Huge Case Register Records Bond Purchases In New U.S. War Loan Drive -- Thousands jam Times Square in the heart of New York City watch a huge cash register record the day's of bonds in the Fifth U.S. War Loan "back up America's fighting forces, New Yorkers did not wait until the official opening of drive, but on the day before made initial purchases amounting- to $18,300,000, the sum shown on the cash register. The drive throughout the Nation was formally Inaugurated on June 12, 1944, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a nationwide address from Washington the U.S. capital said, "we must continue to forge the weapons of victory -- the hundreds of thousands of items, large and small essential to the waging of war.. July 3, 1944.