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• Weather data for 1 May 1945

• USS Hawkbill damaged Japanese minelayer Hatsutaka, which was grounded to prevent sinking. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Sennet attacked a Japanese destroyer off Japan; all six torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Joseph Goebbels passed away. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• US Third Army arrived on the pre-war German-Austrian border. ww2dbase [TH]
• The US 15th Air Force conducted its final bombing mission in Italy. Meanwhile, German troops in Italy surrendered in accordance with secret negotiations, followed by an announcement for the cessation of hostilities. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• US Ninth and British Second Armies combined their bridgeheads across the Elbe River in northern Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• New Zealand troops captured Udina and linked up with Yugoslavian partisans near Trieste after the Yugoslavian forces beat the British 8th Army in capturing Trieste. ww2dbase [TH]
• Dönitz took his new post in accordance with Hitler's will and immediately ordered the strongest resistance in the east, as tens of thousands of civilians struggled to stay ahead of oncoming Soviet forces. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• Japanese troops began to withdraw from southern China. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The Mexican Expeditionary Air Force arrived in the Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Allied forces captured German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German concentration camp authorities ordered the execution of Kurt Schuschnigg. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Pilots of US Navy squadron VF-66, flying FR Fireball piston-jet mix-powered fighters, flew qualifying missions from USS Ranger; two aircraft were damaged while landing. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• George Brett was reactivated from the US Army retired list. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Indian 50th Parachute Regiment was dropped near Rangoon, Burma as the spearhead to Operation Dracula. Meanwhile, determined to preempt Operation Dracula in the conquest of Rangoon, William Slim carelessly attempted to enter the city himself by air; his aircraft was damaged by Japanese anti-aircraft fire and the American pilot, Captain Robert Fullerton, sustained injuries in his leg so severe that it had to be amputated later. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Submarine I-369 arrived at Truk, Caroline Islands. This would be the last submarine-transport to arrive at Truk in the Pacific War. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• German 12.Armee retreated from Berlin, Germany to the Elbe River and attempted to begin negotiations with US troops. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• Hans Krebs informed Vasily Chuikov of Adolf Hitler's suicide, thus Chuikov became the first Soviet general to learn of this news. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Soviet SMERSH agents arrested Reichssicherhetsdienst (RSD) Gruppe commander Oberführer Johann Rattenhuber in Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Artur Axmann departed from Adolf Hitler's bunker in Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German pilot Willi Kriessmann ferried an Ar 234 jet bomber to German Luftwaffe bomber group Kampfgeschwader 76. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Dragonet arrived at Guam, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Ticonderoga arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | DS]

• British Wing Commander James Nicholson, the only fighter pilot during the war to be awarded the Victoria Cross (during the Battle of Britain), was killed when the Liberator bomber in which he was flying as an observer suffered an engine fire and crashed into the sea off Calcutta, India. ww2dbase [AC]

• Vice Admiral Yoshiharu Kobayashi was made the commanding officer of Maizuru Naval Arsenal in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• US B-17 bombers dropped crates of K-rations over Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• US Far East Air Force B-25 bombers attacked targets in the town of Kagi (now Chiayi) and the sugar refinery in Heito (now Pingtung or Pingdong), Taiwan. ww2dbase [CPC]

1 May 1945 Interactive Map