World War II Chronicles

In the Fall of 1943, the American home front was awash in money. On September 8th, the third war loan drive was launched to help absorb excess wages and pay the enormous costs of war.

After the U.S. entered the war, more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were rounded up and detained in internment camps. In early 1943, some Japanese Americans were allowed to serve in the Armed Forces. Consequently, thousands of Nisei - second generation Japanese Americans - volunteered to serve. More than 17,000 Japanese Americans fought for the U.S. in World War II. Among them, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team became the most decorated military unit in U.S. history.

The Allied command planned to invade the Italian mainland in two phases. The first step was an attack across the Straights of Messina on September 3, 1943. The hope was that this attack would divert attention away from a second, larger landing. On September 9, a second landing occurred at Salerno.

The Italian government began to negotiate an armistice with the Allies in the middle of August 1943. On September 3, Italian General Castellano signed the Italian surrender in Sicily. The surrender was kept secret until September 8, when Italian General Pietro Badoglio announced the armistice to the Italian people. The text was also announced in the United States. German reaction was immediate, devastating, and brutal.

No one on the American home front benefited more from the wartime economy than the farmer. Total farm income increased 250 percent, despite the loss of some 800,000 workers. The Lend-Lease Act sent great quantities of food overseas, and the government subsidy Parity brought agricultural prices into balance with industrial prices. These factors helped account for the farming boom.

During an intensive series of operations in late July 1943, the Americans lost 88 bombers. Despite these losses, the Eighth Air Force undertook its most ambitious mission to date on August 17, 1943 - the anniversary of its first bombing mission over Europe. B-17s took off for a factory at Regensburg and the ball bearing plant at Schweinfurt, to inflict damage on Germany's production line.

The discovery of preserving blood plasma was vital to the development of military medicine. Plasma could now be freeze-dried and sent to field hospitals and medics. Throughout the war, civilians were asked to donate blood to blood banks for soldiers' use at the front.

At dawn on August 1, 1943, 179 B-24 Liberators thundered away from bases in North Africa, headed for a sacred target across the Mediterranean. It was a daylight bombing of the oil refineries in Ploiești, Romania - one of the most daring raids of the war. The raid was a total disaster. The oil refineries, though badly hit, were still in operation, and still producing oil when Russian Armies rolled over them in August 1944.

Mussolini and Hitler met on July 19, 1943 - nine days after the Allies invaded Sicily. At their meeting in Northern Italy, Mussolini was unwilling to admit that Italy would not be in the war much longer. As the meeting came to a close, it was announced that the Allies were bombing Rome.

During the Summer of 1943, with U.S. planes raiding Germany during the day, the Royal Air Force continued their carpet bombing at night. On July 24, 791 RAF planes struck at Hamburg -- Germany's second largest city and Europe's second largest port. For six straight days, Hamburg was attacked by Allied bombs. The raids resulted in the first ever firestorm. Almost three quarters of the city was destroyed, and over 40,000 people died in the blazes.