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This is a timeline of the events that took place during 1945, the last year ofWorld War II.

January 1945

1st

15th

1: The Germans begin a surprise offensive (Operation Nordwind) in northernAlsace.
:Unternehmen Bodenplatte (Operation Baseplate) is launched by the Luftwaffe against western Allied air bases inBelgium and Holland by elements of ten differentJagdgeschwadern (fighter wings), as its last major air offensive of the war in the West.
: American troopskill dozens of German POWs atChenogne

2: 46 AmericanB-29 bombers based near Calcutta, India attacked a railroad bridge nearBangkok,Thailand and other targets in the area.^[1]
: The Japanese increasingly usekamikaze tactics against the US naval forces nearby.

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.

4: US navy air attacks on Formosa (Taiwan)

5: The German offensive Nordwind crosses the border intoAlsace.
: Japanese retreat across theIrrawaddy River inBurma with GeneralSlim's troops in pursuit.

6: American B-29s bomb Tokyo again.

7: Germans, as part of the plan to retakeStrasbourg, break out of the "Colmar Pocket", a bridgehead on theRhine, and head east.

8: The battle of Strasbourg is underway, with Americans in defence of their recent acquisition.

9: Americans land onLuzon.^[1][2] There are more kamikaze attacks on the American navy.

11: The first convoy moves on theLedo Road (or "Stilwell" road) in northern Burma, linking India and China.

12: TheEast Prussian Offensive, a major Red Army offensive inEast Prussia, begins on January 13th. The Soviet Vistula-Oder Offensive begins. Its goal is to capture Poland and Eastern Germany.

13: 1st Byelorussian Front launched its winter offensive towards Pillkallen, East Prussia, meeting heavy resistance from the German3rd Panzer Army.^[1]

14: British forces clear the Roer Triangle duringOperation Blackcock; it is an area noted for its industrial dams.

15: The British commander in Athens, GeneralRonald Scobie, accepts a request for a ceasefire from theGreek People's Liberation Army. This marks the end of theDekemvriana, resulting in clear defeat for the Greek Left.

16: The U.S.First andThird Armies link up following theBattle of the Bulge.

17:Warsaw is entered by Red Army troops.^[1][2] A government favourable to the Communists is installed.
: It is announced officially that theBattle of the Bulge is at an end.

19: Hitler orders that any retreats of divisions or larger units must be approved by him.

20: The Red Army advances into East Prussia. Germans renew the retreat.
:Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a fourth term as U.S. President; Harry Truman is sworn in as Vice President.

23: German jurist and anti-Nazi activistHelmuth James von Moltke was hanged for treason in Berlin.

24: TheBattle of Poznań began for the German-occupied stronghold city ofPoznań in Poland.

25: The American navy bombardsIwo Jima in preparation for an invasion.^{[citation needed]}

27:Auschwitz concentration camp is liberated by Soviet troops.^[1][2]

28: The Red Army completes the occupation ofLithuania.

30: TheMalta Conference (1945) began withWinston Churchill meeting with theCombined 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. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt would join the Conference for one day on 2 February 1945; both would fly to Yalta on 3 February for theYalta Conference with Stalin.

31: The Red Army crosses theOder River into Germany and are now less than 50 miles from Berlin.
: A second invasion on Luzon by Americans lands on the west coast.
: The wholeBurma Road is now opened as theLedo Road linkage with India is complete.

February 1945

1st

15th

2:Ecuador declares war on Germany and Japan.
: Naval docks atSingapore are destroyed by B-29 attacks.

3: TheBattle of Manila (1945) begins: Forces of the U.S. andPhilippines enter Manila. TheManila massacre takes place during the fighting.
: Heavy bombing of Berlin. JudgeRoland Freisler is killed while trying to save court documents.

4: TheYalta Conference ofRoosevelt,Churchill andStalin begins;^[1][2] the main subject of their discussions is postwar spheres of influence.
: Belgium is now cleared of all German forces.

7:Paraguay declares war on Germany and Japan.

9: TheColmar Pocket, the last German foothold west of the Rhine, is eliminated by the French 1st Army.

12:Peru declares war on Germany and Japan.

13: TheBattle of Budapest ends with Soviet victory, after a long defense by the Germans.

13/14: TheBombing of Dresden takes place; it is firebombed by Allied air forces and large parts of the historic city are destroyed.

14: The1945 Bombing of Prague: American planes bomb the wrong city.

15:Venezuela andUruguay declare war on Germany and Japan.

16: American paratroopers and Philippine Commonwealth troops land onCorregidor Island, in Manila Bay. Once the scene of the last American resistance in early 1942, it is now the scene of Japanese resistance.
: American naval vessels bombard Tokyo and Yokohama.

19: U.S. Marines invadeIwo Jima.

21. The Brazilian forces and U.S. Army wins theBattle of Monte Castello

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.

23: U.S. Marinesraise the American flag onMount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
:Turkey declares war on Germany and Japan.^[3]
: In the Philippines, U.S. Army forces staged theRaid on Los Baños freeing 2147 Allied military and civilian prisoners from the Japanese.

24: Egypt declares war on the Axis.^[4] Moments after making this Declaration before Parliament, Prime MinisterAhmad Maher Pasha is assassinated.

25: Taking off on the 24th, a US B-29 incendiary raid on Tokyo, Japan takes place.

26:Syria declares war on Germany and Japan.^[5]
: After ten days of fighting, American and Filipino troops recapture Corregidor.

27:Lebanon declares war on Germany and Japan

28: A Philippine government is established.
: U.S. and Filipino forcesinvadePalawan, an island of the Philippines.

March 1945

1st

15th

1:Saudi Arabia declares war on Germany and Japan.^[6]

3:Manila is fully liberated.^[1][2]
:Battle of Meiktila, Burma comes to an end with GeneralSlim's troops overwhelming the Japanese; the road to Rangoon is now cleared.
: The Allies attempted to destroy V-2s and launching equipment near The Hague by alarge-scale bombardment, but due to navigational errors the Bezuidenhout quarter was destroyed, killing 511 Dutch civilians.
: Finland declares war on Germany, backdated to September 15, 1944.

6: Germans launchan offensive against Soviet forces in Hungary.

7: TheBattle of Remagen: When German troops fail to dynamite theLudendorff Bridge over the Rhine, the U.S. First Army captures the bridge and begins crossing the river. The Army also takesCologne, Germany.^[1][7]
: Germans begin to evacuate Danzig.

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 theCleft chin murder.

9: The USfirebombs Tokyo (the attack was code-namedOperation Meetinghouse),^[8] with heavy civilian casualties.
: Amid rumours of a possible American invasion, Japanese overthrow the Vichy FrenchJean Decoux Government which had been operating independently as the colonial government ofVietnam: they proclaim an "independent"Empire of Vietnam, withEmperorBảo Đại as nominal ruler. PremierTrần Trọng Kim forms the first Vietnamese government.

10: JapaneseFu-Go balloon bombs damage the Manhattan Project'sHanford Site in Washington State slightly, but cause no lasting effects.^[9]

11: Nagoya, Japan is firebombed by hundreds of B-29s.

15: V-2 rockets continue to hit England and Belgium.

16: The German offensive in Hungary ends with another Soviet victory.
: Iwo Jima is finally secured after a month's fighting, in the war's only Marine battle where the number of American casualties is larger than the Japanese's. Sporadic fighting will continue as isolated Japanese fighters emerge from caves and tunnels.

18: Red Army approaches Danzig (postwarGdańsk).

19: U.S. Carrier Task Force 58 conducts heavy bombing of important naval bases in Japan, Kobe and Kure. Fifty miles off Japan, the carrierUSS Franklin (CV-13) is hit by two bombs, killing hundreds and disabling the ship for the remainder of the war.
:Deutsch Schutzen massacre occurs, in which 60 Jews are killed.

20: German GeneralGotthard Heinrici replacesHeinrich Himmler as commander ofArmy Group Vistula, the army group directly opposing the Soviet advance towards Berlin.
: Mandalay liberated by theIndian 19th Infantry Division.
: Tokyo is firebombed again.
: Patton's troops capture Mainz, Germany.

21:Operation Carthage, a British air raid on a Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, in support of theDanish resistance movement takes place.

22-23: US and British forcescross the Rhine at Oppenheim.

23: By this time it is clear that Germany is under attack from all sides.

24:Operation Varsity, an Anglo-American-Canadian airborne assault under Montgomery deployed over the Rhine at Wesel.

27: The Western Allies slow their advance and allow the Red Army to take Berlin.
: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.

29: TheRed Army enters Austria. Other Allies take Frankfurt; the Germans are in a general retreat all over the centre of the country.

30: Red Army forces captureDanzig.

31: General Eisenhower broadcasts a demand for the Germans to surrender.

April 1945

1st

15th

1: U.S. troops start OperationIceberg, which is theBattle of Okinawa. It would have been a leaping off base for amainland invasion.
: Americans retakeLegaspi,Albay in the Philippines.

2: Soviets launch theVienna Offensive against German forces in and around the Austrian capital city.
: German armies are surrounded in theRuhr Pocket.

4:Bratislava, the capital of theSlovak Republic, is overrun by advancing Soviet forces. The remaining members of PresidentJozef Tiso's pro-German government flee to Austria.
: TheOhrdruf death camp is liberated by the Allies.

6: TheSpring 1945 offensive in Italy begins in northern Italy.

7: TheJapanese battleshipYamato is sunk in the waters north ofOkinawa as the Japanese make theirlast major naval operation.

9: TheBattle of Königsberg ends in a Soviet victory. Having been bombed and undr siege for weeks, the people living there as well as soldiers in Konigsberg surrender.
: A heavy bombing atKiel by the RAF destroys the last two major German warships, the heavy cruisersAdmiral Hipper andAdmiral Scheer.
: PastorDietrich Bonhoeffer is executed atFlossenburg prison.

10:Buchenwald concentration camp is liberated by American forces.

11: Japanesekamikaze attacks on American naval ships continue at Okinawa; the carrierEnterprise and the battleshipMissouri are hit.
:Spain breaks off diplomatic relations with Japan.

12: U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly.Harry S. Truman becomes president of the United States.

13: TheVienna Offensive ends with a Soviet victory.
: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 byGermans. Just a few hours later, American troops capturedGardelegen

14: Large-scale firebombing of Tokyo.

15:Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by the British Army.

16: TheBattle of the Seelow Heights and theBattle of the Oder-Neisse begin as the Soviets continue to advance towards the city of Berlin.

17: The Italian town ofMontese is liberated by Brazilian forces after four-dayBattle of Montese.

18:Ernie Pyle, famed war correspondent for the GIs, is killed by machine gun fire onIe Shima, a small island near Okinawa.

19: Switzerland closes its borders with Germany (and the former Austria).
: Allies continue their sweep toward thePo Valley.
: The Soviet advance towards the city of Berlin continues and soon reaches the suburbs.

20: Hitler celebrates his 56th birthday in the bunker in Berlin; reports are that he is in an unhealthy state, nervous, and depressed.

21: Soviet forces underGeorgiy Zhukov's (1st Belorussian Front),Konstantin Rokossovskiy's (2nd Belorussian Front) andIvan Konev's (1st Ukrainian Front) launch assaults on the German forces in and around the city of Berlin in the opening stages of theBattle of Berlin.
: Hitler orders SS-GeneralFelix Steiner to attack the 1st Belorussian Front and destroy it. The ragtag units of "Army Detachment Steiner" are not fully manned.

22: Hitler is informed late in the day that, with the approval ofGotthard 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 ofWilhelm Keitel,Hans Krebs,Alfred Jodl,Wilhelm Burgdorf andMartin Bormann. Hitler's tirade culminates in an oath to stay in Berlin to head up the defence of the city. Hitler orders GeneralWalther Wenck to attack towards Berlin with theTwelfth Army, link up with theNinth Army of GeneralTheodor Busse, and relieve the city. Wencklaunched an attack, but it will come to nothing.

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.
:Albert Speer makes one last visit to Hitler, informing him that he (Speer) ignored theNero Decree forscorched earth.

24: Himmler, ignoring the orders of Hitler, makes a secret surrender offer to the Allies, (led byCount Folke Bernadotte, head of theRed 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.
: Forces of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front link up in the initial encirclement of Berlin.
: Allies encircle the last German armies nearBologna, and the Italian campaign in effect comes to an end.

25:Elbe Day: First contact between Soviet and American troops at the riverElbe, nearTorgau in Germany.

26: Hitler summons Field MarshalRobert 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.

27: The encirclement of German forces in Berlin is completed by the1st Belorussian Front and the1st Ukrainian Front.
: The last German formations withdraw to Norway from Finland; theFinnish flag is raised at the three-country cairn in celebration.
: Head of State for the Italian Social Republic, Benito Mussolini, heavily disguised, is captured in northern Italy while trying to escape to Switzerland.

28: Mussolini and his mistressClara Petacci, are shot, and hanged by the feet upside down in Milan. Other members of hispuppet government are also executed byItalian partisans and their bodies put on display.

The 148th German Division surrender to Brazilian Expeditionary Division.

29:Dachau concentration camp is liberated by the U.S. 7th Army.
: All forces in Italyofficially surrender and a ceasefire is declared.
: Allied air forces commenceOperations Manna and Chowhound, providing food aid to the Netherlands under a truce made with occupying German forces.
: Hitler marries his companionEva Braun.

30: Hitler and his wifecommit suicide with a combination of poison and a gunshot. Before he dies, he dictates hislast will and testament. In itJoseph Goebbels is appointed Reich Chancellor and Grand AdmiralKarl Dönitz is appointed Reich President.

May 1945

1st

15th

1: German GeneralHans Krebs negotiates the surrender of the city of Berlin with Soviet GeneralVasily Chuikov. Chuikov, as commander of theSoviet 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.
: Goebbels and his wife murdertheir children and commit suicide.
:Yugoslavian Partisan leaderJosip Broz Tito and his troops captureTrieste, Italy.
: The war in Italy is over but some German troops are still not accounted for.
: Australian troopsland on Tarakan island off the coast ofBorneo

2: Soviet forces capture theReichstag building andinstall the Soviet flag.
: TheBattle of Berlin ends when German GeneralHelmuth 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.
: General Vietinghoff surrenders his troops in Northern Italy.^[10]
: Krebs,Martin Bormann andWilhelm Burgdorf commit suicide.

3:Rangoon is liberated.
: The German cruiserAdmiral Hipper is scuttled, having been hit heavily by the RAF in April.

4: Karl Dönitz orders all U-boats to cease operations.
: German troops in Denmark, Northern Germany and The Netherlands surrender toMontgomery.
:Neuengamme concentration camp is liberated.

5: Formal negotiations for Germany's surrender begin atReims, France.
:Czech resistance fighters begin thePrague uprising and the Soviets begin thePrague Offensive.
: German troops in the Netherlands officially surrender; Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands accepts the surrender.
:Mauthausen concentration camp is liberated.
: Kamikazes have major successes off Okinawa.
: Japanesefire balloons claim their first and only lives—a Sunday school group inBly, Oregon.

6: German soldiers open fire on a crowd celebrating the liberation of the Netherlands inDam Square. At the brink of peace, 120 people were badly injured and 22 pronounced dead.^[11]
: This date marks the last fighting for American troops in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

7: Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies at theWestern Allied Headquarters inRheims, France at 2:41 a.m. In accordance with orders from Reich PresidentKarl Dönitz, GeneralAlfred Jodl signs for Germany.
: 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 two German planes and returns fire, causing one plane to leave trailing smoke.^[12]

8:Victory in Europe Day: The ceasefire takes effect at one minute past midnight.
: In accordance with Dönitz's orders, Colonel-GeneralCarl Hilpert unconditionally surrenders his troops in theCourland Pocket.
: 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, GeneralWilhelm Keitel signs for Germany.
: The remaining members of PresidentJozef Tiso's pro-GermanSlovak Republic capitulates to the American GeneralWalton Walker'sXX Corps inKremsmünster, Austria.
: ThePrague uprising ends with negotiated surrender withCzech resistance which allowed the Germans in Prague to leave the city.
: In order to disarm the Japanese inVietnam, the Allies divide the country in half at the16th parallel. Chinese Nationalists will move in and disarm the Japanesenorth of the parallel while the British will move in and do the same in thesouth. During the conference, representatives from France request the return of all French pre-war colonies inIndochina. Their request is granted.

9: TheSoviet Union officially pronounces May 9 asVictory Day.
: The Red Army enters Prague.
: The German garrison in theChannel Islands agree to unconditional surrender.
: German troops onBornholm surrender to Soviet troops.

11: The Soviets capture Prague, the last European capital to be liberated. Eisenhower stops Patton from participating in the liberation.
: GermanArmy Group Centre inCzechoslovakia surrenders.
: War inNew Guinea continues, with Australians attackingWewak.

14:Nagoya, Japan, is heavily bombed.
: Fighting in the southern Philippines continues.

14–15: TheBattle of Poljana begins and ends.

15-16: TheBattle of the Malacca Strait took place ending in a British victory and the sinking of theJapanese cruiser Haguro.

20: TheGeorgian Uprising of Texel ends, concluding all World War II conflicts in theNetherlands.

21: SS CommanderHeinrich Himmler, attempting to pass with a forged identity as a common soldier, is arrested at a checkpoint manned by liberated Soviet POWs acting under command of British forces. He would be remanded to British custody on 23 May and there correctly identified.

23: British forces capture and arrest the members of what was left of theFlensburg government. This was the German government formed by Reich President Karl Dönitz after the suicides of bothAdolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels.
: Heavy bombing ofYokohama, an important port and naval base.
:Heinrich Himmler, head of the notorious SS, dies of suicide via cyanide pill.

25: TheBattle of Odžak ends, concluding all World War II conflicts inYugoslavia and Europe.

29: Fighting breaks out in Syria and Lebanon, as nationalists demand freedom from French control.

June 1945

1st

15th

2: Air Group 87 aircraft fromUSSTiconderoga strike airfields onKyushu, Japan, in an attempt to stop special attack aircraft from taking off.^[1]

5: The Allies agree to divide Germany into four areas of control (American, British, French and Soviet).
: The U.S. fleet underWilliam Halsey, Jr., suffers widespread damage from a huge Pacifictyphoon.

10: Australian troopsland in Brunei.

11:Schiermonnikoog, a Dutch island, is the last part of Europe freed by Allied troops.

13: The Australians captureBrunei.
: Japanese AdmiralOta Minoru, along with thousands of his surrounded Naval brigade, commits ritual suicide for failing to defend Okinawa, Japan.^[1]

15:Osaka, Japan, isheavily bombed.

16: The Japanese are in a general retreat in central China.

19: The United Kingdom beginsdemobilization.

22: The defeat of the Japanese on Okinawa is now complete.

26: TheUnited Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.

27: The first oil pump is restored atTarakan Island.^[13]

July 1945

1st

15th

1: Australian troopsland at Balikpapan, Borneo in the Western Allies' last major land operation of the war.

5: GeneralDouglas MacArthur announces that the Philippines have been liberated.

6:Norway declares war on Japan.

10: US NavyFast Carrier Task Force 38 aircraft participate in attacks on Tokyo for the first time.

14: Italy declares war on Japan.

16: The U.S. conducts theTrinity test atAlamogordo, New Mexico, the first test of anuclear weapon.

17: ThePotsdam Conference begins underBritish Prime Minister Churchill,Soviet Prime Minister Stalin and U.S.President Truman. The Allied leaders agree to insist upon theunconditional surrender of Japan.

22: America and Japan engage in a small skirmish in theBattle of Tokyo Bay. The Japanese take slight losses

24: Truman hints at the Potsdam Conference that the United States has nuclear weapons.
: British and Americans commence theBombing of Kure.

26: TheLabour Party win theBritish general election by a landslide.Clement Attlee replaces Churchill asBritish Prime Minister and immediately flies to the negotiating table at Potsdam. ThePotsdam Declaration is issued.

28: The Japanese battleshipsHaruna andIse are sunk by aircraft from USTask Force 38 while in shallow anchorage at Kure Naval Base.

30: TheUSSIndianapolis is sunk shortly after midnight by a Japanese submarine after having delivered atomic bomb material toTinian. 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.

31: U.S. conducts air attacks on the cities ofKobe andNagoya in Japan.

August 1945

1st

15th

1: Ukrainian insurgents attack the police station inBaligrod,Poland. Polish soldiers defend the station, driving off the attackers, who torch several houses as they retreat

2: End of thePotsdam Conference: Issues such as theexpulsion of Germans from the eastern quarter of Germany and elsewhere in eastern Europe are mandated in thePotsdam Agreement.

6: The B-29 bomberEnola Gay drops the firstatomic bomb "Little Boy" onHiroshima.

8: The Soviet Union declares war on Japan; theSoviet invasion of Manchuria begins about an hour later which includes landings on theKuril Islands. The Japanese have beenevacuating in anticipation of this.

9: The B-29 bomberBockscar drops the second atomic bomb "Fat Man" onNagasaki.

10: The Japanese government announced that a message had been sent to the Allies accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration provided that it "does not comprise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of the Emperor as sovereign ruler."

14: Japanese military personnel and right-wingersattempt to overthrow their government and prevent the inevitable surrender.
: The last day of United States Force combat actions. All units are frozen in place.

15:Emperor Hirohito issues a radio broadcast announcing theSurrender of Japan; though the surrender seems to be "unconditional", the Emperor's status is still open for discussion.
:Victory over Japan Day celebrations take place worldwide.

16: Emperor Hirohito issues anImperial Rescript ordering Japanese forces to cease fire.

17:Indonesia declares independence from Japan.
:General Order No. 1 for the surrender of Japan is approved by President Truman.

19: At a spontaneous non-communist meeting inHanoi,Ho Chi Minh and theViet 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 thinks that the Viet Minh are 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.
: Hostilities between Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists break into the open.

20: Nazi collaboratorVidkun Quisling went on trial in Oslo, Norway.

22: Japanese armies surrender to the Red Army in Manchuria.

27: Japanese armies in Burma surrender at Rangoon ceremonies.

30: Royal Navy force under Rear-AdmiralCecil Harcourt liberatesHong Kong.

31: General MacArthur takes over command of the Japanese government in Tokyo.

2: TheJapanese Instrument of Surrender is signed on the deck of theUSS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
: The commander of theImperial Japanese Army, GeneralTomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Filipino and American troops atKiangan, Ifugao in NorthernPhilippines.
: Ho Chi Minh issues hisProclamation of Independence, drawing heavily upon theAmerican Declaration of Independence from a copy provided by theOffice of Strategic Services. Ho declares himself president of theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam and pursues American recognition but is repeatedly ignored by President Truman.

• Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II

• Stanley, Peter (1997).Tarakan. An Australian Tragedy. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.ISBN 1-86448-278-8.

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