Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food (88 page)

September–July 1944: Auschwitz functions as an extermination camp.

1 September: Battle of Stalingrad begins.

11 September: Japanese advance up Kokoda Trail stops at Iorabaiwa, 51 kilo-metres from Port Moresby.

October: German bread and meat rations increased. Cyclone hits district of Midnapur in Bengal. Australia introduces sugar rationing.

2 October: US marines land on Ellice Islands (Tuvalu).

October–November: second battle of El Alamein.

October–July 1944: Majdanek functions as an extermination camp.

November: sinkings of British merchant fleet reach their peak. General Plan for the East put into practice in the Polish district of Lublin.

2 November: Australians recapture Kokoda.

8 November: Operation Torch begins with Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria.

13 November: Tydings amendment to the Selective Service Law allows for more farmers to be made exempt from the US draft.

16 November: US and Australian troops begin assault on Japanese at Buna-Gona bridgehead, New Guinea.

19 November: Red Army launches counter-attack to retake Stalingrad.

22 November: German 6th Army in Stalingrad is encircled by the Soviets.

December: German plans for the General Plan for the East calculate that 70 million people will be deported. Beveridge Report published in Britain.

10 December: Australians capture Gona area, New Guinea.

1942–43

Bengal famine, Henan famine.

1943

US intensifies submarine blockade of Japan.

January: Churchill announces 60 per cent reduction in British shipping in the Indian Ocean.

2 January: Allies capture Buna, New Guinea.

18 January: Red Army breaks through to relieve Leningrad from the east.

31 January: German 6th Army surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad.

8 February: Japanese complete the evacuation of their forces from Guadalcanal.

18 February: in Germany Goebbels announces the implementation of total war.

March: Australians set up Army Catering Corps.

29 March: US introduces meat rationing at 28 ounces a week.

1 April: US introduces rationing for canned goods, fats and cheese.

May: Basic (Food) Plan introduced in India. German meat and fat ration cut.

May–June: Hot Springs Food Conference.

29 June: Operation Cartwheel, the Allied offensive to retake the south-west Pacific, begins.

July: Battle of Kursk.

25 July: Italian coup, Mussolini arrested.

August: Japanese high command announce that troops on New Guinea will now be self-sustaining. Harlem Riot.

23 August: Soviets recapture Kharkov.

September: Allied landings in Italy.

3 September: Italy signs armistice with Allies.

12 September: Germans rescue Mussolini and set up puppet government in northern Italy.

13 September: Italy declares war on Germany.

15 September: Australians capture Lae, New Guinea.

27 September: Germans begin to evacuate the Ukraine.

2 October: Australians capture Finschhafen, New Guinea.

November: Allies set up UNRRA.

6 November: Soviets recapture Kiev.

15 December: US troops begin landing on New Britain.

1943–44

Tonkin famine in Indo-China.

1944

January–May: Battle of Monte Cassino.

26 January: British launch Arakan attack in Burma.

27 January: the siege of Leningrad ends.

8 February: Australians capture Huon Peninsula, New Guinea.

14 February: US announces that remaining Japanese forces in the Solomons are now trapped.

27 February: US reports about 60,000 Japanese troops now trapped in New Britain and New Ireland.

March: Soviets recapture the Ukraine.

7 March: Japanese launch Imphal–Kohima offensive in Burma.

April–December: Japanese Ichigo offensive in China.

April: Soviets enter Romania.

24 April: US troops secure Hollandia and Aitape, New Guinea, leaving 200,000 Japanese trapped in the area.

3 May: meat rationing lifted in US except on selected cuts of meat.

27 May: MacArthur declares New Guinea campaign over.

3 June: Japanese retreat from Kohima.

20 June: Japanese retreat from Imphal.

6 June: D-Day, Allied landings in Normandy.

15 June: US forces land on Saipan.

18 July: Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan, replaced by Koiso.

20 July: German officers attempt to assassinate Hitler.

September: Allied operation to retake Holland fails and the Dutch Hunger Winter begins. Viscount Wavell appointed Viceroy of India.

September–November: battle for Peleliu.

October: US Admiral King relegates German U-boats to threat rather than menace.

16 October: Secretary of State for India, Leo Amery, publicly acknowledges the Bengal famine in a speech in Birmingham. Soviet Red Army enters German territory.

20 October: US forces begin landing in the Philippines.

November: Lord Woolton appointed Minister of Reconstruction.

1945

28 January: Burma Road to China reopens.

February–March: Battle of Iwo Jima.

March: Allies begin air-dropping food into Holland.

9 March: US begins firebombing Japan’s major cities from the newly conquered Mariannas. Japanese seize control of Indo-China.

5 April: Koiso resigns as Japanese Prime Minister, replaced by Suzuki.

12 April: President Roosevelt dies and Harry Truman becomes President.

30 April: Hitler commits suicide.

April–June: battle of Okinawa.

8 May: Victory in Europe day.

May: first conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), John Boyd Orr elected Director-General.

18 June: US begins firebombing Japan’s smaller cities.

5 July: MacArthur announces the liberation of the Philippines.

17 July: Allied summit meeting at Potsdam.

26 July: Clement Atlee elected Prime Minister in Britain.

6 August: US drops first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima.

8 August: Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria.

9 August: US drop second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki.

15 August: Japan surrenders.

16 August: US ends food rationing.

30 August: US occupation of Japan begins.

September: Canada reintroduces meat rationing.

1945–46

Worldwide drought.

1946

Civil war in China.

Spring: Herbert Hoover conducts a worldwide Famine Survey.

July: British government introduces bread rationing.

August–September: famine in Soviet Union.

September: Stalin reinstates central planning and the state distribution of food. Second FAO conference.

November: third meeting of FAO when US sabotages plan for World Food Board.

1947

April: Marshall Plan accepted by US Congress.

6 April: Herbert Backe commits suicide.

1947–48

Hunger protests in occupied Germany.

1948

April: Marshall Plan aid begins to arrive in Europe.

20 June: German currency reform.

1949

1 October: Mao Zedong founds the People’s Republic of China.

Bibliography

MANUSCRIPT SOURCES

National Library of Australia, Canberra (NLA)

J. A. Alexander Papers 1892–1983, MS2389

Sir Cedric Stanton Hicks Papers, MS5623

Hitoshi Imamura, ‘Extracts from the tenor of my life’, mfm PMB 569

H. E. Jessup, Changi Diary, MS3924

Irene Rush, Memoir, MS8316

Harry Simon, Memoirs, MS7514

Imperial War Museum, London (IWM)

E. Barrington Papers, Department of Documents, 88/58/1 (P)

Miss E. Blaikley Papers, Department of Documents, 86/46/1

R. B. Buckle Papers, Department of Documents

R. P. Evans Papers, Department of Documents

G. R. Page Papers, Department of Documents

Fus. H(arold Walter) Simons Papers, ‘Army Cookery Notebook, 1944’, Department of Documents, Misc180 Item 2726

A. W. Winter Papers, Department of Documents

OFFICIAL PAPERS

Australian National Archives (ANA)

Records:

Series A816/1

Series A5954/69

Australian War Memorial (AWM)

Allied Translator and Interpreter Section Reports, 1942–46, AWM 54 & 55

NEWSPAPERS

Guardian