Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II.

By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone
conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed.

U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the invasion,
which was code-named “Operation Olympic” and set for November
1945.

On May 19, 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt plotted the cross-Channel
landing that would become D-Day—May 1, 1944.

That date will prove a bit premature, as bad weather becomes
a factor.

Addressing a joint session of Congress, Churchill warned that
the real danger at present was the “dragging-out of the war at
enormous expense” because of the risk that the Allies would
become “tired or bored or split”—and play into the hands of
Germany and Japan.

He pushed for an early and massive attack on the “underbelly
of the Axis.”

To “speed” things up, the British prime minister and President
Roosevelt set a date for a cross-Channel invasion of Normandy,
in northern France, for May 1, 1944, regardless of the problems presented by the invasion of Italy, which was underway.

It would be carried out by 29 divisions, including a Free French
division, if possible.

The D-Day invasion ended up taking place on June 6, 1944.

                 
SANDY KOZEL

Sugar became the first household staple rationed as part
of the US war effort on this day in 1942.

The government issued ration books with tear-out stamps
allowing every American, kids included, to buy 26 pounds
of sugar per year, about 8 Oz per week—using stamps from
War Ration Book One.

The April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raid on Japan early in World War
II bolstered American spirits just months after the surprise
attack on Pearl Harbor and the loss of the U.S. territories of
Guam and the Philippines. 

   
The commander of the raid, Army Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle (second from left).