World War II[b]or theSecond World War(1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was aglobal conflictbetween two coalitions: theAlliesand theAxis powers.Nearly all the world's countries—including all thegreat powers—participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit oftotal war,blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources.Tanksandaircraft played major roles,with the latter enabling thestrategic bombingof population centres and delivery of theonly two nuclear weaponsever used in war. World War II was thedeadliest conflictin history, resulting in70 to 85 million deaths,more than half being civilians. Millions died ingenocides,includingthe Holocaustof European Jews, as well as from massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory,Germany,Austria,Japan,andKoreawere occupied, andwar crimestribunals were conductedagainst GermanandJapanese leaders.
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Thecauses of World War IIincluded unresolved tensions in theaftermath of World War Iand the rise offascism in Europeandmilitarism in Japan.Key events leading up to the war includedJapan's invasion of Manchuria,theSpanish Civil War,the outbreak of theSecond Sino-Japanese War,and Germany'sannexations of Austriaandthe Sudetenland.World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, whenNazi Germany,underAdolf Hitler,invaded Poland,prompting theUnited KingdomandFranceto declare war on Germany. Poland was divided between Germany and theSoviet Unionunder theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact,in which they had agreed on "spheres of influence"in Eastern Europe. In 1940, the Sovietsannexed the Baltic statesandparts of FinlandandRomania.After thefall of Francein June 1940, the war continued mainly between Germany and theBritish Empire,with fighting in theBalkans,Mediterranean, and Middle East,the aerialBattle of Britainandthe Blitz,and navalBattle of the Atlantic.Through a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany took control of much ofcontinental Europeandformed the Axis alliancewithItaly,Japan,and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led the European Axis inan invasion of the Soviet Union,opening theEastern Frontand initially making large territorial gains.
Japan aimed todominate East Asia and the Asia-Pacific,and by 1937 was at war with theRepublic of China.In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territoriesin Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific,includingPearl Harbor in Hawaii,which resulted in the US and the UK declaring war against Japan, and the European Axis declaring war on the US.Japan conquered much of coastal China and Southeast Asia,but its advances in the Pacific were halted in mid-1942 after its defeat in the navalBattle of Midway;Germany and Italy weredefeated in North Africaand atStalingradin the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including German defeats on the Eastern Front, theAllied invasions of Sicilyand theItalian 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 Alliesinvaded German-occupied France at Normandy,while the Soviet Unionregained its territorial lossesand pushed Germany and its allies westward. At the same time, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled theJapanese Navyandcaptured key islands.
The war in Europe concluded with the liberation ofGerman-occupied territories;theinvasion of Germany by the Western Alliesand the Soviet Union, culminating in thefall of Berlinto Soviet troops;Hitler's suicide;and theGerman unconditional surrenderon8 May 1945.Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of thePotsdam Declaration,the USdropped the first atomic bombsonHiroshimaandNagasakion 6 and 9 August. Faced with an imminentinvasion of the Japanese archipelago,the possibility of further atomic bombings, and the Sovietdeclaration of waragainst Japan and itsinvasion of Manchuria,Japan announcedits unconditional surrenderon 15 August and signeda surrender documenton2 September 1945,marking the end of the war.
World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and it set the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. TheUnited Nationswas established to foster international cooperation and prevent conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becomingthe permanent membersofits security council.The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rivalsuperpowers,setting the stage for theCold War.In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering thedecolonisation of AfricaandAsia.Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towardseconomic recovery and expansion.
Start and end dates
World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939[1][2]with theGerman invasion of Polandand theUnited KingdomandFrance's declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of thePacific Warinclude the start of theSecond Sino-Japanese Waron 7 July 1937,[3][4]or the earlierJapanese invasion of Manchuria,on 19 September 1931.[5][6]Others follow the British historianA. J. P. Taylor,who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and the two wars became World War II in 1941.[7]Other proposed starting dates for World War II include theItalian invasion of Abyssiniaon 3 October 1935.[8]The British historianAntony Beevorviews the beginning of World WarII as theBattles of Khalkhin Golfought betweenJapanand the forces ofMongoliaand theSoviet Unionfrom May to September 1939.[9]Others view theSpanish Civil Waras the start or prelude to World War II.[10][11]
The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than with the formalsurrender of Japanon 2 September 1945, which officiallyended the war in Asia.Apeace treaty between Japan and the Allieswas signed in 1951.[12]A 1990treaty regarding Germany's futureallowed thereunification of East and West Germanyto take place and resolved most post–World WarII issues.[13]No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed,[14]although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by theSoviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956,which also restored full diplomatic relations between them.[15]
History
Background
Aftermath of World War I
World War Ihad radically altered the political European map with the defeat of theCentral Powers—includingAustria-Hungary,Germany,Bulgaria,and theOttoman Empire—and the 1917Bolshevik seizure of powerinRussia,which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victoriousAllies of World War I,such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and newnation-stateswere created out of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires.[16]
To prevent a future world war, theLeague of Nationswas established in 1920 by theParis Peace Conference.The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, andnaval disarmament,as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.[17]
Despite strong pacifist sentimentafter World WarI,[18]irredentistandrevanchistnationalismhad emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by theTreaty of Versailles.Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and allits overseas possessions,while German annexation of other states was prohibited,reparationswere imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country'sarmed forces.[19]
Germany and Italy
The German Empire was dissolved in theGerman Revolution of 1918–1919,and a democratic government, later known as theWeimar Republic,was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that thepromises madeby the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, theFascistmovement led byBenito Mussoliniseized power in Italy with a nationalist,totalitarian,andclass collaborationistagenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of a "New Roman Empire".[20]
Adolf Hitler,after anunsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German governmentin 1923, eventuallybecame the Chancellor of Germanyin 1933 whenPaul von Hindenburgand the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himselfFührerof Germany and abolished democracy, espousing aradical, racially motivated revision of the world order,and soon began a massiverearmament campaign.[21]France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy,allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia,which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when theTerritory of the Saar Basinwas legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.[22]
European treaties
The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed theStresa Frontin April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towardsmilitary globalisation;however, that June, the United Kingdom made anindependent naval agreementwith Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany'sgoals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe,drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, theFranco-Soviet pactwas required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless.[23]The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed theNeutrality Actin August of the same year.[24]
Hitler defied the Versailles andLocarno Treatiesbyremilitarising the Rhinelandin March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy ofappeasement.[25]In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed theRome–Berlin Axis.A month later, Germany and Japan signed theAnti-Comintern Pact,which Italy joined the following year.[26]
Asia
TheKuomintang(KMT) party in China launched aunification campaignagainstregional warlordsand nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled ina civil waragainst its formerChinese Communist Party(CCP) allies[27]andnew regional warlords.In 1931, anincreasingly militaristicEmpire of Japan,which had long sought influence in China[28]as the first step of what its government saw as the country'sright to rule Asia,staged theMukden incidentas a pretext toinvade Manchuriaand establish thepuppet stateofManchukuo.[29]
China appealed to theLeague of Nationsto stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after beingcondemnedfor its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, inShanghai,ReheandHebei,until theTanggu Trucewas signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression inManchuria,andChahar and Suiyuan.[30]After the 1936Xi'an Incident,the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to presenta united frontto oppose Japan.[31]
Pre-war events
Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
TheSecond Italo-Ethiopian Warwas a briefcolonial warthat began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of theEthiopian Empire(also known asAbyssinia) by the armed forces of theKingdom of Italy(Regno d'Italia), which was launched fromItalian SomalilandandEritrea.[32]The war resulted in themilitary occupationof Ethiopia and itsannexationinto the newly created colony ofItalian East Africa(Africa Orientale Italiana,or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of theLeague of Nationsas a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations,but the League did littlewhen the former clearly violated Article X of the League'sCovenant.[33]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.[34]Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbingAustria.[35]
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to theNationalist rebels,led by GeneralFrancisco Franco.Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain.[36]The Soviet Union supported the existing government of theSpanish Republic.More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as theInternational Brigades,also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used thisproxy waras 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 butgenerally favoured the Axis.[37]His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending ofvolunteersto fight on theEastern Front.[38]
Japanese invasion of China (1937)
In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital ofPekingafter instigating theMarco Polo Bridge incident,which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China.[39]The Soviets quickly signed anon-aggression pact with Chinato lendmaterielsupport, effectively ending China's priorcooperation with Germany.From September to November, the Japanese attackedTaiyuan,engaged theKuomintang Armyaround Xinkou,[40]and foughtCommunist forcesin Ping xing guan.[41][42]GeneralissimoChiang Kai-shekdeployed hisbest armytodefend Shanghai,but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back,capturing the capital Nankingin December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants weremurdered by the Japanese.[43][44]
In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won theirfirst major victory at Taierzhuang,but then the city ofXuzhouwas taken by the Japanesein May.[45]In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance byflooding the Yellow River;this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences atWuhan,but thecity was takenby October.[46]Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland toChongqingand continued the war.[47][48]
Soviet–Japanese border conflicts
In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces inManchukuohad sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union andMongolia.The Japanese doctrine ofHokushin-ron,which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat atKhalkin Golin 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War[49]and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed aNeutrality Pactin April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine ofNanshin-ron,promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies.[50][51]
European occupations and agreements
In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germanyannexed Austria,again provokinglittle responsefrom other European powers.[52]Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on theSudetenland,an area ofCzechoslovakiawith a predominantlyethnic Germanpopulation. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlainand conceded this territory to Germany in theMunich Agreement,which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands.[53]Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia tocede additional territoryto Hungary, and Poland annexed theTrans-Olzaregion of Czechoslovakia.[54]
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 1939secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navyto challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939,Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakiaand subsequently split it into the GermanProtectorate of Bohemia and Moraviaand a pro-Germanclient state,theSlovak Republic.[55]Hitler also delivered anultimatum to Lithuaniaon 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of theKlaipėda Region,formerly the GermanMemelland.[56]
Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on theFree City of Danzig,the United Kingdom and Franceguaranteed their support for Polish independence;whenItaly conquered Albaniain April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to theKingdoms of RomaniaandGreece.[57]Shortly after theFranco-Britishpledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with thePact of Steel.[58]Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced theAnglo-German Naval Agreementand theGerman–Polish declaration of non-aggression.[59]
The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signeda non-aggression pactwith Germany,[60]after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled.[61]This pact had a secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (westernPolandand Lithuania for Germany;eastern Poland,Finland,Estonia,LatviaandBessarabiafor the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence.[62]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 afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.[63]
In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as a pretext to worsen relations.[64]On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polishplenipotentiaryimmediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover ofDanzig,and to allow aplebiscitein thePolish Corridorin which the German minority would vote on secession.[64]The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassadorNevile Henderson,Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected.[65]
Course of the war
War breaks out in Europe (1939–1940)
On 1 September 1939, Germanyinvaded Polandafterhaving stagedseveralfalse flag border incidentsas a pretext to initiate the invasion.[66]The first German attack of the war came against thePolish defences at Westerplatte.[67]The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany.[68]During thePhoney Warperiod, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of acautious French probe into the Saarland.[69]The Western Allies also began anaval blockade of Germany,which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort.[70]Germany responded by orderingU-boat warfareagainst Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into theBattle of the Atlantic.[71]
On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs ofWarsaw.The Polishcounter-offensiveto the west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by theWehrmacht.Remnants of the Polish army broke through tobesieged Warsaw.On 17 September 1939, two days after signing acease-fire with Japan,theSoviet Union invaded Poland[72]under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist.[73]On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to the Germans, andthe last large operational unit of the Polish Armysurrendered on 6October.Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed thePolish government-in-exileand aclandestine state apparatus remainedin occupied Poland.[74]A significant part of Polish military personnelevacuated to Romaniaand Latvia; many of them laterfought against the Axisin other theatres of the war.[75]
Germanyannexed westernPoland andoccupied central Poland;the Soviet Unionannexed eastern Poland;small shares of Polish territory were transferred toLithuaniaandSlovakia.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[65]and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France,[76]which was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather.[77][78][79]
After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatenedEstonia,Latvia,andLithuaniawith military invasion, forcing the threeBaltic countriesto signpactsallowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there.[80][81][82]Finlandrefused to sign a similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union.The Soviet Union invaded Finlandin November 1939,[83]and was subsequently expelled from theLeague of Nationsfor this crime of aggression.[84]Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during theWinter Warwas modest,[85]and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 withsome Finnish concessions of territory.[86]
In June 1940, the Soviet Unionoccupiedthe entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,[81]as well as the Romanian regions ofBessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region.In August 1940, Hitler imposed theSecond Vienna Awardon Romania which led to the transfer ofNorthern Transylvaniato Hungary.[87]In September 1940, Bulgaria demandedSouthern Dobrujafrom Romania with German and Italian support, leading to theTreaty of Craiova.[88]The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under MarshalIon Antonescu,with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee.[89]Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation[90][91]gradually stalled,[92][93]and both states began preparations for war.[94]
Western Europe (1940–1941)
In April 1940,Germany invaded Denmark and Norwayto protect shipments ofiron ore from Sweden,which the Allies wereattempting to cut off.[95]Denmark capitulated after six hours,anddespite Allied support,Norway was conquered within two months.[96]British discontent over the Norwegian campaignled to the resignation of Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain,who was replaced byWinston Churchillon 10May 1940.[97]
On the same day, Germanylaunched an offensive against France.To circumvent the strongMaginot Linefortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations ofBelgium,the Netherlands,andLuxembourg.[98]The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through theArdennesregion,[99]which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.[100][101]By successfully implementing newBlitzkriegtactics, theWehrmachtrapidly 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 ableto evacuate a significant number of Allied troopsfrom the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment.[102]
On 10 June,Italy invaded France,declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom.[103]The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, andParisfell to them on 14June. Eight days laterFrance signed an armistice with Germany;it was divided intoGermanandItalian occupation zones,[104]and an unoccupiedrump stateunder theVichy Regime,which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, whichthe United Kingdom attackedon 3July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany.[105]
The airBattle of Britain[106]began in early July withLuftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours.[107]TheGerman campaign for air superioritystarted in August but its failure to defeatRAF Fighter Commandforced the indefinite postponement of theproposed German invasion of Britain.The Germanstrategic bombingoffensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities inthe Blitz,but largely ended in May 1941[108]after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort.[107]
Using newly captured French ports, the German Navyenjoyed successagainst an over-extendedRoyal Navy,usingU-boatsagainst British shippingin the Atlantic.[109]The BritishHome Fleetscored a significant victory on 27May 1941 bysinking the German battleshipBismarck.[110]
In November 1939, the United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended theNeutrality Actto allow"cash and carry"purchases by the Allies.[111]In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of theUnited States Navywassignificantly increased.In September the United States further agreed to atrade of American destroyers for British bases.[112]Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941.[113]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 promotingLend-Leaseprogrammes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it wasinvadedby Germany.[114]The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany.[115]
At the end of September 1940, theTripartite Pactformally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as theAxis powers.The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three.[116]The Axis expanded in November 1940 whenHungary,Slovakia,andRomaniajoined.[117]RomaniaandHungarylater made major contributions to the Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recaptureterritory ceded to the Soviet Union.[118]
Mediterranean (1940–1941)
In early June 1940, the ItalianRegia Aeronauticaattacked and besieged Malta,a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italyconquered British Somalilandand made anincursion 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.[119]To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean.[120]
In December 1940, British Empire forces begancounter-offensivesagainst Italian forces in Egypt andItalian East Africa.[121]The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. TheItalian Navyalso suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after acarrier attack at Taranto,and neutralising several more warships at theBattle of Cape Matapan.[122]
Italian defeats prompted Germany todeploy an expeditionary forceto North Africa; at the end of March 1941,Rommel'sAfrika Korpslaunched an offensivewhich drove back Commonwealth forces.[123]In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt andbesieged the port of Tobruk.[124]
By late March 1941,BulgariaandYugoslaviasigned theTripartite Pact;however, the Yugoslav government wasoverthrown two days laterby pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of bothYugoslaviaandGreece,commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month.[125]The airborneinvasion of the Greek island of Creteat the end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans.[126]Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against theAxis occupation of Yugoslavia,which continued until the end of the war.[127]
In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forcesquashed an uprising in Iraqwhich had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlledSyria.[128]Between June and July, British-led forcesinvaded and occupied the French possessions of Syria and Lebanon,assisted by theFree French.[129]
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 inSoutheast Asia,the two powers signed theSoviet–Japanese Neutrality Pactin April 1941.[130]By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.[131]
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.[132]On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that the Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest ofUkraine,theBaltic statesandByelorussia.[133]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.[134]In November 1940,negotiations took placeto 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.[135]
On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union inOperation Barbarossa,with Germany accusing the Soviets ofplotting against them;they were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary.[136]The primary targets of this surprise offensive[137]were theBaltic region,Moscow and Ukraine, with theultimate goalof ending the 1941 campaign near theArkhangelsk-Astrakhan line—from theCaspianto theWhite Seas.Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminateCommunism,generateLebensraum( "living space" )[138]bydispossessing the native population,[139]and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.[140]
Although theRed Armywas preparing for strategiccounter-offensivesbefore the war,[141]OperationBarbarossaforced theSoviet supreme commandto adoptstrategic defence.During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By mid-August, however, the GermanArmy High Commanddecided tosuspend the offensiveof a considerably depletedArmy Group Centre,and to divert the2nd Panzer Groupto reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad.[142]TheKiev offensivewas overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made possible furtheradvance into Crimeaand industrially-developed Eastern Ukraine (theFirst Battle of Kharkov).[143]
The diversion of three-quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to theEastern Front[144]prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider itsgrand strategy.[145]In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed amilitary alliance against Germany[146]and in August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued theAtlantic Charter,which outlined British and American goals for the post-war world.[147]In late August the British and Sovietsinvaded neutral Iranto secure thePersian Corridor,Iran'soil fields,and preempt any Axis advances through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or India.[148]
By October, Axis powers had achievedoperational objectivesin Ukraine and the Baltic region, with only the sieges ofLeningrad[149]andSevastopolcontinuing.[150]A majoroffensive against Moscowwas 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[151]were forced to suspend the offensive.[152]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 Sovietcapability to resistwas not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. Theblitzkriegphaseof the war in Europe had ended.[153]
By early December, freshly mobilisedreserves[154]allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops.[155]This, as well asintelligence datawhich established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the JapaneseKwantung Army,[156]allowed the Soviets to begin amassive counter-offensivethat started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–155 mi) west.[157]
War breaks out in the Pacific (1941)
Following the Japanesefalse flagMukden incidentin 1931, the Japanese shelling of the AmericangunboatUSS Panayin 1937, and the 1937–1938Nanjing 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—theExport Control Acts—which banned U.S. exports of chemicals, minerals and military parts to Japan, and increased economic pressure on the Japanese regime.[114][158][159]During 1939 Japan launched itsfirst attack against Changsha,but was repulsed by late September.[160]Despiteseveral offensivesby both sides, by 1940 the war between China and Japan was at a stalemate. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded andoccupied northern Indochinain September 1940.[161]
Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scalecounter-offensivein early 1940. In August,Chinese communistslaunched anoffensive in Central China;in retaliation, Japan institutedharsh measuresin occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.[162]Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forcesculminated in armed clashes in January 1941,effectively ending their co-operation.[163]In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed duringBattle of Shanggao.[164]In September, Japan attempted totake the city of Changshaagain and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.[165]
German successes in Europe prompted Japan to increase pressure on European governments inSoutheast Asia.The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan with oil supplies from theDutch East Indies,but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941.[166]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.[167][168]At the same time, Japan wasplanning an invasion of the Soviet Far East,intending to take advantage of the German invasion in the west, but abandoned the operation after the sanctions.[169]
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.[170]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.[171]Roosevelt reinforcedthe 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".[171]
Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American–British–Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. EmperorHirohito,after initial hesitation about Japan's chances of victory,[172]began to favour Japan's entry into the war.[173]As a result, Prime MinisterFumimaro Konoeresigned.[174][175]Hirohito refused the recommendation to appointPrince Naruhiko Higashikuniin his place, choosing War MinisterHideki Tojoinstead.[176]On 3 November, Nagano explained in detail the plan of theattack on Pearl Harborto the Emperor.[177]On 5 November, Hirohito approved in imperial conference the operations plan for the war.[178]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.[170]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.[179]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;[180][181]the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.[182]
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.[183][184]To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter, it was further planned to neutralise theUnited States Pacific Fleetand the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset.[185]On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneousoffensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific.[186]These included anattack on the American fleets at Pearl Harborandthe Philippines,as well as invasions ofGuam,Wake Island,Malaya,[186]Thailand,andHong Kong.[187]
These attacks led theUnited States,United Kingdom,China, Australia, and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan.[188]Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States[189]in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.[136][190]
Axis advance stalls (1942–1943)
On 1 January 1942, theAllied Big Four[191]—the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued theDeclaration by United Nations,thereby affirming theAtlantic Charter[192]and agreeing not to sign aseparate peacewith the Axis powers.[193]
During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriategrand strategyto pursue. All agreed thatdefeating Germanywas the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward,large-scale attackon Germany through France. The Soviets demanded a second front. The British argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralisation, and bolstering resistance forces; Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour, without using large-scale armies.[194]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.[195]
At theCasablanca Conferencein early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration and demanded theunconditional surrenderof 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.[196]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.[197]
Pacific (1942–1943)
By the end of April 1942, Japan and its allyThailandhad almost conqueredBurma,Malaya,the Dutch East Indies,Singapore,andRabaul,inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners.[198]Despite stubbornresistance by Filipino and U.S. forces,thePhilippine Commonwealthwas eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile.[199]On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during theBattle of Yenangyaungand rescued by the Chinese 38th Division.[200]Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in theSouth China Sea,Java Sea,andIndian Ocean,[201]andbombed the Allied naval baseatDarwin,Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinesevictory at Changsha.[202]These easy victories over the unprepared U.S. and European opponents left Japan overconfident, and overextended.[203]
In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations tocapture Port Moresbybyamphibious assaultand 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 theBattle of the Coral Sea.[204]Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlierDoolittle Raid,was to seizeMidway Atolland lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces tooccupy the Aleutian Islandsin Alaska.[205]In mid-May, Japan started theZhe gian g-Jiangxi campaignin 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.[206][207]In early June, Japan put its operations into action, but the Americans had brokenJapanese naval codesin late May and were fully aware of the plans and order of battle, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisivevictory at Midwayover theImperial Japanese Navy.[208]
With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan attempted to capturePort Moresbyby anoverland campaignin theTerritory of Papua.[209]The Americans planned a counterattack against Japanese positions in the southernSolomon Islands,primarilyGuadalcanal,as a first step towards capturingRabaul,the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.[210]
Both plans started in July, but by mid-September,the Battle for Guadalcanaltook priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to thenorthern part of the island,where they faced Australian and United States troops in theBattle of Buna–Gona.[211]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 andwithdrew their troops.[212]In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first was a disastrousoffensive into the Arakan regionin late 1942 that forced a retreat back to India by May 1943.[213]The second was theinsertion of irregular forcesbehind Japanese frontlines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.[214]
Eastern Front (1942–1943)
Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive incentralandsouthern Russia,keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year.[215]In May, the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in theKerch Peninsulaand atKharkov,[216]and then in June 1942 launched their mainsummer offensiveagainst southern Russia, to seize theoil fields of the Caucasusand occupy theKubansteppe,while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans splitArmy Group Southinto two groups:Army Group Aadvanced to the lowerDon Riverand struck south-east to the Caucasus, whileArmy Group Bheaded towards theVolga River.The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.[217]
By mid-November, the Germans hadnearly taken Stalingradin bitterstreet fighting.The Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with anencirclement of German forces at Stalingrad,[218]and an assault on theRzhev salient near Moscow,though the latter failed disastrously.[219]By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been defeated,[220]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 anotherattack on Kharkov,creating asalientin their front line around the Soviet city ofKursk.[221]
Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–1943)
Exploiting poor American naval command decisions,the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast.[222]By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive in North Africa,Operation Crusader,and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made.[223]The Germans also launched a North African offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at theGazala lineby early February,[224]followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives.[225]Concerns that the Japanese might use bases inVichy-held Madagascarcaused the British toinvade the islandin early May 1942.[226]An Axisoffensive in Libyaforced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces werestopped at El Alamein.[227]On the Continent, raids of Alliedcommandoson strategic targets, culminating in the failedDieppe Raid,[228]demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.[229]
In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling asecond attack against El Alamein[230]and, at a high cost, managed todeliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta.[231]A few months later, the Alliescommenced an attack of their ownin Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya.[232]This attack was followed up shortly after byAnglo-American landings in French North Africa,which resulted in the region joining the Allies.[233]Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering theoccupation of Vichy France;[233]although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed toscuttle their fleetto prevent its capture by German forces.[233][234]Axis forces in Africa withdrew intoTunisia,which wasconquered by the Alliesin May 1943.[233][235]
In June 1943, the British and Americans begana strategic bombing campaignagainst Germany with a goal to disrupt the war economy, reduce morale, and "de-house"the civilian population.[236]Thefirebombing of Hamburgwas among the first attacks in this campaign, inflicting significant casualties and considerable losses on infrastructure of this important industrial centre.[237]
Allies gain momentum (1943–1944)
After the Guadalcanal campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and U.S. forces were sent toeliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians.[238]Soon after, the United States, with support from Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islander forces, began major ground, sea and air operations toisolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands,andbreach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.[239]By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives and had alsoneutralised the major Japanese base at Trukin theCaroline Islands.In April, the Allies launched an operation toretake Western New Guinea.[240]
In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives incentral Russia.On 5 July 1943, Germanyattacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge.Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' well-constructed defences,[241]and for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled an operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success.[242]This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies'invasion of Sicilylaunched on 9 July, which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in theousting and arrest of Mussolinilater that month.[243]
On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their owncounter-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,[244]giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front.[245][246]The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortifiedPanther–Wotan line,but the Soviets broke through it atSmolenskand theLower Dnieper Offensive.[247]
On 3 September 1943, the Western Alliesinvaded the Italian mainland,followingItaly's armistice with the Alliesand the ensuing German occupation of Italy.[248]Germany, with the help of fascists, responded to the armistice bydisarming Italian forcesthat were in many places without superior orders, seizing military control of Italian areas,[249]and creating a series of defensive lines.[250]German special forces thenrescued Mussolini,who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy named theItalian Social Republic,[251]causing anItalian civil war.The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching themain German defensive linein mid-November.[252]
German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. ByMay 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective,the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign.[253]In November 1943,Franklin D. Rooseveltand Winston Churchill met withChiang Kai-shekin Cairoand then with Joseph Stalinin Tehran.[254]The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory[255]and the military planning for theBurma campaign,[256]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.[257]
From November 1943, during the seven-weekBattle of Changde,the Chinese awaited allied relief as they forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition.[258][259][260]In January 1944, the Allies launched aseries of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassinoand tried to outflank it withlandings at Anzio.[261]
On 27 January 1944,Soviettroops launcheda major offensivethat expelled German forces from theLeningrad region,thereby ending themost lethal siege in history.[262]Thefollowing Soviet offensivewashalted on the pre-war Estonian borderby the GermanArmy Group Northaided byEstonianshoping tore-establish national independence.This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in theBaltic Searegion.[263]By late May 1944, the Soviets hadliberated Crimea,largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine,and madeincursions into Romania,which were repulsed by the Axis troops.[264]The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, Rome was captured on 4 June.[265]
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,[266]and soon besieged Commonwealth positions atImphalandKohima.[267]In May 1944, British and Indian forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma by July,[267]and Chinese forces that hadinvaded northern Burmain late 1943besieged Japanese troopsinMyitkyina.[268]Thesecond Japanese invasionof China aimed to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields.[269]By June, the Japanese had conquered the province ofHenanand begun anew attack on Changsha.[270]
Allies close in (1944)
On 6 June 1944 (commonly known asD-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure,[271]the Western Alliesinvaded northern France.After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they alsoattacked southern France.[272]These landings were successful and led to the defeat of theGerman Army units in France.Pariswasliberatedon 25 August by thelocal resistanceassisted by theFree French Forces,both led by GeneralCharles de Gaulle,[273]and the Western Allies continued topush back German forcesin western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded bya major airborne operationin the Netherlands failed.[274]After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, butfailed to cross the Ruhr river.In Italy, the Allied advance slowed due to thelast major German defensive line.[275]
On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus ( "Operation Bagration") that nearly destroyed the GermanArmy Group Centre.[276]Soon after that,another Soviet strategic offensiveforced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviets formed thePolish Committee of National Liberationto control territory in Poland and combat the PolishArmia Krajowa;the Soviet Red Army remained in thePragadistrict on the other side of theVistulaand watched passively as the Germans quelled theWarsaw Uprisinginitiated by the Armia Krajowa.[277]Thenational uprisinginSlovakiawas also quelled by the Germans.[278]The SovietRed Army'sstrategic offensive in eastern Romaniacut off and destroyed theconsiderable German troops thereand triggereda successful coup d'état in Romaniaandin Bulgaria,followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.[279]
In September 1944, Soviet troops advanced intoYugoslaviaand forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army GroupsEandFinGreece,Albaniaand Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off.[280]By this point, the communist-ledPartisansunder MarshalJosip Broz Tito,who had led anincreasingly successful guerrilla campaignagainst the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northernSerbia,the SovietRed Army,with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a jointliberation of the capital city of Belgradeon 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched amassive assaultagainstGerman-occupiedHungary that lasted untilthe fall of Budapestin February 1945.[281]Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans,bitter Finnish resistanceto theSoviet offensivein theKarelian Isthmusdenied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to aSoviet-Finnish armisticeon relatively mild conditions,[282]although Finland was forced tofight their former German allies.[283]
By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges inAssam,pushing the Japanese back to theChindwin River[284]while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In September 1944, Chinese forcescaptured Mount Songand reopened theBurma Road.[285]In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finallycaptured Changshain mid-June and the city ofHengyangby early August.[286]Soon after, they invaded the province ofGuangxi,winning major engagements against Chinese forces atGuilin and Liuzhouby the end of November[287]and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.[288]
In the Pacific, U.S. forces continued to push back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began theiroffensive against the Mariana and Palau islandsand decisively defeated Japanese forces in theBattle of the Philippine Sea.These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister,Hideki Tojo,and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forcesinvaded the Filipino island of Leyte;soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in theBattle of Leyte Gulf,one of the largest naval battles in history.[289]
Axis collapse and Allied victory (1944–1945)
On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt to split the Allies on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launcha massive counter-offensive in the Ardennesandalong the French-German border,hoping to encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and prompt a political settlement after capturing their primary supply port atAntwerp.By 16 January 1945, this offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled.[290]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 Oderriver in Germany, andoverran East Prussia.[291]On 4 February Soviet, British, and U.S. leaders met for theYalta Conference.They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.[292]
In February, the Sovietsentered SilesiaandPomerania,while theWestern Allies entered western Germanyand closed to theRhineriver. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhinenorthandsouthof theRuhr,encircling the German Army Group B.[293]In early March, in an attempt to protect its last oil reserves in Hungary and retake Budapest, Germany launchedits last major offensiveagainst Soviet troops nearLake Balaton.Within two weeks, the offensive had been repulsed, the Soviets advanced toVienna,and captured the city. In early April, Soviet troopscaptured Königsberg,while the Western Allies finallypushed forward in Italyand swept across western Germany capturingHamburgandNuremberg.American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe riveron 25 April, leaving unoccupied pockets in southern Germany and around Berlin.
Soviet troopsstormed and captured Berlinin late April.[294]In Italy,German forces surrenderedon 29 April, while theItalian Social Republiccapitulated two days later. On 30 April, theReichstagwas captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany.[295]
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 Mussoliniwas killedbyItalian partisanson 28 April.[296]On 30 April,Hitler committed suicidein hisheadquarters,and was succeeded byGrand AdmiralKarl Dönitz(asPresident of the Reich) andJoseph Goebbels(asChancellor of the Reich); Goebbels also committed suicide on the following day and was replaced byLutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk,in what would later be known as theFlensburg Government.Total and unconditional surrenderin Europe was signedon 7and 8May,to be effective by the end of8 May.[297]German Army Group Centreresisted in Pragueuntil 11 May.[298]On 23 May all remaining members of the German government were arrested by the Allied Forces inFlensburg,while on 5 June all German political and military institutions were transferred under the control of the Allies through theBerlin Declaration.[299]
In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of thePhilippine Commonwealthadvancedin the Philippines,clearing Leyteby the end of April 1945. Theylanded on Luzonin January 1945 andrecaptured Manilain March. Fighting continued on Luzon,Mindanao,and other islands of the Philippines until theend of the war.[300]Meanwhile, theUnited States Army Air Forceslauncheda massive firebombing campaignof strategic cities in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale. A devastatingbombing raid on Tokyo of 9–10 Marchwas the deadliest conventional bombing raid in history.[301]
In May 1945, Australian troopslanded in Borneo,overrunning the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northernBurmain March, and the British pushed on to reachRangoonby 3 May.[302]Chinese forces started a counterattack in theBattle of West Hunanthat occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, takingIwo Jimaby March, andOkinawaby the end of June.[303]At the same time, a naval blockade bysubmarineswas strangling Japan's economy and drastically reducing its ability to supply overseas forces.[304][305]
On 11 July, Allied leadersmet in Potsdam, Germany.Theyconfirmed earlier agreementsabout Germany,[306]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".[307]During this conference, the United Kingdomheld its general election,andClement Attleereplaced Churchill as Prime Minister.[308]
The call for unconditional surrender was rejected by the Japanese government, which believed it would be capable of negotiating for more favourable surrender terms.[309]In early August, the United Statesdropped atomic bombson the Japanese cities ofHiroshimaandNagasaki.Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement,declared war on Japan,invaded Japanese-held Manchuriaand quickly defeated theKwantung Army,which was the largest Japanese fighting force.[310]These two events persuaded previously adamant Imperial Army leaders to accept surrender terms.[311]The Red Army also captured thesouthern part of Sakhalin Islandand theKuril Islands.On the night of 9–10 August 1945, EmperorHirohitoannounced his decision to accept the terms demanded by the Allies in thePotsdam Declaration.[312]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" ).[313]On 15 August 1945,Japan surrendered,with thesurrender documentsfinally signed atTokyo Bayon the deck of the American battleshipUSSMissourion 2 September 1945, ending the war.[314]
Aftermath
The Allies established occupation administrations inAustriaandGermany,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, thewesternandeastern occupation zonescontrolled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union officially ended in 1949, with the respective zones becoming separate countries,West GermanyandEast Germany.[315]In Austria, however, occupation continued until 1955, when a joint settlement between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union permitted the reunification of Austria as a democratic state officially non-aligned with any political bloc (although in practice having better relations with the Western Allies). Adenazificationprogram in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in theNuremberg trialsand the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.[316]
Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories,Silesia,Neumarkand most ofPomeraniawere taken over by Poland,[317]andEast Prussiawas divided between Poland and the Soviet Union, followed by theexpulsion to Germanyof the nine million Germans from these provinces,[318][319]as well as three million Germans from theSudetenlandin 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 theCurzon Line,[320]from which2 million Poles were expelled;[319][321]north-east Romania,[322][323]parts of eastern Finland,[324]and theBaltic stateswereannexed into the Soviet Union.[325][326]Italylost its monarchy,colonial empireand someEuropean territories.[327]
In an effort to maintainworld peace,[328]the Allies formed theUnited Nations,[329]which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945,[330]and adopted theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsin 1948 as a common standard for allmember nations.[331]Thegreat powersthat were the victors of the war—France, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States—became thepermanent membersof the UN'sSecurity Council.[332]The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes,betweentheRepublic of Chinaand thePeople's Republic of Chinain 1971, and between the Soviet Union and itssuccessor state,theRussian Federation,following thedissolution of the USSRin 1991. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.[333]
Besides Germany, the rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Sovietspheres of influence.[334]Most eastern and central European countries fell intothe 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,[335]Poland,Hungary,Romania,Bulgaria,Czechoslovakia,andAlbania[336]became Sovietsatellite states.CommunistYugoslaviaconducted a fullyindependent policy,causingtension with the Soviet Union.[337]ACommunist uprising in Greecewas put down with Anglo-American support and the country remained aligned with the West.[338]
Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-ledNATOand the Soviet-ledWarsaw Pact.[339]The long period of political tensions and military competition between them—theCold War—would be accompanied by an unprecedentedarms raceand number ofproxy warsthroughout the world.[340]
In Asia, the United States led theoccupation of Japanandadministered Japan's former islandsin the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexedSouth Sakhalinand theKuril Islands.[341]Korea,formerlyunder Japanese colonial rule,wasdivided and occupiedby the Soviet Union in theNorthand the United States in theSouthbetween 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 theKorean War.[342]
In China, nationalist and communist forces resumedthe civil warin June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated toTaiwanin 1949.[343]In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of theUnited Nations Partition Plan for Palestineand thecreation of Israelmarked the escalation of theArab–Israeli conflict.While European powers attempted to retain some or all of theircolonial empires,their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading todecolonisation.[344][345]
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 ababy 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.[346]The Allied occupational authorities pursued a policy ofindustrial disarmament in Western Germanyfrom 1945 to 1948.[347]Due to international trade interdependencies, this policy led to an economic stagnation in Europe and delayed European recovery from the war for several years.[348][349]
At theBretton Woods Conferencein July 1944, the Allied nations drew up an economic framework for the post-war world. The agreement created theInternational Monetary Fund(IMF) and theInternational Bank for Reconstruction and Development(IBRD), which later became part of theWorld Bank Group.TheBretton Woods systemlasted until 1973.[350]Recovery began with the mid-1948currency reform in Western Germany,and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the U.S.Marshall Planeconomic aid (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused.[351][352]The post-1948 West German recovery has been called theGerman economic miracle.[353]Italy also experienced aneconomic boom[354]and theFrench economy rebounded.[355]By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin,[356]and although receiving a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country,[357]it continued in relative economic decline for decades.[358]The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era,[359]having seized and transferred most of Germany's industrial plants and exactedwar reparationsfrom its satellite states.[c][360]Japan recovered much later.[361]China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.[362]
Impact
Casualties and war crimes
Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded.[363]Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about20 million military personneland 40 million civilians.[364][365][366]
The Soviet Union alone lost around 27 million people during the war,[367]including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths.[368]A quarter of the total people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed.[369]Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.[370]
An estimated 11[371]to 17 million[372]civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Hitler'sracist policies,includingmass killingofaround 6million Jews,along withRoma,homosexuals,at least 1.9 million ethnicPoles[373][374]andmillions of other Slavs(including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), andother ethnic and minority groups.[375][372]Between 1941 and 1945, more than 200,000 ethnicSerbs,along with Roma and Jews, werepersecuted and murderedby the Axis-aligned CroatianUstašeinYugoslavia.[376]Concurrently,MuslimsandCroatswerepersecuted and killedby Serb nationalistChetniks,[377]with an estimated 50,000–68,000 victims (of which 41,000 were civilians).[378]Also, more than 100,000 Poles were massacred by theUkrainian Insurgent Armyin theVolhynia massacres,between 1943 and 1945.[379]At the same time, about 10,000–15,000 Ukrainians were killed by the PolishHome Armyand other Polish units, in reprisal attacks.[380]
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.[381]According to the British historianM. 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.[382]Other estimates say that up to 30 million people, most of them civilians, were killed.[383][384]The most infamous Japanese atrocity was theNanjing Massacre,in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.[385]Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during theThree Alls policy.GeneralYasuji Okamuraimplemented the policy inHebeiandShandong.[386]
Axis forces employedbiologicalandchemical weapons.TheImperial Japanese Armyused a variety of such weapons during itsinvasion and occupation of China(seeUnit 731)[387][388]and inearly conflicts against the Soviets.[389]Both the Germans and theJapanese testedsuch weapons against civilians,[390]and sometimes onprisoners of war.[391]
The Soviet Union was responsible for theKatyn massacreof 22,000 Polish officers,[392]and the imprisonment or execution ofhundreds of thousands of political prisonersby theNKVDsecret police, along withmass civilian deportations to Siberia,in theBaltic statesandeastern Polandannexed by the Red Army.[393]Soviet soldiers committed mass rapes in occupied territories, especiallyin Germany.[394][395]The exact number of German women and girls raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation is uncertain, but historians estimate their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as two million,[396]while figures for women raped by German soldiers in the Soviet Union go as far as ten million.[397][398]
The mass bombing of cities in Europe and Asia has often been called a war crime, although nopositiveor specificcustomaryinternational humanitarian lawwith respect toaerial warfareexisted before or during World War II.[399]The USAAFbombed a total of 67 Japanese cities,killing 393,000 civilians, including theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,and destroying 65% of built-up areas.[400]
Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour
Nazi Germany,under thedictatorshipof Adolf Hitler, was responsible for murdering about 6million Jews in what is now known asthe Holocaust.They also murdered an additional 4million others who were deemed "unworthy of life"(including thedisabledandmentally ill,Soviet prisoners of war,Romani,homosexuals,Freemasons,andJehovah's Witnesses) as part of a program of deliberate extermination, in effect becoming a "genocidalstate ".[401]Soviet POWswere kept in especially unbearable conditions, and 3.6 million Soviet POWs out of 5.7 million died in Nazi camps during the war.[402][403]In addition toconcentration camps,death campswere created in Nazi Germany to exterminate people on an industrial scale. Nazi Germany extensively usedforced labourers;about 12 millionEuropeansfrom German-occupied countries were abducted and used as a slave work force in German industry, agriculture and war economy.[404]
The SovietGulagbecame ade factosystem of deadly camps during 1942–43, when wartime privation and hunger caused numerous deaths of inmates,[406]including foreign citizens of Poland andother countriesoccupied in 1939–40 by the Soviet Union, as well as AxisPOWs.[407]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 toNKVDevaluation, and 226,127 were sent to the Gulag as real or perceived Nazi collaborators.[408]
Japaneseprisoner-of-war camps,many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. TheInternational Military Tribunal for the Far Eastfound the death rate of Western prisoners was 27 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent),[409]seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.[410]While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after thesurrender of Japan,the number of Chinese released was only 56.[411]
At least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by theEast Asia Development Board,orKōain,for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million.[412]InJava,between 4and 10 millionrōmusha(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.[413]
Occupation
In Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and theannexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichsmarks (27.8 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include theplunderof industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods.[414]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.[415]
In the East, the intended gains ofLebensraumwere never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Sovietscorched earthpolicies denied resources to the German invaders.[416]Unlike in the West, theNazi racial policyencouraged extreme brutality against what it considered to be the "inferior people"of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed bymass atrocities and war crimes.[417]The Naziskilled an estimated 2.77 million ethnic Polesduring the war in addition to Polish-Jewish victims of the Holocaust.[418][better source needed]Althoughresistance groupsformed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East[419]or the West[420]until late 1943.
In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of theGreater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,essentially a Japanesehegemonywhich it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples.[421]Although Japanese forces were sometimes welcomed as liberators from European domination,Japanese war crimesfrequently turned local public opinion against them.[422]During Japan's initial conquest, it captured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3) of oil (~550,000 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces; and by 1943, was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels (7,900,000 m3) of oil (~6.8 million tonnes), 76 percent of its 1940 output rate.[422]
Home fronts and production
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info onPhabricatorand onMediaWiki.org. |
In the 1930s Britain and the United States of America together controlled almost 75% of world mineral output—essential for projecting military power.[423]
In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and the British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); including colonies, the Allies had more than a 5:1 advantage in population and a nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP.[424]In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this reduces to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.[424]
The United States produced about two-thirds of all munitions used by the Allies in World War II, including warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition.[425]Although the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies and the war evolved into one ofattrition.[426]While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis was partly due to more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in thelabour force,[427]Alliedstrategic bombing,[428]and Germany's late shift to awar economy[429]contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and had not equipped themselves to do so.[430]To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions ofslave labourers;[431]Germany enslavedabout 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,[404]whileJapan usedmore than 18 million people in Far East Asia.[412][413]
Advances in technology and its application
Aircraft were used forreconnaissance,asfighters,bombers,andground-support,and each role developed considerably. Innovations includedairlift(the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel);[432]andstrategic bombing(the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war).[433]Anti-aircraft weaponryalso advanced, including defences such asradarand surface-to-air artillery, in particular the introduction of theproximity fuze.The use of thejet aircraftwas pioneered and led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.[434]
Advances were made in nearly every aspect ofnaval warfare,most notably withaircraft carriersandsubmarines.Althoughaeronauticalwarfare had relatively little success at the start of the war,actions at Taranto,Pearl Harbor,and theCoral Seaestablished the carrier as the dominant capital ship (in place of the battleship).[435][436][437]In the Atlantic,escort carriersbecame a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close theMid-Atlantic gap.[438]Carriers were also more economical thanbattleshipsdue to the relatively low cost of aircraft[439]and because they are not required to be as heavily armoured.[440]Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during theFirst World War,[441]were expected by all combatants to be important in the second. The British focused development onanti-submarineweaponryand tactics, such assonarand convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as theType VII submarineandwolfpacktactics.[442][better source needed]Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as theLeigh Light,Hedgehog,Squid,andhoming torpedoesproved effective against German submarines.[443]
Land warfarechanged from the static frontlines oftrench warfareof World War I, which had relied on improvedartillerythat outmatched the speed of bothinfantryandcavalry,to increased mobility andcombined arms.Thetank,which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon.[444]In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World WarI,[445]andadvances continued throughout the warwith increases in speed, armour and firepower.[446][447]At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications.[448]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.[444]Many means ofdestroying tanks,includingindirect artillery,anti-tank guns(both towed andself-propelled),mines,short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were used.[448]Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces,[449]and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.[450]The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the GermanMG 34,and varioussubmachine gunswhich were suited toclose combatin urban and jungle settings.[450]Theassault 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.[451]
Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using largecodebooksforcryptographyby designingcipheringmachines, the most well-known being the GermanEnigma machine.[452]Development ofSIGINT(signalsintelligence) andcryptanalysisenabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption ofJapanese naval codes[453]and BritishUltra,apioneering methodfor decoding Enigma that benefited from information given to the United Kingdom by thePolish Cipher Bureau,which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war.[454]Another component ofmilitary intelligencewasdeception,which the Allies used to great effect in operations such asMincemeatandBodyguard.[453][455]
Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3,Colossus,andENIAC),guided missilesandmodern rockets,theManhattan Project's development ofnuclear weapons,operations research,the development ofartificial harbours,andoil pipelines under the English Channel.[456]Penicillinwas firstdeveloped, mass-produced, and usedduring the war.[457]
See also
Notes
- ^Whilevarious other dateshave been proposed as the date on which World War II began or ended, this is the period most frequently cited.
- ^Often abbreviated asWWIIorWW2
- ^Reparations were exacted fromEast Germany,Hungary,Romania,andBulgariausing Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. The USSR also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under theMarshall Plan."
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- West Point Maps of the European War.Archived23 March 2019 at theWayback Machine.
- West Point Maps of the Asian-Pacific War.Archived23 March 2019 at theWayback Machine.
- Atlas of the World Battle Fronts(July 1943 – August 1945)