http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/2/10.htm
March 10th, 1945 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Unease appears to be growing in Britain and America about the air raids which devastated Dresden last month. Concern has been expressed in the House of Commons, while some US newspapers have echoed the German accusation that it was “terror bombing”. In order to counter this criticism, the authorities here are arguing that the city was an important rail junction and as such was a key centre for organizing German resistance to the Red Army. Nevertheless there is a strong feeling, particularly among British church leaders, that at this stage of the war such destruction and the death of so many civilians cannot be justified.
ENGLISH CHANNEL: U-275 (type ) is sunk south of Newhaven, in position 50.36N, 00.04E, by a mine. 48 dead (all hands lost).
U-681 (type VIIC) is sunk at 0930hrs west of Isles of Scilly, in position 49.52.433N, 06.38.633W, by depth charges from a US Liberator aircraft (VPB-103). 11 dead and 38 survivors. The boat struck a rock while submerged near the Bishop Rock and was forced to surface and was then attacked by the Liberator aircraft. It sank roughly 4 miles to the north-east of the Isles of Scilly.
(Alex Gordon)
NORTH SEA: Minesweeping trawler KNM Nordhav II torpedoed and sunk by U-714 off Dundee, Scotland. 6 of the crew went down with the ship with 17 survivors.
GERMANY: The Allied Line is on the West bank of the Rhine from Koblenz north.
The Germans destroy the Wessel Bridge on the River Rhine . (Michael Ballard)
Berlin: Hitler retires von Rundstedt, who alienated him by correctly predicting disaster in the Ardennes, from his post of C-in-C West.
German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring arrives from Italy to take command of the Western Front.
U-2366, U-2544, U-3041, U-3527 commissioned.
JAPAN: Tokyo: In an awesome firebombing attack, US B-29 Superfortresses last night gutted 15 square miles of closely-packed industrial areas in Tokyo, killing 83,793 people and wounding 40,918. The death toll could even be as many as 130,000; certainly around one million are homeless, and 267,171 buildings have been destroyed in the most destructive and lethal air raid of the war so far, anywhere in the world. 279 of 325 bombers attacked, led in over Tokyo by B-29 Pathfinders at 300mph, dropping a total of 1,665 tons of fire bombs. Bright flashes lit up the sky as the incendiaries fell. Fanned by a stiffening breeze the fires which blossomed in the flimsy wood-and-plaster buildings spread quickly into a giant inferno.
In order to ensure bombing accuracy the B-29s had to fly at low altitudes between 4,900ft and 9,200ft where they were vulnerable to Japanese AA guns and night fighters. However, surprise and the inadequacy of Japan’s defences resulted in only 14 B-29s being lost. The catastrophic raid has had a profound affect on Japanese morale. The dead are piled high on bridges and roads, and in canals.
Twenty other B-29s attack alternate targets.
Air forces leaders see, in the enormous destruction thus wreaked, evidence that the Japanese could be forced to surrender without the need for a ground invasion and the resulting carnage. It has confirmed the views of backers of strategic bombing.
Japan declares Vietnam to be independent. This increases the anti-colonial feeling that would leave the region war-torn for the next quarter century... A legacy of WWII. (Michael Ballard)
Japanese troops smash the French and take over the administration of Indochina.
MALAYA - (Mission 43) Twenty-four of 29 40th BG B-29’s attack marshalling yards at Kuala Lumpur with 100 tons of bombs; one of the B-29’s drops over half of its bombs at Alor Star Airfield and another attacks a freighter in the channel leading to Port Swettenham; and three B-29’s attack Khao Huakhang Thailand.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: US troops land on Mindanao.
On the Villa Verde Trail, Luzon, Pfc Thomas E. Atkins, US Army, Company A, 127th Infantry, 32d Infantry Division, fights with such gallantry repelling an attack by two companies of Japanese infantry that he is later awarded the Medal of Honor. (Drew Philip Halévy)
Navy and civilian nurses interned at Los Banos, Philippines flown back to US. Navy nurses awarded Bronze Star.
CANADA: HMC MTB 485 and 491 paid off.
U.S.A.: The US Navy receives its first Boeing XF8B-1.
Minesweeper USS Waxwing launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The unescorted SS Baron Jedburgh was torpedoed and sunk by U-532 NE of Bahia. One gunner was lost. The master, 52 crewmembers and five gunners were rescued - On 22 March, the master and 32 survivors landed at Cabedello, Brazil. The remaining 25 survivors were picked up on 16 March by the British SS Sandown Castle and landed at Montevideo ten days later.
Brave American soldiers. Risking their lives for the freedom they were fighting for.
The story of the selfless group that risked their lives by dashing on to the bridge at the Rhine to pull the wires minutes before detonation - what amazing guys.