Saturday, December 4, 1943. End of the WPA.

No longer needed, the Works Progress Administration came to an end.

Coming in an era of desperation, when Americans turned to the government instead of reviling it, many great projects were built by the WPA during its eight-year run.

The number of projects built in Wyoming alone is stunning. Every community has some, some of which they're so used to, that they were government projects is hardly recalled.

What is amazing, however, is that it took until 1943 for the Government to conclude that unemployment was now low enough to do away with the program.

The British 8th Army commenced the Moro River Campaign in Italy.

Yugoslav partisans, just recognized as a legitimate fighting force by the Allies, formed a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in exile with Communist lawyer Ivan Ribar appointed as head of state to serve at the war's end.  An existing government in exile under King Peter already was functioning in the United Kingdom, but clear its days were coming to an end.

The Bolivian Congress ratified President Enrique Peñaranda's declaration of war against the Axis powers, which had occured six months earlier.

Seventy percent of wholesale and retail merchants in Bolivia were German operated, and this had resulted in fears that the declaration would create economic unrest.  It did not, but it did lead to his overthrow.  The Congress followed through nonetheless.  Given the stretch of colonial empires, this meant that at this point in time a mere nine independent nations were not committed to one of the two warring sides.

Truly a world war.

The Japanese escort carrier Chūyō was sunk in the Pacific by the submarine USS Sailfish.

The USS Lexington was hit by an airborne torpedo off of the Gilberts just after midnight, resulting in "Tokyo Rose" reporting her sunk. The ship was damaged, but far from sunk.  Repeated erroneous Japanese reports of her having been sunk lead to her being nicknamed "The Blue Ghost".  She had been leaving for Kwajalein where a major U.S. Navy strike occured on this day.

Saturday November 20, 1943. Marines at Tarawa, Army at Mankin Island.

The U.S. Navy landed the 2nd Marine Division on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll.

In was the first U.S. operation in the Central Pacific and the first US landing that faced serious opposition from the point of landing.   Fighting would last for three days and result in 1,009 US KIA and 2,101 wounded.  The Japanese, who defended basically to the last man, lost 4,690 killed, including both construction laborers, many of whom were Korean, and Japanese soldiers.  Only 17 Japanese soldiers and 129 Korean construction workers were taken prisoner.  40% of the Japanese casualties were sustained in pre landing bombardments.

Among those who fought there was my wife's grandfather.

The hard landing would result in the creation of what essentially became the Navy SEALs, given the difficult invasion obstacles that had been encountered.

Fighting on the three-day campaign was horrific, and in some ways this battle began to mark the image that the Marines emerged from the war with.

Often missed, on the same day, the Navy landed the Army's 27th Infantry Division on Mankin Island, also in the Gilberts.

27th Infantry Division landing at Mankin.

Much less defended, the two-day battle resulted in 763 killed, only 66 of which were soldiers.  The sinking of the USS Liscome Bay by the Japanese submarine I-175 resulted in most of the casualties.  The Japanese on Mankin lost 395 killed out of its much smaller garrison.

The British evacuated Samos Island.

British fascist Sir Oswald Mosely was released from prison due to his being ill.