MARCH 1945. Hard combat continues on Iwo Jima. Manila has been declared free, but fighting continues. In Europe, prepare for Spring attack on Germany.
    Mar 4 . B-29, out of fuel, lands on Iwo Jima ; 1st of over 2,400 such emergency landings.
    Mar 5 . Bashaw (SS-241) sinks 2 tankers off Indochina. Subs, B-24s, B-25s sink 6 subchasers.
    Mar 6 . 28 P-51 Mustangs and 12 P-61 Black Widows's land on Iwo Jima.
    Mar 7 . Remagen Bridge over Rhine captured intact.
    Mar 8 . AAF B-24, B-25 bombers sink 8 ships is various areas.
      1,200 heavies bomb 6 benzol plants in Germany.
    Mar 9-10. 279 B-29's, of 325 airborne from Guam, Tinian, and Saipan, blast Tokyo urban area with incendiaries, destroying more than 267,000 buildings about one-fourth in the city and killing more than 83,000 people. This death total is the highest of any single day's action during the war, (exceeding the deaths caused by each atomic bomb). 20 other B-29's bomb alternates. 14 B-29s are lost.
      24 B-29's bomb marshalling yards and air field at Kuala Lumpur.
      US forces land on Mindanao, P.I.
    Mar 11. 285 B-29's bomb Nagoya urban area with incendiaries
      Figthers start escort operations from Iwo Jima.
    Mar 12. 1,309 heavies and 523 P-51 strike in Germany.
      790 B-24's and B-17's bomb Austrian oil refineries
    Mar 13. 274 B-29's bombs Osaka with incendiaries.
    Mar 14. B-29s runs out of bombs.
      Carrier TF 58 heads for Okinawa with 88 warships.
    Mar 15. TF 92 from Alaska bombards Japanese installations on Matsuwa, Kurils.
    Mar 16. Iwo Jima is declared secured. 23,000 Marine and 2,800 Navy casualties.
      307 B-29's firebomb Kobe.
    Mar 17. 1,260 heavy bombers hit 2 synthetic oil plants . 650 medium bombers attack rails . Fighters support Remagen bridgehead.
    Mar 18. TF 58 bomb airfields on southern Kyushu. Japanese planes bomb carriers Enterprise (CV-6) and Yorktown (CV-10) damaging both. Intrepid (CV-11) is crashed by kamikaze and hit by friendly fire.
      B-29's continue incendiary raids on Nagoya ; this mission ends the March fire raids on Japanese cities ; three week lull, out of bombs.
      P-51's from Iwo Jima dive-bomb radar and radio installations and barges at Chichi Jima.
      Future President Bush was shot down bombing that radio station the previous September.
      US forces land on Panay, P.I.
    Mar 19 . TF 58 pounds airfields on Kyushu, shipping at Kure and Kobe, Honshu, damage IJN ships at dock at Kure and Osaka.
      Japanese planes bomb Wasp (CV-18) off Shikoku, while friendly fire hits Essex (CV-9) ; Kamikaze damages Franklin (CV-13) off Kyushu, 800 killed.
      16 P-51's from Iwo Jima and 12 Guam-based B-24's bomb and strafe Chichi Jima
      Minesweepers head for Okinawa.
    Mar 20. Enterprise (CV-6) is damaged by friendly fire off Japan.
      Tenth AF P-47's sweep roads Central Burma.
      Fourteenth AF P-38's sweep roads in Indo China .
    Mar 21. Mandalay, Burma regained.
      1st attack by Baka piloted bombs in unsuccessful attack on TF 58.
      P-63 King Cobra from Walla Walla, WA, intercepts Japanese balloon1 near Redmond, and, after chase that includes 2 refueling stops, shoots it down near Reno.
      Fire support ships head for Okinawa.
    Mar 22. Patton & Montgomery cross Rhine.
      Arab League declares war on Axis
      76 B-29's, operating in 2 waves, blast storage dumps at Rangoon.
    Mar 23. Carrier TF 58 begins daily strikes against Japanese shipping and installations in the Okinawa area.
    Mar 24. TF 59 bombards Okinawa.
      Entire 8 ship convoy to reinforce Okinawa sunk by carrier air.
      34 B-24's, 30-plus B-25's and over 100 FBs pound rails in Yellow River areas.
    Mar 25. Marines complete reduction of final resistance pocket on Iwo Jima.
      TF 54 bombard Kerama Retto and SE coast of Okinawa, Ryukyus; bombardment continues daily. Kamikazes damage ships off Okinawa.
      LSTs head for Okinawa.
    Mar 26. Enemy makes final banzai on Iwo Jima in early morning. Capture phase of Iwo Jima ends at 0800.
      22,082 US casualties, 21,300 enemy killed and 212 taken prisoner.
      Army force lands on Kerama Retto, 30-miles from Okinawa. to be used as replenishment anchorage.
      Kamikazes and bombers damage 9 ships from battleships to minesweepers.
      Army lands on Cebu, P.I.
      British Pacific Fleet (TF-57) arrives to help protect left flank, Sakishima Group of islands.
    Mar 27. 94 B-29s mine the Shimonoseki Straits and the waters of Suo Nada, Japan. This operation and 6 that follow, support the coming Okinawa campaign.
      Last V2 rocket launched, hits London. Started 8Sep44.
    Mar 28. Japanese convoys and shipping sunk from Indochina to Formosa.
    Mar 29. Carrier TF 58 attack airfields and Japanese shipping in the Kagoshima Bay area.
      Attacks throughout S China Sea damage Japanese hospital ship off Da Nang.
    Mar 30. Soviet troops take Vienna.
      Over 1,250 USAAF heavy bombers hit U-boat yards and ports at Wilhelmshaven Bremen, and Hamburg.
      87 B-29s mine the Shimonoseki Straits and the waters off Kure, Hiroshima, and Sasebo, Japan.
      31 Iwo Jima-based P-51's bomb and strafe Haha Jima
      Indianapolis (CA-35) is damaged by kamikaze off Okinawa - retires to Kerama Retto for temp repairs then steams stateside.
      Keise Shima taken, 6 miles from Okinawa, as artillery position.
    Mar 31. 15 P-51's from Iwo Jima bomb and strafe vessels and installations on Chichi Jima.2
      Landing force arrives off Okinawa.
    < Feb     1945     April >
    AAF Theater Key : Pacific ; Europe ; SW Pac ; China ; Burma ; America.
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    1 . The Japanese launched 9,300 balloons with 5 bombs each to be carried by wind to North America. 300 were observed over US. Six people killed. Events kept secret. Hearing no results, Japan stopped.
    2 . President Bush was shot down attacking radio stations on this mountainous island from a carrier several months earlier. Chichi Jima was an American coaling station from 1853 till captured by Japan in 1862 during the US Civil War and unable to respond.