June 24-June 30: The End in Sight

In Moscow, more than 200 captured Nazi banners are ceremonially dragged across a rain-soaked Red Square and thrown to the ground in front of Lenin's tomb to the rumble of hundreds of drums. British bombers destroy the bridge over the River Kwai that the Japanese had forced weak and suffering Allied POWs to build. A Chinese envoy is the first of 50 delegates to sign the charter of the newly-formed United Nations. And as the bitter campaign in the Philippines drags on, President Truman approves a plan to invade mainland Japan. Five million troops, mainly American, will take part.