Also in September 1945
7th: The Allied forces of Russia, America, the UK and France take part in the Berlin Victory Parade, nearby the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. It is the first public exhibition of the Red Army’s IS-3 heavy tank, with 52 on display. Russian sources soon refer to this as the ‘forgotten parade’, marking the start of Cold War tensions.
12th: Japan’s Field Marshal Hajime Sugiyama commits suicide, ten days after his country’s official surrender ceremony to the Allied powers at Tokyo Bay. He shoots himself in the chest four times with a revolver as he sits at his office desk. His wife also kills herself.
19th: Prime Minister Clement Attlee makes a worldwide broadcast regarding Indian independence. Although the Labour party election manifesto pledged the ‘advancement of India to responsible selfgovernment’, a landslide victory gave Attlee the confidence to promise independence
‘at the earliest possible date’. Churchill and other Conservatives are opposed.
26th: Hungarian composer Béla Bartók dies in New York aged 64, leaving a widow and two sons. An ongoing battle with leukaemia makes him vulnerable to other illnesses. Blood transfusions and oxygen respiration fail to fight off a bout of pneumonia, from which he never recovers.
30th: The Bourne End rail crash claims 43 lives. The overnight Perth-to-euston express, hauled by The Royal Artilleryman locomotive, derails as the driver fails to react to signals. Travelling almost 60mph in a 15mph zone, the engine and first six carriages overturn and tumble down an embankment. Just three coaches remain on the track.