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• U-977 departed Kristiansand, Norway on her first and only war patrol. ww2dbase [U-977 | CPC]
• USS Trepang surfaced to shell a sampan, but later called off the attack and allowed the boat to leave. ww2dbase [Trepang | CPC]
• Wilhelm Burgdorf passed away. ww2dbase [Wilhelm Burgdorf | CPC]
• British Second Army reached Lübeck, Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• Ann Baumgartner married Major William Carl and adopted her husband's last name. ww2dbase [Ann Baumgartner | CPC]
• British Field Marshal Harold Alexander accepted the surrender of the Axis forces in Southern Europe. Over 1,000,000 men in northern Italy and Austria laid down their arms. ww2dbase [Operation Grapeshot and Operation Roast | CPC]
• USS Baya fired six torpedoes at a Japanese vessel in the Gulf of Siam; all torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Baya | CPC]
• The US coastal minesweeper YMS-481 was sunk by Japanese shore batteries off Tarakan, Borneo. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Hawkbill fired three torpedoes into Japanese minelayer Hatsutaka, which she had damaged on the previous day, sinking her. ww2dbase [Hawkbill | CPC]
• Soviet SMERSH operatives captured Hans Fritzsche. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Léon Degrelle was promoted to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor der Waffen-SS by Heinrich Himmler, although Himmler had officially lost all his positions on 28 Apr 1945. ww2dbase [Léon Degrelle | CPC]
• Captain Wilfred E. Lankenau was named the commanding officer of USS Ancon. ww2dbase [Ancon | CPC]
• HMS Cumberland made further bombardments of shore targets at Port Blair and Car, Nicobar Islands. ww2dbase [Cumberland | DS]

• A group of prominent prisoners of war were transferred from the camp at Laufen in southern Germany to a camp at Markt Pongau near Salzburg in occupied Austria, where they would be treated respectfully by SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger who wished to curry favor as the war was coming to an end. ww2dbase [Markt Pongau | CPC]

• In Burma, Indian 26th Division and Indian 17th Division continued their competition to be the first division to reach Rangoon. The 26th Division made an amphibious landing near the city, while the 17th Division secured Pegu. The first individual to enter Rangoon, however, was an RAF officer who landed on a nearby airstrip on this date. He walked into the city and, having assured himself that the Japanese had really gone, sailed down the river in a commandeered sampan to meet the troops advancing from the south. ww2dbase [Battle of Rangoon | Rangoon | AC, CPC]

• The Japanese-sponsored puppet state Manchukuo issued its last postage stamps. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Commandant Karl Rahm of the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp relinquished control of the camp to the International Red Cross. ww2dbase [Theresienstadt Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Terezín, Cechy | CPC]

• Type XXVIIB5 Seehund submarines were used to supply food to the German garrison at Dunkerque, France. ww2dbase [Type XXVII | Dunkerque, Nord-Pas-de-Calais | CPC]

• General Helmuth Weidling accepted General Vasily Chuikov's terms of unconditional surrender; the surrender of the Berlin garrison in Germany was to be effective at 1500 hours. ww2dbase [Battle of Berlin | Berlin | TH]
• Werhner von Braun departed Haus Ingeborg in Oberjoch in the Allgäu mountains in southern Germany for Austria; his group ran into American troops after passing through Adolf-Hitler-Pass (now Oberjoch Pass). ww2dbase [Wernher von Braun | Oberjoch, München-Oberbayern | CPC]
• Soviet troops captured Rechlin-Lärz Airfield in Rechlin, Mecklenburg, Germany, a Luftwaffe test site. ww2dbase [Rechlin, Mecklenburg | CPC]
• Soviet SMERSH agents captured German SS-Gruppenführer Johann Rattenhuber, Rear Admiral Hans-Erich Voß, General of Artillery Helmuth Weidling, and SS General Wilhelm Mohnke in Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Helmuth Weidling | Berlin | CPC]
• The Soviet Hammer and Sickle flag was hoisted atop the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Battle of Berlin | Reichstag Building and Kroll Opera House | Berlin | TH]
• Walter Dornberger departed Haus Ingeborg in Oberjoch in the Allgäu mountains in southern Germany for Austria; his group ran into American troops after passing through Adolf-Hitler-Pass (now Oberjoch Pass). ww2dbase [Walter Dornberger | Oberjoch, München-Oberbayern | CPC]
• Werner Haase was captured by Soviet troops in Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Battle of Berlin | Werner Haase | Berlin | CPC]
• Kurt Fricke was killed during the Soviet attacks on Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Kurt Frike | Berlin | CPC]
• Ferdinand Schörner reported to Alfred Jodl that he was leading a group of troops fighting through Soviet lines so he could surrender to the Americans. ww2dbase [Ferdinand Schörner | CPC]
• U-1234 was scuttled in the Flensburg Firth, Germany, near the maritime border with Denmark. ww2dbase [U-1234 | Flensburg Firth | CPC]
• Z43 provided gunfire support in the Warnemünde area of Rostock, Germany, while unloading her anti-aircraft weaponry to local troops. Before departing for Kiel, Germany, she also provided some of her sailors to act as naval infantry. ww2dbase [Z43 | Rostock, Mecklenburg | CPC]
• U-3016 was scuttled at Travemünde, Lübeck, Germany to prevent capture. ww2dbase [U-3016 | Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein | CPC]

• Air Group 87 arrived aboard USS Ticonderoga at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Ticonderoga | Honolulu, Oahu | DS]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Kure, Japan. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]
• Patrol Boat No. 102, minesweeper W-29, and tanker Nanryu Maru No. 9 departed from Yuya Bay, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan at 0610 hours. They arrived at Moji, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan at 1201 hours. ww2dbase [Stewart | Yuya Bay, Yamaguchi | CPC]

• Destroyer USS Shaw arrived at Eniwetok, Marshall Islands on her way to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. ww2dbase [Shaw | Eniwetok | DS]

• At 0730 hours, the first of many Canadian and British trucks crossed German defensive lines in the Netherlands without being harassed to deliver food to Dutch civilians. On the same day, 400 US B-17 bombers dropped crates of K-rations over Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands. ww2dbase [Operations Manna, Chowhound, and Faust | Haarlemmermeer, Noord-Holland | TH, CPC]
• Queen Wilhelmina returned to the Netherlands. ww2dbase [Wilhelmina | CPC]

• USS Springer attacked a Japanese transport and two escort ships, sinking Japanese frigate Ojika in the Yellow Sea, hitting her with 3 of 4 torpedoes. ww2dbase [Springer | Yellow Sea | CPC]

• The Soviet GKO created the positions of Deputy Front Commanders in Charge of the Management of Civil Affairs. The first holders of these positions were Soviet counterintelligence leaders Ivan Serov, Lavrentiy Tsavana, and Pavel Meshik. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Pompon attacked a small Japanese boat off Taiwan with her deck gun; the boat escaped without damage. ww2dbase [Pompon | CPC]

• British government announced that London, England, United Kingdom was now a "Go Home" area, ending the nearly six-year evacuation. ww2dbase [London, England | CPC]
• In a report to the House of Commons the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced the unconditional surrender of the German land, sea and air forces, commanded by Colonel-General Heinrich von Wietinghof-Scheel, Commander-in Chief South-West Command and Commander-in Chief of Army Group C. The instrument of surrender signed at the Allied Forces Headquarters at Caserta on Sunday afternoon, 29 Apr 1945, by two German plenipotentiaries and Lieutenant-General W. D. Morgan, Chief of Staff at Allied Forces Headquarters would see the surrender of all German forces in Northern Italy to the Isonzo River, in the North-East, and the Austrian provinces of Salzburg, Vorarlberg, anf the Tyrol plus portions of Carinthia and Styria, Hostilities would end at 12 o'clock GMT on Wednesday, 2 May 1945. ww2dbase [Germany's Surrender | Winston Churchill | London, England | AC]
• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a leaflet dropping mission (nickels) to 19 cities in the Netherlands, France, and Germany. ww2dbase [Bombing of Cities in France and Low Countries | RAF Thurleigh | Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Thurleigh, England | DS]

2 May 1945 Interactive Map