hokkaido, Japan, hitting them with 3 of 11 torpedoes fired; she expended all of her torpedoes in this attack. ww2dbase [Sunfish (Gato-class) | CPC]
• Gato-class submarine USS Silversides engaged two Japanese picket boats 300 miles southeast of Tokyo, Japan. Despite several mis-fires from her 4-inch gun, guardboat Kairyu Maru was sunk. ww2dbase [Silversides | DS]

• Lavrentiy Beria ordered the agents of NKVD, NKGB, and SMERSH to sent all German prisoners of war to concentration camps and all Soviet citizens suspected to have helped the Germans to special vetting camps. SMERSH agents would disobey this order, continuing to send their arrestees directly to SMERSH-run prisons in Moscow, Russia. ww2dbase [Lavrentiy Beria | CPC]

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

• USS Macabi entered a floating drydock for transit the Chicago Canal to the Mississippi River. ww2dbase [Macabi | Chicago, Illinois | CPC]
• Dixie Kiefer was made Commander, Naval Air Bases, First Naval District in Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine, United States, with additional duty as Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Station at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, United States. ww2dbase [Dixie Kiefer | Kittery, Maine | DS]

19 Apr 1945 Interactive Map