Over the period of February and March, 1944 the US Army Air force fought a desperate battle in extreme conditions that, while unlike many other battles of 1944, was nonetheless as significant as almost any of those battles.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.