MARCH 15 , 1945
SOVIET ARMY BEGAN OFFENSIVE TO PUSH GERMAN ARMY
A NIGHTMARE CALLED ADOLF HITLER
He had the dream,
to hear the screams,
of a million aching men.
He sold himself with rhetoric,
and the nightmare soon began.
Hypnotized and blind to lies,
a people showed no pity.
Captured towns and vandalized,
a thousand helpless cities.
Tortured, gassed and served starvation,
to a gentle peaceful nation.
And the whole world stared as if not to care,
with not one thought of aggravation.
Brought every human into war,
every single nation.
Fathers,
mothers,
brothers lost.
The torture to the sister.
All because the madness of the wicked,
Adolf Hitler.
-Ken Bennight
Thousands die in an American bombing raid on Japan’s southern port city of Osaka
World War II
World War II Timeline: March 14-15, 1945-March 23, 1945
As the end of World War II approached, the Allied forces continued to attack Japan and Nazi Germany with large-scale bombing campaigns. The World War II timeline below summarizes important events that occurred during the war from March 14, 1945, to March 23, 1945.
World War II Timeline: March 14-March 23
March 14-15: Thousands die in an American bombing raid on Japan’s southern port city of Osaka.
March 16-17: American bombers attack Kobe, on the Japanese island of Honshu, inflicting several thousand casualties.
March 18: Nearly 30 Allied planes are lost in large-scale bombing runs over the German cities of Frankfurt and Berlin.
March 19: Adolf Hitler issues the “Nero Decree,” a scorched-earth directive calling for the destruction of all German infrastructure presumed in danger of falling to the Allies.
The Sarawak Maru, the final surviving ship of a 21-vessel Japanese convoy, is sunk, illustrating Allied strength and Japanese isolation in Asian waters.
Japanese kamikaze attacks on U.S. Task Force 58 damages American aircraft carriers Essex, Wolf, Enterprise, and Franklin, killing 832 on the Franklin alone.
March 20: Adolf Hitler appears in public for the last time.
The fiercely defended Burmese city of Mandalay is captured by Allied forces of the British 19th Indian Division.
March 21: More than 100 Danish civilians die when they become “collateral damage” in a British raid against Copenhagen’s Gestapo headquarters.
Japanese piloted bombs make their debut against U.S. forces in the waters off Japan’s home islands.
March 23: Charles de Gaulle announces that France will grant limited independence to Indochina at the conclusion of the war.
Allied forces from Britain, Canada, and the United States under General Bernard Montgomery launch Operation Plunder. They will cross the northern Rhine while protected by heavy air and artillery support.”