World War II Chronicles

Following the defeats at Guadalcanal and Papua, the Japanese realized they were on the defensive, and needed reinforcements to reestablish their momentum. On February 28, 1948, a Japanese troop convoy of 18 ships left for New Guinea. However, in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, American airpower eliminated the convoy entirely.

Americans had seen little fighting on the battlefield after the North African invasion. That all changed on Valentine's Day of 1943, when the first skirmish between American and German forces in World War II broke out.

For more than four months, the Marines had battled the Japanese on the island of Guadalcanal. But in December, the Marines began to receive relief from US Army forces. On January 10, 1943, the US launched a major drive westward to push Japanese forces off the island. By the week of February 8, after Japanese efforts to evacuate, US forces found only abandoned ships at the most western point of the island.

Encircled in a ring of Soviet troops, 284,000 soldiers of the German Sixth Army were ill and exhausted, under constant attack from the Russians. After a request to surrender was denied, the Sixth Army continued to disentegrate. On January 31, the Germans surrendered to the Soviets. The Red Army had taken a total of 91,000 prisoners since January 10th. For the Red Army, Stalingrad was their first stop on their road to Berlin.

On January 14, 1943, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met at Casablanca in Morocco in the first of a series of wartime summits. It marked the first time a sitting President left the United States in a time of war. The Allies agreed that an invasion of Sicily would be the next operation in the European Theater, in addition to strategic bombing missions. On January 24, Roosevelt announced the Allied policy of unconditional surrender.

On the Island of New Guinea in the South Pacific, the Allies counterattacked Japanese forces. The battle along the island's north coast proved challenging. Reinforced with tanks and artillery, the Allies eventually began making headway.

Since September 1941, Leningrad had been under siege. However, by the following year, the Soviets were turning the tide of the war, and launched a counter-offensive to retake Leningrad. On January 12, more than 4,500 guns opened up on the Germans. On January 18, the siege had been broken. The Red Army successfully regained the city by the end of January.

At the end of 1942, the British offensive in Burma was routed by a Japanese counterattack over seeming impassable mountains. It became clear that the Allies would need to adopt guerilla tactics, which led to the creation of the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade. Nicknamed the "Chindits" in honor of a Burmese animal which symbolized protection, the unit was effective in ambushing Japanese outposts and destroying communications. 

On December 31, an Allied convoy bound for Russia was intercepted by a fleet of large Nazi warships. Over a three hour period, the British destroyer escort fought with the Germans. The conflict came to be known as the Battle of the Barents Sea, and the German Navy had been routed.

To help finance the enormous cost of the Second World War, the federal government began to sell loans to private citizens and corporations known as "war bonds." In December 1942, the Department of Treasury launched the first War Loan Drive.