Time Machine » The 1940s  The 1940s was arguably the most
important decade of the 20th century. The first half was
consumed by World War II, an unprecedented global conflict,
which produced a heady mixture of anticipation and fear for the
coming battles among its countless participants.  Before the
enemy could be engaged, soldiers huddled in foxholes, waiting
for the signal to advance from superiors who just months before
had been contemporaries. For loved ones back home, the waiting
was equally unnerving—sometimes the details of a particular
attack or campaign would not be revealed until a newspaper
landed on their doorstep.  The Battle of Britain was fought in
1940, Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, Allied forces landed on
the beaches of Normandy in 1944, and less than a year later,
Germany surrendered. It took two atomic bombs in August 1945 to
convince Japan to do the same—a Parker 51 pen was chosen to sign
the peace treaty between the U.S. and its former enemy.  At the
close of the struggle, people around