World War II
Clockwise from top left: Commonwealth troops in the desert; Chinese civilians being buried alive by Japanese soldiers; Soviet forces during a winter offensive; Carrier-borne Japanese planes readying for take off; Soviet troops fighting in Berlin; A German submarine under attack.
Date Late 1930s – September 2, 1945 Location Europe, Pacific, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Result Allied victory. The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. Events 44 BC - Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion. Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar The European Theatre of Operations ( ETO) was an area of heavy fighting across Europe during World War II, from Nazi Germany's Invasion of Poland The Pacific War was the part of World War II —and preceding conflicts—that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands and in East Asia, between The South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was the name given to the campaigns of the Pacific War in India, Thailand, The Second Sino-Japanese War ( July 7, 1937 to September 9, 1945) was a major war fought between the Republic of China and the The Middle East Theatre of World War II is defined largely by reference to the British Middle East Command, which controlled Allied forces The African Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre of World War II encompasses naval land and air campaigns between Allied and Axis forces The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. Creation of the United Nations. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security Emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as superpowers. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 A superpower is a State with a leading position in the international system and the ability to Influence events and project power on a worldwide scale Creation of First World and Second World spheres of influence in Europe leading to the Cold War. The term " first world " refers to countries that are capitalist, which are technologically advanced and whose The term " Second World " is a phrase that was used to describe the Communist states within the Soviet Union 's sphere of influence A sphere of influence ( SOI) is an area or region over which an organization or state exerts some kind of indirect cultural economic military or political domination Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the (more...)
Belligerents
Allies	Axis powers
Commanders
Allied leaders	Axis leaders
Casualties and losses
Military dead: Over 14,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 36,000,000 Total dead: Over 50,000,000 ...further details.	Military dead: Over 8,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 4,000,000 Total dead Over 12,000,000 ...further details.

World War II or the Second World War^[1] was a global military conflict, the joining of what had initially been two separate conflicts. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries The Allied Leaders of World War II consists of the important political and military figures that fought or supported the Allies during World War II. The Axis leaders of World War II were the important political and military figures during the war. World War II was humanity's deadliest war causing tens of millions of deaths World War II was humanity's deadliest war causing tens of millions of deaths War is an international relations Dispute, characterized by organized Violence between National Military units The first began in Asia in 1937 as the Second Sino-Japanese War; the other began in Europe in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. The Second Sino-Japanese War ( July 7, 1937 to September 9, 1945) was a major war fought between the Republic of China and the The Invasion of Poland (1939 precipitated World War II. It was carried out by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small German-allied

This global conflict split the majority of the world's nations into opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. The participants in World War II were those Nations who either participated directly in or were affected by any of the theaters or events of World War II. The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries It involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history, and placed the participants in a state of "total war", erasing the distinction between civil and military resources. Total war is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a Belligerent engages in a total mobilization of all available resources at his disposal This resulted in the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort. Over 70 million people, the majority of them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. World War II was humanity's deadliest war causing tens of millions of deaths Prehistory See also Prehistory Paleolithic See also Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens ^[2] The financial cost of the war is estimated at about a trillion 1944 U. S. dollars worldwide,^[3][4] making it the most costly war in capital as well as lives. ^[5]

The Allies were victorious, and, as a result, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the world's leading superpowers. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A superpower is a State with a leading position in the international system and the ability to Influence events and project power on a worldwide scale This set the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the The United Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security The self determination spawned by the war accelerated decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Western Europe itself began moving toward integration. Self-determination is defined as free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion and especially as the freedom of the people of a given Territory to determine their Decolonization refers to the undoing of Colonialism, the establishment of governance or authority through the creation of settlements by another country or jurisdiction Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' This article refers to the development of what is now the European Union, and to developments within those countrieswhich constitute it at the time of or near to ^[6]

Background

Main article: Causes of World War II

In the aftermath of World War I, the defeated German Empire signed the Treaty of Versailles. The culmination of events that led to World War II are generally understood to be the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and of the Republic The fighting in World War I ended when an Armistice took effect at 1100 am GMT on November 11 1918 The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. ^[7] This caused Germany to lose a significant portion of its territory, prohibited the annexation of other states, limited the size of German armed forces and imposed massive reparations. Russia's Civil war led to the creation of the Soviet Union which soon was under the control of Joseph Stalin. See also Russian Revolution (1905 The Russian Revolution of 1916 refers to a series of popular revolutions in Russia, and the events surrounding them The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party In Italy, Benito Mussolini seized power as a fascist dictator promising to create a "New Roman Empire. The March on Rome ( Marcia su Roma) was a Coup d'état by which Mussolini 's National Fascist Party ( Partito Nazionale Fascista Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology A dictator is an Authoritarian ruler (eg Absolutist or autocratic) who assumes sole and absolute power without hereditary ascension such as an Absolute The Italian colonial empire was created after the Kingdom of Italy joined other European powers in establishing colonies overseas during the " Scramble for Africa "^[8] The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against rebelling warlords in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese communist allies. The Northern Expedition ( was a military campaign led by the Kuomintang (KMT from 1926 to 1928. The Communist Party of China ( CPC) ( also known as the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP) is the founding and ruling political party of the In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had long sought influence in China^[9] as the first step of its right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as justification to invade Manchuria; the two nations then fought several small conflicts until the Tanggu Truce in 1933. Japanese Militarism-Socialism, sometimes also referred to as "Japanese right socialism", "Shōwa Nationalism" or Japanese fascism, refers to a The Empire of Japan ( {{unicode|Kyūjitai}}: ja 大日本帝國 Shinjitai: ja 大日本帝国 pronounced Dai Nippon Teikoku was a Japanese Political slogan that became popular during the first part of the Showa era, and was popularized in a speech by Prime Minister of Japan On September 18, 1931, near Mukden (now Shenyang) in southern Manchuria, a section of railroad owned by Japan 's South Manchuria Manchuria ( Romanized Manchu: Manju,, Маньчжурия Mongolian: Манж is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast The Tanggu Truce, sometimes called the Tangku Truce ( Japanese, was a Cease-fire signed between China and Empire of Japan in

German troops at the 1935 Nuremberg Rally

National Socialist Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany in 1933 and soon began a massive rearming campaign. The Nuremberg Rally (officially Reichsparteitag, meaning national party convention was the annual rally of the NSDAP (Nazi Party in the years 1923 to 1938 in Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately ^[10] This worried France and the United Kingdom, who had lost much in the previous war, as well as Italy, which saw its territorial ambitions threatened by those of Germany. ^[11] To secure its alliance, the French allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired to conquer. On January 7 1935, the French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Saarland was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, speeding up remilitarization and introducing conscription. Saarland (ˈzaːɐ̯lant in German; French: Sarre) is one of the 16 federal states (German Bundesländer) of Germany. Hoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front. The Stresa Front was an agreement made in Stresa, a town on the banks of Lake Maggiore in Italy between French foreign minister Pierre Laval, British The Soviet Union, concerned due to Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of eastern Europe, concluded a treaty of mutual assistance with France. "Drang nach Osten" is also a game in the " Europa " wargame series

Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, rendering it essentially toothless^[12][13] and in June of 1935, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany easing prior restrictions. The Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance was a bilateral pact between the two countries with the aim of containing German aggression in 1935 The League of Nations was an International organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920 The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA of June 18 1935 was a Bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and the German ''Reich'' The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August. The Neutrality Acts were a series of laws that were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia ^[14] In October, Italy invaded Ethiopia, with Germany the only major European nation supporting her invasion. See also First Italo-Ethiopian War. The Second Italo–Abyssinian War (also referred to as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War) was a Italy then revoked objections to Germany's goal of making Austria a satellite state. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich ^[15]

In direct violation of the Versailles and Locarno treaties, Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland in March of 1936. The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland on 5 October &ndash 16 October 1925 and formally signed The Remilitarization of the Rhineland by the German Army took place on 7 March 1936 when German forces entered the Rhineland. The Rhineland ( Rheinland in German) is the general name for the land on both sides of the river Rhine in the west of Germany. He received little response from other European powers. ^[16] When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, Hitler and Mussolini supported fascist Generalísimo Francisco Franco's nationalist forces in his civil war against the Soviet-supported Spanish Republic. The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde (born December 4, 1892 in Ferrol, died November 20, 1975 in Madrid The Second Spanish Republic was the system of government in Spain between April 14 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country Both sides used the conflict to test new weapons and methods of warfare^[17] and the nationalists would prove victorious in early 1939.

With tensions mounting, efforts to strengthen or consolidate power were made. In October, Germany and Italy formed the Rome-Berlin Axis and a month later Germany and Japan, each believing communism and the Soviet Union in particular to be a threat, signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year. The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries The Anti-Comintern Pact was concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan (later to be joined by other countries on November 25, 1936 In China, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan. The Second United Front was the alliance between the Kuomintang (KMT and Chinese Communist Party (CCP during the Second Sino-Japanese War or ^[18]

Course of the war

See also: Timeline of World War II

War breaks out

Japanese forces during the Battle of Wuhan

In mid-1937, following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japan began a full invasion of China. This is a timeline of events that stretched over the period of World War II. The Battle of Wuhan ( popularly known to Chinese as the Defense of Wuhan ( and to the Japanese as the Invasion of Wuhan ( Japanese The Marco Polo Bridge Incident ( 盧溝橋事變; also known as 七七事變 七七盧溝橋事變 or the Lugouqiao Incident) was a Battle between The Second Sino-Japanese War ( July 7, 1937 to September 9, 1945) was a major war fought between the Republic of China and the The Soviets quickly lent support to China, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. The Sino-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (中蘇互不侵犯條約 was signed on August 21, 1937, between the Republic of China and the Soviet Union Sino-German cooperation from 1911 to 1941 refers to the cooperation between China and Germany Starting at Shanghai, the Japanese pushed Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December. The Battle of Shanghai was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army, Republic of China and the Imperial The Battle of Nanjing ( began after the fall of Shanghai in October 9, 1937, and ended with the fall of the capital city of Nanjing In June of 1938 Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River. The 1938 Yellow River flood was a flood created by the Nationalist Government in central China during the early stage Though this bought time to prepare their defenses at Wuhan, the city was still taken by October. ( is the capital of Hubei province and is the most populous city in central People's Republic of China. The Battle of Wuhan ( popularly known to Chinese as the Defense of Wuhan ( and to the Japanese as the Invasion of Wuhan ( Japanese ^[19] During this time, Japanese and Soviet forces engaged in a minor skirmish at Lake Khasan; in May of 1939, they became involved in a more serious border war. The Battle of Lake Khasan ( July 29, 1938 &ndash August 11, 1938) and also known as the Changkufeng Incident (Chinese & Japanese The Battle of Khalkhyn Gol (бои на реке Халхин-Гол Халхын голын байлдаан Japanese ノモンハン事件 Nomonhan jiken --i ^[20]

In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers. The ( German: "link-up" also known as the, was the 1938 Annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi ^[21] Encouraged, Hitler began making claims on the Sudetenland; France and Britain conceded these for a promise of no further territorial demands. Sudetenland ( Czech and Polish: Sudety) is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the western regions of The Munich Agreement (Mnichovská dohoda Mníchovská dohoda Münchner Abkommen Accords de Munich was an agreement regarding the Sudetenland, which were areas along borders ^[22] Germany soon reneged, and in March 1939 fully occupied Czechoslovakia. Following the Anschluss of Nazi Germany and Austria in March 1938 Nazi leader Adolf Hitler 's next target for annexation was Czechoslovakia

Soviet and German officers in Poland

Alarmed, and with Hitler making further demands on Danzig, France and Britain guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece. The Free City of Danzig ( German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk) was an autonomous Baltic Sea port and The Anglo-Polish military alliance refers to agreements reached between the United Kingdom and the Polish Second Republic for mutual assistance in case of military The Italian invasion of Albania ( April 7 &ndash April 12, 1939) was a brief military campaign by the Kingdom of Italy against the Albanian Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία ^[23] The Soviet Union also attempted to ally with France and Britain, but was rebuffed due to western suspicions about Soviet motives and capability. ^[24] Shortly after the Franco-British pledges to Poland, Germany and Italy formalized their own alliance with the Pact of Steel; following this, in a move that shocked all other major powers, Germany and the Soviet Union concluded a non-aggression pact, including a secret agreement to split Poland and eastern Europe between them. The Pact of Steel, known formally as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy, was an agreement between Fascist ^[25]

By the start of September 1939, the Soviets had routed Japanese forces and the Germans invaded Poland. The Invasion of Poland (1939 precipitated World War II. It was carried out by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small German-allied France, Britain, and the countries of the Commonwealth declared war on Germany but lent little support other than a small French attack into the Saarland. A declaration of war is a formal performative Speech act or signing of a document by an authorised party of a government in order to initate a state of War The Saar Offensive was a French operation into the Saarland on the German 1 ^[26] In mid-September, after signing an armistice with Japan, the Soviets launched their own invasion of Poland. The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939 during the early stages of World War II, sixteen ^[27] By early October, Poland had been divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. At the beginning of World War II, significant Polish areas were annexed by Nazi Germany in contrary to Hague Convention IV 1907 and put under German civil After the Soviet invasion of Poland following the corresponding German invasion that marked the start of World War II in 1939 the Soviet Union annexed During the battle in Poland, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by early October. Battle of Changsha ( September 17, 1939 – October 6, 1939) was the first attempt by Japan to take the city of Changsha ^[28]

Axis advances

British and French soldiers taken prisoner in Northern France

Following the invasion of Poland, the Soviets began moving troops into the Baltic region. Baltic Seven Islandsgif|right|thumb|330px|A contemporary transnational Euroregion encompasses the islands of the Baltic countries Finnish resistance in late November led to a four-month war, ending with Finnish concessions. The Winter War (Talvisota Советско-финляндская война - official Зимняя война - unofficial Vinterkriget began when the The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on March 12, 1940, and the ratifications were exchanged on March 21 ^[29] France and the United Kingdom, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war on the side of the Germans^[30] responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting its expulsion from the League of Nations. ^[30] Though China had the authority to veto such an action, it was unwilling to alienate itself from either the Western powers or the Soviet Union and instead abstained. ^[30] The Soviet Union was displeased by this course of action and as a result suspended all military aid to China. ^[30] By mid-1940, the Soviet Union's occupation of the Baltics was completed with the installation of pro-Soviet governments. The occupation of the Baltic states refers to the occupation of the Baltic states ( Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) first by the ^[31]

In Western Europe, British troops deployed to the Continent, but neither Germany nor the Allies launched direct attacks on the other. The Phoney War, also called the Twilight War by Winston Churchill, der Sitzkrieg in German ("the sitting war" a In April, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to secure shipments of iron-ore from Sweden which the allies would try to disrupt. Operation Weserübung was the codename for Nazi Germany 's assault on Denmark and Norway during World War II and the opening operation Swedish Iron ore was an important economic factor in the European Theater of World War II. Denmark immediately capitulated, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe The Norwegian Campaign, lasting from 9 April to 10 June 1940, led to the first direct land confrontation between the military forces of the Allies Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional ^[32] British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain by Winston Churchill on May 10, 1940. The Norway Debate, sometimes called the Narvik Debate, was a famous debate in the British House of Commons that took place on May 7 and May 8 Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 &ndash 9 November 1940 was a British Conservative Politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC, PC (Can ( 30 November 1874 ^[33]

On that same day, Germany invaded France and the Low Countries. In World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries Using blitzkrieg tactics, the Netherlands and Belgium were overrun and British troops were forced to evacuate the continent, abandoning their heavy equipment by the end of the month. Blitzkrieg (German for "lightning war" is a popular name for an Offensive operational-level Military doctrine which involves an initial The Battle of the Netherlands (Slag om Nederland was part of Case Yellow (Fall Gelb the German invasion of the Low Countries ( Belgium The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo by the British was the Evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk ^[34] On June 10th, Italy invaded, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom;^[34] twelve days later France surrendered and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones,^[35] and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime. Italian invasion of France in June 1940 was a small scale invasion that started near the end of the Battle of France. The Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed at 1850 on 22 June 1940 near Compiègne, in the department of Oise, between Nazi Germany The German occupation of France in World War II occurred during the period between May 1940 to December 1944 Fascist Italy occupied a small section of south-east France during World War II, during the time of the Vichy Government under A rump state is the remnant of a once-larger Government, left with limited powers or authority after a Disaster, Invasion or Military occupation Vichy France, or the Vichy regime are the common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944 In early July, the British attacked the French fleet in Algeria to prevent their seizure by Germany. The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir, also known as Operation Catapult, was a hostile engagement off the coast of French Algeria where a British Royal Navy French rule of Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962 under a variety of governmental systems ^[36]

German bombers during the Battle of Britain

With France neutralized, Germany began an air superiority campaign over Britain to prepare for an invasion^[37] and enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout The Battle of Britain (German ''Luftschlacht um England'' is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and The Battle of Britain (German ''Luftschlacht um England'' is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and Operation Sealion (Unternehmen Seelöwe was Germany's plan to invade the United Kingdom during World War II, beginning in 1940 The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous Military campaign of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval Military campaigns The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word, itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot ( undersea boat) and refers The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous Military campaign of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval Military campaigns ^[38] Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland in August, and making an incursion into British-held Egypt in early September. The Siege of Malta was a significant Military event in the Mediterranean Theatre of World War II that occurred between 1940 and 1943 on the island The Italian conquest of British Somaliland was a campaign in the Horn of Africa which took place in the summer of 1940 and was part of the East African Campaign The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War was the initial stage of the North African Campaign of The Second World War. Japan increased its blockade of China in September by seizing several bases in the northern part of the now-isolated French Indochina. The, also known as the Vietnam Expedition, was an attempt by the Empire of Japan, during the Second Sino-Japanese War to blockade China and prevent First French interventions See also France-Vietnam relations France-Vietnam relations started as early as the 17th century with the mission of the Jesuit ^[39]

Throughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow Cash and carry purchases by the Allies. The policy of cash and carry during the onset of World War II in 1939 revised the Neutrality Acts that were established by US President Roosevelt. ^[40] In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of United States Navy was significantly increased and after the Japanese incursion into Indochina, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city The Two-Ocean Navy Act, (aka Vinson - Walsh Act was an American Act of Congress passed on July 19th 1940 to increase the size of the In international Commerce and politics, an embargo is the prohibition of commerce ^[41] In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases. The Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, September 2, 1940, transferred fifty Destroyers ^[42]

At the end of September the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Italy and Germany formalized the Axis Powers. The Tripartite Treaty (1906 also refers to a 1906 treaty concerning the Nile river (see Hydropolitics in the Nile Basin. The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries The pact stipulated, with the exception of the Soviet Union, any country not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. ^[43] The Soviet Union expressed interest in joining the Tripartite Pact, sending a modified draft to Germany in November and offering a very German-favourable economic deal;^[44] while Germany remained silent on the former, they accepted the latter. ^[45] Regardless of the pact, the United States continued to support the United Kingdom and China by introducing the Lend-Lease policy^[46] and creating a security zone spanning roughly half of the Atlantic Ocean where the United States Navy protected British convoys. Lend-Lease (Public Law 77-11 was the name of the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, ^[47]

In October, Italy invaded Greece but within days were repulsed and pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred. The Greco-Italian War ( Ελληνοϊταλικός Πόλεμος Ellēnoїtalikós Pólemos or Πόλεμος ^[48] Shortly after this, in Africa, Commonwealth forces launched offensives against Libya and Italian East Africa. Operation Compass was the first major Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during World War II. The East African Campaign refers to the battles fought in East Africa during World War II. By early 1941, with Italian forces having been pushed back into Libya by the Commonwealth, Churchill ordered a dispatch of troops from Africa to bolster the Greeks. Operation Lustre was an action during World War II, involving the dispatch of British Australian New Zealand and Polish troops from Egypt to Greece in The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission via carrier attack at Taranto, and several more warships neutralized at Cape Matapan. The Regia Marina ( Italian Royal Navy) dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification. The naval Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11 November 1940 &ndash 12 November 1940 during World War II The Battle of Cape Matapan (Battle of Tenaro) was a World War II Naval battle fought off the Peloponnesian coast of Greece from ^[49]

German paratroopers invading Crete

The Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. (often rendered Fallschirmjager in English; from the German Fallschirm "parachute" and Jäger, "hunter Crete ( Greek: Κρήτη transliteration: Krētē, modern transliteration Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the Hitler sent German forces to Libya in February and by the end of March they had launched an offensive against the diminished Commonwealth forces. Operation Sunflower (German Unternehmen Sonnenblume) was the deployment of German troops (the “ Afrika Korps ” to North Africa in February The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War was the initial stage of the North African Campaign of The Second World War. In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port of Tobruk. The Siege of Tobruk was a lengthy confrontation between Axis and Allied forces in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaign of World War The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions. Operation Brevity was a limited attack launched in May 1941 by elements of the British XIII Corps against Axis forces during the Western Desert Campaign Operation Battleaxe was a British Army operation during the Second World War in June 1941 with the goal of clearing Eastern Cyrenaica of German In early April the Germans similarly intervened in the Balkans, invading Greece and Yugoslavia; here too they made rapid progress, eventually forcing the Allies to evacuate after Germany conquered the Greek island of Crete by the end of May. The Battle of Greece (also known as Operation Marita, Unternehmen Marita was a World War II battle that occurred on the Greek mainland and in southern Albania The Battle of Crete ( German Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta; Greek Μάχη της Κρήτης) was a battle during World War II ^[50]

The Allies did have some successes during this time though. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first quashed a coup in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria,^[51] then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. The Anglo-Iraqi War was a conflict between the United Kingdom and the Nationalist government of Iraq during World War II. The French Mandate of Syria was a League of Nations Mandate created after the First World War and the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres FFL) were French fighters in World War II who decided to continue fighting against Axis forces The Syria-Lebanon campaign, also known as Operation Exporter, was the Allied invasion of Vichy French -controlled Syria and Lebanon ^[52] In the Atlantic, the British scored a much needed public morale boost by sinking the German flagship Bismarck. The last battle of the German Battleship ''Bismarck'' took place in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 300 nautical miles (560 km west of ^[53] Perhaps most importantly, the Royal Air Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe's assault, and on May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the bombing campaign over Britain. ^[54]

In Asia, in spite of several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. In August of that year, 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. The Hundred Regiments Offensive (百团大战 ( August 20 – December 5, 1940) was a major campaign of the Communist Party of China 's The Three Alls Policy (三光作戦 Sankō Sakusen;) was a Japanese Scorched earth policy adopted in China during World War II, the three alls ^[55] Mounting tensions between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation. The New Fourth Army Incident (新四軍事件 also known as the Wannan Incident (皖南事变 occurred during the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which ^[56]

With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union made preparations. 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 a neutrality agreement in April, 1941. The was a Pact between the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan signed in 1941 two years after the brief Soviet-Japanese Border War (1939. ^[57] By contrast the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, amassing forces on the Soviet border, particularly in Finland and Romania. See also Kings of Romania The Kingdom of Roumania (or ' Romania ' in post-1969 and also current spelling was the old Romanian state based on a form of ^[58]

The war becomes global

German soldiers in the Soviet Union, 1941

In late June, Germany, along with other European Axis members and Finland, invaded the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa ( Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the Codename for Nazi Germany 's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II They made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting large numbers of casualties, and by the start of December had almost reached Moscow, with only the besieged cities of Leningrad and Sevastopol behind their front-lines left unconquered. The Battle of Moscow (Битва под Москвой Romanized: Bitva pod Moskvoy, Schlacht um Moskau is the name given by the Soviet historians to the two The Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade ( Russian: блокада Ленинграда ( transliteration: blokada Leningrada ^[59] With the onset of a fierce Soviet winter though, the Axis offensive was ground to a halt^[60] and the Soviets launched a counter-offensive using reserve troops brought up from the border near Japanese Manchukuo. The Eastern Front of World War II (die Ostfront 1941-1945, der Rußlandfeldzug 1941-1945 (Russian campaign or der Ostfeldzug 1941-1945 (Eastern Campaign ^[61]

Following the German attack on the Soviets, the United Kingdom began to regroup. In July, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany^[62] and shortly after jointly invaded Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oilfields. The Anglo-Soviet Agreement was a formal military alliance signed by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union against Germany on July 12 1941 shortly after The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran was the invasion of Iran by British and Commonwealth forces and the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Countenance The Persian Corridor is the name for a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred ^[63] In August, the United Kingdom and United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, a vision for a post-war world which included "the right of all peoples to choose their form of government". The Atlantic Charter was negotiated at the Atlantic Conference (codenamed Riviera) by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U ^[64] In November, Commonwealth forces launched a counter-offensive in the desert, reclaiming all gains the Germans and Italians had made. Operation Crusader ( 18 November &ndash 30 December 1941) was the third the largest the longest and ultimately successful attempt to relieve the 1941 ^[65]

Japan, hoping to utilize Germany's control over the Netherlands, made several demands, including a steady supply of oil, from the Dutch East Indies; these talks, however, broke down in June. See http//enwikipediaorg/wiki/WikipediaFootnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the tags and the template below ^[66] In July, Japan seized military control of southern Indochina since it would not only put them in a better position to coerce the Dutch East Indies into yielding, but it would also be a blow against China; should war be necessary, it also improved their strategic position against the Americans and British. ^[67] The United States, United Kingdom and other western governments responded to Japan's incursion by freezing all Japanese assets^[68] and the United States, which supplied 80% of Japan's oil, further placed an oil embargo against Japan. ^[69] With the unexpected embargo, Japan was essentially forced to choose between withdrawing from their aggression in Asia, or seizing the oil they needed directly; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many of them considered the oil embargo as an unspoken declaration of war. ^[70]

The Imperial General Headquarters thus planned to create a large perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific in order to facilitate a defensive war while exploiting the resources of Southeast Asia; to prevent intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralize the United States Pacific Fleet on the outset. The as part of the Supreme War Council was established in 1893 to coordinate efforts between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during wartime The United States Pacific Fleet ( USPACFLT) is a Pacific Ocean Navy theater-level component command of the United States Navy, under the operational control ^[71] On December 7th Japan attacked British, Dutch and American holdings with near simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, including an attack on the American naval base of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese expansion of 1941-1942 refers to the opening of the Pacific War when the Empire of Japan attacked British, Dutch, Australian and The attack on Pearl Harbor (or Hawaii Operation, as it was called by the Imperial General Headquarters) was a surprise Military strike conducted by ^[72]

These attacks prompted the United States, United Kingdom, China, and other Western Allies to declare war on Japan. Italy, Germany, and the other members of the Tripartite Pact responded by declaring war on the United States. In January, the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China, along with twenty-two smaller or exiled governments, issued the Declaration by United Nations, affirming the Atlantic Charter^[73] and formalizing their alliance against the Axis Powers. The Declaration by United Nations was a World War II document agreed to on January 1 1942 during the Arcadia Conference by 26 governments several The Soviet Union did not adhere fully to the declaration though, as they maintained their neutrality agreement with Japan^[74] and exempted themselves from the principle of self-determination. ^[64]

British soldiers surrendering from the Battle of Singapore

The Axis Powers, however, were able to continue their offensives. The Suffolk Regiment was an Infantry Regiment of the line in the British Army with a history dating back to 1685 The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold Japan had almost fully conquered Southeast Asia with minimal losses by the end of April, 1942, chasing the Allies out of Burma and taking large numbers of prisoners in the Philippines, Malaya, Dutch East Indies and Singapore. The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. The Battle of the Philippines was the invasion of the Philippines by Japan in 1941–42 and the defense of the islands by Filipino and United The Battle of Malaya was a campaign fought by Allied and Japanese forces in Malaya, from December 8 1941 to January 31 The Netherlands East Indies campaign of 1941 - 42 was the short-lived defence of the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia by Allied forces against The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold ^[75] They further bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia and sunk significant Allied warships not only at Pearl Harbor, but also in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean. The Japanese air raids on Darwin, Australia, on 19 February 1942 were the largest attacks ever mounted by a foreign power against The Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a World War II naval engagement which illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks The Battle of the Java Sea was a major Naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. The Indian Ocean raid was a naval sortie by the Fast Carrier Strike Force of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 31 March to 10 April 1942 ^[76] The only real successes against Japan were a repulsion of their renewed attack on Changsha in early January, 1942,^[77] and a psychological strike from a bombing raid on Japan's capital Tokyo in April. The third Battle of Changsha ( December 24, 1941 – January 15, 1942) was the first major offensive in China by Imperial The Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike the Japanese home island of Honshū ^[78]

Germany was able to regain the initiative as well. Exploiting American inexperience with submarine warfare, the German Navy sunk significant resources near the American Atlantic coast. The Kriegsmarine (English "War navy" was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945 during the Nazi regime superseding the The Second Happy Time was the informal name for a phase in the Second Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis Submarines attacked Merchant shipping ^[79] In the desert, they launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early February. ^[80] In the Soviet Union, the Soviet's winter counter-offensive had ended by March. ^[81] In both the desert and the Soviet Union, there followed a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. ^[82][83]

The tide turns

American aircraft attacking a Japanese cruiser at Midway

In early May, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby via amphibious assault and thus sever the line of communications between the United States and Australia. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Background Built under the 1931 Fleet Replenishment Program the Mogami -class cruisers were designed to the maximum limits allowed by the Washington Naval Treaty Operation Mo ( Mo Sakusen) or the Port Moresby Operation was the name of the Japanese plan to take control of the Australian Territory of The Allies, however, intercepted and turned back Japanese naval forces, preventing the invasion. The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from May 4 – May 8, 1942, with most of the action occurring on May 7 and May 8, was ^[84] Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier bombing on Tokyo, was to seize the Midway Atoll as this would seal a gap in their perimeter defenses, provide a forward base for further operations, and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands. Midway Atoll (or Midway Island or Midway Islands; Hawaiian: Pihemanu Kauihelani) is a 2 The Aleutian Islands campaign was a struggle over the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska, in the Pacific campaign of World War II. ^[85] In early June, Japan put their operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of the Japanese plans and force dispositions and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy. During World War II the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN used many Codes and Ciphers, some more effective than others The Battle of Midway was a major Naval battle, widely regarded as the most important one of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. For Combined Fleet, please see that article For Carrier Striking Task Force, please see that article ^[86] With their capacity for amphibious assault greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on an overland campaign on the Territory of Papua in another attempt to capture Port Moresby. This article concerns the World War II military campaign For more general information see the Kokoda Track article The Territory of Papua was a de facto Australian possession comprising the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea, existing from roughly 1902 ||-||-||-||-||-||} Port Moresby (ˌpɔrt ˈmɔrzbi or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, population 255000 (2000 is the Capital and largest city of Papua ^[87] For the Americans, they planned their next move against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily against the island of Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the primary Japanese base in Southeast Asia. The Solomon Islands is a country in Melanesia, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands Guadalcanal (local name Isatabu) is a 2510- Square mile (6500- km²) Island in the Pacific Ocean and a province of the Solomon Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province Papua New Guinea. ^[88] 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. The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal, was fought between August 7, 1942, and February 9, 1943, in the Oro Province, formerly (and officially still Northern Province, is a Coastal Province of Papua New Guinea. ^[89] Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in a battle of attrition. This article is about the military strategy For the Israeli-Egyptian conflict see War of Attrition, for the game theoretical model see War of attrition (game By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. was the largely successful withdrawal of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal at the conclusion of the Guadalcanal Campaign of World War II. ^[90]

In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942 went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May of 1943. The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily between British Commonwealth, Chinese and United ^[91] The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved dubious results. The Chindits (Officially in 1942 77th Indian Infantry Brigade and in 1943 Indian 3rd Infantry Division) were a British Indian Army "Special Force" that served ^[92]

Soviet soldiers in the Battle of Stalingrad

On Germany's eastern front, the Axis defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov^[93] and then launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June, 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus. The Battle of Stalingrad is a commonly used name in English sources for several large operations by Germany and its allies and Soviet forces conducted with the The Eastern Front of World War II (die Ostfront 1941-1945, der Rußlandfeldzug 1941-1945 (Russian campaign or der Ostfeldzug 1941-1945 (Eastern Campaign Battle of the Kerch Peninsula (Unternehmen Trappenjagd was a World War II offensive by German and Romanian armies against the Soviet Crimean Front forces defending The Second Battle of Kharkov, so named by Wilhelm Keitel was an Axis counteroffensive against the Red Army Izium bridgehead offensive conducted from May 12 to Case Blue ( Fall Blau) was the German codename used by the German Armed Forces ( Wehrmacht) for its 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad which was in the path of the advancing German armies and by mid-November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad^[94] and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously. The Battle of Stalingrad is a commonly used name in English sources for several large operations by Germany and its allies and Soviet forces conducted with the Urban warfare is modern warfare conducted in Urban areas such as Towns and cities. The Eastern Front of World War II (die Ostfront 1941-1945, der Rußlandfeldzug 1941-1945 (Russian campaign or der Ostfeldzug 1941-1945 (Eastern Campaign Operation Uranus was the Soviet encirclement of German forces in the Battle of Stalingrad during World War 2. Operation Mars was the operation codename for the Rzhev offensive operation part of the Rzhev-Vyazma strategic offensive operation (08 ^[95] By early February, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; their troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position prior to their 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 Russian city of Kursk. The Third Battle of Kharkov was a series of offensive operations undertaken by the German Army Group South against the Red Army, around the city of Kharkov ( Salient Salients can be formed in a number of ways An attacker can produce a salient in the defender's line by either intentionally making a Pincer movement around the History KurskOld2jpg|thumb|200px|Pre-1917 view of Kursk]] Archaeology indicates that the site of Kursk was settled in the fifth or fourth century B ^[96]

In the west, concerns that the Japanese might utilize bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May, 1942. Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar (older name Malagasy Republic) is an Island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern The Battle of Madagascar (or Operation Ironclad) was the Allied campaign to capture Vichy French -controlled Madagascar during World ^[97] This success was off set soon after by an Axis offensive in Libya which pushed the Allies back into Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein. The Battle of Gazala was an important battle of the World War II Western Desert Campaign, fought around the port of Tobruk in Libya from The First Battle of El Alamein 1&ndash27 July 1942 was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign of World War II, fought between Axis forces commanded ^[98] On the Continent, Allied commandos had conducted a series of increasingly ambitious raids on strategic targets, culminating in a disastrous amphibious raid on the German held port of Dieppe. In Military science, the term commando can refer to an individual a Military unit, or a raiding style of military operation. The Dieppe Raid, also known as The Battle of Dieppe or Operation Jubilee, during the Second World War, was an Allied attack on the ^[99] In August the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to get desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. The Battle of Alam el Halfa took place between August 30 and September 5, 1942 south of El Alamein during the Western Desert Campaign of Operation Pedestal was a British operation to get desperately needed supplies to the island of Malta in August 1942 during the Second World War. ^[100] 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. The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. ^[101] This was followed up shortly after by an Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa which resulted in the region joining the Allies. Operation Torch (initially called Operation Gymnast) was the British - American invasion of French North Africa in World War II ^[102] Hitler responded to the defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France,^[102] though the Vichy Admiralty managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces. During World War II the German authorities codenamed the occupation of Vichy France Case (or Operation) Anton. The French fleet in Toulon was Scuttled on 27 November 1942 on the order of the Admiralty of Vichy France to avoid capture by ^[103] The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies by May, 1943. Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa. The Tunisia Campaign (also known as the Battle of Tunisia was a series of World War II battles that took place in Tunisia in the North African Campaign ^[104]

Allies gain momentum

A British mortar detachment fighting in Burma

In mainland Asia, the Japanese launched two major offensives. A mortar is a muzzle-loading Indirect fire weapon that fires shells at low velocities short ranges and high-arcing ballistic trajectories The first, started in March, 1944, was against British positions in Assam, India^[105] and soon led to Japanese forces besieging Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima;^[106] by May however, other Japanese forces were being besieged in Myitkyina by Chinese forces which had invaded Northern Burma in late 1943. The U Go offensive, or Operation C (ウ号作戦 was the Japanese offensive in March 1944 launched against Empire forces in the North-East Indian The Battle of Imphal took place in the region around the city of Imphal, the capital of the state of Manipur in North-East India from March until July The Battle of Kohima (the " Stalingrad of the East" was the turning point of the Japanese U Go offensive into India in 1944 in World War II Myitkyina ( in English pronounced myiʔʧíná) is the Capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar (formerly Burma located 919 miles from ^[107] The second was in China, with the goal of destroying China's main fighting forces, securing railways between Japanese-held territory, and capturing Allied airfields. Operation Ichi-Go was a campaign of a series of major battles between the Imperial Japanese Army forces and the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of ^[108] By June the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a renewed attack against Changsha in the Hunan province. Henan ( is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country The Battle of Changsha (1944 also known as the Battle of Hengyang or Battle of Hengyang-Changsha, was an invasion of the Chinese province of Hunan ( is a province of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting (hence the name Hunan, meaning ^[109]

Following the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May, 1943, American forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians,^[110] and soon after began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and to breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. The Aleutian Islands campaign was a struggle over the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska, in the Pacific campaign of World War II. Operation Cartwheel (1943–1944 was the major Military strategy for the Allies in the Pacific theater of World War II. In the Pacific Theater of World War II, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaigns, from November 1943 through February 1944 were the first offensive ^[111] By the end of March, 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and additionally neutralized another major Japanese base in the Caroline Islands. Operation Hailstone (トラック島空襲 Torakku-tō Kūshū, lit The Caroline Islands form a large Archipelago of widely scattered islands in the western Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Guinea. In April, the Allies then launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea. The Western New Guinea campaign was a series of actions in the New Guinea campaign of World War II. ^[112]

In the Mediterranean, Allied forces launched an invasion of Sicily in early July, 1943. The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis The attack on Italian soil, compounded with previous failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month. ^[113] The Allies soon followed up with an invasion of the Italian mainland in early September, following an Italian armistice with the Allies. The process Allied invasion of Italy, was the Allied landing on mainland Italy in September 1943 by General Harold Alexander 's 15th Army Group The Armistice with Italy was an Armistice signed on September 3 and publicly declared on September 8, 1943, during World War II, between ^[114] When this armistice was made public on September 8th, Germany responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas,^[115] and setting up a series of defensive lines. ^[116] On September 12th, German special forces further rescued Mussolini who then soon established a new client state in German occupied Italy. The Gran Sasso raid refers to Operation Eiche ( German for 'Oak' the daring rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini by German Paratroopers The Italian Social Republic ( Italian: Repubblica Sociale Italiana or RSI) was a Puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the ^[117] The Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November. The Winter Line was a series of German Military Fortifications in Italy, constructed during World War II by Organisation Todt ^[118] In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks against the line at Monte Cassino and attempted to outflank it with landings at Anzio. Monte Cassino has made it the repeated scene of battles and Sieges from antiquity. Operation Shingle ( January 22, 1944) during the Italian Campaign of World War II, was an Allied amphibious landing against By late May both of these offensives had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on June 4th Rome was captured. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 ^[119]

A Soviet tank during the Battle of Kursk

German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. The Battle of Kursk (Курская битва refers to a series of German and Soviet operations on the Eastern Front of World War II By May 1943, German submarine losses were so high that the naval campaign was temporarily called to a halt as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective. ‘Black May’ refers to a period (May 1943 in the Battle of the Atlantic campaign during World War II, when the German U-boat arm ( U-Bootwaffe ^[120]

In the Soviet Union, the Germans spent the spring and early summer of 1943 making preparations for a large offensive in the region of Kursk; the Soviets anticipated such an action though and spent their time fortifying the area. ^[121] On July 4th, the Germans launched their attack, though only about a week later Hitler cancelled the operation. The Battle of Kursk (Курская битва refers to a series of German and Soviet operations on the Eastern Front of World War II ^[122] The Soviets were then able to mount a massive counter-offensive and, by June 1944, had largely expelled Axis forces from the Soviet Union and made incursions into Romania. ^[123]

In November, 1943, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. The Cairo Conference (codenamed "SEXTANT" of November 22 - 26 November 1943 held in Cairo, Egypt, addressed the Allied The Tehran Conference ( Codenamed EUREKA) was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D At the former conference, the post-war return of Japanese territory was determined and in the latter, it was agreed 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.

Allies close in

Assault landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy

In June, 1944, the Western Allies invaded northern France and in August, after reassigning several Allied divisions in Italy, then invaded southern France;^[124] by 25 August the Allies had liberated Paris. Omaha Beach was the Code name for one of the principal landing points of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings Normandy (Normandie Norman: Normaundie) is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France, on 15 August, 1944, as part of World War II. Events 1248 - The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III the The Liberation of Paris' (also known as Battle for Paris) took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the surrender of ^[125] During the latter part of the year, the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe, and in Italy ran into the last major defensive line. The Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine was one of the final Allied phases in World War II of the Western European Campaign. The Gothic Line, also known as Linea Gotica, formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring 's last major line of defence in the final stages of

On the Germans eastern front, the Soviets launched a series of powerful offensives. Starting in early June the Soviets launched massive assaults against Finland, Belarus, Ukraine and Eastern Poland, Romania, and Hungary. Operation Bagration (Oперация Багратион Operatsiya Bagration) was the Codename for the Soviet 1944 Belorussian Strategic The Budapest Offensive was the general attack by Soviet forces to clear Germans and their allies from the territory of Hungary. ^[126] These operations resulted in great successes, with Bulgaria, Romania and Finland signing armistices with the Soviet Union,^[127] and prompted Polish resistance forces to initiate several uprisings in Poland, though the largest of these, in Warsaw, was conducted without Soviet assistance and put down by German forces. Finland and the Soviet Union signed the Moscow Armistice on September 19, 1944, ending the Continuation War. Operation Tempest (Akcja Burza Plan Burza sometimes also rendered into English as Operation Storm) was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the The Warsaw Uprising ( Powstanie Warszawskie) was a World War II struggle by the Polish Home Army ( Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw ^[128]

By the start of July, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River^[129] while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. The Chindwin River ( Chindwin Myit) is a river in Burma (Myanmar and the largest Tributary of the Ayeyarwady River. In China, the Japanese were having greater successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August. Hengyang ( is the second largest city of China 's Hunan Province ^[130] Soon after, they further invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November^[131] and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by the middle of December. ^[132]

In the Pacific, American forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In the middle of June, 1944, they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, scoring a decisive victory against Japanese forces in the Philippine Sea within a few days. The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and The Battle of the Philippine Sea (aka "The Marianas Turkey Shoot" was a decisive naval battle of World War II, and the largest aircraft carrier battle in history In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory against the Japanese in the Leyte Gulf. The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the invasion and conquest of Leyte in the Philippines by American The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the "Battle for Leyte Gulf" the "Battles for Leyte Gulf" and formerly as the "Second Battle of the Philippine ^[133]

Axis collapse, Allied victory

American and Soviet troops meet east of the Elbe River

On December 16, 1944 German forces counterattacked in the Ardennes against the Western Allies. Events 755 - An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945 was a major German offensive launched towards the end of World War II through the forested Ardennes Mountains It took six weeks for the Allies to repulse the attack. The Soviets attacked through Hungary, while the Germans abandoned Greece and Yugoslavia. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia. The East Prussian Offensive, known officially to the Soviets as the East Prussian Strategic Offensive Operation (Восточно-Прусская стратегическая ^[134]

On February 4, U. S. , British, and Soviet leaders met in Yalta. The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and Codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from 4 February They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany,^[135] and when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan. ^[136]

In February, Western Allied forces entered Germany and closed to the Rhine river, while the Soviets invaded Pomerania and Silesia. The Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge The East Pomeranian Strategic Offensive operation (Восточно-Померанская наступательная операция was an offensive by the Red This is an article about a WWII offensives For WWI offensive see Silesian Offensive. In March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling a large number of German troops, while the Soviets advanced to Vienna. Commencing on the night of 23 March, 1945 during World War II, Operation Plunder was the crossing of the Rhine river at Rees, Remagen is a town in Germany in Rhineland-Palatinate, in the district of Ahrweiler. The Rhine-Ruhr Area (Rhein-Ruhr in Germany is one of the largest Metropolitan areas in Europe with about 11800000 inhabitants The Ruhr Pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in late March and early April 1945 near the end of World War II, in the Ruhr Area of Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. In early April the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany, while in late April Soviet forces stormed Berlin; the two forces linked up on Elbe river on April 25. The Spring 1945 offensive in Italy was the Allied attack by Fifth United States Army and British 8th Army into the Lombardy Plain which started on April For the bombing campaign on Berlin by the RAF from November 1943 to March 1944 see Battle of Berlin (air. Elbe Day, April 25, 1945, was the date Soviet and American troops met at the River Elbe, near Torgau in Germany Events 1607 - Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar.

Several changes in leadership occurred during this period. On April 12, U. S. President Roosevelt died; he was succeeded by Harry Truman. Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on April 28th^[137] and two days later Hitler committed suicide, succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz. The Italian Resistance movement was a partisan force during World War II. The generally accepted cause of the death of Adolf Hitler on Monday 30 April 1945 is Suicide by gunshot and Cyanide poisoning Grand Admiral is a historic naval rank generally being the highest such rank present in any particular country Karl Dönitz (ˈdøːnɪts) (16 September 1891 &ndash 24 December 1980 was a German naval Commander who served ^[138]

German forces surrendered in Italy on April 29th and Germany itself surrendered on May 7. Victory in Europe Day ( V-E Day or VE Day) was May 7 and May 8, 1945, the dates when the World War II Allies ^[139]

Nuclear explosion at Hiroshima

In the Pacific theater, American forces advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of 1944. A nuclear explosion occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from an intentionally high-speed Nuclear reaction. The Japanese city of ( is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest of Japan 's The Philippines campaign of 1944–45 was the Allied campaign to defeat Japanese forces occupying The Philippines, during World War II. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and Mindanao in March. The Battle of Luzon, on the island of Luzon, home to the Filipino capital Manila. The Battle of Mindanao was fought by United States forces and allied Filipino guerrillas against the Japanese from 10 March to 15 August ^[140] British and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma from October to March, then the British pushed on to Rangoon by May 3. Yangon (also known as Rangoon) is the largest city and a former capital of Burma. ^[141] American forces also moved toward Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by June. The Battle of Iwo Jima ( February 19, 1945 &ndash March 26, 1945) was the United States capture of the island of Iwo Jima The Battle of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault ^[142] American bombers destroyed Japanese cities, and American submarines cut off Japanese imports. ^[143]

On July 11, the Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, Germany, from July 16, They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany,^[144] and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender by Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction". The Potsdam Agreement was an agreement on policy for the occupation and reconstruction of Germany and other nations after fighting in the European Theatre of World War II ^[145] During this conference the United Kingdom held its general election and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister. Results |} Total votes cast 24073025 All parties shown Conservative total includes Ulster Unionists Reason for Labour victory Clement Richard Attlee 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC ( 3 January 1883 &ndash 8 October 1967

When Japan continued to reject the Potsdam terms, the United States then dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at The Japanese city of ( is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest of Japan 's ( is the Capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. Between the two bombs, the Soviets invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, as agreed at Yalta. On August 15, 1945 Japan surrendered, ending the war. Events 778 - The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar The surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close ^[139]

Aftermath

Main article: Aftermath of World War II

In an effort to maintain international peace,^[146] the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October, 1945. See also Casualties of World War II, Effects of World War II, Consequences of German Nazism The Aftermath of World War II covers a period of The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security ^[147]

Regardless of this though, the alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over,^[148] and the two powers each quickly established their own spheres of influence. A sphere of influence ( SOI) is an area or region over which an organization or state exerts some kind of indirect cultural economic military or political domination ^[149] In Europe, the continent was essentially divided between Western and Soviet spheres by the so-called Iron Curtain which ran through and partitioned Allied occupied Germany and occupied Austria. The " Iron Curtain " was the symbolic ideological and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II until the end The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative In 1938 the First Austrian Republic had become part of Nazi Germany through an enforced annexation the Anschluss. In Asia, the United States occupied Japan and administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands; the former Japanese governed Korea was divided and occupied between the two powers. At the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, British The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia (western Pacific) administered by the United Sakhalin (Сахали́н səxʌˈlʲin Japanese:nihongo|樺太|karafuto or; Chinese: 庫頁 Kùyè also Saghalien, is a large elongated The Kuril Islands (ˈkʊrɪl or /ˈkjuˈriˈl/ Кури́льские острова́ əstrʌˈva ru-Latn ''Kuril'skie ostrova'' or Kurile Islands in Russia Korea under Japanese rule refers to the period between 1910 and 1945 when Korea was forcibly annexed by the Japanese Empire. The division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea stems from the 1945 Allied victory in World War II, ending Japan Mounting tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union soon evolved into the formation of the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact military alliances and the start of the Cold War between them. The North Atlantic Treaty The Warsaw Pact (see Nomenclature) was an organization of Communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the ^[150]

In many parts of the world, conflict picked up again within a short time of World War II ending. In China, nationalist and communist forces quickly resumed their civil war. Communist forces were eventually victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland while nationalist forces ended up retreating to the reclaimed island of Taiwan. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. In Greece, civil war broke out between Anglo-American supported royalist forces and communist forces, with the royalist forces victorious. The Greek Civil War (ο Eμφύλιος, "the Civil War" fought from 1946 to 1949 by the Governmental forces receiving logistical support by the United Kingdom This article is based on a translation of an article from the. Soon after these conflicts ended, war broke out in Korea between South Korea, which was backed by the western powers, and North Korea, which was backed by the Soviet Union and China; the war resulted in essentially a stalemate and ceasefire. The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea ( Korean: 대한민국 tɛː North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia,

Following the end of the war, a rapid period of decolonization also took place within the holdings of the various European colonial powers. Decolonization refers to the undoing of Colonialism, the establishment of governance or authority through the creation of settlements by another country or jurisdiction These primarily occurred due to shifts in ideology, the economic exhaustion from the war and increased demand by indigenous people for self-determination. For the most part, these transitions happened relatively peacefully, though notable exceptions occurred in countries such as Indochina, Madagascar, Indonesia and Algeria. The First Indochina War (also known as the French Indochina War, the The Anti-French War, the Franco-Vietnamese War, the Franco-Vietminh War, The Malagasy Uprising (or Revolt of Madagascar was an attempted revolution against the French by nationalists on the island of Madagascar between 1947 Timeline of the Indonesian National RevolutionThe Indonesian National Revolution or Indonesian War of Independence was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between The Algerian War ( French: Guerre d'Algérie; 1954-1962 also known as Algerian War of Independence, led to Algeria 's independence from ^[151] In many regions, divisions, usually for ethnic or religious reasons, occurred following European withdrawal; this was seen prominently in the Mandate of Palestine, leading to the creation of Israel and Palestine, and in India, resulting in the creation of the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Palestine Mandate, was a set of protocols or articles that formed a multilateral legal and administrative agreement The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine or United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 was a plan approved by the General Assembly on November 29 For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. For usage see British rule in India British Raj ( rāj, lit "reign" in Hindustani) primarily refers to the British The Partition of India was the partition of the British Indian Empire which led to the creation on August 14, 1947 and August 15, The Dominion of Pakistan was a federal entity that was established in 1947 as a result of the Partition of India into two sovereign dominions the Union

Economic recovery following the war was varied in differing parts of the world, though in general it was quite positive. In Europe, West Germany recovered quickly and doubled production from its pre-war levels by the 1950s. West Germany ( Inf German: Westdeutschland or West-Deutschland) was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany ( The term ( German for "economic miracle" describes the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria ^[152] Italy came out of the war in poor economic condition,^[153] but by 1950s, the Italian economy was marked by stability and high growth. ^[154] The United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin after the war,^[155] and continued to experience relative economic decline for decades to follow. ^[156] France rebounded quite quickly, and enjoyed rapid economic growth and modernization. ^[157] The Soviet Union also experienced a rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era. ^[158] In Asia, Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, and led to Japan becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s. Japanese post-war economic miracle is the name given to the historical phenomenon of Japan's record period of economic growth following World War II, spurred ^[159] China, following the conclusion of its civil war, was essentially a bankrupt nation. ^[160] By 1953 economic restoration seemed fairly successful as production had resumed pre-war levels. ^[161] This growth rate mostly persisted, though it was briefly interrupted by the disastrous Great Leap Forward economic experiment. The Great Leap Forward ( of the People's Republic of China (PRC was an economic and social plan used from 1958 to 1960 which aimed to use China 's vast population At the end of the war, the United States produced roughly half of the worlds industrial output; by the 1970s though, this dominance had lessened significantly. ^[162]

Impact of the war

Casualties and atrocities

Main articles: World War II casualties and List of war crimes

Between 50 and 70 million people were killed as a result of the war, with about two thirds of them being civilians. World War II was humanity's deadliest war causing tens of millions of deaths This article lists and summarizes War crimes committed since the Hague Convention of 1907.

Many of these deaths were a result of genocidal actions committed in Axis-occupied territories and other war crimes committed by German and Japanese forces. Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction in whole or in part of an ethnic racial religious or national group War crimes of the Wehrmacht are those carried out by traditional German armed forces during World War II. Japanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism. Widely considered the most notorious of German atrocities is The Holocaust, the systematic purging of Jews in Europe which resulted in the murder of roughly six million Jewish people. The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ In addition to this, the Nazi's also targeted other groups, including Roma, Slavs and homosexuals, exterminating roughly five million additional people. The Porajmos (also Porrajmos) literally Devouring, is a term considered to be coined by the Romani people to describe attempts by the regime in After World War I, in the period known as the Weimar Republic, gay men in Germany, especially in Berlin, enjoyed more freedom and acceptance ^[163] For Japan, the most well-known atrocity is probably the Nanking Massacre, in which several hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. ^[164]

Limited Axis usage of biological and chemical weapons is also known. Biological warfare (BW — known as a germ warfare, biological weapons and bioweaponry — is the use of any Pathogen ( Bacterium Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of Chemical substances to kill injure or incapacitate an enemy. The Italians used mustard gas during their conquest of Abyssinia, ^[165] while the Japanese Imperial Army used a variety of such weapons during their invasion and occupation of China^[166] and in early conflicts against the Soviets. The sulfur mustards, of which mustard gas ( Bis (2-chloroethyl sulfide is a member are a class of related Cytotoxic, Vesicant Chemical The Imperial Japanese Army ( IJA) ( Kyūjitai: 大日本帝國陸軍 Shinjitai: ja 大日本帝国陸軍 Romaji: Dai-Nippon Teikoku ^[167] Both the Germans and Japanese tested such weapons against civilians. Japanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism. ^[166][168]

While many of the Axis atrocities were brought to trial in the worlds first international tribunals,^[169] incidents caused by the Allies were not. The following is a list of War crime Trials and Tribunals brought against the Axis powers following the conclusion of World War II. Allied war crimes were violations of the Laws of war committed by the Allies of World War II against civilian populations or military personnel of the Axis Examples of such actions include population transfer in the Soviet Union, ethnic internment in the United States, the Soviet massacre of Polish citizens and the controversial mass-bombing of civilian areas in enemy territory, most notably at Dresden. Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories deportations of " Anti-Soviet " categories of population often classified United States Executive Order 9066 was a presidential executive order issued during World War II by U The Bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF and United States Army Air Force (USAAF between 13 February and 15 February 1945 12 weeks

Large numbers of deaths can also be attributed, if even partially, indirectly to the war, such as the Bengal famine of 1943. The Bengal famine of 1943 is one amongst the several Famines that occurred in British administered Bengal.

Home fronts and production

Main articles: military production during World War II and Home front during World War II

Allied to Axis GDP ratio. Military production during World War II was a critical component to military performance during the war. The Home front is the name given to the activities of the civilians during a state of Total war.

In Europe, prior to the start of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and British Dominions) had a 30% larger population and a 30% higher gross domestic product then the European Axis (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, it then gives the Allies more then a 5:1 advantage in population and nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP. ^[170] In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan, but only a 89% higher GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38% higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included. ^[170]

Though 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, as the war largely settled into one of attrition. Blitzkrieg (German for "lightning war" is a popular name for an Offensive operational-level Military doctrine which involves an initial ^[171]

While the Allies ability to out-produce the Axis is often attributed to the Allies having more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to utilize women in the labour force,^[172][173] Allied strategic bombing,^[174][175] and Germany's late shift to a war economy^[176] contributed significantly. In Economics the people in the labor force are the suppliers of labor Strategic bombing during World War II was greater in scale than any wartime attack the world had previously witnessed War economy is the term used to describe the contingencies undertaken by the modern State to mobilise its Economy for War production. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned on fighting a protracted war, and were not equipped to do so. ^[177][178] To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers;^[179] Germany used about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,^[180] while Japan pressed more than 18 million people in Far East Asia. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another Use of Forced labor in Nazi Germany during World War II occurred on a large scale Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. During most of the history of the country the practice of slavery in Japan involved only indigenous Japanese as the export and import of slaves was significantly restricted The Far East is a term often used by people in the Western world to refer to the countries of East Asia. ^[181]

War time occupation

Main articles: Collaboration during World War II and Resistance during World War II

In Europe, occupation came under two very different forms. During World War II Nazi Germany occupied all or parts of the following countries Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Resistance during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means ranging from non-cooperation disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots 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. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Reichsprotektorat Böhmen und Mähren Protektorát Čechy a Morava was the majority ethnic-Czech Protectorate which 5 billion reichmarks by the end of the war; this figure does not include the sizable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods. For a detailed discussion of the English translation of Reich, see Reich. Nazi plunder refers to Art theft and other items stolen as a result of the organized spoliation of European countries during the time of the Third Reich ^[182] Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40% of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40% of total German income as the war went on. ^[183]

In the east, the much hoped for bounties of lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders. ( German for " habitat " or literally "living space" served as a major motivation for Nazi Germany 's territorial aggression A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method (possibly more often referred to as a tactic but this is not entirely correct as there is a difference between ^[184] Unlike in the west, the Nazi racial policy encouraged excessive brutality against what it considered to be the "inferior people" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass executions. The racial policy of Nazi Germany refers to the policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the so-called " Aryan race " and Untermensch ( German for under man, sub-man, sub-human; plural Untermenschen is a term from Nazi racial Ideology Generalplan Ost ( GPO) was a secret Nazi plan of Genocide and Ethnic cleansing to be realised in the territories occupied ^[185] Although resistance groups did form in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the east^[186] or the west^[187] until late 1943. Resistance during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means ranging from non-cooperation disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots

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 colonized peoples. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ( Kyūjitai: 大東亞共榮圈 Shinjitai: ja 大東亜共栄圏 Dai-tō-a Kyōeiken) was a concept Hegemony (hɨˈdʒɛməni (Amer /hɨˈɡɛməni/ (Brit (ἡγεμονία hēgemonía) is a concept that has been used to describe and explain the dominance of one social ^[188] Although Japanese forces were originally welcomed as liberators from European domination in many territories, their excessive brutality turned local public opinions against them within weeks. ^[189] During Japan's initial conquest it captured 4 million barrels of oil left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by 1943 was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels, 76% of its 1940 output rate. ^[189]

Advances in technology and warfare

Main article: Technology during World War II

During the war, aircraft continued their roles of reconnaissance, fighters, bombers and ground-support from World War I, though each area was advanced considerably. Technology during World War II played a crucial role in determining the outcome of the war A fighter aircraft is a Military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other Aircraft, as opposed to a Bomber, which is designed A bomber is a Military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets primarily by dropping Bombs on them Two important additional roles for aircraft were those of the airlift, the capability to quickly move high-priority supplies, equipment and personnel, albeit in limited quantities;^[190] and of strategic bombing, the targeted use bombs against civilian areas in the hopes of hampering enemy industry and morale. An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies primarily via Aircraft. Strategic bombing is a Military strategy used in a Total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability to wage war rather ^[191] Anti-aircraft weaponry also continued to advance, including key defences such as radar and greatly improved anti-aircraft artillery, such as the German 88 mm gun. Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of engaging hostile military Aircraft in defence of ground objectives, ground or naval forces Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range altitude direction or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as Aircraft, ships The 88 mm gun ( eighty-eight) is a German anti-aircraft and anti-tank Artillery gun from World War II. Jet aircraft saw their first limited operational use during World War II, and though their late introduction and limited numbers meant that they had no real impact during the war itself, the few which saw active service pioneered a mass-shift to their usage following the war. A jet aircraft is an Aircraft propelled by Jet engines Jet aircraft fly much faster than Propeller -powered aircraft and at higher altitudes -- as high as ^[192]

At sea, while advances were made in almost all aspects of naval warfare, the two primary areas of development were focused around aircraft carriers and submarines. Although at the start of the war aeronautical warfare had relatively little success,^[193] actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, the South China Sea and the Coral Sea soon established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship. Aeronautics (from Greek aero which means air or sky and nautis which means sailor i ^[194][195] In the Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius dramatically and helping to seal the Mid-Atlantic gap. The escort aircraft carrier or escort carrier (popularly known as the jeep carrier) was a small Aircraft carrier utilized by the Royal Navy The Mid-Atlantic Gap, Atlantic Gap Air Gap Greenland Gap or just the Gap during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II was the gap in coverage by land-based ^[196] Beyond their increased effectiveness, carriers were also more economical then battleships due to the relatively low cost of aircraft^[197] and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured. ^[198] Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the first World War^[199] were anticipated by all sides 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 Wolf pack tactics. Anti-submarine warfare (ASW or in older form A/S is a branch of Naval warfare that uses surface Warships Aircraft, space craft or other Submarines An anti-submarine weapon is any one of a range of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew to destroy (sink the vessel or to destroy or reduce its capability Sonar (which started as an Acronym for sound navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses Sound propagation (usually underwater to navigate Type VIIA The Type VIIA boats were designed in 1933 until 1934 as the first of a new generation of attack U-boats Most were built at Deschimag AG Weser in Bremen with U33-36 ^[200] Gradually, continually improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, hedgehog, squid, and homing torpedoes proved victorious. The Leigh Light (abbreviated L/L was a British World War II era anti-submarine device used in the Second Battle of the Atlantic. For the area denial weapon see Czech hedgehog. The Hedgehog was an Anti-submarine weapon developed by the Royal Navy The Squid was a World War II Ship -mounted anti- Submarine Weapon. The Mark 24 FIDO Torpedo was a US air-dropped passive acoustic homing anti- Submarine Torpedo used during the Second World War against German

Overland warfare changed drastically from the static front lines experienced during World War I to become much more fluid and mobile. An important change was the concept of combined arms warfare, wherein tight coordination was sought between the various elements of military forces; the tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry-support in the first World War, had evolved into the primary weapon of these forces during the second. Combined arms is an approach to Warfare which seeks to integrate different arms of a Military to achieve mutually complementary effects A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical ^[201] In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced in all areas then it had been during World War I,^[202] and advances continued throughout the war in increasing speed, armour and fire-power. This article deals with the history of the Tank in World War II. At the start of the war, most armies considered the tank to be the best weapon against itself, and developed special purpose tanks to that effect. ^[203] This line of thinking was all but negated by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank armaments against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-to-tank combat; the latter factor, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France. Blitzkrieg (German for "lightning war" is a popular name for an Offensive operational-level Military doctrine which involves an initial ^[201] Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry carried anti-tank weaponry, and other tanks were utilized. Anti-tank refers to any method of combating military Armored fighting vehicles notably Tanks The most common anti-tank systems In the context of warfare direct fire means aiming through a Sight directly at the target Anti-tank refers to any method of combating military Armored fighting vehicles notably Tanks The most common anti-tank systems A self-propelled gun (SPG is a gun whether it be an Artillery piece anti-tank gun or anti-aircraft gun mounted on a motorized wheeled or An anti-tank mine, (abbreviated to "AT mine" is a type of Land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including Tanks and Armoured fighting ^[203] Even with the large-scale mechanization of the various armies, the infantry remained the backbone of all forces,^[204] and throughout the war, most infantry equipment was similar to that utilized in World War I. ^[205] Some of the primary advances though, were the widespread incorporation of readily portable machine guns, a most notable example being the German MG42, and various submachine guns which were well suited to close quarters combat in urban and jungle settings. For other uses of the phrase see Machine Gun (disambiguation. The MG42 (shortened from German: Maschinengewehr 42, or "Machine Gun 42" is a Machine gun that was developed for and entered A submachine gun (SMG is a Firearm that combines the automatic fire of a Machine gun with the cartridge of a Pistol, and is ^[205] The assault rifle, a late war development which incorporated many of the best features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the post-war standard infantry weapon for nearly all armed forces. An assault rifle is a Selective fire Rifle or Carbine (not to be confused with a semi-automatic only replica firing Ammunition with muzzle A rifle is a Firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves ("rifling" cut into the barrel walls

In terms of communications, most of the major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security presented by utilizing large codebooks for cryptography with the creation of various ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma machine. In Cryptography, a codebook is a document used for implementing a code. Cryptography (or cryptology; from Greek grc κρυπτός kryptos, "hidden secret" and grc γράφω gráphō, "I write" In Cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an Algorithm for performing Encryption and Decryption &mdash a series of well-defined steps The Enigma machine is any one of a family of related electro-mechanical Rotor machines used to generate Ciphers for the Encryption and decryption of ^[206] SIGINT (signals intelligence) was the countering process of decryption, with the notable examples being the British ULTRA and the Allied breaking of Japanese naval codes. ULTra ("Urban Light Transport" is a Personal rapid transit system from Advanced Transport Systems Ltd a company based in Cardiff, Wales. During World War II the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN used many Codes and Ciphers, some more effective than others Another important aspect of military intelligence was the use of deception operations, which the Allies successfully used on several occasions to great effect, such as operations Mincemeat and Bodyguard, which diverted German attention and forces away from the Allied invasions of Sicily and Normandy respectively. Military intelligence (abbreviated MI int Commonwealth, or intel Deception (also called beguilement or subterfuge) is the act of convincing another to believe Information that is not true or not the whole truth as in Operation Mincemeat was a very successful British deception plan during World War II. During World War II, Operation Bodyguard was the overall Allied strategic Deception plan in Europe for 1944 carried out as part of the build-up to the invasion

Other important technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the worlds first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons, the development of artificial harbours and oil pipelines under the English Channel. A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. Konrad Zuse 's The Colossus machines were electronic Computing devices used by British codebreakers to read Encrypted German messages during ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, was the first general-purpose electronic Computer. The Fieseler Fi 103, better known as V-1 (German Vergeltungswaffe 1 was an early Cruise missile used during World War Two See also Vergeltungswaffe The V-2 rocket ( Vergeltungswaffe 2 was the first Ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. A Mulberry harbour was a type of temporary Harbour developed in World War II to offload cargo on the beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy.

See also

• Battles (list)
• Military operations (list)
• Commanders
• Depictions

References

External links