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Introduction
The Second World War was the biggest and most deadly conflict in history, involving more than 50 countries and taking place by land, sea, and air in almost every corner of the globe. It was partly caused by the Great Depression, but also by the political divisions left after the First World War.
The war started with the invasion of Poland in 1939, and went on until 1945 when Japan surrendered after being bombarded with atomic bombs. Around 60-80 million people, mostly civilians, were killed, and many cities were destroyed across Europe and Asia. 6 million Jews were killed in concentration camps, part of Hitler's so-called "Final Solution." The war also led to the formation of the UN as a peace-keeping force, and geopolitical divisions that eventually led to the Cold War.
CountryBalls - History of World War II StateBallsThe events leading up to the Second World War
The Great War, or WWII as it was called at the time, had a huge impact on Europe, and World War II was born out of the problems left by that conflict. In Germany, especially, there was a lot of political and economic instability, and there was still a lot of anger about the harsh conditions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. This eventually led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party, also known as the NSDAP or the Nazi Party in German and English.
Did you know that in 1923 Adolf Hitler wrote in his memoir and political tract “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) that a general European war would lead to the “extermination of the Jewish race” in Germany?
In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and quickly rose to the top of the German political scene. In 1934, he was anointed by Adolf Hitler, the supreme leader of Germany. Hitler was obsessed with the idea that the German race was superior to everyone else, which he referred to as the "Aryan race." He believed that the only way for Germany to grow was through war. In the middle of the 1930s, he started secretly building up Germany's military capabilities, which was against the Treaty of Versailles. He formed alliances with Italy, Japan, and the Soviet Union. In 1938, he sent troops to invade Austria and in the following year, Czechoslovakia was taken. Hitler's open aggression was allowed to go unchecked because the US and the Soviet Union were too focused on domestic politics at that time, and France and Britain (the other two countries that had been the worst off in World War I) weren't eager for a confrontation.
The World War II outbreak (1939)
At the end of August 1939, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin signed a non-aggression pact, which caused a lot of excitement in London and France. Hitler had been planning to invade Poland for a while now, and the UK and France had promised to back him up if he did. The deal between Hitler and Stalin meant that Germany wouldn't have to fight on two fronts when it invaded Poland, but instead would have Soviet help in taking over and dividing the country. On the 1st of September 1939, Hitler attacked Poland from the western side. Two days later, Britain and France went to war against Germany, starting World War II.
On September 17, 1940, Soviet troops attacked Poland from the eastern part of the country. Under heavy fire from both sides, the country fell quickly. By the beginning of 1940, Germany and the Soviet Union had divided Poland according to a secret agreement attached to the non-aggression pact. Stalin's forces then invaded the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and defeated a resolute Finland in what would become known as the Russo-Finland War.
In the six months that followed the invasion of Poland by the Germans and the allies in the West, the news media began to describe the war as a "phoney war." At sea, however, Britain and Germany engaged in bitter naval combat. German U-boats attacked merchant shipping sailing for Britain, sinking over 100 vessels in the opening four months of the war.
The Western Front in World War II (1940-41)
On 9 April 1940, Germany invaded Norway and took over Denmark, bringing the war to a full-speed ahead. On 10 May, German forces stormed through Belgium and Holland in what came to be known as the “Blitzkrieg” (or “Lightning War”). On the following day, 11 June, Hitler's troops crossed the River Meuse and attacked French troops at Sedan. The sedan was located at the north end of the “Maginot Line”, a series of fortifications that had been built after the First World War and were supposed to be impregnable.
In reality, German tanks and planes smashed through the line and continued to backtrack, rendering it virtually useless. At the end of May, the BEF was evacuated by boat from Dunkirk, while French forces in the south mounted a futile resistance. On June 10, with France on the brink of collapse, Italian dictator Benito decided to join forces with Hitler in the so-called “Pact of Steel” and declared war on France and Britain.
On June 14th, German troops stormed Paris. Two nights later, a new government led by Philippe Petain, a hero of France in World War I, called for a cease-fire. France was then split into two zones - one under German troops and one under Petain's government, which was based in Vichy French. Hitler then shifted his focus to Britain, which had the advantage of being on the other side of the continent from the Continent thanks to the English Channel.
German planes began bombing Britain from September 1940 to May 1941, a period known as the Blitz. They dropped bombs on London and other big cities, causing a lot of damage and killing a lot of people. The RAF eventually beat the German Luftwaffe in the battle of Britain, forcing Hitler to postpone the invasion. With Britain's defenses at a standstill, Winston Churchill started getting help from the US, which was known as the Lending-Lease Act. It was passed by Congress at the start of the war.
Hitler vs. Stalin: Operation Barbarossa (1941-42)
In early April, Germany joined the Axis countries of Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, and by April of the following year, German troops had taken over Yugoslavia and Greece. Hitler's Balkan conquest was a stepping stone to his real goal: invading the vast Soviet Union, which would provide the German empire with its much-needed Lebensraum. The second half of Hitler's plan was to wipe out the Jews from all over Germany's occupied Europe. Around the same time, plans for the "Final Solution" were announced, and within three years, more than four million Jews would die in death camps set up in occupied Poland.
Operation Barbarossa History On MapsOperation Barbarossa was ordered by Adolf Hitler on June 22, 1941. Although the Soviet Union had a significant number of tanks and aircraft compared to the German forces, Soviet aviation technology was largely outdated. As a result of the surprise invasion, German forces were able to reach a distance of 200 miles from Moscow in mid-July. However, disagreements between Hitler and his commanding officers delayed further German progress until October, when a Soviet counterattack and the onset of severe winter weather impeded further progress.
The Pacific War (World War II) (1941-43)
The United States of America was the sole nation capable of defending itself against Japanese aggression in Europe, which by the end of December 1941 included an extension of its existing war with China, as well as the occupation of European colonial possessions in the Middle East. On the 7th of December, the Japanese air force launched a surprise attack on the main American naval base on the island of Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, resulting in the death of over 2,300 American servicemen. This attack galvanized public sentiment in favor of the United States' entry into the Second World War, and on the 8th of December, Congress voted in favor of the declaration of war on Japan, with only one abstention. Germany and other Axis Powers immediately declared war on America.
After a series of successive Japanese victories, the United States Pacific Fleet won the battle of Midway on June 1, 1942, which would prove to be a decisive moment in the war. The Allied forces also had success on the southern Solomon Island of Guadalcanal in a number of battles between August 1942 and February 1943, helping to turn the tide in the Pacific. Allied naval forces began a counterattack against Japan in mid-1943. This counterattack involved amphibious attacks on key islands held by the Japanese in the Pacific, known as “island hopping.” This strategy brought Allied forces closer to their ultimate objective of an invasion of mainland Japan.
World War II: Towards Allied Victory in 1943-45
By 1943, the British and Americans had defeated the Germans in North Africa, and the Allies invaded Sicily and Italy. In July 1943, the Italian government fell, but Allied fighting in Italy against the Germans would continue until the end of the war. On the eastern front, the Soviet counteroffensive, begun in November 1942, ended the bloodiest battle of the war, Stalingrad. The coming of winter, combined with a shortage of food and medicine, meant the end of German troops there. The last German troops surrendered on 31 January 1943.
In June 1944, the Allied invasion of Europe began with the 156,000 landing at Normandy, France, on D-Day. Hitler then concentrated all the forces of his army in Western Europe, guaranteeing Germany's defeat on the eastern front. Soviet troops moved into Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and Romania, and Hitler rallied his forces to push the Americans and Brits back from Germany, culminating in the Battle of the Bulge (December, 1944-January, 1945).
The Allied ground invasion of Germany was preceded by heavy bombing in February, and by May 8, when Germany officially surrendered, Soviet troops had captured most of Germany. By that time, Hitler had already been killed, having committed suicide in his Berlin Bunker on April 30.
World War II Ends (1945)
The Potsdam Conference (July-August, 1945) was held in Potsdam, Germany, by the United States at the invitation of U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who had taken office in April following the death of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the conference, President Truman and Prime Minister Joseph Stalin discussed the war with Japan and the peace settlement between the warring parties. Germany was to be partitioned into four occupation zones: the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France. When it came to the thorny question of the future of Eastern Europe, both Presidents Truman and Churchill agreed with Stalin because they needed Soviet support in their war against Japan.
The Japanese had suffered a lot of losses in the campaigns of February 1945 and April-June 1945, and they were worried about an even more expensive land invasion of the US. That's when President Truman decided to use a new and powerful weapon. It was developed in a top-secret program called The Manhattan Project. The atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and the city of Nagasaki in August. The Japanese government then issued a statement saying they would agree to the terms set out in the "Potsdam Declaration." On September 2nd, General Douglas MacArthur of the United States accepted Japan's surrender on board the USS Missouri at Tokyo Bay.
African Americans served in two different wars
During World War II, more than a million African Americans joined the US armed forces to fight against Nazism and Fascism, but they served in separate units. The US military was still enforcing the same Jim Crow laws that were so prevalent in American society. Black soldiers rarely saw action and were mostly limited to working and supplying units led by white officers.
There were a few African American units that played a big role in helping win the war, like the Tuskegee Airmen. But it was the Red Ball Express truck convoy made up of mostly Black drivers that delivered food and supplies to Patton's troops in France. The 761st Tank was an all-black unit that fought in the Battle of the Bulge. And the 92 Infantry Division fought in some of the toughest battles in Italy.
But even though they helped beat fascism, the struggle for equality for African American soldiers didn't end there. They stayed in segregated units and low-ranking positions until after President Truman signed the desegregation executive order in 1948, long after the war was over.
World War II Disasters and Their Remarkable Impact
World War II was the world’s most deadly conflict, killing between 60 and 80 million people (including 6 million Jewish people killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust). An estimated 50 to 55 million people died in the war. The military accounted for 21-25 million of the war’s deaths. Millions of people were injured. Millions of people lost their homes.
The war will be remembered for the spread of Communism from Eastern Europe to Central Europe, and its eventual victory in China. It will also be remembered for the global shift of power away from Europe and towards the US and Soviet Union, who will soon be facing off in the Cold War.
