"Slight Resistance"

MON 26 MAR 1945
Europe
Navy landing craft unit (TG 122.5.1.) ferries Third Army assault troops across the Rhine at Oberwesel; medium landing craft (LCM) are used for the first time in the Third Army's Rhine-crossing operation.

Pacific
TG 51.1 (Rear Admiral Ingolf N. Kiland) lands Army force on Kerama Retto, Ryukyus, under cover of naval bombardment and carrier aircraft.

TG 78.2 (Captain Albert T. Sprague, Jr.) lands U.S. Army Americal Division (Reinforced) less one RCT, on Talisay Point, Cebu, P.I., covered by TG 74.3 (Rear Admiral Russell S. Berkey), consisting of three light cruisers (including Australian HMAS Hobart) and six destroyers. The landing is made against only slight resistance. U.S. freighter Michael J. Owens Armed Guard gunfire, despite lack of sophisticated fire control equipment, silences Japanese artillery battery on Cebu.

Off Okinawa, destroyer Halligan (DD-584) is sunk by mine, 26°10'N, 127°30'E; kamikazes damage battleship Nevada (BB-36), light cruiser Biloxi (CL-80), destroyer Porterfield (DD-682), destroyer escort Foreman (DE-633), high speed minesweeper Dorsey (DMS-1), 26°20'N, 127°18'E; destroyers O'Brien (DD-725), 26°16'N, 127°26'E, and Callaghan (DD-792), 26°20'N, 127°43'E, and minesweeper Skirmish (AM-303), 26°25'N, 127°05'E; destroyer Murray (DD-576) is damaged by dive bomber, 26°20'N, 129°46'E.

Tank landing craft LCT-1090 is damaged in amphibious operations off Luzon; submarine chaser PC-1133 is damaged by grounding, 10°13'N, 123°51'E.

Submarine Balao (SS-285) sinks Japanese army stores ship No.1 Shinto Maru, 35°18'N, 123°15'E.

British destroyers annihilate Japanese Port Blair-bound convoy east of Khota Andaman. HMS Saumarez, HMS Volage, HMS Vigilant, and HMS Virago sink submarine chasers Ch 34 and Ch 63; HMS Venus, HMS Verulam and HMS Virago sink transport Risui Maru and supply ship Teshio Maru, 10°38'N, 94°42'E. RAF Liberators contribute to Risui Maru's destruction. [More like the Indian Ocean or even the Andaman Sea. — M.B.]

TF 58 planes sink Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser Nisui Maru east of Fuku Jima, and cargo ship Daia Maru (previously damaged on 1 March) in Kuji Bay, Ryukyus, 20°13'N, 127°16'E.

USAAF B-24s complete destruction of Japanese cargo ship I komasan Maru, previously damaged by submarine Spot (SS-413), then run aground, and bombed by USAAF B-25s on 17 March 1945 off Matsu Island 26°07'N, 119°57'E, and sink motor sailships Koun Maru and No.6 Ebisu Maru.

USAAF B-24s (Fifth Air Force) bomb Japanese shipping in Takao harbor, sinking cargo vessels Enoura Maru and Kishu Maru, 22°37'N, 120°15'E.