11 May 1945
  • Kiyoshi Ogawa passed away. ww2dbase [Kiyoshi Ogawa | CPC]
  • Various German units in Czechoslovakia, Dunkirk in France, and the Aegean Sea islands surrendered. ww2dbase [Germany's Surrender | TH]
  • USS Bunker Hill was hit by two Japanese special attack aircraft off Okinawa, Japan, killing 373. ww2dbase [Bunker Hill | CPC]
  • A Japanese Navy Ohka combat sortie by 4 G4M bombers off Okinawa, Japan heavily damaged American destroyer USS Hugh W. Hadley. On the island, US troops launched an offensive toward Naha. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | CPC]
  • 92 American B-29 bombers attacked the Kawanishi aircraft factories near Kobe, Japan. ww2dbase [Bombing of Tokyo and Other Cities | CPC]
  • The Australians launched their final assault on the last Japanese strongpoint on the northern coast of Wewak, New Guinea. Cut off from support and defending a backwater that had been by-passed in the Pacific War, the Japanese nevertheless fought on fanatically until the 23 May when the surviving sick, starving and broken force retreated into the mountains. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | AC]
  • The Target Committee of the Manhattan Project, led by Robert Oppenheimer, decided the best targets of the atomic bomb were Kyoto, Niigata, Hiroshima, Yokohama, and Kokura. ww2dbase [Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | CPC]
  • German President Karl Dönitz ordered all promotions and awards to cease. ww2dbase [Karl Dönitz | CPC]
  • HMS Cumberland detached with FS Richelieu and destroyers to be in position 50 miles ahead of main body of TF61 in 6 Degree Channel. ww2dbase [Cumberland | Richelieu | DS]
Caroline Islands
  • Submarine I-369 departed Woleai, Caroline Islands with 60 evacuees and 2 boxes of ashes of killed servicemen. ww2dbase [I-369 | Woleai | CPC]
Czechoslovakia
  • The Soviet Prague Strategic Offensive in Czechoslovakia concluded. On the same day, SMERSH agents arrested many Russian Ă©migrĂ©s in Prague; in 2003, the Czech government would name this day "the day of the destruction of Russian intellectuals". ww2dbase [Prague Strategic Offensive | Prague | CPC]
Germany
  • Military medical doctor Lieutenant Colonel Faust Shkaravsky of Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front concluded that one of the two bodies Soviet SMERSH agents retrieved near the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany was that of Adolf Hitler's. ww2dbase [Reich Chancellery | Adolf Hitler | Berlin | CPC]
  • Soviet counterintelligence official Pavel Meshik reported to the Soviet high command in Berlin, Germany that Soviet discipline was poor, and that lootings and rapings continued to occur in and around the German capital. ww2dbase [Battle of Berlin | Berlin | CPC]
Japan Pacific Ocean
  • USS Shamrock Bay departed waters off Okinawa, Japan, sailing for Guam, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Shamrock Bay | CPC]
  • Fumihiro Mitsuyama (born Tak Kyonghyong), flying a Ki-43 aircraft, died in battle off Okinawa, Japan as a special attack pilot. ww2dbase [Tak Kyonghyong | CPC]
Singapore Taiwan
  • Four PV-1 aircraft of US Navy VPB-137 squadron attacked Kagi butanol plant, Taiwan. ww2dbase [Kagi, Tainan | CPC]
  • US Far East Air Force B-25 bombers based in the Philippine Islands attacked targets in the towns of Kagi (now Chiayi) and Koshun in Taiwan. ww2dbase [Kagi, Tainan | CPC]
United Kingdom United States Photo(s) dated 11 May 1945
Front: Simpson, Patton, Spaatz, Eisenhower, Bradley, Hodges, Gerow. Back: Stearley, Vandenburg, Smith, Weiland, and Nugent. 12th Army Group Headquarters Bad Wildungen, Germany, 11 May 1945Transfer of wounded from USS Bunker Hill to USS Wilkes Barre, who were injured during fire following suicide dive bombing attack off Okinawa, 11 May 1945German citizens made aware of the atrocities at a nearby prisoners of war camp for captured Soviets, Suttrop, Germany, May 1945Marc Mitscher and Arleigh Burke aboard USS Enterprise, 11 May 1945
See all photos dated 11 May 1945

11 May 1945 Interactive Map

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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