The History of the Twentieth Century

By 1944, the United States had developed the facilities to produce U-235 and plutonium in sufficient quantities. The last problem was how to design and build a bomb that would detonate an atomic explosion when you wanted it, but not before.

The war made life in the Soviet Union very difficult. Even by Soviet standards, the government took an unprecedented degree of control over the allocation of labor and of food. Despite food shortages, there was no mass opposition as there had been in 1917.

The British had to deal with many more shortages of food and fuel and consumer goods than did Americans. And they had to worry about the Luftwaffe.

The war put Americans in the unfamiliar position of enduring limits on what they could buy or eat, even how much they could drive their cars.

The Allies invade southern France, close the Falaise pocket, and the German line collapses. Soon the Allies are advancing on Paris.