World War II Almanac (Facts on File Library of American History)

The Victory achieved in World War II is one of America's proudest memories and a touchstone of national identity, writes Keith D. Dickson. Of course, the story of the great clash of Allied and Axis powers has been told many times. Here, though, the author tries to tell the story in a new way, as a chronicle of the daily events that represented the collective experience of the more than 16 million Americans who served in the war worldwide. Organizationally, the Almanac contains two main sets of entries, entitled Atlantic and Pacific, which deal with strategic decisions in the battle against fascism in Europe and Japanese imperialism in Asia. After each strategic entry are entries for the subordinate theaters of operations, dealing with the activities of fleets, army corps, and the like. These are followed by entries for subordinate geographical regions, addressing specific deployments and combat actions of ships, aircraft, divisions, regiments, battalions, companies and occasionally reaching down to the activity of an individual soldier, sailor, or marine, in stories drawn from the citations for the highest American medal for valor, the Medal of Honor. And so the Almanac offers a complete day-by-day chronology, from the first entry for October 28, 1922, the Italian Fascist Party's March on Rome under the leadership of Benito Mussolini, which led to his appointment as premier two days later, to the last entry, for November 19, 1945, when Eisenhower replaced Marshall as chief of staff of the army. This last entry ends tellingly: The JCS [Joint Chiefs of Staff] initiates contingency planning for nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The Almanac also includes biographies of key American leaders, specifications for all of the weapons employed in the war, extensive maps, and of course a list of the losses, in material and lives. It also includes a complete list of all 464 American servicemen who received the Medal of Honor.