August was a notable month in World War II history, containing important military events and lasting cultural influences. Both abroad and at home, Americans were involved in forging history and cementing themselves as the Greatest Generation. Here’s a brief look at August throughout the war.
August 1939
August 15 – Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of the potential for nuclear fission and the possibility of constructing an atomic bomb, just two weeks before the onset of World War II. On the same day, The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
August 1940
At home, Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent was released. The film stars Joel McCrea and Laraine Day and tells the story of an American reporter based in Britain who tries to expose enemy spies involved in a fictional continent-wide conspiracy.
Richard Wright’s Native Son was also released in August 1940. The novel emphasized race relations in America and the psychological effects racism has on Black Americans.
August 1941
August 14 – After three days of secret meetings aboard warships off the coast of Newfoundland, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sign the Atlantic Charter. This declaration provided a foundation for the later establishment of the United Nations.
At home, Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the seventh in her Little House series, was published. America was also introduced to the most curious monkey ever with the debut of H.A. Rey’s Curious George.
At the theater, Americans could choose between The Little Foxes,based on Lillian Hellman’s play; When Ladies Meet, starring Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, and Greer Garson; or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman.
August 1942
August 7 – Allied Forces began their first offensive against Japanese forces by landing on, and eventually taking, Tulagi, Florida, and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
Popular books published this month included The Stranger by Albert Camus, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, and The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie.
Ingrid Bergman starred in her iconic role alongside Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, and families alike delighted in the animated feature Bambi.
August 1943
Allied forces experienced a pivotal month in the war during August 1943. Significant offensives in both the European and Pacific theatres occurred, with the wrap-up of the Allied invasion of Sicily on the 17th, major air raids against Germany industry, and several Pacific Theatre battles, including the Battle of Vella Gulf.
At home, Americans were well settled into the war effort. Victory gardens were thriving, factories were producing, and books like The Robe by Lloyd Douglas and a special edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë were new on the market. Nonfiction accounts of World War II battles were also becoming popular publications.
At the movies, Americans were watching For Whom the Bell Tolls, Five Graves to Cairo, Colonel Blimp, Lassie Come Home, and The Seventh Victim.
August 1944
August 1 – Anne Frank penned the last entry in her diary.
August 15 – Allied forces landed in southern France near Nice and advanced rapidly toward the Rhine River.
August 20–August 25 – Allied troops reached Paris. By December 1944, France, most of Belgium, and part of the southern Netherlands were liberated.
On the home front, biographical dramas were popular. Wilson, with Alexander Knox starring as Woodrow Wilson, and Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, featuring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, debuted this month. John Wayne also starred in Tall in the Saddle as a rancher pitted against an unscrupulous land grabber.
Military biographies and nonfiction books about the war were popular on the literary front. A biography of Admiral George Dewey, The Admiral by Laurin Hall Healy and Luis Kutner, was released this month. Agatha Christie also released a new book under her pen name Mary Westmacott; Absent in the Spring was the third of six novels Christie penned under this name, all of which deal less with mystery and more with psychological exploration.
August 1945
August 6 – Einstein and Szilard prove prescient. The first atomic bomb in history is dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
August 8 – The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Japanese-held Manchuria.
August 9 – The second atomic bomb is dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
August 14 – The Japanese surrender to Allied forces and World War II officially ends.
While Americans celebrated V-J Day with President Truman’s announcement of the end of the war on August 14th, in Britain George Orwell’s iconic Animal Farm was published. The satire on Stalinism remains a popular literary work today.
In theaters, the romantic comedies Christmas in Connecticut and Lady on a Train as well as the musical Ziegfeld Follies ushered in lighthearted, celebratory films. For those lucky enough to attend the Republic Theater in New York City on August 18th, Walt Disney Studios screened Pinocchio ahead of its October wide release.
With the war officially over, Americans focused on the return of loved ones from overseas and turned their attention toward adapting to the aftermath. Euphoria over the end of the war would quickly turn to mounting tensions with the Soviet Union as the two superpowers squared off against one another. Join us at the museum this season to learn more about what would come to be known as the Cold War era!
