US Third and Seventh Armies' March 1945 offensive cleared the Rhineland, pushing deep into Germany and decisively weakening German defenses before the final Allied push.

Before the Allies could cross the Rhine River, Bernard Montgomery’s forces first had to pry the German defenders away from its western bank with two simultaneous operations: Veritable and Grenade. 

Desperate for slave labor to continue the doomed war effort and fearful of camp survivors exposing Nazi crimes, German decision-makers put in motion nearly three-quarters of a million concentration camp prisoners. Of this number, 250,000 died in these death marches.

If the American forces could break through the Hürtgen Forest, there was a chance they could reach the Rhine near Cologne, threatening the German industrial region along the Ruhr River and possibly even force a crossing. 

Beyond commentary on the burgeoning Cold War, many of Eiji Tsuburaya’s and Ishiro Honda’s production decisions are meant to reflect the Japanese experience of World War II. 

The July 1945 British election shocked the world, with Winston Churchill and the Conservatives voted out, and Clement Attlee and the Labour Party voted in.

On January 31, 1945, American prisoners of war from Stalag III-C were caught, tragically, in a firefight between German guards and Soviet troops.

While most people are familiar with the names of “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” as the atomic weapons used over Japan, what they may not be familiar with was how different the respective technologies of each bomb were and why this difference mattered. 

Allied intelligence believed that most captured American officers were being held at the Hammelburg prisoner of war camp, Oflag XIII-B. This population likely included Patton’s son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel John Waters, but there was no way to be sure.

The Big three met at Potsdam, Germany, in the summer of 1945 to discuss the fate of the world after World War II.

Victory in the largest battle of the Pacific War came 82 days after it began, and the costs were high.

Join The National WWII Museum as we commemorate the surrender of Nazi Germany and V-E Day by taking a look back at the events of the year after surrender and how they shaped the modern world with Dr. Rob Citino, Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian and the Executive Director, The Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.