the liner S.S. Arapahoe was the first ship to use the S.O.S. radio distress call. Its wireless operator, T. D. Haubner, radioed for help after a propeller shafat snapped while off the coast at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA. The call was heard by the United Wireless station HA at Hatteras. A few months later, Haubner on the S.S. Arapahoe received an SOS from the SS Iroquois, the second use of SOS in America. Previously, the distress code CQD had been in use as a maritime distress call, standardised by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. in 1904. The second International Radio Telegraphic Convention (1906) proposed the alternative SOS for its distinctive sound. It was ratified as an international standard in 1908.

The Allies pounded away at the Philippines, bombed Japan with B29 planes, and liberated Guam. Super-Fortress planes flew out of China and bombed Nagasaki's aircraft factory. Other parts of Japan were also bombed. Reports out of Tokyo said, 'the manner in which the enemy carried out the attacks was extremely fierce.'