World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 24 Mar 1945

• USS Missouri bombarded Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• HMS Activity departed Sydney, Australia. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• George Patton urinated into the Rhine River. Upon completing his crossing over a pontoon bridge, he took some dirt on the far bank, emulating his favorite historical figure William the Conqueror. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Operation Plunder landed over 16,000 British and American troops across the Rhine River region, allowing link ups with advancing British 21st Army Group's 4 bridgeheads. Meanwhile, US Third Army captured Ludwigshafen and Speyer, Germany. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• US 9th Army began to seal off the Ruhr region in Germany. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Major General Matthew Ridgway, the commanding officer of US XVIII Airborne Corps, was wounded in the shoulder by fragments from a German grenade. ww2dbase [AC]

• Lieutenant General Daniel Sultan's Sino-American force linked up with British troops at Kyaukme, Burma. ww2dbase [CPC]

• France issued a plan to form a post-war Indochinese federation consisted of Tonkin, Annam, Cochinchina, Cambodia, and Laos. It was to exist under France without a progression toward independence. ww2dbase [CPC]

• B-17 bombers attacked the Daimler-Benz tank factory in Berlin, Germany; the bombers were escorted by P-51 fighters flown by African-American pilots of 332nd Fighter Group from Ramitelli Airfield in Italy. About 30 Me 262 jet fighter of German Jagdgeschwader 7 wing rose to defend. The American fighter and bomber airmen together claimed 16 jets shot down, but actual German records showed that only 8 were lost in this action. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Adolf Hitler's personal Ju 290A-5 transport aircraft was destroyed by Allied bombing at München (Munich), Germany. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Cod departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her sixth war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

• USS Wisconsin bombarded Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Preston arrived off Kerama Islands, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Yokosuka, Japan and prepared to enter drydocks for repairs. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• USS Luce departed Philippine waters to escort ships which were sailing for Kelse Shima, Ryukyu Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Sea Cat arrived at Midway Atoll, ending her second war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

24 Mar 1945 Interactive Map