The Japanese announced their surrender on the 15th of August 1945 and it was signed on the 2nd of September 1945. The surrender of the various Japanese commands took some time, Hong Kong, for instance didn’t formally surrender until the 16th of September.
The last rounds ever fired in action by a British battleship were when King George V, part of the British Pacific Fleet, bombarded the Japanese Home Islands, attacking the Japan Musical Instrument Company's Plant No. 2 at Hamamatsu (Honshu) on the 30th July 1945 along with the USS Massachusetts.
The last British naval attack on Japan was probably by the light cruisers Newfoundland and HMNZS Gambia and the destroyers Terpsichore, Termagent and Tenacious when they bombarded the ironworks at Kamaishi (Honshu) on the 9th of August in company with the USS Boston and the USS Saint Paul.
The last major British land action was the Battle of the Sittang Bend in Burma between the 2nd of July and the 7th August 1945. This ended with the deaths of around 8,500 Japanese troops out of the total of around 160,000 Japanese killed during the Burma Campaign as a whole.
5.5″ guns of the Royal Artillery firing on the Japanese at the Sittang Bend
The last Victoria Cross of the war was won (posthumously) by Canadian, Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray (RCN), on the 9th of August 1945 for sinking a Japanese destroyer, Amakusa, in Onagawa Bay, Honshu with his Corsair. Only a few days before, on the 31st of July, Lieutenant Ian Fraser (RN) and Seaman James Magennis had won the same award for their attack on the heavy cruiser Takao with the midget submarine XE-3, and six days before that, an Australian, Private Frank Partridge, won the award for charging a machine gun nest on Bougainville.
The Japanese announced their surrender on the 15th of August 1945 and it was signed on the 2nd of September 1945. The surrender of the various Japanese commands took some time, Hong Kong, for instance didn’t formally surrender until the 16th of September.
The last rounds ever fired in action by a British battleship were when King George V, part of the British Pacific Fleet, bombarded the Japanese Home Islands, attacking the Japan Musical Instrument Company's Plant No. 2 at Hamamatsu (Honshu) on the 30th July 1945 along with the USS Massachusetts.
The last British naval attack on Japan was probably by the light cruisers Newfoundland and HMNZS Gambia and the destroyers Terpsichore, Termagent and Tenacious when they bombarded the ironworks at Kamaishi (Honshu) on the 9th of August in company with the USS Boston and the USS Saint Paul.
The last major British land action was the Battle of the Sittang Bend in Burma between the 2nd of July and the 7th August 1945. This ended with the deaths of around 8,500 Japanese troops out of the total of around 160,000 Japanese killed during the Burma Campaign as a whole.
5.5″ guns of the Royal Artillery firing on the Japanese at the Sittang Bend
The last Victoria Cross of the war was won (posthumously) by Canadian, Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray (RCN), on the 9th of August 1945 for sinking a Japanese destroyer, Amakusa, in Onagawa Bay, Honshu with his Corsair. Only a few days before, on the 31st of July, Lieutenant Ian Fraser (RN) and Seaman James Magennis had won the same award for their attack on the heavy cruiser Takao with the midget submarine XE-3, and six days before that, an Australian, Private Frank Partridge, won the award for charging a machine gun nest on Bougainville.
VC winners Hampton, Magennis, Fraser, and Partridge
The last action that I am aware of, appears to have been the strafing of several Japanese suicide boats off Lamma Island on the 30th August 1945 by aircraft from the carriers Indomitable and Venerable of Task Force 111.2.
