Slovakia, March 25th, 1945
The Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front and the Romanian 1st and 4th Armies launched a new offensive to liberate Brno and Bratislava.
Iwo Jima, March 26th, 1945
After five weeks of fighting the island was finally cleared of Japanese defenders. A handful of Japanese holdouts would still fight on the last not surrendering till 1949.
Yugoslavia, March 26th, 1945
Sarajevo was liberated by the Yugoslav 3rd Cavalry division and local NOVJ forces. The defending German and Croatian forces had not quite collapsed completely, just yet and were even inflicted noticeable casualties on the attacking troops. But they had lost already nearly 30,000 men in three days of fighting with entire units disintegrating under the massive Allied assault.
Buenos Aires, March 27th, 1945
Argentina finally declared war against Germany. The event would be barely noticed...
East Prussia, March 28th, 1945
The Soviet 3rd Belorussian Front completed the destruction of the German 4th Army. The same day with further bad news from all fronts and US forces capturing Wiesbaden in the west Hitler would sack Heinz Guderian from command of the OKH. The sacking would not change the bleak German prospects, with the Soviets capturing Danzig on March 30th.
Okinawa, April 1st, 1945
The US III Amphibius Corps and XXIV Corps begun landing on the island under the cover of a massive naval force that included 44 aircraft carriers, 5 of them British and 20 battleships, 4 of them British.
Austria, April 2nd, 1945
The Soviet forces of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts were by now directly threatening Vienna. On April 4th the Soviets would liberate Bratislava in Slovakia. By April 7th they were engaged in heavy Urban fighting against the II SS Panzer Corps defending the Austrian capital.
Italy, April 3rd, 1945
The night sky was lit up by the fire of thousands of guns as the three Allied armies in Italy launched their long anticipated spring offensive, pushing towards Gorizia, Trieste and the Brenner pass. The German forces and a handful of Italian collaborators,
Roberto Farinacci's "Italian Social Republic" was little more than a shadow with nearly all of Italy liberated and the Italian provisional government fielding over 123,000 front-line troops in addition to air and naval forces and about 200,000 troops in rear area duties on the Allied side, fought back hard but given the disparity of forces the outcome shouldn't be much in doubt. The Allied 15th Army Group had over 1,187,000 million men, Americans, British, French, Italian, Greek, Irish and Brazilians available facing a little over 532,000 Germans.
Norway, April 3rd, 1945
Not much heavy fighting had taken place since the Swedish army had made its way on the Atlantic cutting Norway and the German forces in half. Both the Swedish and the Germans knew it was just a matter of time for German supplies to run out. It had taken more than many had hoped much to the discomfort of Norwegian civilians in the north of Norway, the tens of thousands of German soldiers there had had little qualms to let Norwegians starve if it would keep them fed but this had only prolonged things. German forces in Norway surrendered.
Istria, April 3rd, 1945
The Greek 13th Marine Infantry Regiment hit the beaches. As soon as the marines had secured the beachhead the II Infantry Division would follow them. Nearly the entire Allied amphibious lift capacity had been removed from the Mediterranean to support operations against Japan. But between landing ships of the Hellenic Navy and what few British ships Churchill had managed to keep in the Mediterranean there was just about enough for a divisional seized landing in support of the main offensive. After all if the Allies were short of landing ships, they were not short of naval firepower. The battleships Lorraine, Roma, Italia and Salamis along several cruisers were available to deal with German coastal artillery and strongpoints...
Moscow, April 5th, 1945
The Soviets renounced the 1941 neutrality pact with Japan. With the war in Europe still underway the the Soviets forced in 1942 and 1943 to reduce their forces in the Far East even more than what they had done in 1941 to cover the needs of the Anatolian front, this mattered little at the moment. But the war in Europe by now would be ending sooner rather than later.
Italy, April 6th, 1945
Trieste was liberated by the 1st South African Armoured Division. The Germans were still offering strong resistance but by now had to consider the possibility of the Allied offensives in Italy and Yugoslavia converging on them...
Off Okinawa, April 7th, 1945
HMS Lion and HMS Anson had turned to intercept Yamato on news that the gigantic Japanese battleship had sortied and the head of a Japanese squadron to attack the Allied landings. But the hopes of the British captains they would get to engage would be dashed as Yamato would come under attack by the aircraft of fifteen aircraft carriers and get sunk by them.
Yugoslavia, April 10th, 1945
The previous day advancing Allied forces had linked up with the Yugoslav Partizan forces in Split. Now it was the turn of Zagreb to be liberated, or captured depending on whom you asked. The next day Allied forces would reach Sibenic, on the 12th liberate Bihac and on the 14th Zara, promptly proclaimed to be Zadar by the Yugoslavs.
Warm Springs, April 13th, 1945
President Roosevelt died at age 63. Vice President Harry Truman would be inaugurated president in Washington the same day.
Germany, April 15th, 1945
The British 21st Army group had stopped its advance eastwards 200km from Berlin under orders from general Eisenhower turning instead northwards to secure Bremen and Hamburg. At the same time twin Soviet offensives under marshals Zhukov and Koniev respectively were developing against Berlin from the East. That the two marshals worried more about who would reach Berlin first than the Germans said enough of the German situation.
Austria, April 16th, 1945
Moroccan and Greek troops of the French 2nd Army secured the Brenner pass from the Germans. Three days later Allied forces would secure Innsbruck and continue their advance north towards Munich.
Yugoslavia, April 18th, 1945
Allied forces advancing from Italy linked with forces advancing north through Yugoslavia at Ljubljana. The previous day the British 8th Army had secured Fiume, Yugoslav and Greek forces of general Katsimitros Adriatic Army Detachment would reach it on the 19th, the same day that the Greek II Infantry Division would clear the last German defenders from Pola. The divisions of Slim's 10th Army and the Greek 1st Army were already racing northwards into Austria, Graz would fall to the Polish 2 Dywizja Strzelców Pieszych on April 20th, as the Yugoslavs royal army and NOVJ alike were clearing the remaining Croatian army forces that had been cut off by the Allied advance. Not everything was well for the Allies though as tensions had arisen between the Yugoslavs and the Italians over the control of just liberated Istria...
Germany, April 20th, 1945
Berlin came under Soviet artillery fire. It would take four more days for the Soviets to completely encircle Berlin.
