take 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 at the Yalta Conference of 4 – 11 February 1945.
23/11/1943. US forces retook Makin in the Gilbert Islands.
3/11/1943. US miners ended a 6 month strike.
9/6/1943, US Congress approved the Pay as You Go scheme for deducting income tax from salaries.
1/6/1943, The close of the Hot Springs Conference (opened 18/5/1943); the Allies discussed World War Two.
26/5/1943, Edsel Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company from 1919, died.
13/3/1943, J P Morgan Jnr, US financier, died aged 75.
9/3/1943. Bobby Fischer, chess champion, was born in Chicago. He took the world title from Boris Spassky in 1972.
9/2/1943. The USA reported that Japanese resistance in Guadacanal and the Solomon Islands had ceased.
15/1/1943. The Pentagon, built to house the US Defence Department, opened in Arlington, Virginia, on the Potomac River.
14/1/1943. Churchill, de Gaulle, and Roosevelt met at Casablanca. They demanded the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. Plans were made for the invasion of Sicily increased US bombing of Germany, and the transfer of British forces to the far east once Germany was defeated.
10/11/1942, William Crozet, US artillery expert, died.
17/6/1942, President Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill in Washington to discuss war production and military strategy.
8/6/1942. (1) Battle of Midway Island (4-8 June). The Japanese withdrew after 4 days of shelling. See 27/5/1942. The Japanese ability to mount strategic attacks in the Pacific was effectively ended. The US lost 500 men, the Japanese lost 3,500 men.
(2) Churchill arrived in Washington for talks with Roosevelt.
7/6/1942, The US aircraft carrier Yorktown was sunk by the Japanese at Midway Island.
6/6/1942, The US and Japan both lost one destroyer each at Midway.
5/6/1942, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto realised the surprise factor had failed and ordered a withdrawal from Midway.
3/6/1942, The Japanese launched a diversionary attack on the Aleutians but did not draw US forces away from Midway.
2/6/1942, Task forces 16 and 17 rendezvous 350 miles north east of Midway