Henkels & McCoy Timeline: 1945

1945

Henkels & McCoy undertakes more airfield and runway lighting work at United States Naval Air Stations in Chincoteague and Oceana in Virginia; in Willow Grove and Johnsville in Pennsylvania; in Pomona, New Jersey; and Georgetown, Delaware. This airfield illumination work will continue through 1952.

On the landscaping side of the business, H&M also begins continues with seeding, mulch and turfing projects for airfields this year, with 112 acres seeded for Langley Field in Hampton, Virginia. Over 1,000 acres were seeded for Andrews Field at Camp Spring, Maryland between 1943 and 1944. By the end of the decade, H&M will also do this work at the Wilkes-Barre and Scranton Airport (212 acres); 44 acres at Bader Field in Atlantic City (now Atlantic City International Airport), 103 acres at Lancaster Municipal Airport, and 115 acres at Albany Municipal Airport in New York.

The year begins with the Allied forces advancing on all fronts. While many more months of intense fighting will follow, the end of the war is clearly in sight and victory is all but assured. Disillusioned, thousands of ordinary German soldiers will try to head west to surrender to advancing American troops rather than risk being captured by the vengeance-minded Red Army as it advances through Poland and deep into Eastern Germany. The Allies will discover horrific death camps and liberate the emaciated survivors.

January 9
General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines with the Allied invasion, fulfilling a 1942 promise.

February 4
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet in Yalta, Russia, to discuss plans for a post-war Europe.

February 19
Over 70,000 US Marines land on Iwo Jima and raise the US flag over Mount Suribachi three days later. The island is taken by March 16 but at a cost of 6,800 American lives. Later Admiral Chester Nimitz said of the Marines who fought there, "Uncommon valor was a common virtue." The strategically placed island will become an air base for strikes against Japanese targets and cities.

March 9-10
Fifteen square miles of Tokyo erupts in flames after it is fire bombed by 279 B29s.

April 1
Allied forces invade Okinawa, Japan. After a bitter struggle the island is taken June 21 with significant loss of life on both sides.

April 5
The Ohrdruf concentration camp, in Germany, is accidentally stumbled upon by members of the US 4^th Armored Division on a reconnoitering mission. Evidence of thousands of deaths is abundant. Insisting on a full tour of the death camp Eisenhower releases a message to Washington: "We are constantly finding German camps in which they have placed political prisoners where unspeakable conditions exist. From my own personal observation, I can state unequivocally that all written statements up to now do not paint the full horrors."

Americans liberate Buchenwald (right) and British liberate Bergen-Belsen death camps. As survivors are debriefed and as witness come forward it becomes clear that millions of civilian prisoners have been exterminated by the Nazis throughout their captured territories as well as within Germany itself. It will be estimated that nearly half of the total number of concentration camp deaths between 1933 and 1945 occur during the last year of the war.

April 12
President Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, Georgia. Harry S. Truman becomes 33rd President of the United States.

April 28
Deposed fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress are caught and executed by Italian partisans.

Celebrations erupt around the world upon news of Germany's surrender in May, and again when Japan surrenders three months later. General Douglas MacArthur (seated) signs the formal Japanese surrender documents in Tokyo Bay, aboard the battleship USS Missouri.

May 8
Following Hitler's suicide, Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies. Hitler's Third Reich, once boasting to last a thousand years, is reduced to rubble 12 years after the dictator seizes power.

VE DAY
(FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE)
War ends in Europe with the US and USSR the main victors, but at a terrible price. Russia lost between 20,000,000 to 25,000,000 people in what they called the "Great Patriotic War." The US lost 300,000 young men and women, the UK 400,000 people, and Yugoslavia lost 300,000 soldiers. Germany loses 3,500,000 soldiers, 90% of whom die on the dreaded Eastern Front, scene of the most horrific brutalities in human history. In the Pacific, China lost 15,000,000 people. Japan's losses will be estimated at over 2,000,000 people. In total, some 50,500,000 (that's 50-and-one-half MILLION) people will die in the Second World War, 27,000,000 of whom are civilians.

June 9
Japanese Premier Suzuki announces Japan will fight to the very end rather than accept unconditional surrender.

June 26
The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 countries, in San Francisco, California.

August
First nuclear fission bomb exploded at the top secret Trinity test site, about sixty miles northwest of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Atomic bombs "Thin Man" and "Fat Boy" dropped by US bombers on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, and Nagasaki on August 8.

August 14
Japan surrenders unconditionally, ending World War II. Japanese outposts in Korea, Burma and other far flung locations will surrender by September 13.

August 19
Gasoline and fuel oil rationing end in the US.

September 2
Formal signing of Japanese surrender terms occurs in Tokyo Bay aboard battleship USS Missouri.

October 24
The United Nations Charter comes into effect.

Also in 1945:

The Oscars name Ray Milland as Best Actor in his unforgettable role as the alcoholic in Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend. Wilder receives the Best Picture award. Runners-Up include, Anchors Aweigh, Mildred Pierce, Spellbound, and The Bells of St. Mary's.

Naval Engineer Richard James of Philadelphia, conducting an experiment with tension springs, accidentally invents the Slinky® toy. Like Silly Putty® (invented the previous year) this product will be successfully marketed in the post-war world (See 1946 for details).

The Boston Bears and Brooklyn Dodgers merge as one football team for the season;
known simply as The Yanks.

At the war’s end, returning veterans Robert C. Bricker, Irwin Maker, Martin F. Helmus, and Charles E. Fetters will join Henkels & McCoy. Bob Bricker will become an Executive Vice President, and the others will all become Vice Presidents during their long careers at H&M.

Back to Main Calendar

Previous Year | Following Year