Precedent-Setting Conferences

Five great conferences between the United Nations leaders were held during the year of 1943. The first, at Casablanca, held from January 14-24, 1943, planned particularly for the Tunisian, Sicilian, and, Italian campaigns, and for increased aid to Russia. The Quebec Conference, held from August 11-24, 1943, formulated means for stepping up the war in the Pacific and for greater aid to China. The Moscow Conference, attended by Hull, Eden, and Molotov, disunity between the three powers in war and peace. The Cairo Conference, held from November 22-25, in which Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kaishek met with Roosevelt and Churchill, discussed Far Eastern affairs. The Teheran Conferences held from November 28 to December 1, 1943, the which Marshal Stalin attended, set the agenda for the invasion. Later, at Cairo, President Inonu of Turkey met Roosevelt and Churchill and discussed his country's future course in the war.

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Germans Turned Back at Stalingrad

The Germans, defeated in their five month battle for Stalingrad, surrendered to the Russian on January 30, 1943. This marked the turning point in Hitler's war against the Soviet Union. Immediately Russian armies took the offensive and drove the Germans almost steadily westward. On January 18, 1943, the seventeen month siege of Leningrad was finally broken.
Bombing by Royal Air Force planes was wrecking havoc on military objectives in France, Italy, and Germany. On January 27, 1943, United States heavy bombers made their first all out assault on Germany.

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Axis Surrender in Tunisia, May 12, 1943

In February, 1943, the battle for Tunisia began in earnest. Two Allied armies, the British under Montgomery from the east and the Americans and British from the west, drew together gradually, squeezing Rommel's forces between them. The Germans attempted to brake out of the trap and drove Americans from the Kasserine Pass on February 21, but our troops reccupied the pass four days later. On March 29 Rommel was dislodged from the Mareth Line. American and British units made a junction at Gabes on April 7. In full retreat, the Germans were driven northward into an ever narrowing pocket. Bizert and Tunis were captured on May 27, 1943, and all enemy resistance ended on May 12. Since El Alamein the Germans had lost 335,000 troops.

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Allies Invade Sicily, July 10, 1943

After the surrender of the Germans in Tunisia, the Allies prepared to invade Sicily. The tiny island of Pantelleria surrendered on June 11 and Lampedusa on June 12. On July 10, 1943, the Allies landed on the south and southwestern coast of Sicily. American troops swung through the northern and western parts of the island, while Montgomery's eighth army pushed up the east coast. On August 17, 1943, the conquest of Sicily was completed.

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Mussolini Ousted-Allies Land in Italy

On Sunday, July 25, 1943, the news was broadcast the Mussolini had been ousted and that King Victor Emmanuel had placed Marshal Piatro Badoglio at the head of the Italian Government. On September 3, 1943, just after four years of Britain's declaration of war against Hitler, Montgomery's Eight Army crossed the Messina Strait and began the invasion of Southern Italy. On September 8 General Eisenhower announced the unconditional surrender of Italy, which had been signed on September 3.
On September 9, 1943, the Fifth Army, consisting of two British divisions of British and one American troops, landed at Salerno. The Allies met strong resistance from the entrenched in Germans and the bridgehead was not secure until September 16. On October 1, 1943, General Clark's troops occupied Naples. The Fifth Army then continued to drive up the west side of the Italian Peninsula, while the Eighth Army pushed up the Adriatic coast. The Fifth Army arrived at the heights before Cassino on December 26, 1943, but the Germans, strongly dug in, were not dislodged until May of 1944.

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Japanese Driven from Aleutian Islands

In the Pacific, American invaded Attu on May 11, 1943, and encountered fierce resistance from the Japanese. Of a garrison of some 2,300 men only twenty prisoners were taken. The rest either were killed or committed suicide. By May 30 the island passed entirely to United States control. On August 15 Allied units landed on Kiska, but found that the Japanese had already evacuated the island.

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New Guinea and Central Solomons Campaigns

On New Guinea, General MacArthur's forces took Sanananda Point on January 22, 1943. On September 12 the Japanese were routed from Salamaua and on September 16, from Lae. Finschhafen fell on October 2, 1943.
On June 30, 1943, United States troops landed on Rendova Island in the central Solomons. On July 2 and 3 landings were made at Empress Augusta Bay on New Georgia Island, and on Vanganu Island. Munda Airfield on New Georgia was captured on August 6. New Georgia was completely occupied by August 25, 1943.
On July 4-5, 1943, our forces invaded the island of Kolombangara, and on August 15, landed on Vella Lavella. The central Solomons campaign ended on October 6 when the Japanese evacuated these islands. Incidental to these operations, three naval engagements took place.The first Battle of Kula Gulf, on July 6, 1943, cost us the cruiser Helena. In the second Battle of Kula Gulf, on July 13, two cruisers were damaged and a destroyer sunk. The Battle of Vella Gulf was fought on August 6, 1943, with no damage to our ships.
On January 1, 1944, General MacArthur's forces made a surprise landing at Saidor, 110 miles north of Finschhafen on the New Guinea coast. In another "leapfrog" operation, he sent his troops ashore on April 22, 1944, between Aitape and Hollandia. On May 17 our infantry landed at Samari, 125 miles farther up the coast from Hollandia. The important airfield on Insumuar, largest of wake Islands, was seized on May 19. On May 27 infantry and tanks were landed on Biak Island in the Schouten group. It's three airfields were secured on June 22, 1944. With the capture of the Sansapor region on July 30, 1944, our control of New Guinia was virtually complete. Morotai Island, lying northward in the Molucca group, was occupied on September 15-18, 1944, bringing MacArthur's forces within 300 miles of the Philippines.

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Bougainville Invasion, November 1, 1943

On October 26 and 27, 1943, Mono and Stirling Islands in the Treasury group were occupied by our forces, and on October 28 a landing was made on Choiseul Island. On November 1, 1943, Marines invaded Bougainville Island, in the Solomons, reinforced by regular Army troops. Progress at Bougainville was slow due to the almost impenetrable jungle. On October 12-13, 1943, Allied air forces attacked Rabaul, strong Japanese base on New Britain, sinking 119 enemy vessels and destroying 177 planes. On December 26 at Cape Gloucester, at the western end of New Britain, to capture the vital airfield.

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Tarawa and Makin, November 20-23, 1943

On November 20, 1943, United States forces poured ashore on the beaches of Tarawa and Makin Atolls, in the Gilbert Islands. Tarawa was taken after seventy six hours of fighting in which the Marines paid a stiff price in human life. Makin was captured by men of the old "Fighting 69th Regiment." The entire Gilbert group of islands thus came under United States control.
Then our forces pressed on to the Marshall Islands which lie directly north of the Gilberts. On February 2, 1944, landings were made on Roi, Namur, and Kwajalein. On February 5 our troops had captured Kwajalein. On February 17 our forces landed on Eniwetok Atoll and in three days effected its capture. On February 18 our troops took Engebi island. Thus we also obtained control of the Marshall Islands.
After a heavy attack by our naval and air forces on February 17-18, 1944, on the Japanese base at Truk, United States troops occupied the Admiralty Islands so as to cut the enemy supply lines from Truk to South Pacific bases.

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Allies Capture Rome, June 4, 1944

The Italian battlefront suddenly came to life on May 11, 1944, with an Allied drive to take Rome and to destroy the German armies in Italy. By May 15 the first German defense line was broken. On May 25 the Fifth Army made contact with the forces which had been pinned since January on the Anzio beachhead. On June 4, 1944, the Fifth and Eighth Armies entered Rome. Without pausing, however, they pursued the fleeing Germans northward to Hitler's mountain defenses in the Gothic line. With the capture of Florence on August 22 and Pisa on September 2, the Allies began their assault on this final Nazi barrier. The British broke into the Po Valley by taking Rimini on September 21, while the Americans battled their way through the Apennines. The coming of winter in the mountainous terrain then for many months reduced activity to relatively small scale-fighting.
On September 24, 1944, British troops landed in Greece. Meeting little opposition, as the Germans were evacuating the country, they liberated Athens October 14. Soon all of Greece and most of the islands in the Aegean had been cleared of the Nazis.

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Americans Return to the Philippines

On June 15, 1944, the Marines landed on the island of Saipan, in the Marianas. On June 19 and 20, in support of this invasion, carrier planes from our navy met and defeated the Japanese with heavy losses in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Saipan was taken by July 8 in bloody fighting. On June 16 Superfortresses raided the Japanese homeland for the first time, setting great fires in the steel plants at Yawata. Our Marines seized Guam between July 20 and August 10, 1944. On September 15, 1944, the Palau Islands were invaded. Control of the group passed to the United States on October 13, 1944, when Japanese resistance ended in Peleliu.
The recapture of the Philippines began with the invasion of Leyte Island on October 19, 1944, This goaded into action the Japanese fleet, which converged on the beachhead from three directions. In the ensuing Battle for the Leyte Gulf October 23-26, the Imperial Navy was decisively defeated. Final victory on Leyte was won by December 26. Landings were made on Mindoro on December 15, 1944, and on January 9, 1945, our forces went ashore on the main island of Luzon. American troops entered Manila on February 3, but did not control the city until February 25. Liberation of all the Philippine Islands was announced on July 4, 1945.

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Allies Sweep on Germany from the West

On June 6, 1944, began the greatest military operation of all history-the invasion of Hitler's Europe by combined American and British forces. Landings were made in France on the beaches of Normandy, just east of the Cherbourg Pennisula. Within ten days our foothold on the Continent was secure. By June 27 American troops had driven up the Cherbourg Peninsula and captured Cherbourg, the third largest port in France.
On July 25, 1944, the Allies opened a powerful offensive which swept through France and Belgium and largely destroyed the German forces in both countries. Paris was liberated and August 22 and Brussels on September 3. Our armies battled into the Netherlands on September 4 and into Germany on September 11. Aachen, the first largest German city to be taken, surrendered to American troops on October 21, 1944.
On December 16, while American forces were still trying to break the main Siegfried defenses, the Germans launched a sudden counteroffensive. Armored spearheads thrust fifty miles into Belgium before being stopped on December 28. Our armies then took the initiative. Through January and February they cleared the Nazis from the "Belgain Bulge" and resumed the drive into Germany.

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German Debacle on the Eastern Front

From Stalingrad to Odessa and Sevastopol, Soviet troops surged forward on a 1,350-mile wide line almost without pause for fifteen months. Kiev was retaken on November 6, 1943. Odessa was recovered on April 10, 1944, and the Crimea was cleared of the Germans on May 10, 1944, with the fall of Sevastopol. Thus practically the whole vast territory that had been overrun by the Nazis was reconquered by the Russians. On June 23, 1944, Soviet armies launched an offensive on their northern front to synchronize with the Anglo-American invasion the the west. German strongholds in White Russia fell as the Red Army drove toward the Baltic and East Prussia. In late August the Russians opened an all-out attack along their entire Eastern Front. By November Soviet armies in the north were inside East Prussia and had invaded Norway through conquered Finland. In the south, Rumania yielded on August 30, and the Russians massed upon Hungary from Transylvania, Czechoslovakia, and northern Yugoslavia. Bulgaria signed a truce on October 28, 1944. Warsaw was finally liberated on January 17, 1945. On February 2, Marshal Zhukov's forces reached the Oder River, forty six miles from Berlin. There they paused while Red armies to the north and south stormed forward to straighten Russian lines. An Armistice with Hungary had been signed on January 22; Budapest, after a fifty-one day siege, was cleared of the Nazis on Feruary 13. Danzig fell on March 30, Koenigsberg in East Prussia on April 9, and Vienna, the capital of Austria, on April 11, 1945.

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Nazi Germany Surrenders, May 7, 1945

On February 4-11, 1945, a conference of the Big Three was held at Yalta in the Crimea. Here major decisions were reached, including plans for the final blow against Germany.
On February 23, 1945, Allied forces began the assault on the Rhine. They took Cologne on the west bank on March 6 and one day later Remagen, with the Ludendorf railway bridge still intact. Streaming across, American troops quickly established a bridgehead on the east bank of the river. Other crossings were made by air, pontoon bridges, and invasion craft manned by Navy crews. By March 26 seven Allied armies were smashing forward, all east of the Rhine. Key Nazi cities fell in quick succession. Magdeburg on the Elbe River, only sixty-five miles from Berlin, was taken on April 11, while mobile forces to the south aimed at Hitler's "Bavarian Redoubt." On April 12, with victory in sight, President Roosevelt died suddenly and Vice President Truman became the Commander in Chief.
On April 16, 1945, the Italian front burst into action. Allied forces, smashing through Nazi defenses, captured Bologna on April 21 and pursued the enemy across the Po River. On April 27 Genoa and Verona were taken. The German army in Italy was finished. On April 30 emissaries of the German general surrendered secretly to the Allies. On May 2, 1945, the war in Italy ended officially. Mussolini, seized while trying to escape to Switzerland, was executed by Italian Partisans on April 28.
Meanwhile, on April 18, Soviet armies had opened their drive on Berlin. On April 20 Red troops entered the cities suburbs. To the south American and Russian units on April 25 made their first juction at the Elbe River, cuting the Reich in two. The death of Adolf Hitler in the ruins of Berlin was announced on May 1. On the same day Munich fell to the Americans. After bitter street fighting, the Berlin garrison finally surrendered to the Russians on May 2. German armies everywhere began to give up. On May 7 Germany unconditionally to the Allies at Rheims, in France. On May 8 the war in Europe officially ended.

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Japan Defeated, September 2, 1945

In the Pacific at the start of 1945, American forces in Burma opened the Ledo Road to China on January 10, while the British advanced on Mandalay. Burma was finally liberated on May 3, 1945. The Chinese, after many reverse, took the offensive against the Japanese early in May and by May 20 had retaken the port of Foochow.
On February 19, 1945, our Marines stormed ashore on Iwo Jima, 750 miles from Tokyo. After a bloody struggle, the volcanic Island was won on March 16. Strategic Okinawa, in the Ryukyu Islands, was next invaded on April 1, 1945. The Japanese here made a suicide last stand and resisted for eighty one days before surrendering on June 21.
Meanwhile, on April 25, the United Nations Conference opened at San Francisco. The outcome two months later was a World Charter designed to preserve the peace and security of all nations. On June 25, this Charter designed by representatives of fifty countries.
The defeat of Germany on May 8 left the Japanese fighting alone. B-29's in ever increasing tempo rained incendiary and explosive bombs on Japan and other enemy areas. Our pacific fleet shelled the Japanese homeland. The Potsdam Declaration, made public after a conference at Berlin of the three Major Powers, from July 17 to August 2, not only decided the future of Germany, but called upon Japan to surrender or be crushed. On August 6 the first atomic bomb destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Russia on August 8 declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria. On August 9 Nagasaki was hit by the second atomic bomb. On August 10 the Japanese sued for peace. On September 2, 1945, the official surrender of Japan aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay ended World War II.

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