Diary April 18, 1945

War Diary, 04-1945, Diary WW2, Year 1945 / 1 minute of reading

Huge German prisoners columns are returned, American combat troops proceed.

Diary for Wednesday, April 18, 1945:

Western Front

370,000-strong Army Group B. surrenders in Ruhr ‘Pocket’; Field Marshal Model commits suicide.
Royal Engineers begin constructing Bailey Bridge over the Rhine, near Rees. Canadians reach Zuider Zee. Patton crosses Czech border.

Air War

Germany: RAF drop 5,000 t. bombs on Heligoland.
Oberst Steinhoff (176 victories) suffers hideous burns when his Me 262 crashes near Munich; he recovers to become C-in-C of post-war West German Luftwaffe.

Okinawa

Ernie Pyle, Pulitzer Prizewinning war correspondent, killed on Ie Shima; aged 45.

Italy

British 8th Army capture Argenta, key to the ‘Argenta Gap‘.

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.