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• A Japanese aircraft crashed into the foremast of USS Cassin Young, killing one and wounding one. ww2dbase [Cassin Young | CPC]
• Allied troops captured Westerbork, Brummen, and Deventer in the Netherlands. US Third Army captured Erfurt, Germany. Meanwhile, US Ninth Army captured Braunschweig after crossing the Elbe River. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German forces evacuated Zenica, Yugoslavia. ww2dbase [TH]
• Operation Kikusui No. 2 was launched off Okinawa, Japan, participated by about 125 Japanese Navy and 60 Japanese Army special attack and escorting aircraft. Destroyer USS Mannert L. Abele was sunk by a Japanese Ohka piloted bomb off Okinawa; she was the first to be struck by an Ohka bomb and was the only to be sunk by one. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | CPC]
• An order was sent by radio to USS Snook to take lifeguard station off the Sakishima Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Japan; she failed to respond. ww2dbase [Snook | CPC]
• En route to Dalian, China, I-401 detonated a magnetic mine at 0850 hours, rupturing the fuel tank and damaging a Kingston valve. She turned around to return to Kure, Japan for repairs. ww2dbase [I-401 | CPC]
• Heinrich Himmler ordered that commanders who failed to hold key positions in the defense of Germany would be executed. ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | CPC]
• USS Chub was attacked by a Japanese aircraft, sustaining temporary loss of power and depth control. ww2dbase [Chub | CPC]
• USS Parche sank a Japanese transport off Japan, hitting her with 1 of 3 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Parche | CPC]

• American troops began arriving at Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Weimar, Germany. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Buchenwald Concentration Camp | Ettersberg, Weimar | CPC]
• In southwestern Germany, French troops captured Baden-Baden and US troops captured Heilbronn. ww2dbase [Southern Germany Campaign | Baden | TH, CPC]
• Oberstleutnant Gerhard Prawitt, the commandant of the Oflag IV-C prisoner of war camp at Colditz Castle in Germany, received an unsigned letter from the office of Heinrich Himmler stating that all important prisoners at Colditz were to be prepared for transfer in the following morning where they would be held as hostages for negotiations with the western Allies. ww2dbase [Colditz Castle | Colditz, Sachsen | CPC]

• Indian 8th Division crossed Santerno River in northern Italy. German 15th Panzergrenadier Regiment arrived in the Reno River area as reinforcement. ww2dbase [Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast | Emilia-Romagna | CPC]

• The Westerbork Concentration Camp at Hooghalen in the Netherlands was liberated by the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Westerbork Concentration Camp | Hooghalen, Drenthe | CPC]

• USS Bergall fired a torpedo at a Japanese patrol vessel in the South China Sea; the torpedo missed. ww2dbase [Bergall | South China Sea | CPC]

• Avenger aircraft from HMS Victorious attacked Matsuyama Airfield in Taihoku (now Taipei) and shipping off Tamsui in northern Taiwan; Sub-Lieutenant Daniel McAleese was shot down, rescued, but would later die of his wounds. ww2dbase [Matsuyama Airfield | Victorious | Taihoku | CPC]

• USAAF 453rd Bomber Group based at Old Buckenham Airfield (US Station 144) in Norfolk, England, United Kingdom flew its final mission before returning to the United States for re-equipping with B-29 bombers. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Old Buckenham Airfield | Old Buckenham, England | AC]

• Franklin Roosevelt passed away of cerebral hemorrhage after complaining of acute headache during a portrait painting session with artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff at Warm Springs, Georgia, United States. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | Warm Springs, Georgia | CPC]

12 Apr 1945 Interactive Map