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{{Short description|1939–1945 global conflict}}
<!--This is a very long article. If you have more information regarding World War II, please consider adding it to one of the articles referenced by this article that deal with specific areas of World War II rather than to this article. -->{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict=World War II {{Redirect-several|WWII|The Second World War|World War II}}
{{Good article}}
|partof=
{{Pp|small=yes}}
|image=]
{{Use British English|date=December 2019}}
|caption='''From top counterclockwise''': ] landing on ] beaches on ], the 1936 ], the ] ], ] soldiers raising the ] over the ] in ], the gate of a ] at ]
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
|date=1939&ndash;1945
{{Infobox military conflict
|place=], ], ], ], ] and ]
| conflict = World War&nbsp;II
|result=Allied victory
| image = {{multiple image|border=infobox|perrow=2/2/2|total_width=300
|combatant1=''']''':<br>],<br>]/],<br>],<br>],<br>],<br>],<br>],<br>],<br>],<br>],<br>],<br>]
| image1=Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-646-5188-17, Flugzeuge Junkers Ju 87.jpg
|combatant2=''']''':<br>],<br>],<br>],<br>]
| alt1=
|casualties1='''Military dead''': 17 million<br>'''Civilian dead''': 33 million<br>'''Total dead''': 50 million
| image2=Matilda tanks on the move outside the perimeter of Tobruk, Libya, 18 November 1941. E6600.jpg
|casualties2='''Military dead''': 8 million<br>'''Civilian dead''': 4 million<br>'''Total dead''': 12 million
| alt2=
| image3=Nagasakibomb.jpg
| alt3=in the
| image4=Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R76619, Russland, Kesselschlacht Stalingrad.jpg
| alt4=
| image5=Raising a flag over the Reichstag - Restoration.jpg
| alt5=
| image6=USS Pennsylvania moving into Lingayen Gulf.jpg
| alt6=}}From top to bottom, left to right: {{flatlist|
* German ] dive bombers on the ], 1943
* British ] tanks during the ], 1941
* U.S. ] in Japan, 1945
* Soviet troops at the ], 1943
* Soviet soldier ] over the ] after the ], 1945
* U.S. warships in ] in the ], 1945
}} }}
| date = 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945{{efn|While ] have been proposed as the date on which World War&nbsp;II began or ended, this is the period most frequently cited.}} <br /> ({{Age in years and days|1 September 1939|2 September 1945}})
'''World War II''', also '''WWII''', or the '''Second World War''', was a ] ] that took place in ]–]. It was the largest and deadliest war in history, culminating in the ] and the dropping of the ].
| place = Major ]: {{flatlist|
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
}}
| result = {{ubl|] victory (see also ])}}<!--This fixes label and data text alignment by locking it in place-->
| combatants_header = ]
| combatant1 = ]<!--NOTE: The consensus of a discussion which concluded in November 2014 at ] was to only list the 'Allies' and 'Axis' as combatants. PLEASE do not make any changes without first obtaining consensus for the change on the article's talk page. -->
| combatant2 = ]<!--NOTE: The consensus of a discussion which concluded in November 2014 at ] was to only list the 'Allies' and 'Axis' as combatants. PLEASE do not make any changes without first obtaining consensus for the change on the article's talk page. -->
| commander1 = ''']:'''{{plainlist|
* {{flagicon|Soviet Union|1936|size=22px}} ] <!--NOTE: Please do not alter the order of the commanders in this info box without consensus. Thank you.-->
* {{flagicon|United States|1912|size=22px}} ]
* {{flagicon|United Kingdom|size=22px}} ]
* {{flagicon|Republic of China (1912–1949)|size=22px}} ]}}
| commander2 = ''']:'''{{plainlist|
* {{flagicon|Nazi Germany|size=22px}} ]
* {{flagicon|Empire of Japan|size=22px}} ]
* {{flagicon|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|size=22px}} ]
}}
| casualties1 = {{plainlist|
* '''Military dead:'''
* Over 16,000,000
* '''Civilian dead:'''
* Over 45,000,000
* '''Total dead:'''
* Over 61,000,000
* (1937–1945)
* ]}}
| casualties2 = {{plainlist|
* '''Military dead:'''
* Over 8,000,000
* '''Civilian dead:'''
* Over 4,000,000
* '''Total dead:'''
* Over 12,000,000
* (1937–1945)
* ]}}
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox World War II}}
}}
{{TopicTOC-World War II}}


'''World War&nbsp;II'''{{efn|Often abbreviated as '''WWII''' or '''WW2'''}} or the '''Second World War''' (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a ] between two coalitions: the ] and the ]. ]—including all the ]s—participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit of ], blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources. ] and ], with the latter enabling the ] of population centres and delivery of the ] ever used in war. World War II was the ] in history, resulting in ], more than half being civilians. Millions died in ], including ] of European Jews, as well as from massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory, ], ], ], and ] were occupied, and ] tribunals were conducted ] and ].
Even though ] had been fighting in ] since ], the conventional view is that the war began on ], ], when ] invaded ]. Within two days the ] and ] declared war on Germany, even though the fighting was confined to Poland. Pursuant to a then-secret provision of its non-aggression ], the ] joined with Germany on ], ], to conquer Poland and to divide Eastern Europe.


The ] included unresolved tensions in the ] and the rise of ] and ]. Key events leading up to the war included ], the ], the outbreak of the ], and Germany's ] and ]. World War&nbsp;II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when ], under ], ], prompting the ] and ] to declare war on Germany. Poland was divided between Germany and the ] under the ], in which they had agreed on "]" in Eastern Europe. In 1940, the Soviets ] and ] and ]. After the ] in June 1940, the war continued mainly between Germany and the ], with fighting in the ], ], the aerial ] and ], and naval ]. Through a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany took control of much of ] and ] with ], ], and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led the European Axis in ], opening the ] and initially making large territorial gains.
The ] were initially made up of ], the ], ], ], ], ], ], as well as ] countries which were controlled directly by the UK, such as the ]. All of these countries declared war on Germany in September 1939.


Japan aimed to ], and by 1937 was at war with the ]. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories ], including ], which resulted in the US and the UK declaring war against Japan, and the European Axis declaring war on the US. ], but its advances in the Pacific were halted in mid-1942 after its defeat in the naval ]; Germany and Italy were ] and at ] in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including German defeats on the Eastern Front, the ] and the ], and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies ], while the Soviet Union ] and pushed Germany and its allies westward. At the same time, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled the ] and ].
Following the lull in fighting, known as the "Phony War", Germany invaded western Europe in May 1940. Six weeks later, France, in the mean time attacked by ] as well, surrendered to Germany, which then tried unsuccessfully to conquer Britain. On ], Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a mutual defense agreement, the ], and were known as the ].


The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of ]; the ] and the Soviet Union, culminating in the ] to Soviet troops; ]; and the ] on ]. Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the ], the US ] on ] and ] on 6 and 9 August. Faced with an imminent ], the possibility of further atomic bombings, and the Soviet ] against Japan and its ], Japan announced ] on 15 August and signed ] on ], marking the end of the war.
Nine months later, on ], ], Germany launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, which promptly joined the Allies. Germany was now engaged in fighting a war on two fronts. This proved to be a mistake by Germany-many historians believe that if Germany had successfully carried out the invasion of Britain and put forth their best effort, the war may have turned in favor of the Axis.


World War&nbsp;II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and it set the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The ] was established to foster international cooperation and prevent conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becoming ] of ]. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival ]s, setting the stage for the ]. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the ] and ]. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards ].
On ], ], ], bringing it too into the war on the Allied side. China also joined the Allies, as eventually did most of the rest of the world. China was in turmoil at the time, and attacked Japanese armies through guerilla-type warfare. By the beginning of 1942, the major combatants were aligned as follows: the British Commonwealth, the United States, and the Soviet Union were fighting Germany and Italy; and the British Commonwealth, China, and the ] were fighting Japan. From then through August 1945, battles raged across all of Europe, in the ], across ], throughout ], throughout China, across the ] and in the air over Japan.


==Start and end dates==
Italy surrendered in September 1943 and split in a northern Germany-occupied ] and in a Allies-friendly state in the South; Germany surrendered in May 1945. Following the ], ], marking the end of the war on ], ].
{{See also|List of timelines of World War II}}
{{WWII timeline}}
World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939{{sfn|Weinberg|2005|p=6}}<ref>Wells, Anne Sharp (2014) ''Historical Dictionary of World War II: The War against Germany and Italy''. ]. p. 7.</ref> with the ] and the ] and ]'s declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of the ] include the start of the ] on 7 July 1937,<ref>{{Cite book|first1=John|last1=Ferris|first2=Evan|last2=Mawdsley|title=The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Volume I: Fighting the War|location=]|language=en|publisher=]|year=2015}}</ref>{{sfn|Förster|Gessler|2005|p=64}} or the earlier ], on 19 September 1931.<ref>Ghuhl, Wernar (2007) ''Imperial Japan's World War Two'' Transaction Publishers pp. 7, 30</ref><ref>Polmar, Norman; Thomas B. Allen (1991) '']'' {{ISBN|978-0-394-58530-7}}</ref> Others follow the British historian ], who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and the two wars became World War II in 1941.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hett |first=Benjamin Carter |date=1 August 1996 |title='Goak here': A.J.P. Taylor and 'The Origins of the Second World War.' |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=00084107&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA18672225&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Canadian Journal of History |language=English |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=257–281 |doi=10.3138/cjh.31.2.257 |access-date=14 September 2022 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307200155/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=00084107&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA18672225&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs&userGroupName=nm_p_oweb&isGeoAuthType=true |url-status=live |issn = 0008-4107 }}</ref> Other proposed starting dates for World War&nbsp;II include the ] on 3 October 1935.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ben-Horin|1943|p=169}}; {{Harvnb|Taylor|1979|p=124}}; Yisreelit, Hevrah Mizrahit (1965). ''Asian and African Studies'', p. 191.<br />For 1941 see {{Harvnb|Taylor|1961|p=vii}}; Kellogg, William O (2003). '']''. Barron's Educational Series. p. 236 {{ISBN|978-0-7641-1973-6}}.<br />There is also the viewpoint that both World War&nbsp;I and World War&nbsp;II are part of the same "]" or "]": {{Harvnb|Canfora|2006|p=155}}; {{Harvnb|Prins|2002|p=11}}.</ref> The British historian ] views the beginning of World War{{nbsp}}II as the ] fought between ] and the forces of ] and the ] from May to September 1939.{{sfn|Beevor|2012|p=10}} Others view the ] as the start or prelude to World War II.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 March 2017 |title=In Many Ways, Author Says, Spanish Civil War Was 'The First Battle Of WWII' |website=] |publisher=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/03/10/519462137/in-many-ways-author-says-spanish-civil-war-was-the-first-battle-of-wwii |url-status=live |access-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416013707/https://www.npr.org/2017/03/10/519462137/in-many-ways-author-says-spanish-civil-war-was-the-first-battle-of-wwii |archive-date=16 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40105814|title=The Spanish Civil War and the Coming of the Second World War|author=Frank, Willard C.|year=1987|journal=The International History Review|volume=9|issue=3|pages=368–409|doi=10.1080/07075332.1987.9640449|jstor=40105814|access-date=17 February 2022|archive-date=1 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201143429/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40105814|url-status=live}}</ref>


The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 (]), rather than with the formal ] on 2 September 1945, which officially ]. A ] was signed in 1951.{{sfn|Masaya|1990|p=4}} A 1990 ] allowed the ] to take place and resolved most post–World War{{nbsp}}II issues.<ref>{{cite web |date=12 September 1990 |title=German-American Relations – Treaty on the Final Settlement concerning Germany |url=https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/2plusfour8994e.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507180629/https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/2plusfour8994e.htm |archive-date=7 May 2012 |access-date=6 May 2012 |publisher=usa.usembassy.de}}</ref> No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed,<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604072306/https://www.atimes.com/article/fact-box-japan-russia-never-signed-wwii-peace-treaty/ |date=4 June 2018 }}. ''Asia Times''.</ref> although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the ], which also restored full diplomatic relations between them.<ref name=nyt> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209133402/https://www.nytimes.com/1956/10/20/archives/texts-of-sovietjapanese-statements-peace-declaration-trade-protocol.html?sq=Soviet-Japanese+Joint+Declaration&scp=1&st=p |date=9 December 2021 }} ], page 2, 20 October 1956.<br />Subtitle: "Moscow, October 19. (UP) – Following are the texts of a Soviet–Japanese peace declaration and of a trade protocol between the two countries, signed here today, in unofficial translation from the Russian". Quote: "The state of war between the U.S.S.R. and Japan ends on the day the present declaration enters into force "</ref>
It is possible that around 62 million people ]; estimates vary greatly. About 60% of all casualties were civilians, who died as a result of disease, starvation, ] (in particular, the ]), and aerial bombing. The former Soviet Union and China suffered the most casualties. Estimates place deaths in the Soviet Union at around 23 million, while China suffered about 10 million. No country lost a greater portion of its population than Poland: approximately 5.6 million, or 16%, of its pre-war population of 34.8 million died.


==History==
After World War II, ] was informally split into Western and Soviet ]. ] later aligned as ] (NATO) and ] as the ]. There was a shift in power from Western Europe and the ] to the two new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. These two rivals would later face off in the ]. In Asia, the defeat of Japan led to its ]. ] continued through and after the war, resulting eventually in the establishment of the ]. The former colonies of the European powers began their road to independence.


==Causes== ===Background===
{{Main|Causes of World War II}}
] (left) and ].]] {{main articles|], ], and ]}}


====Aftermath of World War I====
Commonly held general causes for WWII are the rise of nationalism, the rise of militarism, and the presence of unresolved territorial issues. In Germany, resentment of the ]&mdash;specifically ] (the "Guilt Clause"), the belief in the '']'', and the onset of the ]&mdash;fueled the rise to power of ]'s militarist ] (the Nazi Party). Meanwhile, the treaty's provisions were laxly enforced from fear of another war. Closely related is the failure of the British and French policy of ], which sought to avoid war but actually gave Hitler time to re-arm. The ] also failed in its mission of preventing war.
{{stack|] assembly, held in ], Switzerland (1930)]]}}


] had radically altered the political European map with the defeat of the ]—including ], ], ], and the ]—and the 1917 ] in ], which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious ], such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new ] were created out of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mintz |first1=Steven |title=Historical Context: The Global Effect of World War I |url=https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-resource/historical-context-global-effect-world-war-i |website=The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |access-date=4 March 2024 |archive-date=4 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304193001/https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-resource/historical-context-global-effect-world-war-i |url-status=live }}</ref>
Japan in the 1930s was ruled by a militarist clique devoted to becoming a world power. ] to bolster its meager stock of natural resources. This angered the United States, which reacted by making loans to China, providing ], and instituting increasingly broad embargoes of raw materials against Japan. These embargoes would have eventually wrecked Japan's economy; Japan was faced with the choice of withdrawing from China or going to war in order to conquer the oil resources of the ]. It chose to go ahead with plans for the ].


To prevent a future world war, the ] was established in 1920 by the ]. The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, and ], as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gerwarth |first1=Robert |title=Paris Peace Treaties failed to create a secure, peaceful and lasting world order |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/paris-peace-treaties-failed-to-create-a-secure-peaceful-and-lasting-world-order-1.3745849 |newspaper=] |access-date=29 October 2021 |language=en |archive-date=14 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814213229/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/paris-peace-treaties-failed-to-create-a-secure-peaceful-and-lasting-world-order-1.3745849 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Chronology==
{{Main articles| ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]}}


Despite strong pacifist sentiment ],{{sfn|Ingram|2006|pp=}} ] and ] ] had emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the ]. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all ], while German annexation of other states was prohibited, ] were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's ].{{sfn|Kantowicz|1999|p=149}}
===War breaks out in Europe: 1939===
'''Pre-war alliances'''
{{main articles| ], ] and ]}}


====Germany and Italy====
After the collapse of the ] in March 1939, when German armies entered ] and proceeded to occupy the remainder of ], Poland and France pledged on ], ] to provide each other with military assistance in the event either was attacked. The British had already offered support to the Poles in March, but then on ], Germany and the Soviet Union signed the ]. The pact included a secret protocol which would divide eastern Europe into German and Soviet areas of interest. Each country agreed to allow the other a free hand in its area of influence, including military occupation. Hitler was now ready to go to war in order to conquer Poland. The signing of a new alliance between Britain and Poland on ] deterred him for only a few days.
The German Empire was dissolved in the ], and a democratic government, later known as the ], was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the ] by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the ] movement led by ] seized power in Italy with a nationalist, ], and ]ist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of a "New Roman Empire".{{sfn|Shaw|2000|p=35}}


] at a German ] political rally in ], August 1933]]
'''Invasion of Poland'''
], after an ] in 1923, eventually ] in 1933 when ] and the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself ''Führer'' of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a ], and soon began a massive ].{{sfn|Brody|1999|p=4}} France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy, ], which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the ] was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.{{sfn|Zalampas|1989|p=62}}
], September 1939.]]
] of ] prepares to attack.]]
{{main article|Polish September Campaign}}
On ], Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The French mobilized slowly, then mounted only a token offensive in the ], which they soon abandoned, while the British could not take any direct action in support of the Poles in the time available (see ]). Meanwhile, on ], the Germans reached ], having slashed through the Polish defenses.


====European treaties====
On ], Soviet troops occupied the eastern part of Poland, taking control of territory that Germany had agreed was in the Soviet sphere of influence. A day later the Polish president and commander-in-chief both fled to ]. The last Polish units surrendered on ]. Some Polish troops ]. In the aftermath of the September Campaign, occupied Poland managed to create ] and ] for the duration of World War II.
The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the ] in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards ]; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an ] with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's ], drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the ] was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless.<ref>{{Harvnb|Mandelbaum|1988|p=96}}; {{Harvnb|Record|2005|p=50}}.</ref> The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the ] in August of the same year.{{sfn|Schmitz|2000|p=124}}


Hitler defied the Versailles and ] by ] in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of ].{{sfn|Adamthwaite|1992|p=52}} In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the ]. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the ], which Italy joined the following year.{{sfn|Shirer|1990|pp=298–299}}
'''Phony War'''
{{main article|Phony War}}
After Poland fell, Germany paused to regroup during the winter of 1939-1940 until April 1940, while the British and French stayed on the defensive. The period was referred to by journalists as "the ]," or the "''Sitzkrieg''," because so little ground combat took place.


====Asia====
'''Battle of the Atlantic'''
The ] (KMT) party in China launched a ] against ] and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in ] against its former ] (CCP) allies{{sfn|Preston|1998|p=104}} and ]. In 1931, an ] ], which had long sought influence in China{{sfn|Myers|Peattie|1987|p=458}} as the first step of what its government saw as the country's ], staged the ] as a pretext to ] and establish the ] of ].{{sfn|Smith|Steadman|2004|p=28}}
{{main article|Second Battle of the Atlantic}}
Meanwhile in the North Atlantic, German ]s operated against Allied shipping. The submarines made up in skill, luck, and daring what they lacked in numbers. One U-boat sank the British aircraft carrier ], while another U-boat managed to sink the battleship ] in its home anchorage of ]. Altogether, the U-boats sank more than 110 vessels in the first four months of the war.


China appealed to the ] to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being ] for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in ], ] and ], until the ] was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in ], and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Coogan|1993}}: "Although some Chinese troops in the Northeast managed to retreat south, others were trapped by the advancing Japanese Army and were faced with the choice of resistance in defiance of orders, or surrender. A few commanders submitted, receiving high office in the puppet government, but others took up arms against the invader. The forces they commanded were the first of the volunteer armies."</ref> After the 1936 ], the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to present ] to oppose Japan.{{sfn|Busky|2002|p=10}}
In the ], the ] raided Allied shipping and then was scuttled after the ]. Unlike the U-boat threat, which had a serious impact later in the war, German surface raiders had little impact because their numbers were so small.


===War spreads: 1940=== ===Pre-war events===
'''Soviet-Finnish War'''
{{main articles| ], ]}}
]
] pictured in front of the ] in ]. ]]
The Soviet Union attacked Finland on ], ], which started the ]. Finland surrendered to the Soviet Union in March 1940 and signed the ] in which the Finns made territorial concessions. Later that year, in June the Soviet Union occupied ], ], and ], and annexed ] and ] from Romania.


====Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)====
'''Invasion of Denmark and Norway'''
{{Main|Second Italo-Ethiopian War}}
{{main article| Norwegian Campaign}}
] inspecting troops during the ], 1935]]
Germany invaded Denmark and Norway on ], ], in ], in part to counter the threat of an impending Allied invasion of Norway. Denmark did not resist, but Norway fought back, and was joined by British, French, and Polish (exile) forces landing in support of the Norwegians at ], ], and ]. By late June, the Allies were defeated, German forces were in control of most of Norway, and what remained of the ] had surrendered.


The ] was a brief ] that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the ] (also known as ]) by the armed forces of the ] (''Regno d'Italia''), which was launched from ] and ].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtCL2OYsH6wC |title=Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An Encyclopedia |author1=Andrea L. Stanton |author2=Edward Ramsamy |author3=Peter J. Seybolt |page=308 |access-date=6 April 2014 |isbn=978-1-4129-8176-7 |year=2012 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307201327/https://books.google.com/books?id=GtCL2OYsH6wC |url-status=live }}</ref> The war resulted in the ] of Ethiopia and its ] into the newly created colony of ] (''Africa Orientale Italiana'', or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of the ] as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, ] when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's ].{{sfn|Barker|1971|pp=131–132}} The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion.{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=289}} Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing ].{{sfn|Kitson|2001|p=231}}
'''Invasion of France and the Low Countries'''
{{main article| Battle of France}}
On ], ], the Germans invaded ], ], the ], and France, ending the ''Phony War''. The ] (BEF) and the French Army advanced into northern Belgium and planned to fight a mobile war in the north while maintaining a static continuous front along the ] further south. The Allied plans were immediately smashed by the most classic example in history of '']''.


====Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)====
In the first phase of the invasion, ''Fall Gelb'' (CACA), the Wehrmacht's ''Panzergruppe von Kleist'' raced through the ], broke the French line at ], then slashed across northern France to the English Channel, splitting the Allies in two. Meanwhile Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands fell quickly against the attack of German Army Group B. The BEF, encircled in the north, was evacuated from ] in ]. On June 10 Italy joined the war attacking France in the south.
{{Main|Spanish Civil War}}


When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the ], led by General ]. Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain.{{sfn|Neulen|2000|page=25}} The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the ]. More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the ], also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this ] as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War{{nbsp}}II but ].{{sfn|Payne|2008|page=271}} His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of ] to fight on the ].{{sfn|Payne|2008|page=146}}
German forces then continued the conquest of France with ''Fall Rot'' (Case Red), advancing behind the Maginot Line and near the coast. France signed an armistice with Germany on ] ], leading to the establishment of the ] puppet government in the unoccupied part of France.


====Japanese invasion of China (1937)====
]
{{Main|Second Sino-Japanese War}}
] tanks advance during the North African campaign.]]
] soldiers during the ], 1937]]
'''Battle of Britain'''
{{main article|Battle of Britain}}
Following the defeat of France, Britain chose to fight on, so Germany began preparations in summer of 1940 to invade Britain in ], while Britain made ]. The first step Germany saw necessary was to gain air control over Britain by defeating the '']''. The war between the two air forces became known as the ]. The '']'' initially targeted ], but the results were not as expected, so the ''Luftwaffe'' later turned to ]. The Germans failed to defeat the Royal Air Force, and Operation Sea Lion was postponed and eventually cancelled.


In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of ] after instigating the ], which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China.{{sfn|Eastman|1986|pp=547–551}} The Soviets quickly signed a ] to lend ] support, effectively ending China's prior ]. From September to November, the Japanese attacked ], engaged the ] ],<ref name="Hsu & Chang 1971 221">{{Harvnb|Hsu|Chang|1971|pp=195–200}}.</ref> and fought ] ].<ref name=Tucker2009>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5_tSnygvbIC&pg=PA1873|title=A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East : From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East|first=Spencer C.|last=Tucker|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|access-date=27 August 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1-85109-672-5|archive-date=7 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307201303/https://books.google.com/books?id=h5_tSnygvbIC&pg=PA1873|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=yang>Yang Kuisong, "On the reconstruction of the facts of the Battle of Pingxingguan"</ref> ] ] deployed his ] to ], but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back, ] in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were ].<ref>Levene, Mark and Roberts, Penny. ''The Massacre in History''. 1999, pp. 223–224</ref><ref name=tot>Totten, Samuel. ''Dictionary of Genocide''. 2008, 298–299.</ref>
'''North African Campaign'''
{{main article| North African Campaign}}
The Italian declaration of war in June 1940, challenging the British supremacy of the Mediterranean, hinged on ], ], and ]. Italian troops invaded and ] in August. In September, the ] began when Italian forces in ] attacked British forces in ]. The aim was to make Egypt an Italian possession, especially the vital ] east of Egypt. British, ] and ] forces counter-attacked in ], but this offensive stopped in 1941 when much of the Australian and New Zealand forces were transferred to Greece to defend it from German attack. However, German forces (known later as the ]) under General ] landed in Libya and renewed the assault on Egypt.


In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their ], but then the city of ] ] in May.{{sfn|Hsu|Chang|1971|pp=221–230}} In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by ]; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at ], but the ] by October.{{sfn|Eastman|1986|p=566}} Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to ] and continued the war.{{sfn|Taylor|2009|pp=150–152}}{{sfn|Sella|1983|pp=651–687}}
'''Invasion of Greece'''
{{main article| Balkans Campaign}}
] on ], ], from bases in ] after the Greek Premier John Metaxas rejected an ultimatum to hand over Greek territory. Despite the enormous superiority of the Italian forces, the Greek army forced the Italians into a massive retreat deep into Albania. By mid-December, the Greeks occupied one-fourth of Albania. The Greek army had inflicted upon the Axis Powers their first defeat in the war, and Nazi Germany would soon be forced to intervene.


====Soviet–Japanese border conflicts====
===War becomes global: 1941===
{{Main|Soviet–Japanese border conflicts}}
====European Theatre====
;Lend-Lease
{{main|Lend-Lease}}
]
U.S. President ] signed the Lend-Lease Act on ]. This program was the first large step away from American isolationism, providing for substantial assistance to the U.K., the Soviet Union, and other countries.


In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in ] had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and ]. The Japanese doctrine of ], which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat at ] in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War{{sfn|Beevor|2012|p=342}} and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a ] in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of ], promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Goldman, Stuart D. |date=28 August 2012 |title=The Forgotten Soviet-Japanese War of 1939 |access-date=26 June 2015 |magazine=The Diplomat |url=https://thediplomat.com/2012/08/the-forgotten-soviet-japanese-war-of-1939/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629092821/https://thediplomat.com/2012/08/the-forgotten-soviet-japanese-war-of-1939/ |archive-date=29 June 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Timothy Neeno |access-date=26 June 2015 |title=Nomonhan: The Second Russo-Japanese War |publisher=MilitaryHistoryOnline.com |url=https://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thcentury/articles/nomonhan.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051124070956/https://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thcentury/articles/nomonhan.aspx |archive-date=24 November 2005 |url-status=live}}</ref>
;Invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia


====European occupations and agreements====
] government succumbed to the pressure of the Axis and signed the Tripartite Treaty on ], but the government was overthrown in a coup which replaced it with a pro-Allied government. This prompted the Germans to invade Yugoslavia on ]. In the early morning, Germans bombarded Belgrade with an estimated 450 aircraft. Yugoslavia was occupied in a matter of days, and the army surrendered on ], but the partisan resistance lasted throughout the war. The rapid downfall of Yugoslavia, however, allowed German forces to enter Greek territory through the Yugoslav frontier. The 58,000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops who had been sent to help the Greeks were driven back and soon forced to evacuate. On ], German forces entered ] which was followed by the end of organized Greek resistance. The occupation of Greece proved costly as guerilla warfare continually plagued the Axis occupiers.
], ], ], ], and ] pictured just before signing the ], 29 September 1938]]


In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany ], again provoking ] from other European powers.{{sfn|Collier|Pedley|2000|p=144}} Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the ], an area of ] with a predominantly ] population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister ] and conceded this territory to Germany in the ], which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands.{{sfn|Kershaw|2001|pp=121–122}} Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to ] to Hungary, and Poland annexed the ] region of Czechoslovakia.{{sfn|Kershaw|2001|p=157}}
;Invasion of Soviet Union
]
{{main articles|], ], ], ] and ]}}
On ], ], Operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion in history, began. Three German army groups, an Axis force of over four million men, advanced rapidly deep into the Soviet Union, destroying almost the entire western Soviet army in huge battles of encirclement. The Soviets dismantled as much industry as possible ahead of the advancing Axis forces, moving it to the ] for reassembly.


Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 ] to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, ] and subsequently split it into the German ] and a pro-German ], the ].{{sfn|Davies|2006|loc=pp. 143–144 (2008 ed.)}} Hitler also delivered an ] on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the ], formerly the German ''Memelland''.{{sfn|Shirer|1990|pp=461–462}}
By late November, the Axis had reached a line at the gates of Leningrad, Moscow, and Rostov, at the cost of about 23 percent casualties. Their advance then ground to a halt. The German General Staff had underestimated the size of the Soviet army and its ability to draft new troops.


] (right) and the Soviet leader ], after signing the ], 23 August 1939]]
].]]
Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the ], the United Kingdom and France ]; when ] in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the ] and ].{{sfn|Lowe|Marzari|2002|p=330}} Shortly after the ]-] pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the ].{{sfn|Dear|Foot|2001|p=234}} Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced the ] and the ].{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=471}}


The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signed ] with Germany,{{sfn|Shore|2003|p=108}} after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=Derek |year=2000 |title=Molotov's Apprenticeship in Foreign Policy: The Triple Alliance Negotiations in 1939 |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=695–722 |doi=10.1080/713663077 |jstor=153322 |s2cid=144385167}}</ref> This pact had a secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western ] and Lithuania for Germany; ], Finland, ], ] and ] for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence.{{sfn|Dear|Foot|2001|p=608}} The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War{{nbsp}}I. Immediately afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/DAP-Poland/Campaign-II.html#chapter5|title=The German Campaign In Poland (1939)|access-date=29 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140524013551/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/DAP-Poland/Campaign-II.html#chapter5|archive-date=24 May 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>
They were now dismayed by the presence of new forces, including fresh Siberian troops under General ], and by the onset of a particularly cold winter.


In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as a pretext to worsen relations.<ref name=ww2db_com>{{cite web |url=https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=162 |title=The Danzig Crisis |website=ww2db.com |access-date=29 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505010109/https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=162 |archive-date=5 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish ] immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of ], and to allow a ] in the ] in which the German minority would vote on secession.<ref name=ww2db_com /> The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador ], Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected.<ref name=ibiblio1939>{{cite web |title=Major international events of 1939, with explanation |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/events/1939.html |publisher=Ibiblio.org |access-date=9 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310103815/https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/events/1939.html |archive-date=10 March 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>
German forward units had advanced within distant sight of the golden onion domes of Moscow's ], but then on ], the Soviets counter-attacked and pushed the Axis back some 150-250 kilometers (100-150 mi), which became the first major German defeat of World War II.


===Course of the war===
Meanwhile, on ], the ] between Finland and the Soviet Union began with Soviet air attacks shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.
{{For timeline|List of timelines of World War II}}
{{See also|Diplomatic history of World War II|World War II by country}}


====War breaks out in Europe (1939–1940)====
;Allied conferences
{{Main|European theatre of World War II}}
The ] was issued as a joint declaration by ] and President Roosevelt, at Argentia, Newfoundland, on ], ].
]'' tearing down the border crossing into ], 1 September 1939]]


On 1 September 1939, Germany ] after ] several ] as a pretext to initiate the invasion.{{sfn|Evans|2008|pp=1–2}} The first German attack of the war came against the ].<ref name="Zabecki2015">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mq_lCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT1663|title=World War II in Europe: An Encyclopedia|author=David T. Zabecki|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-81242-3|page=1663|quote=The earliest fighting started at 0445 hours when marines from the battleship Schleswig-Holstein attempted to storm a small Polish fort in Danzig, the Westerplate|access-date=17 June 2019|archive-date=7 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307201256/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mq_lCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT1663|url-status=live}}</ref> The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany.<ref>] at 11 am. ] at 5 pm.</ref> During the ] period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of a ].<ref name="Keegan 1997 35">{{Harvnb|Keegan|1997|p=35}}.<br />{{Harvnb|Cienciala|2010|p=128}}, observes that, while it is true that Poland was far away, making it difficult for the French and British to provide support, "ew Western historians of World War&nbsp;II&nbsp;... know that the British had committed to bomb Germany if it attacked Poland, but did not do so except for one raid on the base of Wilhelmshaven. The French, who committed to attacking Germany in the west, had no intention of doing so."</ref> The Western Allies also began a ], which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort.<ref>{{Harvnb|Beevor|2012|p=32}}; {{Harvnb|Dear|Foot|2001|pp=248–249}}; {{Harvnb|Roskill|1954|p=64}}.</ref> Germany responded by ordering ] against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Battle of the Atlantic |url=https://www.history.co.uk/history-of-ww2/battle-of-the-atlantic |access-date=11 July 2022 |website=Sky HISTORY TV channel |language=en |archive-date=20 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520073745/https://www.history.co.uk/history-of-ww2/battle-of-the-atlantic |url-status=live }}</ref>
In December 1941, after America entered the war, Churchill met with Roosevelt again at the ]. They agreed that defeating Germany had priority over defeating Japan. The Americans proposed a 1942 cross-channel invasion of France which the British strongly opposed, suggesting instead a small invasion in Norway or landings in ]. The ] was issued.


On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of ]. The Polish ] to the west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the '']''. Remnants of the Polish army broke through to ]. On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a ], the ]{{sfn|Zaloga|2002|pp=80, 83}} under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 2195670|title = A Case Study in the Soviet Use of International Law: Eastern Poland in 1939|journal = The American Journal of International Law|volume = 52|issue = 1|pages = 69–84|last1 = Ginsburgs|first1 = George|year = 1958|doi = 10.2307/2195670|s2cid = 146904066}}</ref> On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to the Germans, and ] ]. Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the ] and a ] in occupied Poland.{{sfn|Hempel|2005|p=24}} A significant part of Polish military personnel ] and Latvia; many of them later ] in other theatres of the war.{{sfn|Zaloga|2002|pp=88–89}}
;Mediterranean
].]]
{{main articles|], ], ], ] and ]}}
In North Africa, Rommel's forces advanced rapidly eastward, laying siege to the vital seaport of Tobruk. Two Allied attempts to relieve Tobruk were defeated, but a larger offensive at the end of the year (]) drove Rommel back after heavy fighting.


Germany ] Poland and ]; the Soviet Union ]; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to ] and ]. On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected<ref name=ibiblio1939 /> and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France,<ref>Nuremberg Documents C-62/GB86, a directive from Hitler in October 1939 which concludes: "The attack is to be launched this Autumn if conditions are at all possible."</ref> which was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather.{{sfn|Liddell Hart|1977|pp=39–40}}{{sfn|Bullock|1990|loc=pp. 563–564, 566, 568–569, 574–575 (1983 ed.)}}<ref>Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk, L Deighton, Jonathan Cape, 1993, pp. 186–187. Deighton states that "the offensive was postponed twenty-nine times before it finally took place."</ref>
On ], the ] began when elite German parachute and glider-borne mountain troops launched a massive airborne invasion of the Greek island. Crete was defended by Greek, New Zealand, Australia and British troops. The Germans attacked the island simultaneously on the three airfields.


] and ] on the last day of the ], 13 March 1940]]
]'' firing at '']'' on ]]]
After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened ], ], and ] with military invasion, forcing the three ] to sign ] allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there.{{sfn|Smith|Pabriks|Purs|Lane|2002|p=24}}{{sfn|Bilinsky|1999|p=9}}{{sfn|Murray|Millett|2001|pp=55–56}} ] refused to sign a similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. ] in November 1939,{{sfn|Spring|1986|pp=207–226}} and was subsequently expelled from the ] for this crime of aggression.<ref>Carl van Dyke. ''The Soviet Invasion of Finland''. Frank Cass Publishers, Portland, OR. {{ISBN|978-0-7146-4753-1}}, p. 71.</ref> Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the ] was modest,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/winter-war-finland.html|title=The Winter War – When the Finns Humiliated the Russians|first=Ivano|last=Massari|publisher=War History Online|date=18 August 2015|access-date=19 December 2021|archive-date=19 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211219185618/https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/winter-war-finland.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with ].{{sfn|Hanhimäki|1997|p=12}}
Their invasion on two of the airfields failed, but they successfully captured one, which allowed them to reinforce their position and capture the island in a little over one week.


In June 1940, the Soviet Union ] the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,{{sfn|Bilinsky|1999|p=9}} as well as the Romanian regions of ]. In August 1940, Hitler imposed the ] on Romania which led to the transfer of ] to Hungary.{{sfn|Dear|Foot|2001|pp=745, 975}} In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded ] from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to the ].<ref name="Haynes-2000">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b_I-AQAAIAAJ|title=Romanian policy towards Germany, 1936–40|first=Rebecca|last=Haynes|publisher=]|page=205|year=2000|isbn=978-0-312-23260-3|access-date=3 February 2022|archive-date=7 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307201243/https://books.google.com/books?id=b_I-AQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal ], with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee.<ref>Deletant, pp. 48–51, 66; Griffin (1993), p. 126; Ornea, pp. 325–327</ref> Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation{{sfn|Ferguson|2006|pp=367, 376, 379, 417}}{{sfn|Snyder|2010|pp=118ff}} gradually stalled,{{sfn|Koch|1983|pp=912–914, 917–920}}{{sfn|Roberts|2006|p=56}} and both states began preparations for war.{{sfn|Roberts|2006|p=59}}
On ], the German battleship ] sank the battlecruiser ] in the ]. On ], Bismarck was herself sunk by the Royal Navy.
In June 1941, Allied forces invaded ] and ] and captured ] on ]. Later, in August, British and Soviet troops ] in order to secure its oil and a southern supply line to Russia.


====Pacific Theatre==== ====Western Europe (1940–1941)====
{{Main|Western Front (World War II)}}
;Sino-Japanese war
] (shown in dark red)]]
{{main|Second Sino-Japanese War}}
A war had begun in East Asia before World War II started in Europe. On ], ], Japan, after occupying ] in 1931, ] against China near ]. The Japanese made initial advances but were stalled in the ]. The city eventually fell to the Japanese and in December 1937, and the capital city Nanking (now ]) fell. As a result, the Chinese government moved its seat to ] for the rest of the war. The Japanese forces committed brutal atrocities against civilians and prisoners of war ], slaughtering as many as 300,000 civilians within a month. The war by 1940 had reached a stalemate with both sides making minimal gains. The Chinese had successfully defended their land from oncoming Japanese on several occasions while strong resistance in areas occupied by the Japanese made a victory seem impossible to the Japanese.
] and ] under attack at ] ]]
;Japan and United States enter the War
{{main|Attack on Pearl Harbor}}
In the summer of 1941, the United States began an oil embargo against Japan, which was a protest of Japan's incursion into French Indo-China and the continued invasion of China. Japan planned an attack on ] to cripple the ] before consolidating oil fields in the Dutch East Indies. On ], a ] launched a surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor, ]. The raid resulted in two U.S. battleships sunk, and six damaged but later repaired and returned to service. The raid failed to find any aircraft carriers and did not damage Pearl Harbor's usefulness as a naval base. The attack strongly united public opinion in the United States against Japan. The following day, ], the ] on Japan. On the same day, China officially declared war against Japan. Germany declared war on the United States on ], even though it was not obliged to do so under the ]. Hitler hoped that Japan would support Germany by attacking the Soviet Union. Japan did not oblige, and this diplomatic move by Hitler proved a catastrophic blunder which unified the American public's support for the war.


In April 1940, ] to protect shipments of ], which the Allies were ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Murray|Millett|2001|pp=57–63}}.</ref> ], and ], Norway was conquered within two months.{{sfn|Commager|2004|p=9}} ] led to the resignation of Prime Minister ], who was replaced by ] on 10{{spaces}}May 1940.{{sfn|Reynolds|2006|p=76}}
;Japanese offensive
] surrendering Singapore to the Japanese on ], ]. It was the greatest defeat in British history.]]
{{main articles|], ], ] and ]}}
Japan soon invaded the Philippines and the British colonies of ], ], ], and ], with the intention of seizing the oilfields of the Dutch East Indies. Despite fierce resistance by American, Philippine, ], ], and ] forces, all these territories capitulated to the Japanese in a matter of months. The British island fortress of ] ] in what Churchill considered one of the most humiliating British defeats of all time.


On the same day, Germany ]. To circumvent the strong ] fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of ], ], and ].{{sfn|Evans|2008|pp=122–123}} The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the ] region,{{sfn|Keegan|1997|pp=59–60}} which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.{{sfn|Regan|2004|p=152}}{{sfn|Liddell Hart|1977|p=48}} By successfully implementing new '']'' tactics, the ''Wehrmacht'' rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able ] from the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment.{{sfn|Keegan|1997|pp=66–67}}
===Deadlock: 1942===
====European Theatre====
;Western and Central Europe
].]]
{{main articles|] and ]}}
In May, top Nazi leader ] was assassinated by Allied agents in ]. Hitler ordered severe reprisals. (''See ]'').


On 10 June, ], declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom.{{sfn|Overy|Wheatcroft|1999|p=207}} The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and ] fell to them on 14{{spaces}}June. Eight days later ]; it was divided into ] and ],{{sfn|Umbreit|1991|p=311}} and an unoccupied ] under the ], which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which ] on 3{{spaces}}July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany.{{sfn|Brown|2004|p=198}}
On August 19, British and Canadian forces launched the ] (codenamed Operation Jubilee) on the German occupied port of Dieppe, France. The attack was a disaster but provided critical information utilized later in ] and ].


The air ]{{sfn|Keegan|1997|p=}} began in early July with ].<ref name=Murray_BoB>{{harvnb|Murray|1983|loc=.}}</ref> The ] started in August but its failure to defeat ] forced the indefinite postponement of the ]. The German ] offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in ], but largely ended in May 1941{{sfn|Dear|Foot|2001|pp=108–109}} after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort.{{r|Murray_BoB}}
;Soviet winter and early spring offensives
{{main articles|], ], ], ] and ]}}
In the north, Soviets launched the ] ] to ] 1942, trapping a German force near ]. The Soviets also surrounded a German garrison in the ] which held out with air supply for four months (] until ]), and established themselves in front of Kholm, Velizh and Velikie Luki.


Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy ] against an over-extended ], using ]s against British shipping ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Goldstein|2004|p=35}}</ref> The British ] scored a significant victory on 27{{spaces}}May 1941 by ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Steury|1987|p=209}}; {{Harvnb|Zetterling|Tamelander|2009|p=282}}.</ref>
In the south, Soviet forces launched an offensive in May against the ], initiating a bloody 17 day battle around ] which resulted in the loss of over 200,000 Red Army personnel.


In November 1939, the United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended the ] to allow "]" purchases by the Allies.{{sfn|Overy|Wheatcroft|1999|pp=328–330}} In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the ] was ]. In September the United States further agreed to a ].{{sfn|Maingot|1994|p=52}} Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941.{{sfn|Cantril|1940|p=390}} In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an "]" and promoting ] programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it was ] by Germany.<ref name=ibiblio_1940>{{cite web |title=Major international events of 1940, with explanation |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/events/1940.html |publisher=Ibiblio.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525060313/https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/events/1940.html |archive-date=25 May 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany.<ref>{{cite web |author=Skinner Watson, Mark |title=Coordination With Britain |website=US Army in WWII – Chief of Staff: Prewar Plans and Operations |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Plans/USA-WD-Plans-12.html |access-date=13 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430001549/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Plans/USA-WD-Plans-12.html |archive-date=30 April 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>
;Axis summer offensive
{{main articles|], ] and ]}}
On ], the Axis began their summer offensive. German Army Group B planned to capture the city of Stalingrad which would secure the German left while Army Group A planned to capture the southern oil fields. In the ], fought in the late summer and fall of 1942, the Axis forces captured the oil fields.


At the end of September 1940, the ] formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the ]. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three.{{Sfn|Bilhartz|Elliott|2007|p=179}} The Axis expanded in November 1940 when ], ], and ] joined.{{Sfn|Dear|Foot|2001|p=877}} ] and ] later made major contributions to the Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture ].{{Sfn|Dear|Foot|2001|pp=745–746}}
;Stalingrad
].]]
{{main articles|], ] and ]}}
After bitter street fighting which lasted for a couple of months, the Germans captured 90% of Stalingrad by November. The Soviets, however, had been building up massive forces on the flanks of Stalingrad. They launched ] on ], with twin attacks that met at Kalach four days later and trapped the Sixth Army in Stalingrad. The Germans requested permission to attempt a break-out, which was refused by Hitler, who ordered Sixth Army to remain in Stalingrad where he promised they would be supplied by air until rescued. About the same time, the Soviets launched ] in a salient near the vicinity of Moscow. Its objective was to tie down Army Group Center and to prevent it from reinforcing Army Group South at Stalingrad.


====Mediterranean (1940–1941)====
In December German relief forces got within 50 kilometers (30 mi) of the trapped Sixth Army before they were turned back by the Soviets. By the end of the year, Sixth Army was in desperate condition, as the ''Luftwaffe'' was only able to supply about a sixth of the supplies needed.
{{Main|Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II}}


In early June 1940, the Italian '']'' ], a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy ] and made an ]. In October, ], but the attack was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes.{{sfn|Clogg|2002|p=118}} To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean.<ref>{{Harvnb|Evans|2008|pp=146, 152}}; {{Harvnb|US Army|1986|pp=}}</ref>
;Eastern North Africa
{{main|Second Battle of El Alamein}}


] of the ] advancing across the North African desert, April 1941]]
At the beginning of 1942, the Allied forces in North Africa were weakened by detachments to the Far East. Rommel once again attacked and recaptured ]. Then he defeated the Allies at the ], and captured Tobruk with several thousand prisoners and large quantities of supplies. Following up, he drove deep into Egypt but with overstretched forces.
In December 1940, British Empire forces began ] against Italian forces in Egypt and ].{{sfn|Jowett|2001|pp=9–10}} The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The ] also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after a ], and neutralising several more warships at the ].{{sfn|Jackson|2006|p=106}}


Italian defeats prompted Germany to ] to North Africa; at the end of March 1941, ]'s ] ] which drove back Commonwealth forces.{{sfn|Laurier|2001|pp=7–8}} In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and ].{{sfn|Murray|Millett|2001|pp=263–276}}
The ] took place in July 1942. Allied forces had retreated to the last defensible point before ] and the ]. The ''Afrika Korps'', however, had outrun its supplies, and the defenders stopped its thrusts. The ] occurred between ] and ]. Lieutenant-General ] was in command of the Commonwealth forces, now known as the ]. The Eighth Army took the offensive and was ultimately triumphant. After the German defeat at El Alamein, the Axis forces made a successful strategic withdrawal to ].


By late March 1941, ] and ] signed the ]; however, the Yugoslav government was ] by pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of both ] and ], commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month.{{sfn|Gilbert|1989|pages=174–175}} The airborne ] at the end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans.{{sfn|Gilbert|1989|pages=184–187}} Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the ], which continued until the end of the war.{{sfn|Gilbert|1989|pages=208, 575, 604}}
'''Western North Africa'''
]
{{main articles| ] and ]}}
] was launched on ], ] and aimed to gain control of ] and ] through simultaneous landings at ], ] and Algiers, followed a few days later with a landing at ], the gateway to Tunisia. It was hoped that the local forces of ] would put up no resistance and submit to the authority of ] General ]. In response, Hitler invaded and occupied Vichy France and Tunisia, but the German and Italian forces were caught in the pincers of a twin advance from Algeria and Libya. Rommel's victory against American forces at the ] could only hold off the inevitable.


In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces ] which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled ].{{sfn|Watson|2003|p=80}} Between June and July, British-led forces ], assisted by the ].<ref>{{Citation|last=Morrisey|first=Will|chapter=What Churchill and De Gaulle learned from the Great War|date=2019|pages=119–126|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-429-02764-2|doi=10.4324/9780429027642-6|title=Winston Churchill|s2cid=189257503}}</ref>
====Pacific Theatre====
'''Central and South West Pacific'''
]]]
]
{{main articles|], ] and ]}}


====Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941)====
On ], 1942, Roosevelt signed ], leading to the ] for the duration of the war.
{{Main|Eastern Front (World War II)}}
] animation map, 1939–1945 – Red: ] and the Soviet Union after 1941; Green: ] before 1941; Blue: ]]]


With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany, and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in ], the two powers signed the ] in April 1941.{{sfn|Garver|1988|p=114}} By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.{{sfn|Weinberg|2005|p=195}}
In April, the ], the first U.S. air raid on Tokyo, boosted morale in the U.S. and caused Japan to shift resources to homeland defence, but did little actual damage.


Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later.{{sfn|Murray|1983|p=}} On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that the Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of ], the ] and ].<ref name="GSWW4_26">{{Harvnb|Förster|1998|p=26}}.</ref> However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact.<ref name="GSWW4_38">{{Harvnb|Förster|1998|pp=38–42}}.</ref> In November 1940, ] to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Shirer|1990|pp=810–812}}
In early May, a Japanese naval invasion of ], ], was thwarted by Allied navies in the ]. This was both the first successful opposition to a Japanese attack and the first battle fought between aircraft carriers.


On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in ], with Germany accusing the Soviets of ]; they were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary.<ref name=Events1941>{{citation |last1=Klooz |first1=Marle |last2=Wiley |first2=Evelyn |others=Director: Humphrey, Richard A. |year=1944 |title=Events leading up to World War II – Chronological History |series=78th Congress, 2d Session – House Document N. 541 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=US Government Printing Office |at=pp. 267–312 () |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/events/ |access-date=9 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214113907/https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/events/ |archive-date=14 December 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> The primary targets of this surprise offensive{{sfn|Sella|1978|p=555}} were the ], Moscow and Ukraine, with the ] of ending the 1941 campaign near the ]—from the ] to the ]s. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate ], generate '']'' ("living space"){{sfn|Kershaw|2007|pp=66–69}} by ],{{sfn|Steinberg|1995}}<!--please, don't add "page needed" template: it is a journal article--> and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.{{sfn|Hauner|1978}}<!--please, don't add "page needed" template: it is a journal article-->
A month later, on ], American carrier-based dive-bombers sank four of Japan's best aircraft carriers in the ]. Historians mark this battle as a turning point and the end of Japanese expansion in the Pacific. Cryptography played an important part in the battle, as the United States had ] and knew the Japanese plan of attack.


Although the ] was preparing for strategic ]s before the war,{{sfn|Roberts|1995}}<!--please, don't add "page needed" template: it is a journal article--> ''Operation'' ''Barbarossa'' forced the ] to adopt ]. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel<!-- not a typo -->. By mid-August, however, the German ] decided to ] of a considerably depleted ], and to divert the ] to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad.{{sfn|Wilt|1981}}<!--please, don't add "page needed" template: it is a journal article--> The ] was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made possible further ] and industrially-developed Eastern Ukraine (the ]).{{sfn|Erickson|2003|pp=114–137}}
In July, a Japanese ] on Port Moresby was led along the rugged Kokoda Track. An outnumbered and untrained Australian battalion defeated the 5,000-strong Japanese force, the first land defeat of Japan in the war and one of the most significant victories in ].


] (]), 10 December 1942]]
On ], United States Marines began the ]. For the next six months, U.S. forces fought Japanese forces for control of the island. Meanwhile, several naval encounters raged in the nearby waters, including the ], ], ], and ].
The diversion of three-quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the ]{{sfn|Glantz|2001|p=9}} prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider its ].{{sfn|Farrell|1993}}<!--please, don't add "page needed" template: it is a journal article--> In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a ]{{sfn|Keeble|1990|p=29}} and in August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the ], which outlined British and American goals for the post-war world.{{sfn|Beevor|2012|p=220}} In late August the British and Soviets ] to secure the ], Iran's ], and preempt any Axis advances through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or India.{{sfn|Bueno de Mesquita|Smith|Siverson|Morrow|2003|p=425}}


By October, Axis powers had achieved ]s in Ukraine and the Baltic region, with only the sieges of ]{{sfn|Kleinfeld|1983}}<!--please, don't add "page needed" template: it is a journal article--> and ] continuing.{{sfn|Jukes|2001|p=113}} A major ] was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops<ref>{{Harvnb|Glantz|2001|p=26}}: "By 1 November had lost fully 20% of its committed strength (686,000 men), up to 2/3 of its ½&nbsp;million motor vehicles, and 65 percent of its tanks. The German Army High Command (OKH) rated its 136 divisions as equivalent to 83 full-strength divisions."</ref> were forced to suspend the offensive.{{sfn|Reinhardt|1992|p=227}} Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet ] was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The ''blitzkrieg'' ] of the war in Europe had ended.{{sfn|Milward|1964}}<!--please, don't add "page needed" template: it is a journal article-->
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 in the ].


By early December, freshly mobilised ]{{sfn|Rotundo|1986}}<!--please, don't add "page needed" template: it is a journal article--> allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops.{{sfn|Glantz|2001|p=26}} This, as well as ] which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese ],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Blood, Tears and Folly|last=Deighton|first=Len|publisher=Pimlico|year=1993|isbn=978-0-7126-6226-0|location=London|page=|url=https://archive.org/details/bloodtearsfollyo0000deig_v3m3}}</ref> allowed the Soviets to begin a ] that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops {{convert|100|-|250|km|mi}} west.<ref>{{Harvnb|Beevor|1998|pp=41–42}}; {{Harvnb|Evans|2008|pp=213–214}}, notes that "Zhukov had pushed the Germans back where they had launched Operation Typhoon two months before.&nbsp;... Only Stalin's decision to attack all along the front instead of concentrating his forces in an all-out assault against the retreating German Army Group Centre prevented the disaster from being even worse."</ref>
'''Sino-Japanese War'''
{{main article|Battle of Changsha (1942)}}
Japan launched a major offensive in China following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The aim of the offensive was to take the strategically important city of Changsha which the Japanese had failed to capture on two previous occasions. For the attack, the Japanese massed 120,000 soldiers under 4 divisions. The Chinese responded with 300,000 men, and soon the Japanese army was encircled and had to retreat.


===War turns: 1943=== ====War breaks out in the Pacific (1941)====
{{main|Pacific War}}
====European Theatre====
], 8 December 1941]]
'''German and Soviet spring offensives'''
{{main articles| ] and ]}}
After the surrender of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad on ], ], the ] launched eight offensives during the winter. Many were concentrated along the ] 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.


Following the Japanese ] ] in 1931, the Japanese shelling of the American ] in 1937, and the 1937–1938 ], ]. In 1939, the United States notified Japan that it would not be extending its trade treaty and American public opinion opposing Japanese expansionism led to a series of economic sanctions—the ]s—which banned U.S. exports of chemicals, minerals and military parts to Japan, and increased economic pressure on the Japanese regime.{{r|ibiblio_1940}}<ref>{{cite journal |year=1983 |title=Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy, 1931–1941 |journal=U.S. Department of State Publication |issue=1983 |pages=87–97 |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/paw/ |access-date=17 February 2022 |archive-date=14 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114073007/http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/paw/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceC">Maechling, Charles. ''Pearl Harbor: The First Energy War''. History Today. December 2000</ref> During 1939 Japan launched its ], but was repulsed by late September.{{sfn|Jowett|Andrew|2002|p=14}} Despite ] by both sides, by 1940 the war between China and Japan was at a stalemate. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded and ] in September 1940.{{sfn|Overy|Wheatcroft|1999|p=289}}
'''German summer offensive'''
{{main article| Battle of Kursk}}
]
On ], the Wehrmacht launched a much-delayed offensive against the Soviet Union at the ] salient. Their intentions were known by the Soviets, and they hastened to defend the salient with an enormous system of earthwork defenses. Both sides massed their armor for what became a decisive military engagement. The Germans attacked from both the north and south of the salient and hoped to meet in the middle, cutting off the salient and trapping 60 Soviet divisions. The German offensive was ground down as little progress was made through the Soviet defenses. The Soviets then brought up their reserves, and the largest tank battle of the war occurred near the city of Prokhorovka. The Germans had exhausted their armored forces and could not stop the Soviet counter-offensive that threw them back across their starting positions.


Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale ] in early 1940. In August, ] launched an ]; in retaliation, Japan instituted ] in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.{{sfn|Joes|2004|p=224}} Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces ], effectively ending their co-operation.{{sfn|Fairbank|Goldman|2006|p=320}} In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during ].{{sfn|Hsu|Chang|1971|p=30}} In September, Japan attempted to ] again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.{{sfn|Hsu|Chang|1971|p=33}}
'''Soviet fall and winter offensives'''
]
{{main articles| ], ], ], and ]}}
In August, Hitler agreed to a general withdrawal to the Dnieper line, and as September proceeded into October, the Germans found the Dnieper line impossible to hold as the Soviet bridgeheads grew. Important Dnieper towns started to fall, with Zaporozhye the first to go, followed by Dnepropetrovsk.


German successes in Europe prompted Japan to increase pressure on European governments in ]. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan with oil supplies from the ], but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941.<ref>{{cite web |title=Japanese Policy and Strategy 1931 – July 1941 |website=US Army in WWII – Strategy and Command: The First Two Years |pages=45–66 |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-Strategy/Strategy-2.html |access-date=15 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130106021700/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-Strategy/Strategy-2.html |archive-date=6 January 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo.{{sfn|Anderson|1975|p=201}}{{sfn|Evans|Peattie|2012|p=456}} At the same time, Japan was ], intending to take advantage of the German invasion in the west, but abandoned the operation after the sanctions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Coox|first1=Alvin|title=Nomonhan: Japan against Russia, 1939|date=1985|publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford, CA|pages=1046–1049|isbn=978-0-8047-1835-6}}</ref>
Early in November the Soviets broke out of their bridgeheads on either side of Kiev and recaptured the Ukrainian capital.


Since early 1941, the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the war in China. During these negotiations, Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate.<ref name=USAWWIIcp5>{{cite web |title=The decision for War |website=US Army in WWII – Strategy, and Command: The First Two Years |pages=113–127 |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-Strategy/Strategy-5.html |access-date=15 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525064812/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-Strategy/Strategy-5.html |archive-date=25 May 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> At the same time the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them.<ref name=USAWWIIcp4>{{cite web |title=The Showdown With Japan Aug–Dec 1941 |website=US Army in WWII – Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare |pages=63–96 |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic1/USA-WD-Strategic1-4.html |access-date=15 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109144920/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic1/USA-WD-Strategic1-4.html |archive-date=9 November 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Roosevelt reinforced ] (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the United States would react to Japanese attacks against any "neighboring countries".{{r|USAWWIIcp4}}
First Ukrainian Front attacked at Korosten on ]. The Soviet advance continued along the railway line until the 1939 Polish-Soviet border was reached.


] on the ] at ], Sunday 7 December 1941]]
'''Italy'''
Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American–British–Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. Emperor ], after initial hesitation about Japan's chances of victory,<ref>{{cite book|last = Bix | first = Herbert P.| author-link = Herbert P. Bix | date = 3 November 2016 | title = Hirohito and the making of modern Japan | publisher = HarperPerennial | isbn = 978-0-06-256051-3 | pages = 399–414}}</ref> began to favour Japan's entry into the war.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14496398 |journal=The Asahi Shimbun |first=Ryuichi |last=Kitano |title=Diary: Hirohito prepared for U.S. war before Pearl Harbor attack |date=6 December 2021 |access-date=8 June 2022 |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417192302/https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14496398 |url-status=live }}</ref> As a result, Prime Minister ] resigned.<ref>{{cite book | last = Fujiwara | first = Akira | date = 1991 | title = Shōwa tennō no jūgo-nen sensō | page = 126, citing Kenji Tomita's diary}}</ref><ref>Bix, ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', pp. 417–420</ref> Hirohito refused the recommendation to appoint ] in his place, choosing War Minister ] instead.<ref>Bix, ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', p. 418</ref> On 3 November, Nagano explained in detail the plan of the ] to the Emperor.<ref>{{cite book | last = Wetzler | first = Peter | date = 1998 | title = Hirohito and War: Imperial Tradition and Military Decision Making in Prewar Japan | publisher = University of Hawai'i Press | isbn = 978-0-8248-1925-5 | pages = 29, 35 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BWqEkwH1KRMC&pg=PA29 | access-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-date = 15 March 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240315182053/https://books.google.com/books?id=BWqEkwH1KRMC&pg=PA29 | url-status = live }}</ref> On 5 November, Hirohito approved in imperial conference the operations plan for the war.<ref>Bix, ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', p. 424</ref> On 20 November, the new government presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and for lifting the embargo on the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange, Japan promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw its forces from southern Indochina.{{r|USAWWIIcp5}} The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429222741/https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/pha/congress/app-d.html#363 |date=29 April 2013 }}. Investigation of the Pearl Harbor attack.</ref> That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force;<ref>{{Harvnb|Painter|2012|p=26}}: "The United States cut off oil exports to Japan in the summer of 1941, forcing Japanese leaders to choose between going to war to seize the oil fields of the Netherlands East Indies or giving in to U.S. pressure."</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Wood|2007|p=9}}, listing various military and diplomatic developments, observes that "the threat to Japan was not purely economic."</ref> the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.{{sfn|Lightbody|2004|p=125}}
{{main article|Italian Campaign (World War II)}}
The surrender of Axis forces in Tunisia on ], ] yielded some 250,000 prisoners. The North African war proved to be a disaster for Italy, and when the Allies invaded ] on ] in ], capturing the island in a little over a month, the regime of ] collapsed. On ], he was removed from office by the King of Italy, and arrested with the positive consent of the Great Fascist Council. A new government, led by ], took power but declared that Italy would stay in the war. Badoglio actually had begun secret peace negotiations with the Allies.


Japan planned to seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific. The Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|2005|p=310}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Dower|1986|p=5}}, calls attention to the fact that "the Allied struggle against Japan exposed the racist underpinnings of the European and American colonial structure. Japan did not invade independent countries in southern Asia. It invaded colonial outposts which the Westerners had dominated for generations, taking absolutely for granted their racial and cultural superiority over their Asian subjects." Dower goes on to note that, before the horrors of Japanese occupation made themselves felt, many Asians responded favourably to the victories of the Imperial Japanese forces.</ref> To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter, it was further planned to neutralise the ] and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset.{{sfn|Wood|2007|pp=11–12}} On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous ].{{sfn|Wohlstetter|1962|pp=341–343}} These included an ] and ], as well as invasions of ], ], ],{{sfn|Wohlstetter|1962|pp=341–343}} ], and ].<ref>] (1989) ''The Second World War''. New York: Viking. pp. 256–257. {{isbn|978-0399504341}}</ref>
The Allies ] on ], ]. Italy surrendered to the Allies on ], as had been agreed in negotiations. The royal family and Badoglio government escaped to the south, leaving the Italian army without orders, while the Germans took over the fight, forcing the Allies to a complete halt in the winter of 1943-44 at the ] south of ].


These attacks led the ], ], China, Australia, and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dunn|1998|p=157}}. According to {{Harvnb|May|1955|p=155}}, Churchill stated: "Russian declaration of war on Japan would be greatly to our advantage, provided, but only provided, that Russians are confident that will not impair their Western Front."</ref> Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States<ref>] in Wikisource.</ref> in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.{{r|Events1941}}<ref>{{citation |last1=Klooz |first1=Marle |last2=Wiley |first2=Evelyn |others=Director: Humphrey, Richard A. |year=1944 |title=Events leading up to World War II – Chronological History |series=78th Congress, 2d Session – House Document N. 541 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=US Government Printing Office |at=p. 310 () |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/events/ |access-date=9 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214113907/https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/events/ |archive-date=14 December 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>
In the north, the Nazis let Mussolini create what was effectively a ], the ] or "Republic of Salò", named after the new capital of ] on ].


====Axis advance stalls (1942–1943)====
Mid-1943 brought the fifth and final German ] against the Yugoslav ].
On 1 January 1942, the ]{{sfn|Bosworth|Maiolo|2015|pp=313–314}}—the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the ], thereby affirming the ]{{sfn|Mingst|Karns|2007|p=22}} and agreeing not to sign a ] with the Axis powers.{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=904}}


During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate ] to pursue. All agreed that ] was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward, ] on Germany through France. The Soviets demanded a second front. The British argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralisation, and bolstering resistance forces; Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour, without using large-scale armies.<ref>{{cite web |title=The First Full Dress Debate over Strategic Deployment. Dec 1941 – Jan 1942 |website=US Army in WWII – Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare |pages=97–119 |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic1/USA-WD-Strategic1-5.html |access-date=16 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109145033/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic1/USA-WD-Strategic1-5.html |archive-date=9 November 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Elimination of the Alternatives. Jul–Aug 1942 |website=US Army in WWII – Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare |pages=266–292 |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic1/USA-WD-Strategic1-12.html |access-date=16 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430013447/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic1/USA-WD-Strategic1-12.html |archive-date=30 April 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>
====Pacific Theatre====
'''Central and South West Pacific'''
] leading ], ], ] and ] into ], ], January 1945.]]
], called the Stalingrad of the East. China and Japan lost a combined total of 100,000 men in this battle.]]
{{main articles|] and ]}}
On ], Buna, New Guinea was ]. This ended the threat to Port Moresby. By ], ], the Allied forces had achieved their objective of isolating Japanese forces in eastern New Guinea and cutting off their main line of supply.


At the ] in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration and demanded the ] of their enemies. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes.<ref>{{cite web |title=Casablanca – Beginning of an Era: January 1943 |website=US Army in WWII – Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare |pages=18–42 |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic2/USA-WD-Strategic2-1.html |access-date=16 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525075310/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic2/USA-WD-Strategic2-1.html |archive-date=25 May 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland, and to invade France in 1944.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Trident Conference – New Patterns: May 1943 |website=US Army in WWII – Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare |pages=126–145 |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic2/USA-WD-Strategic2-6.html |access-date=16 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525100621/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-WD-Strategic2/USA-WD-Strategic2-6.html |archive-date=25 May 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>
American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure on February 9. Australian and U.S. forces undertook the prolonged campaign to retake the occupied parts of the ], 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.


=====Pacific (1942–1943)=====
In November, ] won the ]. This was the first heavily opposed amphibious assault in the Pacific theater. The high casualties taken by the Marines sparked off a storm of protest in the United States, where the large losses could not be understood for such a tiny and seemingly unimportant island.
]


By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally ] had almost conquered ], ], ], ], and ], inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners.{{sfn|Beevor|2012|pp=247–267, 345}} Despite stubborn ], the ] was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile.{{sfn|Lewis|1953|loc=p. 529 (Table 11)}} On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the ] and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division.{{sfn|Slim|1956|pp=71–74}} Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the ], ], and ],{{sfn|Grove|1995|p=362}} and ] at ], Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese ].{{sfn|Ch'i|1992|p=158}} These easy victories over the unprepared U.S. and European opponents left Japan overconfident, and overextended.{{sfn|Perez|1998|p=145}}
'''Sino-Japanese War'''
{{main article|Battle of Changde}}
A vigorous, fluctuating battle for Changde in China's Hunan province began on ], ]. The Japanese threw over 100,000 men into the attack on the city, which changed hands several times in a few days but ended up still held by the Chinese. Overall, the Chinese ground forces were compelled to fight a war of defense and attrition while they built up their armies and awaited an Allied counteroffensive.


In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to ] by ] and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when an Allied task force, centred on two American fleet carriers, fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in the ].{{sfn|Maddox|1992|pp=111–112}} Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier ], was to seize ] and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to ] in Alaska.{{sfn|Salecker|2001|p=186}} In mid-May, Japan started the ] in China, with the goal of inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided the surviving American airmen in the Doolittle Raid by destroying Chinese air bases and fighting against the Chinese 23rd and 32nd Army Groups.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoppa|2011|p=28}}.</ref><ref>, p. 19.</ref> In early June, Japan put its operations into action, but the Americans had broken ] in late May and were fully aware of the plans and order of battle, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive ] over the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Ropp|2000|p=368}}.</ref>
'''South East Asia'''
{{main article|Burma Campaign}}
The Nationalist ] Army, under ], and the ] Chinese Army, under ], 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 and its auxiliary ] had captured most of ], severing the ] by which the Western Allies had been supplying the Chinese Nationalists. This forced the Allies to create a large sustained airlift, known as "flying ]". ] Chinese divisions, a British division and a few thousand U.S. ground troops cleared the Japanese forces from northern Burma so that the ] could be built to replace the Burma Road.


With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan attempted to capture ] by an ] in the ].{{sfn|Weinberg|2005|p=339}} The Americans planned a counterattack against Japanese positions in the southern ], primarily ], as a first step towards capturing ], the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Adrian |year=2003 |title=The Encyclopedia of Warfare: From Earliest Times to the Present Day |publisher=Globe Pequot |isbn=978-1-59228-027-8 |page= |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwa0000gilb/page/259 |access-date=26 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719123035/https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwa0000gilb/page/259 |archive-date=19 July 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
===Beginning of end: 1944===
====European Theatre====
'''Soviet winter and spring offensives'''
]
] Gunners during the ] ]]
{{main articles| ], ], ], ] and ]}}
In the north, a Soviet offensive in January 1944 had relieved the ]. The Germans conducted an orderly retreat from the Leningrad area to a shorter line based on the lakes to the south.


Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, ] took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the ], where they faced Australian and United States troops in the ].{{sfn|Swain|2001|p=197}} Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and ].{{sfn|Hane|2001|p=340}} In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first was a disastrous ] in late 1942 that forced a retreat back to India by May 1943.{{sfn|Marston|2005|p=111}} The second was the ] behind Japanese frontlines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.{{sfn|Brayley|2002|p=9}}
In the south, in March, two Soviet fronts encircled ''Generaloberst'' ]'s ] north of the ] river. The Germans escaped the pocket in April, saving most of their men but losing their heavy equipment.


=====Eastern Front (1942–1943)=====
In early May, the Red Army's 3rd Ukrainian Front engaged German Seventeenth Army of Army Group South which had been left behind after the German retreat from the Ukraine. The battle was a complete victory for the Red Army, and a botched evacuation effort across the Black Sea led to over 250,000 German and Romanian casualties.
] soldiers on the counterattack during the ], February 1943]]


Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in ] and ], keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year.{{sfn|Glantz|2001|p=31}} In May, the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the ] and at ],{{sfn|Read|2004|p=764}} and then in June 1942 launched their main ] against southern Russia, to seize the ] and occupy the ] ], while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split ] into two groups: ] advanced to the lower ] and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while ] headed towards the ]. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.{{sfn|Davies|2006|loc=p. 100 (2008 ed.)}}
During April 1944, a series of attacks by the Red Army near the city of Iaşi, Romania aimed at capturing the strategically important sector. The German-Romanian forces successfully defended the sector throughout the month of April. The attack at Târgul Frumos was the final attempt by the Red Army to achieve its goal of having a spring-board into Romania for a summer offensive.


By mid-November, the Germans had ] in bitter ]. The Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an ],{{sfn|Beevor|1998|pp=239–265}} and an assault on the ], though the latter failed disastrously.{{sfn|Black|2003|p=119}} By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been defeated,{{sfn|Beevor|1998|pp=383–391}} and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another ], creating a ] in their front line around the Soviet city of ].{{sfn|Erickson|2001|p=142}}
With Soviet forces approaching, German troops occupied Hungary on ]. Hitler thought that Hungarian leader Admiral ] might no longer be a reliable ally.


=====Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–1943)=====
Finland sought a separate peace with Stalin in February 1944, but the terms offered were unacceptable. On ], the Soviet Union began the ] on the ] that, after three months, would force Finland to accept an armistice.
] ] bombing raid on the Focke-Wulf factory in Germany, 9 October 1943]]


Exploiting poor American naval command decisions, ].{{sfn|Milner|1990|p=52}} By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive in North Africa, ], and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made.{{sfn|Beevor|2012|pp=224–228}} The Germans also launched a North African offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the ] by early February,{{sfn|Molinari|2007|p=91}} followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives.{{sfn|Mitcham|2007|p=31}} Concerns that the Japanese might use bases in ] caused the British to ] in early May 1942.{{sfn|Beevor|2012|pp=380–381}} An Axis ] forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were ].{{sfn|Rich|1992|p=178}} On the Continent, raids of Allied ]s on strategic targets, culminating in the failed ],{{sfn|Gordon|2004|p=129}} demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.{{sfn|Neillands|2005|p=60}}
'''Italy and the Balkans'''
] ]]
{{main articles| ], ]}}
During the winter the Allies tried to force the Gustav line on the southern ] of Italy, but they could not break enemy lines until the landing of ] on ], ], on the southern coast of ]. This was named ].


In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a ]{{sfn|Keegan|1997|p=277}} and, at a high cost, managed to ].{{sfn|Smith|2002}} A few months later, the Allies ] in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya.{{sfn|Thomas|Andrew|1998|p=8}} This attack was followed up shortly after by ], which resulted in the region joining the Allies.{{sfn|Ross|1997|p=38}} Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the ];{{sfn|Ross|1997|p=38}} although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to ] to prevent its capture by German forces.{{sfn|Ross|1997|p=38}}{{sfn|Bonner|Bonner|2001|p=24}} Axis forces in Africa withdrew into ], which was ] in May 1943.{{sfn|Ross|1997|p=38}}{{sfn|Collier|2003|p=11}}
The road to Rome was blocked by the Gustav line, and the Germans made their stand at ], the historic Abbey founded in ] by ]. On ] the Monastery high on a peak overlooking the town of ] was saturated with bombs from American B17 bombers, and crack German paratroopers poured into the ruins to defend it. From ] to ], it was assaulted four times by Allied troops, for a loss of over 54,000 Allied and 20,000 German soldiers.


In June 1943, the British and Americans began ] against Germany with a goal to disrupt the war economy, reduce morale, and "]" the civilian population.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105044932/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSBS/ETO-Summary.html#tc |date=5 November 2013 }} the United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report (European War)</ref> The ] was among the first attacks in this campaign, inflicting significant casualties and considerable losses on infrastructure of this important industrial centre.{{sfn|Overy|1995|pp=119–120}}
Only after some months, the Gustav line was broken and the Allies marched towards the north of the peninsula. On ], ] fell to Allies, and the Allied army reached ] in August. They then stopped along the ] on the Tuscan Apennines during the winter.


====Allies gain momentum (1943–1944)====
Germany withdrew from the ] and held ] until February 1945.
] ] ] flying patrol over {{USS|Washington|BB-56|6}} and {{USS|Lexington|CV-16|6}} during the ], 1943]]


After the Guadalcanal campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and U.S. forces were sent to ].{{sfn|Thompson|Randall|2008|p=164}} Soon after, the United States, with support from Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islander forces, began major ground, sea and air operations to ], and ].{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=610}} By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives and had also ] in the ]. In April, the Allies launched an operation to ].{{sfn|Rottman|2002|p=228}}
] turned against Germany in August 1944, and ] surrendered in September.


In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in ]. On 5 July 1943, Germany ]. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' well-constructed defences,<ref>{{Harvnb|Glantz|1986}}; {{Harvnb|Glantz|1989|pp=149–159}}.</ref> and for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled an operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success.{{sfn|Kershaw|2001|p=592}} This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' ] launched on 9 July, which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ] later that month.{{sfn|O'Reilly|2001|p=32}}
'''Soviet summer offensive'''
{{main article| Operation Bagration}}
Operation Bagration, a Soviet offensive involving 2.5 million men and 6,000 tanks, was launched on ]. Its objective was to clear German troops from Belarus. The subsequent battle resulted in the destruction of German Army Group Centre and over 800,000 German casualties, the greatest defeat for the Wehrmacht during the war. The Soviets swept forward, reaching the outskirts of Warsaw on ].


On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own ], thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority,{{sfn|Bellamy|2007|p=595}} giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front.{{sfn|O'Reilly|2001|p=35}}{{sfn|Healy|1992|p=90}} The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified ], but the Soviets broke through it at ] and the ].{{sfn|Glantz|2001|pp=50–55}}
'''Soviet fall and winter offensives'''
{{main articles| ], ], ], ], ] and ]}}
]ers greet the ] liberating the city on ], ]. ]]
After the destruction of Army Group Center, the Soviets attacked German forces in the south in mid-July 1944, and in a month's time they cleared the Ukraine of German presence.


On 3 September 1943, the Western Allies ], following ] and the ensuing German occupation of Italy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kolko|1990|p=45}}</ref> Germany, with the help of fascists, responded to the armistice by ] that were in many places without superior orders, seizing military control of Italian areas,{{sfn|Mazower|2008|p=362}} and creating a series of defensive lines.{{sfn|Hart|Hart|Hughes|2000|p=151}} German special forces then ], who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy named the ],{{sfn|Blinkhorn|2006|p=52}} causing an ]. The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the ] in mid-November.{{sfn|Read|Fisher|2002|p=129}}
The Red Army's 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts engaged German Heeresgruppe Südukraine, which consisted of German and Romanian formations, in an operation to occupy Romania and destroy the German formations in the sector. The result of the battle was complete victory for the Red Army and a switch of Romania from the Axis to the Allied camp.


] troops in a counter-offensive on German positions at the ], July 1943]]
In October 1944, General der Artillerie Maximilian Fretter-Pico's Sixth Army encircled and destroyed three corps of Marshal Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky's Group Pliyev near Debrecen, Hungary. This was to be the last German victory in the Eastern front.


German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By ], the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign.<ref>{{Harvnb|Padfield|1998|pp=335–336}}.</ref> In November 1943, ] and Winston Churchill met with ] ] and then with Joseph Stalin ].<ref name="Kolko 1990 211,235,267_268">{{Harvnb|Kolko|1990|pp=211, 235, 267–268}}.</ref> The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory<ref name="Iriye 1981 154">{{Harvnb|Iriye|1981|p=154}}.</ref> and the military planning for the ],{{sfn|Mitter|2014|p=286}} while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.<ref name="polley148">{{Harvnb|Polley|2000|p=148}}.</ref>
The Red Army's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Baltic Fronts engaged German Army Group Centre and Army Group North to capture the Baltic region from the Germans. The result of the series of battles was a permanent loss of contact between Army Groups North and Centre, and the creation of the Courland Pocket in Latvia.


From November 1943, during the seven-week ], the Chinese awaited allied relief as they forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition.<ref name="Beevor 2012 268_274">{{Harvnb|Beevor|2012|pp=268–274}}.</ref><ref name=H161>{{Harvnb|Ch'i|1992|p=161}}.</ref><ref name="Hsu Chang 412-416">{{Harvnb|Hsu|Chang|1971|pp=412–416, Map 38}}</ref> In January 1944, the Allies launched a ] and tried to outflank it with ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|2005|pp=660–661}}.</ref>
From ], ] to ], ], Soviet forces laid siege to Budapest, which was defended by German Waffen-SS and Hungarian forces. It was one of the bloodiest sieges of the war.


On 27 January 1944, ] troops launched ] that expelled German forces from the ], thereby ending the ].<ref name="Glantz 2002 327_366">{{Harvnb|Glantz|2002|pp=327–366}}.</ref> The ] was ] by the German ] aided by ] hoping to ]. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the ] region.<ref name="Glantz 2002 367_414">{{Harvnb|Glantz|2002|pp=367–414}}.</ref> By late May 1944, the Soviets had ], ], and made ], which were repulsed by the Axis troops.<ref name="Chubarov 2001 122">{{Harvnb|Chubarov|2001|p=122}}.</ref> The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, Rome was captured on 4 June.<ref>{{Harvnb|Holland|2008|pp=169–184}}; {{Harvnb|Beevor|2012|pp=568–573}}.<br />The weeks after the fall of Rome saw a dramatic upswing in German atrocities in Italy ({{Harvnb|Mazower|2008|pp=500–502}}). The period featured massacres with victims in the hundreds at ] ({{Harvnb|de Grazia|Paggi|1991}}; {{Harvnb|Belco|2010}}), ] ({{Harvnb|Portelli|2003}}), and ] ({{Harvnb|Gordon|2012|pp=10–11}}), and is capped with the ].</ref>
'''Warsaw Uprising'''
{{main article|Warsaw Uprising}}
The proximity of the Red Army led the Poles in Warsaw to believe they would soon be liberated. On ], they revolted as part of the wider ]. Nearly 40,000 Polish resistance fighters seized control of the city. The Soviets, however, stopped outside the city and gave the Poles no assistance as German army units moved into the city to put down the revolt. The resistance ended on ]. German units then destroyed most of what was left of the city.


The Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, ],<ref name="Lightbody 2004 224">{{Harvnb|Lightbody|2004|p=224}}.</ref> and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at ] and ].<ref name="Zeiler">{{Harvnb|Zeiler|2004|p=60}}.</ref> In May 1944, British and Indian forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma by July,<ref name="Zeiler" /> and Chinese forces that had ] in late 1943 ] in ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Beevor|2012|pp=555–560}}.</ref> The ] of China aimed to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ch'i|1992|p=163}}.</ref> By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of ] and begun a ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Coble|2003|p=85}}.</ref>
'''Allied invasion of Western Europe'''
] on ], 6 June 1944.]]
{{main articles| ] and ]}}
On "]" (], ]), the western Allies of mainly ], ] and ] ].<ref name="war5">]</ref> German resistance was stubborn, especially in and around the city of ]. During the first month, the Allies measured progress in hundreds of yards and bloody rifle fights in the '']''. An Allied breakout was effected at ], and German forces were almost completely destroyed in the ] when they mounted a counter-attack. Allied forces stationed in Italy ] the ] on ] and linked up with forces from Normandy. The clandestine ] in ] rose against the Germans on ], and a French division under ], pressing forward from Normandy, received the surrender of the German forces there and liberated the city on ].


====Allies close in (1944)====
'''Allied fall offensive'''
] during the ] on ], 6 June 1944]]
] ]]
{{main articles| ] and ]}}
Allied paratroopers attempted a fast advance into the Netherlands with ] in September, but they 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 ] in the ] secured the entrance to the port of ], which freed it to receive supplies by late November 1944. Meanwhile, the Americans launched a major attack through the Hurtgen Forest in September but the Germans despite having smaller numbers were able to delay the stronger American force thanks to the difficult terrain and good defensive positions.


On 6 June 1944 (commonly known as ]), after three years of Soviet pressure,<ref name=rees406>{{Harvnb|Rees|2008|pp=406–407}}: "Stalin always believed that Britain and America were delaying the second front so that the Soviet Union would bear the brunt of the war."</ref> the Western Allies ]. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also ].<ref name="Weinberg 2005 695">{{Harvnb|Weinberg|2005|p=695}}.</ref> These landings were successful and led to the defeat of the ]. ] was ] on 25 August by the ] assisted by the ], both led by General ],<ref>{{Harvnb|Badsey|1990|p=91}}.</ref> and the Western Allies continued to ] in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by ] in the Netherlands failed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dear|Foot|2001|p=562}}.</ref> After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but ]. In Italy, the Allied advance slowed due to the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Forrest|Evans|Gibbons|2012|p=191}}</ref>
'''German winter offensive'''
{{main article| Battle of the Bulge}}
] (left), ] (center) and ] at ] shortly after the ] ]]
In December 1944, the German Army made its last major offensive in the West, known as the ]. Hitler sought to drive a wedge between the western Allies and cause them to agree to a favourable armistice, after which Germany could concentrate all her efforts on the Eastern front and have a chance to defeat the Soviets. The mission was doomed to failure since the Allies had no intention of granting an armistice under any conditions. At first, the Germans scored successes against the unprepared Allied forces. Poor weather during the initial days of the offensive favoured the Germans because Allied aircraft was grounded. However, clearing skies soon allowed Allied air supremacy to resume, and with the German failure to capture ] and the arrival of the ], the Germans were forced to retreat back into Germany. The offensive was defeated, but it became the bloodiest battle in U.S. military history.


On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus ("]") that nearly destroyed the German ].<ref name="Zaloga 1996 7">{{Harvnb|Zaloga|1996|p=7}}: "It was the most calamitous defeat of all the German armed forces in World War II."</ref> Soon after that, ] forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviets formed the ] to control territory in Poland and combat the Polish ]; the Soviet Red Army remained in the ] district on the other side of the ] and watched passively as the Germans quelled the ] initiated by the Armia Krajowa.<ref>{{Harvnb|Berend|1996|p=8}}.</ref> The ] in ] was also quelled by the Germans.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mzv.sk/documents/10182/2369491/BROZURA_70_VYROCIE_SNP_indd.pdf/007d0f33-4aa1-4e3a-95ae-5ef5096360d3|title=Slovak National Uprising 1944|publisher=Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic|work=Museum of the Slovak National Uprising|access-date=27 April 2020|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519024459/https://www.mzv.sk/documents/10182/2369491/BROZURA_70_VYROCIE_SNP_indd.pdf/007d0f33-4aa1-4e3a-95ae-5ef5096360d3|url-status=live}}</ref> The Soviet ]'s ] cut off and destroyed the ] and triggered ] and ], followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.<ref name="countrystudies.us">{{cite web|url=https://countrystudies.us/romania/23.htm|title=Armistice Negotiations and Soviet Occupation|publisher=US Library of Congress|access-date=14 November 2009|quote=The coup speeded the Red Army's advance, and the Soviet Union later awarded Michael the Order of Victory for his courage in overthrowing Antonescu and putting an end to Romania's war against the Allies. Western historians uniformly point out that the Communists played only a supporting role in the coup; postwar Romanian historians, however, ascribe to the Communists the decisive role in Antonescu's overthrow|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430001849/https://countrystudies.us/romania/23.htm|archive-date=30 April 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>
====Pacific Theatre====
'''Central and South West Pacific'''
]
{{main articles| ], ] and ]}}
The American advance continued in the southwest Pacific with the capture of the ] before the end of February. 42,000 ] soldiers and ] landed on Kwajalein atoll on ]. ] occurred, and the island was taken on ]. U.S. Marines next defeated the Japanese in the ].


] ] returns to the ] during the ], 20 October 1944]]
The main objective was the ], especially ] and to a lesser extent, ]. The Japanese in both places were strongly entrenched. On ], Saipan was bombarded from the sea and a landing was made four days later; it was captured by ]. The Japanese committed much of their declining naval strength in the ] but suffered severe losses in both ships and aircraft. After the battle, the Japanese aircraft carrier force was no longer militarily effective. With the capture of Saipan, Japan was finally within range of B-29 bombers.


In September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into ] and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups ] and ] in ], ] and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off.<ref name="Evans 2008 653">{{Harvnb|Evans|2008|p=653}}.</ref> By this point, the communist-led ] under Marshal ], who had led an ] against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern ], the Soviet ], with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint ] on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a ] against ] Hungary that lasted until ] in February 1945.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wiest|Barbier|2002|pp=65–66}}.</ref> Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, ] to the ] in the ] denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a ] on relatively mild conditions,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wiktor|first=Christian L|title=Multilateral Treaty Calendar – 1648–1995|publisher=Kluwer Law International|year=1998|isbn=978-90-411-0584-4|page=426}}</ref> although Finland was forced to ].{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=1085}}
Guam was invaded on ] and taken on ], but the Japanese fought fanatically. Mopping up operations continued long after the ] was officially over. The island of ] was invaded on ] and was conquered on ]. This was the first use of ] in the war.{{fact}}


By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in ], pushing the Japanese back to the ]<ref name="Marston 2005 120">{{Harvnb|Marston|2005|p=120}}.</ref> while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In September 1944, Chinese forces ] and reopened the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.china1931.cn/China/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID%3D7648 |script-title=zh:全面抗战,战犯前仆后继见阎王 |trans-title=The war criminals tries to be the first to see their ancestors<!-- in source --> |language=zh |access-date=16 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303224203/https://www.china1931.cn/China/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=7648 |archive-date=3 March 2016 }}</ref> In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally ] in mid-June and the city of ] by early August.<ref>{{Harvnb|Jowett|Andrew|2002|p=8}}.</ref> Soon after, they invaded the province of ], winning major engagements against Chinese forces at ] by the end of November<ref>{{Harvnb|Howard|2004|p=140}}.</ref> and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.<ref name="Drea 2003 54">{{Harvnb|Drea|2003|p=54}}.</ref>
General MacArthur's troops invaded the Philippines, landing on the island of ] on ]. The Japanese had prepared a rigorous defense and used the last of their naval forces in an attempt to destroy the invasion force in the ], ] through ], ], arguably the largest naval battle in history. This was the first battle that had ] attacks.


In the Pacific, U.S. forces continued to push back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began their ] and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the ]. These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister, ], and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces ]; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in the ], one of the largest naval battles in history.<ref>{{Harvnb|Cook|Bewes|1997|p=305}}.</ref>
Throughout 1944, American submarines and aircraft attacked Japanese merchant shipping and deprived 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. In 1944, submarines sank three million tons of cargo, while the Japanese were only able to replace less than one million tons.{{fact}}


====Axis collapse and Allied victory (1944–1945)====
'''Sino-Japanese War'''
] held in February 1945, with ], ], and ]]]
]
{{main articles| ], ] and ]}}
In April 1944, the Japanese launched Operation Ichigo. The aim was to secure the railway route across Japanese occupied territories of northeast China, Korea, and South East Asia, and to destroy airbases in the area which serviced ] (USAAF) aircraft. In June 1944, the Japanese deployed 360,000 troops to invade Changsha for the fourth time. The operation involved more Japanese troops than any other campaign in the Sino-Japanese war, and after 47 days of bitter fighting, the city was taken, but at a very high cost. By November, the Japanese had taken the cities of Guilin and Liuzhou which served as USAAF airbases from which it conducted bombing raids on Japan. However, despite having destroyed the airbases in this region, the USAAF could still strike at the Japanese main islands from newly acquired bases in the Pacific. By December, the Japanese forces reached French Indochina and achieved the purpose of the operation, but only after incurring heavy losses.


On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt to split the Allies on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch ] and ], hoping to encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and prompt a political settlement after capturing their primary supply port at ]. By 16 January 1945, this offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled.<ref name="parkerxiii">{{Harvnb|Parker|2004|pp=xiii–xiv, 6–8, 68–70, 329–330}}</ref> In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Red Army attacked in Poland, ] river in Germany, and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Glantz|2001|p=85}}.</ref> On 4 February Soviet, British, and U.S. leaders met for the ]. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.<ref>{{Harvnb|Beevor|2012|pp=709–722}}.</ref>
'''South East Asia'''
{{main articles| ] and ]}}
In March 1944, the Japanese began their "march to Delhi" by crossing the border from Burma into India. On ], they attacked the town of Imphal which involved some of the most ferocious fighting of the war. The Japanese soon ran out of supplies and withdrew resulting in a loss of 85,000 men, one of the largest Japanese defeats of the war. The Anglo-Indian forces were constantly re-supplied by the RAF.


In February, the Soviets ] and ], while the ] and closed to the ] river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine ] and ] of the ], ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Buchanan|2006|p=21}}.</ref> In early March, in an attempt to protect its last oil reserves in Hungary and retake Budapest, Germany launched ] against Soviet troops near ]. Within two weeks, the offensive had been repulsed, the Soviets advanced to ], and captured the city. In early April, Soviet troops ], while the Western Allies finally ] and swept across western Germany capturing ] and ]. ] on 25 April, leaving unoccupied pockets in southern Germany and around Berlin.
===End of war: 1945===
====European Theatre====
'''Soviet winter offensive'''
]
{{main articles| ] and ]}}
On ], the Red Army was ready for its next big offensive. ]'s armies attacked the Germans in southern Poland and expanded out from their Vistula River bridgehead near Sandomierz. On ], ]'s armies attacked from the Narew River north of Warsaw. They broke the defences covering ]. Zhukov's armies in the centre attacked from their bridgeheads near Warsaw. The German front was now in shambles.


Soviet troops ] in late April.{{sfn|Kershaw|2001|pp=793–829}} In Italy, ] on 29 April, while the ] capitulated two days later. On 30 April, the ] was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany.<ref name="Shepardson 1998">{{Harvnb|Shepardson|1998}}</ref>
On ], Zhukov took Warsaw. On ], his tanks took ]. That same day, Konev's forces reached the German pre-war border. At the end of the first week of the offensive, the Soviets had penetrated 160 kilometers (100 mi) deep on a front that was 650 kilometers (400 mi) wide. By ], the Soviets took Budapest. The Soviet onslaught finally halted on the ] at the end of January, only 60 kilometers (40 mi) from Berlin.


Major changes in leadership occurred on both sides during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by his vice president, ]. Benito Mussolini ] by ] on 28 April.<ref name="O'Reilly 2001 244">{{Harvnb|O'Reilly|2001|p=244}}.</ref> On 30 April, ] in his ], and was succeeded by ] ] (as ]) and ] (as ]); Goebbels also committed suicide on the following day and was replaced by ], in what would later be known as the ]. ] in Europe was signed ], to be effective by the end of ].<ref name="Evans 2008 737">{{Harvnb|Evans|2008|p=737}}.</ref> German Army Group Centre ] until 11 May.<ref name="Glantz 1998 34">{{Harvnb|Glantz|1998|p=24}}.</ref> On 23 May all remaining members of the German government were arrested by the Allied Forces in ], while on 5 June all German political and military institutions were transferred under the control of the Allies through the ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Selby |first1=Scott A. |title=The Axmann Conspiracy: The Nazi Plan for a Fourth Reich and How the U.S. Army Defeated It |date=28 July 2021 |page=8 |publisher=Scott Andrew Selby |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7SQ_EAAAQBAJ |access-date=4 March 2024 |language=en |archive-date=4 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240504072215/https://books.google.com/books?id=7SQ_EAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>
'''Allied Winter Offensive'''
On January 14th the XII Corps / 2nd British Army launched ] in order to clear the Roer Triangle, a German held salient between the rivers Maas and Roer south of Roermond. By January 27th the enemy was driven east of the Roer.


In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the ] advanced ], ] by the end of April 1945. They ] in January 1945 and ] in March. Fighting continued on Luzon, ], and other islands of the Philippines until the ].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chant|first=Christopher|year=1986|title=The Encyclopedia of Codenames of World War II|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|page=118|isbn=978-0-7102-0718-0}}</ref> Meanwhile, the ] launched ] of strategic cities in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale. A devastating ] was the deadliest conventional bombing raid in history.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2011/03/0309incendiary-bombs-kill-100000-tokyo/|title=March 9, 1945: Burning the Heart Out of the Enemy|last=Long|first=Tony|date=9 March 2011|magazine=Wired|publisher=Wired Magazine|access-date=22 June 2018|quote=1945: In the single deadliest air raid of World War II, 330 American B-29s rain incendiary bombs on Tokyo, touching off a firestorm that kills upwards of 100,000 people, burns a quarter of the city to the ground, and leaves a million homeless.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323180239/https://www.wired.com/2011/03/0309incendiary-bombs-kill-100000-tokyo/|archive-date=23 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
'''Yalta Conference'''
]
{{main article|Yalta Conference}}
Meanwhile, ], ], and ] made arrangements for post-war Europe at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Their meeting resulted in many important resolutions:
*An April meeting would be held to form the ];
*Poland would have free ]s (though in fact they were heavily rigged by Soviets);
*Soviet nationals were to be ];
*The Soviet Union was to attack Japan within three months of Germany's surrender.


] signs the ] on board {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}}, 2 September 1945]]
'''Soviet spring offensive'''
{{main articles|], ] and ]}}
]
The Red Army (including 78,556 soldiers of the ]) began its ] on ]. By now, the German Army was in full retreat, and Berlin had already been battered from preliminary air bombings.


In May 1945, Australian troops ], overrunning the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern ] in March, and the British pushed on to reach ] by 3 May.<ref name="Drea 2003 57">{{Harvnb|Drea|2003|p=57}}.</ref> Chinese forces started a counterattack in the ] that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking ] by March, and ] by the end of June.<ref>{{Harvnb|Jowett|Andrew|2002|p=6}}.</ref> At the same time, a naval blockade by ] was strangling Japan's economy and drastically reducing its ability to supply overseas forces.<ref name="results of german and american submarines">{{cite web|last=Poirier |first=Michel Thomas |title=Results of the German and American Submarine Campaigns of World War II |url=https://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/history/wwii-campaigns.html |publisher=U.S. Navy |date=20 October 1999 |access-date=13 April 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409052122/https://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/history/wwii-campaigns.html |archive-date=9 April 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zuberi |first1=Matin |title=Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki |journal=Strategic Analysis |date=August 2001 |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=623–662 |doi=10.1080/09700160108458986|s2cid=154800868 }}</ref>
By ], the three Soviet Army groups had completed the encirclement of the city. Hitler had sent the main German forces which were supposed to defend the city to the south. He believed that was the region where the Soviets would launch their spring offensive and not in Berlin. As a final resistance effort, Hitler called for civilians, including teenagers, to fight the oncoming Red Army in the '']'' militia. Those forces were augmented by the battered German remnants that had fought the Soviets in Seelow Heights. But even then the fighting was heavy, with house-to-house and hand-to-hand combat. The Soviets sustained 305,000 dead; the Germans sustained as many as 325,000, including civilians. Hitler and his staff moved into the ], a concrete bunker beneath the Chancellery, where on ] ], ], along with his bride, ].


On 11 July, Allied leaders ]. They ] about Germany,<ref name="Williams 2006 90">{{Harvnb|Williams|2006|p=90}}.</ref> and the American, British and Chinese governments reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of Japan, specifically stating that "]".<ref name="Miscamble 2007 201">{{Harvnb|Miscamble|2007|p=201}}.</ref> During this conference, the United Kingdom ], and ] replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.<ref name="Miscamble 2007 203_204">{{Harvnb|Miscamble|2007|pp=203–204}}.</ref>
'''Allied spring offensive'''
{{main article| Western Front (World War II)}}


The call for unconditional surrender was rejected by the Japanese government, which believed it would be capable of negotiating for more favourable surrender terms.<ref>Ward Wilson. "The Winning Weapon? Rethinking Nuclear Weapons in Light of Hiroshima". ''International Security'', Vol. 31, No. 4 (Spring 2007), pp. 162–179.</ref> In early August, the United States ] on the Japanese cities of ] and ]. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, ], ] and quickly defeated the ], which was the largest Japanese fighting force.<ref>{{Harvnb|Glantz|2005}}.</ref> These two events persuaded previously adamant Imperial Army leaders to accept surrender terms.<ref name="Pape 1993">{{Harvnb|Pape|1993}} " The principal cause of Japan's surrender was the ability of the United States to increase the military vulnerability of Japan's home islands, persuading Japanese leaders that defense of the homeland was highly unlikely to succeed. The key military factor causing this effect was the sea blockade, which crippled Japan's ability to produce and equip the forces necessary to execute its strategy. The most important factor accounting for the timing of surrender was the Soviet attack against Manchuria, largely because it persuaded previously adamant Army leaders that the homeland could not be defended.".</ref> The Red Army also captured the ] and the ]. On the night of 9–10 August 1945, Emperor ] announced his decision to accept the terms demanded by the Allies in the ].<ref>Bix, ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'' pp. 525–526</ref> On 15 August, the Emperor communicated this decision to the Japanese people through a speech broadcast on the radio (], literally "broadcast in the Emperor's voice").<ref>Bix ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', pp. 526–528</ref> On 15 August 1945, ], with the ] finally signed at ] on the deck of the American battleship {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}} on 2 September 1945, ending the war.<ref name="Beevor 2012 776">{{Harvnb|Beevor|2012|p=776}}.</ref>
The Allies resumed their advance into Germany once the Battle of the Bulge officially ended on January 27, 1945. The final obstacle to the Allies was the river ] which was crossed in late March 1945.

Once the Allies had crossed the Rhine, the British fanned out northeast towards Hamburg crossing the river ] and on towards Denmark and the ]. The U.S. Ninth Army went south as the northern pincer of the Ruhr encirclement and the U.S. First Army went north as the southern pincer of the Ruhr encirclement. On ], the encirclement was completed and the German Army Group B commanded by Field Marshal Walther Model was trapped in the Ruhr Pocket. 300,000 soldiers became ]. The Ninth and First U.S. armies then turned east. They halted their advance at the Elbe river where they met up with the Soviet forces in mid-April and helped them take Berlin.

'''Italy'''

Allied advances in the winter of 1944-45 up the Italian peninsula had been slow because of troop re-deployments to France. But by ], the ], which was composed of the ] and the ], broke through the ] and attacked the ] gradually enclosing the main German forces. ] was taken by the end of April. The U.S. 5th Army continued to move west and linked up with French units. The British 8th Army advanced towards ] and made contact with the Yugoslav partisans.

A few days before the surrender of German troops in Italy, Italian partisans intercepted a party of ]s trying to make their escape to Switzerland. Hiding underneath a pile of coats was Mussolini. The whole party, including Mussolini's mistress, ], was summarily shot on ], ]. Their bodies were taken to Milan and hung upside down on public display.

'''Germany surrenders'''
] (white horse) and ] at the Victory Parade in ] on ] ]. ]]
{{main articles|] and ]}}

Admiral ] became leader of the German government after the death of Hitler, but the German war effort quickly disintegrated. German forces in Berlin surrendered the city to the Soviet troops on ], ].

The German forces in Italy surrendered on ], ], at General Alexander's headquarters, and German forces in northern Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands surrendered on ]. The German High Command under Generaloberst ] surrendered unconditionally all remaining German forces on ] in ]. The western Allies celebrated "]" on ].

The Soviet Union celebrated "]" on ]. Some remnants of German Army Group Center continued resistance until ] or ] (See ]).

'''Potsdam'''
The last Allied conference of World War II was held at the suburb of Potsdam, outside Berlin, from ] to ]. During the ], agreements were reached between the Allies on policies for occupied Germany. An ultimatum was issued calling for the unconditional surrender of Japan.

====Pacific Theatre====
'''Central and South West Pacific'''
{{main articles|], ] and ]}}
],<!--Do not remove this copyright!--> by ] / ]]]

In January, the U.S. Sixth Army landed on Luzon, the main island of the Philippines. Manila was re-captured by March. U.S. capture of islands such as ] in February and ] (April through June) brought the Japanese homeland within easier range of naval and air attack. Amongst dozens of other cities, ], and about 90,000 people died from the initial attack. The dense living conditions around production centres and the wooden residential constructions contributed to the large loss of life. In addition, the ports and major waterways of Japan were extensively mined by air in ], which seriously disrupted the logistics of the island nation.

The last major offensive in the ] was the ] of mid-1945, which was aimed at further isolating the remaining Japanese forces in South East Asia and securing the release of Allied prisoners of war.

'''South East Asia'''
{{main articles|] and ]}}
] ] resulting from the ] over ] rises 18 km (60,000 ft) into the air from the ].]]
In ], from August to November 1944, the ] pursued the Japanese to the ] in Burma after their failed attack on India. The British Commonwealth, mainly Indian forces, launched a series of offensive operations back into Burma during late 1944 and the first half of 1945. On ], ], ], the capital city of Myanmar (Burma), was taken in ]. The planned amphibious assault on the western side of Malaya was cancelled after the dropping of the atomic bombs, and Japanese forces in South East Asia surrendered soon afterwards.

'''Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki'''
{{main article|Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki}}
The U.S. military and political chiefs had decided to use their new super-weapon to bring the war to a speedy end. The battle for Okinawa had shown that an invasion of the Japanese mainland (planned for November), seen as an Okinawa-type operation on a far larger scale, would result in more casualties than the United States had suffered so far in all theatres since the war began.

On ], ], the ] "'']''", piloted by Colonel ], dropped a ] named "]" on ], destroying the city. After the destruction of Hiroshima, the United States again called upon Japan to surrender. No response was made, and accordingly on ], the B-29 "]", piloted by Major ], dropped a second atomic bomb named "]" on ].

'''Soviet invasion of Manchuria'''

{{main article|Operation August Storm}}
On ], two days after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Soviet Union, having renounced its nonaggression pact with Japan, attacked the Japanese in Manchuria, fulfilling its Yalta pledge to attack the Japanese within three months after the ]. The attack was made by three Soviet army groups. In less than two weeks, the Japanese army in Manchuria consisting of over a million men had been destroyed by the Soviets. The Red Army moved into ] on ]. Korea was subsequently divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet and U.S. zones.

'''Japan Surrenders'''
{{main article|Victory over Japan Day}}
The American use of atomic weapons against Japan prompted ] to bypass the existing government and intervene to end the war. The entry of the Soviet Union into the war may have also played a part, but in his radio address to the nation, Emperor Hirohito did not mention it as a major reason for his country's surrender.

The ] on ], ] (]), signing the ] on ], ], aboard the ] anchored in ]. The Japanese troops in China formally surrendered to the Chinese on ], ]. This did not fully end the war, however, as Japan and the Soviet Union never signed a peace agreement. In the last days of the war, the Soviet Union occupied the southern ], an area claimed by the Soviets and still contested by Japan (see ]).


==Aftermath== ==Aftermath==
{{Main|Aftermath of World War II|Consequences of Nazism}}
] (in the French zone) is shown with stripes because it was not removed from Germany until 1947]]
], where the Allied forces prosecuted prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of ] for ]]]
'''Europe in ruins'''
{{main|Effects of World War II}}


The Allies established occupation administrations in ] and ], both initially divided between western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, respectively. However, their paths soon diverged. In Germany, the ] and ] controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union officially ended in 1949, with the respective zones becoming separate countries, ] and ].<ref name="Wettig 2008 96_100">{{Harvnb|Wettig|2008|pp=96–100}}.</ref> In Austria, however, occupation continued until 1955, when a joint settlement between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union permitted the reunification of Austria as a democratic state officially non-aligned with any political bloc (although in practice having better relations with the Western Allies). A ] program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in the ] and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.<ref name="Frei 2002 41_66">{{Harvnb|Frei|2002|pp=41–66}}.</ref>
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.


Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, ], ] and most of ] were taken over by Poland,<ref name="Eberhardt-2015">{{Cite journal|last=Eberhardt|first=Piotr|year=2015|title=The Oder-Neisse Line as Poland's western border: As postulated and made a reality|url=https://www.geographiapolonica.pl/article/item/9928.html|journal=Geographia Polonica|volume=88|issue=1|pages=77–105|access-date=3 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503111248/https://www.geographiapolonica.pl/article/item/9928.html|archive-date=3 May 2018|url-status=live|doi=10.7163/GPol.0007|doi-access=free}}</ref> and ] was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union, followed by the ] of the nine million Germans from these provinces,<ref name="Eberhardt-2006">{{Cite book|url=https://www.igipz.pan.pl/en/zpz/Political_migrations.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626151411/https://www.igipz.pan.pl/en/zpz/Political_migrations.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 June 2015|title=Political Migrations in Poland 1939–1948|last=Eberhardt|first=Piotr|publisher=Didactica|year=2006|isbn=978-1-5361-1035-7|location=Warsaw}}</ref><ref name="Eberhardt-2011">{{Cite book|url=https://rcin.org.pl/Content/15652/WA51_13607_r2011-nr12_Monografie.pdf|title=Political Migrations On Polish Territories (1939–1950)|last=Eberhardt|first=Piotr|publisher=Polish Academy of Sciences|year=2011|isbn=978-83-61590-46-0|location=Warsaw|access-date=3 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520220409/https://rcin.org.pl/Content/15652/WA51_13607_r2011-nr12_Monografie.pdf|archive-date=20 May 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> as well as three million Germans from the ] in Czechoslovakia. By the 1950s, one-fifth of West Germans were refugees from the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the ],<ref name="Eberhardt-2012">{{Cite journal|last=Eberhardt|first=Piotr|year=2012|title=The Curzon line as the eastern boundary of Poland. The origins and the political background|url=https://www.geographiapolonica.pl/article/item/7563.html|journal=Geographia Polonica|volume=85|issue=1|pages=5–21|access-date=3 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503111001/https://www.geographiapolonica.pl/article/item/7563.html|archive-date=3 May 2018|url-status=live|doi=10.7163/GPol.2012.1.1}}</ref> from which ];<ref name="Eberhardt-2011" /><ref name="stalinswars43">{{Harvnb|Roberts|2006|p=43}}.</ref> north-east Romania,<ref name="stalinswars55">{{Harvnb|Roberts|2006|p=55}}.</ref><ref name="shirer794">{{Harvnb|Shirer|1990|p=794}}.</ref> parts of eastern Finland,<ref name="ckpipe">{{Harvnb|Kennedy-Pipe|1995}}.</ref> and the ] were ].<ref name="Wettig 2008 20_21">{{Harvnb|Wettig|2008|pp=20–21}}.</ref><ref name="Senn 2007 ?">{{Harvnb|Senn|2007|p=?}}.</ref> Italy ], ] and some ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Italy since 1945 |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/Italy-since-1945 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=2 October 2023 |language=en |archive-date=5 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005052527/https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/Italy-since-1945 |url-status=live }}</ref>
'''British malaise'''
{{See also|British winter of 1946-1947}}
Britain, in great financial debt to America and exhausted by the war-effort, continued with rationing and other war conditions for many years afterwards, though the election of the Atlee government and wedding of Princess Elizabeth boosted morale, and lost her empire.


In an effort to maintain ],<ref name="Yoder 1997 39">{{Harvnb|Yoder|1997|p=39}}.</ref> the Allies formed the ],<ref>{{cite web |title=History of the UN |url=https://www.un.org/un70/en/content/history/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215170453/https://www.un.org/un70/en/content/history/index.html |archive-date=15 December 2021 |access-date=17 January 2022 |work=United Nations}}</ref> which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm |title=History of the UN |publisher=United Nations |access-date=25 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218221016/https://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm |archive-date=18 February 2010 }}</ref> and adopted the ] in 1948 as a common standard for all ].<ref name="Waltz 2002">{{Harvnb|Waltz|2002}}.<br />
'''Partitioning of Germany and Austria'''
The UDHR is viewable here {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703093353/https://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/|date=3 July 2017}}</ref> The ] that were the victors of the war—France, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States—became the ] of the UN's ].<ref name="The UN Security Council">{{Citation|title=The UN Security Council|url=https://www.unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/united-nations/the-un-security-council.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120620101548/https://www.unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/united-nations/the-un-security-council.html|access-date=15 May 2012|archive-date=20 June 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, ] the ] and the ] in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its ], the ], following the ] in 1991. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.<ref name="Kantowicz 2000 6">{{Harvnb|Kantowicz|2000|p=6}}.</ref>
{{main article| Allied Occupation Zones in Germany}}
Germany was partitioned into four zones of occupation. An ] was created to coordinate the zones. The original divide of Germany was between America, Soviet Union and Britain. Stalin agreed to give France a zone but it had to come from the American or British zones and not the Soviet zone. The American, British, and French zones joined in 1949 as the ] and the Soviet zone became the ].


] and creation of the ] ]]]
] was once again separated from Germany and it, too, was divided into four zones of occupation, which eventually reunited and became the Republic of Austria.
Besides Germany, the rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet ].<ref name="Trachtenberg 1999 33">{{Harvnb|Trachtenberg|1999|p=33}}.</ref> Most eastern and central European countries fell into ], which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, ],<ref name="Applebaum 2012">{{Harvnb|Applebaum|2012}}.</ref> ], ], ], ], ], and ]<ref name="Naimark 2010">{{Harvnb|Naimark|2010}}.</ref> became Soviet ]. Communist ] conducted a fully ], causing ].<ref name="Swain 1992">{{Harvnb|Swain|1992}}.</ref> A ] was put down with Anglo-American support and the country remained aligned with the West.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greek Civil War |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Greek-Civil-War |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |date=28 May 2023 |language=en |access-date=15 May 2023 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324172645/https://www.britannica.com/event/Greek-Civil-War |url-status=live }}</ref>


Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led ] and the Soviet-led ].<ref name="Borstelmann 2005 318">{{Harvnb|Borstelmann|2005|p=318}}.</ref> The long period of political tensions and military competition between them—the ]—would be accompanied by an unprecedented ] and number of ]s throughout the world.<ref>{{Harvnb|Leffler|Westad|2010}}.</ref>
'''Reparations'''
{{main article| Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union}}
Germany paid reparations to France, Britain and Russia, in the form of dismantled factories, forced labour, and shipments of coal. The U.S. settled for confiscating German patents and German owned property in the U.S., mainly subsidiaries of German companies.


In Asia, the United States led the ] and ] in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed ] and the ].<ref name="Weinberg 2005 911">{{Harvnb|Weinberg|2005|p=911}}.</ref> ], formerly ], was ] by the Soviet Union in the ] and the United States in the ] between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Stueck|2010|p=71}}.</ref>
In accordance with the ], payment of war reparations was assessed from the countries of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland.


In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed ] in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to ] in 1949.<ref name="Lynch 2010 12_13">{{Harvnb|Lynch|2010|pp=12–13}}.</ref> In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the ] and the ] marked the escalation of the ]. While European powers attempted to retain some or all of their ]s, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to ].<ref name="JMRoberts 1996 589">{{Harvnb|Roberts|1997|p=589}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Darwin|2007|pp=441–443, 464–68}}.</ref>
'''Morgenthau Plan'''
{{main article| Morgenthau Plan}}
The initial occupation plans proposed by the United States were harsh. The Morgenthau Plan of 1944 called for dividing Germany into two independent nations and stripping it of the industrial resources required for war. All heavy industry was to be dismantled or destroyed, and the main industrial areas (Upper ], ], ], and the German speaking parts of ]) were to be annexed.


The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The United States emerged much richer than any other nation, leading to a ], and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers, and it dominated the world economy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dear|Foot|2001|p=1006}}; {{Harvnb|Harrison|1998|pp=34–55}}.</ref> The Allied occupational authorities pursued a policy of ] from 1945 to 1948.<ref name="Balabkins 1964 207">{{Harvnb|Balabkins|1964|p=207}}.</ref> Due to international trade interdependencies, this policy led to an economic stagnation in Europe and delayed European recovery from the war for several years.<ref>{{Harvnb|Petrov|1967|p=263}}.</ref><ref name="Balabkins 1964 208,209">{{Harvnb|Balabkins|1964|pp=208–209}}.</ref>
While the Morgenthau Plan itself was never implemented per se, its general economic philosophy did end up greatly influencing events. Most notable were the toned-down offshoots, including the ], ] (April 1945 - July 1947), and the industrial plans for Germany.


At the ] in July 1944, the Allied nations drew up an economic framework for the post-war world. The agreement created the ] (IMF) and the ] (IBRD), which later became part of the ]. The ] lasted until 1973.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Bretton Woods Conference, 1944 |date=7 January 2008 |publisher=United States Department of State |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/98681.htm |access-date=18 April 2022 |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417233116/https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/98681.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Recovery began with the mid-1948 ], and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the U.S. ] economic aid (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused.<ref>{{Harvnb|DeLong|Eichengreen|1993|pp=190–191}}</ref><ref name="Balabkins 1964 212">{{Harvnb|Balabkins|1964|p=212}}.</ref> The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Wolf|1993|pp=29–30, 32}}</ref> Italy also experienced an ]<ref>{{Harvnb|Bull|Newell|2005|pp=20–21}}</ref> and the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Ritchie|1992|p=23}}.</ref> By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin,<ref>{{Harvnb|Minford|1993|p=117}}.</ref> and although receiving a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country,<!--twice as much as Germany for example--><ref>{{Harvnb|Schain|2001}}.</ref> it continued in relative economic decline for decades.<ref>{{Harvnb|Emadi-Coffin|2002|p=64}}.</ref> The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era,<ref name="Smith 1993 32">{{Harvnb|Smith|1993|p=32}}.</ref> having seized and transferred most of Germany's industrial plants and exacted ] from its satellite states.{{efn|Reparations were exacted from ], ], ], and ] using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. The USSR also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the ]."}}<ref>Mark Kramer, "The Soviet Bloc and the Cold War in Europe", in {{Cite book |editor-first=Klaus | editor-last=Larresm |url={{GBurl|id=EyNcCwAAQBAJ|pg=PT174}} |title=A Companion to Europe Since 1945 |publisher=Wiley |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-118-89024-0 |page=79}}</ref> Japan recovered much later.<ref>{{Harvnb|Neary|1992|p=49}}.</ref> China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.<ref>{{cite book|last=Genzberger|first=Christine|title=China Business: The Portable Encyclopedia for Doing Business with China|year=1994|publisher=World Trade Press|isbn=978-0-9631864-3-0|url=https://archive.org/details/chinabusinesspor0000genz/page/4|location=Petaluma, CA|page=}}</ref>
'''Marshall Plan'''
{{main article| Marshall Plan}}
Germany had long been the industrial giant of Europe, and its poverty held back the general European recovery. The continued scarcity in Germany also led to considerable expenses for the occupying powers, which were obligated to make up the most important shortfalls.


==Impact==
In view of the continued poverty and famine in Europe, and with the onset of the Cold War, a change of policy was required. The most notable example of this change was a plan established by U.S. Secretary of State ], the "European Recovery Program", better known as the Marshall Plan, which 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 ] was put into effect after the war.
{{Main|Historiography of World War II}}


===Casualties and war crimes===
'''Border revisions and population shifts'''
{{Main|World War II casualties}}
]]]
:''Main article: ]'' {{Further|War crimes in World War II}}
]
As a result of the new borders drawn by the victorious nations, large populations suddenly found themselves in hostile territory. The main benefactor of these border revisions was the Soviet Union, which expanded its borders at the expense of Germany, Finland, Poland, and Japan. Poland was compensated for its losses to the Soviet Union by receiving most of Germany east of the ], including the industrial regions of ]. The German state of the ] was ] of France but it later returned to German administration.


Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded.<ref>''Quick Reference Handbook Set, Basic Knowledge and Modern Technology'' (revised) by ], Ph.D 1984 p. 195 {{ISBN?}}</ref> Most suggest that some 60&nbsp;million people died in the war, including about ] and 40&nbsp;million civilians.<ref name="WWII: C&C">{{cite web|last=O'Brien |first=Joseph V |title=World War II: Combatants and Casualties (1937–1945) |url=https://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob62.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225004221/https://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob62.html |archive-date=25 December 2010 |work=Obee's History Page |publisher=John Jay College of Criminal Justice |access-date=28 December 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Matthew|last=White|title=Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm|url=https://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm#Second|work=Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century|publisher=Matthew White's Homepage|access-date=20 April 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307141223/https://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm#Second|archive-date=7 March 2011|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=World War II Fatalities|url=https://secondworldwar.co.uk/index.php/fatalities|publisher=secondworldwar.co.uk|access-date=20 April 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922185149/https://secondworldwar.co.uk/index.php/fatalities|archive-date=22 September 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>
The number of Germans expelled totaled roughly 15 million, including 11 million from Germany proper and 3.5 million from the ]. ] range from 0.5 million to 3 million.


The Soviet Union alone lost around 27&nbsp;million people during the war,<ref>{{Harvnb|Hosking|2006|p=}}</ref> including 8.7&nbsp;million military and 19&nbsp;million civilian deaths.<ref name="Ell&Mak 1994">{{Harvnb|Ellman|Maksudov|1994}}.</ref> A quarter of the total people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Smith|1994|p=204}}.</ref> Germany sustained 5.3&nbsp;million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.<ref name="Herf 2003">{{Harvnb|Herf|2003}}.</ref>
'''Cold War begins'''
{{main|Cold War}}


An estimated 11<ref>{{cite web|author=Florida Center for Instructional Technology|url=https://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/victims.htm|title=Victims|work=A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust|publisher=]|year=2005|access-date=2 February 2008|archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160516094229/https://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/victims.htm|archive-date=16 May 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> to 17&nbsp;million<ref name=Niewyk45>{{Harvnb|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|pp=45–52}}.</ref> civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Hitler's ], including ] of ], along with ], ], at least 1.9&nbsp;million ethnic ]<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/07/16/holocaust-the-ignored-reality/ |url-access=subscription |title=Holocaust: The Ignored Reality|first=Timothy|last=Snyder|journal=The New York Review of Books|access-date=27 August 2017|date=16 July 2009|volume=56 |issue=12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010063645/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/07/16/holocaust-the-ignored-reality/|archive-date=10 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005473|title=Polish Victims|website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|access-date=27 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507145904/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005473|archive-date=7 May 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> and ] (including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), and ].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/articles/2005/01/20/holocaust_memorial_other_victims_feature.shtml|title=Non-Jewish Holocaust Victims : The 5,000,000 others|work=]|date=April 2006|access-date=4 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303054845/https://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/articles/2005/01/20/holocaust_memorial_other_victims_feature.shtml|archive-date=3 March 2013|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Niewyk45 /> Between 1941 and 1945, more than 200,000 ethnic ], along with Roma and Jews, were ] by the Axis-aligned Croatian ] in ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Evans|2008|pp=158–160, 234–236}}.</ref> Concurrently, ] and ] were ] by Serb nationalist ],<ref>{{cite book|last=Redžić|first=Enver|title=Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War|year=2005|publisher=Tylor and Francis|location=New York|isbn=978-0-7146-5625-0|page=155|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pVCx3jerQmYC&pg=PA155|access-date=18 August 2021|archive-date=7 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307201309/https://books.google.com/books?id=pVCx3jerQmYC&pg=PA155|url-status=live}}</ref> with an estimated 50,000–68,000 victims (of which 41,000 were civilians).<ref name="Geiger">{{cite journal|first=Vladimir|last=Geiger|publisher=Croatian Institute of History|title=Human Losses of the Croats in World War II and the Immediate Post-War Period Caused by the Chetniks (Yugoslav Army in the Fatherand) and the Partisans (People's Liberation Army and the Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia/Yugoslav Army) and the Communist Authorities: Numerical Indicators |journal=Review of Croatian History |volume=VIII |issue=1 |date=2012 |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/103223?lang=en|page=117|access-date=25 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117064114/https://hrcak.srce.hr/103223?lang=en|archive-date=17 November 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Also, more than 100,000 Poles were massacred by the ] in the ], between 1943 and 1945.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://volhyniamassacre.eu/zw2/history/179,The-Effects-of-the-Volhynian-Massacres.html|title=The Effects of the Volhynian Massacres|last=Massacre|first=Volhynia|work=Volhynia Massacre|access-date=9 July 2018|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621015851/https://volhyniamassacre.eu/zw2/history/179,The-Effects-of-the-Volhynian-Massacres.html|archive-date=21 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> At the same time, about 10,000–15,000 Ukrainians were killed by the Polish ] and other Polish units, in reprisal attacks.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/od-rzezi-wolynskiej-do-akcji-wisla-konflikt-polsko-ukrainski-1943-1947|title=Od rzezi wołyńskiej do akcji Wisła. Konflikt polsko-ukraiński 1943–1947|work=dzieje.pl|access-date=10 March 2018|language=pl|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180624040412/https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/od-rzezi-wolynskiej-do-akcji-wisla-konflikt-polsko-ukrainski-1943-1947|archive-date=24 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
The end of World War II marked the end of the ]'s position as a global ] and the emergence of the ] and the ] as the dominant powers in the world. Friction had been building up between the two before the end of the war and after the collapse of Nazi Germany, relations spiraled downward.


] during the ] in December 1937]]
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, ]s were created. These became ] of the Soviet Union.
In Asia and the Pacific, the number of people killed by Japanese troops remains contested. According to R.J. Rummel, the Japanese killed between 3{{nbsp}}million and more than 10&nbsp;million people, with the most probable case of almost 6,000,000 people.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP3.HTM|title=Statistics|last=Rummell|first=R.J.|work=Freedom, Democide, War|publisher=The University of Hawaii System|access-date=25 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323044733/https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP3.HTM|archive-date=23 March 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> According to the British historian ], civilian deaths are between 10 million and 20 million, whereas Chinese military casualties (killed and wounded) are estimated to be over five million.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dear|Foot|2001|p=182}}.</ref> Other estimates say that up to 30 million people, most of them civilians, were killed.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Carmichael|first1=Cathie|last2=Maguire|first2=Richard| title=The Routledge History of Genocide|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|page=105|isbn=978-0-367-86706-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historynet.com/a-culture-of-cruelty/ |title=A Culture of Cruelty |publisher=HistoryNet |date=6 November 2017 |access-date=7 May 2022 |archive-date=7 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220507032834/https://www.historynet.com/a-culture-of-cruelty/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The most infamous Japanese atrocity was the ], in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chang|1997|p=102}}.</ref> Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7&nbsp;million casualties occurred during the ]. General ] implemented the policy in ] and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Bix|2000|p=?}}.</ref>


Axis forces employed ] and ]. The ] used a variety of such weapons during its ] (''see ]'')<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Hal|title=Unit 731 testimony|publisher=Tuttle|year=1996|pages=75–77|isbn=978-0-8048-3565-7}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Tucker|Roberts|2004|p=320}}.</ref> and in ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Harris|2002|p=74}}.</ref> Both the Germans and the ] such weapons against civilians,<ref>{{Harvnb|Lee|2002|p=69}}.</ref> and sometimes on ].<ref>{{cite news|title=Japan tested chemical weapons on Aussie POW: new evidence|newspaper=]|date=27 July 2004|url=https://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/nn20040727a9.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120529003741/https://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/nn20040727a9.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 May 2012|access-date=25 January 2010}}</ref>
As the relationship between the victors deteriorated, the military lines of demarcation became the de facto country boundaries. ] ] along the ] by the Soviets and Americans. In 1950, communist ], backed by the Soviets, invaded U.S.-supported ] and the ] broke out.


The Soviet Union was responsible for the ] of 22,000 Polish officers,<ref>Kużniar-Plota, Małgorzata (30 November 2004). "Decision to commence investigation into Katyn Massacre". Departmental Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation. Retrieved 4 August 2011.</ref> and the imprisonment or execution of ] by the ] secret police, along with ], in the ] and ] annexed by the Red Army.<ref>Robert Gellately (2007).'' Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe''. Knopf, {{ISBN|978-1-4000-4005-6}} p. 391</ref> Soviet soldiers committed mass rapes in occupied territories, especially ].<ref>{{cite book|title=Women and War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lyZYS_GxglIC&pg=PA480|year=2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-770-8|pages=480–|access-date=14 August 2023|archive-date=4 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240504072253/https://books.google.com/books?id=lyZYS_GxglIC&pg=PA480|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Bird>{{cite journal |last=Bird |first=Nicky |title=Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor |journal=International Affairs |volume=78 |number=4 |date=October 2002 |pages=914–916 |institution=Royal Institute of International Affairs}}</ref> The exact number of German women and girls raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation is uncertain, but historians estimate their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as two million,<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Naimark|first=Norman|title=The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949|publisher=Cambridge: Belknap Press|year=1995|isbn=|location=|pages=70}}</ref> while figures for women raped by German soldiers in the Soviet Union go as far as ten million.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718080318/http://www.gegenwind.info/175/sonderheft_wehrmacht.pdf |date=18 July 2011 }} (PDF). Kiel. 1999.</ref><ref>Pascale R . Bos, "Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945"; Yugoslavia, 1992–1993 '']'', 2006, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 996–1025</ref>
'''United Nations'''
], located in ]. The United Nations was founded as a direct result of World War II.]]
{{main|United Nations}}
Because the ] had failed to actively prevent the war, the ] was created in 1945.


The mass bombing of cities in Europe and Asia has often been called a war crime, although no ] or specific ] ] with respect to ] existed before or during World War&nbsp;II.<ref>{{cite book |title=Terror from the Sky: The Bombing of German Cities in World War II |year=2010 |page=167 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-84545-844-7}}</ref> The USAAF ], killing 393,000 civilians, including the ], and destroying 65% of built-up areas.<ref>{{cite journal|author=John Dower|title=Lessons from Iwo Jima|journal=Perspectives|year=2007|volume=45|issue=6|pages=54–56|url=https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/september-2007/lessons-from-iwo-jima|access-date=17 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117075824/https://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2007/0709/index.cfm|archive-date=17 January 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>
The UN operates within the parameters of the ], and the reason for the UN’s formation is outlined in the ]. Unlike its predecessor, the United Nations has taken a more active role in the world, such as fighting diseases and providing humanitarian aid to nations in distress. The UN also served as the diplomatic front line during the Cold War.


===Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour===
The UN also was responsible for the initial creation of the modern state of ] in 1948, in part as a response to the ].
{{Main|The Holocaust|Nazi concentration camps|Extermination camp|Forced labour under German rule during World War II|Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany|Nazi human experimentation|Soviet war crimes#World War II|Japanese war crimes}}
] (SS) female camp guards removing prisoners' bodies from lorries and carrying them to a mass grave, inside the German ], 1945]]


], under the ] of Adolf Hitler, was responsible for murdering about 6{{nbsp}}million Jews in what is now known as ]. They also murdered an additional 4{{nbsp}}million others who were deemed "]" (including the ] and ], ], ], ], ], and ]) as part of a program of deliberate extermination, in effect becoming a "] state".<ref>''The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum'' (2nd ed.), 2006. Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. {{ISBN|978-0-8018-8358-3}}.</ref> ] were kept in especially unbearable conditions, and 3.6&nbsp;million Soviet POWs out of 5.7&nbsp;million died in Nazi camps during the war.<ref>{{Harvnb|Herbert|1994|p=}}</ref><ref name="Overy 2004 568_569">{{Harvnb|Overy|2004|pp=568–569}}.</ref> In addition to ], ] were created in Nazi Germany to exterminate people on an industrial scale. Nazi Germany extensively used ]; about 12&nbsp;million ] from German-occupied countries were abducted and used as a slave work force in German industry, agriculture and war economy.<ref name="compensation">{{cite web|url=https://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1757323,00.html|title=Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Laborers|date=27 October 2005|access-date=19 January 2010|first=Michael|last=Marek|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060502123049/https://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1757323,00.html|archive-date=2 May 2006|work=dw-world.de|publisher=Deutsche Welle|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Casualties, civilian impact, and atrocities==
'''Casualties'''
] of the ]. At least 641,000 Soviet citizens died during the 900 day siege.]]
{{main|World War II casualties}}


] taken by the German ] in ].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dw.com/en/colorized-photo-of-girl-at-auschwitz-strikes-chord-on-social-media/a-43033478 |title=Color photo of girl at Auschwitz strikes chord |first=Alexander |last=Pearson |date=19 March 2018 |access-date=12 July 2023 |work=] |quote=Kwoka was murdered with a phenol injection to the heart a few weeks later. |archive-date=19 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319065203/https://www.dw.com/en/colorized-photo-of-girl-at-auschwitz-strikes-chord-on-social-media/a-43033478 |url-status=live }}</ref> Approximately 230,000 children were held prisoner and used in forced labour and ]]]
Possibly 62 million people lost their lives in World War II&mdash;about 25 million soldiers and 37 million civilians, with estimates varying widely. This total includes the estimated 12 million lives lost in the Holocaust. Of the total deaths in World War II approximately 80% were on the Allied side and 20% on the Axis side.
The Soviet ] became a ''de facto'' system of deadly camps during 1942–43, when wartime privation and hunger caused numerous deaths of inmates,<ref>J. Arch Getty, Gábor T. Rittersporn and Viktor N. Zemskov. Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basisof Archival Evidence. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 98, No. 4 (Oct. 1993), pp. 1017–49</ref> including foreign citizens of Poland and ] occupied in 1939–40 by the Soviet Union, as well as Axis ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Applebaum|2003|pp=389–396}}.</ref> By the end of the war, most Soviet POWs liberated from Nazi camps and many repatriated civilians were detained in special filtration camps where they were subjected to ] evaluation, and 226,127 were sent to the Gulag as real or perceived Nazi collaborators.<ref>Zemskov V.N. ''On repatriation of Soviet citizens''. Istoriya SSSR., 1990, No. 4, (in Russian). See also {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111014134645/https://scepsis.ru/library/id_1234.html|date=14 October 2011}} (online version), and {{Harvnb|Bacon|1992}}; {{Harvnb|Ellman|2002}}.</ref>


Japanese ]s, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The ] found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bataan/peopleevents/e_atrocities.html|title=Japanese Atrocities in the Philippines|access-date=18 January 2010|archive-date=27 July 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030727223501/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bataan/peopleevents/e_atrocities.html|work=American Experience: the Bataan Rescue|publisher=PBS Online|url-status=dead}}</ref> seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tanaka|1996|pp=2–3}}.</ref> While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the ], the number of Chinese released was only 56.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bix|2000|p=360}}.</ref>
Allied forces suffered approximately 17 million military deaths, of which about 10 million were Soviet and 4 million Chinese. Axis forces suffered about 8 million, of which more than 5 million were German. The Soviet Union suffered by far the largest death toll of any nation in the war; perhaps 23 million Soviets died in total, of which more than 12 million were civilians. The figures include deaths from internal Soviet actions against its own people. The statistics available for Soviet and Chinese casualties are only rough guesses since they are poorly documented. Some modern estimates double the amount of Chinese casualties.


At least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the ], or ''Kōain'', for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10&nbsp;million.<ref name="zhifen2002">{{cite web|last=Ju|url=https://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/sino-japanese/session6.htm|first=Zhifen|title=Japan's Atrocities of Conscripting and Abusing North China Draftees after the Outbreak of the Pacific War|work=Joint Study of the Sino-Japanese War: Minutes of the June 2002 Conference|publisher=Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences|date=June 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521093637/https://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/sino-japanese/session6.htm|archive-date=21 May 2012|access-date=28 December 2013}}</ref> In ], between 4{{nbsp}}and 10&nbsp;million '']'' (Japanese: "manual labourers"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in Southeast Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.<ref name="indonesiaww2">{{cite web|url=https://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+id0029)|title=Indonesia: World War II and the Struggle For Independence, 1942–50; The Japanese Occupation, 1942–45|access-date=9 February 2007|publisher=Library of Congress|year=1992|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041030225658/https://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+id0029%29|archive-date=30 October 2004|url-status=live}}</ref>
'''Genocide'''
] routes to ] during ].]]
{{main|The Holocaust}}


===Occupation===
The ''Holocaust'' was the organized murder of at least nine million people, about two-thirds of whom were Jewish. Originally, the Nazis used killing squads, '']'', to conduct massive open-air killings, shooting as many as 33,000 people in a single massacre, as in the case of ]. By 1942, the Nazi leadership decided to implement the ] (''Endlösung''), the genocide of all Jews in Europe, and increase the pace of the Holocaust. The Nazis built six ] specifically to kill Jews. Millions of Jews who had been confined to massively overcrowded ]s were transported to these ] where they were gassed or shot, usually immediately after arriving.
{{Main|German-occupied Europe|Resistance during World War II|Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|Collaboration with Imperial Japan|Nazi plunder}}
], 1940]]


In Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the ]) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5&nbsp;billion reichsmarks (27.8&nbsp;billion U.S. dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include the ] of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods.<ref>{{Harvnb|Liberman|1996|p=42}}.</ref> Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on.<ref name="Milward 1979 138">{{Harvnb|Milward|1992|p=138}}.</ref>
'''Concentration camps, labour camps and internment'''
] ], ].]]
{{main articles|], ], and ]}}


] hanged by the German army. The ] reported in 1995 that ] at German hands totalled 13.7 million dead, twenty percent of the 68 million people in the occupied Soviet Union]]
In addition to the Nazi ]s, the Soviet ], or ]s, led to the death of many citizens of occupied countries such as Poland, ], ], and ], as well as German ] (POW) and even Soviet citizens themselves: opponents of Stalin's regime and large proportions of some ethnic groups (particularly ]). Japanese ] also had high death rates; many were used as labour camps, and starvation conditions among the mainly U.S., British, Australian and other Commonwealth prisoners were little better than many German concentration camps. Sixty percent (1,238,000 ref. Krivosheev) of Soviet POWs died during the war. Vadim Erlikman puts it at 2.6 million Soviet POWs that died in German Captivity.<ref name="war8">Erlikman, Vadim</ref> ] gives the number of 5.7 million Soviet POW and out of those 57% died or were killed.<ref>] ''The Dictators Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia'' p.568-569</ref>


In the East, the intended gains of '']'' were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet ] policies denied resources to the German invaders.<ref name="Milward 1992 148">{{Harvnb|Milward|1992|p=148}}.</ref> Unlike in the West, the ] encouraged extreme brutality against what it considered to be the "]" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Barber|Harrison|2006|p=232}}.</ref> The Nazis ] during the war in addition to Polish-Jewish victims of the Holocaust.<ref>Institute of National Remembrance, Polska 1939–1945 Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami. Materski and Szarota. p. 9 ''"Total Polish population losses under German occupation are currently calculated at about 2 770 000"''.</ref>{{better source needed|date=July 2023}} Although ] formed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East<ref>{{Harvnb|Hill|2005|p=5}}.</ref> or the West<ref>{{Harvnb|Christofferson|Christofferson|2006|p=156}}</ref> until late 1943.
Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of ] 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.


In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the ], essentially a Japanese ] which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples.<ref>{{Harvnb|Radtke|1997|p=107}}.</ref> Although Japanese forces were sometimes welcomed as liberators from European domination, ] frequently turned local public opinion against them.<ref name="GSWW6_266">{{Harvnb|Rahn|2001|p=266}}.</ref> During Japan's initial conquest, it captured {{convert|4000000|oilbbl}} of oil (~550,000 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces; and by 1943, was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to {{convert|50|e6oilbbl}} of oil (~6.8 million tonnes), 76 percent of its 1940 output rate.<ref name="GSWW6_266" />
'''War crimes'''
]
{{main articles|], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]}}


===Home fronts and production===
From 1945 to 1951, German and Japanese officials and personnel were prosecuted for war crimes. Top German officials were tried at the ] and many Japanese officials at the ] and ].
{{Main|Military production during World War II|Home front during World War II}}
]
In the 1930s Britain and the United States of America together controlled almost 75% of world mineral output—essential for projecting military power.<ref>{{cite journal
|last1 = Leith
|first1 = C. K.
|author-link1 = Charles Kenneth Leith
|title = The Struggle for Mineral Resources
|url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/1021443
|journal = The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
|publication-date = July 1939
|volume = 204, Democracy and the Americas
|pages = 42–48
|jstor = 1021443
|quote = mineral raw materials are the basis of industrial power, and this in turn is the basis of military power. England and the United States of America alone control economic proportions of nearly three-fourths of the world's production of minerals. Not less important, they control the seas over which the products must pass.
|access-date = 26 January 2024
|archive-date = 26 January 2024
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240126024338/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1021443
|url-status = live
}}</ref>


In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and the British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); including colonies, the Allies had more than a 5:1 advantage in population and a nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP.<ref name="6Econ3">{{Harvnb|Harrison|1998|p= 3}}.</ref> In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this reduces to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.<ref name="6Econ3" />
None of the alleged allied war crimes&mdash;such as the ], the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the alleged ] on the Eastern front&mdash;were ever prosecuted.


The United States produced about two-thirds of all munitions used by the Allies in World War II, including warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition.<ref>Compare:
==Resistance and collaboration==
{{cite book |last1 = Wilson |first1 = Mark R. |title = Destructive Creation: American Business and the Winning of World War II |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AcqADAAAQBAJ |series = American Business, Politics, and Society |edition = reprint |location = Philadelphia |publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press |date = 2016 |page = 2 |isbn = 978-0-8122-9354-8 |access-date = 19 December 2019 |quote = By producing nearly two thirds of the munitions used by Allied forces – including huge numbers of aircraft, ships, tanks, trucks, rifles, artillery shells, and bombs – American industry became what President Franklin D. Roosevelt once called 'the arsenal of democracy' .|archive-date = 7 March 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230307201318/https://books.google.com/books?id=AcqADAAAQBAJ|url-status = live}}</ref> Although the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies and the war evolved into one of ].<ref name="6Econ2">{{Harvnb|Harrison|1998|p=2}}.</ref> While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis was partly due to more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the ],<ref>{{Harvnb|Bernstein|1991|p= 267}}.</ref> Allied ],<ref>{{Cite book |last= Griffith |first= Charles |title= The Quest: Haywood Hansell and American Strategic Bombing in World War II|isbn= 978-1-58566-069-8|publisher= Diane Publishing|year= 1999 |page= 203}}</ref> and Germany's late shift to a ]<ref>{{Harvnb|Overy|1994|p= 26}}.</ref> contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and had not equipped themselves to do so.<ref>{{Harvnb|BBSU|1998|p= 84}}; {{Harvnb|Lindberg|Todd|2001|p= 126}}.</ref> To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of ];<ref>{{Cite book |last= Unidas |first= Naciones |title= World Economic And Social Survey 2004: International Migration |page= 23 |publisher= United Nations Pubns |year= 2005 |isbn= 978-92-1-109147-2}}</ref> ] about 12&nbsp;million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,<ref name="compensation" /> while ] more than 18&nbsp;million people in Far East Asia.<ref name="zhifen2002" /><ref name="indonesiaww2" />
{{main articles|] and ]}}
] in front of the ] cathedral during ] in September 1944.]]
Resistance during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation, and propaganda to outright warfare.


===Advances in technology and its application===
Among the most notable resistance movements were the ], the ] and the ] and the ] in the ] after 1943. Germany itself also had an anti-Nazi movement. The ] resistance was among the fiercest, since they were already organised and militant even before the war, and they were ideologically opposed to the Nazis.
{{Main|Technology during World War II}}
] launched from a fixed site in ], 21 June 1943]]


Aircraft were used for ], as ], ]s, and ], and each role developed considerably. Innovations included ] (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel);<ref name="EncWWII_76">{{Harvnb|Tucker|Roberts|2004|p=76}}.</ref> and ] (the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war).<ref>{{Harvnb|Levine|1992|p=227}}.</ref> ] also advanced, including defences such as ] and surface-to-air artillery, in particular the introduction of the ]. The use of the ] was pioneered and led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.<ref>{{Harvnb|Klavans|Di Benedetto|Prudom|1997}}; {{Harvnb|Ward|2010|pp=247–251}}.</ref>
Before ], there were many operations performed by the ] to help with the forthcoming invasion. Communications lines were cut; trains were derailed; roads, water towers and ammunition depots were destroyed; and some German ]s were attacked.


Advances were made in nearly every aspect of ], most notably with ]s and ]s. Although ] warfare had relatively little success at the start of the war, ], ], and the ] established the carrier as the dominant capital ship (in place of the battleship).<ref name="EncWWII_163">{{Harvnb|Tucker|Roberts|2004|p=163}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1= Bishop|first1= Chris|last2= Chant|first2=Chris|title=Aircraft Carriers: The World's Greatest Naval Vessels and Their Aircraft|page= 7|publisher= Silverdale Books|year= 2004|isbn=978-1-84509-079-1|location= Wigston, Leics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Chenoweth|first1=H. Avery|last2= Nihart|first2= Brooke|title= Semper Fi: The Definitive Illustrated History of the U.S. Marines|publisher= Main Street|year= 2005|isbn= 978-1-4027-3099-3|page= 180|location= New York}}</ref> In the Atlantic, ]s became a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Sumner|Baker|2001|p=25}}.</ref> Carriers were also more economical than ]s due to the relatively low cost of aircraft<ref>{{Harvnb|Hearn|2007|p=14}}.</ref> and because they are not required to be as heavily armoured.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gardiner|Brown|2004|p=52}}.</ref> Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the ],<ref name="Bur&Ryd 1995 15">{{Harvnb|Burcher|Rydill|1995|p=15}}.</ref> were expected by all combatants to be important in the second. The British focused development on ] ] and tactics, such as ] and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the ] and ] tactics.<ref name="Bur&Ryd 1995 16">{{Harvnb|Burcher|Rydill|1995|p=16}}.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=this is arguably a reference in passing – the book is about the design of submarines and deals with this fairly superficially. Also reference in article only points to a review of this book.|date=July 2020}} Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the ], ], ], and ] proved effective against German submarines.<ref>{{Cite journal |title= Impact of technology on the defeat of the U-boat September 1939 – May 1943 |url=https://digital-library.theiet.org/doi/abs/10.1049/ip-smt%3A19949918 |journal= IEE Proceedings - Science, Measurement and Technology|date=September 1994 |volume=141 |issue=5 |pages=343–355 |doi=10.1049/ip-smt:19949918|last1=Burns |first1=R. W. |doi-broken-date= 6 December 2024}}</ref>
==The home fronts==
]
{{main|Home Front during World War II}}


]; ], ], July 1945]]
"]" is the name given to the activities of the ]s of a nation that is in a state of total war.
] changed from the static frontlines of ] of World War&nbsp;I, which had relied on improved ] that outmatched the speed of both ] and ], to increased mobility and ]. The ], which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon.<ref name="EncWWII_125">{{Harvnb|Tucker|Roberts|2004|p=125}}.</ref> In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War{{nbsp}}I,<ref>{{Cite book|last= Dupuy|first= Trevor Nevitt|title= The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare|publisher=]|isbn= 978-0-7106-0123-0|year= 1982|page= 231}}</ref> and ] with increases in speed, armour and firepower.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Vital Role Of Tanks In The Second World War |url= https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-vital-role-of-tanks-in-the-second-world-war |access-date=5 April 2022 |website=Imperial War Museums |language=en |archive-date=25 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325104344/https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-vital-role-of-tanks-in-the-second-world-war |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Castaldi |first1=Carolina |last2=Fontana |first2=Roberto |last3=Nuvolari |first3=Alessandro |date=1 August 2009 |title='Chariots of fire': the evolution of tank technology, 1915–1945 |journal=Journal of Evolutionary Economics |language=en |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=545–566 |doi=10.1007/s00191-009-0141-0 |s2cid=36789517 |issn=1432-1386 |doi-access=free |hdl=10419/89322 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications.<ref name="EncWWII_108">{{Harvnb|Tucker|Roberts|2004|p=108}}.</ref> This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France.<ref name="EncWWII_125" /> Many means of ], including ], ]s (both towed and ]), ], short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were used.<ref name="EncWWII_108" /> Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces,<ref name="EncWWII_734">{{Harvnb|Tucker|Roberts|2004|p=734}}.</ref> and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War&nbsp;I.<ref name="Comp_221">{{Harvnb|Cowley|Parker|2001|p=221}}.</ref> The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German ], and various ]s which were suited to ] in urban and jungle settings.<ref name="Comp_221" /> The ], a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard post-war infantry weapon for most armed forces.<ref>{{cite web |title=The AK-47: the worlds favourite killing machine |publisher=controlarms.org |first1=Oliver |last1=Sprague |first2=Hugh |last2=Griffiths |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act30/011/2006/en/ |access-date=14 November 2009 |year=2006 |format=PDF |page=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181228130914/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act30/011/2006/en/ |archive-date=28 December 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>


Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large ]s for ] by designing ]ing machines, the most well-known being the German ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Ratcliff|2006|p=11}}.</ref> Development of ] (''sig''nals ''int''elligence) and ] enabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of ]<ref name=Schoenherr>{{cite web|access-date=15 November 2009|archive-date=9 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509054959/https://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/espionage.htm|first=Steven|last=Schoenherr|publisher=History Department at the University of San Diego|title=Code Breaking in World War I|url=https://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/espionage.htm|url-status=dead|year=2007}}</ref> and British ], a ] for decoding Enigma that benefited from information given to the United Kingdom by the ], which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war.<ref>{{cite news |author=Macintyre, Ben |date=10 December 2010 |title=Bravery of thousands of Poles was vital in securing victory |page=27 |work=The Times |location=London |id={{Gale|IF0504159516}}}}</ref> Another component of ] was ], which the Allies used to great effect in operations such as ] and ].<ref name=Schoenherr /><ref>{{cite web|title=Deception for Defense of Information Systems: Analogies from Conventional Warfare|url=https://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nps/mildec.htm|first1=Neil C.|last1=Rowe|first2=Hy|last2=Rothstein|work=Departments of Computer Science and Defense Analysis U.S. Naval Postgraduate School|publisher=Air University|access-date=15 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123031630/https://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nps/mildec.htm|archive-date=23 November 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In the United Kingdom, women joined the work force doing jobs that the men did. Food, clothing, ], and other items were ]. Access to luxuries was severely restricted, though there was also a significant ]. Families grew ] to supply themselves with food, and the ] recruited or conscripted over 80,000 women to work on farms. Civilians also served as ], volunteer emergency services and other critical functions. ]s 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 ].


Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (], ], and ]), ] and ], the ]'s development of ]s, ], the development of ], and ].<ref>{{Cite news |title=World War – II |url=https://www.insightsonindia.com/world-history/world-war-i/world-war-ii/ |newspaper=Insights Ias – Simplifying Upsc Ias Exam Preparation |language=en-US |access-date=17 September 2022 |archive-date=11 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220711080947/https://www.insightsonindia.com/world-history/world-war-i/world-war-ii/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ] was first ] during the war.<ref>{{cite web|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190628035235/https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/flemingpenicillin.html|archive-date=28 June 2019|url= https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/flemingpenicillin.html |title=Discovery and Development of Penicillin: International Historic Chemical Landmark|location=Washington, DC|publisher=]|access-date=15 July 2019}}</ref>
In the United States and Canada, women also joined the workforce. In the United States, these women were called "Rosies" for ]. President 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. Rationing began, limiting things like sugar and gasoline. In Canada, the government established three military compartments for women: the Canadian Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Canadian Women's Army Corps and the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Services.


==See also==
In Germany, until 1943 there were few restrictions on civilian activities. Most goods were freely available. This was because of the reduced access to certain luxuries already experienced by German civilians prior to the beginning of hostilities; the war served to make some commodities less available. It was not until comparatively late in the war that the civilian 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 substituted for the men who served in the armed forces.
* ]
* ]


==Notes==
American production was the major factor in keeping the Allies better supplied than the Axis. For example, in 1943 the United States produced 369 warships (1.01 per day). In comparison, Japan produced 122 warships, and Germany only built three. The United States also succeeded in rebuilding the Merchant Marine, reducing the build time of a Liberty or Victory ship from 105 days to 56 days. Much of this improved efficiency came from technological advances in shipbuilding. Hull plates were being welded rather than bolted, plastics were beginning to take the place of certain metals, and modular construction was being used.
{{Notelist}}


==Technologies== ==Citations==
{{reflist|21em}}
] for encryption.]]
{{main articles|] and ]}}
Weapons and technology improved rapidly during World War II and played a crucial role in determining the outcome of the war. Many major technologies were used for the first time, including ]s, ], ]s, and electronic ]s. Enormous advances were made in ], and ] design such that models coming into use at the beginning of the war were long obsolete by its end.

More new inventions, as measured in the U.S. by numbers of patent applications and weapon contracts issued to private contractors, were deployed to the task of killing humans more effectively (and to a lesser degree, avoiding being killed) than ever before.

The massive research and development demands of the war had a great impact on the growth of the scientific community. After the war ended, these developments led to new sciences like ] and computer science and created entire new ].

{{see also|Military production during World War II|List of World War II military equipment}}
{{-}}

==See also==
{{World War II}}


==References== ==References==
{{See also|Bibliography of World War II}}
<div class="references-small">
{{Reflist|group=nb}}
*{{cite book
{{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}}
<!-- Dead note "war": ] -->
* {{Cite book|last=Adamthwaite|first=Anthony P.|year=1992|title=The Making of the Second World War|isbn=978-0-415-90716-3|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/makingofsecondwo00adam_0}}
| year = 1995
* {{Cite journal|last=Anderson| first=Irvine H. Jr. |year=1975|title=The 1941 De Facto Embargo on Oil to Japan: A Bureaucratic Reflex|journal=The Pacific Historical Review|volume=44|issue=2|pages=201–231|doi=10.2307/3638003|jstor=3638003}}
| title = Second World War
* {{Cite book|last=Applebaum|first=Anne|author-link=Anne Applebaum|year=2003|title=Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps|location=London|publisher=]|isbn=978-0-7139-9322-6|title-link=Gulag: A History}}
| publisher = Phoenix
* {{Cite book|last=Applebaum|first=Anne|author-mask=3|year=2012|title=Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944–56|location=London|publisher=]|isbn=978-0-7139-9868-9}}
| id = ISBN 1857993462
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| title = The Second World War
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*{{cite book
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* {{cite journal | last=Buchanan | first=Andrew | title=Globalizing the Second World War | journal=Past & Present | issue=258 | date=7 February 2023 | issn=0031-2746 | doi=10.1093/pastj/gtab042 | pages=246–281}} also see {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240504072231/https://hdiplo.org/to/AR1180 |date=4 May 2024 }}
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*{{cite book
* {{Cite journal|last=Cantril|first=Hadley|year=1940|title=America Faces the War: A Study in Public Opinion|journal=]|volume=4|issue=3|pages=387–407|jstor=2745078|doi=10.1086/265420}}
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| title = A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II
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* {{Cite book|editor1-last=Cowley|editor1-first=Robert|editor1-link=Robert Cowley|editor2-last=Parker|editor2-first=Geoffrey|editor2-link=Geoffrey Parker (historian)|year=2001|title=The Reader's Companion to Military History|location=Boston|publisher=]|isbn=978-0-618-12742-9}}

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==Footnotes==
* {{Cite book|editor1-last=Dear|editor1-first=I.C.B.|editor1-link=I. C. B. Dear|editor2-last=Foot|editor2-first=M.R.D.|editor2-link=M. R. D. Foot|year=2001|orig-year=1995|title=The Oxford Companion to World War II|location=Oxford|publisher=]|isbn=978-0-19-860446-4}}
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{{Refend}}


==External links== ==External links==
{{Sister project links|voy=World War II|World War II|collapsible=collapsed}}
<div class="references-small">
* . {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323092741/https://westpoint.edu/academics/academic-departments/history/world-war-two-europe |date=23 March 2019 }}.
;General
* . {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323092715/https://westpoint.edu/academics/academic-departments/history/world-war-two-asia |date=23 March 2019 }}.
*
* ] (July 1943 – August 1945)
* created by one of Germany's public broadcasters on World War II and the world 60 years after.
{{World War II}}
*
{{WWII history by nation}}
*
{{Western world}}
*
{{Eastern world}}
*
{{Authority control}}
* <!-- NOTE TO WIKI EDITORS: I did ask to add this link via the talk page, and received permission. -->

;Media
*
* - Presentation that covers the war from the invasion of Russia to the fall of Berlin
*
* - pictures & info
* hosted by the Universtity of North Texas Libraries'


;Stories
* - A project by the ] to gather the stories of ordinary people from World War II
* Experiences as a German soldier on the Eastern and Western Front

;Documentaries
*'']'' (1974) is a 36-part BBC series that covers most aspects of World War II from many points of view. It includes interviews with many key figures (], ], ] etc.) ()
*''The Second World War in Colour'' (1999) is a three episode documentary showing unique footage in color ()
</div>

]

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Revision as of 20:12, 21 December 2024

1939–1945 global conflict Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see WWII (disambiguation), The Second World War (disambiguation), and World War II (disambiguation).

World War II
in theFrom top to bottom, left to right:
Date1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945
(6 years, 1 day)
LocationMajor theatres:
Result
Participants
Allies Axis
Commanders and leaders
Main Allied leaders: Main Axis leaders:
Casualties and losses
  • Military dead:
  • Over 16,000,000
  • Civilian dead:
  • Over 45,000,000
  • Total dead:
  • Over 61,000,000
  • (1937–1945)
  • ...further details
  • Military dead:
  • Over 8,000,000
  • Civilian dead:
  • Over 4,000,000
  • Total dead:
  • Over 12,000,000
  • (1937–1945)
  • ...further details
Campaigns of World War II
Europe

Asia-Pacific

Mediterranean and Middle East

Other campaigns

Coups

World War II
Navigation

World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all the world's countries—including all the great powers—participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit of total war, blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, with the latter enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70 to 85 million deaths, more than half being civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust of European Jews, as well as from massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders.

The causes of World War II included unresolved tensions in the aftermath of World War I and the rise of fascism in Europe and militarism in Japan. Key events leading up to the war included Japan's invasion of Manchuria, the Spanish Civil War, the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and Germany's annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland, prompting the United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany. Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, in which they had agreed on "spheres of influence" in Eastern Europe. In 1940, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania. After the fall of France in June 1940, the war continued mainly between Germany and the British Empire, with fighting in the Balkans, Mediterranean, and Middle East, the aerial Battle of Britain and the Blitz, and naval Battle of the Atlantic. Through a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany took control of much of continental Europe and formed the Axis alliance with Italy, Japan, and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led the European Axis in an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the Eastern Front and initially making large territorial gains.

Japan aimed to dominate East Asia and the Asia-Pacific, and by 1937 was at war with the Republic of China. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories in Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which resulted in the US and the UK declaring war against Japan, and the European Axis declaring war on the US. Japan conquered much of coastal China and Southeast Asia, but its advances in the Pacific were halted in mid-1942 after its defeat in the naval Battle of Midway; Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and the Italian mainland, and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France at Normandy, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed Germany and its allies westward. At the same time, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key islands.

The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories; the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops; Hitler's suicide; and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, the US dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August. Faced with an imminent invasion of the Japanese archipelago, the possibility of further atomic bombings, and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 August and signed a surrender document on 2 September 1945, marking the end of the war.

World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and it set the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The United Nations was established to foster international cooperation and prevent conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becoming the permanent members of its security council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion.

Start and end dates

See also: List of timelines of World War II
Timelines of World War II
Chronological
Prelude
By topic
By theatre

World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France's declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of the Pacific War include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the earlier Japanese invasion of Manchuria, on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and the two wars became World War II in 1941. Other proposed starting dates for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939. Others view the Spanish Civil War as the start or prelude to World War II.

The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially ended the war in Asia. A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951. A 1990 treaty regarding Germany's future allowed the reunification of East and West Germany to take place and resolved most post–World War II issues. No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed, although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, which also restored full diplomatic relations between them.

History

Background

Main article: Causes of World War II

Aftermath of World War I

The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland (1930)

World War I had radically altered the political European map with the defeat of the Central Powers—including Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire—and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I, such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires.

To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was established in 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference. The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, and naval disarmament, as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.

Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I, irredentist and revanchist nationalism had emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions, while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces.

Germany and Italy

The German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of a "New Roman Empire".

Adolf Hitler at a German Nazi political rally in Nuremberg, August 1933

Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 when Paul von Hindenburg and the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign. France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.

European treaties

The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards military globalisation; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe, drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year.

Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno Treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of appeasement. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy joined the following year.

Asia

The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies and new regional warlords. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan, which had long sought influence in China as the first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia, staged the Mukden incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.

China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan. After the 1936 Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan.

Pre-war events

Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)

Main article: Second Italo-Ethiopian War
Benito Mussolini inspecting troops during the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's Covenant. The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria.

Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

Main article: Spanish Civil War

When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the Nationalist rebels, led by General Francisco Franco. Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic. More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally favoured the Axis. His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front.

Japanese invasion of China (1937)

Main article: Second Sino-Japanese War
Imperial Japanese Army soldiers during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937

In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan, engaged the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou, and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese.

In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war.

Soviet–Japanese border conflicts

Main article: Soviet–Japanese border conflicts

In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and Mongolia. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies.

European occupations and agreements

Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured just before signing the Munich Agreement, 29 September 1938

In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed the Trans-Olza region of Czechoslovakia.

Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic. Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region, formerly the German Memelland.

German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (right) and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, after signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, 23 August 1939

Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig, the United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of Romania and Greece. Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel. Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression.

The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled. This pact had a secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War I. Immediately afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.

In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as a pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig, and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador Nevile Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected.

Course of the war

For a chronological guide, see List of timelines of World War II. See also: Diplomatic history of World War II and World War II by country

War breaks out in Europe (1939–1940)

Main article: European theatre of World War II
Soldiers of the Danzig Schutzpolizei tearing down the border crossing into Poland, 1 September 1939

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as a pretext to initiate the invasion. The first German attack of the war came against the Polish defences at Westerplatte. The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of a cautious French probe into the Saarland. The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic.

On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw. The Polish counter-offensive to the west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Wehrmacht. Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw. On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist. On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to the Germans, and the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6 October. Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland. A significant part of Polish military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of the war.

Germany annexed western Poland and occupied central Poland; the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania and Slovakia. On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, which was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather.

Mannerheim Line and Karelian Isthmus on the last day of the Winter War, 13 March 1940

After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. Finland refused to sign a similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, and was subsequently expelled from the League of Nations for this crime of aggression. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the Winter War was modest, and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with some Finnish concessions of territory.

In June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region. In August 1940, Hitler imposed the Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to the Treaty of Craiova. The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu, with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee. Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war.

Western Europe (1940–1941)

Main article: Western Front (World War II)
German advance into Belgium and Northern France, 10 May – 4 June 1940, sweeping past the Maginot Line (shown in dark red)

In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off. Denmark capitulated after six hours, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.

On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France. To circumvent the strong Maginot Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region, which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics, the Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment.

On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom. The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14 June. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which the United Kingdom attacked on 3 July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany.

The air Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours. The German campaign for air superiority started in August but its failure to defeat RAF Fighter Command forced the indefinite postponement of the proposed German invasion of Britain. The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in the Blitz, but largely ended in May 1941 after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort.

Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck.

In November 1939, the United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases. Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941. In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an "arsenal of democracy" and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it was invaded by Germany. The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany.

At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the Axis powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania joined. Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to the Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union.

Mediterranean (1940–1941)

Main article: Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II

In early June 1940, the Italian Regia Aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta, a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt. In October, Italy attacked Greece, but the attack was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes. To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean.

German Panzer III of the Afrika Korps advancing across the North African desert, April 1941

In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa. The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after a carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.

Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa; at the end of March 1941, Rommel's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back Commonwealth forces. In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged the port of Tobruk.

By late March 1941, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact; however, the Yugoslav government was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece, commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month. The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at the end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans. Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the war.

In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria. Between June and July, British-led forces invaded and occupied the French possessions of Syria and Lebanon, assisted by the Free French.

Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941)

Main article: Eastern Front (World War II)
European theatre of World War II animation map, 1939–1945 – Red: Western Allies and the Soviet Union after 1941; Green: Soviet Union before 1941; Blue: Axis powers

With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany, and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.

Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that the Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of Ukraine, the Baltic states and Byelorussia. However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.

On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them; they were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary. The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line—from the Caspian to the White Seas. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum ("living space") by dispossessing the native population, and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.

Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the war, Operation Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By mid-August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad. The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made possible further advance into Crimea and industrially-developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov).

Russian civilians leaving destroyed houses after a German bombardment during the siege of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), 10 December 1942

The diversion of three-quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany and in August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, which outlined British and American goals for the post-war world. In late August the British and Soviets invaded neutral Iran to secure the Persian Corridor, Iran's oil fields, and preempt any Axis advances through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or India.

By October, Axis powers had achieved operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region, with only the sieges of Leningrad and Sevastopol continuing. A major offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were forced to suspend the offensive. Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe had ended.

By early December, freshly mobilised reserves allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. This, as well as intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army, allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–155 mi) west.

War breaks out in the Pacific (1941)

Main article: Pacific War
Japanese soldiers entering Hong Kong, 8 December 1941

Following the Japanese false flag Mukden incident in 1931, the Japanese shelling of the American gunboat USS Panay in 1937, and the 1937–1938 Nanjing Massacre, Japanese-American relations deteriorated. In 1939, the United States notified Japan that it would not be extending its trade treaty and American public opinion opposing Japanese expansionism led to a series of economic sanctions—the Export Control Acts—which banned U.S. exports of chemicals, minerals and military parts to Japan, and increased economic pressure on the Japanese regime. During 1939 Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, but was repulsed by late September. Despite several offensives by both sides, by 1940 the war between China and Japan was at a stalemate. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded and occupied northern Indochina in September 1940.

Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale counter-offensive in early 1940. In August, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation. In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during Battle of Shanggao. In September, Japan attempted to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.

German successes in Europe prompted Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan with oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941. In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo. At the same time, Japan was planning an invasion of the Soviet Far East, intending to take advantage of the German invasion in the west, but abandoned the operation after the sanctions.

Since early 1941, the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the war in China. During these negotiations, Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate. At the same time the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them. Roosevelt reinforced the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the United States would react to Japanese attacks against any "neighboring countries".

The USS Arizona was a total loss in the Japanese surprise air attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Sunday 7 December 1941

Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American–British–Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. Emperor Hirohito, after initial hesitation about Japan's chances of victory, began to favour Japan's entry into the war. As a result, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe resigned. Hirohito refused the recommendation to appoint Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni in his place, choosing War Minister Hideki Tojo instead. On 3 November, Nagano explained in detail the plan of the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Emperor. On 5 November, Hirohito approved in imperial conference the operations plan for the war. On 20 November, the new government presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and for lifting the embargo on the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange, Japan promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw its forces from southern Indochina. The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers. That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.

Japan planned to seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific. The Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war. To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter, it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset. On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These included an attack on the American fleets at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, as well as invasions of Guam, Wake Island, Malaya, Thailand, and Hong Kong.

These attacks led the United States, United Kingdom, China, Australia, and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan. Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.

Axis advance stalls (1942–1943)

On 1 January 1942, the Allied Big Four—the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter and agreeing not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers.

During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets demanded a second front. The British argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralisation, and bolstering resistance forces; Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour, without using large-scale armies. Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.

At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration and demanded the unconditional surrender of their enemies. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes. Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland, and to invade France in 1944.

Pacific (1942–1943)
Map of Japanese military advances through mid-1942

By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite stubborn resistance by Filipino and U.S. forces, the Philippine Commonwealth was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile. On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division. Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea, and Indian Ocean, and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha. These easy victories over the unprepared U.S. and European opponents left Japan overconfident, and overextended.

In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when an Allied task force, centred on two American fleet carriers, fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In mid-May, Japan started the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign in China, with the goal of inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided the surviving American airmen in the Doolittle Raid by destroying Chinese air bases and fighting against the Chinese 23rd and 32nd Army Groups. In early June, Japan put its operations into action, but the Americans had broken Japanese naval codes in late May and were fully aware of the plans and order of battle, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.

With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan attempted to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua. The Americans planned a counterattack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.

Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna–Gona. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first was a disastrous offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942 that forced a retreat back to India by May 1943. The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese frontlines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.

Eastern Front (1942–1943)
Red Army soldiers on the counterattack during the Battle of Stalingrad, February 1943

Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in central and southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year. In May, the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov, and then in June 1942 launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy the Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lower Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while Army Group B headed towards the Volga River. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.

By mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting. The Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad, and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously. By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been defeated, and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Soviet city of Kursk.

Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–1943)
American Eighth Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombing raid on the Focke-Wulf factory in Germany, 9 October 1943

Exploiting poor American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast. By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive in North Africa, Operation Crusader, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made. The Germans also launched a North African offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala line by early February, followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. Concerns that the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942. An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the failed Dieppe Raid, demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.

In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. A few months later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya. This attack was followed up shortly after by Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies. Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France; although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces. Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies in May 1943.

In June 1943, the British and Americans began a strategic bombing campaign against Germany with a goal to disrupt the war economy, reduce morale, and "de-house" the civilian population. The firebombing of Hamburg was among the first attacks in this campaign, inflicting significant casualties and considerable losses on infrastructure of this important industrial centre.

Allies gain momentum (1943–1944)

U.S. Navy SBD-5 scout plane flying patrol over USS Washington and USS Lexington during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, 1943

After the Guadalcanal campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and U.S. forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians. Soon after, the United States, with support from Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islander forces, began major ground, sea and air operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives and had also neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea.

In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. On 5 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' well-constructed defences, and for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled an operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July, which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month.

On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther–Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and the Lower Dnieper Offensive.

On 3 September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following Italy's armistice with the Allies and the ensuing German occupation of Italy. Germany, with the help of fascists, responded to the armistice by disarming Italian forces that were in many places without superior orders, seizing military control of Italian areas, and creating a series of defensive lines. German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic, causing an Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.

Red Army troops in a counter-offensive on German positions at the Battle of Kursk, July 1943

German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign. In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory and the military planning for the Burma campaign, while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.

From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese awaited allied relief as they forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition. In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and tried to outflank it with landings at Anzio.

On 27 January 1944, Soviet troops launched a major offensive that expelled German forces from the Leningrad region, thereby ending the most lethal siege in history. The following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region. By late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops. The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, Rome was captured on 4 June.

The Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against Allied positions in Assam, India, and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima. In May 1944, British and Indian forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma by July, and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese invasion of China aimed to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields. By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a new attack on Changsha.

Allies close in (1944)

American troops approaching Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944

On 6 June 1944 (commonly known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure, the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France. These landings were successful and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated on 25 August by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle, and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Ruhr river. In Italy, the Allied advance slowed due to the last major German defensive line.

On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus ("Operation Bagration") that nearly destroyed the German Army Group Centre. Soon after that, another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviets formed the Polish Committee of National Liberation to control territory in Poland and combat the Polish Armia Krajowa; the Soviet Red Army remained in the Praga district on the other side of the Vistula and watched passively as the Germans quelled the Warsaw Uprising initiated by the Armia Krajowa. The national uprising in Slovakia was also quelled by the Germans. The Soviet Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.

General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte, 20 October 1944

In September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off. By this point, the communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Soviet Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945. Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions, although Finland was forced to fight their former German allies.

By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In September 1944, Chinese forces captured Mount Song and reopened the Burma Road. In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.

In the Pacific, U.S. forces continued to push back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.

Axis collapse and Allied victory (1944–1945)

Yalta Conference held in February 1945, with Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin

On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt to split the Allies on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes and along the French-German border, hoping to encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and prompt a political settlement after capturing their primary supply port at Antwerp. By 16 January 1945, this offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Red Army attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia. On 4 February Soviet, British, and U.S. leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.

In February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while the Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the German Army Group B. In early March, in an attempt to protect its last oil reserves in Hungary and retake Budapest, Germany launched its last major offensive against Soviet troops near Lake Balaton. Within two weeks, the offensive had been repulsed, the Soviets advanced to Vienna, and captured the city. In early April, Soviet troops captured Königsberg, while the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany capturing Hamburg and Nuremberg. American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe river on 25 April, leaving unoccupied pockets in southern Germany and around Berlin.

Soviet troops stormed and captured Berlin in late April. In Italy, German forces surrendered on 29 April, while the Italian Social Republic capitulated two days later. On 30 April, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany.

Major changes in leadership occurred on both sides during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by his vice president, Harry S. Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April. On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide in his headquarters, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (as President of the Reich) and Joseph Goebbels (as Chancellor of the Reich); Goebbels also committed suicide on the following day and was replaced by Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, in what would later be known as the Flensburg Government. Total and unconditional surrender in Europe was signed on 7 and 8 May, to be effective by the end of 8 May. German Army Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May. On 23 May all remaining members of the German government were arrested by the Allied Forces in Flensburg, while on 5 June all German political and military institutions were transferred under the control of the Allies through the Berlin Declaration.

In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and recaptured Manila in March. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao, and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war. Meanwhile, the United States Army Air Forces launched a massive firebombing campaign of strategic cities in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale. A devastating bombing raid on Tokyo of 9–10 March was the deadliest conventional bombing raid in history.

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on board USS Missouri, 2 September 1945

In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, overrunning the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May. Chinese forces started a counterattack in the Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June. At the same time, a naval blockade by submarines was strangling Japan's economy and drastically reducing its ability to supply overseas forces.

On 11 July, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany, and the American, British and Chinese governments reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction". During this conference, the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.

The call for unconditional surrender was rejected by the Japanese government, which believed it would be capable of negotiating for more favourable surrender terms. In early August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, declared war on Japan, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. These two events persuaded previously adamant Imperial Army leaders to accept surrender terms. The Red Army also captured the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On the night of 9–10 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced his decision to accept the terms demanded by the Allies in the Potsdam Declaration. On 15 August, the Emperor communicated this decision to the Japanese people through a speech broadcast on the radio (Gyokuon-hōsō, literally "broadcast in the Emperor's voice"). On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed at Tokyo Bay on the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.

Aftermath

Main articles: Aftermath of World War II and Consequences of Nazism
Defendants at the Nuremberg trials, where the Allied forces prosecuted prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany for crimes against humanity

The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany, both initially divided between western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, respectively. However, their paths soon diverged. In Germany, the western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union officially ended in 1949, with the respective zones becoming separate countries, West Germany and East Germany. In Austria, however, occupation continued until 1955, when a joint settlement between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union permitted the reunification of Austria as a democratic state officially non-aligned with any political bloc (although in practice having better relations with the Western Allies). A denazification program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in the Nuremberg trials and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.

Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland, and East Prussia was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union, followed by the expulsion to Germany of the nine million Germans from these provinces, as well as three million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. By the 1950s, one-fifth of West Germans were refugees from the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon Line, from which 2 million Poles were expelled; north-east Romania, parts of eastern Finland, and the Baltic states were annexed into the Soviet Union. Italy lost its monarchy, colonial empire and some European territories.

In an effort to maintain world peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 as a common standard for all member nations. The great powers that were the victors of the war—France, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States—became the permanent members of the UN's Security Council. The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.

Post-war border changes in Central Europe and creation of the Communist Eastern Bloc

Besides Germany, the rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence. Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Albania became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy, causing tension with the Soviet Union. A Communist uprising in Greece was put down with Anglo-American support and the country remained aligned with the West.

Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The long period of political tensions and military competition between them—the Cold War—would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and number of proxy wars throughout the world.

In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administered Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Korea, formerly under Japanese colonial rule, was divided and occupied by the Soviet Union in the North and the United States in the South between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.

In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949. In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab–Israeli conflict. While European powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonisation.

The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The United States emerged much richer than any other nation, leading to a baby boom, and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers, and it dominated the world economy. The Allied occupational authorities pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany from 1945 to 1948. Due to international trade interdependencies, this policy led to an economic stagnation in Europe and delayed European recovery from the war for several years.

At the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944, the Allied nations drew up an economic framework for the post-war world. The agreement created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which later became part of the World Bank Group. The Bretton Woods system lasted until 1973. Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the U.S. Marshall Plan economic aid (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused. The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle. Italy also experienced an economic boom and the French economy rebounded. By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, and although receiving a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country, it continued in relative economic decline for decades. The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era, having seized and transferred most of Germany's industrial plants and exacted war reparations from its satellite states. Japan recovered much later. China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.

Impact

Main article: Historiography of World War II

Casualties and war crimes

Main article: World War II casualties Further information: War crimes in World War II
World War II deaths

Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians.

The Soviet Union alone lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths. A quarter of the total people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed. Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.

An estimated 11 to 17 million civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Hitler's racist policies, including mass killing of around 6 million Jews, along with Roma, homosexuals, at least 1.9 million ethnic Poles and millions of other Slavs (including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), and other ethnic and minority groups. Between 1941 and 1945, more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs, along with Roma and Jews, were persecuted and murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in Yugoslavia. Concurrently, Muslims and Croats were persecuted and killed by Serb nationalist Chetniks, with an estimated 50,000–68,000 victims (of which 41,000 were civilians). Also, more than 100,000 Poles were massacred by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Volhynia massacres, between 1943 and 1945. At the same time, about 10,000–15,000 Ukrainians were killed by the Polish Home Army and other Polish units, in reprisal attacks.

Bodies of Chinese civilians killed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Nanjing Massacre in December 1937

In Asia and the Pacific, the number of people killed by Japanese troops remains contested. According to R.J. Rummel, the Japanese killed between 3 million and more than 10 million people, with the most probable case of almost 6,000,000 people. According to the British historian M. R. D. Foot, civilian deaths are between 10 million and 20 million, whereas Chinese military casualties (killed and wounded) are estimated to be over five million. Other estimates say that up to 30 million people, most of them civilians, were killed. The most infamous Japanese atrocity was the Nanjing Massacre, in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Three Alls policy. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Hebei and Shandong.

Axis forces employed biological and chemical weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during its invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731) and in early conflicts against the Soviets. Both the Germans and the Japanese tested such weapons against civilians, and sometimes on prisoners of war.

The Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers, and the imprisonment or execution of hundreds of thousands of political prisoners by the NKVD secret police, along with mass civilian deportations to Siberia, in the Baltic states and eastern Poland annexed by the Red Army. Soviet soldiers committed mass rapes in occupied territories, especially in Germany. The exact number of German women and girls raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation is uncertain, but historians estimate their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as two million, while figures for women raped by German soldiers in the Soviet Union go as far as ten million.

The mass bombing of cities in Europe and Asia has often been called a war crime, although no positive or specific customary international humanitarian law with respect to aerial warfare existed before or during World War II. The USAAF bombed a total of 67 Japanese cities, killing 393,000 civilians, including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and destroying 65% of built-up areas.

Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour

Main articles: The Holocaust, Nazi concentration camps, Extermination camp, Forced labour under German rule during World War II, Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany, Nazi human experimentation, Soviet war crimes § World War II, and Japanese war crimes
Schutzstaffel (SS) female camp guards removing prisoners' bodies from lorries and carrying them to a mass grave, inside the German Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945

Nazi Germany, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, was responsible for murdering about 6 million Jews in what is now known as the Holocaust. They also murdered an additional 4 million others who were deemed "unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet prisoners of war, Romani, homosexuals, Freemasons, and Jehovah's Witnesses) as part of a program of deliberate extermination, in effect becoming a "genocidal state". Soviet POWs were kept in especially unbearable conditions, and 3.6 million Soviet POWs out of 5.7 million died in Nazi camps during the war. In addition to concentration camps, death camps were created in Nazi Germany to exterminate people on an industrial scale. Nazi Germany extensively used forced labourers; about 12 million Europeans from German-occupied countries were abducted and used as a slave work force in German industry, agriculture and war economy.

Prisoner identity photograph of a Polish girl taken by the German SS in Auschwitz. Approximately 230,000 children were held prisoner and used in forced labour and Nazi medical experiments

The Soviet Gulag became a de facto system of deadly camps during 1942–43, when wartime privation and hunger caused numerous deaths of inmates, including foreign citizens of Poland and other countries occupied in 1939–40 by the Soviet Union, as well as Axis POWs. By the end of the war, most Soviet POWs liberated from Nazi camps and many repatriated civilians were detained in special filtration camps where they were subjected to NKVD evaluation, and 226,127 were sent to the Gulag as real or perceived Nazi collaborators.

Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent), seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians. While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released was only 56.

At least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million. In Java, between 4 and 10 million rōmusha (Japanese: "manual labourers"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in Southeast Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.

Occupation

Main articles: German-occupied Europe, Resistance during World War II, Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Collaboration with Imperial Japan, and Nazi plunder
Polish civilians wearing blindfolds photographed just before being massacred by German soldiers in Palmiry forest, 1940

In Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichsmarks (27.8 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include the plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods. Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on.

Soviet partisans hanged by the German army. The Russian Academy of Sciences reported in 1995 that civilian victims in the Soviet Union at German hands totalled 13.7 million dead, twenty percent of the 68 million people in the occupied Soviet Union

In the East, the intended gains of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders. Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged extreme brutality against what it considered to be the "inferior people" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass atrocities and war crimes. The Nazis killed an estimated 2.77 million ethnic Poles during the war in addition to Polish-Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Although resistance groups formed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East or the West until late 1943.

In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples. Although Japanese forces were sometimes welcomed as liberators from European domination, Japanese war crimes frequently turned local public opinion against them. During Japan's initial conquest, it captured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m) of oil (~550,000 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces; and by 1943, was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels (7,900,000 m) of oil (~6.8 million tonnes), 76 percent of its 1940 output rate.

Home fronts and production

Main articles: Military production during World War II and Home front during World War II
Allies to Axis GDP ratio throughout the war

In the 1930s Britain and the United States of America together controlled almost 75% of world mineral output—essential for projecting military power.

In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and the British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); including colonies, the Allies had more than a 5:1 advantage in population and a nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP. In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this reduces to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.

The United States produced about two-thirds of all munitions used by the Allies in World War II, including warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition. Although the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies and the war evolved into one of attrition. While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis was partly due to more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the labour force, Allied strategic bombing, and Germany's late shift to a war economy contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and had not equipped themselves to do so. To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers; Germany enslaved about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe, while Japan used more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.

Advances in technology and its application

Main article: Technology during World War II
A V-2 rocket launched from a fixed site in Peenemünde, 21 June 1943

Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers, and ground-support, and each role developed considerably. Innovations included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel); and strategic bombing (the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war). Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery, in particular the introduction of the proximity fuze. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.

Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although aeronautical warfare had relatively little success at the start of the war, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship (in place of the battleship). In the Atlantic, escort carriers became a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap. Carriers were also more economical than battleships due to the relatively low cost of aircraft and because they are not required to be as heavily armoured. Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War, were expected by all combatants to be important in the second. The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII submarine and wolfpack tactics. Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh Light, Hedgehog, Squid, and homing torpedoes proved effective against German submarines.

Nuclear Gadget being raised to the top of the detonation "shot tower", at Alamogordo Bombing Range; Trinity nuclear test, New Mexico, July 1945

Land warfare changed from the static frontlines of trench warfare of World War I, which had relied on improved artillery that outmatched the speed of both infantry and cavalry, to increased mobility and combined arms. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon. In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War I, and advances continued throughout the war with increases in speed, armour and firepower. At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications. This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France. Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were used. Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces, and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I. The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG 34, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings. The assault rifle, a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard post-war infantry weapon for most armed forces.

Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well-known being the German Enigma machine. Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes and British Ultra, a pioneering method for decoding Enigma that benefited from information given to the United Kingdom by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war. Another component of military intelligence was deception, which the Allies used to great effect in operations such as Mincemeat and Bodyguard.

Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons, operations research, the development of artificial harbours, and oil pipelines under the English Channel. Penicillin was first developed, mass-produced, and used during the war.

See also

Notes

  1. While various other dates have been proposed as the date on which World War II began or ended, this is the period most frequently cited.
  2. Often abbreviated as WWII or WW2
  3. Reparations were exacted from East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. The USSR also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the Marshall Plan."

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References

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