World+War+Two

Although [|Japan] was already [|at war] with [|China] in 1937, [|[2]] the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the [|invasion] of [|Poland] by [|Germany], and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by [|France] and most of the countries of the [|British Empire] and [|Commonwealth]. Germany set out to establish a large empire in [|Europe]. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and [|treaties], Germany conquered or subdued much of continental Europe; amid [|Nazi-Soviet agreements] , the nominally neutral Soviet Union fully or partially invaded, occupied and annexed territories of its six European neighbours, [|including Poland]. Britain and the Commonwealth remained the only major force continuing the fight against the Axis, with battles taking place in [|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 [|largest land theatre of war in history], which tied down the major part of the Axis' military forces. In December 1941, [|Japan], which aimed to dominate [|Asia] and join the Axis, [|attacked the United States] and [|European possessions] in the [|Pacific Ocean] , quickly conquering 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 [|North Africa] and, decisively, at [|Stalingrad]. In 1943, with a series of [|German defeats] in [|Eastern Europe], the [|Allied invasion] of [|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 [|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 [|capture of Berlin] by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent [|German unconditional surrender] on [|8 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] ("Home Islands") became imminent. The war in Asia ended on 15 August 1945 when Japan agreed to surrender. The total victory of the Allies over the Axis in 1945 ended the conflict. World War 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, Britain, and France—became the permanent members of the UN's [|Security Council]. [|[3]] 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 [|Africa] began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards [|economic recovery]. Political integration, especially [|in Europe], emerged as an effort to stabilise postwar relations.
 * World War 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 [|a vast majority of the world's nations] —including all of the [|great powers] —eventually forming two opposing [|military] alliances: the [|Allies] and the [|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 [|Holocaust] and the [|only use of nuclear weapons in warfare], it resulted in [|50 million to over 70 million fatalities] . These deaths make the war the [|deadliest conflict] in [|human history] . [|[1]]

Japanese invasion of China
Main article: [|Second Sino-Japanese War] A Chinese machine gun nest in the [|Battle of Shanghai], 1937. In July 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. [|[29]] The Soviets quickly signed a [|non-aggression pact with China] to lend [|materiel] support, effectively ending China's prior [|cooperation with Germany]. [|Generalissimo] [|Chiang Kai-shek] deployed his [|best army] to [|defend Shanghai], but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, [|capturing the capital Nanking] in December 1937 and committed the [|Nanking Massacre]. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by [|flooding the Yellow River] ; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defenses at [|Wuhan], but the [|city was taken] by October. [|[30]] 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. [|[31]]

Japanese invasion of the Soviet Union and Mongolia
See also: [|Nanshin-ron] and [|Soviet–Japanese border conflicts] Soviet troops fought the Japanese during the [|Battle of Khalkhin Gol] in Mongolia, 1939. On 29 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 May 1939 decided to move the Japanese-Mongolian border up to the [|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]. [|[32]][|[33]] 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 [|defence of Moscow]. [|[34]]

European occupations and agreements
Further information: [|Anschluss], [|Appeasement] , [|Munich Agreement] , [|German occupation of Czechoslovakia] , and [|Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact] From left to right (front): [|Chamberlain], [|Daladier] , Hitler, [|Mussolini] , and [|Ciano] pictured before signing the Munich Agreement. In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Germany [|annexed Austria], again provoking [|little response] from other European powers. [|[35]] 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. [|[36]] Soon after that, however, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to [|cede additional territory] to Hungary and Poland. [|[37]] In March 1939, [|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]. [|[38]] Alarmed, and with Hitler making further demands on [|Danzig], France and Britain [|guaranteed their support for Polish independence] ; when [|Italy conquered Albania] in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and [|Greece]. [|[39]] Shortly after the [|Franco] -British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the [|Pact of Steel]. [|[40]] In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the [|Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact], [|[41]] 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 [|Poland] and [|Lithuania] for Germany, and [|eastern Poland], Finland, [|Estonia] , Latvia and [|Bessarabia] for the USSR). It also raised the question of continuing Polish independence. [|[42]]

War breaks out in Europe
[|Common parade] of German [|Wehrmacht] and Soviet [|Red Army] on 23 September 1939 in [|Brest], [|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 September 1939, Germany and [|Slovakia] —a client state in 1939— [|attacked Poland]. [|[43]] On 3 September France and Britain, followed by the countries of the [|Commonwealth], [|[44]] declared war on Germany but provided [|little support] to Poland other than a [|small French attack into the Saarland]. [|[45]] Britain and France also began a [|naval blockade of Germany] on 3 September which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort. [|[46]][|[47]] On 17 September, after signing a [|cease-fire with Japan], the [|Soviets also invaded Poland]. [|[48]] Poland's territory was divided between [|Germany] and [|the Soviet Union], with [|Lithuania] and [|Slovakia] also receiving small shares. The Poles did not surrender; they established a [|Polish Underground State] and an underground [|Home Army], and [|continued to fight with the Allies on all fronts outside Poland]. [|[49]] About 100,000 Polish military personnel were [|evacuated to Romania] and the Baltic countries; many of these soldiers later fought against the Germans in other theaters of the war. [|[50]] [|Poland's Enigma codebreakers] were also evacuated to France. [|[51]] During this time, Japan launched its [|first attack against Changsha], a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September. [|[52]]

Following the invasion of Poland and a [|German-Soviet treaty governing Lithuania], the Soviet Union forced the [|Baltic countries] to allow it [|to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts of "mutual assistance."][|[53]][|[54]][|[55]] Finland rejected territorial demands and was invaded by the Soviet Union in November 1939. [|[56]] The [|resulting conflict] ended in March 1940 with [|Finnish concessions]. [|[57]] 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. [|[55]]

[|German] troops by the [|Arc de Triomphe], Paris, after the [|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. [|[58]] The Soviet Union and Germany entered a [|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. [|[59]]

In April 1940, [|Germany invaded Denmark and Norway] to secure shipments of [|iron ore from Sweden], which the Allies were [|about to disrupt]. [|[60]] [|Denmark] immediately capitulated, and [|despite Allied support], Norway was conquered within two months. [|[61]] In May 1940 [|Britain invaded Iceland] to preempt a possible German invasion of the island. [|[62]] [|British discontent over the Norwegian campaign] led to the replacement of Prime Minister [|Neville Chamberlain] with [|Winston Churchill] on 10 May 1940. [|[63]]

Axis advances
Germany [|invaded France], [|Belgium] , [|the Netherlands] , and [|Luxembourg] on 10 May 1940. [|[64]] The [|Netherlands] and [|Belgium] were overrun using [|blitzkrieg] tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively. [|[65]] The French fortified [|Maginot Line] and the Allied forces in Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded [|Ardennes] region, [|[66]] mistakenly perceived by French planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. [|[67]] British troops were forced to [|evacuate the continent at Dunkirk], abandoning their heavy equipment by early June. [|[68]] On 10 June, [|Italy invaded France], declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom; [|[69]] twelve days later [|France surrendered] and was soon divided into [|German] and [|Italian occupation zones] , [|[70]] and an unoccupied [|rump state] under the [|Vichy Regime]. On 3 July, the British [|attacked the French fleet] in [|Algeria] to prevent its possible seizure by Germany. [|[71]]

In June, during the last days of the Battle of France, the Soviet Union [|forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania], [|[54]] and then annexed the disputed Romanian region of [|Bessarabia]. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet [|political rapprochement and economic cooperation][|[72]][|[73]] gradually stalled, [|[74]][|[75]] and both states began preparations for war. [|[76]]

With France neutralized, Germany began an [|air superiority] campaign over Britain (the [|Battle of Britain] ) to prepare for [|an invasion]. [|[77]] The campaign failed, and the invasion plans were canceled by September. [|[77]] Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy [|enjoyed success] against an over-extended [|Royal Navy], using [|U-boats] against British shipping in the [|Atlantic]. [|[78]] Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a [|siege of Malta] in June, [|conquering British Somaliland] in August, and [|making an incursion into British-held Egypt] in September 1940. Japan increased its blockade of China in September by [|seizing several bases] in the northern part of the now-isolated [|French Indochina]. [|[79]]

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 Act] was amended to allow [|"cash and carry"] purchases by the Allies. [|[80]] In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the [|United States Navy] was [|significantly increased] and, after the Japanese incursion into Indochina, the United States [|embargoed] iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan. [|[81]] In September, the United States further agreed to a [|trade of American destroyers for British bases]. [|[82]] Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941. [|[83]]

At the end of September 1940, the [|Tripartite Pact] united Japan, Italy and Germany to formalize the [|Axis Powers]. [|[84]] 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. [|[85]] 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 [|[86]] and creating a security zone spanning roughly half of the Atlantic Ocean where the [|United States Navy] protected British convoys. [|[87]] 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. [|[88]][|[89]]

The Axis expanded in November 1940 when [|Hungary], Slovakia and [|Romania] joined the Tripartite Pact. [|[90]] In October 1940, [|Italy invaded Greece] but within days was repulsed and pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred. [|[91]] In December 1940, British Commonwealth forces began counter-offensives against [|Italian forces in Egypt] and [|Italian East Africa]. [|[92]] By early 1941, with Italian forces having been pushed back into Libya by the Commonwealth, Churchill ordered a [|dispatch of troops from Africa to bolster the Greeks]. [|[93]] The [|Italian Navy] also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by a [|carrier attack at Taranto], and neutralising several more warships at the [|Battle of Cape Matapan]. [|[94]]

[|German paratroopers] invading the Greek island of [|Crete], May 1941. The Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler [|sent German forces to Libya] in February, and by the end of March they had [|launched an offensive] against the diminished Commonwealth forces. [|[95]] In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the [|besieged port of Tobruk]. [|[96]] The Commonwealth [|attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May] and [|again in June], but failed on both occasions. [|[97]] In early April, following [|Bulgaria] 's signing of the Tripartite Pact, the Germans intervened in the Balkans [|by invading Greece] and [|Yugoslavia following a coup] ; here too they made rapid progress, eventually forcing the Allies to evacuate after Germany [|conquered the Greek island of Crete] by the end of May. [|[98]]

The Allies did have some successes during this time. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first [|quashed a coup in Iraq] which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled [|Syria], [|[99]] then, with the assistance of the [|Free French] , [|invaded Syria and Lebanon] to prevent further such occurrences. [|[100]] In the Atlantic, the British scored a much-needed public morale boost by [|sinking the German flagship //Bismarck//]. [|[101]] 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. [|[102]]

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 [|seized military control of southern Indochina][|[103]] In August of that year, [|Chinese communists] launched an [|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. [|[104]] Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces [|culminated in armed clashes in January 1941], effectively ending their co-operation. [|[105]] 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. [|[106]] By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, amassing forces on the Soviet border. [|[107]]

The war becomes global
German infantry and armoured vehicles [|battle the Soviet defenders on the streets of Kharkov], October 1941. On 22 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 [|[108]] were the [|Baltic region], Moscow and [|Ukraine] , with an [|ultimate goal] of ending the 1941 campaign near the [|Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line] , connecting the [|Caspian] and [|White Seas]. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate // [|Lebensraum] // ("living space") [|[109]] by [|dispossessing the native population][|[110]] and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals. [|[111]]

Although the [|Red Army] was preparing for strategic [|counter-offensives] before the war, [|[112]] //Barbarossa// forced the [|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 [|Army High Command] decided to [|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. [|[113]] The [|Kiev offensive] was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made further [|advance into Crimea] and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the [|First Battle of Kharkov] ) possible. [|[114]]

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][|[115]] prompted Britain to reconsider its [|grand strategy]. [|[116]] In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a [|military alliance against Germany][|[117]] The British and Soviets [|invaded Iran] to secure the [|Persian Corridor] and Iran's [|oil fields]. [|[118]] In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the [|Atlantic Charter]. [|[119]]

Romania made the [|largest contribution] to recapture [|territory ceded to the USSR] and pursue its leader [|Ion Antonescu] 's desire to combat communism. [|[120]] By October, when Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of [|Leningrad][|[121]] and [|Sevastopol] continuing, [|[122]] a major [|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 [|[123]] were forced to suspend their offensive. [|[124]] Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet [|capability to resist] was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The //blitzkrieg// [|phase] of the war in Europe had ended. [|[125]]

The Axis-controlled territory in Europe at the time of its maximal expansion (1941–42). By early December, freshly mobilised [|reserves][|[126]] allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. [|[127]] This, as well as [|intelligence data] that established a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East sufficient to prevent any attack by the Japanese [|Kwantung Army], [|[128]] allowed the Soviets to begin a [|massive counter-offensive] that started on 5 December along a 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–160 mi) west. [|[129]]

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]. [|[130]] 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 [|[131]] ) responded by placing a complete oil embargo. [|[132]] 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. [|[133]]

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. [|[134]] To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralise the [|United States Pacific Fleet] from the outset. [|[135]] On 7 December (8 December in Asian time zones), 1941, Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous [|offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific]. [|[136]] These included an [|attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor], [|landings in Thailand and Malaya][|[136]] and the [|battle of Hong Kong].

The February 1942 [|Fall of Singapore] saw 80,000 Allied soldiers captured and enslaved by the Japanese. These attacks led the U.S., [|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]. [|[137]] The Soviet Union did not adhere to the declaration; it maintained a neutrality agreement with Japan, [|[138]][|[139]] and exempted itself from the principle of self-determination. [|[119]] From 1941, Stalin persistently asked Churchill, and then Roosevelt, to open a 'second front' in France. [|[140]] 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. [|[141]]

Meanwhile, by the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost fully conquered [|Burma], [|Malaya] , [|the Dutch East Indies] , [|Singapore] , [|[142]] and [|Rabaul] , inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite a stubborn resistance in [|Corregidor], [|the Philippines] was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing the government of the [|Philippine Commonwealth] into exile. [|[143]] Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the [|South China Sea], [|Java Sea] and [|Indian Ocean] , [|[144]] and [|bombed the Allied naval base] at [|Darwin] , Australia. The only real Allied success against Japan was a Chinese [|victory at Changsha] in early January 1942. [|[145]] These easy victories over unprepared opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended. [|[146]]

Germany retained the initiative as well. Exploiting dubious American naval command decisions, the [|German navy] [|ravaged Allied shipping] off the American Atlantic coast. [|[147]] 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. [|[148]] In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the [|Gazala Line] by early February, [|[149]] followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. [|[150]]

Axis advance stalls
[|American dive bombers] engage the// [|Mikuma] // at the [|Battle of Midway], June 1942. In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to [|capture Port Moresby] by [|amphibious assault] and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The Allies, however, prevented the invasion by intercepting and defeating the Japanese naval forces in the [|Battle of the Coral Sea]. [|[151]] Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier [|Doolittle Raid], was to seize [|Midway Atoll] and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to [|occupy the Aleutian Islands] in Alaska. [|[152]] 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 [|achieve a decisive victory at Midway] over the [|Imperial Japanese Navy]. [|[153]]

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 [|overland campaign] in the [|Territory of Papua]. [|[154]] 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. [|[155]]

Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, [|the Battle for Guadalcanal] took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the [|northern part of the island], where they faced Australian and United States troops in the [|Battle of Buna-Gona]. [|[156]] Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and [|withdrew their troops]. [|[157]] In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, [|an offensive into the Arakan region] in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943. [|[158]] The second was the [|insertion of irregular forces] behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved dubious results. [|[159]]

Soviet soldiers attack a house during the [|Battle of Stalingrad], 1943. On Germany's [|eastern front], the Axis defeated Soviet offensives in the [|Kerch Peninsula] and at [|Kharkov] , [|[160]] and then launched their main [|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] while [|Army Group B] struck south-east to the Caucasus, towards [|Volga River]. [|[161]] 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 [|nearly taken Stalingrad] in bitter [|street fighting] when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an [|encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad][|[162]] and an assault on the [|Rzhev salient near Moscow], though the latter failed disastrously. [|[163]] By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender [|[164]] and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another [|attack on Kharkov], creating a [|salient] in their front line around the Russian city of [|Kursk]. [|[165]]

British [|Crusader tanks] 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. [|[166]] In the West, concerns the Japanese might utilize bases in Vichy-held [|Madagascar] caused the British to [|invade the island] in early May 1942. [|[167]] This success was offset soon after by an Axis [|offensive in Libya] which pushed the Allies back into Egypt until Axis forces were [|stopped at El Alamein]. [|[168]] On the Continent, raids of Allied [|commandos] on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous [|Dieppe Raid], [|[169]] demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security. [|[170]]

In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a [|second attack against El Alamein][|[171]] and, at a high cost, managed to [|deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta]. [|[172]] A few months later, the Allies [|commenced an attack of their own] in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya. [|[173]] This attack was followed up shortly after by an [|Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa], which resulted in the region joining the Allies. [|[174]] Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the [|occupation of Vichy France] ; [|[174]] although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to [|scuttle their fleet] to prevent its capture by German forces. [|[175]] The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into [|Tunisia], which was [|conquered by the Allies] in May 1943. [|[176]]

Allies gain momentum
A contemporary video showing [|bombing of Hamburg] by the Allies. 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 [|eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians], [|[177]] and soon after began major operations to [|isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands] , and to [|breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands]. [|[178]] By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and additionally [|neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk] in the [|Caroline Islands]. In April, the Allies then launched an operation to [|retake Western New Guinea]. [|[179]]

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 [|attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge]. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences [|[180]][|[181]] and, for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. [|[182]] This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' [|invasion of Sicily] launched on 9 July which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month. [|[183]]

On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own [|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, [|[184]] giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. [|[185]][|[186]] The Germans attempted to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified [|Panther-Wotan line], however, the Soviets broke through it at [|Smolensk] and by the [|Lower Dnieper Offensives]. [|[187]]

In early September 1943, the Western Allies [|invaded the Italian mainland], following an [|Italian armistice with the Allies]. [|[188]] Germany responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas, [|[189]] and creating a series of defensive lines. [|[190]] German special forces then [|rescued Mussolini], who then soon established a new client state in German occupied Italy named the [|Italian Social Republic]. [|[191]] The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the [|main German defensive line] in mid-November. [|[192]]

German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By [|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. [|[193]] In November 1943, [|Franklin D. Roosevelt] and Winston Churchill met with [|Chiang Kai-shek] [|in Cairo][|[194]] and then with Joseph Stalin [|in Tehran]. [|[195]] The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory, [|[194]] 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. [|[195]]

British troops firing a [|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. [|[196]][|[197]] In January 1944, the Allies launched a [|series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino] and attempted to outflank it with [|landings at Anzio]. [|[198]] By the end of January, a major [|Soviet] [|offensive expelled German forces] from the [|Leningrad region], [|[199]] ending the longest and [|most lethal siege in history]. The [|following Soviet offensive] was [|halted on the pre-war Estonian border] by the German [|Army Group North] aided by [|Estonians] hoping to [|re-establish national independence]. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the [|Baltic Sea] region. [|[200]] By late May 1944, the Soviets had [|liberated Crimea], largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made [|incursions into Romania] , which were repulsed by the Axis troops. [|[201]] The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June Rome was captured. [|[202]]

The Allies experienced mixed fortunes in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, [|an operation against British positions in Assam, India], [|[203]] and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at [|Imphal] and [|Kohima]. [|[204]] In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma, [|[204]] and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in [|Myitkyina]. [|[205]] The [|second Japanese invasion] attempted to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields. [|[206]] By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of [|Henan] and begun a [|renewed attack against Changsha] in the [|Hunan] province. [|[207]]

Allies close in
Allied [|Invasion of Normandy], 6 June 1944 Red Army personnel and equipment crossing a river during the northern Summer of 1944 On 6 June 1944 (known as [|D-Day] ), after three years of Soviet pressure, [|[208]] the Western Allies [|invaded northern France]. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked [|southern France]. [|[209]] These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the [|German Army units] in France. Paris was [|liberated] by the [|local resistance] assisted by the [|Free French Forces] on 25 August [|[210]] and the Western Allies continued to [|push back German forces] in Western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spear-headed by [|a major airborne operation] in the Netherlands ended with a failure. [|[211]] After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, unsuccessfully [|trying to cross the Rur river] in a large offensive. In Italy the Allied advance also slowed down, when they ran into the [|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]. [|[212]] Soon after that, [|another Soviet strategic offensive] forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The successful advance of Soviet troops prompted [|resistance forces in Poland] to [|initiate several uprisings], though the largest of these, in [|Warsaw] , as well as a [|Slovak Uprising] in the south, were not assisted by the Soviets and were put down by German forces. [|[213]] The Red Army's [|strategic offensive in eastern Romania] cut off and destroyed the [|considerable German troops there] and triggered [|a successful coup d'état in Romania] and [|in Bulgaria], followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side. [|[214]]

Polish insurgents during the [|Warsaw Uprising]. In September 1944, Soviet [|Red Army] troops advanced into [|Yugoslavia] and forced the rapid withdrawal of the German Army Groups [|E] and [|F] in [|Greece], [|Albania] and [|Yugoslavia] to rescue them from being cut off. [|[215]] By this point, the Communist-led [|Partisans] under Marshal [|Josip Broz Tito], who had led an [|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], the [|Red Army] , with limited support from [|Bulgarian forces] , assisted the Partisans in a joint [|liberation of the capital city of Belgrade] on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a [|massive assault] against [|German-occupied] Hungary that lasted until [|the fall of Budapest] in February 1945. [|[216]] In contrast with impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, the [|bitter Finnish resistance] to the [|Soviet offensive] in the [|Karelian Isthmus] denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to the signing of [|Soviet-Finnish armistice] on relatively mild conditions, [|[217]][|[218]] with a subsequent [|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][|[219]] while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanese were having greater successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of [|Hengyang] by early August. [|[220]] Soon after, they further invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at [|Guilin and Liuzhou] by the end of November [|[221]] and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by the middle of December. [|[222]]

In the Pacific, American forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944 they began their [|offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands], and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the [|Battle of the Philippine Sea]. These defeats led to the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister [|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 [|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. [|[223]]

Axis collapse, Allied victory
American and [|Soviet] troops [|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 [|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. [|[224]] By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. [|[224]] In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets attacked in Poland, [|pushing from the Vistula to the Oder] river in Germany, and [|overran East Prussia]. [|[225]] On 4 February, U.S., British, and Soviet leaders met for the [|Yalta Conference]. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, [|[226]] and when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan. [|[227]]

In February, the Soviets [|invaded Silesia] and [|Pomerania], while [|Western Allies invaded Western Germany] and closed to the [|Rhine] river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine [|north] and [|south] of the [|Ruhr], [|encircling the German Army Group B] , [|[228]] while the Soviets advanced to [|Vienna]. In early April, the Western Allies finally [|pushed forward in Italy] and swept across Western Germany, while Soviet forces [|stormed Berlin] in late April; [|the two forces linked up on Elbe river] on 25 April. On 30 April 1945, the [|Reichstag] was captured, signalling the military defeat of Third Reich. [|[229]]

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 partisans] on 28 April. [|[230]] Two days later, [|Hitler committed suicide], and was succeeded by [|Grand Admiral] [|Karl Dönitz]. [|[231]]

German forces surrendered in Italy on 29 April. The [|German instrument of surrender] was signed [|on 7 May] in Rheims, [|[232]] and ratified [|on 8 May] in Berlin. [|[233]] German Army Group Centre [|resisted in Prague] until 11 May. [|[234]]

In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the [|Philippine Commonwealth] advanced in the [|Philippines], [|clearing Leyte] by the end of April 1945. They [|landed on Luzon] in January 1945 and [|captured Manila] in March following a battle which reduced the city to ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, [|Mindanao] and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war. [|[235]]

[|Atomic explosion] at [|Nagasaki], 9 August 1945. In May 1945, Australian troops [|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. [|[236]] 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 [|Iwo Jima] by March, and [|Okinawa] by the end of June. [|[237]] American bombers [|destroyed Japanese cities], and American submarines [|cut off] Japanese imports. [|[238]]

On 11 July, the Allied leaders [|met in Potsdam, Germany]. They [|confirmed earlier agreements] about Germany, [|[239]] 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". [|[240]] During this conference the [|United Kingdom held its general election], and [|Clement Attlee] replaced Churchill as Prime Minister. [|[241]] When Japan continued to ignore the Potsdam terms, the United States [|dropped atomic bombs] on the Japanese cities of [|Hiroshima] and [|Nagasaki] in early August. Between the two bombs, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, [|invaded Japanese-held Manchuria], and quickly defeated the [|Kwantung Army] , which was the largest Japanese fighting force. [|[242]][|[243]] The Red Army also captured [|Sakhalin] Island and the [|Kuril Islands]. On 15 August 1945 [|Japan surrendered], with the [|surrender documents] finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship [|USS //Missouri//] on 2 September 1945, ending the war. [|[232]] The Allies established occupation administrations in [|Austria] and [|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 [|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. [|[244]] 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 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), [|[245]] Eastern Romania, [|[246]][|[247]] and part of eastern Finland [|[248]] and three [|Baltic states]. [|[249]][|[250]]

Prime Minister [|Winston Churchill] gives the "Victory" sign to crowds in London on [|Victory in Europe Day]. In an effort to maintain peace, [|[251]] the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, [|[252]] and adopted The [|Universal Declaration of Human Rights] in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations. [|[253]] 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]. [|[254]] The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, [|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, [|[255]] Germany had been //de facto// divided, and two independent states, [|Federal Republic of Germany] and [|German Democratic Republic][|[256]] 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]. [|[257]] 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, [|Poland], [|Hungary] , [|[258]] [|Czechoslovakia] , [|[259]] [|Romania] , [|Albania] , [|[260]] and [|East Germany] became [|Soviet Satellite] states. Communist [|Yugoslavia] conducted a fully independent policy causing tension with the USSR. [|[261]]

Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led [|NATO] and the Soviet-led [|Warsaw Pact] ; [|[262]] the long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the [|Cold War], would be accompanied by unprecedented arms race and proxy wars. [|[263]]

World map of colonization at the end of the Second World War in 1945. With the end of the war, the [|wars of national liberation] ensued, leading to the [|creation of Israel], the often bloody [|decolonization of Asia] and (somewhat later) of Africa. In Asia, the United States led the [|occupation of Japan] and [|administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific], while the Soviets annexed [|Sakhalin] and the [|Kuril Islands]. [|[264]] [|Korea], formerly [|under Japanese rule] , was [|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]. [|[265]] In China, nationalist and communist forces 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. [|[266]] 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 empires], their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to [|decolonisation]. [|[267]][|[268]]

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 [|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. [|[269]][|[270]] The UK and US pursued a policy of [|industrial disarmament in Western Germany] in the years 1945–1948. [|[271]] Due to international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years. [|[272]][|[273]] Recovery began with the mid 1948 [|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. [|[274]][|[275]] The post 1948 West German recovery has been called the [|German economic miracle]. [|[276]] Also the Italian [|[277]][|[278]] and French economies rebounded. [|[279]] By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, [|[280]] and continued relative economic decline for decades. [|[281]] The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era. [|[282]] Japan experienced [|incredibly rapid] economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s. [|[283]] China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952. [|[284]]