World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a
world war
A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I, Worl ...
that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the
vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the
great powers—forming two opposing
military alliance
A military alliance is a formal agreement between nations concerning national security. Nations in a military alliance agree to active participation and contribution to the defense of others in the alliance in the event of a crisis. (Online) ...
s: the
Allies and the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
. World War II was a
total war
Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-com ...
that directly involved more than 100 million
personnel from more than 30 countries.
The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the
war effort
In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative ...
, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources.
Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the
strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systemati ...
of population centres and deploying the
only two nuclear weapons ever used in war.
World War II was by far the
deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in
70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the L ...
s (including
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
),
starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, dea ...
,
massacre
A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
s, and
disease
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
. In the wake of the Axis defeat,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
and
Japan were occupied, and
war crimes tribunals were conducted
against German and
Japanese leaders.
The
causes of World War II are debated, but contributing factors included the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War,
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
,
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Thea ...
,
Soviet–Japanese border conflicts,
rise of fascism in Europe and rising European tensions since
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, under
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
,
invaded Poland. The
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
subsequently
declared war on Germany on 3 September. Under the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...
of August 1939, Germany and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
had partitioned
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
and marked out their "
spheres of influence" across
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of
campaigns
Campaign or The Campaign may refer to:
Types of campaigns
* Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed
*Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme
*Bl ...
and
treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of
continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
and
Japan (with other countries later). Following the onset of campaigns in
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...
and
East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa:
Due to the histori ...
, and the
fall of France
The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second Wo ...
in mid-1940, the war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...
, with war in the
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
, the aerial
Battle of Britain,
the Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
of the United Kingdom, and the
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blocka ...
. On 22 June 1941, Germany led the European Axis powers in
an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the
Eastern Front, the largest land
theatre of war in history.
Japan, which aimed to
dominate Asia and the Pacific, was
at war with the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northea ...
by 1937. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories with near-simultaneous
offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, including an
attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor which resulted in the
United States declaring war against Japan. The
European Axis powers declared war on the United States in solidarity. Japan soon captured much of the western Pacific, but its advances were halted in 1942 after losing the critical
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under A ...
; later, Germany and Italy were
defeated in North Africa and at
Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the
Allied invasions of Sicily and
the Italian mainland, and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies
invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union
regained its territorial losses and turned towards Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled the
Japanese Navy
, abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN ...
and captured key western Pacific islands.
The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of
German-occupied territories and the
invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the
Fall of Berlin to Soviet troops,
Hitler's suicide, and the German
unconditional surrender on
8 May 1945
Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...
. Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, U ...
(issued 26 July 1945), the United States
dropped the first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima on 6 August and
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in th ...
on 9 August. Faced with an imminent
invasion of the Japanese archipelago, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, and the Soviet Union's declared entry into the war against Japan on the eve of
invading Manchuria, Japan announced on 10 August its intention to surrender, signing
a surrender document on
2 September 1945.
World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe. The
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—becoming the
permanent members of its
Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...
. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival
superpower
A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural ...
s, setting the stage for the nearly half-century-long
Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the
decolonisation of Africa
The decolonisation of Africa was a process that took place in the Scramble for Africa, mid-to-late 1950s to 1975 during the Cold War, with radical government changes on the continent as Colonialism, colonial governments made the transition to So ...
and
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...
. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards
economic recovery and expansion. Political and economic integration, especially
in Europe, began as an effort to forestall future hostilities, end pre-war enmities and forge a sense of common identity.
Start and end dates
It is generally considered that in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
World War II started on 1 September 1939, beginning with the
German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France's declaration of war on Germany two days later. Other dates for the beginning of the war in the Pacific include the start of the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Thea ...
on 7 July 1937, or the earlier
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden Incident. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Their occupation lasted until t ...
, on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian
A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and the two wars became World War II in 1941. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the
Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian
Antony Beevor
Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works on the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War.
Early life
Born in Kensington, Beevor was educated at two ...
views the beginning of World WarII as the
Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between
Japan and the forces of
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
from May to September 1939. Others view the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
as the start or prelude to World War II.
The exact date of the war's end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the
armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...
of 14 August 1945 (
V-J Day), rather than with the formal
surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially
ended the war in Asia. A
peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951. A 1990
treaty regarding Germany's future allowed the
reunification of East and West Germany to take place and resolved most post-World WarII issues. No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed, although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the
Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, which also restored full diplomatic relations between them.
[''Texts of Soviet–Japanese Statements; Peace Declaration Trade Protocol.'']
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
, page 2, 20 October 1956.
Subtitle: "Moscow, October 19. (UP) – Following are the texts of a Soviet–Japanese peace declaration and of a trade protocol between the two countries, signed here today, in unofficial translation from the Russian". Quote: "The state of war between the U.S.S.R. and Japan ends on the day the present declaration enters into force ..
Background
Europe
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
had radically altered the
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...
European map, with the defeat of the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
—including
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...
, and the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
—and the 1917
Bolshevik seizure of power in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
, which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious
Allies of World War I
The Allies of World War I, Entente Powers, or Allied Powers were a coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman E ...
, such as France,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
, Italy,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
, and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...
, gained territory, and new
nation-states were created out of the
collapse of Austria-Hungary and the
Ottoman and
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
s.
To prevent a future world war, the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by ...
was created during the
1919 Paris Peace Conference. The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through
collective security
Collective security can be understood as a security arrangement, political, regional, or global, in which each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and therefore commits to a collective response to threats t ...
, military and
naval disarmament, and settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.
Despite strong
pacifist sentiment
after World WarI,
irredentist
Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent sta ...
and
revanchist nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
emerged in several European states in the same period. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1 ...
. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all
its overseas possessions, while German annexation of other states was prohibited,
reparations
Reparation(s) may refer to:
Christianity
* Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation
* Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin
History
* War reparations
** World War I reparations, made from ...
were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's
armed forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
.
The German Empire was dissolved in the
German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later known as the
Weimar Republic
The German Reich, commonly referred to as the Weimar Republic,, was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also r ...
, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the
right
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical th ...
and
left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the
promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the
Fascist
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...
movement led by
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...
seized power in Italy with a nationalist,
totalitarian, and
class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a
world power, and promising the creation of a "
New Roman Empire".
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, after an
unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually
became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 when
Paul Von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fr ...
and the Reichstag appointed him. He abolished democracy, espousing a
radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive
rearmament campaign. Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance,
allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the
Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced
conscription.
The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the
Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards
military globalisation; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an
independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by
Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe, drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the
Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the
Neutrality Act Neutrality Act may refer to:
* Proclamation of Neutrality
The Proclamation of Neutrality was a formal announcement issued by U.S. President George Washington on April 22, 1793, that declared the nation neutral in the conflict between France and G ...
in August of the same year.
Hitler defied the Versailles and
Locarno treaties by
remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of
appeasement
Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governme ...
. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the
Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the
Anti-Comintern Pact
The Anti-Comintern Pact, officially the Agreement against the Communist International was an anti-Communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on 25 November 1936 and was directed against the Communist International ( ...
, which Italy joined the following year.
Asia
The
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
(KMT) party in China launched a
unification campaign against
regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in
a civil war against its former
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...
allies and
new regional warlords. In 1931, an
increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent for ...
, which had long sought influence in China as the first step of what its government saw as the country's
right to rule Asia, staged the
Mukden Incident as a pretext to
invade Manchuria and establish the
puppet state
A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal sover ...
of
Manchukuo
Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 after the Japanese in ...
.
China appealed to the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by ...
to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being
condemned
Condemned or The Condemned may refer to:
Legal
* Persons awaiting execution
* A condemned property, or condemned building, by a local authority, usually for public health or safety reasons
* A condemned property seized by power of eminent domain
...
for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
,
Rehe
Rehe (), also romanized as Jehol, was a former Chinese special administrative region and province.
Administration
Rehe was north of the Great Wall, west of Manchuria, and east of Mongolia. Its capital and largest city was Chengde. The second ...
and
Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...
, until the
Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym "Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East ( Outer ...
, and
Chahar and Suiyuan. After the 1936
Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present
a united front to oppose Japan.
Pre-war events
Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
The
Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief
colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the
Ethiopian Empire (also known as
Abyssinia
The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historical ...
) by the armed forces of the
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and ...
(''Regno d'Italia''), which was launched from
Italian Somaliland
Italian Somalia ( it, Somalia Italiana; ar, الصومال الإيطالي, Al-Sumal Al-Italiy; so, Dhulka Talyaaniga ee Soomaalida), was a protectorate and later colony of the Kingdom of Italy in present-day Somalia. Ruled in the 19th cent ...
and
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
. The war resulted in the
military occupation
Military occupation, also known as belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the effective military control by a ruling power over a territory that is outside of that power's sovereign territory.Eyāl Benveniśtî. The international law ...
of Ethiopia and its
annexation into the newly created colony of
Italian East Africa (''Africa Orientale Italiana'', or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by ...
as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations,
but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's
Covenant. The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
.
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the
Nationalist rebels, led by General
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 19 ...
. Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis did: altogether Mussolini sent to Spain more than 70,000 ground troops and 6,000 aviation personnel, as well as about 720 aircraft. The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the
Spanish Republic. More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the
International Brigades
The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed ...
, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this
proxy war
A proxy war is an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors, one or both of which act at the instigation or on behalf of other parties that are not directly involved in the hostilities. In order for a conflict to be considered a pr ...
as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World WarII but
generally favoured the Axis. His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of
volunteers to fight on the
Eastern Front.
Japanese invasion of China (1937)
In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of
Peking
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
after instigating the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a
non-aggression pact with China to lend
materiel
Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.
In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the spec ...
support, effectively ending China's prior
co-operation with Germany. From September to November, the Japanese attacked
Taiyuan
Taiyuan (; ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; also known as (), ()) is the capital and largest city of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province ...
, engaged the
Kuomintang Army
The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...
around Xinkou,
[.] and fought
Communist forces in Pingxingguan.
[Yang Kuisong, "On the reconstruction of the facts of the Battle of Pingxingguan"] Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
deployed his
best army to
defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back,
capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were
murdered by the Japanese.
[Totten, Samuel. ''Dictionary of Genocide''. 2008, 298–99.]
In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their
first major victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of
Xuzhou
Xuzhou (徐州), also known as Pengcheng (彭城) in ancient times, is a major city in northwestern Jiangsu province, China. The city, with a recorded population of 9,083,790 at the 2020 census (3,135,660 of which lived in the built-up area ma ...
was taken by the Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by
flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...
, but the
city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to
Chongqing
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Cou ...
and continued the war.
Soviet–Japanese border conflicts
In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in
Manchukuo
Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 after the Japanese in ...
had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...
. The Japanese doctrine of
Hokushin-ron, which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. With the Japanese defeat at
Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets, this policy would prove difficult to maintain. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a
Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of
Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward, eventually leading to its war with the United States and the Western Allies.
European occupations and agreements
In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany
annexed Austria, again provoking
little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
, an area of
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
with a predominantly
ethnic German
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasem ...
and conceded this territory to Germany in the
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to
cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed Czechoslovakia's
Zaolzie region.
Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939
secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939,
Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German
client state
A client state, in international relations, is a state that is economically, politically, and/or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (called the "controlling state"). A client state may variously be described as satellite sta ...
, the
Slovak Republic
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...
. Hitler also delivered an
ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the
Klaipėda Region, formerly the German ''Memelland''.
Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the
Free City of Danzig, the United Kingdom and France
guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when
Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the
Kingdoms of Romania and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...
. Shortly after the
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ...
-
British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the
Pact of Steel. Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced the
Anglo-German Naval Agreement
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA) of 18 June 1935 was a naval agreement between the United Kingdom and Germany regulating the size of the ''Kriegsmarine'' in relation to the Royal Navy.
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement fixed a ratio whe ...
and the
German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.
The situation reached a general crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August, when tripartite negotiations about a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom and Soviet Union stalled, the Soviet Union signed
a non-aggression pact with Germany. This pact had a secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
and Lithuania for Germany;
eastern Poland
Eastern Poland is a macroregion in Poland comprising the Lublin, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie, and Warmian-Masurian voivodeships.
The make-up of the distinct macroregion is based not only of geographical criteria, but also economic ...
, Finland,
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...
,
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
and
Bessarabia
Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of ...
for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World WarI. Immediately after that, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.
In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which only served as a pretext to worsen relations.
On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish
plenipotentiary
A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word ...
immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of
Danzig, and to allow a
plebiscite
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...
in the
Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession.
The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador
Nevile Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected.
Course of the war
War breaks out in Europe (1939–40)
On 1 September 1939, Germany
invaded Poland after
having staged several
false flag border incidents as a pretext to initiate the invasion. The first German attack of the war came against the
Polish defenses at Westerplatte.
The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany, followed by
Australia,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
. During the
Phoney War
The Phoney War (french: Drôle de guerre; german: Sitzkrieg) was an eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there was only one limited military land operation on the Western Front, when French troops invaded Germa ...
period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of a
cautious French probe into the Saarland.
[.]
, observes that, while it is true that Poland was far away, making it difficult for the French and British to provide support, " w Western historians of World War II ... know that the British had committed to bomb Germany if it attacked Poland, but did not do so except for one raid on the base of Wilhelmshaven. The French, who committed to attacking Germany in the west, had no intention of doing so." The Western Allies also began a
naval blockade of Germany
The Blockade of Germany, or the Blockade of Europe, occurred from 1914 to 1919. The prolonged naval blockade was conducted by the Allies during and after World War I in an effort to restrict the maritime supply of goods to the Central Power ...
, which aimed to damage the country's economy and the war effort. Germany responded by ordering
U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blocka ...
.
On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...
. The Polish
counter offensive to the west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the ''
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previou ...
''. Remnants of the Polish army broke through to
besieged Warsaw. On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a
cease-fire with Japan, the
Soviet Union invaded Poland under the pretext that the Polish state had ostensibly ceased to exist. On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to the Germans, and
the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6October. Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the
Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
and a
clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland. A significant part of Polish military personnel
evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later
fought against the Axis in other theatres of the war.
Germany annexed the western and
occupied the central part of Poland, and the Soviet Union
annexed its eastern part; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to
Lithuania and
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...
. On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected,
and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, which was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather.
After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...
,
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
and
Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three
Baltic countries
The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...
to sign
pacts
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) is a registered charity. For much of its history, it was also an All-party parliamentary group of the UK parliament. In 2016, following changes to parliamentary rules, PACTS the char ...
that stipulated the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries. In October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there.
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
refused to sign a similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, and the Soviet Union was expelled from the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by ...
. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the
Winter War
The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...
was modest, and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with
some Finnish concessions of territory.
In June 1940, the Soviet Union
occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the Romanian regions of
Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region. In August 1940, Hitler imposed the
Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to the transfer of
Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded
Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to the
Treaty of Craiova.
The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu with a course set firmly towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war.
Western Europe (1940–41)
In April 1940,
Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of
iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were
attempting to cut off. Denmark capitulated after a few hours, and Norway was conquered within two months
despite Allied support.
British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasem ...
, who was replaced by
Winston Churchill on 10May 1940.
On the same day, Germany
launched an offensive against France. To circumvent the strong
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line (french: Ligne Maginot, ), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force the ...
fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
,
the Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Nether ...
, and
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...
. The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the
Ardennes
The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...
region, which was mistakenly perceived by Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. By successfully implementing new ''
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg ( , ; from 'lightning' + 'war') is a word used to describe a surprise attack using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armoured warfare, armored and motorised infantry, motorized or mechanised infantry, ...
'' tactics, the ''Wehrmacht'' rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able
to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although abandoning almost all their equipment.
On 10 June,
Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom. The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
fell to them on 14June. Eight days later
France signed an armistice with Germany; it was divided into
German and
Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied
rump state under the
Vichy Regime
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...
, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which
the United Kingdom attacked on 3July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany.
The air
Battle of Britain began in early July with
Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours.
The United Kingdom rejected Hitler's peace offer,
and the
German air superiority campaign started in August but failed to defeat
RAF Fighter Command, forcing the indefinite postponement of the
proposed German invasion of Britain. The German
strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systemati ...
offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in
the Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
, but failed to significantly disrupt the British war effort and largely ended in May 1941.
Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy
enjoyed success against an over-extended
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...
, using
U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...
s against British shipping
in the Atlantic. The British
Home Fleet
The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet.
Before the Fi ...
scored a significant victory on 27May 1941 by
sinking the German battleship ''Bismarck''.
In November 1939, the United States was taking measures to assist China and the Western Allies and amended the
Neutrality Act Neutrality Act may refer to:
* Proclamation of Neutrality
The Proclamation of Neutrality was a formal announcement issued by U.S. President George Washington on April 22, 1793, that declared the nation neutral in the conflict between France and G ...
to allow
"cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
was
significantly increased. In September the United States further agreed to a
trade of American destroyers for British bases. Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941. In December 1940 Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an "
arsenal of democracy" and promoting
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
programmes of aid to support the British war effort. The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany.
At the end of September 1940, the
Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
,
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...
and
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
joined.
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
and
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
later made major contributions to the Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture
territory ceded to the Soviet Union.
Mediterranean (1940–41)
In early June 1940, the Italian ''Regia Aeronautica''
attacked and besieged Malta, a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy
conquered British Somaliland and made an
incursion into British-held Egypt. In October,
Italy attacked Greece, but the attack was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes. Germany started preparation for an invasion of the Balkans to assist Italy, to prevent the British from gaining a foothold there, which would be a potential threat for Romanian oil fields, and to strike against the British dominance of the Mediterranean.
In December 1940, British Empire forces began
counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and
Italian East Africa. The offensives were highly successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The
Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by means of a
carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at the
Battle of Cape Matapan.
Italian defeats prompted Germany to
deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa and at the end of March 1941,
Rommel's
Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth forces. In under a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and
besieged the port of Tobruk.
By late March 1941,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...
and
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
signed the
Tripartite Pact; however, the Yugoslav government was
overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany responded with simultaneous invasions of both
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...
, commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month. The airborne
invasion of the Greek island of Crete at the end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans. Although the Axis victory was swift, bitter and large-scale partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the
Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the war.
In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces
quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled
Syria. Between June and July, they
invaded and occupied the French possessions of Syria and Lebanon, with assistance of the
Free French.
Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941)
With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, the two powers signed the
Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.
Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. On 31 July 1940 Hitler decided that the Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...
, the
Baltic states
The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...
and
Byelorussia.
[.] However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact.
[.] In November 1940,
negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.
On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...
, with Germany accusing the Soviets of
plotting against them. They were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary.
The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the
Baltic region
The terms Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Rim countries (or simply the Baltic Rim), and the Baltic Sea countries/states refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, mainly in Northern Europe. ...
, Moscow and Ukraine, with the
ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the
Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from the
Caspian Caspian can refer to:
*The Caspian Sea
*The Caspian Depression, surrounding the northern part of the Caspian Sea
*The Caspians, the ancient people living near the Caspian Sea
* Caspian languages, collection of languages and dialects of Caspian p ...
to the
White Sea
The White Sea (russian: Белое море, ''Béloye móre''; Karelian and fi, Vienanmeri, lit. Dvina Sea; yrk, Сэрако ямʼ, ''Serako yam'') is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is s ...
s. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate ''
Lebensraum
(, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Impe ...
'' ("living space") by
dispossessing the native population and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.
Although the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
was preparing for strategic
counter-offensives before the war, ''Operation'' ''Barbarossa'' forced the
Soviet supreme command to adopt a
strategic defence
Strategic defence is a type of military planning doctrine and a set defense and/or combat activities used for the purpose of deterring, resisting and repelling a strategic offensive, conducted as either a territorial or airspace, invasion or att ...
. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By mid-August, however, the German
Army High Command decided to
suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted
Army Group Centre, and to divert the
2nd Panzer Group
The 2nd Panzer Army (german: 2. Panzerarmee) was a German armoured formation during World War II, formed from the 2nd Panzer Group on October 5, 1941.
Organisation
Panzer Group Guderian (german: Panzergruppe Guderian) was formed on 5 June 1940 ...
to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad. The
Kiev offensive Kyiv offensive or Kiev offensive may refer to:
* Kiev Offensive (1920), a campaign during the Polish–Soviet war
* Kyiv offensive (2022)
The Kyiv offensive was a theater in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It involved attacks by Russia a ...
was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made possible further
advance into Crimea and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the
First Battle of Kharkov).
The diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the
Eastern Front prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider its
grand strategy. In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a
military alliance against Germany and in August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States and ...
, which outlined British and American goals for the post-war world. In late August the British and Soviets
invaded neutral Iran to secure the
Persian Corridor, Iran's
oil fields, and preempt any Axis advances through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or India.
By October, Axis
operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
and
Sevastopol
Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...
continuing. A major
offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were forced to suspend their offensive. Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet
capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The ''blitzkrieg''
phase of the war in Europe had ended.
By early December, freshly mobilised
reserves allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. This, as well as
intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese
Kwantung Army
''Kantō-gun''
, image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo
, dates = Apri ...
, allowed the Soviets to begin a
massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops west.
War breaks out in the Pacific (1941)
Following the Japanese
false flag
A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...
Mukden Incident in 1931, the Japanese shelling of the American
gunboat ''USS Panay'' in 1937, and the 1937–38
Nanjing Massacre,
Japanese-American relations deteriorated. In 1939, the United States notified Japan that it would not be extending its trade treaty and American public opinion opposing Japanese expansionism led to a series of economic sanctions, the
Export Control Acts, which banned U.S. exports of chemicals, minerals and military parts to Japan and increased economic pressure on the Japanese regime.
[Maechling, Charles. ''Pearl Harbor: The First Energy War''. History Today. December 2000] During 1939 Japan launched its
first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September. Despite
several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded and
occupied northern Indochina in September 1940.
Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale
counter-offensive in early 1940. In August,
Chinese communists launched an
offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted
harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. The continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces
culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation. In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during
Battle of Shanggao. In September, Japan attempted to
take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.
German successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan with some oil supplies from the
Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941. In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo. At the same time, Japan was
planning an invasion of the Soviet Far East, intending to capitalise off the German invasion in the west, but abandoned the operation after the sanctions.
Since early 1941 the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the war in China. During these negotiations, Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate.
At the same time the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them.
Roosevelt reinforced
the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the United States would react to Japanese attacks against any "neighboring countries".
Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American–British–Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. Emperor
Hirohito
Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
, after initial hesitation about Japan's chances of victory, began to favour Japan's entry into the war. As a result, Prime Minister
Fumimaro Konoe resigned. Hirohito refused the recommendation to appoint Prince
Naruhiko Higashikuni in his place, choosing War Minister
Hideki Tojo instead. On 3 November, Nagano explained in detail the plan of the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawa ...
to the Emperor. On 5 November, Hirohito approved in imperial conference the operations plan for the war. On 20 November, the new government presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and for lifting the embargo on the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange, Japan promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw its forces from southern Indochina. The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers. That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.
Japan planned to seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific. The Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war. To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter, it was further planned to neutralise the
United States Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor ...
and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset. On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous
offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These included an
attack on the American fleets at Pearl Harbor and
the Philippines,
Guam
Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic ce ...
,
Wake Island
Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the Sida fallax, kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, sou ...
,
landings in Malaya,
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
and the
Battle of Hong Kong
The Battle of Hong Kong (8–25 December 1941), also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the ...
.
The Japanese invasion of Thailand led to Thailand's decision to ally itself with Japan and the other Japanese attacks led the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, China, Australia, and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan. Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.
Axis advance stalls (1942–43)
On 1 January 1942, the
Allied Big Four—the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom and the United States—and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the
Declaration by United Nations
The Declaration by United Nations was the main treaty that formalized the Allies of World War II and was signed by 47 national governments between 1942 and 1945. On 1 January 1942, during the Arcadia Conference, the Allied " Big Four"—the Unite ...
, thereby affirming the
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States and ...
, and agreeing not to sign a
separate peace with the Axis powers.
During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate
grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that
defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward,
large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets were also demanding a second front. The British, on the other hand, argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralisation, and bolster resistance forces. Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour without using large-scale armies. Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.
At the
Casablanca Conference
The Casablanca Conference (codenamed SYMBOL) or Anfa Conference was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, French Morocco, from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next phase of World War II. In attendance were ...
in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration and demanded the
unconditional surrender of their enemies. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes. Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland and to invade France in 1944.
Pacific (1942–43)
By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
had almost fully conquered
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
,
Malaya
Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia:
Political entities
* British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...
,
the Dutch East Indies,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, and
Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite stubborn
resistance by Filipino and US forces, the
Philippine Commonwealth was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile. On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the
Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division. Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
,
Java Sea and
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
, and
bombed the Allied naval base at
Darwin
Darwin may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection
* Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...
, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese
victory at Changsha. These easy victories over the unprepared US and European opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.
In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to
capture Port Moresby by
amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when an Allied task force, centred on two American fleet carriers, fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in the
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...
. Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier
Doolittle Raid, was to seize
Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to
occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In mid-May, Japan started the
Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign in China, with the goal of inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided the surviving American airmen in the Doolittle Raid by destroying Chinese air bases and fighting against the Chinese 23rd and 32nd Army Groups. In early June, Japan put its operations into action, but the Americans, having broken
Japanese naval codes
The vulnerability of Japanese naval codes and ciphers was crucial to the conduct of World War II, and had an important influence on foreign relations between Japan and the west in the years leading up to the war as well. Every Japanese code was e ...
in late May, were fully aware of the plans and order of battle, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive
victory at Midway over the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
.
With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture
Port Moresby
(; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...
by an
overland campaign
The Overland Campaign, also known as Grant's Overland Campaign and the Wilderness Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864, in the American Civil War. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all Uni ...
in the
Territory of Papua
The Territory of Papua comprised the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea from 1883 to 1975. In 1883, the Government of Queensland annexed this territory for the British Empire. The United Kingdom Government refused to ratify the a ...
. The Americans planned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in the southern
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its ca ...
, primarily
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the se ...
, as a first step towards capturing
Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.
Both plans started in July, but by mid-September,
the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the
northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the
Battle of Buna–Gona. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and
withdrew their troops. In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first,
an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943. The second was the
insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.
Eastern Front (1942–43)
Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in central and southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year. In May, the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the
Kerch Peninsula and at
Kharkov, and then launched their main
summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the
oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy the
Kuban
Kuban (Russian and Ukrainian: Кубань; ady, Пшызэ) is a historical and geographical region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and the Caucasus, and separated fr ...
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslan ...
, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split
Army Group South into two groups:
Army Group A advanced to the lower
Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while
Army Group B headed towards the
Volga River
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...
. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.
By mid-November, the Germans had
nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter
street fighting. The Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an
encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad, and an assault on the
Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously. By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been defeated, and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another
attack on Kharkov, creating a
salient in their front line around the Soviet city of
Kursk
Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German str ...
.
Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–43)
Exploiting poor American naval command decisions,
the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast. By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive,
Operation Crusader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made. In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the
Gazala line
The Battle of Gazala (near the village of ) was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops of the ( Erwin Rommel) consisting of German and I ...
by early February, followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. Concerns the Japanese might use bases in
Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to
invade the island in early May 1942. An Axis
offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were
stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, raids of Allied
commando
40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured
A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations forc ...
s on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous
Dieppe Raid, demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.
In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a
second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to
deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. A few months later, the Allies
commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya. This attack was followed up shortly after by
Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies. Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the
occupation of Vichy France; although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to
scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces. The Axis forces in Africa withdrew into
Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
, which was
conquered by the Allies in May 1943.
In June 1943, the British and Americans began
a strategic bombing campaign against Germany with a goal to disrupt the war economy, reduce morale, and "
de-house" the civilian population. The
firebombing of Hamburg was among the first attacks in this campaign, inflicting significant casualties and considerable losses on infrastructure of this important industrial centre.
Allies gain momentum (1943–44)
After the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and US forces were sent to
eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians. Soon after, the United States, with support from Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islander forces, began major ground, sea and air operations to
isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and
breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives and had also
neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the
Caroline Islands
The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the centra ...
. In April, the Allies launched an operation to
retake Western New Guinea.
In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. On 5 July 1943, Germany
attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences, and for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled an operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies'
invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July, which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the
ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month.
On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own
counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified
Panther–Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at
Smolensk
Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest ...
and by the
Lower Dnieper Offensive.
On 3 September 1943, the Western Allies
invaded the Italian mainland, following
Italy's armistice with the Allies and the ensuing German occupation of Italy. Germany, with the help of fascists, responded to the Armistice by
disarming Italian forces that were in many places without superior orders, seizing military control of Italian areas, and creating a series of defensive lines. German special forces then
rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy named the
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...
, causing an
Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the
main German defensive line in mid-November.
German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By
May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign. In November 1943,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin
in Tehran.
[.] The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory
[.] and the military planning for the
Burma campaign, while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.
[.]
From November 1943, during the seven-week
Battle of Changde
The Battle of Changde (Battle of Changteh; ) was a major engagement in the Second Sino-Japanese War in and around the Chinese city of Changde (Changteh) in the province of Hunan. During the battle, the Imperial Japanese Army extensively used ch ...
, the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief.
[.][.] In January 1944, the Allies launched a
series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and tried to outflank it with
landings at Anzio.
On 27 January 1944,
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
troops launched
a major offensive that expelled German forces from the
Leningrad region, thereby ending the
most lethal siege in history.
[.] The
following Soviet offensive was
halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German
Army Group North aided by
Estonians
Estonians or Estonian people ( et, eestlased) are a Finnic ethnic group native to Estonia who speak the Estonian language.
The Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians; it is closely related to othe ...
hoping to
re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and fr ...
region.
[.] By late May 1944, the Soviets had
liberated Crimea,
largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made
incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops.
[.] The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June Rome was captured.
The Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions,
an operation against Allied positions in Assam, India,
[.] and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at
Imphal and
Kohima.
[.] In May 1944, British and Indian forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma by July,
and Chinese forces that had
invaded northern Burma in late 1943
besieged Japanese troops in
Myitkyina. The
second Japanese invasion of China aimed to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields. By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
and begun a
new attack on Changsha.
Allies close in (1944)
On 6 June 1944 (known as
D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure,
[: "Stalin always believed that Britain and America were delaying the second front so that the Soviet Union would bear the brunt of the war."] the Western Allies
invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also
attacked southern France.
[.] These landings were successful and led to the defeat of the
German Army units in France.
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
was
liberated
Liberation or liberate may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War
* "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode
* "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode
Gaming
* '' Liberati ...
on 25 August by the
local resistance assisted by the
Free French Forces, both led by General
Charles de Gaulle, and the Western Allies continued to
push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by
a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but
failed to cross the Rur river in a large offensive. In Italy, Allied advance also slowed due to the
last major German defensive line.
On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus ("
Operation Bagration") that almost completely destroyed the German
Army Group Centre.
[: "It was the most calamitous defeat of all the German armed forces in World War II."] Soon after that,
another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviets formed the
Polish Committee of National Liberation
The Polish Committee of National Liberation ( Polish: ''Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego'', ''PKWN''), also known as the Lublin Committee, was an executive governing authority established by the Soviet-backed communists in Poland at the ...
to control territory in Poland and combat the Polish
Armia Krajowa; the Soviet Red Army remained in the
Praga district on the other side of the
Vistula
The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland.
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in t ...
and watched passively as the Germans quelled the
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
initiated by the Armia Krajowa. The
national uprising in
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...
was also quelled by the Germans. The Soviet
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
's
strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the
considerable German troops there and triggered
a successful coup d'état in Romania and
in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.
In September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups
E and
F in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...
,
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the ...
and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off.
[.] By this point, the Communist-led
Partisans under Marshal
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, who had led an
increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...
, the Soviet
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint
liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a
massive assault against
German-occupied Hungary that lasted until
the fall of Budapest in February 1945. Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans,
bitter Finnish resistance to the
Soviet offensive in the
Karelian Isthmus
The Karelian Isthmus (russian: Карельский перешеек, Karelsky peresheyek; fi, Karjalankannas; sv, Karelska näset) is the approximately stretch of land, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern R ...
denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a
Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions, although Finland was forced to
fight their former ally Germany.
By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
, pushing the Japanese back to the
Chindwin River[.] while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In September 1944, Chinese forces
captured Mount Song and reopened the
Burma Road. In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally
captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of
Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they invaded the province of
Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at
Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.
[.]
In the Pacific, US forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began their
offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the
Battle of the Philippine Sea
The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a major naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious in ...
. These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister,
Hideki Tojo, and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces
invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in the
Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.
Axis collapse and Allied victory (1944–45)
On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch
a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes and
along the French-German border to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at
Antwerp to prompt a political settlement.
By 16 January 1945, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled.
In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Red Army attacked in Poland,
pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and
overran East Prussia. On 4 February Soviet, British, and US leaders met for the
Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.
In February, the Soviets
entered Silesia and
Pomerania
Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to t ...
, while
Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the
Rhine
The Rhine ; french: Rhin ; nl, Rijn ; wa, Rén ; li, Rien; rm, label=Sursilvan, Rein, rm, label=Sutsilvan and Surmiran, Ragn, rm, label=Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader and Puter, Rain; it, Reno ; gsw, Rhi(n), including in Alsatian dialect, Al ...
river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine
north
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''no ...
and
south of the
Ruhr,
encircling the German Army Group B. In early March, in an attempt to protect its last oil reserves in Hungary and to retake Budapest, Germany launched
its last major offensive against Soviet troops near
Lake Balaton. In two weeks, the offensive had been repulsed, the Soviets advanced to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, and captured the city. In early April, Soviet troops
captured Königsberg, while the Western Allies finally
pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany capturing
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
and
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
.
American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe river on 25 April, leaving several unoccupied pockets in southern Germany and around Berlin.
Soviet troops
stormed and captured Berlin in late April. In Italy,
German forces surrendered on 29 April. On 30 April, the
Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany,
and the Berlin garrison surrendered on 2 May.
Major changes in leadership occurred on both sides during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by his vice president,
Harry S. Truman. Benito Mussolini
was killed by
Italian partisans
The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Soci ...
on 28 April.
[.] On 30 April,
Hitler committed suicide in his
headquarters, and he was succeeded by
Grand Admiral
Grand admiral is a historic naval rank, the highest rank in the several European navies that used it. It is best known for its use in Germany as . A comparable rank in modern navies is that of admiral of the fleet.
Grand admirals in individual ...
Karl Dönitz and
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the '' Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to ...
.
Total and unconditional surrender in Europe was signed
on 7and 8May, to be effective by the end of
8 May
Events Pre-1600
*453 BC – Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeats the house of Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin.
* 413 – Emperor Honorius signs an ...
.
[.] German Army Group Centre
resisted in Prague until 11 May.
[.]
In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the
Philippine Commonwealth advanced
in the Philippines,
clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They
landed on Luzon in January 1945 and
recaptured Manila in March. Fighting continued on Luzon,
Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of t ...
, and other islands of the Philippines until the
end of the war. Meanwhile, the
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
launched
a massive firebombing campaign of strategic cities in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale. A devastating
bombing raid on Tokyo of 9–10 March was the deadliest conventional bombing raid in history.
In May 1945, Australian troops
landed in Borneo, overrunning the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
in March, and the British pushed on to reach
Rangoon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military governme ...
by 3 May.
[.] Chinese forces started a counterattack in the
Battle of West Hunan
The Battle of West Hunan (), also known as the Battle of Xuefeng Mountains () and the Zhijiang Campaign (), was the Japanese invasion of west Hunan and the subsequent Allied counterattack that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945, during the ...
that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...
by March, and
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
by the end of June. At the same time, a naval blockade by
submarines
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely ...
was strangling Japan's economy and drastically reducing its ability to supply overseas forces.
On 11 July, Allied leaders
met in Potsdam, Germany. They
confirmed earlier agreements about Germany,
[.] and the American, British and Chinese governments reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of Japan, specifically stating that
"the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction".
[.] During this conference, the United Kingdom
held its general election, and
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Min ...
replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.
[.]
The call for unconditional surrender was rejected by the Japanese government, which believed it would be capable of negotiating for more favourable surrender terms. In early August, the United States
dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in th ...
. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement,
invaded Japanese-held Manchuria and quickly defeated the
Kwantung Army
''Kantō-gun''
, image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo
, dates = Apri ...
, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. These two events persuaded previously adamant Imperial Army leaders to accept surrender terms.
[ " The principal cause of Japan's surrender was the ability of the United States to increase the military vulnerability of Japan's home islands, persuading Japanese leaders that defense of the homeland was highly unlikely to succeed. The key military factor causing this effect was the sea blockade, which crippled Japan's ability to produce and equip the forces necessary to execute its strategy. The most important factor accounting for the timing of surrender was the Soviet attack against Manchuria, largely because it persuaded previously adamant Army leaders that the homeland could not be defended.".] The Red Army also captured the
southern part of Sakhalin Island and the
Kuril Islands. On the night of 9–10 August 1945, Emperor
Hirohito
Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
announced his decision to accept the terms demanded by the Allies in the
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, U ...
. On 15 August, the Emperor communicated this decision to the Japanese people through a speech broadcast on the radio (
''"Gyokuon-hōsō"'', literally ''"broadcast in the Emperor's voice"''). On 15 August 1945,
Japan surrendered, with the
surrender documents finally signed at
Tokyo Bay
is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous ...
on the deck of the American battleship
USS ''Missouri'' on 2 September 1945, ending the war.
[.]
Aftermath
The Allies established occupation administrations in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
, both initially divided between western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, respectively. However, their paths soon diverged. In Germany, the western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union officially ended in 1949, with the respective zones becoming separate countries,
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
and
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
. However, in Austria occupation continued until 1955, when a joint settlement between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union permitted the reunification of Austria as a neutral democratic state, officially non-aligned with any political bloc (although in practice having better relations with the Western Allies). A
denazification
Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by remo ...
program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in the
Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded ...
and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.
[.]
Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories,
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is spli ...
,
Neumark
The Neumark (), also known as the New March ( pl, Nowa Marchia) or as East Brandenburg (), was a region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its successors located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945.
Cal ...
and most of
Pomerania
Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to t ...
were taken over by Poland,
and
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1 ...
was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union, followed by the
expulsion to Germany of the nine million Germans from these provinces,
as well as three million Germans from the
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
in Czechoslovakia. By the 1950s, one-fifth of West Germans were refugees from the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the
Curzon line,
from which
2 million Poles were expelled;
[.] north-east Romania,
[.][.] parts of eastern Finland,
[.] and the three
Baltic states
The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...
were
incorporated into the Soviet Union.
[.][.]
In an effort to maintain
world peace
World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state wou ...
,
[.] the Allies formed the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...
in 1948 as a common standard for all
member nations.
[.]
The UDHR is viewable her
The
great powers that were the victors of the war—France, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States—became the
permanent members of the UN's
Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...
.
The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes,
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, between the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northea ...
and the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...
in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its
successor state, the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographic ...
, following the
dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.
[.]
Germany had been ''de facto'' divided, and two independent states, the
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south ...
(West Germany) and the
German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
(East Germany),
[.] were created within the borders of
Allied and Soviet occupation zones. The rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence.
[.] Most eastern and central European countries fell into Eastern Bloc, the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result,
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
,
[.] Polish People's Republic, Poland, Hungarian People's Republic, Hungary, Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Czechoslovakia, and People's Socialist Republic of Albania, Albania
[.] became Soviet satellite states. Communist Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia conducted a fully Non-Aligned Movement, independent policy, causing Tito–Stalin Split, tension with the Soviet Union.
[.]
Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.
[.] The long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the
Cold War, would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and number of
proxy war
A proxy war is an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors, one or both of which act at the instigation or on behalf of other parties that are not directly involved in the hostilities. In order for a conflict to be considered a pr ...
s throughout the world.
In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, administered Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
[.] Korea, formerly Korea under Japanese rule, under Japanese rule, was Division of Korea, divided and occupied by the Soviet Union in the North Korea, North and the United States in the South Korea, South between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.
In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed Chinese Civil War, the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949.
[.] In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab–Israeli conflict. While European powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to Decolonization, decolonisation.
[.]
The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The United States emerged much richer than any other nation, leading to a Post–World War II baby boom, baby boom, and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers, and it dominated the world economy. The UK and US pursued a policy of Allied plans for German industry after World War II, industrial disarmament in Western Germany in the years 1945–1948.
[.] Because of international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years.
[.]
At the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944, the Allied nations drew up an economic framework for the post-war world. The agreement created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The Bretton Woods system lasted until 1973. Recovery began with the mid-1948 Deutsche Mark, currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused.
[.] The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the Wirtschaftswunder#West Germany, German economic miracle. Italy also experienced an Italian economic miracle, economic boom and the Trente Glorieuses, French economy rebounded. By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, and although receiving a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country, it continued in relative economic decline for decades.
The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era.
[.] Japan recovered much later. China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.
Impact
Casualties and war crimes
Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about Battle casualties of World War II, 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians.
Many of the civilians died because of deliberate
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the L ...
, List of massacres, massacres, Strategic bombing during World War II, mass bombings, Infectious disease, disease, and
starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, dea ...
.
The Soviet Union alone lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths.
[.] A quarter of the total people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed. Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.
[.]
An estimated 11 to 17 million
[.] civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Hitler's Racial policy of Nazi Germany, racist policies, including mass killing of the Holocaust, around 6million Jews, along with Romani genocide, Roma, Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, homosexuals, at least 1.9 million ethnic World War II casualties of Poland, Poles and World War II casualties of the Soviet Union, millions of other Slavs (including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), and Holocaust victims, other ethnic and minority groups.
Between 1941 and 1945, more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs, along with gypsies and Jews, were Persecution of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia, persecuted and murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
. Concurrently, Bosniaks, Muslims and Croats were Chetnik war crimes in World War II, persecuted and killed by Serb nationalist Chetniks, with an estimated 50,000-68,000 victims (of which 41,000 were civilians).
Also, more than 100,000 Poles were massacred by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, Volhynia massacres, between 1943 and 1945. At the same time, about 10,000–15,000 Ukrainians were killed by the Polish Home Army and other Polish units, in reprisal attacks.
In Asia and the Pacific, the number of people killed by Japanese troops remains contested. According to R.J. Rummel, the Japanese killed between 3million and more than 10 million people, with the most probable case of almost 6,000,000 people. According to the British historian M. R. D. Foot, civilian deaths are between 10 million and 20 million, whereas Chinese military casualties (killed and wounded) are estimated to be over five million. Other estimates say that up to 30 million people, most of them civilians, were killed. The most infamous Japanese atrocity was the Nanking Massacre, in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during the ''Three Alls Policy, Sankō Sakusen''. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Heipei and Shantung.
Axis forces employed Biological warfare, biological and Chemical warfare, chemical weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during its Second Sino-Japanese War, invasion and occupation of China (''see Unit 731'') and in Battles of Khalkhin Gol, early conflicts against the Soviets. Both the Germans and the Japanese human experimentation on the Chinese, Japanese tested such weapons against civilians, and sometimes on prisoner of war, prisoners of war.
The Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers, and the imprisonment or execution of NKVD prisoner massacres, thousands of political prisoners by the NKVD, along with Population transfer in the Soviet Union, mass civilian deportations to Siberia, in the Occupation of the Baltic states, Baltic states and
eastern Poland
Eastern Poland is a macroregion in Poland comprising the Lublin, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie, and Warmian-Masurian voivodeships.
The make-up of the distinct macroregion is based not only of geographical criteria, but also economic ...
annexed by the Red Army.
The foibe massacres refers to mass killings both during and after World War II, mainly committed by Yugoslav Partisans and OZNA in the then-Italian territories of Julian March (Karst Region and Istria), Kvarner and Dalmatia, against the local ethnic Italian population (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians), as well the ethnic Slovenes, Croats and Istro-Romanians who chose to maintain Italian citizenship, against all anti-communism, anti-communists, associated with Fascism, Nazism and collaboration with Axis powers, Axis,
and against real, potential or presumed opponents of Titoism, Tito communism.
The type of attack was state terrorism,
Reprisal, reprisal killings,
and ethnic cleansing against Italians.
[''«....Già nello scatenarsi della prima ondata di cieca violenza in quelle terre, nell'autunno del 1943, si intrecciarono giustizialismo sommario e tumultuoso, parossismo nazionalista, rivalse sociali e un disegno di sradicamento della presenza italiana da quella che era, e cessò di essere, la Venezia Giulia. Vi fu dunque un moto di odio e di furia sanguinaria, e un disegno annessionistico slavo, che prevalse innanzitutto nel Trattato di pace del 1947, e che assunse i sinistri contorni di una "pulizia etnica". Quel che si può dire di certo è che si consumò - nel modo più evidente con la disumana ferocia delle foibe - una delle barbarie del secolo scorso.»'' from the official website of The Presidency of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano]
official speech for the celebration of "Giorno del Ricordo"
Quirinal, Rome, 10 February 2007. The estimated number of people killed in the foibe is disputed, varying from hundreds to thousands,
according to some sources 11,000
or 20,000.
The foibe massacres were followed by the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus.
The mass bombing of cities in Europe and Asia has often been called a war crime, although no Positive international law, positive or specific Customary international law, customary international humanitarian law with respect to aerial warfare existed before or during World War II. The USAAF Air raids on Japan, bombed a total of 67 Japanese cities, killing 393,000 civilians, including from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and destroying 65% of built-up areas.
Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, was responsible for
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
(which killed approximately 6million Jews) as well as for Nazi crimes against the Polish nation, killing 2.7 million ethnic Poles and 4million others who were deemed "life unworthy of life, unworthy of life" (including the Disability, disabled and Mental disorder, mentally ill, German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war, Soviet prisoners of war, Romani people, Romani, homosexuals, Freemasons, and Jehovah's Witnesses) as part of a program of deliberate extermination, in effect becoming a "Genocide, genocidal state". German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war, Soviet POWs were kept in especially unbearable conditions, and 3.6 million Soviet POWs out of 5.7 million died in Nazi camps during the war.
[.] In addition to Nazi concentration camps, concentration camps, Extermination camp, death camps were created in Nazi Germany to exterminate people on an industrial scale. Nazi Germany extensively used Forced labour under German rule during World War II, forced labourers; about 12 million Ostarbeiter, Europeans from German-occupied countries were abducted and used as a slave work force in German industry, agriculture and war economy.
The Soviet Gulag became a ''de facto'' system of deadly camps during 1942–43, when wartime privation and hunger caused numerous deaths of inmates, including foreign citizens of Poland and Occupation of Baltic States, other countries occupied in 1939–40 by the Soviet Union, as well as Axis German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, POWs. By the end of the war, most Soviet POWs liberated from Nazi camps and many repatriated civilians were detained in special filtration camps where they were subjected to NKVD evaluation, and 226,127 were sent to the Gulag as real or perceived Nazi collaborators.
Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27 per cent (for American POWs, 37 per cent), seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians. While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the
surrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released was only 56.
At least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or ''Kōain'', for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million.
In Java, between 4and 10 million ''rōmusha'' (Japanese: "manual labourers"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in Southeast Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.
Occupation
In Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichsmarks (27.8 billion US dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include the Nazi plunder, sizeable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods. Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on.
[.]
In the East, the intended gains of ''
Lebensraum
(, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Impe ...
'' were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders.
[.] Unlike in the West, the Racial policy of Nazi Germany, Nazi racial policy encouraged extreme brutality against what it considered to be the "Untermensch, inferior people" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by Generalplan Ost, mass executions. Although Resistance during World War II, resistance groups formed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East or the West until late 1943.
In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples. Although Japanese forces were sometimes welcomed as liberators from European domination, Japanese war crimes frequently turned local public opinion against them.
[.] During Japan's initial conquest, it captured of oil (~550,000 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces; and by 1943, was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to of oil (~6.8 million tonnes), 76 per cent of its 1940 output rate.
Home fronts and production
In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and the British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, the Allies had more than a 5:1 advantage in population and a nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP.
[.] In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.
The United States produced about two-thirds of all the munitions used by the Allies in World War II, including warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition.
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 warfare, attrition.
[.] 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 employ women in the Workforce, labour force, Allied Strategic bombing during World War II, strategic bombing, and Germany's late shift to a war economy contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and had not equipped themselves to do so. To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of Slavery, slave labourers; Forced labour under German rule during World War II, Germany used about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,
while Slavery in Japan, Japan used more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.
Advances in technology and warfare
Aircraft were used for Reconnaissance aircraft, reconnaissance, as fighter aircraft, fighters, bombers, and close air support, ground-support, and each role was advanced considerably. Innovation included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel);
[.] and of
strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systemati ...
(the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war). Anti-aircraft warfare, Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and, though late introduction meant it had little impact, it led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide. Although Missile, guided missiles were being developed, they were not advanced enough to reliably Surface-to-air missile, target aircraft until some years after the war.
Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although Aeronautics, aeronautical warfare had relatively little success at the start of the war, Battle of Taranto, actions at Taranto, Attack on Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor, and the Battle of the Coral Sea, Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship.
[.] In the Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap. Carriers were also more economical than battleships because of the relatively low cost of aircraft and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured. Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the World War I, First World War,
[.] were anticipated by all sides to be important in the second. The British focused development on Anti-submarine warfare, anti-submarine anti-submarine weapon, weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the German Type VII submarine, Type VII submarine and Wolfpack (naval tactic), wolfpack tactics.
[.] Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, Hedgehog (weapon), hedgehog, Squid (weapon), squid, and Mark 24 mine, homing torpedoes proved victorious over the German submarines.
Land warfare changed from the static front lines of trench warfare of World War I, which had relied on improved artillery that outmatched the speed of both infantry and cavalry, to increased mobility and combined arms. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon.
[.] In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World WarI, and Tanks in World War II, advances continued throughout the war with increases in speed, armour and firepower. At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications.
[.] This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France.
Many means of Anti-tank warfare, destroying tanks, including Indirect fire, indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and Self-propelled gun, self-propelled), Anti-tank mine, mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were used.
Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces,
[.] and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.
[.] The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG 34, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings.
The assault rifle, a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard post-war infantry weapon for most armed forces.
Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma machine. Development of SIGINT (''sig''nals ''int''elligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of
Japanese naval codes
The vulnerability of Japanese naval codes and ciphers was crucial to the conduct of World War II, and had an important influence on foreign relations between Japan and the west in the years leading up to the war as well. Every Japanese code was e ...
and British Ultra, a Bombe#The British Bombe, pioneering method for decoding Enigma benefiting from information given to the United Kingdom by the Polish Cipher Bureau#Gift to allies, Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war. Another aspect of military intelligence was the use of deception, which the Allies used to great effect, such as in operations Operation Mincemeat, Mincemeat and Operation Bodyguard, Bodyguard.
Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3 (computer), Z3, Colossus computer, Colossus, and ENIAC), V-1 flying bomb, guided missiles and V-2 rocket, modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons, operations research and the development of Mulberry harbour, artificial harbours and Operation Pluto, oil pipelines under the English Channel. Penicillin was first mass-produced and used during the war (see History of penicillin#Stabilization and mass production, Stabilization and mass production of penicillin).
See also
* Index of World War II articles
* Lists of World War II topics
* Outline of World War II
* Lists of World War II military equipment
Notes
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External links
West Point Maps of the European WarWest Point Maps of the Asian-Pacific War* s:Atlas of the World Battle Fronts in Semimonthly Phases to August 15 1945, Atlas of the World Battle Fronts (July 1943 to August 1945)
Records of World War II propaganda posters are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
Maps of World War II in Europe at Omniatlas
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