 In August of 1943, Allied leaders met in Quebec for a high-level war conference. Convinced that the war in Europe would be won within a year, the world leaders focused their attention on Japan. Roosevelt promised the Allies that he would deliver 229s by March of 1944. Also, during August of 1943, U.S. bombers taking off from North Africa hit the oil refineries of Proesti in Romania. In Germany, the Allies had gained primarily because of massive bomber strikes against German industry. The onslaught of winter, along with a shortage of long-range fighter escort aircraft, severely reduced Allied air operations. During this lull, Germany continued to rebuild its lightly damaged industry with methodical efficiency. February 1944, the weather broke, and the might of the U.S. Army Air Forces departed for Europe. Hundreds of bombers and fighters set out to destroy factories, aerodromes, and to take on the Luftwaffe in the air. This became known as the Big Week. It was, in fact, an invasion of German skies. In March, U.S. fighters and bombers reached Berlin for the first time, far into the interior of Germany. U.S. aircraft brought the war to the doorstep of the Reichstag. At this time, March 1944, U.S. forces in Italy had captured air bases from which American planes could more easily reach industrial and military targets in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and southern Germany. On the 5th of April, a force of 90 B-17s and 146 B-24s began the 600-mile run on the heavily defended oil refineries of Proesti. Thus, the Army Air Force began the oil campaign. By May, American bombers and escorts were encountering heavy ground fire and smoke screens designed to obscure the targets. Enemy fighters outnumbered American fighters three to one. Destruction of the enemy fuel supplies would give the Allies a great advantage in the invasion battles to come. In England, Plymouth Harbor was an armed camp. Troops were masked for the assault on Europe. Eisenhower addressed the men with these words. Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force, you are about to embark upon the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. 5th of June 1944. U.S. aircraft attacked coastal defenses in transportation and supply routes. They searched the sky for the Luftwaffe, but Germany had concentrated its air power to protect the homeland. Under cover of darkness, airborne troops landed in France behind the German fortifications. Reinforcements came in wooden gliders, the 20th-century Trojan horses. While at sea, Allied armies prepared to hit the beach, facing high winds as they churned through rough seas. However, those landing early were lucky. For those who came over the following two weeks, encountered the roughest seas in the English Channel in 20 years. All along the Normandy coast, overwhelming waves of Allied troops poured into France supported by 8,000 aircraft of the U.S. Army Air Forces and thousands of RAF aircraft. In support of the invasion, the religious devise a bold new plan of attack on the Romanian oil supplies at Floresta. Dive bombing by P-38s. This reduced the disadvantage to precision bombing posed by the smoke screens. The steady aerial pounding whittled away 90% of Romanian oil production, and the death blow came to the German oil industry with a campaign against the German synthetic oil plants. In France, Allied ground forces came to a standstill after the capture of Cherbourg at the end of June. German counter-attacks blocked them, and weather closed off air support. Finally, the weather broke, and the air attack resumed. One plane every two seconds, striking a target five miles long and one mile wide, cutting an opening through which General Patton would surge on his dash to Germany. Air strikes forced an entire German division to surrender at Bogasi Bridge on September 16. Again, the Germans replenished their fighter aircraft largely from underground factories, but not their pilots. The air war over Germany was intense at times, but the momentum belonged to the Allies. Victory followed victory and led to the surrender by German leaders on May 7, 1945. After the Quebec Conference of 1943, the U.S. launched its strategic plan against Japan. Using Chinese labor, the United States built a string of bases in China in preparation for the B-29's then-in-production. In April of 1944, the new bombers arrived in India. In June, 68 of the giant craft took off to bomb an industrial target in Japan on the same day that Marines landed on Saipan. In the Pacific, army air forces engaged in highland warfare and air attacks against Japanese ships, island by island, ship by ship, U.S. forces worked their way back to the Philippines itself a chain of 7,000 islands. The most spectacular air action was the recapture of Corregidor on February 16, 1945. After intensive bombing, 50 C-47s brought 2,065 men to jump onto the narrow target surrounded by sheer cliffs. In early March, General MacArthur returned to say, heist the colors and let no enemy ever haul them down. On Columbus Day, 1944, the first of a fleet of B-29s landed on Saipan. Some Japanese officials recognized this as an early signal of their eventual defeat. From Saipan, it was a 3,000-mile round trip to Mount Fujiyama, 60 miles from Tokyo. The U.S. built its operations up to missions of 800 aircraft against Japan. Then a single plane attack against Hiroshima, followed by another three days later against Nagasaki, abruptly crushed any semblance of resistance which remained and the war was over. Without being invaded, without losing a foot of homeland, Japan was defeated. The surrender came on August 14, 1945, with formal surrender ceremonies held about the USS Missouri September 2.