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• » 21 Apr 1945

• Feldmarschall Model committed suicide. ww2dbase [Walter Model | CPC]
• Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front captured Bautzen and Cottbus, Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• Soviet infantry reached Berlin, Germany. Adolf Hitler ordered an all-out counterattack against the Soviets at Berlin under the command of SS General Felix Steiner; this counterattack was never to be attempted. ww2dbase [Battle of Berlin | TH]
• US Ninth Army captured Blankenburg, Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• US First Army captured Dessau, Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• At the end of the Ruhr battle in Germany, 325,000 Germans were taken prisoner. ww2dbase [Fall of the Ruhr | CPC]
• Americans declared Ie Shima, Japan secure. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | CPC]
• 200 to 300 German civilians from Gardelegen, Saxony, Germany were ordered by the US Army commander in the region to bury the 1,016 political and military prisoners who had been massacred by German SS and Luftwaffe troops on 13 Apr 1945. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Louis Mountbatten scheduled Operation Dracula against Rangoon, Burma for 2 May 1945. William Slim hastened his units overland toward Rangoon in an attempt to reach Rangoon before Dracula commenced. ww2dbase [Battle of Rangoon | CPC]

• Yukio Araki engaged American P-51 fighters over China. ww2dbase [Yukio Araki | CPC]

• International Red Cross representatives visited the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Theresienstadt Concentration Camp | Terezín, Cechy | CPC]

• On the orders of Finnish Home Secretary Yrjö Leino, which were dictated by Allied Control Commission chief Andrei Zhdanov (but acting on behalf of Soviet SMERSH rather than the Allies), 20 men (most of whom Finnish citizens) were arrested and turned over to the Soviet SMERSH. 2 others were targeted for arrest but they were able to escape capture. ww2dbase [CPC]

• French First Army captured Stuttgart, Germany. ww2dbase [Southern Germany Campaign | Stuttgart, Württemberg-Hohenzollern | TH]
• Soviet troops under Ivan Konev captured the German military headquarters near Zossen, south of Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Battle of Berlin | Zossen | Wünsdorf, Mark Brandenburg | CPC]
• During the night (with the Red army already entering the suburbs) RAF Bomber Command attacked Berlin, Germany for the last time during the war. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Berlin | AC]
• Theodor Morell was dismissed from his position as Adolf Hitler's personal physician, and departed the Führerbunker in Berlin, Germany in the evening. He was replaced by Ludwig Stumpfegger. ww2dbase [Theodor Morell | Berlin | CPC]
• Thousands of prisoners were marched out of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany toward the northeast, ahead of oncoming Soviet troops. Many of them would die en route. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp | Oranienburg, Mark Brandenburg | CPC]

• 3rd Carpathian Infantry Division of Polish II Corps captured Bologna, Italy with assistance from US 34th Division. ww2dbase [Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast | Bologna, Emilia-Romagna | TH, CPC]
• Daniel Inouye led his platoon in destroying three German machine gun positions on the Gothic Line near San Terenzo, Italy, suffering a bullet wound in the stomach, a severed arm, and a bullet wound in the leg in the process. ww2dbase [Daniel Inouye | Toscana | CPC]

• USS New Mexico arrived off Okinawa, Japan waters. ww2dbase [New Mexico | Okinawa | CPC]

• USS Boarfish arrived at Subic Bay, Philippine Islands, ending her second war patrol. ww2dbase [Boarfish | CPC]

• Viktor Abakumov was awarded the Order of Kutuzov 1st Class for the successful execution of the radio game "Tuman" involving Pyotr Tavrin, a Russian national who spied for the Germans. ww2dbase [Viktor Abakumov | CPC]

• Philippine air force began near-daily strikes on Japanese positions on Taiwan. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Ticonderoga departed Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington, United States for Alameda, California, United States, and then on to Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Puget Sound Navy Yard | Ticonderoga | Bremerton, Washington | DS, CPC]

21 Apr 1945 Interactive Map