1942 — The Year That Tested the United States
It is good for us Americans to remember who we are when we face difficult challenges — for the record, the entire Corona Virus thing is a huge head fake and will turn out just fine, but we are unable to be calm these days, so it may be useful to revisit exactly who we are.
In 1942, we were reeling from the Japs destroying the American fleet at Pearl Harbor — 2,403 Americans KIA, 1,143 WIA, 18 ships sunk, 5 battleships sunk. We were now at war with Japan and Germany and our Army had been 189,000 men in 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland. By the end of 1939, the Germans would have 6,000,000 men under arms.
By the end of World War II, the US military would number more than 12,000,000 (more than 17,000,000 would serve), but it would take three and a half years to get there.
We would suffer 407,000 KIA and 671,000 WIA plus another 6,000 Merchant Marine KIAs. We would accept the unconditional surrender of every one of the Axis countries — Germany and Japan chief amongst them.
