More than 1,000 Ameri**s were killed or went missing. More than 1,000 C-46s took the journey, usually fully loaded. Artfully arranged lights, some recessed, some on a curved track, add even more glamorous sparkle. Even POWs who were fit when captured often succumbed to a below-starvation diet of unground millet and a punishing program of hard labor. German POWs face likely death at Soviet Union POW camps: Captured German troops were transferred to Soviet Union POW camps, many of which were in Siberia. In the camps, the prisoners received a harsh education in **unism, and many died from overwork and malnutrition. Of the 146 prisoners taken by U.S. U.S. Marines shot down by the hundreds on Tarawa Atoll: Dead Marines litter the beach following the 76-hour battle for Betio (at the southwest corner of Tarawa Atoll) and its strategically important airstrip. Preceded by an inadequate bombardment, hampered by a disastrously low tide, and lacking sufficient tracked vehicles to negotiate Betio's wide reef, Marines were shot down by the hundreds as they waded toward the heavily defended landing beaches. Japanese troops choose suicide over surrender: Trapped in their bunker on Tarawa, two Japanese Special Naval Landing Force troops chose suicide over surrender.

Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert islands **e under heavy air assault by Allied planes. The U.S. assaults on Kwajalein and nearby Roi-Namur, deep in the Marshall Islands chain, in February 1944 surprised the Japanese, who had **itted more defensive effort to the outermost islands. SP guns as a more maneuverable form of co**ional indirect-fire artillery, the German and Russian armies used SP guns primarily as direct-fire weapons -- literally as "assault guns" -- providing close support for infantry engaged in offensive operations. The Fourth Marine Division seized Roi-Namur in two days, and the Seventh Infantry Division took Kwajalein **ur days. The Se**d Marine Division had fought in the Solomons, but the amphibious assault on tiny, heavily defended Tarawa was a new experience. Japan defends Tarawa Atoll: Draped with hand grenades and ammunition, a Marine pauses to drink from his **teen on December 6, 1943, during the fight for Tarawa. The hand pump could not keep pace with the **w although it **tinued to be used to reduce the effects. Before smashing place the piece in a stout plastic bag to keep shrapnel at a minimum, and remember: Wear safety glasses and gloves.

Whichever method you've used to put the wall up, it's time for finishing. The Nazis attempt to put a lid on sabotage by the nas**t Italian resistance by taking some 2,000 of Milan's industrial workers hostage. November 16: The Nazis round up another 2,000 Jews in the **herlands and send them to Auschwitz. November 11: Vichy police arrest 450 demonstrators in Grenoble, France, for rallying against the Nazis. By the end of November 1943, the Allies had **quered Tarawa. Japanese rear admiral Shibasaki Keiji boasted that "a million Ameri**s couldn't take Tarawa in a hundred years." Defenses included barbed wire, mines, tetrahedrons, nearly 500 pillboxes, light tanks, heavy machine guns, and eight-inch naval rifles. Tarawa assault was a costly learning experience. Capture of the island air bases deprived the Japanese of a defensive shield and opened the way to the Carolines and Marianas, which were the true strategic springboards for Structural Decking any assault on Japan. U.S. seizes Kwajalein, Roi-Namur in the Pacific: Hit by antiaircraft fire, a Japanese torpedo bomber explodes during an attack off Kwajalein Island.

Among the Western Allies, the U.S. Unlike airplane-sized Western dragons known for their bad tempers, Mushu is a raccoon-sized dragon that is protective and good-humored. It did not, however, bring a noticeable improvement in smoothness or quietness, and performance was predictably little changed, **sumer Guide