NAVY HISTORY Pacific War 1945

HMCS Courtenay was a Bangor-class minesweeper constructed for the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. Entering service in 1942, Courtenay spent the entire war on the West Coast of Canada. The vessel was decommissioned in 1945 and sold for mercantile service in 1946. The fate of the vessel is uncertain.

The minesweeper was ordered as part of the 1940–41 construction programme. The ship's keel was laid down on 28 January 1941 by Prince Rupert Dry Dock & Shipyards Co. in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Courtenay was launched on 2 August 1941 and commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 21 March 1942 at Prince Rupert.[3] Courtenay spent the entirety of the Second World War on the West Coast of Canada. Courtenay was among the eight minesweepers added to the force protecting the West Coast during the first five months of 1942 following the need to establish a larger force following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.[5] Assigned to the patrol units Esquimalt Force (operating out of Esquimalt, British Columbia) or Prince Rupert Force, the main duty of Bangor-class minesweepers after commissioning on the West Coast would be to perform the Western Patrol. Patrolling the west coast of Vancouver Island, inspecting inlets and sounds and past the Scott Islands to Gordon Channel at the entrance to the Queen Charlotte Strait.[3][6] Following the end of the war, Courtenay was paid off at Esquimalt on 5 November 1945.[3] The minesweeper was sold to the Union Steamship Company for mercantile conversion on 3 April 1946.[3][7] However, the conversion never took place and the fate of the vessel remains unknown with Macpherson and Barrie tracking a purchase offer by a San Francisco firm in 1951 and the Miramar Ship Index claiming that the ship was broken up in 1946.

There has been only 1 vessel named Courtenay in the Royal Canadian Navy.

1945	January	1	The Germans begin a surprise offensive (Operation Nordwind) in northern Alsace.
1945	January	1	Unternehmen Bodenplatte (Operation Baseplate) is launched by the Luftwaffe against western Allied air bases in Belgium and Holland by elements of ten different Jagdgeschwadern (fighter wings), as its last major air offensive of the war in the West.
1945	January	1	American troops kill dozens of German POWs at Chenogne
1945	January	2	46 American B-29 bombers based near Calcutta, India attacked a railroad bridge near Bangkok, Thailand and other targets in the area.^[1]
1945	January	2	The Japanese increasingly use kamikaze tactics against the US naval forces nearby.
1945	January	3	The Allies take the offensive east of the Bulge but they fail to close the pincers (which might have surrounded large numbers of Germans) with Patton's tanks.
1945	January	4	US navy air attacks on Formosa (Taiwan)
1945	January	5	The German offensive Nordwind crosses the border into Alsace.
1945	January	5	Japanese retreat across the Irrawaddy River in Burma with General Slim's troops in pursuit.
1945	January	5	150 second generation Japanese Canadians (nisei) are accepted into the Canadian Intelligence Corps after pressure from the British government.
1945	January	6	American B-29s bomb Tokyo again.
1945	January	7	Germans, as part of the plan to retake Strasbourg, break out of the "Colmar Pocket", a bridgehead on the Rhine, and head east.
1945	January	8	The battle of Strasbourg is underway, with Americans in defence of their recent acquisition.
1945	January	9	Americans land on Luzon.^[1][2] There are more kamikaze attacks on the American navy.
1945	January	11	The first convoy moves on the Ledo Road (or "Stilwell" road) in northern Burma, linking India and China.
1945	January	12	The East Prussian Offensive, a major Red Army offensive in East Prussia, begins on January 13th.
1945	January	12	1st Byelorussian Front launched its winter offensive towards Pillkallen, East Prussia, meeting heavy resistance from the German 3rd Panzer Army.^[1]
1945	January	14	British forces clear the Roer Triangle during Operation Blackcock; it is an area noted for its industrial dams.
1945	January	15	Hitler is now firmly ensconced in the Führerbunker in Berlin with his companion Eva Braun.
1945	January	15	The British commander in Athens, General Ronald Scobie, accepts a request for a ceasefire from the Greek People's Liberation Army. This marks the end of the Dekemvriana, resulting in clear defeat for the Greek Left.
1945	January	16	The U.S. First and Third Armies link up following the Battle of the Bulge.
1945	January	17	Warsaw is entered by Red Army troops.^[1][2] A government favourable to the Communists is installed.
1945	January	17	It is announced officially that the Battle of the Bulge is at an end.
1945	January	19	Hitler orders that any retreats of divisions or larger units must be approved by him.
1945	January	20	The Red Army advances into East Prussia. Germans renew the retreat.
1945	January	20	Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a fourth term as U.S. President; Harry Truman is sworn in as Vice President.
1945	January	23	German jurist and anti-Nazi activist Helmuth James von Moltke was hanged for treason in Berlin.
1945	January	24	The Battle of Poznań began for the German-occupied stronghold city of Poznań in Poland.
1945	January	25	The American navy bombards Iwo Jima in preparation for an invasion.
1945	January	25	The Allies officially win the Battle of the Bulge.
1945	January	27	Auschwitz concentration camp is entered by Soviet troops.^[1][2]
1945	January	28	The Red Army completes the occupation of Lithuania.
1945	January	30	The Malta Conference (1945) began with Winston Churchill meeting with the Combined Chiefs of Staff on the Island of Malta in the Mediterranean to plan the end of WWII in both Theaters, and to discuss the ramifications of the Soviets now controlling most of Eastern Europe. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would join the Conference for one day on 2 February 1945; both would fly to Yalta on 3 February for the Yalta Conference with Stalin.
1945	January	31	The Red Army crosses the Oder River into Germany and are now less than 50 miles from Berlin.
1945	January	31	A second invasion on Luzon by Americans lands on the west coast.
1945	January	31	The whole Burma Road is now opened as the Ledo Road linkage with India is complete.
1945	February	1	Ecuador declares war on Germany and Japan.
1945	February	2	Naval docks at Singapore are destroyed by B-29 attacks.
1945	February	3	The Battle of Manila (1945) begins: Forces of the U.S. and Philippines enter Manila. The Manila massacre takes place during the fighting.
1945	February	3	Heavy bombing of Berlin. Judge Roland Friesler is killed while trying to save court documents.
1945	February	4	The Yalta Conference of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin begins;^[1][2] the main subject of their discussions is postwar spheres of influence.
1945	February	4	Belgium is now cleared of all German forces.
1945	February	8	Paraguay declares war on Germany and Japan.
1945	February	9	The Colmar Pocket, the last German foothold west of the Rhine, is eliminated by the French 1st Army.
1945	February	12	Peru declares war on Germany and Japan.
1945	February	13	The Battle of Budapest ends with Soviet victory, after a long defense by the Germans.
1945	February	13	The bombing of Dresden takes place; it is firebombed by Allied air forces and large parts of the historic city are destroyed.
1945	February	14	The 1945 Bombing of Prague: American planes bomb the wrong city.
1945	February	15	Venezuela declares war on Germany and Japan.
1945	February	16	American paratroopers and Philippine Commonwealth troops land on Corregidor Island, in Manila Bay. Once the scene of the last American resistance in early 1942, it is now the scene of Japanese resistance.
1945	February	16	American naval vessels bombard Tokyo and Yokohama.
1945	February	19	U.S. Marines invade Iwo Jima.
1945	February	22	Operation Clarion, a massive bombing of German rail and other transport infrastructure by approximately 9,000 U.S. and British aircraft takes place, carrying over into 23 February.
1945	February	23	U.S. Marines raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
1945	February	23	Turkey declares war on Germany and Japan.
1945	February	23	In the Philippines, U.S. Army forces staged the Raid on Los Baños freeing 2147 Allied military and civilian prisoners from the Japanese.
1945	February	24	Egypt declares war on the Axis. Moments after making this Declaration before Parliament, Prime Minister Ahmad Maher Pasha is assassinated.
1945	February	25	Taking off on the 24th, a US B-29 incendiary raid on Tokyo, Japan takes place.
1945	February	26	Syria declares war on Germany and Japan.
1945	February	26	After ten days of fighting, American and Filipino troops recapture Corregidor.
1945	February	28	A Philippine government is established.
1945	February	28	U.S. and Filipino forces invade Palawan, an island of the Philippines.
1945	March	3	Manila is fully liberated.^[1][2]
1945	March	3	Battle of Meiktila, Burma comes to an end with General Slim's troops overwhelming the Japanese; the road to Rangoon is now cleared.
1945	March	3	The Allies attempted to destroy V-2s and launching equipment near The Hague by a large-scale bombardment, but due to navigational errors the Bezuidenhout quarter was destroyed, killing 511 Dutch civilians.
1945	March	4	Finland declares war on Germany, backdated to September 15, 1944.
1945	March	6	Germans launch an offensive against Soviet forces in Hungary.
1945	March	7	The Battle of Remagen: When German troops fail to dynamite the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine, the U.S. First Army captures the bridge and begins crossing the river. The Army also takes Cologne, Germany.^[1][3]
1945	March	8	Private Karl Hulten, an Army Airborne Regiment deserter, was hanged in an English prison for a flurry of crimes ending in what came to be called the Cleft chin murder.
1945	March	9	The US firebombs Tokyo (the attack was code-named Operation Meetinghouse),^[4] with heavy civilian casualties.
1945	March	9	Amid rumours of a possible American invasion, Japanese overthrow the Vichy French Jean Decoux Government which had been operating independently as the colonial government of Vietnam: they proclaim an "independent" Empire of Vietnam, with Emperor Bảo Đại as nominal ruler. Premier Trần Trọng Kim forms the first Vietnamese government.
1945	March	10	Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs damage the Manhattan Project's Hanford Site in Washington State slightly, but cause no lasting effects.^[5]
1945	March	11	Nagoya, Japan is firebombed by hundreds of B-29s.
1945	March	15	V-2 rockets continue to hit England and Belgium.
1945	March	16	The German offensive in Hungary ends with another Soviet victory.
1945	March	16	:fighters emerge from caves and tunnels.
1945	March	18	Red Army approaches Danzig (postwar Gdańsk).
1945	March	19	19: ship for the remainder of the war.
1945	March	19	Deutsch Schutzen massacre occurs, in which 60 Jews are killed.
1945	March	20	German General Gotthard Heinrici replaces Heinrich Himmler as commander of Army Group Vistula, the army group directly opposing the Soviet advance towards Berlin.
1945	March	20	Mandalay liberated by Indian 19th Infantry Division.
1945	March	20	Tokyo is firebombed again.
1945	March	20	Patton's troops capture Mainz, Germany.
1945	March	21	Operation Carthage, a British air raid on a Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, in support of the Danish resistance movement takes place.
1945	March	22	US and British forces cross the Rhine at Oppenheim.
1945	March	23	By this time it is clear that Germany is under attack from all sides.
1945	March	24	Operation Varsity, an Anglo-American-Canadian airborne assault under Montgomery deployed over the Rhine at Wesel.
1945	March	27	The Western Allies slow their advance and allow the Red Army to take Berlin.
1945	March	27	Argentina declares war on Germany, the last Western hemisphere country to do so; its policies for sheltering escaping Nazis are also coming under scrutiny. Argentina had not declared war before due to British wishes that Argentine shipping be neutral (and therefore Argentine foodstuffs would reach Britain unharmed), this, however, went against the plan of the USA, who applied much political pressure on Argentina.
1945	March	29	The Red Army enters Austria. Other Allies take Frankfurt; the Germans are in a general retreat all over the centre of the country.
1945	March	30	Red Army forces capture Danzig.
1945	March	31	General Eisenhower broadcasts a demand for the Germans to surrender.
1945	March	77	Germans begin to evacuate Danzig.
1945	April	1	U.S. troops start Operation Iceberg, which is the Battle of Okinawa. It would have been a leaping off base for a mainland invasion.
1945	April	1	Americans retake Legaspi, Albay in the Philippines.
1945	April	2	Soviets launch the Vienna Offensive against German forces in and around the Austrian capital city.
1945	April	2	German armies are surrounded in the Ruhr Pocket.
1945	April	4	Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, is overrun by advancing Soviet forces. The remaining members of President Jozef Tiso's pro-German government flee to Austria.
1945	April	4	The Ohrdruf death camp is liberated by the Allies.
1945	April	6	The Spring 1945 offensive in Italy begins in northern Italy.
1945	April	7	The Japanese battleship Yamato is sunk in the waters north of Okinawa as the Japanese make their last major naval operation.
1945	April	9	The Battle of Königsberg ends in a Soviet victory.
1945	April	9	A heavy bombing at Kiel by the RAF destroys the last two major German warships, the heavy cruisers Admiral Hipper and Admiral Scheer.
1945	April	9	Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is executed at Flossenburg prison.
1945	April	10	Buchenwald concentration camp is liberated by American forces.
1945	April	11	Japanese kamikaze attacks on American naval ships continue at Okinawa; the carrier Enterprise and the battleship Missouri are hit.
1945	April	11	Spain breaks off diplomatic relations with Japan.
1945	April	12	U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly. Harry S. Truman becomes president of the United States.
1945	April	13	The Vienna Offensive ends with a Soviet victory.
1945	April	13	Gardelegen Massacre takes place. Over 1000 slave laborers were closed in a barn which then was set on fire. It was one of the last massacres on civil population perpetrated by Germans. Just few hours later, American troops captured Gardelegen
1945	April	14	Large-scale firebombing of Tokyo.
1945	April	15	Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by the British Army.
1945	April	16	The Battle of the Seelow Heights and the Battle of the Oder-Neisse begin as the Soviets continue to advance towards the city of Berlin.
1945	April	18	Ernie Pyle, famed war correspondent for the GIs, is killed by machine gun fire on Ie Shima, a small island near Okinawa.
1945	April	19	Switzerland closes its borders with Germany (and the former Austria).
1945	April	19	Allies continue their sweep toward the Po Valley.
1945	April	19	The Soviet advance towards the city of Berlin continues and soon reaches the suburbs.
1945	April	20	Hitler celebrates his 56th birthday in the bunker in Berlin; reports are that he is in an unhealthy state, nervous, and depressed.
1945	April	21	Soviet forces under Georgiy Zhukov's (1st Belorussian Front), Konstantin Rokossovskiy's (2nd Belorussian Front) and Ivan Konev's (1st Ukrainian Front) launch assaults on the German forces in and around the city of Berlin in the opening stages of the Battle of Berlin.
1945	April	21	Hitler orders SS-General Felix Steiner to attack the 1st Belorussian Front and destroy it. The ragtag units of "Army Detachment Steiner" are not fully manned.
1945	April	22	Hitler is informed late in the day that, with the approval of Gotthard Heinrici, Steiner's attack was never launched. Instead, Steiner's forces were authorised to retreat. In response, Hitler launches a furious tirade against the perceived treachery and incompetence of his military commanders in front of Wilhelm Keitel, Hans Krebs, Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Burgdorf and Martin Bormann. Hitler's tirade culminates in an oath to stay in Berlin to head up the defence of the city. Hitler orders General Walther Wenck to attack towards Berlin with the Twelfth Army, link up with the Ninth Army of General Theodor Busse, and relieve the city. Wenck launched an attack, but it will come to nothing.
1945	April	23	Hermann Göring sends a radiogram to Hitler's bunker, asking to be declared Hitler's successor. He proclaims that if he gets no response by 10 PM, he will assume Hitler is incapacitated and assume leadership of the Reich. Furious, Hitler strips him of all his offices and expels him from the Nazi Party.
1945	April	23	Albert Speer makes one last visit to Hitler, informing him that he (Speer) ignored the Nero Decree for scorched earth.
1945	April	24	Himmler, ignoring the orders of Hitler, makes a secret surrender offer to the Allies, (led by Count Folke Bernadotte, head of the Red Cross), provided that the Red Army is not involved. The offer is rejected; when Hitler hears of the betrayal on the 28th, he orders Himmler shot.
1945	April	24	Forces of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front link up in the initial encirclement of Berlin.
1945	April	24	Allies encircle the last German armies near Bologna, and the Italian war in effect comes to an end.
1945	April	25	Elbe Day: First contact between Soviet and American troops at the river Elbe, near Torgau in Germany.
1945	April	26	Hitler summons Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim from Munich to Berlin to take over command of the Luftwaffe from Göring. While flying into Berlin, von Greim is seriously wounded by Soviet anti-aircraft fire.
1945	April	27	The encirclement of German forces in Berlin is completed by the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front.
1945	April	27	Last German formations withdraw to Norway from Finland and the Lapland War ends; the Finnish flag is raised at the three-country cairn in celebration.
1945	April	27	Head of State for the Italian Social Republic, Benito Mussolini, heavily disguised, is captured in northern Italy while trying to escape to Switzerland.
1945	April	28	Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, are shot, and hanged by the feet upside down in Milan. Other members of his puppet government are also executed by Italian partisans and their bodies put on display.
1945	April	29	Dachau concentration camp is liberated by the U.S. 7th Army.
1945	April	29	All forces in Italy officially surrender and a ceasefire is declared.
1945	April	29	Allied air forces commence Operations Manna and Chowhound, providing food aid to the Netherlands under a truce made with occupying German forces.
1945	April	29	Hitler marries his companion Eva Braun.
1945	April	30	Hitler and his wife commit suicide with a combination of poison and a gunshot. Before he dies, he dictates his last will and testament. In it Joseph Goebbels is appointed Reich Chancellor and Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz is appointed Reich President.
1945	May	1	German General Hans Krebs negotiates the surrender of the city of Berlin with Soviet General Vasily Chuikov. Chuikov, as commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, commands the Soviet forces in central Berlin. Krebs is not authorized by Reich Chancellor Goebbels to agree to an unconditional surrender, so his negotiations with Chuikov end with no agreement.
1945	May	1	Goebbels and his wife murder their children and commit suicide.
1945	May	1	Yugoslavian Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito and his troops capture Trieste, Italy. New Zealand troops play a supporting role.
1945	May	1	The war in Italy is over but some German troops are still not accounted for.
1945	May	1	Australian troops land on Tarakan island off the coast of Borneo
1945	May	2	Soviet forces capture the Reichstag building and install the Soviet flag.
1945	May	2	The Battle of Berlin ends when German General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defence Area, (and no longer bound by Goebbels's commands), unconditionally surrenders the city of Berlin to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov.
1945	May	3	Rangoon is liberated.
1945	May	3	The German cruiser Admiral Hipper is scuttled, having been hit heavily by the RAF in April.
1945	May	3	Éamon de Valera, Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, offers regrets for Hitler's death to German officialdom.
1945	May	4	Karl Dönitz orders all U-boats to cease operations.
1945	May	4	German troops in Denmark, Northern Germany and The Netherlands surrender to Montgomery.
1945	May	4	Neuengamme concentration camp is liberated.
1945	May	5	Formal negotiations for Germany's surrender begin at Reims, France.
1945	May	5	Czech resistance fighters begin the Prague uprising and the Soviets begin the Prague Offensive.
1945	May	5	German troops in the Netherlands officially surrender; Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands accepts the surrender.
1945	May	5	Mauthausen concentration camp is liberated.
1945	May	5	Kamikazes have major successes off Okinawa.
1945	May	5	Japanese fire balloons claim their first and only lives—a Sunday school group in Bly, Oregon.
1945	May	6	German soldiers open fire on a crowd celebrating the liberation of the Netherlands in Dam Square. At the brink of peace, 120 people were badly injured and 22 pronounced dead.^[6]
1945	May	6	This date marks the last fighting for American troops in Europe.[citation needed]
1945	May	7	Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies at the Western Allied Headquarters in Rheims, France at 2:41 a.m. In accordance with orders from Reich President Karl Dönitz, General Alfred Jodl signs for Germany.
1945	May	7	Hermann Göring, for a while in the hands of the SS, surrenders to the Americans. Elements of Task Force Smythe, U.S. 80th ID in Austria, fire last American shots of the war in Europe when 80th Recon Platoon is strafed by 2 German planes and returns fire causing one plane to leave trailing smoke.[7]
1945	May	8	Victory in Europe Day: The ceasefire takes effect at one minute past midnight.
1945	May	8	In accordance with Dönitz's orders, Colonel-General Carl Hilpert unconditionally surrenders his troops in the Courland Pocket.
1945	May	8	Germany surrenders again unconditionally to the Soviet Union army but this time in a ceremony hosted by the Soviet Union. In accordance with orders from Dönitz, General Wilhelm Keitel signs for Germany.
1945	May	8	The remaining members of President Jozef Tiso's pro-German Slovak Republic capitulates to the American General Walton Walker's XX Corps in Kremsmünster, Austria.
1945	May	8	The Prague uprising ends with negotiated surrender with Czech resistance which allowed the Germans in Prague to leave the city.
1945	May	8	In order to disarm the Japanese in Vietnam, the Allies divide the country in half at the 16th parallel. Chinese Nationalists will move in and disarm the Japanese north of the parallel while the British will move in and do the same in the south. During the conference, representatives from France request the return of all French pre-war colonies in Indochina. Their request is granted.
1945	May	9	The Soviet Union officially pronounces May 9 as Victory Day.
1945	May	9	The Red Army enters Prague.
1945	May	9	The German garrison in the Channel Islands agree to unconditional surrender.
1945	May	9	German troops on Bornholm surrender to Soviet troops.
1945	May	11	The Soviets capture Prague, the last European capital to be liberated. Eisenhower stops Patton from participating in the liberation.
1945	May	11	German Army Group Centre in Czechoslovakia surrenders.
1945	May	11	War in New Guinea continues, with Australians attacking Wewak.
1945	May	14	Nagoya, Japan, is heavily bombed.
1945	May	14	Fighting in the southern Philippines continues.
1945	June	2	Air Group 87 aircraft from USS Ticonderoga strike airfields on Kyushu, Japan, in an attempt to stop special attack aircraft from taking off.^[1]
1945	June	5	The Allies agree to divide Germany into four areas of control (American, British, French and Soviet).
1945	June	5	The U.S. fleet under William Halsey, Jr., suffers widespread damage from a huge Pacific typhoon.
1945	June	10	Australian troops land in Brunei.
1945	June	11	Schiermonnikoog, a Dutch island, is the last part of Europe freed by Allied troops.
1945	June	13	The Australians capture Brunei.
1945	June	15	Osaka, Japan, is heavily bombed.
1945	June	16	The Japanese are in a general retreat in central China.
1945	June	17	Japanese Admiral Ota Minoru commits ritual suicide for failing to defend Okinawa, Japan.^[1]
1945	June	19	The United Kingdom begins demobilization.
1945	June	21	The defeat of the Japanese on Okinawa is now complete.
1945	June	26	The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
1945	June	27	The first oil pump is restored at Tarakan Island.^[8]
1945	July	1	Australian troops land at Balikpapan, Borneo in the Western Allies' last major land operation of the war.
1945	July	5	General Douglas MacArthur announces that the Philippines have been liberated.
1945	July	6	Norway declares war on Japan.
1945	July	10	US Navy aircraft participate in attacks on Tokyo for the first time.
1945	July	14	Italy declares war on Japan.
1945	July	16	The U.S. conducts the Trinity test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first test of a nuclear weapon.
1945	July	17	The Potsdam Conference begins under British Prime Minister Churchill, Soviet Prime Minister Stalin and U.S. President Truman. The Allied leaders agree to insist upon the unconditional surrender of Japan.
1945	July	22	America and Japan engage in a small bloodless skirmish in the Battle of Tokyo Bay. The Japanese take slight losses
1945	July	24	Truman hints at the Potsdam Conference that the United States has nuclear weapons.
1945	July	24	British and Americans commence the Bombing of Kure.
1945	July	26	The Labour Party win the British general election by a landslide. Clement Attlee replaces Churchill as British Prime Minister and immediately flies to the negotiating table at Potsdam. The Potsdam Declaration is issued.
1945	July	28	The Japanese battleships Haruna and Ise are sunk by aircraft from US Task Force 38 while in shallow anchorage at Kure Naval Base.
1945	July	30	The USS Indianapolis is sunk shortly after midnight by a Japanese submarine after having delivered atomic bomb material to Tinian. Because of poor communications, the ship's whereabouts are unknown for some time and many of its men drown or are attacked by sharks in the next four days.
1945	July	31	U.S. conducts air attacks on the cities of Kobe and Nagoya in Japan.
1945	August	1	Ukrainian insurgents attack the police station in Baligrod, Poland. Polish soldiers defend the station, driving off the attackers, who torch several houses as they retreat
1945	August	2	End of the Potsdam Conference: Issues such as the expulsion of Germans from the eastern quarter of Germany and elsewhere in eastern Europe are mandated in the Potsdam Agreement.
1945	August	6	The B-29 bomber Enola Gay drops the first atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima.
1945	August	8	The Soviet Union declares war on Japan; the Soviet invasion of Manchuria begins about an hour later which includes landings on the Kuril Islands. The Japanese have been evacuating in anticipation of this.
1945	August	9	The B-29 bomber Bockscar drops the second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki.
1945	August	14	Japanese military personnel and right-wingers attempt to overthrow their government and prevent the inevitable surrender.
1945	August	14	The last day of United States Force combat actions. All units are frozen in place.
1945	August	15	Emperor Hirohito issues a radio broadcast announcing the Surrender of Japan; though the surrender seems to be "unconditional", the Emperor's status is still open for discussion.
1945	August	15	Victory over Japan Day celebrations take place worldwide.
1945	August	16	Emperor Hirohito issues an Imperial Rescript ordering Japanese forces to cease fire.
1945	August	17	Indonesia declares independence from Japan.
1945	August	17	General Order No. 1 for the surrender of Japan is approved by President Truman.
1945	August	19	At a spontaneous non-communist meeting in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh assume a leading role in the movement to wrest power from the French. With the Japanese still in control of Indochina in the interim, Bảo Đại goes along because he thought that the Viet Minh were still working with the American OSS and could guarantee independence for Vietnam. Later, Ho Chi Minh's guerrillas occupy Hanoi and proclaim a provisional government.
1945	August	19	Hostilities between Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists break into the open.
1945	August	22	Japanese armies surrender to the Red Army in Manchuria.
1945	August	27	Japanese armies in Burma surrender at Rangoon ceremonies.
1945	August	30	Royal Navy force under Rear-Admiral Cecil Harcourt liberates Hong Kong.
1945	August	31	General MacArthur takes over command of the Japanese government in Tokyo.
1945	August
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1945	September	2	The Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
1945	September	2	The commander of the Imperial Japanese Army General Tomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Filipino and American troops at Kiangan, Ifugao in Northern Philippines.
1945	September	2	Ho Chi Minh issues his Proclamation of Independence, drawing heavily upon the American Declaration of Independence from a copy provided by the Office of Strategic Services. Ho declares himself president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and pursues American recognition but is repeatedly ignored by President Truman.
1945	September	2	Japan surrenders. Atom bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.
1945	September	4	The last German troops surrender on Svalbard
1945	September	4	Applications for "voluntary repatriation" to Japan are sought by the Canadian government. Those who do not must move east of the Rockies to prove their loyalty to Canada. "Repatriation" for many means exile to a country they have never seen before.
1945	September	5	Singapore is officially liberated by British and Indian troops.
1945	September	6	The US Initial Post-Surrender Policy for Japan, which governs US policy in the occupation of Japan, is approved by Truman.
1945	September	9	The Japanese troops in China formally surrender, end of the Second Sino-Japanese War.^[9]
1945	September	12	Japanese rule of Korea ends after Governor General Nobuyuki Abe stands down.
1945	September	13	British forces under Major-General Douglas Gracey's 20th Indian Division, some 26,000 men in all, arrive in Saigon to disarm and accept the surrender of the Japanese Occupation Forces in Vietnam south of the 16th parallel. 180,000 Chinese Nationalist soldiers, mainly poor peasants, arrive in Hanoi to disarm and accept surrender north of the line. After looting Vietnamese villages during their entire march down from China, they then proceed to loot Hanoi.
1945	September	16	The Japanese garrison in Hong Kong officially signs the instrument of surrender.
1945	September	22	The British rearm 1,400 French soldiers from Japanese internment camps around Saigon. In Saigon, on the night of 24 September, a mob composed of Viet-Minh militants and sympathizers attacks French colonial administration and kills around 150 European civilians. An estimated 20,000 French civilians live in Saigon.
1945	September	29	US General Robert Milchrist Cannon accepts the surrender of arms from Japanese Navy and Army soldiers on the islands of Miyako and Ishigaki at Sakishima Gunto.
1945	October	1	In Southern Vietnam, a purely bilateral British/French agreement recognizes French administration of the southern zone. In northern Vietnam, Chinese troops go on a "rampage". Hồ's Việt Minh are hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with it.
1945	October	1	The non fraternization directive for U.S. troops against German civilians was rescinded. Previously even speaking to a German could lead to court martial, except for "small children", these had been exempt in June 1945.
1945	October	15	Former Prime Minister Pierre Laval is executed by the French Provisional Government.
1945	October	25	General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, turns over Taiwan to General Chen Yi of the Kuomintang (KMT) military. Chen Yi proclaims that day to be "Taiwan Retrocession Day" and organizes the island into Taiwan Province under the Republic of China.

1945

The Year in Pictures

Pacific Task Force

Canadian Lading Party Hong Kong

HMCS Prince Robert

The Bomb

Canadian Cosgrave - Japanese Surrender

HMCS Uganda

1945

Highlite

NAVY HISTORY - The Pacific War

1945

1945