8 February — World War II: A combined British and Canadian front, consisting of 50,000 soldiers with 500 tanks and 1,034 guns, enters Reichswald, southeast of Nijmegen.[1]
13 February — World War II: Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces begin bombing of Dresden, Germany. Over the next three days, more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices are dropped on the city. The resulting firestorm destroys fifteen square miles (39 square kilometres) of the city center. Between 22,000 and 25,000 people are killed in a controversial attack.
14 February — World War II: The British/Canadian front reaches the Rhine.
7 March — World War II: American troops seize the bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross.
19 March — World War II: Adolf Hitler orders that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
1 May — Mass suicide in Demmin after Soviet troops capture the town and commit atrocities (murders, mass rapes, etc.) on the civilians in retaliation for the killing of some Soviet soldiers there. More than 700 German civilians hang, poison, cut, or drown themselves and loved ones in a panic.
3 May — Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrender to U.S. forces (later going on to help to start the U.S. space program).
3 May — German Protestant theologian Gerhard Kittel is arrested by the French forces in Tübingen, Germany.
7 May — World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
8 May — World War II: V-E Day (Victory in Europe, as Nazi Germany surrenders) commemorates the end of World War II in Europe, with the final surrender being to the Soviets in Berlin, attended by representatives of the Western Powers.
9 May — World War II: General Alexander Löhr, Commander of German Army Group E near Topolšica, Slovenia, signs the capitulation of German occupation troops.
^Bjørgum, Jorunn. "Halfdan Jönsson". In Helle, Knut (ed.). Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
^Watson, Fiona R. (2004). "Young, Mary Helen (1883–1945), nurse and resistance worker". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/73212. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 24 August 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^Evans, Richard J. (2008). The Third Reich at War: 1939–1945. London: Allen Lane. p. 750. ISBN 978-0-7139-9742-2.
Further readingedit
Webcast Lecture on Germany in 1945 by Richard Bessel at the Pritzker Military Library on October 8, 2009 ISBN 9780060540364
Bessel, Richard (2009). Germany 1945. From War to Peace. London: Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 978-1-41652-619-3.