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'''World War&nbsp;II''', or the '''Second World War''' (often abbreviated as '''WWII''' or '''WW2'''), was a global [[war]] that was under way by 1939 and ended in 1945. It involved [[Participants in World War II|a vast majority of the world's nations]]—including all of the [[great power]]s—eventually forming two opposing [[military]] alliances: the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] and the [[Axis powers|Axis]]. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in [[military]] units. In a state of "[[total war]]", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] and the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|only use of nuclear weapons in warfare]], it resulted in [[World War II casualties|50 million to over 70 million fatalities]]. These deaths make World War II by far the [[List of wars and disasters by death toll|deadliest conflict]] in all of [[History of the world|human history]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Complete Illustrated History of World War Two: An Authoritative Account of the Deadliest Conflict in Human History with Analysis of Decisive Encounters and Landmark Engagements|first=Donald|last=Sommerville|publisher=Lorenz Books|year=2008|page=5|isbn=0-7548-1898-5}}</ref>

Although the [[Empire of Japan]] was already [[Second Sino-Japanese War|at war]] with the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]] in 1937,<ref>{{Cite book|first1=David P|last1=Barrett|last2=Shyu|title=China in the anti-Japanese War, 1937–1945: politics, culture and society. Volume 1 of Studies in modern Chinese history|publisher=Peter Lang|location=New York|year=2001|isbn=0-8204-4556-8|page=6|first2=Lawrence N|unused_data=first2-Lawrence N}}</ref> the world war is generally said to have begun on 1&nbsp;September 1939, with the [[invasion of Poland|invasion]] of [[Poland]] by [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by [[French Third Republic|France]] and most of the countries of the [[British Empire]] and [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]]. Germany set out to establish a large empire in [[Europe]]. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and [[Tripartite Pact|treaties]], Germany conquered or subdued much of continental Europe. Following the [[Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union|Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], the nominally neutral Soviet Union fully or partially invaded, occupied and annexed territories of its six European neighbours, [[Soviet invasion of Poland|including Poland]]. The United Kingdom and its Commonwealth remained the only major force continuing the fight against the Axis, with battles taking place in [[Western Desert Campaign|North Africa]] as well as the long-running [[Battle of the Atlantic]]. In June 1941, the European Axis launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, giving a start to the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|largest land theatre of war in history]], which tied down the major part of the Axis' military forces for the rest of the war. In December 1941, the [[Empire of Japan]], which aimed to dominate [[East Asia]] and [[Indochina]], joined the Axis, [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|attacked the United States]] and [[Japanese invasion of Malaya|European territories]] in the [[Pacific Ocean]], and quickly conquered much of the West Pacific.

The Axis advance was stopped in 1942, after Japan lost a series of naval battles and European Axis troops were defeated in [[Second Battle of El Alamein|North Africa]] and, decisively, at [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]]. In 1943, with a series of [[Battle of Kursk|German defeats]] in [[Eastern Europe]], the [[Allied invasion of Sicily|Allied invasion]] of [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Fascist Italy]], and American victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies [[Normandy landings|invaded France]], while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. The war in Europe ended with the [[Battle of Berlin|capture of Berlin]] by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent [[German Instrument of Surrender|German unconditional surrender]] on [[Victory in Europe Day|8&nbsp;May 1945]]. During 1944 and 1945 the United States defeated the Japanese Navy and captured key West Pacific islands, dropping atomic bombs on the country as the invasion of the [[Japanese archipelago]] became imminent. The war in Asia ended on 15&nbsp;August 1945 when the Empire of Japan agreed to surrender.

The total victory of the Allies over the Axis in 1945 ended the conflict. World War&nbsp;II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The [[United Nations]] (UN) was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The great powers that were the victors of the war— the United States, Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and France—became the [[Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council|permanent members]] of the [[United Nations Security Council]].<ref name="The UN Security Council">{{Citation|title=The UN Security Council|url=http://www.unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/united-nations/the-un-security-council.html|accessdate=2012-05-15}}</ref> The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the [[Cold War]], which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers started to decline, while the [[decolonisation of Asia]] and [[decolonisation of Africa|Africa]] began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards [[post-World War II economic expansion|economic recovery]]. Political integration, especially [[European integration|in Europe]], emerged as an effort to stabilise postwar relations.

{{TOC limit}}

==Chronology==
{{See also|Timeline of World War II}}
The start of the war is generally held to be 1&nbsp;September 1939, beginning with the [[Invasion of Poland|German invasion of Poland]]; Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. Other dates for the beginning of war include the start of the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] on 7&nbsp;July 1937.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Roger|last=Chickering|title=A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945|page=64|url=http://books.google.com/?id=evVPoSwqrG4C|isbn=0-275-98710-8|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Fiscus|first=James W|title=Critical Perspectives on World War II|page=44|url=http://books.google.com/?id=6MTcnkLfDZAC|publisher=Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=1-4042-0065-7|year=2007}}</ref>

Others follow British historian [[A. J. P. Taylor]], who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and the two wars merged in 1941. This article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War&nbsp;II include the [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War|Italian invasion of Abyssinia]] on 3 October 1935.<ref>Ben-Horin, Eliahu (1943). ''The Middle East: Crossroads of History''. W. W. Norton & Co. p. 169; [[A. J. P. Taylor|Taylor, A. J. P]] (1979). ''How Wars Begin''. Hamilton. p. 124. ISBN 0241100178; Yisreelit, Hevrah Mizrahit (1965). ''Asian and African Studies'', p. 191. For 1941 see Taylor, A. J. P (1961). ''The Origins of the Second World War''. Hamilton. p. vii; Kellogg, William O (2003). ''American History the Easy Way''. Barron's Educational Series. p. 236 ISBN 0764119737. There also exists the viewpoint that both World War&nbsp;I and World War&nbsp;II are part of the same "[[European Civil War]]" or "[[Second Thirty Years War]]": Canfora, Luciano; Jones, Simon (2006). ''Democracy in Europe: A History of an Ideology''. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 155. ISBN 1405111313; Prin, Gwyn (2002). ''The Heart of War: On Power, Conflict and Obligation in the Twenty-First Century''. Routledge. p. 11. ISBN 0415369606.</ref> British historian [[Antony Beevor]] views the beginning of the Second World War as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in August 1939.<ref>{{cite book|last=Beevor|first=Antony|title=The Second World War|year=2012|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|location=London|isbn=9780297844976|page=10}}</ref>

The exact date of the war's end is also not universally agreed upon. It has been suggested that the war ended at the [[armistice]] of 14&nbsp;August 1945 ([[Victory over Japan Day|V-J Day]]), rather than the formal surrender of Japan (2&nbsp;September 1945); in some European histories, it ended on [[Victory in Europe Day|V-E Day]] (8&nbsp;May 1945). However, the [[Treaty of San Francisco|Treaty of Peace with Japan]] was not signed until 1951,<ref>{{Cite book|first=Shiraishi|last=Masaya|title=Japanese relations with Vietnam, 1951–1987|publisher=SEAP Publications|year=1990|isbn=0-87727-122-4|page=4}}</ref> and [[Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany|that with Germany]] not until 1990.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/2plusfour8994e.htm|title=German-American Relations – Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (two plus four)|publisher=Usa.usembassy.de|accessdate=29 January 2012}}</ref>

==Background==
{{Main|Causes of World War II}}

[[World War&nbsp;I]] radically altered the political map, with the defeat of the [[Central Powers]], including [[Austria-Hungary]], Germany and the [[Ottoman Empire]]; and the 1917 [[Bolshevik]] seizure of power in [[Russia]]. Meanwhile, existing victorious Allies such as France, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Romania gained territories, while new states were created out of the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the [[Russian Empire|Russian]] and [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] Empires.

Despite the [[pacifism|pacific movement]] in the [[aftermath of World War I|aftermath of the war]],<ref>
{{cite web|last=Derby|first=Mark|title=Conscription, conscientious objection and pacifism|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/conscription-conscientious-objection-and-pacifism/3|publisher=Te Ara|accessdate=22 June 2012|quote="The move towards world war in 1914 sparked an upsurge in pacifist movements"}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web|title=Pacifism in the Twentieth Century|url=http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0860192.html|work="pacifism"|publisher=Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia|accessdate=22 June 2012|quote="During the 1920s and early 30s pacifism enjoyed an upsurge"}}
</ref> the losses still caused [[Irredentism|irredentist]] and [[Revanchism|revanchist]] nationalism to became important in a number of European states. Irredentism and revanchism were strong in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses incurred by the [[Treaty of Versailles]]. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all of [[German colonial empire|its overseas colonies]], while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kantowicz|1999|p=149}}</ref> Meanwhile, the [[Russian Civil War]] had led to the creation of the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2008|pp=134–140}}</ref>

The German Empire was dissolved in the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919]], and a democratic government, later known as the [[Weimar Republic]], was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the [[right-wing politics|right]] and [[left-wing politics|left]]. Although Italy as an Entente ally made some territorial gains, Italian nationalists were angered that the [[Treaty of London (1915)|promises made]] by Britain and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled with the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the [[Italian Fascism|Fascist]] movement led by [[Benito Mussolini]] seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive foreign policy aimed at forcefully forging Italy as a world power—a "[[Italian Empire|New Roman Empire]]".<ref>{{Harvnb|Shaw|2000|p=35}}</ref>

In Germany, the [[Nazi Party]] led by [[Adolf Hitler]] sought to establish a fascist government in Germany. With the onset of the [[Great Depression]], domestic support for the Nazis rose and, in 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. In the aftermath of the [[Reichstag fire]], Hitler created a totalitarian single-party state led by the Nazis.<ref>{{harvnb|Bullock|1962|p=265}}</ref>

The [[Kuomintang]] (KMT) party in China launched a [[Northern Expedition|unification campaign]] against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a [[Chinese Civil War|civil war]] against its former [[Chinese Communist Party|Chinese communist]] allies.<ref>{{harvnb|Preston|1998|p=104}}</ref> In 1931, an [[Militarism-Socialism in Showa Japan|increasingly militaristic]] [[Empire of Japan|Japanese Empire]], which had long sought influence in China<ref>{{harvnb|Myers|1987|p=458}}</ref> as the first step of what its government saw as the country's [[Hakko ichiu|right to rule Asia]], used the [[Mukden Incident]] as a pretext to [[Japanese invasion of Manchuria|launch an invasion of Manchuria]] and establish the [[puppet state]] of [[Manchukuo]].<ref name=Mukden>{{harvnb|Smith|2004|p=28}}</ref>

Too weak to resist Japan, China appealed to the [[League of Nations]] for help. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being [[Lytton Report|condemned]] for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in [[28 January Incident|Shanghai]], [[Battle of Rehe|Rehe]] and [[Defense of the Great Wall|Hebei]], until the [[Tanggu Truce]] was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in [[Pacification of Manchukuo|Manchuria]], and [[Actions in Inner Mongolia (1933–1936)|Chahar and Suiyuan]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Volunteer Armies of Northeast China|url=http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000186948|first=Anthony|last=Coogan|journal=History Today|volume=43|date=July 1993|accessdate=14 November 2009|quote=Although some Chinese troops in the Northeast managed to retreat south, others were trapped by the advancing Japanese Army and were faced with the choice of resistance in defiance of orders, or surrender. A few commanders submitted, receiving high office in the puppet government, but others took up arms against the invader. The forces they commanded were the first of the volunteer armies}}</ref>

[[File:Hitlermusso2 edit.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Benito Mussolini]] (left) and [[Adolf Hitler]] (right)]]
Adolf Hitler, after an [[Beer Hall Putsch|unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government]] in 1923, became the [[Hitler's rise to power|Chancellor of Germany in 1933]]. He abolished democracy, espousing a [[New Order (Nazism)|radical, racially motivated revision of the world order]], and soon began a massive [[German re-armament|rearmament campaign]].<ref>{{harvnb|Brody|1999|p=4}}</ref> Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, [[Franco–Italian Agreement|allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia]], which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the [[Saar (League of Nations)|Territory of the Saar Basin]] was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme and introduced [[conscription]].<ref>{{harvnb|Zalampas|1989|p=62}}</ref>

Hoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the [[Stresa Front]]. The Soviet Union, concerned due to [[Drang nach Osten|Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of eastern Europe]], wrote a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect though, the [[Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance|Franco-Soviet pact]] was required to go through the bureaucracy of the [[League of Nations]], which rendered it essentially toothless.<ref>{{harvnb|Record|2005|p=50}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Mandelbaum|1988|p=96}}</ref> However, in June 1935, the United Kingdom made an [[Anglo-German Naval Agreement|independent naval agreement]] with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the [[Neutrality Acts of 1930s|Neutrality Act]] in August.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schmitz|first=David F|title=The First Wise Man|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2001|isbn=0-8420-2632-0|page=124}}</ref> In October, Italy invaded Ethiopia, and Germany was the only major European nation to support the invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing [[Austria]].<ref>{{harvnb|Kitson|2001|p=231}}</ref>

Hitler defied the Versailles and [[Locarno Treaties|Locarno]] treaties by [[Remilitarization of the Rhineland|remilitarizing]] the [[Rhineland]] in March 1936. He received little response from other European powers.<ref>{{harvnb|Adamthwaite|1992|p=52}}</ref> When the [[Spanish Civil War]] broke out in July, Hitler and Mussolini supported the fascist and authoritarian [[Nationalist Spain|Nationalist forces]] in their civil war against the Soviet-supported [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic]]. Both sides used the conflict to test new weapons and methods of warfare,<ref>{{harvnb|Graham|2005|p=110}}</ref> with the Nationalists winning the war in early 1939. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the [[Rome-Berlin Axis]]. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]], which Italy would join in the following year. In China, after the [[Xi'an Incident]] the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire in order to present a [[Second United Front|united front]] to oppose Japan.<ref>{{harvnb|Busky|2002|p=10}}</ref>

==Pre-war events==

===Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)===
{{Main|Second Italo-Abyssinian War}}

The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a brief [[colonial war]] that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] (''Regno d'Italia'') and the armed forces of the [[Ethiopian Empire]] (also known as [[Ethiopia|Abyssinia]]). The war resulted in the [[military occupation]] of Ethiopia and its [[annexation]] into the newly created colony of [[Italian East Africa]] (''Africa Orientale Italiana'', or AOI); in addition, it exposed the weakness of the [[League of Nations]] as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did nothing when the former clearly violated the League's own [[Article X of the Covenant of the League of Nations|Article X]].<ref name=Barker-159>{{Cite book|last=Barker|first=A. J|title=The Rape of Ethiopia 1936|publisher=[[Ballantine Books]]|year=1971|isbn=0-345-02462-1|pages=131–2}}</ref>

===Spanish Civil War (1936-39)===
{{main|Spanish Civil War}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H25224, Guernica, Ruinen.jpg|thumb|The ruins of Guernica [[Bombing of Guernica|after the bombing]].]]

Germany and Italy lent support to the [[Spanish State|Nationalist insurrection]] led by general [[Francisco Franco]] in Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic]], which showed leftist tendencies. Both Germany and the USSR used this [[proxy war]] as an opportunity to test improved weapons and tactics. The deliberate [[Bombing of Guernica]] by the German [[Condor Legion]] in April 1937 contributed to widespread concerns that the next major war would include extensive terror bombing attacks on civilians.<ref>{{cite book|last=Beevor|first=Antony|title=The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939|year=2006|publisher=Phoenix|isbn=0-7538-2165-6|pages=258–260|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Budiansky|first=Stephen|title=Air power : The Men, Machines, and Ideas that Revolutionized War, from Kitty Hawk to Gulf War II|year=2004|publisher=Viking|location=London|isbn=0-670-03285-9|pages=209–211}}</ref>

===Japanese invasion of China (1937)===
{{Main|Second Sino-Japanese War}}
[[File:Shanghai1937KMT machine gun nest.jpg|thumb|A Chinese machine gun nest in the [[Battle of Shanghai]], 1937.]]
In July&nbsp;1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beijing after instigating the [[Marco Polo Bridge Incident]], which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Fairbank|first1=John King|last2=Feuerwerker|first2=Albert|last3=Twitchett|first3=Denis Crispin|title=The Cambridge history of China|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1986|isbn=0-521-24338-6|pages=547–551}}</ref> The Soviets quickly signed a [[Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact|non-aggression pact with China]] to lend [[materiel]] support, effectively ending China's prior [[Sino-German cooperation (1911–1941)|cooperation with Germany]]. [[Generalissimo]] [[Chiang Kai-shek]] deployed his [[German-trained divisions in the National Revolutionary Army|best army]] to [[Battle of Shanghai|defend Shanghai]], but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, [[Battle of Nanking|capturing the capital Nanking]] in December 1937 and committed the [[Nanking Massacre]].

In June&nbsp;1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by [[1938 Yellow River flood|flooding the Yellow River]]; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defenses at [[Wuhan]], but the [[Battle of Wuhan|city was taken]] by October.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Fairbank|first1=John King|last2=Feuerwerker|first2=Albert|last3=Twitchett|first3=Denis Crispin|title=The Cambridge history of China|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1986|isbn=0-521-24338-6|page=566}}</ref> Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve, instead the Chinese government relocated inland to [[Chongqing]] and continued the war.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Taylor|first1=Jay|title=The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the struggle for modern China|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-674-03338-2|pages=150–152}}</ref>

===Japanese invasion of the Soviet Union and Mongolia (1938)===
{{See also|Nanshin-ron|Soviet–Japanese border conflicts}}
[[File:Khalkhin Gol Soviet offensive 1939.jpg|thumb|Soviet troops fought the Japanese during the [[Battle of Khalkhin Gol]] in Mongolia, 1939.]]
On 29&nbsp;July 1938, the Japanese invaded the USSR and were checked at the [[Battle of Lake Khasan]]. Although the battle was a Soviet victory, the Japanese dismissed it as an inconclusive draw, and on 11&nbsp;May 1939 decided to move the Japanese-Mongolian border up to the [[Battles of Khalkhin Gol|Khalkhin Gol River by force]]. After initial successes the Japanese assault on [[Mongolia]] was checked by the Red Army that inflicted the first major defeat on the Japanese [[Kwantung Army]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Coox|first=Alvin D.|title=Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939|publisher=[[Stanford University Press]]|year=1990|page=189|isbn=0-8047-1835-0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|first=Amnon|last=Sella|title=Khalkhin-Gol: The Forgotten War|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=18|issue=4|date=October 1983|pages=651–87}}</ref>

These clashes convinced some factions in the Japanese government that they should focus on conciliating the Soviet government to avoid interference in the war against China and instead turn their military attention southward, towards the US and European holdings in the Pacific, and also prevented the sacking of experienced Soviet military leaders such as [[Georgy Zhukov]], who would later play a vital role in the [[battle of Moscow|defence of Moscow]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chaney|first=Otto Preston|title=Zhukov|publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]]|year=1996|page=76|isbn=0-8061-2807-0}}</ref>

===European occupations and agreements===
{{Further|Anschluss|Appeasement|Munich Agreement|German occupation of Czechoslovakia|Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R69173, Münchener Abkommen, Staatschefs.jpg|thumb|From left to right (front): [[Neville Chamberlain|Chamberlain]], [[Édouard Daladier|Daladier]], Hitler, [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]], and [[Galeazzo Ciano|Ciano]] pictured before signing the Munich Agreement.]]
In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Germany [[Anschluss|annexed Austria]], again provoking [[Appeasement of Hitler|little response]] from other European powers.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Collier|first1=Martin|last2=Pedley|first2=Philip|title=Germany 1919–45|publisher=Heinemann|year=2000|isbn=0-435-32721-6|page=144}}</ref> Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the [[Sudetenland]], an area of [[Czechoslovakia]] with a predominantly [[ethnic German]] population; and soon France and Britain conceded this territory to Germany in the [[Munich Agreement]], which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kershaw|2001|pp=121–2}}</ref> Soon after that, however, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to [[First Vienna Award|cede additional territory]] to Hungary and Poland.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kershaw|2001|p=157}}</ref> In March 1939, [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia|Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia]] and subsequently split it into the German [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] and the pro-German [[client state]], the [[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovak Republic]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2008|pp=143–4}}</ref>

Alarmed, and with Hitler making further demands on [[Free City of Danzig|Danzig]], France and Britain [[Polish-British Common Defence Pact#British Guarantee to Poland|guaranteed their support for Polish independence]]; when [[Italian invasion of Albania|Italy conquered Albania]] in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and [[Greece]].<ref>{{Cite book|first1=Cedric James|last1=Lowe|first2=F|last2=Marzari|title=Italian Foreign Policy 1870–1940|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2002|isbn=0-415-27372-2|page=330}}</ref> Shortly after the [[Franco-Polish Military Alliance|Franco]]-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the [[Pact of Steel]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Oxford Companion to World War II|editor1-first=I. C. B.|editor1-last=Dear|editor2-first=M. R. D|editor2-last=Foot|chapter=Pact of Steel|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2002|isbn=0-19-860446-7|page=674}}</ref>

In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]],<ref>{{Cite book|first=Zachary|last=Shore|title=What Hitler Knew: The Battle for Information in Nazi Foreign Policy|publisher=Oxford University Press US|year=2003|isbn=0-19-515459-2|page=108}}</ref> a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol. The parties gave each other rights, "in the event of a territorial and political rearrangement," to "spheres of influence" (western [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] and [[Lithuania]] for Germany, and [[Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union|eastern Poland]], Finland, [[Estonia]], Latvia and [[Bessarabia]] for the USSR). It also raised the question of continuing Polish independence.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=Nazi-Soviet Pact|editor1-first=I. C. B.|editor1-last=Dear|editor2-first=M. R. D|editor2-last=Foot|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|isbn=0-19-860446-7|page=608}}</ref>

==Course of the war==

===War breaks out in Europe (1939)===

[[File:Armia Czerwona,Wehrmacht 23.09.1939 wspólna parada.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Nazi-Soviet military parade in Brześć|Common parade]] of German [[Wehrmacht]] and Soviet [[Red Army]] on 23 September 1939 in [[Brest (Belarus)|Brest]], [[Kresy|Eastern Poland]] at the end of the Invasion of Poland. At centre is Major General [[Heinz Guderian]] and at right is Brigadier [[Semyon Krivoshein]].]]

On 1&nbsp;September 1939, Germany and [[Slovak invasion of Poland|Slovakia]]—a client state in 1939—[[Invasion of Poland|attacked Poland]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Evans|first=Richard J.|title=The Third Reich at War 1939–1945|year=2008|publisher=Allen Lane|location=London|isbn=978-0-7139-9742-2|pages=1–2}}</ref> On 3&nbsp;September France and Britain, followed by the countries of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|2005|pages=64–65}}</ref> declared war on Germany but provided [[Phoney war|little support]] to Poland other than a [[Saar Offensive|small French attack into the Saarland]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Keegan|first=John|title=The Second World War|year=1997|publisher=Pimlico|location=London|isbn=0-7126-7348-2|page=35}}</ref> Britain and France also began a [[Blockade of Germany (1939–1945)|naval blockade of Germany]] on 3&nbsp;September which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort.<ref>{{cite book|last=Roskill|first=S.W.|title=The War at Sea 1939–1945 Volume 1 : The Defensive|year=1954|publisher=HMSO|location=London|page=64|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-RN-I/index.html|series=History of the Second World War. United Kingdom Military Series}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fritz|first=Martin|editor=Dear, I.C.B; Foot, M.R.D.|title=The Oxford Companion to World War II|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|page=248|chapter=Economic Warfare|isbn=978-0-19-280670-3}}</ref>

On 17&nbsp;September, after signing a [[Soviet–Japanese border conflicts|cease-fire with Japan]], the [[Soviet invasion of Poland|Soviets also invaded Poland]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Zaloga|first1=Steven J.|first2=Howard|last2=Gerrard|title=Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg|url=http://books.google.com/?id=oQeAKAjlEwMC|publisher=Osprey Publishing|location=Oxford|year=2002|isbn=1-84176-408-6|page=83}}</ref> Poland's territory was divided between [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|Germany]] and [[Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union|the Soviet Union]], with [[Territorial changes of Poland#World War II|Lithuania]] and [[Slovak invasion of Poland (1939)|Slovakia]] also receiving small shares. The Poles did not surrender; they established a [[Polish Underground State]] and an underground [[Polish Home Army|Home Army]], and [[Polish contribution to World War II|continued to fight with the Allies on all fronts outside Poland]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hempel|first=Andrew|title=Poland in World War II: An Illustrated Military History|url=http://books.google.com/?id=9SmbqqQfp1gC|publisher=Hippocrene Books|location=New York|year=2003|isbn=0-7818-1004-3|page=24}}</ref>

About 100,000 Polish military personnel were [[Romanian Bridgehead|evacuated to Romania]] and the Baltic countries; many of these soldiers later fought against the Germans in other theatres of the war.<ref>{{cite book|last=Zaloga|first=Stephen J.|title=Poland 1939 : The Birth of Blitzkrieg|year=2004|publisher=Praeger|location=London|isbn=0-275-98278-5|pages=88–89}}</ref> [[Biuro Szyfrów|Poland's Enigma codebreakers]] were also evacuated to France.<ref>{{cite book|last=Budiansky|first=Stephen|title=Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II|year=2001|publisher=Penguin|location=London|isbn=0-14-028105-3|pages=120–121}}</ref> During this time, Japan launched its [[Battle of Changsha (1939)|first attack against Changsha]], a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September.<ref>{{Harvnb|Jowett|Andrew|2002|p=14}}</ref>

Following the invasion of Poland and a [[German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation|German-Soviet treaty governing Lithuania]], the Soviet Union forced the [[Baltic states|Baltic countries]] to allow it [[Occupation of Baltic states#Ultimatums to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania|to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts of "mutual assistance."]]<ref>{{Cite book|first=David J.|last=Smith|title=The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania|url=http://books.google.com/?id=YaYbzQQN97EC&pg=PA142|publisher=Routledge. 1st edition|page=24|isbn=0-415-28580-1|year=2002}}</ref><ref name="blinsky9"/><ref name="murray55">{{Harvnb|Murray|Millett|2001|pp=55–56}}</ref> Finland rejected territorial demands and was invaded by the Soviet Union in November 1939.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=D. W|last=Spring|title=The Soviet Decision for War against Finland, 30&nbsp;November 1939|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|pages=207–226|volume=38|issue=2|year=1986|publisher=Taylor & Francis, Ltd.|doi=10.1080/09668138608411636|jstor=151203}}</ref> The [[Winter War|resulting conflict]] ended in March 1940 with [[Moscow Peace Treaty|Finnish concessions]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hanhimäki|first=Jussi M|title=Containing Coexistence: America, Russia, and the "Finnish Solution|url=http://books.google.com/?id=OWfudYWUOt0C|publisher=Kent State University Press|year=1997|page=12|isbn=0-87338-558-6}}</ref> France and the United Kingdom, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war on the side of the Germans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR's expulsion from the League of Nations.<ref name="murray55"/>

[[File:Nazi-parading-in-elysian-fields-paris-desert-1940.png|thumb|[[Third Reich|German]] troops by the [[Arc de Triomphe]], Paris, after the [[Battle of France|1940 fall of France]].]]
In Western Europe, British troops deployed to the Continent, but in a phase nicknamed the [[Phoney War]] by the British and "Sitzkrieg" (''sitting war'') by the Germans, neither side launched major operations against the other until April 1940.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|1995|pages=95, 121}}</ref> The Soviet Union and Germany entered a [[German-Soviet Commercial Agreement (1940)|trade pact in February 1940]], pursuant to which the Soviets received German military and industrial equipment in exchange for supplying raw materials to Germany to help circumvent the Allied blockade.<ref name="shirer668">{{Cite book|last=Shirer|first=William L|title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1990|pages=668–9|isbn=0-671-72868-7}}</ref>

In April 1940, [[Operation Weserübung|Germany invaded Denmark and Norway]] to secure shipments of [[Swedish iron ore (WWII)|iron ore from Sweden]], which the Allies were [[Operation Wilfred|about to disrupt]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Murray|Millett|2001|pp=57–63}}</ref> [[Denmark]] immediately capitulated, and [[Norwegian Campaign|despite Allied support]], Norway was conquered within two months.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Commager|first=Henry Steele|title=The Story of the Second World War|url=http://books.google.com/?id=H2nUNdqobOkC|publisher=Brassey's|year=2004|page=9|isbn=1-57488-741-6}}</ref> In May 1940 [[Invasion of Iceland|Britain invaded Iceland]] to preempt a possible German invasion of the island.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Oxford Companion to World War II|editor1-first=I. C. B.|editor1-last=Dear|editor2-first=M. R. D|editor2-last=Foot|chapter=Iceland|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2002|isbn=0-19-860446-7|page=436}}</ref> [[Norway Debate|British discontent over the Norwegian campaign]] led to the replacement of Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] with [[Winston Churchill]] on 10&nbsp;May 1940.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Reynolds|first=David|title=From World War to Cold War: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s|url=http://books.google.com/?id=Qk_xKD62G7cC|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|date=27 April 2006|page=76|isbn=0-19-928411-3}}</ref>

===Axis advances===
Germany [[Battle of France|invaded France]], [[Battle of Belgium|Belgium]], [[Battle of the Netherlands|the Netherlands]], and [[German invasion of Luxembourg in World War II|Luxembourg]] on 10&nbsp;May 1940.<ref>{{cite book|last=Evans|first=Richard J.|title=The Third Reich at War 1939–1945|year=2008|publisher=Allen Lane|location=London|isbn=978-0-7139-9742-2|pages=122–123}}</ref> The [[Netherlands]] and [[Belgium]] were overrun using [[blitzkrieg]] tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively.<ref name="shirer721-3">{{Cite book|last=Shirer|first=William L|title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1990|pages=721–3|isbn=0-671-72868-7}}</ref> The French-fortified [[Maginot Line]] and the Allied forces in Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded [[Ardennes]] region,<ref>{{cite book|last=Keegan|first=John|title=The Second World War|year=1997|publisher=Pimlico|location=London|isbn=0-7126-7348-2|pages=59–60}}</ref> mistakenly perceived by French planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Regan|first=Geoffrey|title=The Brassey's book of military blunders|publisher=Brassey's|year=2000|page=152|isbn=1-57488-252-X}}</ref>

British troops were forced to [[Dunkirk evacuation|evacuate the continent at Dunkirk]], abandoning their heavy equipment by early June.<ref>{{cite book|last=Keegan|first=John|title=The Second World War|year=1997|publisher=Pimlico|location=London|isbn=0-7126-7348-2|pages=66–67}}</ref> On 10&nbsp;June, [[Italian invasion of France|Italy invaded France]], declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom;<ref>{{cite book|last=Overy|first=Richard|coauthor=Wheatcroft, Andrew|title=The Road to War|year=1999|publisher=Penguin|location=London|isbn=0-14-028530-X|page=207|edition=Revised and updated}}</ref> twelve days later [[Armistice with France (Second Compiègne)|France surrendered]] and was soon divided into [[German occupation of France during World War II|German]] and [[Italian-occupied France|Italian occupation zones]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Klaus|first=Autbert|title=Germany and the Second World War Volume 2: Germany's Initial Conquests in Europe|url=http://books.google.com/?id=Z5p4tGO7-VkC|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|page=311|isbn=0-19-822888-0}}</ref> and an unoccupied [[rump state]] under the [[Vichy Regime]]. On 3&nbsp;July, the British [[Attack on Mers-el-Kébir|attacked the French fleet]] in [[French Algeria|Algeria]] to prevent its possible seizure by Germany.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=David|title=The Road to Oran: Anglo-French Naval Relations, September 1939 – July 1940|page=xxx|year=2004|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|isbn=0-7146-5461-2}}</ref>

In June, during the last days of the Battle of France, the Soviet Union [[Occupation and annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union (1940)|forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania]],<ref name="blinsky9">{{Cite book|last=Bilinsky|first=Yaroslav|title=Endgame in NATO's Enlargement: The Baltic States and Ukraine|url=http://books.google.com/?id=pbocXztNVsUC|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1999|page=9|isbn=0-275-96363-2}}</ref> and then annexed the disputed Romanian region of [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|Bessarabia]]. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet [[German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation|political rapprochement and economic cooperation]]<ref>Ferguson, Niall (2006). ''The War of the World''Penguin, pp. 367, 376, 379, 417</ref><ref>Snyder, Timothy (2010).''Bloodlands'', Random House, from p. 118 onwards</ref> gradually stalled,<ref>H. W. Koch. Hitler's 'Programme' and the Genesis of Operation 'Barbarossa'. ''The Historical Journal'', Vol. 26, No. 4 (Dec., 1983), pp. 891–920</ref><ref name="stalinswars56">{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=Geoffrey|title=Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-300-11204-1|page=56}}</ref> and both states began preparations for war.<ref name="stalinswars59">{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=Geoffrey|title=Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-300-11204-1|page=59}}</ref>

With France neutralized, Germany began an [[air superiority]] campaign over Britain (the [[Battle of Britain]]) to prepare for [[Operation Sealion|an invasion]].<ref name="autogenerated38">{{Cite book|last1=Kelly|first1=Nigel|last2=Rees|first2=Rosemary|last3=Shuter|first3=Jane|title=Twentieth Century World|publisher=Heinemann|year=1998|isbn=0-435-30983-8|page=38}}</ref> The campaign failed, and the invasion plans were canceled by September.<ref name="autogenerated38"/> Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy [[Battle of the Atlantic#'Happy Time' (June 1940&nbsp;– February 1941)|enjoyed success]] against an over-extended [[Royal Navy]], using [[U-boat]]s against British shipping in the [[Battle of the Atlantic|Atlantic]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Goldstein|first=Margaret J|title=World War II|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|year=2004|isbn=0-8225-0139-2|page=35}}</ref> Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a [[Siege of Malta (World War II)|siege of Malta]] in June, [[Italian conquest of British Somaliland|conquering British Somaliland]] in August, and [[Italian invasion of Egypt|making an incursion into British-held Egypt]] in September 1940. <!-- REFERENCES NEEDED FOR THIS --> Japan increased its blockade of China in September by [[Invasion of French Indochina|seizing several bases]] in the northern part of the now-isolated [[French Indochina]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Overy|first=Richard|coauthor=Wheatcroft, Andrew|title=The Road to War|year=1999|publisher=Penguin|location=London|isbn=0-14-028530-X|pages=288–289|edition=Revised and updated}}</ref>

[[File:Supermarinespitfire.JPG|thumb|upright|The [[Battle of Britain]] ended the German advance in Western Europe.]]

Throughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American [[Neutrality Acts of 1930s|Neutrality Act]] was amended to allow [[Cash and carry (World War II)|"cash and carry"]] purchases by the Allies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Overy|first=Richard|coauthor=Wheatcroft, Andrew|title=The Road to War|year=1999|publisher=Penguin|location=London|isbn=0-14-028530-X|pages=328–330|edition=Revised and updated}}</ref> In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the [[United States Navy]] was [[Two-Ocean Navy Act|significantly increased]] and, after the Japanese incursion into Indochina, the United States [[embargo]]ed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Morison|first=Samuel Eliot|title=History of United States Naval Operations in World War II|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2002|isbn=0-252-07065-8|page=60}}</ref> In September, the United States further agreed to a [[Destroyers for Bases Agreement|trade of American destroyers for British bases]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Maingot|first=Anthony P.|title=The United States and the Caribbean: Challenges of an Asymmetrical Relationship|publisher=Westview Press|year=1994|isbn=0-8133-2241-3|page=52}}</ref> Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Hadley|last=Cantril|title=America Faces the War: A Study in Public Opinion|journal=The Public Opinion Quarterly|volume=4|issue=3|date=September 1940|page=390}}</ref> <!-- REFERENCE PREDATES THIS CLAIM -->

At the end of September 1940, the [[Tripartite Pact]] united Japan, Italy and Germany to formalize the [[Axis Powers]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|1995|p=182}}</ref> The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bilhartz|first1=Terry D.|last2=Elliott|first2=Alan C.|title=Currents in American History: A Brief History of the United States|page=179|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7656-1821-4}}</ref> During this time, the United States continued to support the United Kingdom and China by introducing the [[Lend-Lease]] policy authorizing the provision of materiel and other items<ref>{{Harvnb|Murray|Millett|2001|p=165}}</ref> and creating a security zone spanning roughly half of the Atlantic Ocean where the [[United States Navy]] protected British convoys.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Knell|first=Hermann|title=To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War II|publisher=Da Capo|year=2003|isbn=0-306-81169-3|page=205}}</ref> As a result, Germany and the United States found themselves engaged in sustained naval warfare in the North and Central Atlantic by October 1941, even though the United States remained officially neutral.<ref>{{Harvnb|Murray|Millett|2001|pp=233–245}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/Prelude18.html|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080509150056/http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/Prelude18.html|archivedate=2008-05-09|title=Undeclared Naval War in the Atlantic 1941|publisher=History Department at the University of San Diego|last=Schoenherr|first=Steven|accessdate=15 February 2010|date=1 October 2005}}</ref>

The Axis expanded in November 1940 when [[Hungary]], Slovakia and [[Romania]] joined the Tripartite Pact.<ref name="Tripartite Pact">{{Cite book|title=Oxford Companion to World War II|editor1-first=I. C. B.|editor1-last=Dear|editor2-first=M. R. D|editor2-last=Foot|chapter=Tripartite Pact|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2002|isbn=0-19-860446-7|page=877}}</ref> In October 1940, [[Greco-Italian War|Italy invaded Greece]] but within days was repulsed and pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Clogg|first=Richard|title=A Concise History of Greece|page=118|year=1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-80872-3}}</ref> In December 1940, British Commonwealth forces began counter-offensives against [[Operation Compass|Italian forces in Egypt]] and [[East African Campaign (World War II)#Allied counter-offensive|Italian East Africa]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Andrew|first=Stephen|title=The Italian Army 1940–45 (2): Africa 1940–43|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2001|isbn=1-85532-865-8|pages=9–10}}</ref> By early 1941, with Italian forces having been pushed back into Libya by the Commonwealth, Churchill ordered a [[Operation Lustre|dispatch of troops from Africa to bolster the Greeks]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=David|title=The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=0-7146-5205-9|pages=64–65}}</ref> The [[Regia Marina|Italian Navy]] also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by a [[Battle of Taranto|carrier attack at Taranto]], and neutralising several more warships at the [[Battle of Cape Matapan]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Ashley|title=The British Empire and the Second World War|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|year=2006|isbn=1-85285-417-0|page=106}}</ref>
[[File:German paratroopers jumping From Ju 52s over Crete.jpg|thumb|[[Fallschirmjäger (Nazi Germany)|German paratroopers]] invading the Greek island of [[Crete]], May 1941.]]

The Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler [[Operation Sunflower|sent German forces to Libya]] in February, and by the end of March they had [[Axis desert offensive (1941)|launched an offensive]] against the diminished Commonwealth forces.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Laurier|first=Jim|title=Tobruk 1941: Rommel's opening move|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2001|isbn=1-84176-092-7|pages=7–8}}</ref> In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the [[Siege of Tobruk|besieged port of Tobruk]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Murray|Millett|2001|pp=263–67}}</ref> The Commonwealth [[Operation Brevity|attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May]] and [[Operation Battleaxe|again in June]], but failed on both occasions.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Macksey|first=Kenneth|title=Rommel: battles and campaigns|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1997|isbn=0-306-80786-6|pages=61–63}}</ref> In early April, following [[Bulgaria]]'s signing of the Tripartite Pact, the Germans intervened in the Balkans [[Battle of Greece|by invading Greece]] and [[Invasion of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia following a coup]]; here too they made rapid progress, eventually forcing the Allies to evacuate after Germany [[Battle of Crete|conquered the Greek island of Crete]] by the end of May.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|1995|p=229}}</ref> <!-- REFERENCE SEEMS VERY NARROW FOR RANGE OF EVENTS COVERED -->

The Allies did have some successes during this time. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first [[Anglo-Iraqi War|quashed a coup in Iraq]] which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled [[French Mandate of Syria|Syria]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Watson|first=William E|title=Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2003|isbn=0-275-97470-7|page=80}}</ref> then, with the assistance of the [[Free French]], [[Syria-Lebanon Campaign|invaded Syria and Lebanon]] to prevent further such occurrences.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Ashley|title=The British Empire and the Second World War|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|year=2006|isbn=1-85285-417-0|page=154}}</ref> In the Atlantic, the British scored a much-needed public morale boost by [[Last battle of the battleship Bismarck|sinking the German flagship ''Bismarck'']].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stewart|first=Vance|title=Three Against One: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin Vs Adolph Hitler|publisher=Sunstone Press|year=2002|isbn=0-86534-377-2|page=159}}</ref> Perhaps most importantly, during the Battle of Britain the [[Royal Air Force]] had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe's assault, and the German bombing campaign largely ended in May 1941.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Dear, I.C.B and Foot, M.R.D. (editors)|title=The Oxford Companion to World War II|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2005|pages=108–109|chapter=Blitz|isbn=978-0-19-280670-3}}</ref>

In Asia, despite several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. In order 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 had [[Invasion of French Indochina|seized military control of southern Indochina]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Overy|first=Richard|coauthor=Wheatcroft, Andrew|title=The Road to War|year=1999|publisher=Penguin|location=London|isbn=0-14-028530-X|page=289|edition=Revised and updated}}</ref> In August of that year, [[Communist Party of China|Chinese communists]] launched an [[Hundred Regiments Offensive|offensive in Central China]]; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures (the [[Three Alls Policy]]) in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Joes|first=Anthony James|title=Resisting Rebellion: The History And Politics of Counterinsurgency|isbn=0-8131-2339-9|year=2004|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|page=224}}</ref> Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces [[New Fourth Army Incident|culminated in armed clashes in January 1941]], effectively ending their co-operation.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Fairbank|first1=John King|last2=Goldman|first2=Merle|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1994|isbn=0-674-11673-9|title=China: A New History|page=320}}</ref>

With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the [[Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact]] in April 1941.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garver|first=John W|title=Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937–1945: The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1988|isbn=0-19-505432-6|page=114}}</ref> By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, amassing forces on the Soviet border.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|1995|p=195}}</ref>

===War becomes global (1941)===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L20582, Charkow, Strassenkämpfe.jpg|thumb|German infantry and armoured vehicles [[First Battle of Kharkov|battle the Soviet defenders on the streets of Kharkov]], October 1941.]]

On 22&nbsp;June 1941, Germany, along with other European Axis members and Finland, invaded the Soviet Union in [[Operation Barbarossa]]. The primary targets of this surprise offensive<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sella|first=Amnon|date=July 1978|title="Barbarossa": Surprise Attack and Communication|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=13|issue=3|pages=555–83|doi=10.1177/002200947801300308}}</ref> were the [[Baltic region]], Moscow and [[Ukraine]], with an [[Strategic goal (military)|ultimate goal]] of ending the 1941 campaign near the [[A-A line|Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line]], connecting the [[Caspian sea|Caspian]] and [[White Sea]]s. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate ''[[Lebensraum]]'' ("living space")<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kershaw|first=Ian|title=Fateful Choices|pages=66–69|publisher=Allen Lane|year=2007|isbn=0-7139-9712-5}}</ref> by [[Generalplan Ost|dispossessing the native population]]<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Jonathan|last=Steinberg|title=The Third Reich Reflected: German Civil Administration in the Occupied Soviet Union, 1941–4|journal=The English Historical Review|volume=110|issue=437|date=June 1995|pages=620–51}}</ref> and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Milan|last=Hauner|title=Did Hitler Want a World Dominion?|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=13|issue=1|year=1978|pages=15–32|doi=10.1177/002200947801300102}}</ref>

Although the [[Red Army]] was preparing for strategic [[counter-offensive]]s before the war,<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Cynthia A|last=Roberts|title=Planning for War: The Red Army and the Catastrophe of 1941|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|volume=47|issue=8|year=1995|pages=1293–26|doi=10.1080/09668139508412322}}</ref> ''Barbarossa'' forced the [[Stavka|Soviet supreme command]] to adopt a [[strategic defence]]. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By the middle of August, however, the German [[Oberkommando des Heeres|Army High Command]] decided to [[Battle of Smolensk (1941)|suspend the offensive]] of a considerably depleted [[Army Group Centre]], and to divert the [[2nd Panzer Group]] to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Alan F.|last=Wilt|title=Hitler's Late Summer Pause in 1941|journal=Military Affairs|volume=45|issue=4|year=1981|pages=187–91|doi=10.2307/1987464|jstor=1987464}}</ref> The [[Battle of Kiev (1941)|Kiev offensive]] was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made further [[Crimean Campaign|advance into Crimea]] and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the [[First Battle of Kharkov]]) possible.<ref>{{Cite book|first=John|last=Erickson|title=The Road to Stalingrad|publisher=Cassell Military|year=2003|isbn=0-304-36541-6|pages=114–137}}</ref>

[[File:Soviet Offensive Moscow December 1941.jpg|thumb|Soviet counter-attack during the [[battle of Moscow]], December, 1941.]]

The diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]]<ref name="D. Glantz. Soviet-German War">{{Harvnb|Glantz|2001|p=9}}</ref> prompted Britain to reconsider its [[grand strategy]].<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Brian P|last=Farrell|title=Yes, Prime Minister: Barbarossa, Whipcord, and the Basis of British Grand Strategy, Autumn 1941|journal=The Journal of Military History|volume=57|issue=4|year=1993|pages=599–625|doi=10.2307/2944096|jstor=2944096}}</ref> In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a [[Anglo-Soviet Agreement|military alliance against Germany]]<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Pravda|first1=Alex|last2=Duncan|first2=Peter J. S|title=Soviet-British Relations Since the 1970s|year=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-37494-4|page=29}}</ref> The British and Soviets [[Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran|invaded Iran]] to secure the [[Persian Corridor]] and Iran's [[oil field]]s.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bueno de Mesquita|first1=Bruce|last2=Smith|first2=Alastair|last3=Siverson|first3=Randolph M.|last4=Morrow|first4=James D|title=The Logic of Political Survival|publisher=MIT Press|year=2005|page=425|isbn=0-262-52440-6}}</ref> In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the [[Atlantic Charter]].<ref name="AdvenBrit223">{{Cite book|last=Louis|first=William Roger|title=More Adventures with Britannia: Personalities, Politics and Culture in Britain|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1998|isbn=0-292-74708-X|page=223}}</ref>

Romania made the [[Romania during World War II|largest contribution]] to recapture [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|territory ceded to the USSR]] and pursue its leader [[Ion Antonescu]]'s desire to combat communism.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dennis|last=Deletant|chapter=Romania|editor1-first=I. C. B.|editor1-last=Dear|editor2-first=M. R. D|editor2-last=Foot|year=2002|title=Oxford Companion to World War II|pages=745–46|isbn=0-19-860446-7}}</ref> By October, when Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of [[siege of Leningrad|Leningrad]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kleinfeld|first=Gerald R|title=Hitler's Strike for Tikhvin|journal=Military Affairs|volume=47|issue=3|year=1983|pages=122–128|doi=10.2307/1988082|jstor=1988082}}</ref> and [[Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)|Sevastopol]] continuing,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shukman|first=Harold|title=Stalin's Generals|publisher=Phoenix Press|year=2001|isbn=1-84212-513-3|page=113}}</ref> a major [[battle of Moscow|offensive against Moscow]] had been renewed. After two months of fierce battles, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops<ref>{{Harvnb|Glantz|2001|p=26}}, "By 1 November [the Wehrmacht] had lost fully 20% of its committed strength (686,000 men), up to 2/3 of its ½-million motor vehicles, and 65 percent of its tanks. The German Army High Command (OKH) rated its 136 divisions as equivalent to 83 full-strength divisions."</ref> were forced to suspend their offensive.<ref>{{Cite book|first1=Klaus|last1=Reinhardt|first2=Karl B|last2=Keenan|title=Moscow-The Turning Point: The Failure of Hitler's Strategy in the Winter of 1941–42|publisher=Berg|year=1992|isbn=0-85496-695-1|page=227}}</ref> Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet [[Military capability|capability to resist]] was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The ''blitzkrieg'' [[Phase (combat)|phase]] of the war in Europe had ended.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=A.S.|last=Milward|title=The End of the Blitzkrieg|journal=The Economic History Review|volume=16|issue=3|year=1964|pages=499–518|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.1964.tb01744.x}}</ref>

[[File:Second world war europe 1941-1942 map en.svg|thumb|300px|right|The Axis-controlled territory in Europe at the time of its maximal expansion (1941–42).]]

By early December, freshly mobilised [[Military reserve force|reserves]]<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Louis|last=Rotundo|title=The Creation of Soviet Reserves and the 1941 Campaign|journal=Military Affairs|volume=50|issue=1|year=1986|pages=21–8|doi=10.2307/1988530|jstor=1988530}}</ref> allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops.<ref>{{Harvnb|Glantz|2001|p=26}}</ref><!--Note: I think the source indicates that the Red Army had more numbers than the Wehrmacht by December--> This, as well as [[Richard Sorge#Wartime intelligence supplied by the Sorge Ring|intelligence data]] that established a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East sufficient to prevent any attack by the Japanese [[Kwantung Army]],<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Raymond L|last=Garthoff|title=The Soviet Manchurian Campaign, August 1945|journal=Military Affairs|volume=33|issue=2|date=October 1969|page=312}}</ref> allowed the Soviets to begin a [[Soviet Offensive (1941-1942)|massive counter-offensive]] that started on 5 December along a {{convert|1000|km|mi}} front and pushed German troops {{convert|100|-|250|km|mi}} west.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Welch|first=David|title=Modern European History, 1871–2000: A Documentary Reader|publisher=Routledge|year=1999|isbn=0-415-21582-X|page=102}}</ref>

German successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in south-east Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan oil supplies from the [[Dutch East Indies]], while refusing to hand over political control of the colonies. [[Vichy France]], by contrast, agreed to a Japanese occupation of [[French Indochina]].<ref>{{Cite book|first=Gerhard L|last=Weinberg|title=A World At Arms|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|page=248|isbn=0-521-61826-6}}</ref> In July 1941, the United States, United Kingdom and other Western governments reacted to the seizure of Indochina with a freeze on Japanese assets, while the United States (which supplied 80 percent of Japan's oil<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Irvine H., Jr.|last=Anderson|title=The 1941 De Facto Embargo on Oil to Japan: A Bureaucratic Reflex|journal=The Pacific Historical Review|volume=44|issue=2|year=1975|jstor=3638003|page=201}}</ref>) responded by placing a complete oil embargo.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy|last=Peattie|first=Mark R.|last2=Evans|first2=David C.|publisher=Naval Institute Press|year=1997|page=456|isbn=0-87021-192-7}}</ref> That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in Asia and the prosecution of the war against China, or seizing the natural resources it needed by force; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lightbody|first=Bradley|title=The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-22404-7|page=125}}</ref>

Japan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific; the Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Gerhard L|last=Weinberg|title=A World At Arms|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|page=310|isbn=0-521-61826-6}}</ref> To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralise the [[United States Pacific Fleet]] from the outset.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Morgan|first=Patrick M|title=Strategic Military Surprise: Incentives and Opportunities|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=1983|isbn=0-87855-912-4|page=51}}</ref> On 7 December (8 December in Asian time zones), 1941, Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous [[Japanese expansion (1941–1942)|offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific]].<ref name="Wohlstetter341"/> These included an [[attack on Pearl Harbor|attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor]], [[Battle of Malaya|landings in Thailand and Malaya]]<ref name="Wohlstetter341">{{Cite book|last=Wohlstetter|first=Roberta|title=Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1962|isbn=0-8047-0598-4|pages=341–43}}</ref> and the [[battle of Hong Kong]].

[[File:Bosbritsurrendergroup.jpg|thumb|The February 1942 [[Battle of Singapore|Fall of Singapore]] saw 80,000 Allied soldiers captured and enslaved by the Japanese.]]

These attacks led the U.S., [[United Kingdom declaration of war on Japan (1941)|Britain]], Australia and other Allies to formally declare war on Japan. Germany and the other members of the Tripartite Pact responded by declaring war on the United States. In January, the United States, Britain, Soviet Union, China, and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the [[Declaration by United Nations]], which affirmed the [[Atlantic Charter]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mingst|first1=Karen A.|last2=Karns|first2=Margaret P|title=United Nations in the Twenty-First Century|publisher=Westview Press|year=2007|isbn=0-8133-4346-1|page=22}}</ref> The Soviet Union did not adhere to the declaration; it maintained a neutrality agreement with Japan,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dunn|first=Dennis J|title=Caught Between Roosevelt & Stalin: America's Ambassadors to Moscow|page=157|publisher=The University Press of Kentucky|year=1998|isbn=0-8131-2023-3}}</ref><ref>According to Ernest May ({{Cite journal|last=May|first=Ernest|title=The United States, the Soviet Union and the Far Eastern War|journal=The Pacific Historical Review|volume=24|issue=2|year=1955|page=156|jstor=3634575}}) Churchill stated: "Russian declaration of war on Japan would be greatly to our advantage, provided, but only provided, that Russians are confident that will not impair their Western Front".</ref> and exempted itself from the principle of self-determination.<ref name="AdvenBrit223"/> From 1941, Stalin persistently asked Churchill, and then Roosevelt, to open a 'second front' in France.<ref>Rees, Laurence (2009). World War Two Behind Closed Doors, BBC Books, p. 99 ISBN 1448140455.</ref> The Eastern front became the major theatre of war in Europe and the many millions of Soviet casualties dwarfed the few hundred thousand of the Western Allies; Churchill and Roosevelt said they needed more preparation time, leading to claims they stalled to save Western lives at the expense of Soviet lives.<ref name=rees406/>

Meanwhile, by the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost fully conquered [[Japanese capture of Burma|Burma]], [[Battle of Malaya|Malaya]], [[Netherlands East Indies campaign|the Dutch East Indies]], [[Battle of Singapore|Singapore]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Klam|first=Julie|title=The Rise of Japan and Pearl Harbor|publisher=Black Rabbit Books|year=2002|isbn=1-58340-188-1|page=27}}</ref> and [[Rabaul]], inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite a stubborn resistance in [[Battle of Corregidor|Corregidor]], [[Battle of the Philippines (1941–42)|the Philippines]] was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing the government of the [[Philippine Commonwealth]] into exile.<ref>{{Cite book
|editor-last=Greenfield
|editor-first=Kent Roberts
|last=Lewis
|first=Morton
|title=The Fall of the Philippines
|url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/5-2/5-2_Contents.htm
|chapter=XXIX. Japanese Plans and American Defenses
|chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/5-2/5-2_29.htm
|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office
|id=Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 53-63678
|page=529}} (Table 11).</ref> Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the [[Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse|South China Sea]], [[Battle of the Java Sea|Java Sea]] and [[Indian Ocean raid (1942)|Indian Ocean]],<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hill|first1=J. R.|last2=Ranft|first2=Bryan|title=The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|isbn=0-19-860527-7|page=362}}</ref> and [[Bombing of Darwin|bombed the Allied naval base]] at [[Darwin, Northern Territory|Darwin]], Australia. The only real Allied success against Japan was a Chinese [[Battle of Changsha (1942)|victory at Changsha]] in early January 1942.<ref name="ChinaBitter158">{{Harvnb|Hsiung|1992|p=158}}</ref> These easy victories over unprepared opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.<ref>{{Cite book
|url=http://books.google.com/?id=ahYF-A3oylkC&pg=PA145
|title=The history of Japan
|first=Louis G.
|last=Perez
|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group
|date=1 June 1998
|isbn=0-313-30296-0
|accessdate=12 November 2009
|page=145}}
</ref>

Germany retained the initiative as well. Exploiting dubious American naval command decisions, the [[Kriegsmarine|German navy]] [[Second Happy Time|ravaged Allied shipping]] off the American Atlantic coast.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gooch|first=John|title=Decisive Campaigns of the Second World War|page=52|publisher=Routledge|year=1990|isbn=0-7146-3369-0}}</ref> Despite considerable losses, European Axis members stopped a major Soviet offensive in Central and Southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they achieved during the previous year.<ref>{{Harvnb|Glantz|2001|p=31}}</ref> In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the [[Gazala Line]] by early February,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Molinari|first=Andrea|title=Desert Raiders: Axis and Allied Special Forces 1940–43|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2007|isbn=1-84603-006-4|page=91}}</ref> followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mitcham|first1=Samuel W.|last2=Mitcham|first2=Samuel W. Jr|title=Rommel's Desert War: The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps|publisher=Stein & Day|year=1982|isbn=978-0-8117-3413-4|page=31}}</ref>

=== Axis advance stalls (1942)===

[[File:SBDs and Mikuma.jpg|thumb|left|[[SBD Dauntless|American dive bombers]] engage the ''[[Japanese cruiser Mikuma|Mikuma]]'' at the [[Battle of Midway]], June 1942.]]

In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to [[Operation Mo|capture Port Moresby]] by [[amphibious assault]] and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The Allies, however, prevented the invasion by intercepting and defeating the Japanese naval forces in the [[Battle of the Coral Sea]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Maddox|first=Robert James|title=The United States and World War II|publisher=Westview Press|year=1992|isbn=0-8133-0436-9|pages=111–12}}</ref> Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier [[Doolittle Raid]], was to seize [[Midway Atoll]] and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to [[Aleutian Islands Campaign|occupy the Aleutian Islands]] in Alaska.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Salecker|first=Gene Eric|title=Fortress Against the Sun: The B-17 Flying Fortress in the Pacific|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=2001|isbn=1-58097-049-4|page=186}}</ref> In early June, Japan put its operations into action but the Americans, having broken [[Japanese naval codes]] in late May, were fully aware of the plans and force dispositions and used this knowledge to [[Battle of Midway|achieve a decisive victory at Midway]] over the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ropp|first=Theodore|title=War in the Modern World|publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company|year=1962|isbn=0-8018-6445-3|page=368}}</ref>

With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture [[Port Moresby]] by an [[Kokoda Track campaign|overland campaign]] in the [[Territory of Papua]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|1995|p=339}}</ref> The Americans planned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in the southern [[Solomon Islands]], primarily [[Guadalcanal]], as a first step towards capturing [[Rabaul]], the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gilbert|first=Adrian|title=The Encyclopedia of Warfare: From Earliest Times to the Present Day|publisher=Globe Pequot|year=2003|isbn=1-59228-027-7|page=259}}</ref>

Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, [[Guadalcanal Campaign|the Battle for Guadalcanal]] took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the [[Oro Province|northern part of the island]], where they faced Australian and United States troops in the [[Battle of Buna-Gona]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Swain|first=Bruce|title=A Chronology of Australian Armed Forces at War 1939–45|publisher=Allen & Unwin|year=2001|isbn=1-86508-352-6|page=197}}</ref> Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and [[Operation Ke|withdrew their troops]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hane|first=Mikiso|title=Modern Japan: A Historical Survey|publisher=Westview Press|year=2001|page=340|isbn=0-8133-3756-9}}</ref> In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, [[First Arakan Offensive|an offensive into the Arakan region]] in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Marston|first=Daniel|title=The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2005|isbn=1-84176-882-0|page=111}}</ref> The second was the [[Operation Longcloth|insertion of irregular forces]] behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved dubious results.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Brayley|first1=Martin J|title=The British Army, 1939–45: The Far East|page=9|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2002|isbn=1-84176-238-5}}</ref>

[[File:RIAN archive 44732 Soviet soldiers attack house.jpg|left|thumb|Soviet soldiers attack a house during the [[Battle of Stalingrad]], 1943.]]

On Germany's [[Eastern Front (World War II)#Don, Volga, and Caucasus: Summer 1942|eastern front]], the Axis defeated Soviet offensives in the [[Battle of the Kerch Peninsula|Kerch Peninsula]] and at [[Second Battle of Kharkov|Kharkov]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Read|first=Anthony|title=The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|year=2004|isbn=0-393-04800-4|page=764}}</ref> and then launched their main [[Case Blue|summer offensive]] against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy [[Kuban]] [[steppe]], while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split the [[Army Group South]] into two groups: [[Army Group A]] struck lower [[Don River (Russia)|Don River]] while [[Army Group B]] struck south-east to the Caucasus, towards [[Volga River]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Davies|first=Norman|title=Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory|publisher=Macmillan|year=2006|isbn=0-333-69285-3|page=100}}</ref> The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad, which was in the path of the advancing German armies.

By mid-November the Germans had [[Battle of Stalingrad|nearly taken Stalingrad]] in bitter [[urban warfare|street fighting]] when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an [[Operation Uranus|encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Badsey|first=Stephen|title=The Hutchinson Atlas of World War II Battle Plans: Before and After|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2000|isbn=1-57958-265-6|pages=235–36}}</ref> and an assault on the [[Operation Mars|Rzhev salient near Moscow]], though the latter failed disastrously.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Black|first=Jeremy|title=World War Two: A Military History|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=0-415-30534-9|page=119}}</ref> By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gilbert|first=Sir Martin|title=The Second World War: A Complete History|publisher=Macmillan|year=2004|isbn=0-8050-7623-9|pages=397–400}}</ref> and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another [[Third Battle of Kharkov|attack on Kharkov]], creating a [[Salients, re-entrants and pockets|salient]] in their front line around the Russian city of [[Kursk]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shukman|first=Harold|title=Stalin's Generals|publisher=Phoenix Press|year=2001|isbn=1-84212-513-3|page=142}}</ref>

[[File:IWM-E-6724-Crusader-19411126.jpg|thumb|upright|British [[Crusader tank]]s moving to forward positions during the [[North African Campaign]].]]

By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive, [[Operation Crusader]], in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gannon|first=James|title=Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies: How Spies and Codebreakers Helped Shape the Twentieth Century|publisher=Brassey's|year=2002|isbn=1-57488-473-5|page=76}}</ref> In the West, concerns the Japanese might utilize bases in Vichy-held [[Madagascar]] caused the British to [[Battle of Madagascar|invade the island]] in early May 1942.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paxton|first=Robert O|title=Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944|publisher=Knopf|isbn=0-394-47360-4|year=1972|page=313}}</ref> This success was offset soon after by an Axis [[Battle of Gazala|offensive in Libya]] which pushed the Allies back into Egypt until Axis forces were [[First Battle of El Alamein|stopped at El Alamein]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rich|first=Norman|title=Hitler's War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and the Course of Expansion|publisher=Norton|year=1992|isbn=0-393-00802-9|page=178}}</ref> On the Continent, raids of Allied [[commando]]s on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous [[Dieppe Raid]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Penrose|first=Jane|title=The D-Day Companion|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=1-84176-779-4|year=2004|page=129}}</ref> demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Robin|last=Neillands|title=The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|year=2005|isbn=0-253-34781-5}}</ref>

In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a [[Battle of Alam el Halfa|second attack against El Alamein]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Keegan|first=John|title=The Second World War|year=1997|publisher=Pimlico|location=London|isbn=0-7126-7348-2|page=277}}</ref> and, at a high cost, managed to [[Operation Pedestal|deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thomas|first=David Arthur|title=A Companion to the Royal Navy|publisher=Harrap|year=1988|isbn=0-245-54572-7|page=265}}</ref> A few months later, the Allies [[Second Battle of El Alamein|commenced an attack of their own]] in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Nigel|last2=Andrew|first2=Stephen|title=German Army 1939–1945 (2): North Africa & Balkans|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=1998|isbn=1-85532-640-X|page=8}}</ref> This attack was followed up shortly after by an [[Operation Torch|Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa]], which resulted in the region joining the Allies.<ref name="AWP38">{{Cite book|last=Ross|first=Steven T|title=American War Plans, 1941–1945: The Test of Battle|publisher=Frank Cass & Co|year=1997|isbn=0-7146-4634-2|page=38}}</ref> Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the [[Case Anton|occupation of Vichy France]];<ref name="AWP38" /> although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to [[Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon|scuttle their fleet]] to prevent its capture by German forces.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bonner|first1=Kit|last2=Bonner|first2=Carolyn|title=Warship Boneyards|page=24|year=2001|publisher=MBI Publishing Company|isbn=0-7603-0870-5}}</ref> The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into [[Tunisia]], which was [[Tunisia Campaign|conquered by the Allies]] in May 1943.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Collier|first=Paul|title=The Second World War (4): The Mediterranean 1940–1945|page=11|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2003|isbn=1-84176-539-2}}</ref>

===Allies gain momentum (1943)===
[[File:Bombing of Hamburg.ogg|thumb|A contemporary video showing [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|bombing of Hamburg]] by the Allies.]]
[[File:RIAN archive 225 IL-2 attacking.jpg|thumb|Soviet [[Il-2]] planes attacking a ''Wehrmacht'' column during the [[Battle of Kursk]], 1 July 1943.]]
Following the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Allied forces were sent to [[Aleutian Islands Campaign#Allied response|eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians]],<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Thompson|first1=John Herd|last2=Randall|first2=Stephen J|year=1994|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=0-8203-2403-5|title=Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies|page=164}}</ref> and soon after began major operations to [[Operation Cartwheel|isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands]], and to [[Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign|breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kennedy|first=David M|title=Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=0-19-503834-7|page=610}}</ref> By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and additionally [[Operation Hailstone|neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk]] in the [[Caroline Islands]]. In April, the Allies then launched an operation to [[Western New Guinea campaign|retake Western New Guinea]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rottman|first=Gordon L|title=World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-Military Study|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2002|isbn=0-313-31395-4|page=228}}</ref>

In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 making preparations for large offensives in Central Russia. On 4 July 1943, Germany [[Battle of Kursk|attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge]]. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences<ref>{{Cite journal|first=David M.|last=Glantz|work=CSI Report No. 11.|title=Soviet Defensive Tactics at Kursk, July 1943|publisher=Combined Arms Research Library|url=http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/glantz2/glantz2.asp|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080306082607/http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/glantz2/glantz2.asp|archivedate=6 March 2008|date=September 1986|oclc=278029256|accessdate=17 February 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Soviet military deception in the Second World War|first=David M|last=Glantz|publisher=Routledge|year=1989|isbn=978-0-7146-3347-3|pages=149–59}}</ref> and, for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kershaw|first=Ian|title=Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|year=2001|isbn=0-393-32252-1|page=592}}</ref> This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' [[Allied invasion of Sicily|invasion of Sicily]] launched on 9 July which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month.<ref>{{Cite book|last=O'Reilly|first=Charles T|title=Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2001|isbn=0-7391-0195-1|page=32}}</ref>

On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own [[Operation Kutuzov|counter-offensives]], thereby dispelling any hopes of the German Army for victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk heralded the downfall of German superiority,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bellamy|first=Chris T|title=Absolute war: Soviet Russia in the Second World War|publisher=BAlfred A. Knopf|year=2007|isbn=0-375-41086-4|page=595}}</ref> giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front.<ref>{{Cite book|last=O'Reilly|first=Charles T|title=Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2001|isbn=0-7391-0195-1|page=35}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Healy|first=Mark|title=Kursk 1943: The tide turns in the East|page=90|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=1992|isbn=1-85532-211-0}}</ref> The Germans attempted to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified [[Panther-Wotan line]], however, the Soviets broke through it at [[Battle of Smolensk (1943)|Smolensk]] and by the [[Lower Dnieper Offensive]]s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Glantz|2001|pp=50–55}}</ref>

In early September 1943, the Western Allies [[Allied invasion of Italy|invaded the Italian mainland]], following an [[Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces|Italian armistice with the Allies]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=McGowen|first=Tom|title=Assault From The Sea: Amphibious Invasions in the Twentieth Century|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|year=2002|isbn=0-7613-1811-9|pages=43–44}}</ref> Germany responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas,<ref>{{cite book|last=Mazower|first=Mark|title=Hitler's Empire : Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe|year=2009|publisher=Penguin|location=London|isbn=978-0-14-101192-9|page=362}}</ref> and creating a series of defensive lines.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hart|first1=Stephen|last2=Hart|first2=Russell|last3=Hughes|first3=Matthew|title=The German Soldier in World War II|publisher=MBI Publishing Company|isbn=0-7603-0846-2|year=2000|page=151}}</ref> German special forces then [[Gran Sasso raid|rescued Mussolini]], who then soon established a new client state in German occupied Italy named the [[Italian Social Republic]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Blinkhorn|first=Martin|title=Mussolini and Fascist Italy|page=52|year=1984|publisher=Methuen & Co|isbn=0-415-10231-6}}</ref> The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the [[Winter Line|main German defensive line]] in mid-November.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Read|first1=Anthony|last2=Fisher|first2=David|title=The Fall of Berlin|page=129|publisher=Hutchinson|isbn=0-09-175337-6|year=1992}}</ref>

German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By [[Black May (1943)|May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective]], the resulting sizable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign.<ref>{{cite book|last=Padfield|first=Peter|title=War Beneath the Sea : Submarine Conflict During World War II|year=1998|publisher=John Wiley|location=New York|isbn=0-471-24945-9|pages=335–336|edition=paperback.}}</ref> In November 1943, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and Winston Churchill met with [[Chiang Kai-shek]] [[Cairo Conference (1943)|in Cairo]]<ref name="Iriye154">{{Cite book|last=Iriye|first=Akira|title=Power and culture: the Japanese-American war, 1941–1945|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1981|isbn=0-674-69582-8|page=154}}</ref> and then with Joseph Stalin [[Tehran Conference|in Tehran]].<ref name="polley148">{{Cite book|last=Polley|first=Martin|title=A-Z of modern Europe since 1789|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2000|isbn=0-415-18598-X|page=148}}</ref> The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory,<ref name="Iriye154"/> while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.<ref name="polley148"/>
[[File:IND 004723.jpg|thumb|British troops firing a [[Mortar (weapon)|mortar]] during the [[Battle of Imphal]], North East India, 1944.]]

From November 1943, during the seven-week [[Battle of Changde]], the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief.<ref name=H161>ed. Hsiung, James C. and Steven I. Levine ''China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan 1937–1945'', p. 161</ref><ref name=Hsu>Hsu Long-hsuen and Chang Ming-kai (1971) ''History of The Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)'' 2nd Ed. Translated by Wen Ha-hsiung. Chung Wu Publishing. pp. 412–416, Map 38</ref> In January 1944, the Allies launched a [[Battle of Monte Cassino|series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino]] and attempted to outflank it with [[Operation Shingle|landings at Anzio]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|1995|pp=660–661}}</ref> By the end of January, a major [[Leningrad Front|Soviet]] [[Siege of Leningrad#Soviet relief of the siege|offensive expelled German forces]] from the [[Leningrad Oblast|Leningrad region]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Glantz|first=David M|title=The siege of Leningrad, 1941–1944: 900 days of terror|publisher=Zenith Imprint|year=2001|isbn=0-7603-0941-8|pages=166–69}}</ref> ending the longest and [[List of battles by casualties#Sieges and urban combat|most lethal siege in history]].

The [[Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive|following Soviet offensive]] was [[Battle of Narva (1944)|halted on the pre-war Estonian border]] by the German [[Army Group North]] aided by [[Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany#Estonians in German Military Units in 1941–1944|Estonians]] hoping to [[Estonian Government in Exile#Failure to reestablish independence|re-establish national independence]]. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the [[Baltic Sea]] region.<ref name=glantz>{{Cite book|first=David M|last=Glantz|title=The Battle for Leningrad: 1941–1944|publisher=University Press of Kansas|location=Lawrence|year=2002|isbn=0-7006-1208-4}}</ref> By late May 1944, the Soviets had [[Crimean Offensive|liberated Crimea]], largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made [[First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive|incursions into Romania]], which were repulsed by the Axis troops.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chubarov|first=Alexander|title=Russia's Bitter Path to Modernity: A History of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras|page=122|isbn=0-8264-1350-1|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|year=2001}}</ref> The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4&nbsp;June Rome was captured.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Havighurst|first=Alfred F|title=Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century|year=1962|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|isbn=0-226-31971-7|page=344}}</ref>

The Allies experienced mixed fortunes in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, [[Operation U-Go|an operation against British positions in Assam, India]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lightbody|first=Bradley|title=The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-22404-7|page=224}}</ref> and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at [[Battle of Imphal|Imphal]] and [[Battle of Kohima|Kohima]].<ref name="Zeiler">{{Cite book|last=Zeiler|first=Thomas W|title=Unconditional Defeat: Japan, America, and the End of World War II|publisher=Scholarly Resources|year=2004|isbn=0-8420-2991-5|page=60}}</ref> In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma,<ref name="Zeiler"/> and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in [[Myitkyina]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Craven|first1=Wesley Frank|last2=Cate|first2=James Lea|title=The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume Five—The Pacific, Matterhorn to Nagasaki|page=207|publisher=Chicago University Press|year=1953}}<!--NOTE: NO ISBN--></ref> The [[Operation Ichi-Go|second Japanese invasion]] attempted to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hsiung|first1=James Chieh|last2=Levine|first2=Steven I|title=China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945|page=163|year=1992|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=1-56324-246-X}}</ref> By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of [[Henan]] and begun a [[Battle of Changsha (1944)|renewed attack against Changsha]] in the [[Hunan]] province.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Coble|first=Parks M|title=Chinese Capitalists in Japan's New Order: The Occupied Lower Yangzi, 1937–1945|page=85|publisher=University of California Press|year=2003|isbn=0-520-23268-2}}</ref>

===Allies close in (1944)===
[[File:Approaching Omaha.jpg|thumb|Allied [[Invasion of Normandy]], 6 June 1944]]
[[File:RIAN archive 633180 Stream crossing.jpg|thumb|Red Army personnel and equipment crossing a river during the northern Summer of 1944]]

On 6 June 1944 (known as [[Normandy landings|D-Day]]), after three years of Soviet pressure,<ref name=rees406>Rees, Laurence (2009). ''World War Two Behind Closed Doors'', BBC Books, pp. 406–7 ISBN 1448140455. "Stalin always believed that Britain and America were delaying the second front so that the Soviet Union would bear the brunt of the war"</ref> the Western Allies [[Invasion of Normandy|invaded northern France]]. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked [[Operation Dragoon|southern France]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|1995|p=695}}</ref> These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the [[Falaise pocket|German Army units]] in France. Paris was [[Liberation of Paris|liberated]] by the [[French Resistance|local resistance]] assisted by the [[Free French Forces]] on 25 August<ref>{{Cite book|last=Badsey|first=Stephen|title=Normandy 1944: Allied Landings and Breakout|page=91|year=1990|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=0-85045-921-4}}</ref> and the Western Allies continued to [[Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine|push back German forces]] in Western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by [[Operation Market Garden|a major airborne operation]] in the Netherlands ended with a failure.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Oxford Companion to World War II|editor1-first=I. C. B.|editor1-last=Dear|editor2-first=M. R. D|editor2-last=Foot|chapter=Market-Garden|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2002|isbn=0-19-860446-7|page=877}}</ref> After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, unsuccessfully [[Operation Queen|trying to cross the Rur river]] in a large offensive. In Italy the Allied advance also slowed down, when they ran into the [[Gothic Line|last major German defensive line]].

On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus (known as "[[Operation Bagration]]") that resulted in the almost complete destruction of the German [[Army Group Centre]].<ref>The operation "was the most calamitous defeat of all the German armed forces in World War II" ({{Cite book|last=Zaloga|first=Steven J|title=Bagration 1944: The destruction of Army Group Centre|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=1996|isbn=1-85532-478-4|page=7}})</ref> Soon after that, [[Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive|another Soviet strategic offensive]] forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The successful advance of Soviet troops prompted [[Armia Krajowa|resistance forces in Poland]] to [[Operation Tempest|initiate several uprisings]], though the largest of these, in [[Warsaw Uprising|Warsaw]], as well as a [[Slovak National Uprising|Slovak Uprising]] in the south, were not assisted by the Soviets and were put down by German forces.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Berend|first=Ivan T.|title=Central and Eastern Europe, 1944–1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery|isbn=0-521-55066-1|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1999|page=8}}</ref> The Red Army's [[Jassy–Kishinev Offensive|strategic offensive in eastern Romania]] cut off and destroyed the [[Army Group South Ukraine|considerable German troops there]] and triggered [[King Michael's Coup|a successful coup d'état in Romania]] and [[Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944|in Bulgaria]], followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.<ref name="countrystudies.us">{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/romania/23.htm|title=Armistice Negotiations and Soviet Occupation|publisher=US Library of Congress|accessdate=14 November 2009|quote=The coup speeded the Red Army's advance, and the Soviet Union later awarded Michael the Order of Victory for his personal courage in overthrowing Antonescu and putting an end to Romania's war against the Allies. Western historians uniformly point out that the Communists played only a supporting role in the coup; postwar Romanian historians, however, ascribe to the Communists the decisive role in Antonescu's overthrow}}</ref>
[[File:Warsaw Uprising by Deczkowki - Kolegium A -15861.jpg|thumb|left|Polish insurgents during the [[Warsaw Uprising]], in which around 200,000 civilians perished.]]

In September 1944, Soviet [[Red Army]] troops advanced into [[Democratic Federal Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] and forced the rapid withdrawal of the German Army Groups [[Army Group E|E]] and [[Army Group F|F]] in [[Axis occupation of Greece during World War II|Greece]], [[Albania under Nazi Germany|Albania]] and [[Yugoslav Front|Yugoslavia]] to rescue them from being cut off.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hastings|first1=Max|last2=Paul Henry|first2=Collier|title=The Second World War: a world in flames|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2004|isbn=1-84176-830-8|pages=223–4}}</ref> By this point, the Communist-led [[Yugoslav Partisans|Partisans]] under Marshal [[Josip Broz Tito]], who had led an [[Yugoslav Front|increasingly successful guerrilla campaign]] against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and were engaged in delaying efforts against the German forces further south. In northern [[Serbia (1941–1944)|Serbia]], the [[Red Army]], with limited support from [[Yugoslav Front#Allied offensive in the Balkans|Bulgarian forces]], assisted the Partisans in a joint [[Belgrade Offensive|liberation of the capital city of Belgrade]] on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a [[Budapest Offensive|massive assault]] against [[Operation Panzerfaust|German-occupied]] Hungary that lasted until [[Battle of Budapest|the fall of Budapest]] in February 1945.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Wiest|first1=Andrew A|last2=Barbier|first2=M. K|title=Strategy and Tactics Infantry Warfare|publisher=Zenith Imprint|year=2002|isbn=0-7603-1401-2|pages=65–6}}</ref> In contrast with impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, the [[Continuation War|bitter Finnish resistance]] to the [[Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive|Soviet offensive]] in the [[Karelian Isthmus]] denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to the signing of [[Moscow Armistice|Soviet-Finnish armistice]] on relatively mild conditions,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wiktor|first=Christian L|title=Multilateral Treaty Calendar – 1648–1995|publisher=Kluwer Law International|year=1998|isbn=90-411-0584-0|page=426}}</ref><ref name=newton>{{Cite book|first=Steven H|last=Newton|title=Retreat from Leningrad : Army Group North, 1944/1945|publisher=Schiffer Books|location=Atglen, Philadelphia|year=1995|isbn=0-88740-806-0}}</ref> with a subsequent [[Lapland War|shift to the Allied side]] by Finland.

By the start of July, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the [[Chindwin River]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Marston|first=Daniel|title=The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2005|isbn=1-84176-882-0|page=120}}</ref> while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanese were having greater successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of [[Defense of Hengyang|Hengyang]] by early August.<ref>{{Harvnb|Jowett|Andrew|2002|p=8}}</ref> Soon after, they further invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at [[Battle of Guilin-Liuzhou|Guilin and Liuzhou]] by the end of November<ref>{{Cite book|last=Howard|first=Joshua H|title=Workers at War: Labor in China's Arsenals, 1937–1953|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2004|isbn=0-8047-4896-9|page=140}}</ref> and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by the middle of December.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Drea|first=Edward J|title=In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2003|isbn=0-8032-6638-3|page=54}}</ref>

In the Pacific, American forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944 they began their [[Mariana and Palau Islands campaign|offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands]], and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the [[Battle of the Philippine Sea]]. These defeats led to the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister [[Hideki Tōjō|Tōjō]] and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces [[Battle of Leyte|invaded the Filipino island of Leyte]]; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory during the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]], one of the largest naval battles in history.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Cook|first1=Chris|last2=Bewes|first2=Diccon|title=What Happened Where: A Guide to Places and Events in Twentieth-Century History|page=305|year=1997|publisher=UCL Press|isbn=1-85728-532-8}}</ref>

===Axis collapse, Allied victory (1945)===
[[File:AmericanAndSovietAtElbe.jpg|right|thumb|American and [[USSR|Soviet]] troops [[Elbe Day|meet in April 1945]], east of the [[Elbe River]].]]
On 16 December 1944, Germany attempted its last desperate measure for success on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch [[Battle of the Bulge|a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes]] to attempt to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at [[Antwerp]] in order to prompt a political settlement.<ref name="parkerxiii">{{Cite book|last=Parker|first=Danny S|title=Battle of the Bulge: Hitler's Ardennes Offensive, 1944–1945|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=2004|isbn=0-306-81391-2|pages=xiii–xiv, 6–8, 68–70 & 329–330}}</ref> By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled.<ref name="parkerxiii"/> In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets attacked in Poland, [[Vistula-Oder Offensive|pushing from the Vistula to the Oder]] river in Germany, and [[East Prussian Offensive|overran East Prussia]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Glantz|2001|p=85}}</ref> On 4 February, U.S., British, and Soviet leaders met for the [[Yalta Conference]]. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Solsten|first=Eric|title=Germany: A Country Study|publisher=DIANE Publishing|year=1999|isbn=0-7881-8179-3|pages=76–7}}</ref> and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.<ref>{{Cite book|year=1967|author=United States Dept. of State|title=The China White Paper, August 1949|page=113|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=0-8047-0608-5}}</ref>

In February, the Soviets [[Silesian Offensives|invaded Silesia]] and [[East Pomeranian Offensive|Pomerania]], while [[Western Allied invasion of Germany|Western Allies entered Western Germany]] and closed to the [[Rhine]] river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine [[Operation Plunder|north]] and [[Remagen|south]] of the [[Rhine-Ruhr|Ruhr]], [[Ruhr Pocket|encircling the German Army Group B]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Buchanan|first=Tom|title=Europe's troubled peace, 1945–2000|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2006|isbn=0-631-22163-8|page=21}}</ref> while the Soviets advanced to [[Vienna]]. In early April, the Western Allies finally [[Spring 1945 offensive in Italy|pushed forward in Italy]] and swept across Western Germany, while Soviet forces stormed Berlin in late April; [[Elbe Day|the two forces linked up on Elbe river]] on 25 April. On 30 April 1945, the [[Reichstag building|Reichstag]] was captured, signalling the military defeat of the Third Reich.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Donald E|last=Shepardson|title=The Fall of Berlin and the Rise of a Myth|journal=The Journal of Military History|volume=62|issue=1|year=1998|pages=135–154|doi=10.2307/120398|jstor=120398}}</ref>
[[File:Destruction in a Berlin street.jpg|left|upright|thumb|A devastated Berlin street in the city centre post [[Battle of Berlin]], taken 3 July 1945.]]

Several changes in leadership occurred during this period. On 12 April, U.S. President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by [[Harry Truman]]. Benito Mussolini was killed by [[Italian resistance movement|Italian partisans]] on 28 April.<ref>{{Cite book|last=O'Reilly|first=Charles T|title=Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2001|isbn=0-7391-0195-1|page=244}}</ref> Two days later, [[Death of Adolf Hitler|Hitler committed suicide]], and was succeeded by [[Grand Admiral]] [[Karl Dönitz]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Kershaw|2001|p=823}}</ref>

German forces surrendered in Italy on 29 April. The [[German instrument of surrender]] was signed [[Victory in Europe Day|on 7 May]] in [[Reims]],<ref name="BritWarxiv">{{Cite book|last=Donnelly|first=Mark|title=Britain in the Second World War|publisher=Routledge|year=1999|isbn=0-415-17425-2|page=xiv}}</ref> and ratified [[Victory Day (Eastern Front)|on 8 May]] in Berlin.<ref>Pinkus, Oscar . The war aims and strategies of Adolf Hitler, McFarland, 2005, ISBN 0-7864-2054-5, ISBN 978-0-7864-2054-4, p. 501-3</ref> German Army Group Centre [[Prague Offensive|resisted in Prague]] until 11 May.<ref name="Glantz">{{Cite book|last=Glantz|first=David M.|title=When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler|publisher=[[University Press of Kansas]]|location=Lawrence, Kansas|year=1995|isbn=0-7006-0899-0|page=34}}</ref>

In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the [[Philippine Commonwealth]] advanced in the [[Philippines campaign (1944–45)|Philippines]], [[Battle of Leyte|clearing Leyte]] by the end of April 1945. They [[Battle of Luzon|landed on Luzon]] in January 1945 and [[Battle of Manila (1945)|captured Manila]] in March following a battle which reduced the city to ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, [[Battle of Mindanao|Mindanao]] and other islands of the Philippines until the [[End of World War II in Asia|end of the war]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chant|first=Christopher|year=1986|title=The Encyclopedia of Codenames of World War II|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|page=118|isbn=0-7102-0718-2}}</ref>

[[File:Nagasakibomb.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|Atomic explosion]] at [[Nagasaki]], 9 August 1945.]]
In May 1945, Australian troops [[Borneo campaign (1945)|landed in Borneo]], overrunning the oilfields there. British, American and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach [[Rangoon]] by 3 May.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Drea|first=Edward J|title=In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2003|isbn=0-8032-6638-3|page=57}}</ref> Chinese forces started to counterattack in [[Battle of West Hunan]] that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American forces also moved towards Japan, taking [[Battle of Iwo Jima|Iwo Jima]] by March, and [[Battle of Okinawa|Okinawa]] by the end of June.<ref>{{Harvnb|Jowett|Andrew|2002|p=6}}</ref> American bombers [[Air raids on Japan|destroyed Japanese cities]], and American submarines [[Allied submarines in the Pacific War|cut off]] Japanese imports.<ref name="results of german and american submarines">{{cite web|last=Poirier|first=Michel Thomas|title=Results of the German and American Submarine Campaigns of World War II|url=http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/history/wwii-campaigns.html|publisher=U.S. Navy|date=20 October 1999|accessdate=13 April 2008}}</ref>

On 11 July, the Allied leaders [[Potsdam Conference|met in Potsdam, Germany]]. They [[Potsdam Agreement|confirmed earlier agreements]] about Germany,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Williams|first=Andrew J|title=Liberalism and War: The Victors and the Vanquished|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|isbn=0-415-35980-5|page=90}}</ref> and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces by Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Miscamble|first=Wilson D|title=From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2007|isbn=0-521-86244-2|page=201}}</ref> During this conference the [[United Kingdom general election, 1945|United Kingdom held its general election]], and [[Clement Attlee]] replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Miscamble|first=Wilson D|title=From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2007|isbn=0-521-86244-2|pages=203–4}}</ref>

As Japan continued to ignore the Potsdam terms, the United States [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|dropped atomic bombs]] on the Japanese cities of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]] in early August. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, [[Soviet invasion of Manchuria|invaded Japanese-held Manchuria]], and quickly defeated the [[Kwantung Army]], which was the largest Japanese fighting force.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Glantz|first=David M|title=August Storm: The Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria|work=Leavenworth Papers|publisher=Combined Arms Research Library|url=http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/glantz3/glantz3.asp|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080302130751/http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/glantz3/glantz3.asp|archivedate=2 March 2008|year=2005|oclc=78918907|accessdate=25 January 2010|ref=harv }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|first=Robert A|last=Pape|title=Why Japan Surrendered|journal=International Security|volume=18|issue=2|year=1993|pages=154–201|doi=10.2307/2539100|jstor=2539100}}</ref> The Red Army also captured [[Sakhalin]] Island and the [[Kuril Islands]]. On 15 August 1945 [[Surrender of Japan|Japan surrendered]], with the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|surrender documents]] finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship [[USS Missouri (BB-63)|USS ''Missouri'']] on 2 September 1945, ending the war.<ref name="BritWarxiv" />

==Aftermath==
{{Main|Aftermath of World War II}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-14059-0018, Berlin, Oberbefehlshaber der vier Verbündeten.jpg|thumb|The Supreme Commanders on 5 June 1945 in Berlin:
[[Bernard Montgomery]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], [[Georgy Zhukov]] and [[Jean de Lattre de Tassigny]]]]
The Allies established occupation administrations in [[Allied-administered Austria|Austria]] and [[Allied Occupation Zones in Germany|Germany]]. The former became a neutral state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided onto western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accordingly. A [[denazification]] program in Germany led to the [[Nuremberg Trials|prosecution of Nazi war criminals]] and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.<ref>Norbert Frei. Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration. Translated by Joel Golb. New York: Columbia University Press. 2002. ISBN 0231118821, pp. 41–66.</ref>

Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory, the eastern territories: [[Silesia]], [[Neumark]] and most of [[Pomerania]] were taken over by Poland; [[East Prussia]] was divided between Poland and the USSR, followed by the [[Expulsion of Germans after World War II|expulsion of the 9 million Germans]] from these provinces, as well as of 3 million Germans from the [[Sudetenland]] in Czechoslovakia, to Germany. By the 1950s, every fifth West German was a refugee from the east. The USSR also took over the Polish provinces east of the [[Curzon line]] (from which 2 million Poles were expelled),<ref name="stalinswars43">{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=Geoffrey|title=Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-300-11204-1|page=43}}</ref> Eastern Romania,<ref name="stalinswars55">{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=Geoffrey|title=Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-300-11204-1|page=55}}</ref><ref name="shirer794">{{Cite book|last=Shirer|first=William L.|title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1990|isbn=0-671-72868-7|page=794}}</ref> and part of eastern Finland<ref name="ckpipe">{{Cite book|last=Kennedy-Pipe|first=Caroline|title=Stalin's Cold War|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=1995|isbn=0-7190-4201-1}}</ref> and three [[Baltic countries|Baltic states]].<ref name="wettig20">{{Cite book|last=Wettig|first=Gerhard|title=Stalin and the Cold War in Europe|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2008|isbn=0-7425-5542-9|pages=20–21}}</ref><ref name="senn">{{Cite book|last=Senn|first=Alfred Erich|title=Lithuania 1940: revolution from above|publisher=Rodopi|year=2007|isbn=978-90-420-2225-6}}</ref>
[[File:Churchill waves to crowds.jpg|thumb|Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] gives the "Victory" sign to crowds in London on [[Victory in Europe Day]].]]
In an effort to maintain peace,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Yoder|first=Amos|title=The Evolution of the United Nations System|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1997|isbn=1-56032-546-1|page=39}}</ref> the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm|title=History of the UN|publisher=United Nations|accessdate=25 January 2010}}</ref> and adopted The [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 2|url=http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/|publisher=United Nations|accessdate=14 November 2009|quote=* Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty}}</ref> The great powers that were the victors of the war—the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain, and France—formed the permanent members of the UN's [[Security Council]].<ref name="The UN Security Council"/> The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758|between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China]] in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]]. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kantowicz|first=Edward R|title=Coming Apart, Coming Together|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=2000|isbn=0-8028-4456-1|page=6}}</ref>

Germany had been ''de facto'' divided, and two independent states, [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] and [[German Democratic Republic]]<ref name="wettig96">{{Cite book|last=Wettig|first=Gerhard|title=Stalin and the Cold War in Europe|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2008|isbn=0-7425-5542-9|pages=96–100}}</ref> were created within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, accordingly. The rest of Europe was also divided onto Western and Soviet [[spheres of influence]].<ref>{{Cite book|first=Marc|last=Trachtenberg|year=1999|title=A Constructed Peace: The Making of the European Settlement, 1945–1963|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-00273-8|page=33}}</ref> Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, [[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]], [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]],<ref name="granville">{{Cite book|last=Granville|first=Johanna|title=The First Domino: International Decision Making during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=2004|isbn=1-58544-298-4}}</ref> [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Grenville|first=John Ashley Soames|title=A History of the World from the 20th to the 21st century|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=0-415-28954-8|pages=370–71}}</ref> [[People's Republic of Romania|Romania]], [[People's Republic of Albania|Albania]],<ref name="cook17">{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=Bernard A|title=Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2001|isbn=0-8153-4057-5|page=17}}</ref> and [[East Germany]] became [[Satellite state|Soviet Satellite]] states. Communist [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] conducted a fully independent policy causing tension with the USSR.<ref>Geoffrey Swain. The Cominform: Tito's International? ''The Historical Journal'', Vol. 35, No. 3 (Sep., 1992), pp. 641–663</ref>

Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led [[NATO]] and the Soviet-led [[Warsaw Pact]];<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Leffler|first1=Melvyn P.|last2=Painter|first2=David S|year=1994|title=Origins of the Cold War: An International History|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-34109-4|page=318}}</ref> the long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the [[Cold War]], would be accompanied by unprecedented arms race and proxy wars.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bellamy|first=Christopher|title=The Oxford Companion to Military History|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-860696-6|editor=Holmes, Richard|location=Oxford|edition=Oxford Reference Online|chapter=Cold War}}</ref>

In Asia, the United States led the [[occupation of Japan]] and [[Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands|administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific]], while the Soviets annexed [[Sakhalin]] and the [[Kuril Islands]].<ref>Weinberg, Gerhard L. (2005). ''A World At Arms''. Cambridge University Press. p. 911</ref> [[Korea]], formerly [[Korea under Japanese rule|under Japanese rule]], was [[Division of Korea|divided and occupied by]] the US in the South and the Soviet Union in the North between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the [[Korean War]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Connor|first=Mary E.|title=The Koreas|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=1-59884-160-2|pages=43–45|url=http://books.google.com/?id=j2gYgXGENM0C|editor=Connor, Mary E.|location=Santa Barbara|chapter=History|series=Asia in Focus}}</ref>

In China, nationalist and communist forces [[Chinese Civil War|resumed the civil war]] in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to [[Taiwan]] in 1949.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lynch|first=Michael|title=The Chinese Civil War 1945–49|year=2010|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-84176-671-3|pages=12–13|location=Botley}}</ref> In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]] and the [[creation of Israel]] marked the escalation of the [[Arab-Israeli conflict]]. While European colonial powers attempted to retain some or all of their [[colonial empire]]s, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to [[Decolonization|decolonisation]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=J.M.|title=The Penguin History of Europe|year=1996|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=0-14-026561-9|page=589|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Darwin|first=John|title=After Tamerlane: The Rise & Fall of Global Empires 1400–2000|year=2007|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-101022-9|pages=441–443, 464–468|location=London}}</ref>

[[File:Colonization 1945.png|thumb|upright=1.4|World map of colonisation in 1945. With the end of the war, the [[wars of national liberation]] ensued, leading to the [[creation of Israel]], together with the [[decolonization of Asia|decolonisation of Asia]] and Africa.]]
The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The US emerged much richer than any other nation; it had a [[post-World War II baby boom|baby boom]] and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers and it dominated the world economy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Harrison|first=Mark|title=The Economics of World War II: Six great powers in international comparison|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-62046-5|editor=Harrison, Mark|location=Cambridge|chapter=The economics of World WarII: an overview|pages=34–35}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor=Dear, I.C.B and Foot, M.R.D.|title=The Oxford Companion to World War II|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2005|page=1006|chapter=World trade and world economy|isbn=978-0-19-280670-3}}</ref> The UK and US pursued a policy of [[Industrial plans for Germany|industrial disarmament in Western Germany]] in the years 1945–1948.<ref>Nicholas Balabkins, ''"Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945–1948"'', Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 207</ref> Due to international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years.<ref>Vladimir Petrov, Money and conquest; allied occupation currencies in World War II. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press (1967) p. 263</ref><ref>Nicholas Balabkins, ''"Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945–1948"'', Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 208, 209</ref>

Recovery began with the mid 1948 [[Deutsche Mark|currency reform in Western Germany]], and was sped up by the liberalization of European economic policy that the [[Marshall plan]] (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused.<ref>Dornbusch, Rüdiger; Nölling, Wilhelm; Layard, P. Richard G (1993). Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. pp. 190, 191, ISBN 0-262-04136-7.</ref><ref>Nicholas Balabkins, ''"Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945–1948"'', Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 212</ref> The post 1948 West German recovery has been called the [[German economic miracle]].<ref>Dornbusch, Rüdiger; Nölling, Wilhelm; Layard, P. Richard G (1993). Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. p29 -p30, 32, ISBN 0-262-04136-7.</ref> Also the Italian<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bull|first1=Martin J.|last2=Newell|first2=James|title=Italian Politics: Adjustment Under Duress|publisher=Polity|year=2005|isbn=0-7456-1299-7|page=20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bull|first1=Martin J.|last2=Newell|first2=James|title=Italian Politics: Adjustment Under Duress|publisher=Polity|year=2005|isbn=0-7456-1299-7|page=21}}</ref> and French economies rebounded.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harrop|first=Martin|title=Power and Policy in Liberal Democracies|page=23|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1992|isbn=0-521-34579-0}}</ref> By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin,<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Dornbusch|first1=Rüdiger|last2=Nölling|first2=Wilhelm|last3=Layard|first3=P. Richard G|title=Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today|page=117|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press|year=1993|isbn=0-262-04136-7}}</ref> and continued relative economic decline for decades.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Emadi-Coffin|first=Barbara|title=Rethinking International Organization: Deregulation and Global Governance|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-19540-3|year=2002|page=64}}</ref>

The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Alan|title=Russia And the World Economy: Problems of Integration|publisher=Routledge|year=1993|isbn=0-415-08924-7|page=32}}</ref> Japan experienced [[Japanese post-war economic miracle|incredibly rapid]] economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harrop|first=Martin|title=Power and Policy in Liberal Democracies|page=49|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1992|isbn=0-521-34579-0}}</ref> China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.<ref>{{cite book|last=Genzberger|first=Christine|title=China Business: The Portable Encyclopedia for Doing Business with China|year=1994|publisher=World Trade Press|isbn=0-9631864-3-4|url=http://books.google.com/?id=YSCunEaqnI8C&pg=PA4|location=Petaluma, California|page=4}}</ref>

==Impact==

===Casualties and war crimes===
{{Main|World War II casualties|War crimes during World War II}}
[[File:World War II Casualties2.svg|550px|World War II deaths|thumb]]

Estimates for the total casualties of the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about [[Battle casualties of World War II|20 million soldiers]] and 40 million civilians.<ref name="WWII: C&C">{{cite web|last=O'Brien|first=Prof. Joseph V|title=World War II: Combatants and Casualties (1937–1945)|url=http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob62.html|work=Obee's History Page|publisher=John Jay College of Criminal Justice|accessdate=20 April 2007}}{{dead link|date=March 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Matthew|last=White|title=Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm|url=http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second|work=Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century|publisher=Matthew White's Homepage|accessdate=20 April 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=World War II Fatalities|url=http://secondworldwar.co.uk/index.php/fatalities|publisher=secondworldwar.co.uk|accessdate=20 April 2007}}</ref>
Many civilians died because of [[Infectious disease|disease]], [[starvation]], [[List of massacres|massacres]], [[Strategic bombing during World War II|bombing]] and deliberate [[genocide]]. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war,<ref>"''[http://books.google.com/books?id=CDMVMqDvp4QC&pg=PA242 Rulers and victims: the Russians in the Soviet Union]''". Geoffrey A. Hosking (2006). [[Harvard University Press]]. p. 242. ISBN 0-674-02178-9</ref> including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths. The largest portion of military dead were ethnic [[Russians]] (5,756,000), followed by ethnic [[Ukrainians]] (1,377,400).<ref>{{cite journal|author=Michael Ellman and S. Maksudov|title=Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War: A Note|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|volume=46|issue=4|year=1994|pages=671–680|pmid=12288331|url=http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/ELM-War_Deaths.pdf}}</ref> One of every four Soviet citizens was killed or wounded in that war.<ref>"''[http://books.google.com/books?id=c9bMfZBI8-sC&pg=PA204 The World's Wasted Wealth 2: Save Our Wealth, Save Our Environment]''". J. W. Smith (1994). p. 204. ISBN 0-9624423-2-1</ref> Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Jeffrey Herf|title=The Nazi Extermination Camps and the Ally to the East. Could the Red Army and Air Force Have Stopped or Slowed the Final Solution?|journal=Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History|volume=4|issue=4|year=2003|pages=913–930|doi=10.1353/kri.2003.0059}}</ref>

Of the total deaths in World War II approximately 85 percent—mostly Soviet and Chinese—were on the Allied side and 15 percent on the Axis side. Many of these deaths were caused by war crimes [[War crimes of the Wehrmacht|committed by German]] and [[Japanese war crimes|Japanese forces]] in occupied territories. An estimated 11<ref>{{cite web|author=Florida Center for Instructional Technology|url=http://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/victims.htm|title=Victims|work=A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust|publisher=[[University of South Florida]]|year=2005|accessdate=2 February 2008}}</ref> to 17<ref name=Niewyk45>Niewyk, Donald L. and Nicosia, Francis R. [http://books.google.com/books?id=lpDTIUklB2MC ''The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust''], [[Columbia University Press]], 2000, pp. 45–52.</ref> million civilians died as a direct or indirect result of Nazi ideological policies, including the systematic genocide of around six million Jews during [[The Holocaust]] along with a further five million [[Romani people|Roma]], [[History of gay men in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust|homosexuals]] as well as [[Slav]]s and other ethnic and minority groups.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Todd|first=Allan|title=The Modern World|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=0-19-913425-1|page=121}}</ref>

Roughly 7.5 million civilians died in China under Japanese occupation.<ref>{{Cite book|first=J.M.|last=Winter|title=Oxford Companion to World War II|editor1-first=I.C.B.|editor1-last=Dear|editor2-first=M.R.D.|editor2-last=Foot|chapter=Demography of the War|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2002|isbn=0-19-860446-7|page=290}}</ref> Hundreds of thousands (varying estimates) of ethnic [[Serbs]], along with gypsies and Jews, were murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian [[Ustaše]] in [[Yugoslavia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Jasenovac.html|title=Jasenovac|work=jewishvirtuallibrary.org|publisher=American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise|accessdate=25 January 2010}}</ref> with [[Bleiburg tragedy|retribution-related killings of Croatian civilians]] just after the war ended.

[[File:Chinese civilians to be buried alive.jpg|thumb|Chinese civilians to be buried alive by Japanese soldiers.]]
The best-known Japanese atrocity was the [[Nanking Massacre]], in which several hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chang|first=Iris|title=The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II|page=102|publisher=BasicBooks|year=1997|isbn=0-465-06835-9}}</ref> Between 3 million to more than 10 million civilians, mostly Chinese, were killed by the Japanese occupation forces.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP3.HTM|title=Statistics|last=Rummell|first=R. J|work=Freedom, Democide, War|publisher=The University of Hawaii System|accessdate=25 January 2010}}</ref> Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported 2.7 million casualties occurred during the ''[[Three Alls Policy|Sankō Sakusen]]''. General [[Yasuji Okamura]] implemented the policy in Heipei and [[Shantung]].<ref>Himeta, Mitsuyoshi (姫田光義) (日本軍による『三光政策・三光作戦をめぐって』) (''Concerning the Three Alls Strategy/Three Alls Policy By the Japanese Forces''), Iwanami Bukkuretto, 1996, Bix, ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', 2000</ref>

The Axis forces employed limited [[Biological warfare|biological]] and [[Chemical warfare|chemical weapons]]. The Italians used [[mustard gas]] during their [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War|conquest of Abyssinia]],<ref>{{Cite book|year=2004|title=Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History|publisher=ABC-CLIO|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|last2=Roberts|first2=Priscilla Mary Roberts|page=319|isbn=1-57607-999-6}}</ref> while the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] used a variety of such weapons during their [[Second Sino-Japanese war|invasion and occupation of China]] (''see [[Unit 731]]'')<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Hal|title=Unit 731 testimony|publisher=Tuttle|year=1996|pages=75–7|isbn=0-8048-3565-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|year=2004|title=Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History|publisher=ABC-CLIO|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|last2=Roberts|first2=Priscilla Mary Roberts|page=320|isbn=1-57607-999-6}}</ref> and in [[Battle of Khalkhin Gol|early conflicts against the Soviets]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harris|title=Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–1945, and the American Cover-up|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=0-415-93214-9|page=74}}</ref> Both the Germans and [[Japanese human experimentation on the Chinese|Japanese tested]] such weapons against civilians<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Sabella|first1=Robert|last2=Li|first2=Fei Fei|last3=Liu|first3=David|title=Nanking 1937: Memory and Healing|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|year=2002|isbn=0-7656-0816-2|page=69}}</ref> and, in some cases, on [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Japan tested chemical weapons on Aussie POW: new evidence|publisher=[[The Japan Times Online]]|date=27 July 2004|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/nn20040727a9.html|accessdate=25 January 2010}}</ref>

While many of the Axis's acts [[List of Axis war crime trials|were brought to trial]] in the world's first international tribunals,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aksar|first=Yusuf|title=Implementing International Humanitarian Law: From the Ad Hoc Tribunals to a Permanent International Criminal Court|page=45|year=2004|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=0-7146-8470-8}}</ref> [[Allied war crimes during World War II|incidents caused by the Allies]] were not. Examples of such Allied actions include [[population transfers in the Soviet Union]] and [[Japanese American internment]] in the United States; the [[Operation Keelhaul]],<ref>{{cite web|first=Jacob|last=Hornberger|title=Repatriation—The Dark Side of World War II|publisher=The Future of Freedom Foundation|date=April 1995|url=http://www.fff.org/freedom/0495a.asp|accessdate=25 January 2010}}</ref> [[expulsion of Germans after World War II]], [[rape during the occupation of Germany]]; the Soviet Union's [[Katyn massacre]], for which Germans faced counter-accusations of responsibility. Large numbers of famine deaths can also be partially attributed to the war, such as the [[Bengal famine of 1943]] and the [[Vietnamese Famine of 1945|Vietnamese famine of 1944–45]].<ref>{{cite web|first=David|last=Koh|url=http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/hepr-vn/2008-August/000188.html|date=21 August 2008|title=Vietnam needs to remember famine of 1945|publisher=The Straits Times (Singapore)|accessdate=25 January 2010}}</ref>

It has been suggested by some historians, e.g. [[Jörg Friedrich (author)|Jörg Friedrich]], that the [[Strategic bombing during World War II|mass-bombing]] of civilian areas in enemy territory, including [[Bombing of Tokyo|Tokyo]] and most notably the German cities of [[bombing of Dresden|Dresden]], [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|Hamburg]] and [[Bombing of Cologne in World War II|Cologne]] by Western Allies, which resulted in the destruction of more than 160 cities and the deaths of more than 600,000 German civilians be considered as war crimes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/oct/22/worlddispatch.germany|title=Germany's forgotten victims|work=The Guardian|location=UK|publisher=[[Guardian News and Media]]|date=22 October 2003|last=Harding|first=Luke|accessdate=21 January 2010}}</ref>

===Concentration camps and slave work===
{{Further|The Holocaust|Consequences of Nazism|Japanese war crimes|Allied war crimes during World War II}}
The Nazis were responsible for The Holocaust, the killing of approximately six million Jews (overwhelmingly [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazim]]), as well as two million [[Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles|ethnic Poles]] and four million others who were deemed "[[life unworthy of life|unworthy of life]]" (including the [[Disability|disabled]] and [[Mental disorder|mentally ill]], [[Nazi crimes against Soviet POWs|Soviet prisoners of war]], homosexuals, [[Freemasons]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], and [[Romani people|Romani]]) as part of a programme of deliberate extermination. About 12 million, most of whom were [[OST-Arbeiter|Eastern Europeans]], were employed in the German war economy as [[forced labor in Germany during World War II|forced labourers]].<ref name="compensation">{{cite web|url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1757323,00.html|title=Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Laborers|date=27 October 2005|accessdate=19 January 2010|first=Michael|last=Marek|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5mtTTntBR|archivedate=19 January 2010|work=dw-world.de|publisher=Deutsche Welle}}</ref>

[[File:Some of the bodies being removed by German civilians for decent burial at Gusen Concentration Camp, Muhlhausen, near Linz, Austria.jpg|thumb|upright|Dead bodies in the [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp]] after liberation, possibly [[political prisoner]]s or Soviet [[POW]]s]]
In addition to Nazi [[concentration camp]]s, the Soviet [[gulag]]s ([[labor camp|labour camps]]) led to the death of citizens of occupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as German [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] (POWs) and even Soviet citizens who had been or were thought to be supporters of the Nazis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/Gulag-Understanding-the-Magnitude-of-What-Happened|title=Gulag: Understanding the Magnitude of What Happened|first=Anne|last=Applebaum|date=16 October 2003|accessdate=19 January 2010|work=Heritage Foundation}}</ref> Sixty percent of [[Nazi crimes against Soviet POWs|Soviet POWs of the Germans]] died during the war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/soviet-prisoners-of-war-forgotten-nazi-victims-of-world-war-ii.htm|title=Soviet Prisoners of War: Forgotten Nazi Victims of World War II|first=Jonathan|last=North|date=January 2006|accessdate=19 January 2010|work=HistoryNet.com|publisher=Weider History Group|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5mtUpwcaB|archivedate=19 January 2010}}</ref> [[Richard Overy]] gives the number of 5.7 million Soviet POWs. Of those, 57 percent died or were killed, a total of 3.6&nbsp;million.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Richard|last=Overy|title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia|pages=568–69|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|year=2004|isbn=0-393-02030-4}}</ref>
Soviet ex-POWs and repatriated civilians were treated with great suspicion as potential Nazi collaborators, and some of them were sent to the Gulag upon being checked by the NKVD.<ref>Zemskov V.N. On repatriation of Soviet citizens. Istoriya SSSR., 1990, No.4, (in Russian). See also [http://scepsis.ru/library/id_1234.html] (online version), and {{cite journal|author=Edwin Bacon|title=Glasnost' and the Gulag: New Information on Soviet Forced Labour around World War II|journal=Soviet Studies|volume=44|issue=6|year=1992|pages=1069–1086|jstor=152330}}; {{cite journal|author=Michael Ellman|title=Soviet Repression Statistics: Some Comments|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|volume=54|issue=7|year=2002|pages=1151–1172|url=http://artukraine.com/old/famineart/SovietCrimes.pdf|doi=10.1080/0966813022000017177}} [http://www.docstoc.com/docs/81203576/Soviet-Repression-Statistics-Some-Comments copy]</ref>

Japanese [[prisoner-of-war camp]]s, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The [[International Military Tribunal for the Far East]] found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bataan/peopleevents/e_atrocities.html|title=Japanese Atrocities in the Philippines|accessdate=18 January 2010|archivedate=19 January 2010|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5mtVNGYHW|work=American Experience: the Bataan Rescue|publisher=PBS Online}}</ref> seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Yuki|last=Tanaka|title=Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II|year=1996|pages=2–3|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=0-8133-2718-0}}</ref> While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from United States were released after the [[surrender of Japan]], the number for the Chinese was only 56.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Herbert|last=Bix|title=Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2001|isbn=0-06-093130-2|page=360}}</ref>

According to historian Zhifen Ju, at least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the [[East Asia Development Board]], or ''Kōain'', for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million.<ref name="zhifen2002">{{cite web|last=Ju|url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/sino-japanese/session6.htm|first=Zhifen|title=Japan's atrocities of conscripting and abusing north China draughtees after the outbreak of the Pacific war|work=Joint Study of the Sino-Japanese War:Minutes of the June 2002 Conference|publisher=Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences|date=June 2002|accessdate=18 February 2010}}</ref> The U.S. Library of Congress estimates that in [[Java]], between 4 and 10 million ''[[romusha]]'' (Japanese: "manual laborers"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese laborers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.<ref name="indonesiaww2">{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+id0029)|title=Indonesia: World War II and the Struggle For Independence, 1942–50; The Japanese Occupation, 1942–45|accessdate=9 February 2007|publisher=Library of Congress|year=1992}}</ref>

On 19 February 1942, Roosevelt signed [[Executive Order 9066]], interning thousands of Japanese, [[Italian Americans|Italians]], [[German Americans]], and some emigrants from Hawaii who fled after the bombing of [[Pearl Harbor]] for the duration of the war. The U.S. and Canadian governments interned 150,000 Japanese-Americans,<ref>{{cite web|title=Manzanar National Historic Site|url=http://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|accessdate=21 February 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|publisher=Office of the Prime Minister|date=24 January 1947|work=Department of Labour|title=Report on the Re-establishment of Japanese in Canada, 1944–1946|page=23|isbn=0-405-11266-1|author=Department of Labour of Canada}}</ref> <!-- better references needed --> In addition, 14,000 German and Italian residents of the U.S. who had been assessed as being security risks were also interned.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kennedy|first=David M.|title=Freedom From Fear : The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York City|isbn=0-19-514403-1|pages=749–750}}</ref>

In accordance with the Allied agreement made at the [[Yalta Conference]] millions of POWs and civilians were used as [[Foreign forced labor in the Soviet Union|forced labor by the Soviet Union]].<ref>Eugene Davidson [http://books.google.com/books?id=kEAFk4lce4kC&pg=PA121 "The Death and Life of Germany: an Account of the American Occupation"], University of Missouri Press, 1999 ISBN 0826212492, p. 121</ref> In Hungary's case, [[Forced labor of Hungarians in the Soviet Union|Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union]] until 1955.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.epa.hu/00400/00463/00007/pdf/155_stark.pdf|title="Malenki Robot"&nbsp;– Hungarian Forced Labourers in the Soviet Union (1944–1955)|format=PDF|first=Tamás|last=Stark|work=Minorities Research|accessdate=22 January 2010}}</ref>

===Home fronts and production===
{{Main|Military production during World War II|Home front during World War II}}
[[File:WorldWarII-GDP-Relations-Allies-Axis-simple.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Allied to Axis GDP ratio]]

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 British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, it then gives the Allies more than a 5:1 advantage in population and nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP.<ref name="6Econ3">{{Cite book|last=Harrison|first=Mark|title=The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2000|isbn=0-521-78503-0|page=3}}</ref> In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan, but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.<ref name="6Econ3"/>

Though the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies, as the war largely settled into one of attrition.<ref name="6Econ2">{{Cite book|last=Harrison|first=Mark|title=The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2000|isbn=0-521-78503-0|page=2}}</ref> While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis is often attributed to the Allies having more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the [[labour force]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hughes|first=Matthew|last2=Mann|first2=Chris|title=Inside Hitler's Germany: Life Under the Third Reich|page=148|publisher=Potomac Books Inc|year=2000|isbn=1-57488-281-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bernstein|first=Gail Lee|title=Recreating Japanese Women, 1600–1945|page=267|publisher=University of California Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-520-07017-2}}</ref> Allied [[Strategic bombing during World War II|strategic bombing]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hughes|first=Matthew|last2=Mann|first2=Chris|title=Inside Hitler's Germany: Life Under the Third Reich|page=151|publisher=Potomac Books Inc|year=2000|isbn=1-57488-281-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Griffith|first=Charles|title=The Quest: Haywood Hansell and American Strategic Bombing in World War II|isbn=1-58566-069-8|publisher=DIANE Publishing|year=1999|page=203}}</ref> and Germany's late shift to a [[war economy]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Overy|first=R.J|title=War and Economy in the Third Reich|page=26|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|year=1995|isbn=0-19-820599-6}}</ref> contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and were not equipped to do so.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lindberg|first=Michael|last2=Daniel|first2=Todd|title=Brown-, Green- and Blue-Water Fleets: the Influence of Geography on Naval Warfare, 1861 to the Present|page=126|publisher=Praeger|year=2001|isbn=0-275-96486-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Cox|first=Sebastian|title=The Strategic Air War Against Germany, 1939–1945|page=84|publisher=Frank Cass Publishers|year=1998|isbn=0-7146-4722-5}}</ref> To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of [[slave labour]]ers;<ref>{{Cite book|last=Unidas|first=Naciones|title=World Economic And Social Survey 2004: International Migration|page=23|publisher=United Nations Pubns|year=2005|isbn=92-1-109147-0}}</ref> [[Forced labor in Germany during World War II|Germany used]] about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,<ref name="compensation"/> while [[Slavery in Japan|Japan pressed]] more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.<ref name="zhifen2002"/><ref name="indonesiaww2"/>

===Occupation===
{{Main|Collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II|Resistance during World War II|German-occupied Europe}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-031-2436-03A, Russland, Hinrichtung von Partisanen.jpg|right|thumb|[[Soviet partisans]] hanged by German forces in January 1943]]
In Europe, occupation came under two very different forms. In Western, Northern and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia|annexed portions of Czechoslovakia]]) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion [[German Reichsmark|reichmarks]] (27.8 billion US Dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include the [[Nazi plunder|sizable plunder]] of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Liberman|first=Peter|title=Does Conquest Pay?: The Exploitation of Occupied Industrial Societies|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1998|isbn=0-691-00242-8|page=42}}</ref> Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Milward|first=Alan S|title=War, Economy, and Society, 1939–1945|publisher=University of California Press|year=1979|isbn=0-520-03942-4|page=138}}</ref>

In the East, the much hoped for bounties of ''[[Lebensraum]]'' were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet [[scorched earth]] policies denied resources to the German invaders.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Milward|first=Alan S|title=War, Economy, and Society, 1939–1945|publisher=University of California Press|year=1979|isbn=0-520-03942-4|page=148}}</ref> Unlike in the West, the [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|Nazi racial policy]] encouraged excessive brutality against what it considered to be the "[[Untermensch|inferior people]]" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by [[Generalplan Ost|mass executions]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Perrie|first=Maureen|last2=Lieven|first2=D. C. B|last3=Suny|first3=Ronald Grigor|title=The Cambridge History of Russia|page=232|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2007|isbn=0-521-86194-2}}</ref> Although [[Resistance during World War II|resistance groups]] did form in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hill|first=Alexander|title=The War Behind The Eastern Front: The Soviet Partisan Movement In North-West Russia 1941–1944|page=5|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=0-7146-5711-5}}</ref> or the West<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Christofferson|first1=Thomas R|last2=Christofferson|first2=Michael S|title=France During World War II: From Defeat to Liberation|page=156|isbn=978-0-8232-2563-7|publisher=Fordham University Press|year=2006}}</ref> until late 1943.

In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the [[Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere]], essentially a Japanese [[hegemony]] which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ikeo|first=Aiko|title=Economic Development in Twentieth Century East Asia: The International Context|page=107|publisher=Routledge|year=1997|isbn=0-415-14900-2}}</ref> Although Japanese forces were originally welcomed as liberators from European domination in many territories, their excessive brutality turned local public opinions against them within weeks.<ref name="GSWW6_266" /> During Japan's initial conquest it captured {{convert|4000000|oilbbl}} of oil (~5.5×10<sup>5</sup> tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by 1943 was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to {{bbl to t|50|mlt=M}}, 76 percent of its 1940 output rate.<ref name="GSWW6_266">{{Cite book|first1=Horst|last1=Boog|first2=Werner|last2=Rahn|first3=Reinhard|last3=Stumpf|first4=Bernd|last4=Wegner|publisher=Oxford: Clarendon Press|title=Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt Germany and the Second World War—Volume VI: The Global War|page=266|year=2001|isbn=0-19-822888-0}}</ref>

===Advances in technology and warfare===
{{Main|Technology during World War II}}
[[File:Color Photographed B-17E in Flight.jpg|thumb|American [[B-17 Flying Fortress|Boeing B-17E]]. The Allies lost 160,000 airmen and 33,700 planes during the air war over Europe.<ref>Kenneth K. Hatfield (2003). "''[http://books.google.com/books?id=mtxMN5NdmCsC Heartland heroes: remembering World War II.]''". University of Missouri Press. p. 91. ISBN 0-8262-1460-6</ref>]]
Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as [[fighter aircraft|fighters]], [[bomber]]s and ground-support, and each role was advanced considerably. Innovation included [[airlift]] (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment and personnel);<ref name="EncWWII_76">{{Cite book|year=2004|title=Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History|publisher=ABC-CLIO|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|last2=Roberts|first2=Priscilla Mary Roberts|page=76|isbn=1-57607-999-6|location=Sanata Barbara, CA}}</ref> and of [[strategic bombing]] (the bombing of civilian areas to destroy industry and morale).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Levine|first=Alan J.|title=The Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1940–1945|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1992|page=217|isbn=0-275-94319-4}}</ref> [[Anti-aircraft warfare|Anti-aircraft weaponry]] also advanced, including defences such as [[radar]] and surface-to-air artillery, such as the German [[88 mm gun]]. The use of the [[jet aircraft]] was pioneered, and though late introduction meant it had little impact, it led to jets becoming standard in worldwide air forces.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sauvain|first=Philip|title=Key Themes of the Twentieth Century: Teacher's Guide|page=128|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2005|isbn=1-4051-3218-3}}</ref>

Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although at the start of the war [[Aeronautics|aeronautical]] warfare had relatively little success, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, the South China Sea and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship.<ref name="EncWWII_163">{{Cite book|year=2004|title=Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History|publisher=ABC-CLIO|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|last2=Roberts|first2=Priscilla Mary Roberts|page=163|isbn=1-57607-999-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bishop|first1=Chris|last2=Chant|first2=Chris|title=Aircraft Carriers: The World's Greatest Naval Vessels and Their Aircraft|page=7|publisher=Silverdale Books|year=2004|isbn=1-84509-079-9|location=Wigston, Leics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Chenoweth|first1=H. Avery|last2=Nihart|first2=Brooke|title=Semper Fi: The Definitive Illustrated History of the U.S. Marines|publisher=Main Street|year=2005|isbn=1-4027-3099-3|page=180|location=New York}}</ref>

[[File:U995 2004 1.jpg|thumb|left|German [[German Type VII submarine|U-995 Type VIIC]]. Between 1939 and 1945, 3,500 Allied merchant ships were sunk at a cost of 783 German U-boats.]]
In the Atlantic, [[escort carrier]]s proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the [[Mid-Atlantic gap]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sumner|first=Ian|last2=Baker|first2=Alix|title=The Royal Navy 1939–45|page=25|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2001|isbn=1-84176-195-8}}</ref> Carriers were also more economical than battleships due to the relatively low cost of aircraft<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hearn|first=Chester G.|title=Carriers in Combat: The Air War at Sea|page=14|publisher=Stackpole Books|year=2007|isbn=0-8117-3398-X}}</ref> and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Gardiner|first1=Robert|last2=Brown|first2=David K|title=The Eclipse of the Big Gun: The Warship 1906–1945|isbn=0-85177-953-0|page=52|publisher=Conway Maritime|location=London|year=2004}}</ref> Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rydill|first=Louis|title=Concepts in Submarine Design|page=15|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-55926-X|year=1995}}</ref> were anticipated by all sides to be important in the second. The British focused development on [[Anti-submarine warfare|anti-submarine]] [[anti-submarine weapon|weaponry]] and tactics, such as [[sonar]] and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the [[German Type VII submarine|Type VII submarine]] and [[Wolfpack (naval tactic)|wolfpack]] tactics.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rydill|first=Louis|title=Concepts in Submarine Design|page=16|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-55926-X|year=1995}}</ref> Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the [[Leigh light]], [[Hedgehog (weapon)|hedgehog]], [[Squid (weapon)|squid]], and [[Mark 24 FIDO Torpedo|homing torpedoes]] proved victorious.

Land warfare changed from the static front lines of World War&nbsp;I to increased mobility and [[combined arms]]. The [[tank]], which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon.<ref name="EncWWII_125">{{Cite book|year=2004|title=Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History|publisher=ABC-CLIO|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|last2=Roberts|first2=Priscilla Mary Roberts|page=125|isbn=1-57607-999-6}}</ref> In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War I,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dupuy|first=Trevor Nevitt|title=The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare|publisher=[[Jane's Information Group]]|isbn=0-7106-0123-9|year=1982|page=231}}</ref> and [[Tanks in World War II|advances continued throughout the war]] in increasing speed, armour and firepower.

[[File:RIAN archive 1274 Tanks going to the front.jpg|right|thumb|Soviet [[T-34]], the most-produced tank of the war. Over 57,000 were built by 1945.]]
At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications.<ref name="EncWWII_108">{{Cite book|year=2004|title=Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History|publisher=ABC-CLIO|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|last2=Roberts|first2=Priscilla Mary|page=108|isbn=1-57607-999-6}}</ref> This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France.<ref name="EncWWII_125"/> Many means of [[anti-tank warfare|destroying tanks]], including [[Indirect fire|indirect artillery]], [[anti-tank gun]]s (both towed and [[self-propelled gun|self-propelled]]), [[anti-tank mine|mines]], short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were utilised.<ref name="EncWWII_108" /> Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces,<ref name="EncWWII_734">{{Cite book|year=2004|title=Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History|publisher=ABC-CLIO|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|last2=Roberts|first2=Priscilla Mary Roberts|page=734|isbn=1-57607-999-6}}</ref> and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.<ref name="Comp_221">{{Cite book|last=Cowley|first=Robert|last2=Parker|first2=Geoffrey|title=The Reader's Companion to Military History|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2001|isbn=0-618-12742-9|page=221}}</ref>

The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German [[MG42]], and various [[submachine gun]]s which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings.<ref name="Comp_221" /> The [[assault rifle]], a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard postwar infantry weapon for most armed forces.<ref>{{cite web|title=Infantry Weapons Of World War 2|url=http://greyfalcon.us/Infantry%20Weapons%20Of%20World%20War%202.htm|publisher=Grey Falcon (Black Sun)|accessdate=14 November 2009|quote=These all-purpose guns were developed and used by the German army in the 2nd half of World War 2 as a result of studies which showed that the ordinary rifle's long range is much longer than needed, since the soldiers almost always fired at enemies closer than half of its effective range. The assault rifle is a balanced compromise between the rifle and the sub-machine gun, having sufficient range and accuracy to be used as a rifle, combined with the rapid-rate automatic firepower of the sub machine gun. Thanks to these combined advantages, assault rifles such as the American M-16 and the Russian AK-47 are the basic weapon of the modern soldier}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The AK-47: the worlds favourite killing machine|publisher=controlarms.org|first=Oliver|last=Sprague|first2=Hugh|last2=Griffiths|url=http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT30/011/2006/en/11079910-d422-11dd-8743-d305bea2b2c7/act300112006en.pdf|accessdate=14 November 2009|year=2006|format=PDF|page=1}}</ref>

Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security presented by using large [[codebook]]s for [[cryptography]] with the use of [[cipher]]ing machines, the most well known being the German [[Enigma machine]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ratcliff|first=Rebecca Ann|title=Delusions of Intelligence: Enigma, Ultra and the End of Secure Ciphers|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-521-85522-5|page=11}}</ref> [[SIGINT]] (''sig''nals ''int''elligence) was the countering process of decryption, with the notable examples being the Allied breaking of [[Japanese naval codes]]<ref name=Schoenherr>{{cite web|title=Code Breaking in World War II
|url=http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/espionage.html
|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080509054959/http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/espionage.html
|archivedate=2008-05-09
|first=Steven|last=Schoenherr|year=2007|publisher=History Department at the University of San Diego|accessdate=15 November 2009}}</ref> and British [[Ultra (cryptography)|Ultra]], which was derived from methodology given to Britain by the [[Polish Cipher Bureau]], which had been decoding Enigma for seven years before the war.<ref>{{cite news|author=Macintyre, Ben|title=Bravery of thousands of Poles was vital in securing victory|work=The Times|location=London|date=10 December 2010|page=27}}</ref> Another aspect of [[military intelligence]] was the use of [[deception]], which the Allies used to great effect, such as in operations [[Operation Mincemeat|Mincemeat]] and [[Operation Bodyguard|Bodyguard]].<ref name=Schoenherr/><ref>{{cite web|title=Deception for Defense of Information Systems: Analogies from Conventional Warfare|url=http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nps/mildec.htm
|first1=Neil C.|last1=Rowe|first2=Hy|last2=Rothstein|work=Departments of Computer Science and Defense Analysis U.S. Naval Postgraduate School|publisher=Air University|accessdate=15 November 2009}}</ref> Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers ([[Z3 (computer)|Z3]], [[Colossus computer|Colossus]], and [[ENIAC]]), [[V-1 flying bomb|guided missiles]] and [[V-2 rocket|modern rockets]], the [[Manhattan Project]]'s development of [[nuclear weapon]]s, [[operations research]] and the development of [[Mulberry harbour|artificial harbours]] and [[Operation Pluto|oil pipelines under the English Channel]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Konrad Zuse (1910–1995)|url=http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/zuse.html|publisher=Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale|accessdate=14 November 2009|quote=Konrad Zuse builds Z1, world's first programme-controlled computer. Despite mechanical engineering problems it had all the basic ingredients of modern machines, using the binary system and today's standard separation of storage and control. Zuse's 1936 patent application (Z23139/GMD Nr. 005/021) also suggests a von Neumann architecture (re-invented in 1945) with programme and data modifiable in storage}}</ref>

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

*[[List of World War II battles]]
*[[List of World War II military operations]]
*[[World War II in popular culture]]
*{{Wikipedia books link}}

''Documentaries''
* ''[[Apocalypse: The Second World War]]'' (2009), a six-part French documentary by Daniel Costelle and Isabelle Clarke about World War II
* ''[[Battlefield (TV series)]]'' documentary series initially issued in 1994–5 that explores many important World War II battles
*''[[BBC History of World War&nbsp;II]]'', a television series, initially issued from 1989 to 2005.
* ''[[The World at War]]'' (1974), a 26-part [[Thames Television]] series that covers most aspects of World War&nbsp;II from many points of view. It includes interviews with many key figures including [[Karl Dönitz]], [[Albert Speer]], and [[Anthony Eden]].

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|group=nb}}

==Citations==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{Cite book|last=Adamthwaite|first=Anthony P|title=The Making of the Second World War|isbn=0-415-90716-0|year=1992|publisher=Routledge|location=New York}}
* {{Cite book|first=J Kenneth|last=Brody|title=The Avoidable War: Pierre Laval and the Politics of Reality, 1935–1936|publisher=Transaction Publishers|location=New Brunswick, NJ|year=1999|page=4|isbn=0-7658-0622-3}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bullock|first=A.|title=Hitler: A Study in Tyranny|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|location=London|year=1962|isbn=0-14-013564-2|ref=harv}}
* {{Cite book|last=Busky|first=Donald F|title=Communism in History and Theory: Asia, Africa, and the Americas|isbn=0-275-97733-1|year=2002|publisher=Praeger Publishers|location=Westport, CT}}
* {{Cite book|last=Davies|first=Norman|title=No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939–1945|publisher=Penguin Group|location=New York|year=2008|isbn=0-14-311409-3|ref=harv}}
* {{cite web|last=Glantz|first=David M.|title=The Soviet-German War 1941–45 Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay|url=http://www.strom.clemson.edu/publications/sg-war41-45.pdf|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20110617094931/http://www.strom.clemson.edu/publications/sg-war41-45.pdf|archivedate=2011-06-17|year=2001|ref=harv}}
* {{Cite book|last=Graham|first=Helen|title=The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford and New York|year=2005|isbn=0-19-280377-8}}
* {{Cite book|last=Holland|first=J|title=Together We Stand, Turning the Tide in the West:North Africa, 1942–43|publisher=Harper Collins|location=London|year=2006|isbn=}}
* {{Cite book|last=Hsiung|first=James Chieh|title=China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|year=1992|isbn=1-56324-246-X|ref=harv}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Jowett|first1=Philip S.|last2=Andrew|first2=Stephen|title=The Japanese Army, 1931–45|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2002|isbn=1-84176-353-5|ref=harv}}
* {{Cite book|last=Kantowicz|first=Edward R|title=The rage of nations|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=1999|isbn=0-8028-4455-3}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Kershaw|first1=Ian|title=Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|year=2001|isbn=0-393-32252-1|ref=harv}}
* {{Cite book|last=Kitson|first=Alison|title=Germany 1858–1990: Hope, Terror, and Revival|isbn=978-0-19-913417-5|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford}}
* {{Cite book|last=Mandelbaum|first=Michael|title=The Fate of Nations: The Search for National Security in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1988|page=96|isbn=0-521-35790-X}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Millett|first2=Allan Reed|title=A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2001|isbn=0-674-00680-1|ref=harv}}
* {{Cite book|first1=Ramon|last1=Myers|first2=Mark|last2=Peattie|title=The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=1987|isbn=0-691-10222-8}}
* {{Cite book|last=Preston|first=Peter|title='Pacific Asia in the global system: an introduction'', Wiley-Blackwell|year=1998|isbn=0-631-20238-2|page=104|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford}}
* {{Cite book|last=Record|first=Jeffery|title=Appeasement Reconsidered: Investigating the Mythology of the 1930s|publisher=DIANE Publishing|year=2005|page=50|isbn=1-58487-216-0|url=http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB622.pdf|format=PDF|accessdate=15 November 2009}}
* {{Cite book|last=Shaw|first=Anthony|title=World War II Day by Day|publisher=MBI Publishing Company|year=2000|isbn=0-7603-0939-6}}
* {{Cite book|title=All Riot on the Western Front, Volume 3
|first1=Winston|last1=Smith|first2=Ralph|last2=Steadman|publisher=Last Gasp|year=2004|isbn=0-86719-616-5 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Weinberg|first=Gerhard L.|title=A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1995|isbn=0-521-55879-4|ref=harv}}
* {{Cite book|last=Weinberg|first=Gerhard L.|title=A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2005|isbn=0-521-85316-8|ref=harv|edition=Second}}
* {{Cite book|title=Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich in American magazines, 1923–1939|first=Michael|last=Zalampas|year=1989|publisher=Bowling Green University Popular Press|isbn=0-87972-462-5}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|World War II}}
* [http://www.westpoint.edu/history/SitePages/WWII%20European%20Theater.aspx West Point Maps of the European War]
* [http://www.westpoint.edu/history/SitePages/WWII%20Asian%20Pacific%20Theater.aspx West Point Maps of the Asian-Pacific War]
* [http://www.otr.net/?p=news Radio News From 1938 to 1945]
* [http://www.psywar.org/leaflets.php World War II Propaganda Leaflet Archive]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/theartofwar/ The Art of War Online Exhibition at the UK National Archive]
* [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,8150,00.html Deutsche Welle special section on World War II] created by a German public broadcaster on both the war and the world 60 years after.
*''[[:wikisource:Atlas of the World Battle Fronts in Semimonthly Phases to August 15, 1945|Atlas of the World Battle Fronts]]''

{{World War II}}
{{WWII history by nation}}

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Revision as of 00:11, 18 October 2012

WORLD WAR II WAS WHEN BOBBY WASABI GOT ANGRY AND VERSED THE WORLD IN A MAJOR WAR

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