506th FG Gazette
Mission notes, people, and progress—dispatches worth keeping.
LOCAL NEWS
IWO JIMA
Carl Molesworth "Very Long Range P-51 Mustang Units of the Pacific War"
28 May 1945 NEWS FLASH - first complete Japan mission accomplished this day by 506th FG!
This morning 53 aircraft of the 506th were airborne at 1007 • The rendezvous was made as planned and the Navigator B-29's delivered the Group to the departure point at 1340.
Capt. JJ Grant Letters from Iwo Jima The Air War
It's 9:30 AM and I had been up over two hours on this day, when i was sure that I would be awake or rather asleep for at least two days for three days they had planned a mission to an airfield north of Tokyo. The first day the field didn't clear in time for us to get back. The second day the mainland was clogged with weather and again it was postponed. That night they changed the lineup to all Flight Commanders and Assistant Flight Commanders and so it was when on Monday the 28th we all climbed into our Mustangs with a beautiful blue sky above and with the only obstacle in our path a cold front and clouds at 20,000 feet as reported by the weatherman.
We took off individually at 9:30am to the north of the island and then the first of many problems on a trip such as occur. I now circle for one hour until all three squadrons are in formation with a navigational heading 1329 and the problems of gas started to worry me. Colonel Brown led my Flight Leader Bellhorn was on his wing, Major DeJarnette had Miller as his Element Leader, and I was his wingman. Miller was flying second element for the first time and his life. I start listening to my engine for three solid hours. I jockeyed back and forth trying to keep some semblance of formation. Most of the time there behavior practically all over the sky. Water is another problem, great vast expenses of water that look as innocent and placid below. Sighted Chichi Jima, Ha Ha Jima 150 miles out. My old motor was purring like a kitten.
WORLD NEWS May 1945
- 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. : Goebbels and his wife murder their children and commit suicide. : Yugoslavian Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito and his troops capture Trieste, Italy. : The war in Italy is over but some German troops are still not accounted for. : Australian troops land on Tarakan island off the coast of Borneo.
- 2: Soviet forces capture the Reichstag building and install the Soviet flag. : 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. : General Vietinghoff surrenders his troops in Northern Italy.[10] : Krebs, Martin Bormann and Wilhelm Burgdorf commit suicide.
- 3: Rangoon is liberated. : The German cruiser Admiral 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 to Montgomery. : Neuengamme concentration camp is liberated.
- 5: Formal negotiations for Germany's surrender begin at Reims, France. : Czech resistance fighters begin the Prague uprising and the Soviets begin the Prague Offensive. : German troops in the Netherlands officially surrender; Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands accepts the surrender.
- 6: Mauthausen concentration camp is liberated.
: Kamikazes have major successes off Okinawa.
: Japanese fire balloons claim their first and only lives—a Sunday school group in Bly, Oregon.
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.
This date marks the last fighting for American troops in Europe.
- The front page of The Montreal Daily Star announcing the German surrender, May 7, 1945
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.
: 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 .
June 1945
