The following events occurred in March 1945:
March 1, 1945 (Thursday) U.S.President Franklin D. Roosevelt reported to Congress on the Yalta Conference. He acknowledged his paralytic illness in public when he opened his speech by saying, "I hope that you will pardon me for this unusual posture of sitting down during the presentation of what I want to say, but I know that you will realize that it makes it a lot easier for me not to have to carry about ten pounds of steel around on the bottom of my legs." Iran declared war on Japan retroactive to the previous day. The German XXIV (24th) Panzer Corp launched a counteroffensive on the Eastern Front around Lauban. The Ninth United States Army captured Mönchengladbach. The horror-drama film The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Albert Lewin, George Sanders and Hurd Hatfield premiered in New York City. Born: Dirk Benedict, actor, in Helena, Montana
March 2, 1945 (Friday) The U.S. Ninth Army captured Neuss while the Third Army took Trier. U.S. ships and warplanes bombarded the Ryuku Islands for 48 hours. German submarine U-3519 struck a mine and sank in the Baltic Sea. Died: Emily Carr, 73, Canadian painter and writer
March 3, 1945 (Saturday) The Battle of Manila ended in Allied victory. The Germans began Operation Gisela, an aerial intruder operation. Finland declared war on Germany retroactive to September 15, 1944. In the Pawłokoma massacre, a few hundred Ukrainians were murdered by Poles in the village of Pawłokoma in what was believed to be an act of retaliation for an earlier alleged murder of Poles by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Died: Aleksandra Samusenko, 22 or 23, Soviet tank commander (crushed under a tank in the dark)
March 4, 1945 (Sunday) Operation Gisela ended in German failure. The Battle of Kolberg began for the city of Kołobrzeg in German Pomerania. Bombings of Switzerland in World War II: Allied aircraft accidentally bombed Basel and Zürich. German submarine U-3508 was bombed and sunk at Wilhelmshaven in an Allied air raid. Born: Dieter Meier, musician and conceptual artist, in Zürich, Switzerland Tommy Svensson, footballer and manager, in Växjö, Sweden Gary Williams, college basketball coach, in Collingswood, New Jersey Died: Lucille La Verne, 72, American actress Mark Sandrich, 44, American filmmaker
March 5, 1945 (Monday) The Wehrmacht began calling up 15- and 16-year old boys. Advance elements of the U.S. First Army entered Cologne. The 19th Army of the Soviet 2nd Belorussian Front captured Köslin. The 1945 Resko Przymorskie Dornier Do 24 crash in Kępa, Pomeranian Voivodeship. Died: Rupert Downes, 60, and George Alan Vasey, 49, Australian generals (plane crash near Cairns); Albert Richards, 25, British war artist (jeep drove over a landmine)
March 6, 1945 (Tuesday) German forces on the Eastern Front launched Operation Spring Awakening, the last major German offensive of the war. At Soviet insistence, King Michael of Romania installed Petru Groza as Prime Minister of Romania. Soviet authorities began to arrest or kill anyone associated with the Polish Home Army or the Polish government-in-exile in London. The Chinese 1st Army captured Lashio, Burma. Died: Harry O'Neill, 27, American baseball player and one of only two major leaguers killed in action during WWII (shot by a sniper on Iwo Jima)
March 7, 1945 (Wednesday) The Battle of Remagen began in Remagen, Germany. Romania declared war on Japan. German submarine U-1302 was depth charged and sunk in St. George's Channel by the Canadian frigates Strathadam and Thetford Mines. Born: Arthur Lee, drummer, pianist and singer (Love), in Memphis, Tennessee (d. 2006)
March 8, 1945 (Thursday) Canadian forces took Xanten, Germany. A German force from the Channel Islands carried out the overnight Granville Raid, landing in France and bringing supplies back to base. Operation Sunrise: Waffen-SS General Karl Wolff secretly met American OSS head Allen Dulles in Lucerne to open the first concrete discussions of a surrender of German forces in northern Italy. Born: Jim Chapman, business leader and congressman, in Washington, D.C.; Micky Dolenz, actor, musician and member of The Monkees, in Los Angeles, California; Anselm Kiefer, painter and sculptor, in Donaueschingen, Germany Died: Frederick Bligh Bond, 80, English architect, illustrator, archaeologist and psychical researcher
March 9, 1945 (Friday) U.S. warplanes began a 48-hour firebombing of Tokyo that destroyed almost 16 square miles in and around the city and killed between 80,000 and 130,000 civilians. Units of the U.S. First Army captured Bonn and Godesburg. The Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina occurred. Italian Fascist soldiers carried out the Salussola massacre, executing 20 Italian Partisans. Benito Mussolini sent a priest to Switzerland to make a proposal to a Vatican envoy that Italy and Germany join with the Allies to defeat Soviet communism. The proposal was not treated seriously. U.S. Congress passed the McCarran–Ferguson Act, exempting the business of insurance from most federal regulation. Born: Katja Ebstein, singer, in Girlachsdorf, Germany (now Gniewków, Poland); Dennis Rader, serial killer, in Pittsburg, Kansas
March 10, 1945 (Saturday) The Battle of Wide Bay was fought, resulting in Allied victory when Australian troops landed at Wide Bay, Papua New Guinea with the objective of isolating Japanese forces to the Gazelle Peninsula. The last German forces west of the Rhine withdrew. German submarine U-275 struck a mine and sank off Newhaven, East Sussex. German submarine U-681 was depth charged and sunk west of the Isles of Scilly by a Consolidated B-24 Liberator aircraft of the U.S. Navy. Died: Émile Lemonnier, 51, French general (executed by the Japanese)
March 11, 1945 (Sunday) The Royal Air Force sent 1,079 aircraft to bomb Essen and effectively destroyed the city with 4,700 tons of bombs. The Battle of Kiauneliškis began between Lithuanian partisans and Soviet forces. The British 36th Division in Burma captured Mongmit. Albert Kesselring replaced Gerd von Rundstedt as Oberbefehlshaber West. Adolf Hitler paid his final visit to the front when he traveled to Bad Freienwalde on the Oder. In a meeting at the Schloss Freienwalde with 9th Army commander Theodor Busse, Hitler implored his officers to hold back the Russians long enough until his new weapons were ready, but he did not disclose what the new weapon was. German submarine U-682 was destroyed at Hamburg in an American air raid. Born: Dock Ellis, baseball player, in Los Angeles, California (d. 2008)
March 12, 1945 (Monday) The Soviet 1st Belorussian Front took Küstrin. Santa Fe riot: Four internees at a Japanese internment camp near Santa Fe, New Mexico were seriously wounded after a scuffle broke out between internees and Border Patrol agents guarding the facility that resulted in the use of tear gas and batons. Benito Mussolini escaped injury when an Allied fighter plane strafed his convoy of cars near Lake Garda. German submarine U-260 struck a mine and was scuttled south of Ireland. Died: Friedrich Fromm, 56, German army officer (executed by the Nazis by firing squad for failing to act against the 20 July bomb plot)
March 13, 1945 (Tuesday) The Battle of Kiauneliškis ended with the destruction of the Lithuanian partisan bunkers.
Born: Anatoly Fomenko, mathematician, in Stalino, USSR, Ukrainian SSR
March 14, 1945 (Wednesday) The Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front took Zvolen. German submarine U-714 was depth charged and sunk off Eyemouth, Berwickshire by South African frigate Natal and British destroyer Wivern. German submarine U-1021 struck a mine and sank in the Bristol Channel.
March 15, 1945 (Thursday) The Red Army launched the Upper Silesian Offensive. Operation Spring Awakening ended in German failure. Juan José Arévalo became 24th President of Guatemala. EC Comics published its first comic book, the concluding half of a biography of Jesus called Picture Stories from the Bible. The first issue of the series had been published by DC Comics.
March 16, 1945 (Friday) German submarine U-367 struck a mine and sank northeast of Danzig. President Roosevelt said at a news conference that as a matter of decency, Americans would have to tighten their belts so food could be shipped to war-ravaged countries to keep people from starving. The Air Technical Services Command of the United States Army Air Forces signed a contract with Bell Aircraft for the construction of three experimental aircraft to explore transonic research issues, ultimately designated the Bell X-1. Died: Börries von Münchhausen, 70, German poet and Nazi activist (suicide by overdose of sleeping pills)
March 17, 1945 (Saturday) Firebombing of Kobe destroyed 21% of Kobe's urban area with 8,841 residents killed. The Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen collapsed and killed 25 American engineers, although the First U.S. Army had already constructed other crossings. The Kriegsmarine completed the evacuation of 75,000 civilians and soldiers from the Kolberg pocket overnight. Born: Elis Regina, singer, in Porto Alegre, Brazil (d. 1982)
March 18, 1945 (Sunday) An air battle was fought in the skies over Berlin when 1,329 Allied bombers and 700 long-range fighters were met by the Luftwaffe using the new Me 262s and air-to-air rockets. The U.S. Eighth Air Force lost six Mustangs and 13 bombers while the Luftwaffe only lost two planes in return despite being outnumbered 32 to 1. However, the Allies still dropped 3,000 tons of bombs in the heaviest daylight raid on Berlin of the war. The Battle of Kolberg ended in Soviet and Polish victory. The Battle of the Ligurian Sea was fought between British and German naval forces in the Gulf of Genoa. The Germans lost two torpedo boats and had a destroyer damaged while the British took light damage to one destroyer in return. The Battle of the Visayas began in the Philippines. All schools and universities in Tokyo were closed and everyone over the age of six was ordered to do war work. German submarine U-866 was depth charged and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by American destroyer escorts. Two days of parliamentary elections concluded in Finland. The Social Democratic Party of Finland lost 35 seats but maintained a one-seat plurality over the new Finnish People's Democratic League.
March 19, 1945 (Monday) The aircraft carrier USS Franklin was bombed and heavily damaged off the Japanese mainland by Japanese aircraft, killing more than 800 crew. Hitler issued the Nero Decree, ordering the destruction of German infrastructure to prevent their use by Allied forces. Albert Speer and the army chiefs strongly resisted this and conspired to delay the order's implementation. All remaining U-boats in the Baltic Sea were withdrawn and transferred to the west. The Battle of Bacsil Ridge was fought between Japanese and Filipino forces, resulting in Filipino victory. In Burma, the 19th Indian Division captured Mandalay while the British 36th Division took Mogok. The Soviet Union notified Turkey that their non-aggression pact signed in 1925 would not be renewed after it expired in November. Turkey responded by rejecting Soviet demands for territorial concessions and a revision of the Montreux Convention.
March 20, 1945 (Tuesday) The U.S. Seventh Army captured Saarbrücken. Hitler made his final public appearance, awarding medals to Hitler Youth soldiers. The Arnsberg Forest massacre begins. Australian forces carried out Operation Platypus, in which troops from Z Special Unit were inserted into the Balikpapan area of Borneo to gather information and organize locals for resistance against the Japanese. France signed an economic pact with Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Gotthard Heinrici replaced Heinrich Himmler as commander of Army Group Vistula. Born: Jay Ingram, author and broadcaster, in Canada; Bobby Jameson, singer and songwriter, in Geneva, Illinois (d. 2015); Pat Riley, basketball player, coach and executive, in Rome, New York