American

In 1942, The first atomic pile, a sustained controllable nuclear chain reaction, came online in Chicago. Scientist and inventor Enrico Fermi remarked, “This will be remembered as the darkest day in history,“ referring to both the atomic pile and that day’s announcement of Nazi death camps operating in occupied Europe. Actually, most people have no knowledge of that day; they remember the ultimate achievement that began on that date - the atomic bomb.

On March 1, 1942, a US Navy PBO Ventura sank U-656 off the Canadian coast. For three critical months, the United States had no success against the U-boats, while the East Coast was increasingly unsafe for American ships.

General George C. Marshall became Army Chief of Staff in September 1939. He took command of a neglected army, 17th in the world in terms of size. He quickly took note of world events and communicated his concern immediately to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

By the end of 1944 Germany was losing on all fronts. Her generals, faced with ever increasing armies armed with superior technology, fell back under the combined assaults in Italy, the Eastern Front, and France.

Huge numbers of Allied POWs were captured by the Japanese between December 1941 and May 1942.

Deep racial hatred, led many Allied soldiers to prefer death to capture. But the large numbers of soldiers surrendered by their commanders in the Philippines and Singapore did not have much choice. They entered captivity at the start of the war, and only about half of them would leave the POW camps alive.

The rapid advance of the Japanese stunned even them. Their advance - formed by superior equipment, training, tactics, and in some cases, numbers - left the Allies confused and in disarray.