acy, but otherwise all of eastern Europe fell under the Soviet sphere. Stalin also gained Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands in return for a war effort against Japan that was never made. Yalta set the world order for the next 45 years.
3/2/1945. (-94) The US recaptured Manila, which had fallen to the Japanese on 2/1/1942. Manila was not totally cleared of Japanese soldiers till 24/2/1945.
9/1/1945. Luzon in the Philippines was taken by the US from the Japanese.
4/1/1945, Severe Kamikaze attacks on US ships.
3/1/1945, The Dies Committee (see 26/5/1938), formed to monitor activities by Nazis and Communists within the USA, was given permanent status as the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
See also China/Japan/Korea for World War Two in Pacific
22/12/1944, An American unit was surrounded at Bastogne by the German advance in the Battle of the Bulge. The unit held out until relieved on 26/12/1944. Inside Bastogne, General Anthony C McAuliffe received a message from the besieging Germans inviting him to surrender; his reply, scrawled on the surrender invite, was one word -“NUTS”.
25/11/1944, The first Kamikaze (divine wind) suicidal attacks were made by Japanese pilots on US ships.
24/11/1944. US planes bombed Tokyo, for the first time since 18/4/1942.
27/10/1944, The Japanese fleet suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, effectively ending its role as a fighting force. This was the world’s largest naval battle, which began on 22/10/1944, involving a total of 231 ships and 1996 aircraft.
20/10/1944. General Mac Arthur returned to the Philippines as liberator with 250,000 troops, fulfilling a promise ha made when his forces retreated from the Japanese.
7/10/1944, The Dumbarton Oaks Conference ended.
21/8/1944, Meetings began at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, on starting the Charter of the United Nations. These meetings ended on 7/10/1944.
21/7/1944, Guam, in the western Pacific, was liberated by US Marines. It had been under Japanese occupation since December 1941.
20/7/1944. Tbe USA began to retake the island of Guam from the Japanese.
19/7/1944, Leghorn retaken by American forces.
26/6/1944, Naval fighting between the USA and Japan off the Marianas Islands.
19/6/1944, The USA took Saipan. It took over three weeks to defeat the Japanese, at a cost of 3,000 Americans dead and 17,000 wounded; 27,000 Japanese also died. The US did not attempt to capture all Pacific islands in their path to Japan, only selected ones, leaving other heavily-armed islands to ‘wither on the vine’. The Japanese fought fiercely and had no fear of death; many ‘Banzai’-charged the US soldiers, led by officers wielding swords.
13/6/1944. Fifteen US warships bombarded Saipan with 165,000 shells. Saipan, with Tinian (see 1/8/1944), was a small Pacific island halfway between Australia and Japan, occupied by the Japanese. 8,000 US marines landed on Saipan on 15/6/1944; Japanese troops hid in caves but were attacked with flame throwers. On 7/7/1944 3,000 cornered Japanese troops, along with hundreds of civilians jumped to their death rather than surrender.
8/5/1944, Eisenhower settled on 5, 6, or 7 June as date for the D-Day landings
24/4/1944. The Japanese evacuated New Guinea as US troops landed.
29/2/1944. US troops landed at Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands.
15/2/1944, The US cleared the Solomon Islands of Japanese forces.
14/2/1944, Carl Bernstein, the journalist who exposed the Watergate scandal along with Bob Woodward, was born.
16/1/1944, General Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe.
1943, The Pentagon was completed to house the offices of the US Department of War (see 1947).
28//11/1943. The main Allied leaders, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, all met in Tehran. Co-ordinating the Normandy landings with a Russian attack on the eastern front was discussed, also a Russian attack on Japan, and a post-war United Nations Organisation. All agreed that the USSR could have eastern Poland as far west as the Curzon line, and Poland would be compensated with lands in eastern Germany. This was confirmed