World War II brought the United States into global war after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, damaging all eight U.S. Navy battleships, sinking four, and killing servicemen and civilians there, including many aboard the USS Arizona. On December 8, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked for a declaration of war on Japan, and on December 11 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Early major actions included the April 18, 1942 Tokyo Raid led by Lt. Col. James “Jimmy” Doolittle, the June 4-7, 1942 Battle of Midway in which U.S. Navy forces sank four Japanese carriers, and the November 8, 1942 Allied invasion of Vichy-held French North Africa in Operation Torch. In the European theater, the 8th Air Force suffered heavy losses, while Bill Mauldin’s Willie and Joe cartoons captured the experience of front-line infantrymen. On June 6, 1944, Allied troops landed in Normandy on D-Day and by the end of August had reached the Seine River, liberated Paris, and removed German troops from northwestern France. Leesburg Army Airfield, commissioned in January 1943, trained students in the P-40 Warhawk and P-38 Lightening with the 312th Fighter Squadron before the barracks became a German prisoner of war camp. Later campaigns included the Battle of the Bulge, Operation Market-Garden, and the Battle of Iwo Jima, where U.S. forces secured the island after fierce fighting. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, bringing celebration at the end of fighting in Europe. After the United States, China, and the British Empire called for Japan’s unconditional surrender, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. U.S. submarines operated in the Pacific against the Japanese Merchant Marine, while German U-boats fought in the Atlantic. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945, bringing the war to a close.