(2 of 2)
In a fighting speech in his fighting home State of Texas, House Speaker Sam Rayburn let a secret out of the bag: the U.S. was producing over 3,300 planes a month.
April 18: U.S. flyers, under Brigadier General Jimmy Doolittle, raid Tokyo.
Said General George C. Marshall, U.S. Chief of Staff, on a visit to U.S. troops in Northern Ireland: "We have an Army corps trained now for amphibious operations."
May 4-9: Battle of the Coral Sea.
Same day the battle began, the U.S. people registered for sugar rationing. In The Bronx, a grand jury cleared Democratic National Chairman Ed Flynn of converting WPA labor and materials to his own use; New York's Governor Herbert Lehman announced he would not run again. The President had visits from politicos whose business was not the war.
June 4-6: Battle of Midway.
A major switch in strategy seemed to be forthcoming when WPB stopped construction of new war plants, ordered all raw materials to be used in production.
For the second time in six months, Winston Churchill turned up in Washington. Said a joint U.S.-British announcement: an understanding had been reached, on the "urgent tasks of creating a second front in Europe in 1942." The headlines also said:
ROMMEL 100 MILES IN EGYPT. The count on U.S. ships sunk by Axis subs at the end of June: 323. The newspapers that told of Jap landings in the Aleutians also carried an announcement from Cordell Hull: the U.S. would resume shipment of food, clothing and fuel oil to French North Africa.
Aug. 10: U.S. Marines had landed on Guadalcanal, Florida, Tulagi. Aug. 10: U.S. Rangers take part in raid on Dieppe.
The temper of U.S. participation in the war was increasing, but from the people and the press came demands for more action abroad (a second front), for sterner measures at home (too much was shelved until after elections). In a historic speech Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to pass the anti-inflation bill—"or else." While Congress wrangled, he took his two weeks' "secret" trip through the country. On his return, he signed the bill. He also chastised Administration spokesmen who said the U.S. was losing the war.
Although the Jap had been beaten back in attempts to recapture the Solomons, the U.S. losses were heavy, the U.S. position looked desperate. Almost unnoticed, a Republican trend had developed in the country. On election day, Republicans gained 47 seats in the House, 10 in the Senate, many an important Governorship. Franklin Roosevelt seemed unworried.
Nov. 7: U.S. troops land in North Africa; Nov. 13-15: the U.S. Navy sinks 28 Jap ships in the epic Battle of Guadalcanal.
U.S. strategy, which began evolving last Christmas, was decided upon and accepted in principle by Britain and Russia last summer, had now come clear. Clear, too, now was the output achieved by the American arsenal in the first year of war—an output which, although measured in startling figures (see chart-), can be better appreciated by the American people now that its planes and tanks and guns are being used by their sons and brothers. What is more, they know that the arsenal is still growing.