Samland Peninsula SAMLAND PENINSULA Located west of Königsberg, a pocket of nine isolated German divisions formed on Samland during fighting between 3rd Belorussian Front and Army Group North in March 1945 The Soviets moved to eliminate the pocket on April 13 After two weeks of fighting, Palau fell on April 25 Some soldiers and refugees crossed by boat to huddle on a nearby sand spit to the end of the war SAMURAI See Imperial Japanese Army SANCTIONS See Abyssinian War (1935–1936); Japan; Irish Free State; League of Nations; oil; quarantine; Roosevelt, Franklin; Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE (APRIL 25–JUNE 26, 1945) Follow-up to the Dumbarton Oaks Conference where the main outlines of the United Nations Organization were decided San Francisco was in many ways the lesser conference, though far more public Fifty-one nations attended, in contrast to only the Big Four at Dumbarton Oaks A fatal clash between the United States and the Soviet Union over membership issues and the scope of the veto was avoided, the Charter of the United Nations agreed, and the UNO formally launched SAN FRANCISCO TREATY (1951) See Japanese Peace Treaty SANTA CRUZ, BATTLE OF (OCTOBER 26–27, 1942) One of the naval battles provoked by the Guadalcanal campaign (1942–1943), it was fought on October 26–27, 1942 Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo led a Japanese carrier strike force against a U.S Navy task force organized around two fleet carries, the USS Enterprise and USS Hornet Japanese dive bombers sank the “Hornet” and damaged the “Enterprise.” American planes damaged two Japanese fleet carriers enough to force them to return to Japan for repairs The Japanese lost many experienced naval air crew that they never really replaced That turned a tactical Japanese victory into a strategic loss by attrition, although that was not obvious at the time SARDINA The Wehrmacht evacuated its garrison from this large Mediterranean island to Corsica on September 8, 1943, upon announcement of the Italian surrender to the Allies and five days after the Italian campaign (1943–1945) commenced with British landings at Reggio de Calabria The next day, Americans landed at Salerno Sardinia subsequently hosted air bases used to support the Combined Bomber Offensive over Germany 954