Editing 1945 (section)

===March===
{{Main|March 1945}}
* [[March 1]] – President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] gives what will be his last address to a [[joint session of the United States Congress]], reporting on the [[Yalta Conference]].
* [[March 2]]
** Former U.S. Vice-president [[Henry A. Wallace]] starts his term of office as [[United States Secretary of Commerce]], serving under President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]].
** The rocket-propelled [[Bachem Ba 349]] ''Natter'' is first test launched at [[Stetten am kalten Markt]]. The launch fails and the pilot, [[Lothar Sieber]], dies.<ref>''Year by Year – 1945''. [[History International]].</ref>
* [[March 3]] – WWII:
** Finland declares war on the [[Axis powers]].
** United States and Filipino troops take [[Battle of Manila (1945)|Manila]], [[Philippines]].
** [[Pawłokoma massacre]]: A Polish [[Home Army]] unit massacres between 150 and 500 Ukrainian civilians in the Polish village of [[Pawłokoma]].
** [[Bombing of the Bezuidenhout]]: The British [[Royal Air Force]] accidentally bombs the [[Bezuidenhout]] neighbourhood in [[The Hague]], Netherlands, killing 511 people.
* [[March 4]]
** In the United Kingdom, [[Elizabeth II|Princess Elizabeth]] (later Queen Elizabeth II), joins the [[Auxiliary Territorial Service]] (ATS) as a truck driver/mechanic in London.
** The Swiss cities of [[Basel]] and [[Zürich]] are [[Aerial incidents in Switzerland in World War II#Zürich and Basel|accidentally bombed]] by the United States.<ref>{{cite book |title=Air University Review |date=1976 |publisher=Department of the Air Force |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=py6oImEZoDMC&pg=RA3-PA20 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[March 5]] – WWII: Brazilian troops take Castelnuovo ([[Vergato]]), in the last operations of the Allied [[Operation Encore]].
* [[March 6]]
** A Communist-led government is formed in [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] under [[Petru Groza]], following [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] intervention.
** Resistance fighters accidentally ambush and attempt to execute SS general [[Hanns Albin Rauter]], the arch-persecutor of the Dutch.
* [[March 7]] – WWII: At the end of [[Operation Lumberjack]], American troops seize the [[Ludendorff Bridge]] over the [[Rhine]] at [[Remagen]], Germany and begin to cross; in the next 10 days, 25,000 troops with equipment are able to cross.
* [[March 8]]
** [[Josip Broz Tito]] forms a [[Provisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia]], in the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]].
** Nazi authorities kill 117 Dutch men, in reprisal for the attempted murder of [[Hanns Albin Rauter]].
** [[Operation Sunrise (World War II)|Operation Sunrise]]: [[Waffen-SS]] General [[Karl Wolff]] meets with [[Allen Welsh Dulles]] of the United States [[Office of Strategic Services]] at [[Lucerne]], Switzerland, to negotiate the surrender of the [[Axis powers|Axis]] forces in Italy to the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]].
* [[March 9]]–[[March 10|10]] – WWII: [[Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)|Bombing of Tokyo]]: [[USAAF]] [[B-29 Superfortress|B-29]] [[bomber]]s attack Tokyo, Japan, with [[Incendiary device|incendiary bombs]], killing 100,000 citizens in the firebombing. It is the single most destructive conventional air attack of the war.
* [[March 11]]
** The [[Empire of Japan]] establishes the [[Empire of Vietnam]], a [[puppet state]] which will last only until August 23, with [[Bảo Đại]] as its ruler.
** The [[1945 Sammarinese general election|Sammarinese general election]] gives [[San Marino]] the world's first democratically elected [[communist]] government, which will hold power until [[1957]].<ref>{{cite book|editor1=[[Dieter Nohlen|Nohlen, Dieter]] |editor2=Stöver, Philip |year=2010|title=Elections in Europe: A data handbook|location=Baden-Baden|publisher=Nomos|page=1678|isbn=978-3-8329-5609-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Alan James|last=Mayne|title=From Politics Past to Politics Future: An Integrated Analysis of Current and Emergent Paradigms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MkTz6Rq7wUC&pg=PA59|access-date=2013-08-31|year=1999|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-96151-0|page=59}}</ref>
* [[March 12]] – WWII: [[Swinemünde]] is destroyed by the USAAF, killing an estimated 8,000 to 23,000 civilians, mostly refugees saved by [[Operation Hannibal]].
* [[March 15]]–[[March 31|31]] – WWII: The Soviet [[Red Army]] carries out the [[Upper Silesian Offensive]].
* [[March 15]] – The [[17th Academy Awards]] ceremony is held, broadcast via radio in the United States for the first time. [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]] goes to ''[[Going My Way]]''.
* [[March 16]] – WWII:
** The [[Battle of Iwo Jima]] unofficially ends.
** The [[Bombing of Würzburg in World War II|Bombing of Würzburg]], as part of the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany, destroys 89% of the city and causes 4,000 deaths.
* [[March 17]] – WWII: [[Kobe]], Japan [[Bombing of Kobe in World War II|is fire-bombed]] by 331 [[B-29 Superfortress|B-29]] bombers, killing over 8,000 people.
* [[March 18]] – WWII: 
** The 40th Infantry Division, spearheaded by the 185th US Infantry Regiment, lands unopposed in [[Tigbauan]] forcing the Japanese forces to surrender and General [[Macario Peralta]] and Gen. Gen. Eichelberger to declare the [[Panay Liberation Day |Liberation of Panay, Romblon and Guimaras]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Proclamation No. 430, s. 1989 - DECLARING THE EIGHTEENTH DAY OF MARCH OF EVERY YEAR AS VICTORY DAY IN THE ISLANDS OF PANAY AND ROMBLON, INCLUDING THE CITIES OF ILOILO AND ROXAS |url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1989/07/21/proclamation-no-430-s-1989/ |access-date=March 18, 2024 |website=Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines}}</ref>
** 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bombing Berlin: The Biggest Wartime Raid on Hitler's Capital |url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/bombing-berlin-biggest-wartime-raid-hitlers-capital |access-date=March 18, 2024 |website=The National WWII Museum - New Orleans|date=March 14, 2020 }}</ref>
** [[Battle of Kolberg (1945)|Battle of Kolberg]] concludes with the Baltic seaport (designated a key ''Festung'' (fortress) by the Germans) taken by Polish and Soviet forces and ethnic Germans evacuated or expelled.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mapy.blink.pl/kolberg/|title=Festung Kolberg 1945|lang=pl|accessdate=2024-03-21|archive-date=August 11, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070811131030/http://mapy.blink.pl/kolberg/|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref>
* [[March 19]] – WWII:
** [[Adolf Hitler]] issues the "[[Nero Decree]]" ordering that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed ahead of Allied advances, but [[Albert Speer]], placed in charge of the implementation, deliberately disobeys it.
** Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the [[aircraft carrier]] [[USS Franklin (CV-13)|USS ''Franklin'']], killing about 800 of her crewmen and crippling the ship.
* [[March 20]] – WWII: Hitler dismisses [[Heinrich Himmler]] from his military command.<ref name=Duffy/>
* [[March 21]] – WWII:
** British troops liberate [[Mandalay]], [[British rule in Burma|Burma]].
** [[Kingdom of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]]n and [[Soviet]] troops successfully defend the north bank of the [[Drava River]], as the [[Battle of the Transdanubian Hills]] concludes.
* [[March 22]]
** The [[Arab League]] is formed, with the adoption of a charter in [[Cairo]], Egypt.
** The [[Hildesheim Cathedral|Cathedral]] and the historic centre of [[Hildesheim]] in Germany are destroyed in a [[Bombing of Hildesheim in World War II|bombing of the city]].
* [[March 24]]
** WWII: [[Operation Varsity]] – Two airborne divisions capture bridges across the river [[Rhine]] to aid the Allied advance.
** The cartoon character [[Sylvester (Looney Tunes)|Sylvester the cat]] debuts in ''[[Life with Feathers]]''.
* [[March 26]] – WWII: The [[Battle of Iwo Jima]] officially ends, with the destruction of the remaining areas of Japanese resistance, although there are [[Japanese holdout]]s here until 1949.
* [[March 27]] – WWII:
** The [[United States Army Air Forces]] begins [[Operation Starvation]], laying [[naval mine]]s in many of Japan's seaways.
** [[Argentina]] declares war on [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] and [[Empire of Japan|Japan]].
* [[March 29]]
** WWII: The [[Red Army]] almost destroys the [[4th Army (Wehrmacht)|German 4th Army]], in the [[Heiligenbeil Pocket]] in [[East Prussia]].
** The "Clash of Titans": [[George Mikan]] and [[Bob Kurland]] duel at [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]] in New York, as [[Oklahoma State University–Stillwater|Oklahoma State University]] defeats [[DePaul University|DePaul]] 52–44 in [[basketball]].
* [[March 30]] – WWII:
** The [[Red Army]] pushes most of the Axis forces out of Hungary into Austria.
** American official [[Alger Hiss]] is congratulated in Moscow for his part in bringing the positions of the Western powers and the Soviet Union closer to each other, at the [[Yalta Conference]].