Question 1: James O. Richardson James Otto Richardson, commander of the U.S. fleet on the eve of World War II, was relieved of his post by President Franklin Roosevelt for protesting the move to Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese navy destroyed much of the American fleet stationed at the port in a daring surprise attack. Another Texas admiral, Fredericksburg native Chester William Nimitz, was one of the main architects of victory in the Pacific theater.

Question 2: Java After their capture there on March 8, 1942, most members of the Lost Battalion were shipped to Burma where many perished working on the infamous "Railroad of Death" connecting Burma to Siam. For more information, see the Handbook of Texas Online articles on Texans in World War II, Thirty-sixth Infantry Division, and Texas National Guard.

Question 3: James Earl Rudder James Earl Rudder, a native of Eden, Texas, had a distinguished military career during and after the war, rising to the rank of major general in the reserves in 1957. In civilian life he also served as mayor of Brady, state land commissioner, and president of Texas A&M University.

Question 4: Mess Steward During the attack Doris Miller went to the main deck, where he assisted in moving his mortally wounded captain. He then raced to an unattended deck gun and fired at the attacking planes until forced to abandon ship. It was Miller's first experience firing such a weapon because black sailors serving in the segregated steward's branch of the navy were not given the gunnery training received by white sailors. Segregation in the armed forces persisted into the postwar period.

Question 5: Twenty Some twenty combat divisions comprising more than 1,200,000 troops trained at the fifteen major army camps in Texas between 1940 and the end of 1945. In addition, the largest naval flight-training center in the world was opened at Corpus Christi just before Pearl Harbor, and an estimated 200,000 airmen, including 45,000 pilots, 12,000 bombardiers, 12,000 navigators, and thousands of aerial gunners, photographers, and mechanics, were trained at the forty military airfields in Texas.

Question 6: Liberty ship A 10,000-ton Liberty ship, the first vessel out of Texas shipyards, was christened in April 1942. These mass-produced merchant vessels allowed the allies to mount operations of unprecedented size over immense distances in the face of heavy losses to enemy submarines.

Question 7: France. On January 26, 1945, Audie Leon Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor for exceptional valor near Holtzwhir, France, where he was personally credited with killing or wounding about fifty Germans and stopping an attack by enemy tanks.

Question 8: The Rapido. As part of the Italian campaign the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division stormed ashore at Salerno on September 9, 1943, and then participated in the ill-fated attempt to cross the Rapido River. The division commander, Gen. Fred L. Walker, had serious doubts about the operation, given the current of the river, its muddy banks and approaches, and the lack of adequate boats or bridging equipment. One source called the attempts to cross the Rapido between January 20 and 22, 1944, a "two-day nightmare." The attack met stout German defenses, and the T-Patchers suffered heavy casualties, including 143 killed, 663 wounded, and 875 missing.

Question 9: Ploesti. The oilfields at Ploesti were bombed several times by American aircraft, and the target was a notoriously difficult one. Texan Lloyd H. Hughes was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery over Ploesti. Princess Catherine Olympia Caradja personally took custody of surviving Allied crews, saw that they were cared for in her hospitals, and facilitated their escape to Italy. These activities earned her the sobriquet "Angel of Ploesti."

Question 10: 1964 Between 1942 and 1964 more than 4.5 million braceros entered the United States. Most never returned, choosing to stay in the United States, sometimes as illegal aliens.