Eighty years ago this week the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific war begins

  

The Americans staged the largest amphibious operation in the Pacific theatre when the first of seven divisions landed on Okinawa. The island lay 340 miles from the Japanese home islands and was to provide a staging point for the planned invasion of Japan. For the first time in the island hopping campaign the British Royal Navy was present in force, accounting for about one third of the attacking fleet. The attackers faced a garrison of some 70,000 troops; civilian inhabitants were also forced into the battle.

The last two V-2s struck Britain, fired from sites in the Netherlands. One killed Ivy Millichamp at her house in Orpington, the last civilian to die from enemy action on British soil. The launch area was soon overrun, putting an end to the campaign.

A Vickers Wellington bomber of 304 (Polish) Squadron sank U-321 in the Atlantic with all hands. With minimal modification the Wellington had been in front-line service since that start of the war. The Spitfire could claim the same distinction, but the marks operational in 1945 were vastly different to those serving in 1939.

The United Nations began to take shape. The Soviet claim for a seat and vote for each of the union's sixteen republics had been haggled down by the US, which would have accepted seats for the three largest republics provided that the US were given three in its own right.