CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLES
OF WORLD WAR II

The first part of this section describes the military actions in Europe and North Africa. The rest is devoted to events in the Pacific area and in the Far Eastern theater of operations.

EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA

Battle of Poland; Early Stalemate

On Sept. 1, 1939, the German Luftwaffe crossed the Polish frontier. Poland's air force was destroyed on the ground. On the same day swift-moving Nazi Panzer divisions smashed into Poland from three directions. The Polish army was the fifth largest in Europe. It was not equipped, however, to meet the up-to-date mechanized units of the Nazis. The Germans crushed organized opposition in 16 days. The Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east September 17. Warsaw surrendered September 27. From Sept. 1, 1939, until May 10, 1940, there was no major action along the Western Front. French troops did not want to attack the strong German Siegfried Line. The Germans did not want to make an assault on the so-called "impregnable" French Maginot Line. Meanwhile the Russo-Finnish war, Nov. 30, 1939-March 12, 1940, gave the Soviet Union important slices of Finnish territory.

Conquest of Norway; Battle of Flanders

On April 9, 1940, the Nazis occupied Denmark without opposition. On the same day they attacked Norway. Landing airborne infantry, parachute troops, and amphibious forces at many points, the Germans gained a solid foothold the first day of the attack. The invaders were assisted by a fifth column of Norwegian traitors led by Major Quisling. British troops landed April 15 to aid the Norwegian forces. But the swift German advance forced them to flee central Norway May 1-3 and evacuate Narvik June 9. This ended Allied resistance in Norway. The Germans started an offensive against France on May 10, 1940. To protect their right flank the Nazis roared into The Netherlands and Belgium. The same day Hitler struck at the weak extension of the Maginot Line in the Ardennes Forest. Both attacks met quick success. Dutch resistance was crushed in four days, while to the south Nazi armored spearheads drove 220 miles to reach the French coast at Abbeville May 21. The maneuver trapped the entire left wing of the Allied armies in a small pocket on the English Channel. Under heavy fire from German aircraft and artillery a hastily assembled fleet evacuated more than 360,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk to England between May 29 and June 4, 1940.

Battle of France; Battle of Britain

The defeat in the battle of Flanders left the French helpless to halt the next German blow. On June 5, 1940, the Nazis attacked along a 100-mile front. One armored spearhead raced south along the French coast closing the Channel ports to possible British aid. In the center the Germans knifed through the Somme and Aisne river lines and smashed toward Paris from east and west. Another column turned to the left after breaking through at Sedan and took the Maginot Line from the flank and rear. Paris fell to the Nazis June 14, and the French asked for surrender terms June 17. Meanwhile Italy declared war on France June 10 but engaged in no major action. Late in 1940 Germany lost its first battle of the war when England fought off a savage air bombardment. On Aug. 8, 1940, Hitler launched the air assault on England to soften the British Isles for invasion. Huge formations of German bombers crossed the English Channel almost daily to blast seaports, industrial cities, and airfields. Despite this steady rain of bombs the British stood firm. Heroic counterattacks by fighter planes of the RAF took a terrible toll of the Luftwaffe raiders. Britain's victory was certain on October 6 when the Nazis gave up daylight raids that had cost them some 2,500 planes and their crews. This was about 10 percent of the attacking German air force. Night raids later spread terror and destruction, especially in London, but they had little military value.

German Drive Through the
Balkans; Battle of the Atlantic

On April 6, 1941, the Nazi war machine drove into Yugoslavia and Greece to complete Hitler's plans for the conquest of the Balkans. Yugoslavia was overrun by April 17. Greece surrendered April 30. Of the 74,000 British troops in Greece only about 44,000 escaped. Many of these fled to Crete, which was a refueling stop and support base for the fighting in Greece. These troops were captured or killed when Nazi air-borne troops took that island May 20-June 1, 1941. Early in the war Germany blockaded Europe by attacking Allied ships with land-based planes and wolf packs of submarines. The Allies struck back by convoying their ships with destroyers and planes from escort carriers. These defenses brought the submarine and air attacks under control by 1942.

Battles of El Alamein and Stalingrad

Italian forces and the Nazi Afrika Korps entered Egypt in a drive for the Suez Canal in June 1942. The British 8th Army held fast at El Alamein, about 60 miles southwest of Alexandria. On October 23 British infantry cut through the Axis lines in a bayonet charge that opened the way for an armored breakthrough. The attack forced the Axis back 1,300 miles across the desert. The Nazis attacked Stalingrad (now Volgograd) on Aug. 24, 1942. The Soviets resisted street by street and house by house. The powerful German 6th Army spent itself in a futile effort to dislodge them. On November 19 the Soviets counterattacked and by Feb. 2, 1943, had killed or captured 330,000 Germans in one of the costliest battles of the war.

Invasion of North Africa; Battle of Tunisia

The British and Americans landed troops at Algiers, Oran, and Casablanca in French North Africa on Nov. 8, 1942. This was called Operation Torch. The invaders met little resistance and quickly drove inland. On November 15 the French in Africa joined the Allies. American forces met their first defeat at the hands of the Germans in the battle of Kasserine Pass (Feb. 14-25, 1943). They rallied, however, to push through Tunisia. On April 7 United States troops met the British 8th Army as it advanced from the east. The Allies forced 250,000 Germans and Italians to surrender near Cape Bon on May 12.

Battle of Sicily; Bombing of Ploesti

On July 10, 1943, the British and Americans launched Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. The British 8th Army landed at Cape Passero, and the United States Seventh Army led by Gen. George S. Patton won a beachhead at Gela. Then Gen. Omar Bradley's II Corps and Gen. Lucian K. Truscott's task force cut through the center of the island and swept up the western coast. The Americans ended the campaign by capturing Messina August 17. On Aug. 1, 1943, 178 American B-24 (Liberator) bombers flew a 2,400-mile round trip from Libya to bomb Ploesti, Romania. The low-level attack did severe damage to the chief oil center of Hitler's Europe, but the United States Ninth Air Force lost 54 planes in the raid. A year later the Ploesti target was knocked out in a savage three-day assault that cost 2,277 American airmen and 270 planes.

Battles of Salerno and Cassino

The British 8th Army invaded Italy at the toe of the boot on Sept. 3, 1943 (Operation Avalanche). Six days later the American Fifth Army landed at Salerno, south of Naples. General Mark Clark's assault divisions were the 36th and 45th Infantry and a ranger force, reinforced by the 82nd Airborne and the 3rd Infantry divisions. For six days Axis armor attacked savagely. But naval gunfire and close air support helped the invaders to break out of the beachhead September 15. The next day they joined the 8th Army coming from the south. The capture of Naples on October 1 rounded out this campaign and opened the way for a bitter winter struggle at Cassino. By December 1943 the Fifth Army advance in Italy was stopped at the Gustav Line based on Cassino. Despite bombardment by air and artillery the Nazis clung to their defenses. On Jan. 22, 1944, the VI Corps landed behind the Gustav Line at Anzio but failed to break the stalemate. The assault troops were the 3rd Infantry Division, rangers, paratroops, and a British division. The 34th and 45th Infantry and 1st Armored divisions landed later. Finally on May 18 the Allies overran Cassino and linked up with the Anzio forces a week later. The Fifth Army then advanced 75 miles to take Rome on June 4.

Invasion of Normandy; Battle of the Hedgerows

The long-awaited invasion of Europe from the west came in June 1944. For almost three years bombers had pounded the French and German coasts. Then on June 6, 1944, from a fleet of about 4,000 ships the Allies stormed ashore at Normandy. This was called Operation Overlord. From the Normandy beaches the Allies thrust inland. They faced enemy mortars, machine guns, and riflemen at every hedgerow. Relentless attacks slowly forced the Nazis back. American infantry captured Cherbourg on June 27.

Breakthrough at St.-Lo

On July 18, 1944, the First Army fought its way into St.-Lo where formidable Nazi defenses blocked the advance. But after Allied planes had delivered a crushing air bombardment, the First Army smashed through the German lines and broke out of the beachhead on July 25. Racing through the gap General Patton's Third Army captured Avranches on July 31. Four days later a daring attack by American tanks cut off the Brittany Peninsula. Meanwhile on July 18 the British and Canadians crossed the Orne River at Caen and struck south. On the left flank of the Third Army the XV Corps pushed east to capture Le Mans on August 9, then north to Argentan. Meanwhile the Canadian 1st Army advanced south to Falaise. By August 17 these two Allied thrusts had trapped the German 7th Army in a pocket between Argentan and Falaise. Five days later the Allies had captured 100,000 prisoners and killed many others who tried to escape.

Capture of Paris; Invasion of Southern France

The defeat of Falaise-Argentan broke the back of the Nazi defenses in France. The Third Army now thrust across France. By August 20 the French capital was surrounded. The German garrison surrendered August 25. The American Seventh Army invaded southern France in Operation Anvil Aug. 15, 1944. American infantry divisions from Italy made the attack. They were aided by American paratroops and British and French units. Knifing through weak German defenses the Seventh Army raced up the Rhone Valley to join the Third Army near Dijon Sept. 11, 1944.

Battle of Aachen

Aachen was the first large German city to be taken. On Oct. 11, 1944, the veteran 1st Infantry Division of the First Army entered the outskirts of Aachen. The Nazi defenders fought savagely under Hitler's order to resist to the last man. They were not driven out until October 21. The city lay in ruins. Meanwhile the 82nd and 101st divisions of the First Allied Airborne Army had crossed the Rhine in the Nijmegen-Arnhem area September 20 but were driven back five days later.

Battle of the Bulge

On Dec. 16, 1944, the Nazis launched a furious counterattack in the Ardennes. While overcast skies grounded Allied planes 24 German divisions drove a bulge 60 miles wide and 45 miles deep into the American lines. Part of this success was won by a specially trained unit that wore American uniforms and drove captured American vehicles. The Germans, however, were finally halted by heroic resistance. The 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 99th Infantry divisions held the shoulders of the bulge at Monschau and Echternach. Other brave stands were made at St. Vith by the 7th Armored Division and at Bastogne by the 101st Airborne Division and Combat Command B of the 10th Armored. On December 26 the 4th Armored Division relieved encircled Bastogne, ending the crisis. The First and Third armies eliminated the bulge during January. The Nazis lost 220,000 men and 1,400 tanks and assault guns. Allied casualties totaled 40,000.

Attacking Germany from the Air

When the Allies plunged into Germany they found firsthand evidence of the terrible destruction caused by the American and British saturation bombing raids. Industrial centers were crushed by a steady storm of bombs. Bridges were blown, railroad yards smashed, and harbors filled with the debris of sunken ships. Most of this destruction took place in the later stages of the war. Of the 2,697,473 tons of bombs dropped on Nazi-held Europe less than one fifth fell before 1944 and less than one third before July 1944. In these attacks Allied planners had picked their targets carefully. Of the entire bomb tonnage 32.1 percent was dropped on transportation targets and 9.3 percent on oil, chemical, and rubber centers. Meanwhile the Luftwaffe had been all but swept from the skies by hard-hitting Allied fighter planes.

Crossing the Rhine; the Drive Through Germany

On Feb. 10, 1945, a long, grinding drive through the Hurtgen Forest took dams on the upper Roer River and ended danger of flooding the troops below. The First Army promptly attacked and reached the Rhine at Cologne March 7. The same day the 9th Armored Division captured the Ludendorff bridge intact at Remagen. This action breached the last natural German defensive position. In the meantime Patton's Third Army swept the Nazis from the Saar and the Palatinate and unexpectedly crossed the Rhine near Oppenheim. By March 31 all seven Allied armies were smashing deep into Germany. After crossing the Rhine the Americans sprang a gigantic trap on the defending Germans. North of the Ruhr the Ninth Army drove straight east while the First Army broke out of their Remagen bridgehead and struck east and north. The two columns joined at Paderborn on April 1, cutting off the Ruhr in the largest pocket envelopment in the history of warfare. While the Fifteenth Army held the west face of the pocket along the Rhine, units from the First and Ninth drove in to crush the enemy in 18 days. They took more than 300,000 prisoners. The Canadian 1st Army routed the Germans in The Netherlands, and the British, Americans, and French swept through Germany. On April 25 the 69th Infantry Division met Soviet forces advancing from the east at Torgau on the Elbe River. This sealed the fate of Germany. Meanwhile the Third and Seventh armies plunged into Czechoslovakia and Austria. Total Axis casualties after June 6, 1944, on the Western Front were 263,000 killed, 49,000 disabled, and 7,614,794 captured.

Final Attack in Italy

Slugging their way northward the Allies won campaigns in the Rome-Arno region (Jan. 22-Sept. 9, 1944) and in the north Apennines (Sept. 10, 1944-April 4, 1945). On April 9 they launched Operation Grapeshot, a mass assault designed to smash the Germans in northern Italy. The American Fifth and the British 8th armies broke through Nazi defenses and drove the demoralized enemy across the Po River April 23. The Allies accepted the surrender of all German forces in Italy May 2. Total Axis losses in Italy were 86,000 men killed, 15,000 permanently disabled, and about 357,000 captured. Between June 1944 and January 1945 the Fifth Army was reinforced by three fresh divisions: the 91st and the 92nd Infantry and the 10th Mountain.

Fall of Berlin

The Soviet counteroffensive launched at Stalingrad slowly threw back the Germans along the entire front from Leningrad to Sevastopol. During the autumn of 1944 the crushing Soviet advance forced the Nazis to withdraw from the Balkans. In January 1945 the Soviets pushed across the German frontier. On April 21 the Red army attacked Berlin. Here the Nazis offered their last bitter resistance, defending the city with all their dying strength. But on May 2 the Soviet forces completed the conquest of the burned and battered German capital in the final decisive action in the European theater.

THE PACIFIC AND FAR EAST

Times and dates for the Pacific theater of war are
given as of the time zone where the action took place.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

In a surprise attack the Japanese struck at the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. The Japanese force was made up of 350 planes from three carriers. Several submarines also joined in the two-hour attack. They sank the battleships Arizona and Oklahoma and severely damaged six other battleships. Some 190 Army and Navy airplanes on the base were destroyed on the ground. Japanese losses were 55 men, 5 submarines, and 29 planes. American soldiers and sailors killed numbered 2,898.

Battles of Wake Island and Singapore

The Japanese forces immediately followed up the advantage gained with the success of Pearl Harbor. Their goal was to win the Pacific before the Allies could regroup. On Dec. 8, 1941, the Japanese struck at Wake Island, a tiny American outpost 2,000 miles west of Honolulu. Major James P. Devereux's 1st Marine Defense Battalion heroically fought off vastly superior enemy air and naval forces until forced to surrender December 23. Guam, the first American possession lost, had already fallen Dec. 11, 1941. The Japanese invaded Malaya Dec. 8, 1941, and overran the peninsula in an eight-week campaign. On Feb. 2, 1942, they attacked the British naval base on Singapore. The island was prepared to resist assault from the sea but not from the skies or the jungles in the rear. Singapore surrendered February 15, exposing the East Indies and the Indian Ocean to the Japanese advance.

Siege of Bataan

Japanese forces landed on northern and southern Luzon in the Philippines Dec. 10-24, 1941. To avoid encirclement General MacArthur abandoned Manila and withdrew his troops to the rugged peninsula of Bataan on Jan. 2, 1942. Here about 25,000 American and Filipino regulars and several thousand reservists held out against savage attacks until April 9. Then more than 35,000 exhausted defenders surrendered the peninsula. Later up to 10,000 of these prisoners died on an infamous "death march" to prison camps. General Wainwright and others escaped to Corregidor and continued their delaying action there. But on May 6 the Japanese overran the island and captured an additional 15,000 Americans and Filipinos.

Battle of the Coral Sea

On May 4-8, 1942, an American naval task force commanded by Rear Adm. Frank J. Fletcher battled a Japanese invasion fleet in the Coral Sea, northeast of Australia. Surface ships did not exchange a shot. Action was confined to long-range attacks by carrier planes. American planes were based on the Lexington and Yorktown. The enemy withdrew on May 8. This was the first Japanese setback of the war. American losses included the Lexington, one destroyer, one tanker, 74 planes, and 343 men.

The Decisive Battle of Midway

On June 3-6, 1942, two American naval task forces and land-based planes from Midway intercepted 160 Japanese ships west of Midway. Rear Adm. Raymond A. Spruance commanded Task Force 16. Admiral Fletcher headed Task Force 17. In a pitched air-sea battle the Japanese were repulsed, losing four carriers, two heavy cruisers, three destroyers, and 275 planes. This decisive defeat stopped the Japanese eastward advance in the Pacific. American losses included the carrier Yorktown, one destroyer, 150 planes, and 307 men. In this action Torpedo Squadron 8 from the carrier Hornet attacked a force of enemy carriers. All the torpedo planes were lost and only one crew member survived.

Solomon Islands Campaign;
Battle of Papua

On Aug. 7, 1942, the 1st Marine Division, commanded by Gen. Alexander Vandegrift, landed on Guadalcanal and seized Henderson Field. Later reinforcements were the 2nd Marine and the 25th and Americal Infantry divisions. After six months of bloody jungle warfare the Americans wiped out the last enemy units on Feb. 8, 1943. New Georgia was taken Aug. 6, 1943, by the 37th, 43rd, and 25th Infantry divisions. Bougainville was invaded Nov. 1, 1943, by the 3rd Marines, later reinforced by the 37th, 93rd, and Americal Infantry divisions. In a series of five naval engagements Aug. 9 Nov. 15, 1942, the United States Navy protected the invasion of the Solomon Islands. A large portion of the Japanese fleet was destroyed but at a heavy cost in American ships. Battle of Savo Island (August 9) A Japanese night attack was repulsed, but the United States lost the cruisers Quincy, Vincennes, and Astoria. Battle of Eastern Solomons (August 23-25) American carrier planes forced the enemy fleet to withdraw; later actions cost the carrier Wasp and five destroyers. Battle of Cape Esperance (October 11-12) An American night attack again drove off the Japanese. Battle of Santa Cruz Island (October 26) American and Japanese carriers exchanged blows; 2 enemy carriers were sunk and about 100 planes shot down at a cost of the carrier Hornet and 74 planes. Battle of Guadalcanal (November 13-15) Japanese attacks were repulsed with heavy losses on both sides, including the American cruisers Atlanta and Juneau; the cruiser Northampton was sunk two weeks later off Lunga Point. The Japanese attack in New Guinea had carried to within 30 miles of the Allied base of Port Moresby by Sept. 12, 1942. But American and Australian troops then drove the Japanese back over the Kokoda Trail through the Owen Stanley Mountains. Fighting in jungles and swamps the Allies took Buna (Dec. 14, 1942) and Sanananda (Jan. 22, 1943) in Papua. United States divisions: 32nd and 41st Infantry.

Battle of the Aleutians;
New Guinea Campaign

On June 4-6, 1942, the Japanese occupied the Aleutian Islands in the farthest point of their drive toward Alaska. Almost a year later, on May 11, 1943, the United States 7th Infantry Division bypassed Kiska and stormed ashore on Attu. In bitter, hand-to-hand fighting they wiped out the entire Japanese garrison by May 31. Kiska was retaken without opposition on Aug. 15, 1943. From June 1943 to July 1944 Gen. Walter Krueger's Sixth Army leapfrogged along the northern shore of New Guinea with amphibious, air-borne, and overland attacks. This advance pushed 1,300 miles closer to Japan and bypassed 135,000 enemy troops.

Battles of the Gilberts and Marshalls

The seizing of the Gilberts (Operation Galvanic) opened the American advance in the central Pacific. Marines invaded Tarawa on Nov. 21, 1943, in the face of murderous cross fire from heavily fortified pillboxes. The island was conquered in four days at a cost of 913 Marine dead and 2,000 wounded. The invasion of the Marshall Islands (Operation Flintlock) marked the first conquest of Japanese territory. Despite bitter enemy resistance the Marines took Namur, Roi, Kwajalein, and Eniwetok between Jan. 31 and Feb. 22, 1944.

Battle of the Marianas

Supported by Admiral Spruance's Third Fleet American ground troops assaulted the Mariana Islands in Operation Forager. On June 15, 1944, the 2nd and 4th Marine divisions invaded Saipan, followed the next day by the 27th Infantry Division. The Japanese resisted savagely with machine guns, small arms, and light mortars emplaced in caves and concrete pillboxes. The last desperate banzai charge was smashed on July 7 and all organized opposition ceased two days later. The 77th Infantry and the 3rd Marine divisions landed on Guam July 21 and overran the island by August 10. Tinian was taken by the 2nd and 4th Marine divisions (July 24 August 1). On Nov. 24, 1944, B-29 Superfortresses delivered their first major strike against Japan from bases on Guam and Saipan.

Battle of the Philippine Sea

The United States invasion of Saipan provoked the Japanese navy to counterattack. On June 19, American planes from 15 carriers of Adm. Marc Mitscher's Task Force 58 destroyed 402 enemy aircraft. Four United States ships suffered minor damage and 17 planes were lost. The following day American carrier planes located the Japanese fleet farther to the west. They destroyed about 300 more enemy planes and sank two carriers, two destroyers, and one tanker and crippled 11 other vessels. Enemy antiaircraft fire and hostile fighter planes shot down 16 American aircraft. An additional 73 American planes were lost in the water when the pilots could not locate their carriers after dark, but about 70 of the pilots were rescued.

Battles of Burma, the Palaus

The 1942 Japanese conquest of Burma cut the Allied ground route to China. It ran by rail from Rangoon to Lashio and then over the Burma Road to Kunming. In the fall of 1943 the Allies launched Operation Capital to reopen a road into China. Advancing from Assam, India, two American-trained Chinese divisions drove down the Hukawng Valley in northern Burma during October 1943. In the rear of the attacking Chinese the United States engineers blasted out the new Ledo Road (which was later called Stilwell Road in honor of Maj. Gen. Joseph Stilwell). The Chinese were reinforced in February 1944 by Merrill's Marauders, a specially selected combat team landed by parachutes and gliders. The southern flank of the advance was protected by a force of British Chindits known as Wingate's Raiders. On Aug. 3, 1944, the veteran Allied jungle fighters captured Myitkyina. They cleared the way to Mongyu by January 1945. On Sept. 15, 1944, Marines secured a beachhead on Peleliu Island in the Palau group. The Marines were reinforced by infantry September 22. Enemy forces held out until mid-October.

Battle of China

The Japanese attack on China, begun in 1937, was intensified late in 1944 in an effort to wipe out forward bases of the United States Fourteenth Air Force. From Sept. 8 to Nov. 26, 1944, seven large air bases were overrun by the Japanese. Less than a month later enemy columns had split unoccupied China, opening up a Japanese-dominated route from Malaya north to Korea. In the spring of 1945 the Chinese began a counteroffensive which regained much of the territory lost the previous year. Important elements in this drive were 35 divisions that General Stilwell had helped to train and equip. Air support was provided by the Fourteenth Air Force based at Kunming and the Tenth Air Force brought from India to Luichow.

Battles of Leyte and Leyte Gulf

The United States Sixth Army invaded the east coast of Leyte on Oct. 20, 1944. Enemy resistance ended on Dec. 26, 1944, but mopping-up operations continued for many weeks. Japanese naval forces challenged the Leyte landings in a series of three engagements on Oct. 23-26, 1944. The United States Third and Seventh fleets and a task force led by Admiral Mitscher defeated the Japanese in all three engagements.

Battle of Luzon

On Jan. 9, 1945, General Krueger's Sixth Army landed at Lingayen Gulf. The Eighth Army, led by Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger, landed at Subic Bay January 29 and at Batangas two days later. These attacks trapped the Japanese in a giant pincers, but they fought back savagely in Manila, at Balete Pass, and in the Cagayan Valley. Organized Japanese resistance ended on June 28, but large pockets of the enemy held out for many months. American prisoners were freed at Santo Tomas, Cabanatuan, Los Banos, and Baguio.

Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa

Marines invaded Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945. It was conquered after desperate fighting on March 16. United States losses were 4,189 killed, 15,308 wounded, and 441 missing. Japanese losses were 22,000 killed and captured. General Simon Buckner's Tenth Army landed along the western coast of Okinawa on April 1, 1945. This Army-Marine force fought for 79 days, during which time they advanced only 14 miles. Enemy resistance finally ended on June 21. Japanese losses were 109,629 killed and 7,871 captured. American casualties totaled 39,000 including 10,000 naval personnel of the supporting Fifth Fleet. This fleet was attacked by Japanese kamikaze planes.

Atomic Bombs Hit Japan

During July 1945, B-29 Superfortresses from the Marianas flew 1,200 sorties a week against the Japanese homeland. Other planes flew from recently captured Okinawa and Iwo Jima to join in the aerial assault. Meanwhile the Third Fleet sailed boldly into the enemy's coastal waters and hammered targets with its guns and planes. The American intent was to make the Japanese believe that a general invasion was imminent. The assault never happened. Another, far more devastating, means was found to end the war. On August 6 a B-29 named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, at the southern end of Honshu. The explosion vaporized everything in the immediate vicinity, completely burned about 4.4 square miles of the city, and killed between 70,000 and 80,000 people. About 70,000 more were wounded. With an American victory seemingly assured, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan two days later. A second atomic bomb was unleashed on Nagasaki on August 9. It killed about 40,000 people and injured a similar number. The next day the Japanese government sued for peace. They agreed to terms of surrender on the 15th (the 14th in the United States).

World War II Cont.

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