http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/4/31.htm
May 31st, 1945 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The last underground shelter bunks are removed, from South Wimbeldon station.
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk: The first casualties of peace are the men responsible for clearing thousands of mines from the “invasion” beaches of East Anglia. Maps of the minefields have been lost; in some cases so have the minefields themselves, due to coastal erosion. Above the tideline the army has to clear the danger. Since 1943, 98 Royal Engineers have died and 26 have suffered serious wounds, some losing their sight, in this work. Below the tideline the Royal Navy has the job, often using divers to disarm the unexploded mines. The UXB teams on land also still have work to do, as unexploded bombs are unearthed in war-ravaged streets.
HMCS Loch Alvie arrived in the Clyde with Convoy RA 67.
HMCS Mayflower paid off and returned to RN at Grandmouth, Scotland.
GERMANY: Odilo Globocnik, a key figure in the organization of the Nazi death camps, commits suicide when arrested by a British patrol.
NORWAY: The government in exile returns to Oslo.
SYRIA: Damascus: For the second time in 18 months, Britain has intervened in Syria. Three days of fighting between Arab nationalists and French troops followed Syria’s refusal to negotiate a quasi-independence treaty under duress. Now Anthony Eden, the British foreign secretary, has announced that Britain “can no longer stand aside”, and arranged a cease-fire. With the US backing the Syrians, France’s withdrawal from the Levant seems inevitable.
BURMA: The combined US-British Eastern Air Command is dissolved and the USAAF’s Tenth Air Force and other USAAF units in Burma are directed to support operations in the China Theater.
CHINA: Song Ziwen (Dr T V Soong) succeeds Chiang Kai-shek as president of the Nationalist Yuan.
JAPAN: Okinawa: Japanese forces withdraw from Shuri.
Pfc Clarence Craft (1920-2002) will receive the MOH for his actions todayon Hen Hill, Okinawa, when he killed 25 Japanese soldiers and led his battalion to breach enemy defenses, May 31, 1945. Craft was a rifleman with Company G, 382d Infantry, 96th Infantry Division.
Hen Hill was a tactical position on which the entire Japanese defensive line on Okinawa hinged, according to Crafts’ award citation.
Craft, along with five fellow soldiers, was dispatched to the hill to feel out enemy resistance. The group had proceeded only a short distance up the slope when rifle, machinegun fire and a barrage of grenades wounded three and pinned down the others.
Against odds that appeared suicidal, Craft stood up in full view of the enemy, and according to his citation, began shooting with deadly marksmanship wherever he saw a hostile movement. He steadily advanced up the hill, killing Japanese soldiers with rapid fire and driving others to run for cover. When Craft reached the crest of the hill, he threw grenades at extremely short ranges into the enemy positions. His assault lifted the pressure from his company for the moment, allowing members of his platoon to comply with his motions to advance and pass him more grenades.
With a chain of his comrades supplying him while he stood atop the hill, he hurled a total of two cases of grenades into a main trench and other positions on the reverse slope of Hen Hill. Meanwhile, he also directed the aim of his fellow soldiers who threw grenades from the slope below him.
Craft left his position, where grenades from both sides were passing over his head, and attacked the main enemy trench. Straddling the excavation, he pumped rifle fire into the Japanese at pointblank range, killing many and causing the others to flee down the trench.
Pursuing them, he came upon a heavy machinegun, which was still creating havoc in the American ranks. With rifle fire and a grenade, Craft wiped out the position.
At last, the Japanese were in complete rout and !
American forces swarmed over the hill. Craft continued down the central trench to the mouth of a cave where many of the enemy had taken cover. A satchel charge was given to him, and he tossed it into the cave. When it failed to explode, Craft retrieved the charge from the cave, re-lighted the fuse and threw it back, sealing up the entrance.
Against tremendously superior forces heavily armed with rifles, machineguns, mortars, and grenades, Craft killed at least 25 of the enemy; but reports say his contribution to the campaign on Okinawa was much greater: Hen Hill was the key to the entire defence line, which rapidly crumbled that day. (ARNEWS Correspondent Staff Sgt. Marcia Triggs compiled this report from information provided by the Medal of Honor Society and Center for Military History Web page.)
Mines previously laid by B-29 Superfortresses of the USAAF’s Twentieth Air Force sink a Japanese cargo ship and damage a gunboat, two army cargo ships and a freighter. Another cargo ship is damaged but sinks after being towed into harbor.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Beech Lake launched Port Carling, Ontario.
Frigate HMCS Poundmaker commenced tropicalization refit Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.: The motion picture “Back to Bataan” to released in the U.S. This war drama, directed by Edward Dmytryk, stars John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Beulah Bondi, Richard Loo, Philip Ahn and Lawrence Tierney. The plot has an Army Colonel (Wayne) joining Filipino guerrillas after the fall of the Philippines in 1942 until the invasion of Leyte in 1944.
Destroyer USS Shelton laid down.
What a man. His feat remind me of Alvin York in WWI.
God bless the memory of this true hero.
There's a fascinating scene of a crew disarming a dud German bomb in a British town in, if I recall correctly, an episode of the excellent British series, Foyle's War.