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March 21, 1945

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Headlines from March 21, 1945

REICH CITIES TOPPLE; Worms, Saarbruecken and Zweibruecken Fall --Foe's Escape Cut THIRD REACHES MAINZ 3 Divisions Plow Past Siegfried Line--First Swells Bridgehead Three Divisions Crash Through Planes Line Up to Strike GERMAN ARMIES SMASHED IN SAAR Tenth Rolls Up Four Miles

By Wireless To the New York Times

3d Army forces take Worms, enter Mainz and clear Kaiserslautern; cut main rr and rd to east of Kaiserslautern; to west, units link with 7th Army forces 12 mi west of city to form new trap; Saarbruecken and Zweibruecken taken; Ger 1st and 7th Army remnants pour eastward toward Rhine between Worms and Lauterbourg; Allied air forces have cut every Ger escape route across Rhine; attack escape barges; US 70th Div enters battle, crossing Saar near Hostenbach; 7th Army tanks and French forces action under news blackout; 7th Army pours through many breaches in Siegfried Line; Ger line from Saarbruecken to Hardt Mts collapsing; heavy fighting under way around Neider-Schlettenbach; Amers reach Lauter River; French clear Scheivenhard, take Lauterbourg; French task force under Gen de Montsabert noted; 1st Army lengthens Remagen bridgehead; wins foothold on Bonn plain, taking Ramersdorf and Limperich to enter Beuel; takes landing field at Wuellscheid, and Messelborn and Jakobshof to south; map

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Notable Births

Anthony Grabiner, Baron Grabiner

1945Anthony Grabiner, Baron Grabiner, English lawyer[†]

Anthony Stephen Grabiner, Baron Grabiner, KC is a British barrister, academic administrator, and life peer. Between 1994 and 2024, he was head of chambers at One Essex Court, a leading set of commercial barristers in the Temple, and continues to represent leading corporate and financial clients. From 2014 to 2021 he was the Master of Clare College, Cambridge and, since 2015, he has been the President of the University of Law.

Charles Greene (sprinter)

1945Charles Greene, American sprinter and coach (died 2022)[†]

Charles Edward "Charlie" Greene was an American track and field sprinter and winner of the gold medal in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Rose Stone

1945Rose Stone, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player[†]

Rose Stone is an American singer and keyboardist. She is best known as one of the lead singers in Sly and the Family Stone, a popular psychedelic soul/funk band founded by her brothers, Sly Stone and Freddie Stone.

Notable Deaths

Arthur Nebe

1945Arthur Nebe, German SS officer (born 1894)[†]

Arthur Nebe was a German SS functionary who held key positions in the security and police apparatus of Nazi Germany and was, from 1941, a major perpetrator of the Holocaust.

Historical Events

World War II

1945World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.[†]

World War II or the Second World War was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

Operation Carthage

1945World War II: Operation Carthage: Royal Air Force planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also accidentally hit a school, killing 125 civilians.[†]

Operation Carthage, on 21 March 1945, was a British air raid on Copenhagen, Denmark during the Second World War which caused significant collateral damage. The target of the raid was the Shellhus, used as Gestapo headquarters in the city centre. It was used for the storage of dossiers and the torture of Danish citizens during interrogations. The Danish Resistance had long asked the British to conduct a raid against the site. The building was destroyed, 18 prisoners were freed and Nazi anti-resistance activities were disrupted. Part of the raid was mistakenly directed against a nearby school; the raid caused 123 civilian deaths. The incident was dramatised in the 2021 Danish film The Shadow in My Eye. A similar raid against the Gestapo headquarters in Aarhus, on 31 October 1944, had succeeded.

Kingdom of Bulgaria

1945World War II: Bulgaria and the Soviet Union successfully complete their defense of the north bank of the Drava River as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes.[†]

The Tsardom of Bulgaria, also known as the Third Bulgarian Tsardom, usually known in English as the Kingdom of Bulgaria, or simply Bulgaria, was a constitutional monarchy in Southeastern Europe, which was established on 5 October [O.S. 22 September] 1908, when the Bulgarian state was raised from a principality to a tsardom.