May 15, 1945 - Tuesday - 80 years ago today

Status - John Skinner - USS St. Croix

The St. Croix left New Caledonia on the 3rd with a complement of troops for the Philippines.  The forces would be landed at Tarragona on the east side on Mindanao, for mop up operations.

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Fighting continues on Okinawa, in the Philippines and in New Guinea.  Many ships continue to be damaged or sunk by kamikaze aircraft near Okinawa.

V-E Day

On the 8th, the formal surrender documents were signed by Nazi representatives in Berlin; May 8th became Victory in Europe Day.  There were celebrations, but many of them were muted as the path to, and cost of, victory in the Pacific was still unclear. Prime Minister Churchill and President Truman gave speeches, and Truman declared a national day of prayer for the 13th.

Mary McLaughlin:

Finally, in the spring, the war ended in Europe.  Everyone was happy about it but we really couldn't rejoice too much because everyone thought that defeating Japan would take forever.  The Japanese were fierce fighters and would fight to the bitter end.  It appeared that Japan would have to be invaded and the casualties didn't bear thinking about.  John was training on an attack ship at the time.

 In 1945 in the Pacific the Japanese had begun to use Kamikaze pilots.  They would fly their planes directly toward the powder magazines of ships and blow them up.  They were especially bad at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

 

 More Information:

• Official Navy Chronology, pp. 671-678.
• The Liberation of the Philippines, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 228-302. 
  
• Victory in the Pacific, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 250-272.
• USS_Saint_Croix
• Events of May, 1945

 

NEXT POST: JUNE 1ST

 

 

 

 

May 15, 1865 - Monday - 160 years ago today

Status - 40th Indiana - 4th Army Corps - 2nd Division - 2nd Brigade

The 4th Army Corps is at Nashville during this time.

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President Lincoln's body reaches Springfield, IL on the 3rd and he is buried on the 4th.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis is captured by Union forces at Irwinville, GA, on the 10th.  Davis is escorted to Nashville, and later returned to Richmond, VA.

Commissioners in the trial of the accused in the Lincoln assassination are appointed, and the defendants plead not guilty at the start of the trial on the 12th.

Several smaller Confederate forces in the west surrender.  There are still some holdouts in the southwestern part of the country.  The Battle of Palmito Ranch is fought in Texas; this is considered the last battle of the war.

The Freedman's Bureau is set up to help refugees and freed slaves; it will also manage lands confiscated by Union forces during the war.

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John Baer - Home, Tippecanoe County, IN

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More Information:

• The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. pp. 213-214. 
• The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1II, Red River to Appomattox, Shelby Foote, pp. 1006-1065.
  
• Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, pp. 861-864.
• Events: 1865   
  

NEXT POST: JUNE 1ST

May 1, 1945 - Tuesday - 80 years ago today

Status - John Skinner - USS St. Croix

The St. Croix remained in New Caledonia, readying to transport troops to the Philippines in May. 

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Fighting continues on Okinawa and in the Philippines and New Guinea.  Many ships are damaged or sunk by kamikaze aircraft near Okinawa; John's old ship, the Daly, is damaged by a kamikaze on the 28th.

Truman addresses the nation for the first time as President on the 16th.  A few days later he is fully briefed on the Manhattan Project, and discussions begin on how to use the atomic bombs as they become available.

 By the end of the month, Soviet armies mostly controlled the city of Berlin.  Hitler made his last public appearance on the 20th.  He married Eva Braun on the 29th, and they commited suicide together on the 30th.  Control of the Reich passed to Goebbles; the next day, he and his wife poisoned their 6 children and then committed suicide.  Control passed to Admiral Donitz who was in Flensburg.

 Mussolini was captured and shot near Lake Como and his body was publicly displayed by partisans.  US forces moved into southern Germany and Austria, attempting to seal any escape routes for Nazi officials and prevent the creation of a holdout Nazi government in the south.

More Information:

• Official Navy Chronology, pp. 664-671.
• The Liberation of the Philippines, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 228-302. 
  
• Victory in the Pacific, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 236-250.
• USS_Saint_Croix
• Events of April, 1945
  

 

NEXT POST: MAY 15TH

May 1, 1865 - Monday - 160 years ago today

Status - 40th Indiana - 4th Army Corps - 2nd Division - 2nd Brigade

The 4th Army Corps is in East Tennessee on the 15th, and returned to Nashville on the 22nd.

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Sherman and Johnston meet on the 18th in North Carolina and agree to surrender terms.  The agreement goes far beyond the Confederate surrender and into postwar political decisions; Sherman is criticized heavily at the North for going beyond terms similar to what Grant and Lee agreed upon.

President Lincoln's funeral is held on the 10th, and his body lies in state in the Capital rotunda until the 21st, when it is placed on board a train that will cross the country with many stops, ending in Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln will be laid to rest.

John Wilkes Booth is tracked through Virginia and is trapped in a barn.  The barn is set on fire, and Booth is shot, dying soon after.  A commission is set up to oversee the trials of those accused in the attacks on President Lincoln and others in his cabinet.

Jefferson Davis remains at large and is attempting to get across the Mississippi in order to continue the Southern resistance; by May 1st, he is in South Carolina.  The largest remaining Confederate forces in the West agree to surrender.

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John Baer - Home, Tippecanoe County, IN

 The funeral train of President Lincoln continues across the North and by May 1st is leaving Indianapolis at midnight bound for Michigan City.  The train would have passed along the old railroad route through Thorntown, Colfax, Clark's Hill, and Stockwell then into Lafayette in the early morning hours.

 

One would think that somewhere along the route through Tippecanoe County, John Baer might have watched as the funeral train slowly moved past toward Lafayette.

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More Information:

• The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. pp. 211-213. 
• The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1II, Red River to Appomattox, Shelby Foote, pp. 988-1006.
  
• Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, p. 753-848.
• Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, pp. 836-861.
• Events: 1865   
  

NEXT POST: MAY 15TH