Image:WW2_TitlePicture_For_Wikipedia_Article.jpg, fierce Indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb. From top going counterclockwise: Allied landing on D-Day 1944, the Nuremberg_Rally 1936, the Nagasaki atom bomb 1945, the Soviet flag over the Reichstag in Berlin 1945 and the Gate of Auschwitz.]]
'''World War II''', also known as the '''Second World War''', was a mid-20th_Century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as the largest and deadliest continuous war in human history. It was the first time that a number of newly developed technologies, including nuclear weapons, were used against either military or civilian targets. World War II resulted in the direct or indirect death of anywhere from 50 to 60 million or more people, over 3% of the world population at that time. It is estimated to have cost more money and resources than all other wars combined: about 1 trillion US dollars in 1945 (adjusted for inflation; roughly 10.5 Trillion in 2005), not including subsequent reconstruction http://www.historychannel.com/worldwartwo/?page=triumph5. The outcomes of the war, including new technology and changes to the world's geopolitical, cultural and economic arrangement, were unprecedented.
The conflict began by most Western accounts on September_1 1939 with the German invasion of Poland (the Pacific_war is taken to have started on July_7 1937 with the Japanese attack on China) and lasted until mid-1945, involving many of the world's countries. Virtually all countries that participated in World_War_I were involved in World War II. Britain, France, Australia and New_Zealand declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939 and Canada followed on September 10, 1939. The United_States entered the conflict in December of 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
==Summary==
Attributed in varying degrees to the Treaty_of_Versailles, the Great_Depression, and the rise in Nationalism, Racism, Fascism, National_socialism, Japanese_imperialism, and Militarism, the causes of the war are a matter of debate.
The war was fought between the Axis_Powers and the Allies. The Axis initially consisted of an alliance between Germany and Italy, which later expanded to include Japan and Eastern European countries such as Romania and Bulgaria. Some of the nations that Germany conquered sent military forces, particularly to the Eastern front. Among the expeditionary forces that joined Germany were forces from Vichy_France, The_Netherlands, Belgium, Spain (though Spain was itself a Neutral_country) and armies of Russians and Ukrainians under the command of the general Andrey_Vlasov. The Allies were initially the United Kingdom, including the Commonwealth, France and Poland, later joined by the USSR, the United States of America and China.
Fighting occurred across the Atlantic Ocean, in Western and Eastern Europe, in the Mediterranean Sea, Africa, the Middle East, in the Pacific and South East Asia, and it continued in China. In Europe, the war ended with the surrender of Germany on 8_May 1945 (V-E and Victory Days), but continued in Asia until Japan surrendered on 15_August 1945 (V-J_Day).
At least 50 million people died as a result of the war. This figure includes acts of genocide such as The_Holocaust and General Ishii_Shiro's Unit_731 experiments in Pingfan, incredibly bloody battles in Europe and the Pacific Ocean, and massive bombings of cities, including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan and the Firebombing of Dresden (and even worse but less known) of Pforzheim in Germany. Few areas of the world were unaffected; the war involved the "Home_front" and bombing of civilians to a new degree. Atomic_weapons, Jet_aircraft, Rockets and Radar, the Blitzkrieg, or "lightning war", the massive use of tanks, submarines, torpedo bombers and destroyer/tanker formations, are only a few of many wartime inventions and new tactics that changed the face of the conflict.
Post–World War II Europe was partitioned into Western and Soviet spheres of influence, the former undergoing economic reconstruction under the Marshall_Plan and the latter becoming satellite states of the Soviet Union. This partition was, however, informal; rather than coming to terms about the spheres of influence, the relationship between the victors steadily deteriorated, and the military lines of demarcation finally became the De_facto country boundaries. Western Europe largely aligned as NATO, and Eastern Europe largely as the Warsaw_pact countries, alliances which were fundamental to the ensuing Cold_War. In Asia, the United States' military occupation of Japan led to Japan's Democratisation. China's civil war continued through and after the war, resulting eventually in the establishment of the People's_Republic_of_China. The war sparked a wave of independence for colonies of European powers, who were exhausted from fighting the war. There was a fundamental shift in power from Western Europe to the new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, though there were few actual boundary changes.
{{MultiWarbox|
warname=World War II
|colour_scheme=background:#cccccc
|date=1939–1945
|locations=Europe, Asia, Mediterranean and Middle East, Africa
|outcome=Allied victory
|militarydeaths=25 million
|civiliandeaths=37 million
|totaldeaths=62 million
|casualties_more_page=WWII Casualties
|groupA=Allies
|groupB=Axis
|A1=Soviet Union
|A2=UK & Commonwealth
|A3=USA
|A4=France/Free_France
|A5=China
|A6=Poland
|A7=Australia
|A8=Canada
|B1=Germany
|B2=Japan
|B3=Italy
|B4=Romania
|B5=Hungary
|B6=Bulgaria
|B7=Vichy_France
|B8=
|A_more_page=more ....
|B_more_page=more ....
|}}
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==Causes==
Image:Hitlermusso.jpg (left) and Adolf Hitler]]
''Main articles: Causes_of_World_War_II, Events_preceding_World_War_II_in_Europe, Events_preceding_World_War_II_in_Asia''
The causes of World War II are naturally a debated subject, but a common view, particularly among the allies in the early post-war years, ties them to the Expansionism of Germany and Japan: Germany had lost wealth, power and status following the First World War and the expansion was to make Germany great again.
*In Germany there was a strong desire to escape the bonds of the World_War_I Treaty_of_Versailles, and eventually, Hitler and the Nazis assumed control of the country. They led Germany through a chain of events: rearmament, reoccupation of the Rhineland, a merger with Austria (Anschluss), incorporation of Czechoslovakia and finally the invasion of Poland.
*In Asia, Japan's efforts to become a world power and the rise of militarist leadership (in the 1930s the government in Japan was undermined as militarists rose to power and de facto gained totalitarian control) led to conflicts with first China and later the United States. Japan also sought to secure additional Natural_resources, such as oil and Iron_ore, due in part to the lack of natural resources on Japan' s own home islands.
==Participants==
Image:Yalta_Conference.jpg, Franklin_D._Roosevelt and Joseph_Stalin, during the Yalta_Conference in 1945]]
''Main article: Participants_in_World_War_II''
The belligerents of the Second World War are usually considered to belong to either of the two blocs: the '''Axis''' and the '''Allies'''. A number of smaller countries participated in the war, though often under occupation or as proxies of one of the large powers.
The '''Axis''' Powers consisted primarily of Germany, Italy, and Japan, which split the Earth into three spheres of influence under the Tripartite_Pact of 1940, and vowed to defend one another against aggression. This replaced the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern_Pact of 1936 that Italy had joined in 1937. Spain's Fascist government led by Francisco_Franco was a great asset in trade to the Axis powers during the war. A number of smaller countries were counted among the Axis powers. Among these were Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, and arguably Finland.
Among the '''Allied''' powers, the so-called ''Big Three'' were the United Kingdom (from September_3 1939), the Soviet Union (from June 1941) and the United States (from December 1941). China had been at war with Japan since 1937.
Image:Bigthreetime.jpg (May 14, 1945)]]
On August_23, 1939, just before the war broke out, the USSR and Germany signed the non-aggression Molotov-Ribbentrop_Pact, which, among other things, divided Eastern Europe into regions of influence. But Germany violated the pact when it invaded the USSR in 1941. Similarly, the US had the (much older) unilateral Monroe_Doctrine, which stated that Europe should not interfere in the Americas and in turn the U.S. would not interfere in European affairs (including wars). But the U.S. entered the war after first Japan and then Germany declared war on it and launched direct attacks on its navy, shipping and other interests.
Many other countries, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Thailand and Yugoslavia are also considered important Allies, although some of these were conquered and occupied by Axis forces or even officially joined the Axis as a result of coercion.
Countries that attempted to remain '''neutral''' in the conflict were often viewed with suspicion by the participants, and often pressured to make contributions to the most influential power in their neighbourhood. Sovereignty was often difficult to maintain as many countries that did not directly participate in the conflict nevertheless held vested interests in seeing a particular side prevail. For example, neutral Switzerland was generally considered to be "Allied-friendly", while neutral Spain was considered "Axis-friendly", despite the fact that neither country openly proclaimed any alliances. Such situations allowed neutral countries to become hotbeds of Espionage. It is important to note as well, that Sweden's participation in the war was negligable due to specific relations with the German state at the time.
==A debated starting date==
On which date World War II started is a debated subject; historians do not all agree on which event signified the start of the war. The most common date used is 1_September 1939, marking the German invasion of Poland which resulted in the British and French declarations of war two days later. Other candidates include the Japanese invasion of China on 7_July1937 (the start of the Second_Sino-Japanese_War) or the entry of Hitler's armies to Prague in March 1939. Some historians argue that the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (The Second_Italo-Abyssinian_War) which lasted seven months in 1935-1936 was the actual start of World War II. There are some historians that argue the war started on the start of the Manchurian_Incident on 18_September 1931.
==Chronology 1937-45==
''Main articles: European_Theatre_of_World_War_II, Mediterranean_Theatre_of_World_War_II, Pacific_War, End_of_World_War_II_in_Europe''
===1937: Second_Sino-Japanese_War===
On 7_July 1937, Japan, after occupying northeastern China as Manchuria in 1931, launched another attack against China near Beijing (see Marco_Polo_Bridge_Incident). Rather than retreating swiftly as in engagements with the Japanese before, the Chinese government declared war on Japan, marking the official start of the Second_Sino-Japanese_War, which would soon become part of the World War. In December 1937, the capital, Nanking (now Nanjing), fell and the Chinese government moved its seat to Chongqing for the rest of the war. Surprised by the unanticipated level of resistance from China, the Japanese forces committed brutal atrocities against civilians and POWs when Nanking was occupied (see Nanjing_Massacre), killing up to 200,000 civilians within a month.
In Europe, the peace was uneasy, with Germany annexing Austria and Czechoslovakia, and taking apparent aim at Poland.
===1939: War breaks out in Europe===
Image:WWII_Poland_Invasion_1939-09-01.jpg 1939]]
''Main articles: Polish_September_Campaign, Phony_War''
War broke out in Poland on 1_September 1939, with the German invasion of Poland. France and the United Kingdom honoured their defensive alliance of March 1939 by declaring war two days later on 3_September. Australia and New Zealand declared war the same day, although through the quirk of the international date line, New Zealand then Australia were the first to declare war on Germany. Canada followed a week later, on 10_September. Only partly mobilised and with troops inadequately equipped with largely outdated weapons (which included large numbers of horse-mounted cavalry), and without the anticipated support of French or British forces, Poland unsurprisingly fared poorly against the Wehrmacht's superior numbers and "Blitzkrieg" tactics. In accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop_Pact, the Soviet Red_Army invaded Poland from the east on 17_September. Hours later, the Polish government escaped to Romania. The last Polish Army unit was defeated on 6_October. As Poland fell, the British and French were either caught unaware of German intentions or had not allowed themselves to believe that Germany would invade Poland. Germany paused to regroup during a period that would be termed "the Phony War", or the "Sitzkrieg", which lasted until May 1940. Polish forces continued to fight the Axis powers after their country fell. A prominent example was the assistance of Polish pilots during the Battle_of_Britain.
The Soviet Union, due to its treaty relationship with Nazi Germany, did not fight the fascists: Stalin was happy to have those he felt were his natural and true enemies—the capitalist West and Nazi Germany—fight each other. Indeed, the Soviets had their partisans in the U.S., working alongside Nazi sympathisers, advocate that the U.S. remain neutral in the war, a position that the majority of Americans, reluctant to join in what they saw as "someone else's war," welcomed.
Image:Polish_infantry.jpg, September 1939.]]
There were isolated engagements during the "Phony War" or "Sitzkrieg" period, including the sinking of HMS ''Royal Oak'' in the anchorage at Scapa_Flow and Luftwaffe bombings of the naval bases at Rosyth and Scapa Flow. The Kriegsmarine Pocket_battleship ''Admiral_Graf_Spee'' was sunk in South America after the Battle_of_the_River_Plate. The Tripartite_Pact was signed between Germany, Italy, and Japan on 27_September, 1940, formalising their alignment as the "Axis_Powers". The Soviet Union invaded Finland on 30_November 1939, beginning the Winter_War, which lasted until March 1940 with Finland ceding territory to the Soviet Union.
===1940: The war spreads===
Image:French_soldier_weeping_1940.jpg, May 1940.]]
''Main Articles: Norwegian_Campaign, Battle_of_France, Battle_of_Britain, North_African_Campaign, Balkans_Campaign''
'''''Europe:'''''
Germany invaded Denmark and Norway on 9_April 1940, in Operation_Weserübung, ostensibly to counter the threat of an Allied invasion from the region. Heavy fighting ensued on land and at sea in Norway. British, French and Polish forces landed to support the Norwegians at Namsos, Åndalsnes and Narvik, with most success at the latter. By late June, all Allied forces had been evacuated, and the Norwegian Army surrendered. France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were invaded on 10_May, ending the Phony_War and beginning the Battle_of_France. The Allies had hoped to establish a static continuous front and were ill-prepared for the German Blitzkrieg tactics. In the first phase of the invasion, Operation Yellow, the Wehrmacht's Panzergruppe von Kleist bypassed the Maginot_Line and split the Allies in two by driving to the English Channel. Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands fell quickly against the attack of Army Group B, and the British_Expeditionary_Force, trapped in the north, was evacuated at Dunkirk in Operation_Dynamo. German forces then invaded France itself, in Operation Red, advancing behind the Maginot Line and near the coast. While some units from the French army were still fighting, a number of top politicians and military leaders decided that it would be better to Surrender given the situation; France signed an armistice with Germany on June_22 1940, leading to the establishment of the Vichy_France Puppet_government in the unoccupied part of France.
In June 1940 the Soviet Union occupied Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and annexed Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina from Romania. Not having secured a rapid peace with the United Kingdom, Germany began preparations to invade with the Battle_of_Britain. Fighter aircraft fought overhead for months as the Luftwaffe and Royal_Air_Force fought for control of Britain's skies. The Luftwaffe initially targeted RAF Fighter Command but turned to terror bombing London. The Luftwaffe was not successful, and Operation_Sealion, the proposed invasion of the British Isles, was abandoned. Similar efforts were made, though at sea, in the Battle of the Atlantic. In a long-running campaign, German U-Boats attempted to deprive the British Isles of necessary Lend_Lease cargo from the United States. The U-Boats reduced shipments considerably; however, the United Kingdom refused to seek peace, with Prime Minister Winston_Churchill stating that "We shall never surrender". President Roosevelt announced a shift in the American stance from neutrality to "non-belligerency".
'''''The Mediterranean:'''''
Italy invaded Greece on 28_October 1940, from bases in Albania. Although outnumbered, Greek forces successfully repelled the Italian attacks and launched a full-scale counter-attack deep into Albania. By mid-December they had liberated one-fourth of Albania. The North_African_Campaign began in 1940; Italian forces in Libya attacked British forces in Egypt. The aim was to make Egypt an Italian possession, especially the vital Suez_Canal. British, Indian and Australian forces counter-attacked (see Operation_Compass), but this offensive stopped in 1941 when much of the Commonwealth forces were transferred to Greece to defend it from German attack. However, German forces (known later as the Afrika_Korps) under General Erwin_Rommel landed in Libya and renewed the assault on Egypt. Italian troops invaded and captured British Somaliland in August 1940.
On the other hand, the Italian declaration of war challenged the British supremacy of this sea, a supremacy hinged on Gibraltar, Malta and Alexandria. While Gibraltar was never under direct attack, Alexandria and to a deadlier degree Malta were hit repetitively by Axis attacks, the thrusts towards the Suez Canal for the former, and the 1940/42 Blitz for the latter, which made the island of Malta the most heavily bombed place on earth.
'''''Asia:'''''
In 1940, Japan occupied French Indochina (Vietnam) upon agreement with the Vichy_Government, despite local Free French, and joined Axis powers Germany and Italy. These actions intensified Japan's conflict with the United States and the United Kingdom, which reacted with an oil boycott.
===1941: The war becomes global===
''Main articles: Eastern Front, Continuation_War, Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor''
'''''Europe:'''''
Image:Ww2summarymapeurope.gif
Yugoslavia's government succumbed to the pressure of Italy and Germany and signed the Tripartite Treaty on 25_March 1941. This was followed by anti-Axis demonstrations in the country and a Coup which overthrew the government and replaced it with a pro-Allied one on 27_March 1941. Hitler's forces then invaded Greece and Yugoslavia on 6_April 1941. Hitler reluctantly sent forces to assist Mussolini's forces in their attempt to capture Greece, principally to prevent a British build-up on Germany's strategic southern flank. With these new troops the Axis succeeded in driving the Greek forces back. British troops were diverted from North Africa to assist with the defence but failed to prevent Greece's capture. On 20_May 1941, the Battle_of_Crete began when elite German Paratroopers and glider-borne mountain troops and some 1300 aeroplanes launched a massive airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete. Crete was defended by an group of about 43,000 Greek, New Zealand, Australian and British troops, not all of them fully equipped. The Germans attacked the island simultaneously on the three airfields. Their invasion on two of the airfields failed, but they successfully captured one, which allowed them to reinforce their position by landing reinforcements. After a week it was decided that so many German troops had been flown in that there was no way to defeat them, and about 17,000 Commonwealth soldiers were evacuated. However, over 10,000 Greek and 500 Commonwealth troops remained at large and caused problems for the German occupiers. The Germans may have suffered well over 15,000 casualties. So heavy were the losses that Hiler decided never to launch an airborne invasion again. General Kurt_Student would later say, "Crete was the grave of the German parachutists". The Allies, on the other hand, came to the conclusion that every major invasion should be supported by paratroopers.
Operation_Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the largest invasion in history, commenced on 22_June 1941. The "Great_Patriotic_War" (Russian: Великая Отечественная Война, ''Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna'') had begun with surprise attacks by German panzer armies, which encircled and destroyed much of the Soviet's western military, capturing or killing hundreds of thousands of men. Soviet forces came to fight a war of Scorched_earth, withdrawing into the steppe of Russia to acquire time and stretch the German army. Industries were dismantled and withdrawn to the Ural_mountains for reassembly. German armies pursued a three-pronged advance against Leningrad (modern-day St Petersburg), Moscow, and the Caucasus. Having pushed to occupy Moscow before winter, German forces were delayed into the Soviet Winter. Soviet counter-attacks defeated them within sight of Moscow's spires, and a rout was only narrowly avoided. Some historians identify this as the "turning point" in the Allies' war against Germany; others identify the capitulation of the German Sixth Army outside Stalingrad (modern-day Volgograd) in 1943. The Continuation_War between Finland and the Soviet Union began with Soviet air attacks shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, on 25_June, and ended with an armistice in 1944. The Soviet Union was joined in the war by the United Kingdom but not by the United States.
'''''The Mediterranean again:'''''
In June 1941, Allied forces invaded Syria and Lebanon, capturing Damascus on 17_June (see Syria-Lebanon_campaign). Meanwhile, Rommel's forces advanced rapidly eastward, laying siege to the vital seaport of Tobruk. Australian and other Allied troops in the city resisted all until relieved, but a renewed Axis offensive captured the city and drove the Eighth Army back to a line at El_Alamein.
'''''Asia: The Sino-Japanese War'''''
Image:Ww2-asia-overview.gif
''Main article: Sino-Japanese_War_(1937-1945)''
A war had begun in Asia years before World War II started in Europe. Japan had invaded China in 1931. By 1937, war had broken out as the Japanese sought control of China. Roosevelt signed an unpublished (secret) executive order in May 1940 allowing U.S. military personnel to resign from the service so that they could participate in a covert operation in China: the American Volunteer Group, also known as Chennault's Flying_Tigers. Over a seven-month period, Chennault's Flying Tigers destroyed an estimated 600 Japanese aircraft, sunk numerous Japanese ships, and stalled the Japanese invasion of Burma. With the United States and other countries cutting exports to Japan, particularly fuel oil, Japan planned a strike on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, 7_December 1941, to cripple the U.S._Pacific_Fleet while consolidating oil fields in Southeast Asia. It is hard to determine whether the Japanese intended to release an advance declaration of war, however, as means of coordinating secret directives with public communication, particularly during a weekend in the U.S., were limited. Despite what warning signs remained, the attack on Pearl Harbor achieved military surprise and dealt severe damage to the American Fleet's Battleships, though the primary targets, Aircraft_carriers, remained safely at sea. The next day, Japanese forces arrived at Hong Kong, which later led to the surrender of the British colony on Christmas Day (known to locals as 'Black Christmas'), as well as launching numerous attacks on British and American outposts across the Pacific.
'''''Asia: The United States enters the war'''''
''Main article: Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor'' Image:Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor_Japanese_planes_view.jpg attacked on 7 December 1941]] On 7_December 1941, Japanese warplanes commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi_Nagumo carried out a surprise air raid on Pearl_Harbor, the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific. The Japanese forces met little resistance and devastated the harbour. This attack resulted in 8 battleships either sunk or damaged, 3 light cruisers and 3 destroyers sunk as well as damage to some auxiliaries and 343 aircraft either damaged or destroyed. However the attack failed to strike targets that could have been crippling losses to the US Pacific Fleet such as the aircraft carriers which were out at sea at the time of the attack or the base's ship fuel storage and repair facilities. The survival of these assets have led many to consider this attack a catastrophic long term strategic Blunder for Japan. The following day, the United States declared war on Japan. Simultaneously to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan also attacked U.S. air bases in the Philippines. Immediately following these attacks, Japan invaded the Philippines and also the British Colonies of Hong Kong, Malaya, Borneo and Burma with the intention of seizing the oilfields of the Dutch East Indies. In a matter of months, all these territories and more fell to the Japanese onslaught. The British island fortress of Singapore was captured in what Churchill considered one of the most humiliating British defeats of all time. Following the Japanese Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States on 11_December 1941, even though it was not obliged to do so under the Tripartite_Pact of 1940. Hitler made the declaration in the hopes that Japan would support him by attacking the Soviet Union. Japan did not oblige him, and this diplomatic move proved a catastrophic blunder which gave President Franklin_D._Roosevelt the pretext needed for the United States joining the fight in Europe with full commitment and with no meaningful opposition from Congress. Some historians mark this moment as another major turning point of the war with Hitler provoking a grand alliance of powerful nations, most prominently the UK, the USA and the USSR, who could wage powerful offensives on both East and West simultaneously. ===1942: Deadlock=== Image:Stalingrad.jpg]] ''Main articles: Battle_of_Stalingrad, Operation_Torch'' '''''Europe:''''' In 1942, an aborted German offensive was launched towards the Caucasus to secure oil fields, and German armies reached Stalingrad. The siege of Stalingrad continued for many months, with vicious urban warfare leading to high casualties on both sides. At night, the Soviet forces were resupplied from the east bank of the Volga, and the Wehrmacht forces were eventually ground down; especially after Hitler diverted the armour of the Sixth Army to the Caucasus. In November a Soviet offensive encircled Sixth Army. By early February 1943, it was clear that the Sixth Army would have to surrender. Hitler promoted General Friedrich_Paulus, who was in charge of the German forces, to Field Marshal in the vain hope it would deter him from surrendering. It did not, and he surrendered completely on 2_February. The results were the destruction of the city, millions of casualties, and the collapse of Germany's Sixth Army as a viable fighting force. Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph_Goebbels responded with his Sportpalast_speech to the German people. Some historians cite this as the European war's "turning point". '''''The Mediterranean:''''' Image:Advance_of_the_Panzerjager-Abteilung_39-AC1942.jpg on the move in Africa, 1942]] Image:B-26smoking.jpg of the 17th Bomb Group (432nd Squadron) damaged by Flak somewhere over Algeria during the North African Campaign in 1942.]] The First_Battle_of_El_Alamein took place between 1_July and 27_July 1942. German forces had advanced to the last defensible point before Alexandria and the Suez_Canal. However, they had outrun their supplies, and a Commonwealth defence stopped their thrusts. The Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein occurred between October_23 and November_3, 1942, after Bernard_Montgomery had replaced Claude_Auchinleck as commander of the Commonwealth forces, now known as the Eighth Army. Erwin_Rommel, German commander of the Afrika Corps, known as the "Desert Fox", was absent for this battle because he was recovering from jaundice back in Europe. Commonwealth forces took the offensive, and although they lost more tanks than the Germans began the battle with, Montgomery was ultimately triumphant. The western Allies had the advantage of being close to their supplies during the battle. In addition, Rommel was getting little or no help by this time from the struggling Luftwaffe, which was now more tasked with defending Western European air space, and fighting the Soviet Union, than providing Rommel with support in North Africa. After the German defeat at El Alamein, Rommel made a successful strategic withdrawal to Tunisia. During the Arcadia_Conference from December 1941 to January 1942, the Allied leaders concluded that it was essential to keep Russia in the war. This consideration led to the overall strategy "Germany First"; i.e. giving priority of knocking out Germany before Japan. This decision resulted in a long debate as to where and when to open a Second Front against Germany. The American Chiefs of Staff favoured a cross-channel (France) amphibious operation in the summer. The British opposed this because of insufficient landing craft and logistical problems. It was also thought that American forces were in a process of expansion, organisation and exercise, not capable yet of fighting an experienced German army. Only if Russia collapsed would they approve a main landing in France. Churchill put forward the idea of a small invasion in Norway or landings in French_North_Africa. The plan for landings in Africa was approved in July 1942. Operation_Torch was headed by General Dwight_Eisenhower. The aim of Torch was to gain control of Morocco and Algiers through simultaneous landings at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers, followed a few days later with a landing at Bône, the gateway to Tunisia. The operation was launched on 8_November 1942. The first wave was almost entirely American troops, because it was thought that the French would react more favourably to Americans than British. It was hoped that the local forces of Vichy_France would put up no resistance and submit to the authority of Free French General Henri_Giraud. In fact, resistance was stronger than expected but still sporadic. In Algiers, 400 members of the French resistance captured much of the city, though it was retaken before Allied forces could arrive. The Vichy commander, Admiral Darlan, negotiated an end to hostilities, against orders from the Vichy government. He was allowed to retain local control by the Allies, to the annoyance of Free French leaders. Hitler invaded and occupied Vichy France in response. Rommel's Afrika Corps was not being supplied adequately because of the loss of transport shipments caused by Allied—mostly British—navies and air forces in the Mediterranean. This lack of supplies and air support destroyed any chance of a large German offensive in Africa. Ultimately, German and Italian forces were caught in the pincers of a twin advance from Algeria and Libya. The withdrawing Germans continued to put up stiff defence, and Rommel defeated the American forces decisively at the Battle_of_Kasserine_Pass before finishing his strategic withdrawal back to the meagre German supply chain. Inevitably, advancing from both the east and west, the Allies finally defeated the German Afrika Corps on May_13 1943. Some 250,000 Axis soldiers were taken prisoner. '''''Asia:''''' Image:1942_midway_g17054.jpgs over the burning Japanese cruiser Mikuma during the Battle_of_Midway]] In May 1942, a naval attack on Port Moresby, New Guinea, was thwarted by Allied navies in the Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea. Had the capture of Port Moresby succeeded, the Japanese Navy would have been within striking range of Australia. This was both the first successful opposition to Japanese plans and the first naval battle fought only between aircraft carriers. The two sides suffered roughly equal losses. A month later the invasion of Midway Island was prevented by decoding secret Japanese messages, and hence alerted U.S. naval leaders that Midway was the Japanese target. American pilots sunk four Japanese carriers, which the Japanese industry could not replace swiftly. The loss of many planes and skilled pilots (many of them took part in Pearl Harbor) was also difficult to redress. The Americans lost one carrier and fewer planes. It was a complete victory for the Americans, and the Japanese Navy was now on the defensive. However, in July an overland attack on Port Moresby was led along the rugged Kokoda Track. This was met with Australian militia, many of them very young and undertrained, fighting a stubborn rearguard action until the arrival of Australian regulars returning from action in North Africa, Greece and the Middle East. But amazingly, the outnumbered and untrained Australian 39th battalion defeated the 5,000-strong Japanese army. This was one of the most significant victories in Australian military history. Even prior to the American entry to the war, the Allied leaders had agreed that priority should be given to the defeat of Nazi_Germany. Nonetheless, U.S. forces began to attack captured territories, beginning with Guadalcanal Island, against a bitter and determined Japanese defence. On 7_August 1942, the United States assaulted the island. In late August and early September, while battle raged on Guadalcanal, an amphibious Japanese attack on the eastern tip of New Guinea was met by Australian forces at Milne Bay, and the Japanese land forces suffered their first conclusive defeat. On Guadalcanal, the Japanese resistance failed in February 1943. A substantial element of the Asian campaign was played out, starting in 1942, in the Aleutian_Islands. For detailed information, see ''World_War_II:_Aleutian_Islands''. ===1943: The war turns=== Image:LCVP_landing_craft_circle.jpg ''Main articles: Battle_of_Kursk, Italian Campaign'' '''''Europe:''''' ''Russia:'' After the victory at Stalingrad, the Red_Army launched a series of eight offensives during the winter, many concentrated along the Don basin near Stalingrad, which resulted in initial gains until German forces were able to take advantage of the weakened condition of the Red Army and regain the territory it lost. In July, the Wehrmacht launched a much-delayed offensive against the Soviet Union at Kursk. Their intentions were known by the Soviets, and the Battle_of_Kursk ended in a Soviet counteroffensive that threw the German Army back. ''Italy is invaded:'' Newly captured North Africa was used as a springboard for the invasion of Sicily on 10_July 1943. On 25_July Mussolini was fired from office by the King of Italy, allowing a new government to take power. Having captured Sicily, the Allies invaded mainland Italy on 3_September 1943. Italy surrendered on 8_September, but German forces continued to fight. Allied forces advanced north but were stalled for the winter at the Gustav_Line, until they broke through in the Battle_of_Monte_Cassino. Rome was captured on 5_June 1944. Mid-1943 brought the fifth and final German Sutjeska_offensive against the Yugoslav Partisans before the invasion and subsequent capitulation of Italy, the other major occupying force in Yugoslavia. Image:Pennsylvania_Lingayen.jpg leading ''Colorado'' (BB-45), ''Louisville'' (CA-28), ''Portland'' (CA-33) and ''Columbia'' (CL-56) into Lingayen_Gulf, Philippines, January 1945.]] '''''Asia: (1943–45)''''' Australian and U.S. forces then undertook the prolonged campaign to retake the occupied parts of the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, experiencing some of the toughest resistance of the war. The rest of the Solomon_Islands were retaken in 1943, New_Britain and New_Ireland in 1944. As the Philippines were being retaken in late 1944, the Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf raged, arguably the Largest_naval_battle_in_history. The last major offensive in the south-west Pacific Area was the Borneo campaign of mid-1945, which was aimed at further isolating the remaining Japanese forces in South East Asia and securing the release of Allied POWs. Allied Submarines and aircraft also attacked Japanese merchant shipping, depriving Japan's industry of the raw materials it had gone to war to obtain. The effectiveness of this stranglehold increased as U.S._Marines captured islands closer to the Japanese mainland. The Nationalist Kuomintang Army, under Chiang_Kai-shek, and the Communist Chinese Army, under Mao_Zedong, both opposed the Japanese occupation of China but never truly allied against the Japanese. Conflict between Nationalist and Communist forces emerged long before the war; it continued after and, to an extent, even during the war, though more implicitly. The Japanese had captured most of Burma, severing the Burma_Road by which the Western Allies had been supplying the Chinese Nationalists. This forced the Allies to create a large sustained airlift, known as "flying The_Hump". U.S. led and trained Chinese divisions, a British division and a few thousand U.S. ground troops cleared the Japanese forces from northern Burma so that the Ledo_Road could be built to replace the Burma Road. Further south the main Japanese army in the theatre were fought to a standstill on the Burma-India frontier by the British_Fourteenth_Army (the "Forgotten Army"), which then counter-attacked, and having recaptured all of Burma was planning attacks towards Malaya when the war ended. ===1944: The beginning of the end=== Image:1944_NormandyLST.jpg on D-Day, 6 June 1944]] ''Main articles: Battle_of_Normandy, Operation_Bagration, Operation_Market_Garden, Battle_of_the_Bulge'' On "D-Day" (6_June 1944) the western Allies invaded German-held Normandy in a pre-dawn amphibious assault spearheaded by American (82nd and 101st), British (6th) and Canadian paratroops, opening the "second front" against Germany. The allies suffered large casualties during the beach assault. German artillery batteries pounded the beaches. But the airborne divisions took out the guns from the rear, enabling the seaborne troops to break inland. {{fn|2}} Hedgerows aided the defending German units, and for months the Allies measured progress in hundreds of yards and bloody rifle fights. An Allied breakout was effected at St.-Lô, and the most powerful German force in France, the Seventh Army, was almost completely destroyed in the Falaise_pocket while counter-attacking. Allied forces stationed in Italy invaded the French Riviera on 15_August and linked up with forces from Normandy. The clandestine French_Resistance in Paris rose against the Germans on 19_August, and a French division under General_Jacques_Leclerc, pressing forward from Normandy, received the surrender of the German forces there and liberated the city on August 25. By early 1944, the Red Army had reached the border of Poland and lifted the Siege_of_Leningrad. Shortly after Allied landings at Normandy, on 9_June, the Soviet Union began an offensive on the Karelian_Isthmus that after three months would force Nazi_Germany's co-belligerent Finland to an armistice. Operation_Bagration, a Soviet offensive involving 2.5 million men and 6,000 tanks, was launched on 22_June, destroying the German Army_Group_Centre and taking 350,000 prisoners. Finland's defence had been dependent on active, or in periods passive, support from the German Wehrmacht that also provided defence for the chiefly uninhabited northern half of Finland. After the Wehrmacht retreated from the southern shores of the Gulf_of_Finland, Finland's defence was untenable. The Allies' armistice conditions included further territorial losses and the internment or expulsion of German troops on Finnish soil executed in the Lapland_War, now as co-belligerents of the Allies, who also demanded the political leadership to be prosecuted in "War-responsibility_trials", which the Finnish public perceived as a mockery of the rule of law. Image:British_paratroopers_in_Oosterbeek.jpg]] Allied paratroopers attempted a fast advance into Germany with Operation_Market_Garden in September but were repulsed. Logistical problems were starting to plague the Allies' advance west as the supply lines still ran back to the beaches of Normandy. A decisive victory by the Canadian_First_Army in the Battle_of_the_Scheldt secured the entrance to the port of Antwerp, freeing it to receive supplies by late November 1944. Romania surrendered in August 1944 and Bulgaria in September. The Warsaw_Uprising was fought between 1_August and 2_October. Germany withdrew from the Balkans and held Hungary until February 1945. In December 1944, the German Army made its last major offensive in the West, largely because even if successful in the east it would have had no effect on the massive Red Army rolling towards the Reich. Thus, Hitler thought he could drive a wedge between the frequently feuding Western Allies, causing them to agree to a favorable armistice, after which Germany could concentrate all her efforts on the Eastern front and have a chance to defeat the Soviets. The mission was unrealistic to begin with, since German plans largely relied on capturing Allied fuel dumps in order to keep their vehicles moving with the goal of capturing the vital port of Antwerp, and thus crippling the Allies in the Battle_of_the_Bulge. At first, the Germans scored successes against the Americans stationed in the Ardennes. The Allied forces, largely unprepared for this sudden attack, suffered heavy casualties. In addition, the weather during the initial days of the invasion favored the Germans because the bad weather grounded Allied aircraft. However, with the overcast skies clearing allowing Allied air supremacy to enter the equation, and with the German failure to capture Bastogne, as well as the arrival of Gen. Patton's Third Army, the Germans were forced to retreat back into Germany. The offensive was defeated. By now, the Soviets had reached the eastern borders of pre-war Germany. By this time the Soviet steamroller had become so powerful that some historians argue that the U.S. and British landing at Normandy was more to prevent a coast-to-coast Soviet block than to fight Germany. In all, 80% of all German casualties were suffered on the Eastern front, and Europe became divided along Germany. It is believed that had the allies not invaded the sparsely defended Western Front, Stalin would have controlled all of Europe. The bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945 remains one of the more controversial events of World War II. According to British historian Frederick Taylor: "The destruction of Dresden has an epically tragic quality to it. It was a wonderfully beautiful city and a symbol of baroque humanism and all that was best in Germany. It also contained all of the worst from Germany during the Nazi period. In that sense it is an absolutely exemplary tragedy for the horrors of 20th Century warfare..."[1] ===1945: The end of the war=== Image:Reichstag_flag.jpg. Here, the Hammer_and_Sickle is flown over the Reichstag]] ''Main articles: Borneo campaign, End_of_World_War_II_in_Europe, Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki, Victory over Japan'' '''''Europe:''''' Churchill, Stalin, and Franklin_D._Roosevelt made arrangements for post-war Europe at the Yalta_Conference in February 1945. It resulted in an April meeting to form the United Nations: nation-states were created in Eastern Europe; it was agreed Poland would have free elections (in fact elections were heavily rigged by Soviets); Soviet nationals were to be repatriated, and the Soviet Union was to attack Japan within three months of Germany's surrender. The Red Army (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st_Polish_Army) began its final assault on Berlin on 16_April. By now, the German Army was in full retreat and Berlin had already been battered due to preliminary air bombings and such. Most of the Nazi leaders had either been killed or captured. Hitler, however, was still alive, and was slowly going mad. As a final resistance effort, he called for civilians, including children, to fight the oncoming Red Army. When this failed, Hitler went into delusion, imagining that everyone was against him and that he still had battalions of troops to send into battle. Hitler and his staff moved into the Führerbunker, a concrete bunker beneath the Chancellery, where on 30_April 1945, he committed suicide. Karl_Dönitz became leader of the German government and quickly dispatched the German High Command to travel to Reims,_France, to sign an unconditional surrender with the Allies. Field_Marshal Jodl surrendered unconditionally on 7_May. The Western Allies celebrated "V-E_Day" on 8_May and the Soviet Union "Victory_Day" on 9_May. '''''Asia:''''' Image:MissouriSurrender.jpg U.S. capture of islands such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa brought the Japanese homeland within range of naval and air attack. Amongst dozens of other cities, Tokyo was firebombed, and on the initial attack alone, upwards of 90,000 people died as the fire raced unchecked through the city. The high loss of life was attributed to the dense living conditions around production centres and the wood and paper residential construction common to that period. In addition, the ports and major waterways of Japan were extensively mined by air in Operation_Starvation which seriously disrupted the logistics of the island nation. Later on 6_August 1945, the B-29 "Enola Gay", piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets, dropped an atomic bomb (Little_Boy) on Hiroshima, effectively destroying it. On 8_August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as had been agreed to at Yalta, and launched a large-scale invasion of Japanese occupied Manchuria (Operation_August_Storm). On 9_August, the B-29 "Bock's Car", piloted by Maj. Charles Sweeney, dropped an atomic bomb (Fat_Man) on Nagasaki. The use of atomic weapons allowed the emperor to bypass the existing government and intervene to end the war. The new inclusion of the Soviet Union in the war may have also played a part, but in his radio address to the nation the emperor did not mention it as a major reason for the surrender of Japan. The Japanese surrendered on 15_August 1945, signing official surrender papers on 2_September 1945, aboard USS ''Missouri'' in Tokyo Bay. Japan's surrender to the United States did not fully end the war, however, because Japan and the Soviet Union never signed a peace agreement. In the last days of the armed conflict, the Soviet Union occupied the southern Kuril Islands, an area previously held by Japan and claimed by the Soviets. Multiple efforts http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/5/9261D82C-98F5-40AE-938A-EB14FA2CEA14.html to bring about a peace agreement, and officially end the war have, as of yet not succeeded. Image:PartBelOct44.jpg entering Belgrade, October, 1944]] ==Resistance== ''Main article: Resistance_during_World_War_II'' Resistance during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means like guerrilla warfare, sabotage, propaganda, disinformation, hiding refugees and aiding the other side (like helping stranded pilots). Among the most notable resistance movements were the French Maquis, the Polish_Home_Army, and the Yugoslav Partisans. For an impression of resistance organisation and activities in a small Dutch town see the article Valkenburg_resistance. Many countries had resistance movements dedicated to fighting the Axis invaders, and Germany itself also had an anti-Nazi movement. Although mainland Britain did not suffer invasion in World War II, the British made preparations for a British resistance movement, called the Auxiliary_Units, in the event of a German invasion. Various organizations were also formed to establish foreign resistance cells or support existing resistance movements, like the British SOE and the American OSS (the forerunner of the CIA). ==The Home fronts== Image:WomanFactory1940s.jpg ''Main article: Home_Front_during_World_War_II'' Home_front is the name given to the activities of the civilians in a state of total war (sometimes referred to by the United States as the American Theater of Operations). In the United Kingdom, women joined the work force in jobs that the men overseas used to occupy. Food, clothing, petrol and other items were rationed. Access to luxuries was severely restricted, though there was also a significant Black_market. Families also grew Victory_gardens, small home vegetable gardens, to supply themselves with food. Civilians also served as Air Raid Wardens, volunteer emergency services and other critical functions. Schools and organisations held scrap drives and money collections to help the war effort. Many things were conserved to turn into weapons later, such as fat to turn into Nitroglycerin. A notable case was the collection of street railings as scrap iron, which changed the 'feel' of many older urban streets. This metal, however, was unsuitable for reuse and subsequently dumped. In the United States and Canada women also joined the workforce to replace men who had joined the forces, though in lesser numbers. In the United States these women are now called "Rosies" for Rosie_the_Riveter. Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that the efforts of civilians at home to support the war through personal sacrifice were as critical to winning the war as the efforts of the soldiers themselves. In Germany, at least for the first part of the war, there were surprisingly few restrictions on civilian activities. Most goods were freely available. This was due in large part to the reduced access to certain luxuries already experienced by German civilians prior to the beginning of hostilities; the war made some less available, but many were in short supply to begin with. For example, the famous Volkswagen "People's Cars" that Hitler had promised the German people were not actually produced until after the war. The factories meant for the cars were instead used to manufacture war materials. It was not until comparatively late in the war that the civilian German population was effectively organised to support the war effort. For example, women's labour was not mobilised as thoroughly as in the United Kingdom or the United States. Foreign slave labour was more significant as a substitute for the males enlisted into the armed forces. Civilian populations were heavily involved in war production and subject to Propaganda from both sides. ==Technologies== ''Main article: Technology_during_World_War_II'' Image:Nsa-enigma.jpg for encryption]] The massive research and development demands of the war, including the Manhattan_Project's efforts to quickly develop the Atomic_bomb, had a great impact on the scientific community, among other things creating a network of national laboratories in the United States and new sciences like Cybernetics. In addition, the pressing need for numerous time-critical calculations for various projects like code-breaking and ballistics tables accentuated the need for the development of electronic Computer technology. While the war stimulated many technologies, such as radio and Radar development, it retarded related yet non-critical fields such as television in the major powers. The Jet aircraft age began during the war with the development of the Heinkel_He_178, the first true turbojet; the Messerschmitt_262, the first jet in combat; and the Gloster_Meteor, the first Allied jet fighter. During the war the Germans produced various Glide_bomb weapons, which were the first Smart_bombs; the V-1_flying_bomb, which was the first Cruise_missile weapon; and the V-2_rocket, the first Ballistic_missile weapon. The last of these was the first step into the space age as its trajectory took it through the Stratosphere, higher and faster than any aircraft. This later led to the development of the ICBM. Wernher_Von_Braun led the V-2 development team and later immigrated to the United States where he contributed to the development of the Saturn V rocket, which took men to the moon in 1969. Military technology progressed at rapid pace, and over six years there was a disorientating rate of change in combat in everything from aircraft to small arms. The best jet fighters at the end of the war easily outflew any of the leading aircraft of 1939, such as the Spitfire Mark I. The early war bombers that caused such carnage would almost all have been shot down in 1945, many with one shot, by radar-aimed, Proximity_fuze detonated Anti-aircraft fire, just as the 1941 "invincible fighter", the Zero, had by 1944 become the "turkey" of the "Marianas Turkey Shoot". The best late-war tanks, such as the Soviet JS-3 heavy tank or the German Panther medium tank, handily outclassed the best tanks of 1939 such as Panzer_IVs. The chaotic impotence of opposed amphibious landings typical of WW I disasters was overcome: the Higgins_boat, primary troop landing craft; the DUKW, a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck; and amphibious tanks were developed by the Western Allies to enable beach landing attacks, and increased organisation and coordination of amphibious assaults coupled with the resources necessary to sustain them caused the complexity of planning to increase by orders of magnitude requiring formal systematization and this gave rise to what became the modern management methodology/science of Project_Management by which almost all modern Engineering, Construction and Software developments are organized. ==Civilian impact & atrocities== Image:Starved_prisoners,_nearly_dead_from_hunger,_pose_in_concentration_camp_in_Ebensee,_Austria.jpg The Second World War saw large-scale atrocities aimed against the civilian populations of many of the nations involved. Germany killed between 11 million and 24 million civilians in deliberate acts of genocide and mass murder which often took priority over pressing military needs, while the Soviet Union and Japan used Labour_camps and often conducted massacres of their own, with Japan killing around 6 million civilians in areas they occupied, and the Soviets approximately 4 million civilians, half of these being from among the Soviet Union's own citizens http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wikiwoo.htm#Massacres. The British carpet-bombed several German cities (in part as a retaliation to the bombing of London), and continued even after the strategic value of such bombings became highly questionable (e.g., the bombing of Dresden in 1945). Such bombings resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of German civilians. Moreover, the British and the Americans carried out strategic and atomic bombings against Japanese cities where the industrial facilities were intermixed with the civilian populations, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. The scale of the atrocities of the Second World War are a key part of the war's legacy, and they have had a lasting impact on world civilization. ===Genocide=== Image:Massdeportations.gif]] ''Main Article: The_Holocaust'' With the outbreak of war in 1939, Germany began the first stages of what would become the Holocaust, the premeditated and industrialised massacre of between 9 and 11 million people (figures are uncertain). The groups deemed as "undesirable" included especially Jews, Poles, Russian war prisoners and other Slavs, Roma and Sinti, the mentally or physically disabled, homosexuals, Jehovah's_Witnesses, Communists and political Dissidents. Though these groups were all targets of Nazi Germany's mass killings, it was the Jews that were the primary target of the Holocaust; between 5 and 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis or their collaborators. Originally, the Nazis used killing squads, the Einsatzgruppen to conduct massive open-air killings, in some cases shooting as many as 33,000 people or more in a single day, as in the case of Babi_Yar. By 1942, the Nazi leadership decided to implement the Final_Solution, the genocide of all Jews in Europe, and increase the pace of the Holocaust. While Concentration_camps and Labour_camps to contain political enemies had existed since soon after the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Nazi leadership built six Extermination_camps, including Treblinka and Auschwitz, specifically to kill Jews. Millions of Jews who had been confined to diseased and massively overcrowded Ghettos were transported to these "Death-camps" where they were either gassed or shot, usually immediately after they disembarked from trains. ===Concentration camps, labor camps and internment=== ''Main articles: Concentration_camp, Gulag, Japanese_American_internment'' In addition to the Nazi Concentration_camps, the Soviet Gulags, or Labor_camps, led to the death of many citizens of occupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as German POWs and even Soviet citizens themselves: opponents of Stalin's regime and large proportions of some ethnic groups (particularly Chechens). Japanese POW camps also had high death rates; many were used as labour camps, and starvation conditions among the mainly U.S. and Commonwealth prisoners were little better than many German concentration camps. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of Japanese North Americans were interned by the U.S. and Canadian governments. Though these camps did not involve heavy labour, forced isolation and sub-standard living conditions were the norm. ===War crimes and attacks on civilians=== ''Main articles: Japanese_war_crimes, Strategic_bombing, Nuremburg_Trials'' Few forms of atrocity were excluded from the Eastern European theatre, as millions of Jews, Poles, Ukrainians and Belarusians were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, as well as over a million Yugoslavs in disproportionate reprisal killings for Partisan activity. The Nazis also killed approximately 3 million Soviet prisoners of war. The Soviet occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1941 was also brutal, resulting in the death or deportation of at least 1.8 million former Polish citizens. In 1940, the Soviet authorities ordered the execution of more than 22,000 Polish citizens, mainly Polish officers, but also scientists, politicians, doctors, lawyers, priests and others in the Katyn_Massacre. Civilian populations suffered tremendously, the population of Kiev dropped by 90% between the early 1930s and 1945, partly from starvation under Stalin, but mostly under the Nazis. In indiscriminate retaliation the Soviet Army committed mass rape of German women in the final phase of the war. Image:300POWs_shot_by_15MotReg_Ciepielow.jpg 15th Motorized Regiment]] The Japanese also engaged in mass killings; millions of Asian civilians and Allied POWs were killed by its military and/or used as Forced_labour. The most notorious atrocities occurred in China, including the slaughter of almost half a million Chinese during the Nanjing_Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, and Unit_731's experiments with Biological_warfare in Manchuria, with a view to killing a large part of the Chinese population. Japanese_war_crimes also included rape, pillage, murder, cannibalism and forcing female civilians to become Sex_slaves, known as "Comfort_women". Many of these occurred in Korea, which Japan occupied from 1910 to 1945. World War II also saw the first large-scale use of bombing against civilian areas. Germany had been bombing civilian targets from the first days of the war. In the first months of the war the British Government ordered the RAF to adhere strictly to draft international rules prohibiting attacking civilians, but this restriction was progressively relaxed and abandoned altogether in 1942. By 1945 the strategic bombing of cities had been employed extensively by all sides. German bombing of Poland, the United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, and the USSR was responsible for over 600,000 civilian deaths. Allied strategic bombing, including the firestorm bombing of Japanese and German cities including Tokyo, Hamburg and Dresden by Anglo-American forces and the American atomic bombing of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, likely killed over 400,000 German civilians and between 350,000 and 500,000 Japanese. Compounding the issue, however, is the fact that the Japanese industrial production relied heavily on manufacturing facilities which were located in close proximity to, and in many cases intermixed with, residential property, which eliminated or greatly hampered the ability to attack the Japanese war machine without affecting the Japanese near that industrial infrastructure (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second). From 1945 to 1951 German and Japanese officials and personnel were prosecuted for the war crimes they committed. Accused of genocide and atrocities, top German officials were tried at the Nuremburg_Trials and other trials, and many Japanese officials at the Tokyo_War_Crime_Trial and other war crimes trials in the Asia-Pacific region, the first international criminal tribunals, and the last until the 1993 war crimes trials in Yugoslavia. ==Aftermath== Image:American_military_cemetery_2003.JPG ''Main article: Effects_of_World_War_II'' ===Casualties=== ''Main article: World_War_II_casualties'' At least 50 million people lost their lives in World War II (some estimates suggest a figure as high as 60 million)—about 20 million soldiers and 30 million civilians, with estimates varying widely. This includes the estimated 10 million lives lost due to the Holocaust, consisting of about 6 million Jews and 4 million non-Jews made up of Poles, Roma, homosexuals, communists, dissidents, Afro-Germans, the disabled, Soviet prisoners and others. Allied forces suffered approximately 12 million military deaths (of which 8 million were Soviet and 3 million Chinese) and Axis forces 6 million (of which 4 million were German). The Soviet Union suffered by far the largest death toll— about 20 to 28 million Soviets died in total, of which 13 to 20 million were civilians. Of the total deaths in World War II approximately 84% were on the Allied side and 16% on the Axis side. Image:Dresden_ww2-43.jpg 14 February 1945]] ===A world in ruins=== At the end of the war, millions of refugees were homeless, the European economy had collapsed, and 70% of the European industrial infrastructure was destroyed. The Eastern victors demanded payment of War_reparations from the defeated nations, and in the Paris Peace Treaty, the Soviet Union's enemies, Hungary, Finland and Romania, were required to pay $300,000,000 each (in 1938 dollars) to the Soviet Union. Italy was required to pay $360,000,000, shared chiefly between Greece, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. In contrast to World_War_I, the Western victors in the Second World War did not demand compensation from the defeated nations. On the contrary, a plan established by U.S. Secretary of State George_Marshall, the "European Recovery Program", better known as the Marshall_Plan, called for the U.S. Congress to allocate billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Europe. Also as part of the effort to rebuild global capitalism and spur post-war reconstruction, the Bretton_Woods_system was put into effect after the war. In the Netherlands the original plans to demand a huge monetary compensation and even to annex a part of Germany that would have doubled the country's size were dropped. But many Germans living in the Netherlands (often for a long time) were declared 'hostile subjects' and put into a concentration camp in an operation called Black_Tulip. 3691 Germans were ultimately deported. The war had also increased the strength of independence movements in the European powers' African, Asian, and American colonies, and most of them became independent in the following twenty years. Image:Nyc-un-building.jpg was founded as a direct result of World War II]] ===United Nations=== Since the League_of_Nations had obviously failed to prevent the war, a new international order was constructed. In 1945 the United_Nations was founded. Also, in order to prevent such devastating war from occurring again and to establish a lasting peace in Europe, the European_Coal_and_Steel_Community was born in 1951 (Treaty of Paris), the predecessor of the European_Union. Image:Berlinwall.jpg, a symbol of the Cold_War.]] ===The Cold War begins=== ''Main article: Cold_War'' The end of World War II is seen by many as the end of the United Kingdom's position as a global superpower and the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as the dominant powers in the world. Friction had been building up between the two before the end of the war, and with the collapse of Nazi Germany relations spiraled downward. In the areas occupied by Western Allied troops, pre-war governments were re-established or new democratic governments were created; in the areas occupied by Soviet troops, including the territories of former Allies such as Poland, Communist_states were created. These became satellites of the Soviet Union. Thus, within a few years of the end of World War II, Europe became divided along ideological lines. Two blocs - West and East - were formed, represented by NATO and the Warsaw_Pact respectively. Germany was partitioned into four zones of occupation, with the American, British and French zones grouped as West_Germany and the Soviet zone as East_Germany. Austria was once again separated from Germany and it, too, was divided into four zones of occupation, which eventually reunited and became the state of Austria. Korea was divided in half along the 38th parallel. The partitions were however informal—rather than coming to terms about the spheres of influence, the relationship between the victors had steadily deteriorated, with the military lines of demarcation finally becoming the de facto country boundaries. The Cold_War had begun, and soon two blocs would emerge: NATO and the Warsaw_Pact. ==See also== ===Main articles=== {{World War II}} ===Other articles=== :''See List_of_military_engagements_of_World_War_II for articles on specific battles, campaigns and operations.'' *List_of_products_introduced_for/during_World_War_II ===Media=== {{Listen|filename=Chamberlain-war-declaration.ogg|title=The United Kingdom declares war on Germany|description=UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939.}} {{Listen|filename=Roosevelt Pearl Harbor.ogg|title=USA declares war on Japan|description=US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asks for a declaration of war on Japan in a joint session of Congress on 8 December 1941. Entire speech, including the famous "infamy" remark.}} ==References== * Churchill, Winston (1948-53), ''The Second World War'', 6 vols. * Gilbert, Martin (1995) ''Second World War'', Phoenix, ISBN 1857993462 * Keegan, John (1989) ''The Second World War'' * Liddel Hart, Sir Basil (1970), ''History of the Second World War'' Cassel & Co; Pan Books,1973, London * Murray, Williamson and Millett, Allan R. (2000) ''A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War'' ISBN 067400163X * Overy, Richard, ''Why the Allies Won'', Pimlico, 1995. ISBN 0712674535 * Shirer, William L., ''The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Third_Reich'', Simon & Schuster, 1959 * Weinberg, Gerhard L., ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'' (1994) ISBN 0521443172 ==External links== ===General=== *World War II History in one sixth scale * BBC History: World War Two * Deutsche Welle special section on World War II created by one of Germany's public broadcasters on World War II and the world 60 years after. * WW2DB: The World War II Database * World War II, Wars And Battles * Directory of Online World War II Indexes & Records * World War II history * Phil's World War II pages - Compact a quick to use *Halford Mackinder's Necessary War An essay describing the geopolitical aspects of World War II *Bunker Pictures: Pictures, locations, information about bunkers from WW2 and The Atlantikwall ===Media=== * World War II Multimedia Database * US National Archives Photos * Color photographs of the war * The Canadian Letters and Images Project, World War II * World War II Memorial Pictures * Multimedia map - Presentation that covers the war from the invasion of Russia to the fall of Berlin * Thousands of World War II Photographs & Movies - Free to download * Virtual Museum of World War II - interesting pictures & info ===Stories=== * WW2 People's War - A project by the BBC to gather the stories of ordinary people from World War II * WWII, divisive memories (en) - from an online issue from www.cafebabel.com * Memories of Leutnant d.R. Wilhelm Radkovsky 1940-1945 * Workers' War: Home Front Recalled - A project by London Metropolitan University, TUC and the National Pensioners Convention to document the history of workers during World War II ===Specific=== * Germany's surrender documents. * Online Newspaper Archive * World War II Through Cartoons * Veterans Of The US Armed Forces Services, information, resources, and image gallery for veterans of the United States Armed Forces. * Front page of the 6 June, 1944 edition of The_New_York_Times. * Using Historical Statistics To Teach about World War II. ERIC Digest. * World War II in the Curriculum * German military uniforms * World War II Reenacting * Speech delivered by premier Benito Mussolini (Rome, Italy, February 23, 1941) * Daily reports - Extremely detailed daily action reports from the German side ===Documentaries=== * ''The_World_at_War'' (1974) is a 36 piece BBC series which covers most aspects of World War II from many points of view. It includes interviews with many key figures (Karl_Dönitz, Albert_Speer, Anthony_Eden etc.) (Imdb link) * ''The Second World War in Colour'' (1999) is a three episode documentary showing unique footage in color (Imdb link) {{Link FA|ar}} {{Link FA|he}} {{Link FA|sv}} {{Link FA|vi}} {{Link FA|zh}} Af:Tweede_Wêreldoorlog Als:Zweiter_Weltkrieg Ang:Ōðru_Woruldgūþ Ar:حرب_عالمية_ثانية Ast:Segunda_Guerra_Mundial Bg:Втора_Световна_война Be:Другая_сусьветная_вайна Bs:Drugi_Svjetski_Rat Ca:Segona_Guerra_Mundial Cs:Druhá_světová_válka Cy:Yr_Ail_Ryfel_Byd Da:2._verdenskrig De:Zweiter_Weltkrieg Et:Teine_maailmasõda El:Β'_Παγκόσμιος_Πόλεμος Es:Segunda_Guerra_Mundial Eo:Dua_Mondmilito Fa:جنگ_جهانی_دوم Fr:Seconde_Guerre_mondiale Fy:Twadde_Wrâldkriich Ga:An_Dara_Cogadh_Domhanda Gl:II_Guerra_Mundial Ko:제2차_세계_대전 Hr:Drugi_svjetski_rat Io:Duesma_mondo-milito Id:Perang_Dunia_II Is:Seinni_heimsstyrjöldin It:Seconda_guerra_mondiale He:מלחמת_העולם_השנייה Ka:მეორე_მსოფლიო_ომი La:Bellum_Orbis_Terrarum_II Lv:Otrais_pasaules_karš Lt:Antrasis_pasaulinis_karas Lb:Zweete_Weltkrich Li:Twiede_Wereldoorlog Hu:II._világháború Mk:Втора_Светска_војна Ms:Perang_Dunia_II Nl:Tweede_Wereldoorlog Nds:Tweet_Weltorlog Ja:第二次世界大戦 No:Andre_verdenskrig Nn:Andre_verdskrigen Pl:II_wojna_światowa Pt:Segunda_Guerra_Mundial Ro:Al_Doilea_Război_Mondial Ru:Вторая_мировая_война Sq:Lufta_e_dytë_Botrore Sh:Drugi_svetski_rat Scn:Secunna_guerra_munniali Simple:World_War_II Sk:Druhá_svetová_vojna Sl:Druga_svetovna_vojna Sr:Други_светски_рат Fi:Toinen_maailmansota Sv:Andra_världskriget Th:สงครามโลกครั้งที่สอง Vi:Đệ_nhị_thế_chiến Tr:II._Dünya_Savaşı Uk:Друга_світова_війна_1939-45 Wa:Deujhinme_guere_daegnrece Zh:第二次世界大战
''Main article: Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor'' Image:Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor_Japanese_planes_view.jpg attacked on 7 December 1941]] On 7_December 1941, Japanese warplanes commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi_Nagumo carried out a surprise air raid on Pearl_Harbor, the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific. The Japanese forces met little resistance and devastated the harbour. This attack resulted in 8 battleships either sunk or damaged, 3 light cruisers and 3 destroyers sunk as well as damage to some auxiliaries and 343 aircraft either damaged or destroyed. However the attack failed to strike targets that could have been crippling losses to the US Pacific Fleet such as the aircraft carriers which were out at sea at the time of the attack or the base's ship fuel storage and repair facilities. The survival of these assets have led many to consider this attack a catastrophic long term strategic Blunder for Japan. The following day, the United States declared war on Japan. Simultaneously to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan also attacked U.S. air bases in the Philippines. Immediately following these attacks, Japan invaded the Philippines and also the British Colonies of Hong Kong, Malaya, Borneo and Burma with the intention of seizing the oilfields of the Dutch East Indies. In a matter of months, all these territories and more fell to the Japanese onslaught. The British island fortress of Singapore was captured in what Churchill considered one of the most humiliating British defeats of all time. Following the Japanese Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States on 11_December 1941, even though it was not obliged to do so under the Tripartite_Pact of 1940. Hitler made the declaration in the hopes that Japan would support him by attacking the Soviet Union. Japan did not oblige him, and this diplomatic move proved a catastrophic blunder which gave President Franklin_D._Roosevelt the pretext needed for the United States joining the fight in Europe with full commitment and with no meaningful opposition from Congress. Some historians mark this moment as another major turning point of the war with Hitler provoking a grand alliance of powerful nations, most prominently the UK, the USA and the USSR, who could wage powerful offensives on both East and West simultaneously. ===1942: Deadlock=== Image:Stalingrad.jpg]] ''Main articles: Battle_of_Stalingrad, Operation_Torch'' '''''Europe:''''' In 1942, an aborted German offensive was launched towards the Caucasus to secure oil fields, and German armies reached Stalingrad. The siege of Stalingrad continued for many months, with vicious urban warfare leading to high casualties on both sides. At night, the Soviet forces were resupplied from the east bank of the Volga, and the Wehrmacht forces were eventually ground down; especially after Hitler diverted the armour of the Sixth Army to the Caucasus. In November a Soviet offensive encircled Sixth Army. By early February 1943, it was clear that the Sixth Army would have to surrender. Hitler promoted General Friedrich_Paulus, who was in charge of the German forces, to Field Marshal in the vain hope it would deter him from surrendering. It did not, and he surrendered completely on 2_February. The results were the destruction of the city, millions of casualties, and the collapse of Germany's Sixth Army as a viable fighting force. Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph_Goebbels responded with his Sportpalast_speech to the German people. Some historians cite this as the European war's "turning point". '''''The Mediterranean:''''' Image:Advance_of_the_Panzerjager-Abteilung_39-AC1942.jpg on the move in Africa, 1942]] Image:B-26smoking.jpg of the 17th Bomb Group (432nd Squadron) damaged by Flak somewhere over Algeria during the North African Campaign in 1942.]] The First_Battle_of_El_Alamein took place between 1_July and 27_July 1942. German forces had advanced to the last defensible point before Alexandria and the Suez_Canal. However, they had outrun their supplies, and a Commonwealth defence stopped their thrusts. The Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein occurred between October_23 and November_3, 1942, after Bernard_Montgomery had replaced Claude_Auchinleck as commander of the Commonwealth forces, now known as the Eighth Army. Erwin_Rommel, German commander of the Afrika Corps, known as the "Desert Fox", was absent for this battle because he was recovering from jaundice back in Europe. Commonwealth forces took the offensive, and although they lost more tanks than the Germans began the battle with, Montgomery was ultimately triumphant. The western Allies had the advantage of being close to their supplies during the battle. In addition, Rommel was getting little or no help by this time from the struggling Luftwaffe, which was now more tasked with defending Western European air space, and fighting the Soviet Union, than providing Rommel with support in North Africa. After the German defeat at El Alamein, Rommel made a successful strategic withdrawal to Tunisia. During the Arcadia_Conference from December 1941 to January 1942, the Allied leaders concluded that it was essential to keep Russia in the war. This consideration led to the overall strategy "Germany First"; i.e. giving priority of knocking out Germany before Japan. This decision resulted in a long debate as to where and when to open a Second Front against Germany. The American Chiefs of Staff favoured a cross-channel (France) amphibious operation in the summer. The British opposed this because of insufficient landing craft and logistical problems. It was also thought that American forces were in a process of expansion, organisation and exercise, not capable yet of fighting an experienced German army. Only if Russia collapsed would they approve a main landing in France. Churchill put forward the idea of a small invasion in Norway or landings in French_North_Africa. The plan for landings in Africa was approved in July 1942. Operation_Torch was headed by General Dwight_Eisenhower. The aim of Torch was to gain control of Morocco and Algiers through simultaneous landings at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers, followed a few days later with a landing at Bône, the gateway to Tunisia. The operation was launched on 8_November 1942. The first wave was almost entirely American troops, because it was thought that the French would react more favourably to Americans than British. It was hoped that the local forces of Vichy_France would put up no resistance and submit to the authority of Free French General Henri_Giraud. In fact, resistance was stronger than expected but still sporadic. In Algiers, 400 members of the French resistance captured much of the city, though it was retaken before Allied forces could arrive. The Vichy commander, Admiral Darlan, negotiated an end to hostilities, against orders from the Vichy government. He was allowed to retain local control by the Allies, to the annoyance of Free French leaders. Hitler invaded and occupied Vichy France in response. Rommel's Afrika Corps was not being supplied adequately because of the loss of transport shipments caused by Allied—mostly British—navies and air forces in the Mediterranean. This lack of supplies and air support destroyed any chance of a large German offensive in Africa. Ultimately, German and Italian forces were caught in the pincers of a twin advance from Algeria and Libya. The withdrawing Germans continued to put up stiff defence, and Rommel defeated the American forces decisively at the Battle_of_Kasserine_Pass before finishing his strategic withdrawal back to the meagre German supply chain. Inevitably, advancing from both the east and west, the Allies finally defeated the German Afrika Corps on May_13 1943. Some 250,000 Axis soldiers were taken prisoner. '''''Asia:''''' Image:1942_midway_g17054.jpgs over the burning Japanese cruiser Mikuma during the Battle_of_Midway]] In May 1942, a naval attack on Port Moresby, New Guinea, was thwarted by Allied navies in the Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea. Had the capture of Port Moresby succeeded, the Japanese Navy would have been within striking range of Australia. This was both the first successful opposition to Japanese plans and the first naval battle fought only between aircraft carriers. The two sides suffered roughly equal losses. A month later the invasion of Midway Island was prevented by decoding secret Japanese messages, and hence alerted U.S. naval leaders that Midway was the Japanese target. American pilots sunk four Japanese carriers, which the Japanese industry could not replace swiftly. The loss of many planes and skilled pilots (many of them took part in Pearl Harbor) was also difficult to redress. The Americans lost one carrier and fewer planes. It was a complete victory for the Americans, and the Japanese Navy was now on the defensive. However, in July an overland attack on Port Moresby was led along the rugged Kokoda Track. This was met with Australian militia, many of them very young and undertrained, fighting a stubborn rearguard action until the arrival of Australian regulars returning from action in North Africa, Greece and the Middle East. But amazingly, the outnumbered and untrained Australian 39th battalion defeated the 5,000-strong Japanese army. This was one of the most significant victories in Australian military history. Even prior to the American entry to the war, the Allied leaders had agreed that priority should be given to the defeat of Nazi_Germany. Nonetheless, U.S. forces began to attack captured territories, beginning with Guadalcanal Island, against a bitter and determined Japanese defence. On 7_August 1942, the United States assaulted the island. In late August and early September, while battle raged on Guadalcanal, an amphibious Japanese attack on the eastern tip of New Guinea was met by Australian forces at Milne Bay, and the Japanese land forces suffered their first conclusive defeat. On Guadalcanal, the Japanese resistance failed in February 1943. A substantial element of the Asian campaign was played out, starting in 1942, in the Aleutian_Islands. For detailed information, see ''World_War_II:_Aleutian_Islands''. ===1943: The war turns=== Image:LCVP_landing_craft_circle.jpg ''Main articles: Battle_of_Kursk, Italian Campaign'' '''''Europe:''''' ''Russia:'' After the victory at Stalingrad, the Red_Army launched a series of eight offensives during the winter, many concentrated along the Don basin near Stalingrad, which resulted in initial gains until German forces were able to take advantage of the weakened condition of the Red Army and regain the territory it lost. In July, the Wehrmacht launched a much-delayed offensive against the Soviet Union at Kursk. Their intentions were known by the Soviets, and the Battle_of_Kursk ended in a Soviet counteroffensive that threw the German Army back. ''Italy is invaded:'' Newly captured North Africa was used as a springboard for the invasion of Sicily on 10_July 1943. On 25_July Mussolini was fired from office by the King of Italy, allowing a new government to take power. Having captured Sicily, the Allies invaded mainland Italy on 3_September 1943. Italy surrendered on 8_September, but German forces continued to fight. Allied forces advanced north but were stalled for the winter at the Gustav_Line, until they broke through in the Battle_of_Monte_Cassino. Rome was captured on 5_June 1944. Mid-1943 brought the fifth and final German Sutjeska_offensive against the Yugoslav Partisans before the invasion and subsequent capitulation of Italy, the other major occupying force in Yugoslavia. Image:Pennsylvania_Lingayen.jpg leading ''Colorado'' (BB-45), ''Louisville'' (CA-28), ''Portland'' (CA-33) and ''Columbia'' (CL-56) into Lingayen_Gulf, Philippines, January 1945.]] '''''Asia: (1943–45)''''' Australian and U.S. forces then undertook the prolonged campaign to retake the occupied parts of the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, experiencing some of the toughest resistance of the war. The rest of the Solomon_Islands were retaken in 1943, New_Britain and New_Ireland in 1944. As the Philippines were being retaken in late 1944, the Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf raged, arguably the Largest_naval_battle_in_history. The last major offensive in the south-west Pacific Area was the Borneo campaign of mid-1945, which was aimed at further isolating the remaining Japanese forces in South East Asia and securing the release of Allied POWs. Allied Submarines and aircraft also attacked Japanese merchant shipping, depriving Japan's industry of the raw materials it had gone to war to obtain. The effectiveness of this stranglehold increased as U.S._Marines captured islands closer to the Japanese mainland. The Nationalist Kuomintang Army, under Chiang_Kai-shek, and the Communist Chinese Army, under Mao_Zedong, both opposed the Japanese occupation of China but never truly allied against the Japanese. Conflict between Nationalist and Communist forces emerged long before the war; it continued after and, to an extent, even during the war, though more implicitly. The Japanese had captured most of Burma, severing the Burma_Road by which the Western Allies had been supplying the Chinese Nationalists. This forced the Allies to create a large sustained airlift, known as "flying The_Hump". U.S. led and trained Chinese divisions, a British division and a few thousand U.S. ground troops cleared the Japanese forces from northern Burma so that the Ledo_Road could be built to replace the Burma Road. Further south the main Japanese army in the theatre were fought to a standstill on the Burma-India frontier by the British_Fourteenth_Army (the "Forgotten Army"), which then counter-attacked, and having recaptured all of Burma was planning attacks towards Malaya when the war ended. ===1944: The beginning of the end=== Image:1944_NormandyLST.jpg on D-Day, 6 June 1944]] ''Main articles: Battle_of_Normandy, Operation_Bagration, Operation_Market_Garden, Battle_of_the_Bulge'' On "D-Day" (6_June 1944) the western Allies invaded German-held Normandy in a pre-dawn amphibious assault spearheaded by American (82nd and 101st), British (6th) and Canadian paratroops, opening the "second front" against Germany. The allies suffered large casualties during the beach assault. German artillery batteries pounded the beaches. But the airborne divisions took out the guns from the rear, enabling the seaborne troops to break inland. {{fn|2}} Hedgerows aided the defending German units, and for months the Allies measured progress in hundreds of yards and bloody rifle fights. An Allied breakout was effected at St.-Lô, and the most powerful German force in France, the Seventh Army, was almost completely destroyed in the Falaise_pocket while counter-attacking. Allied forces stationed in Italy invaded the French Riviera on 15_August and linked up with forces from Normandy. The clandestine French_Resistance in Paris rose against the Germans on 19_August, and a French division under General_Jacques_Leclerc, pressing forward from Normandy, received the surrender of the German forces there and liberated the city on August 25. By early 1944, the Red Army had reached the border of Poland and lifted the Siege_of_Leningrad. Shortly after Allied landings at Normandy, on 9_June, the Soviet Union began an offensive on the Karelian_Isthmus that after three months would force Nazi_Germany's co-belligerent Finland to an armistice. Operation_Bagration, a Soviet offensive involving 2.5 million men and 6,000 tanks, was launched on 22_June, destroying the German Army_Group_Centre and taking 350,000 prisoners. Finland's defence had been dependent on active, or in periods passive, support from the German Wehrmacht that also provided defence for the chiefly uninhabited northern half of Finland. After the Wehrmacht retreated from the southern shores of the Gulf_of_Finland, Finland's defence was untenable. The Allies' armistice conditions included further territorial losses and the internment or expulsion of German troops on Finnish soil executed in the Lapland_War, now as co-belligerents of the Allies, who also demanded the political leadership to be prosecuted in "War-responsibility_trials", which the Finnish public perceived as a mockery of the rule of law. Image:British_paratroopers_in_Oosterbeek.jpg]] Allied paratroopers attempted a fast advance into Germany with Operation_Market_Garden in September but were repulsed. Logistical problems were starting to plague the Allies' advance west as the supply lines still ran back to the beaches of Normandy. A decisive victory by the Canadian_First_Army in the Battle_of_the_Scheldt secured the entrance to the port of Antwerp, freeing it to receive supplies by late November 1944. Romania surrendered in August 1944 and Bulgaria in September. The Warsaw_Uprising was fought between 1_August and 2_October. Germany withdrew from the Balkans and held Hungary until February 1945. In December 1944, the German Army made its last major offensive in the West, largely because even if successful in the east it would have had no effect on the massive Red Army rolling towards the Reich. Thus, Hitler thought he could drive a wedge between the frequently feuding Western Allies, causing them to agree to a favorable armistice, after which Germany could concentrate all her efforts on the Eastern front and have a chance to defeat the Soviets. The mission was unrealistic to begin with, since German plans largely relied on capturing Allied fuel dumps in order to keep their vehicles moving with the goal of capturing the vital port of Antwerp, and thus crippling the Allies in the Battle_of_the_Bulge. At first, the Germans scored successes against the Americans stationed in the Ardennes. The Allied forces, largely unprepared for this sudden attack, suffered heavy casualties. In addition, the weather during the initial days of the invasion favored the Germans because the bad weather grounded Allied aircraft. However, with the overcast skies clearing allowing Allied air supremacy to enter the equation, and with the German failure to capture Bastogne, as well as the arrival of Gen. Patton's Third Army, the Germans were forced to retreat back into Germany. The offensive was defeated. By now, the Soviets had reached the eastern borders of pre-war Germany. By this time the Soviet steamroller had become so powerful that some historians argue that the U.S. and British landing at Normandy was more to prevent a coast-to-coast Soviet block than to fight Germany. In all, 80% of all German casualties were suffered on the Eastern front, and Europe became divided along Germany. It is believed that had the allies not invaded the sparsely defended Western Front, Stalin would have controlled all of Europe. The bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945 remains one of the more controversial events of World War II. According to British historian Frederick Taylor: "The destruction of Dresden has an epically tragic quality to it. It was a wonderfully beautiful city and a symbol of baroque humanism and all that was best in Germany. It also contained all of the worst from Germany during the Nazi period. In that sense it is an absolutely exemplary tragedy for the horrors of 20th Century warfare..."[1] ===1945: The end of the war=== Image:Reichstag_flag.jpg. Here, the Hammer_and_Sickle is flown over the Reichstag]] ''Main articles: Borneo campaign, End_of_World_War_II_in_Europe, Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki, Victory over Japan'' '''''Europe:''''' Churchill, Stalin, and Franklin_D._Roosevelt made arrangements for post-war Europe at the Yalta_Conference in February 1945. It resulted in an April meeting to form the United Nations: nation-states were created in Eastern Europe; it was agreed Poland would have free elections (in fact elections were heavily rigged by Soviets); Soviet nationals were to be repatriated, and the Soviet Union was to attack Japan within three months of Germany's surrender. The Red Army (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st_Polish_Army) began its final assault on Berlin on 16_April. By now, the German Army was in full retreat and Berlin had already been battered due to preliminary air bombings and such. Most of the Nazi leaders had either been killed or captured. Hitler, however, was still alive, and was slowly going mad. As a final resistance effort, he called for civilians, including children, to fight the oncoming Red Army. When this failed, Hitler went into delusion, imagining that everyone was against him and that he still had battalions of troops to send into battle. Hitler and his staff moved into the Führerbunker, a concrete bunker beneath the Chancellery, where on 30_April 1945, he committed suicide. Karl_Dönitz became leader of the German government and quickly dispatched the German High Command to travel to Reims,_France, to sign an unconditional surrender with the Allies. Field_Marshal Jodl surrendered unconditionally on 7_May. The Western Allies celebrated "V-E_Day" on 8_May and the Soviet Union "Victory_Day" on 9_May. '''''Asia:''''' Image:MissouriSurrender.jpg U.S. capture of islands such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa brought the Japanese homeland within range of naval and air attack. Amongst dozens of other cities, Tokyo was firebombed, and on the initial attack alone, upwards of 90,000 people died as the fire raced unchecked through the city. The high loss of life was attributed to the dense living conditions around production centres and the wood and paper residential construction common to that period. In addition, the ports and major waterways of Japan were extensively mined by air in Operation_Starvation which seriously disrupted the logistics of the island nation. Later on 6_August 1945, the B-29 "Enola Gay", piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets, dropped an atomic bomb (Little_Boy) on Hiroshima, effectively destroying it. On 8_August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as had been agreed to at Yalta, and launched a large-scale invasion of Japanese occupied Manchuria (Operation_August_Storm). On 9_August, the B-29 "Bock's Car", piloted by Maj. Charles Sweeney, dropped an atomic bomb (Fat_Man) on Nagasaki. The use of atomic weapons allowed the emperor to bypass the existing government and intervene to end the war. The new inclusion of the Soviet Union in the war may have also played a part, but in his radio address to the nation the emperor did not mention it as a major reason for the surrender of Japan. The Japanese surrendered on 15_August 1945, signing official surrender papers on 2_September 1945, aboard USS ''Missouri'' in Tokyo Bay. Japan's surrender to the United States did not fully end the war, however, because Japan and the Soviet Union never signed a peace agreement. In the last days of the armed conflict, the Soviet Union occupied the southern Kuril Islands, an area previously held by Japan and claimed by the Soviets. Multiple efforts http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/5/9261D82C-98F5-40AE-938A-EB14FA2CEA14.html to bring about a peace agreement, and officially end the war have, as of yet not succeeded. Image:PartBelOct44.jpg entering Belgrade, October, 1944]] ==Resistance== ''Main article: Resistance_during_World_War_II'' Resistance during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means like guerrilla warfare, sabotage, propaganda, disinformation, hiding refugees and aiding the other side (like helping stranded pilots). Among the most notable resistance movements were the French Maquis, the Polish_Home_Army, and the Yugoslav Partisans. For an impression of resistance organisation and activities in a small Dutch town see the article Valkenburg_resistance. Many countries had resistance movements dedicated to fighting the Axis invaders, and Germany itself also had an anti-Nazi movement. Although mainland Britain did not suffer invasion in World War II, the British made preparations for a British resistance movement, called the Auxiliary_Units, in the event of a German invasion. Various organizations were also formed to establish foreign resistance cells or support existing resistance movements, like the British SOE and the American OSS (the forerunner of the CIA). ==The Home fronts== Image:WomanFactory1940s.jpg ''Main article: Home_Front_during_World_War_II'' Home_front is the name given to the activities of the civilians in a state of total war (sometimes referred to by the United States as the American Theater of Operations). In the United Kingdom, women joined the work force in jobs that the men overseas used to occupy. Food, clothing, petrol and other items were rationed. Access to luxuries was severely restricted, though there was also a significant Black_market. Families also grew Victory_gardens, small home vegetable gardens, to supply themselves with food. Civilians also served as Air Raid Wardens, volunteer emergency services and other critical functions. Schools and organisations held scrap drives and money collections to help the war effort. Many things were conserved to turn into weapons later, such as fat to turn into Nitroglycerin. A notable case was the collection of street railings as scrap iron, which changed the 'feel' of many older urban streets. This metal, however, was unsuitable for reuse and subsequently dumped. In the United States and Canada women also joined the workforce to replace men who had joined the forces, though in lesser numbers. In the United States these women are now called "Rosies" for Rosie_the_Riveter. Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that the efforts of civilians at home to support the war through personal sacrifice were as critical to winning the war as the efforts of the soldiers themselves. In Germany, at least for the first part of the war, there were surprisingly few restrictions on civilian activities. Most goods were freely available. This was due in large part to the reduced access to certain luxuries already experienced by German civilians prior to the beginning of hostilities; the war made some less available, but many were in short supply to begin with. For example, the famous Volkswagen "People's Cars" that Hitler had promised the German people were not actually produced until after the war. The factories meant for the cars were instead used to manufacture war materials. It was not until comparatively late in the war that the civilian German population was effectively organised to support the war effort. For example, women's labour was not mobilised as thoroughly as in the United Kingdom or the United States. Foreign slave labour was more significant as a substitute for the males enlisted into the armed forces. Civilian populations were heavily involved in war production and subject to Propaganda from both sides. ==Technologies== ''Main article: Technology_during_World_War_II'' Image:Nsa-enigma.jpg for encryption]] The massive research and development demands of the war, including the Manhattan_Project's efforts to quickly develop the Atomic_bomb, had a great impact on the scientific community, among other things creating a network of national laboratories in the United States and new sciences like Cybernetics. In addition, the pressing need for numerous time-critical calculations for various projects like code-breaking and ballistics tables accentuated the need for the development of electronic Computer technology. While the war stimulated many technologies, such as radio and Radar development, it retarded related yet non-critical fields such as television in the major powers. The Jet aircraft age began during the war with the development of the Heinkel_He_178, the first true turbojet; the Messerschmitt_262, the first jet in combat; and the Gloster_Meteor, the first Allied jet fighter. During the war the Germans produced various Glide_bomb weapons, which were the first Smart_bombs; the V-1_flying_bomb, which was the first Cruise_missile weapon; and the V-2_rocket, the first Ballistic_missile weapon. The last of these was the first step into the space age as its trajectory took it through the Stratosphere, higher and faster than any aircraft. This later led to the development of the ICBM. Wernher_Von_Braun led the V-2 development team and later immigrated to the United States where he contributed to the development of the Saturn V rocket, which took men to the moon in 1969. Military technology progressed at rapid pace, and over six years there was a disorientating rate of change in combat in everything from aircraft to small arms. The best jet fighters at the end of the war easily outflew any of the leading aircraft of 1939, such as the Spitfire Mark I. The early war bombers that caused such carnage would almost all have been shot down in 1945, many with one shot, by radar-aimed, Proximity_fuze detonated Anti-aircraft fire, just as the 1941 "invincible fighter", the Zero, had by 1944 become the "turkey" of the "Marianas Turkey Shoot". The best late-war tanks, such as the Soviet JS-3 heavy tank or the German Panther medium tank, handily outclassed the best tanks of 1939 such as Panzer_IVs. The chaotic impotence of opposed amphibious landings typical of WW I disasters was overcome: the Higgins_boat, primary troop landing craft; the DUKW, a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck; and amphibious tanks were developed by the Western Allies to enable beach landing attacks, and increased organisation and coordination of amphibious assaults coupled with the resources necessary to sustain them caused the complexity of planning to increase by orders of magnitude requiring formal systematization and this gave rise to what became the modern management methodology/science of Project_Management by which almost all modern Engineering, Construction and Software developments are organized. ==Civilian impact & atrocities== Image:Starved_prisoners,_nearly_dead_from_hunger,_pose_in_concentration_camp_in_Ebensee,_Austria.jpg The Second World War saw large-scale atrocities aimed against the civilian populations of many of the nations involved. Germany killed between 11 million and 24 million civilians in deliberate acts of genocide and mass murder which often took priority over pressing military needs, while the Soviet Union and Japan used Labour_camps and often conducted massacres of their own, with Japan killing around 6 million civilians in areas they occupied, and the Soviets approximately 4 million civilians, half of these being from among the Soviet Union's own citizens http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wikiwoo.htm#Massacres. The British carpet-bombed several German cities (in part as a retaliation to the bombing of London), and continued even after the strategic value of such bombings became highly questionable (e.g., the bombing of Dresden in 1945). Such bombings resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of German civilians. Moreover, the British and the Americans carried out strategic and atomic bombings against Japanese cities where the industrial facilities were intermixed with the civilian populations, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. The scale of the atrocities of the Second World War are a key part of the war's legacy, and they have had a lasting impact on world civilization. ===Genocide=== Image:Massdeportations.gif]] ''Main Article: The_Holocaust'' With the outbreak of war in 1939, Germany began the first stages of what would become the Holocaust, the premeditated and industrialised massacre of between 9 and 11 million people (figures are uncertain). The groups deemed as "undesirable" included especially Jews, Poles, Russian war prisoners and other Slavs, Roma and Sinti, the mentally or physically disabled, homosexuals, Jehovah's_Witnesses, Communists and political Dissidents. Though these groups were all targets of Nazi Germany's mass killings, it was the Jews that were the primary target of the Holocaust; between 5 and 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis or their collaborators. Originally, the Nazis used killing squads, the Einsatzgruppen to conduct massive open-air killings, in some cases shooting as many as 33,000 people or more in a single day, as in the case of Babi_Yar. By 1942, the Nazi leadership decided to implement the Final_Solution, the genocide of all Jews in Europe, and increase the pace of the Holocaust. While Concentration_camps and Labour_camps to contain political enemies had existed since soon after the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Nazi leadership built six Extermination_camps, including Treblinka and Auschwitz, specifically to kill Jews. Millions of Jews who had been confined to diseased and massively overcrowded Ghettos were transported to these "Death-camps" where they were either gassed or shot, usually immediately after they disembarked from trains. ===Concentration camps, labor camps and internment=== ''Main articles: Concentration_camp, Gulag, Japanese_American_internment'' In addition to the Nazi Concentration_camps, the Soviet Gulags, or Labor_camps, led to the death of many citizens of occupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as German POWs and even Soviet citizens themselves: opponents of Stalin's regime and large proportions of some ethnic groups (particularly Chechens). Japanese POW camps also had high death rates; many were used as labour camps, and starvation conditions among the mainly U.S. and Commonwealth prisoners were little better than many German concentration camps. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of Japanese North Americans were interned by the U.S. and Canadian governments. Though these camps did not involve heavy labour, forced isolation and sub-standard living conditions were the norm. ===War crimes and attacks on civilians=== ''Main articles: Japanese_war_crimes, Strategic_bombing, Nuremburg_Trials'' Few forms of atrocity were excluded from the Eastern European theatre, as millions of Jews, Poles, Ukrainians and Belarusians were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, as well as over a million Yugoslavs in disproportionate reprisal killings for Partisan activity. The Nazis also killed approximately 3 million Soviet prisoners of war. The Soviet occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1941 was also brutal, resulting in the death or deportation of at least 1.8 million former Polish citizens. In 1940, the Soviet authorities ordered the execution of more than 22,000 Polish citizens, mainly Polish officers, but also scientists, politicians, doctors, lawyers, priests and others in the Katyn_Massacre. Civilian populations suffered tremendously, the population of Kiev dropped by 90% between the early 1930s and 1945, partly from starvation under Stalin, but mostly under the Nazis. In indiscriminate retaliation the Soviet Army committed mass rape of German women in the final phase of the war. Image:300POWs_shot_by_15MotReg_Ciepielow.jpg 15th Motorized Regiment]] The Japanese also engaged in mass killings; millions of Asian civilians and Allied POWs were killed by its military and/or used as Forced_labour. The most notorious atrocities occurred in China, including the slaughter of almost half a million Chinese during the Nanjing_Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, and Unit_731's experiments with Biological_warfare in Manchuria, with a view to killing a large part of the Chinese population. Japanese_war_crimes also included rape, pillage, murder, cannibalism and forcing female civilians to become Sex_slaves, known as "Comfort_women". Many of these occurred in Korea, which Japan occupied from 1910 to 1945. World War II also saw the first large-scale use of bombing against civilian areas. Germany had been bombing civilian targets from the first days of the war. In the first months of the war the British Government ordered the RAF to adhere strictly to draft international rules prohibiting attacking civilians, but this restriction was progressively relaxed and abandoned altogether in 1942. By 1945 the strategic bombing of cities had been employed extensively by all sides. German bombing of Poland, the United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, and the USSR was responsible for over 600,000 civilian deaths. Allied strategic bombing, including the firestorm bombing of Japanese and German cities including Tokyo, Hamburg and Dresden by Anglo-American forces and the American atomic bombing of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, likely killed over 400,000 German civilians and between 350,000 and 500,000 Japanese. Compounding the issue, however, is the fact that the Japanese industrial production relied heavily on manufacturing facilities which were located in close proximity to, and in many cases intermixed with, residential property, which eliminated or greatly hampered the ability to attack the Japanese war machine without affecting the Japanese near that industrial infrastructure (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second). From 1945 to 1951 German and Japanese officials and personnel were prosecuted for the war crimes they committed. Accused of genocide and atrocities, top German officials were tried at the Nuremburg_Trials and other trials, and many Japanese officials at the Tokyo_War_Crime_Trial and other war crimes trials in the Asia-Pacific region, the first international criminal tribunals, and the last until the 1993 war crimes trials in Yugoslavia. ==Aftermath== Image:American_military_cemetery_2003.JPG ''Main article: Effects_of_World_War_II'' ===Casualties=== ''Main article: World_War_II_casualties'' At least 50 million people lost their lives in World War II (some estimates suggest a figure as high as 60 million)—about 20 million soldiers and 30 million civilians, with estimates varying widely. This includes the estimated 10 million lives lost due to the Holocaust, consisting of about 6 million Jews and 4 million non-Jews made up of Poles, Roma, homosexuals, communists, dissidents, Afro-Germans, the disabled, Soviet prisoners and others. Allied forces suffered approximately 12 million military deaths (of which 8 million were Soviet and 3 million Chinese) and Axis forces 6 million (of which 4 million were German). The Soviet Union suffered by far the largest death toll— about 20 to 28 million Soviets died in total, of which 13 to 20 million were civilians. Of the total deaths in World War II approximately 84% were on the Allied side and 16% on the Axis side. Image:Dresden_ww2-43.jpg 14 February 1945]] ===A world in ruins=== At the end of the war, millions of refugees were homeless, the European economy had collapsed, and 70% of the European industrial infrastructure was destroyed. The Eastern victors demanded payment of War_reparations from the defeated nations, and in the Paris Peace Treaty, the Soviet Union's enemies, Hungary, Finland and Romania, were required to pay $300,000,000 each (in 1938 dollars) to the Soviet Union. Italy was required to pay $360,000,000, shared chiefly between Greece, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. In contrast to World_War_I, the Western victors in the Second World War did not demand compensation from the defeated nations. On the contrary, a plan established by U.S. Secretary of State George_Marshall, the "European Recovery Program", better known as the Marshall_Plan, called for the U.S. Congress to allocate billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Europe. Also as part of the effort to rebuild global capitalism and spur post-war reconstruction, the Bretton_Woods_system was put into effect after the war. In the Netherlands the original plans to demand a huge monetary compensation and even to annex a part of Germany that would have doubled the country's size were dropped. But many Germans living in the Netherlands (often for a long time) were declared 'hostile subjects' and put into a concentration camp in an operation called Black_Tulip. 3691 Germans were ultimately deported. The war had also increased the strength of independence movements in the European powers' African, Asian, and American colonies, and most of them became independent in the following twenty years. Image:Nyc-un-building.jpg was founded as a direct result of World War II]] ===United Nations=== Since the League_of_Nations had obviously failed to prevent the war, a new international order was constructed. In 1945 the United_Nations was founded. Also, in order to prevent such devastating war from occurring again and to establish a lasting peace in Europe, the European_Coal_and_Steel_Community was born in 1951 (Treaty of Paris), the predecessor of the European_Union. Image:Berlinwall.jpg, a symbol of the Cold_War.]] ===The Cold War begins=== ''Main article: Cold_War'' The end of World War II is seen by many as the end of the United Kingdom's position as a global superpower and the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as the dominant powers in the world. Friction had been building up between the two before the end of the war, and with the collapse of Nazi Germany relations spiraled downward. In the areas occupied by Western Allied troops, pre-war governments were re-established or new democratic governments were created; in the areas occupied by Soviet troops, including the territories of former Allies such as Poland, Communist_states were created. These became satellites of the Soviet Union. Thus, within a few years of the end of World War II, Europe became divided along ideological lines. Two blocs - West and East - were formed, represented by NATO and the Warsaw_Pact respectively. Germany was partitioned into four zones of occupation, with the American, British and French zones grouped as West_Germany and the Soviet zone as East_Germany. Austria was once again separated from Germany and it, too, was divided into four zones of occupation, which eventually reunited and became the state of Austria. Korea was divided in half along the 38th parallel. The partitions were however informal—rather than coming to terms about the spheres of influence, the relationship between the victors had steadily deteriorated, with the military lines of demarcation finally becoming the de facto country boundaries. The Cold_War had begun, and soon two blocs would emerge: NATO and the Warsaw_Pact. ==See also== ===Main articles=== {{World War II}} ===Other articles=== :''See List_of_military_engagements_of_World_War_II for articles on specific battles, campaigns and operations.'' *List_of_products_introduced_for/during_World_War_II ===Media=== {{Listen|filename=Chamberlain-war-declaration.ogg|title=The United Kingdom declares war on Germany|description=UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939.}} {{Listen|filename=Roosevelt Pearl Harbor.ogg|title=USA declares war on Japan|description=US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asks for a declaration of war on Japan in a joint session of Congress on 8 December 1941. Entire speech, including the famous "infamy" remark.}} ==References== * Churchill, Winston (1948-53), ''The Second World War'', 6 vols. * Gilbert, Martin (1995) ''Second World War'', Phoenix, ISBN 1857993462 * Keegan, John (1989) ''The Second World War'' * Liddel Hart, Sir Basil (1970), ''History of the Second World War'' Cassel & Co; Pan Books,1973, London * Murray, Williamson and Millett, Allan R. (2000) ''A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War'' ISBN 067400163X * Overy, Richard, ''Why the Allies Won'', Pimlico, 1995. ISBN 0712674535 * Shirer, William L., ''The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Third_Reich'', Simon & Schuster, 1959 * Weinberg, Gerhard L., ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'' (1994) ISBN 0521443172 ==External links== ===General=== *World War II History in one sixth scale * BBC History: World War Two * Deutsche Welle special section on World War II created by one of Germany's public broadcasters on World War II and the world 60 years after. * WW2DB: The World War II Database * World War II, Wars And Battles * Directory of Online World War II Indexes & Records * World War II history * Phil's World War II pages - Compact a quick to use *Halford Mackinder's Necessary War An essay describing the geopolitical aspects of World War II *Bunker Pictures: Pictures, locations, information about bunkers from WW2 and The Atlantikwall ===Media=== * World War II Multimedia Database * US National Archives Photos * Color photographs of the war * The Canadian Letters and Images Project, World War II * World War II Memorial Pictures * Multimedia map - Presentation that covers the war from the invasion of Russia to the fall of Berlin * Thousands of World War II Photographs & Movies - Free to download * Virtual Museum of World War II - interesting pictures & info ===Stories=== * WW2 People's War - A project by the BBC to gather the stories of ordinary people from World War II * WWII, divisive memories (en) - from an online issue from www.cafebabel.com * Memories of Leutnant d.R. Wilhelm Radkovsky 1940-1945 * Workers' War: Home Front Recalled - A project by London Metropolitan University, TUC and the National Pensioners Convention to document the history of workers during World War II ===Specific=== * Germany's surrender documents. * Online Newspaper Archive * World War II Through Cartoons * Veterans Of The US Armed Forces Services, information, resources, and image gallery for veterans of the United States Armed Forces. * Front page of the 6 June, 1944 edition of The_New_York_Times. * Using Historical Statistics To Teach about World War II. ERIC Digest. * World War II in the Curriculum * German military uniforms * World War II Reenacting * Speech delivered by premier Benito Mussolini (Rome, Italy, February 23, 1941) * Daily reports - Extremely detailed daily action reports from the German side ===Documentaries=== * ''The_World_at_War'' (1974) is a 36 piece BBC series which covers most aspects of World War II from many points of view. It includes interviews with many key figures (Karl_Dönitz, Albert_Speer, Anthony_Eden etc.) (Imdb link) * ''The Second World War in Colour'' (1999) is a three episode documentary showing unique footage in color (Imdb link) {{Link FA|ar}} {{Link FA|he}} {{Link FA|sv}} {{Link FA|vi}} {{Link FA|zh}} Af:Tweede_Wêreldoorlog Als:Zweiter_Weltkrieg Ang:Ōðru_Woruldgūþ Ar:حرب_عالمية_ثانية Ast:Segunda_Guerra_Mundial Bg:Втора_Световна_война Be:Другая_сусьветная_вайна Bs:Drugi_Svjetski_Rat Ca:Segona_Guerra_Mundial Cs:Druhá_světová_válka Cy:Yr_Ail_Ryfel_Byd Da:2._verdenskrig De:Zweiter_Weltkrieg Et:Teine_maailmasõda El:Β'_Παγκόσμιος_Πόλεμος Es:Segunda_Guerra_Mundial Eo:Dua_Mondmilito Fa:جنگ_جهانی_دوم Fr:Seconde_Guerre_mondiale Fy:Twadde_Wrâldkriich Ga:An_Dara_Cogadh_Domhanda Gl:II_Guerra_Mundial Ko:제2차_세계_대전 Hr:Drugi_svjetski_rat Io:Duesma_mondo-milito Id:Perang_Dunia_II Is:Seinni_heimsstyrjöldin It:Seconda_guerra_mondiale He:מלחמת_העולם_השנייה Ka:მეორე_მსოფლიო_ომი La:Bellum_Orbis_Terrarum_II Lv:Otrais_pasaules_karš Lt:Antrasis_pasaulinis_karas Lb:Zweete_Weltkrich Li:Twiede_Wereldoorlog Hu:II._világháború Mk:Втора_Светска_војна Ms:Perang_Dunia_II Nl:Tweede_Wereldoorlog Nds:Tweet_Weltorlog Ja:第二次世界大戦 No:Andre_verdenskrig Nn:Andre_verdskrigen Pl:II_wojna_światowa Pt:Segunda_Guerra_Mundial Ro:Al_Doilea_Război_Mondial Ru:Вторая_мировая_война Sq:Lufta_e_dytë_Botrore Sh:Drugi_svetski_rat Scn:Secunna_guerra_munniali Simple:World_War_II Sk:Druhá_svetová_vojna Sl:Druga_svetovna_vojna Sr:Други_светски_рат Fi:Toinen_maailmansota Sv:Andra_världskriget Th:สงครามโลกครั้งที่สอง Vi:Đệ_nhị_thế_chiến Tr:II._Dünya_Savaşı Uk:Друга_світова_війна_1939-45 Wa:Deujhinme_guere_daegnrece Zh:第二次世界大战