Second World War
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 Clockwise from top left: Commonwealth troops in the desert; Chinese civilians being buried alive by Japanese soldiers; Soviet forces during a winter offensive; Carrier-borne Japanese planes readying for take off; Soviet troops fighting in Berlin; A German submarine under attack. |
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| Military dead: Over 14,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 36,000,000 Total dead: Over 50,000,000 ...further details. |
Military dead: Over 8,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 4,000,000 Total dead Over 12,000,000 ...further details. |
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World War II, or the Second World War,[1] (often abbreviated WWII or WW2) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers,[2] organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilisation of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their complete economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Over 70 million people, the majority of them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.[3]
The start of the war is generally held to be in September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by the United Kingdom, France and the British Dominions.[4][5] Many belligerents entered the war before or after this date, during a period which spanned from 1937 to 1941, as a result of other events. Amongst these main events are the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the start of Operation Barbarossa, and the attack on Pearl Harbor and British and Dutch colonies in South East Asia.
The Soviet Union and the United States emerged from the war as the world's leading superpowers. This set the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. The United Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The self determination spawned by the war accelerated decolonisation movements in Asia and Africa, while Western Europe itself began moving toward integration.
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Background
In the aftermath of World War I, a defeated Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles.[6] This caused Germany to lose a significant portion of its territory, prohibited the annexation of other states, limited the size of German armed forces and imposed massive reparations. Russia's civil war led to the creation of the Soviet Union which soon was under the control of Joseph Stalin. In Italy, Benito Mussolini seized power as a fascist dictator promising to create a "New Roman Empire."[7] The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese communist allies. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had long sought influence in China[8] as the first step of its right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as justification to invade Manchuria; the two nations then fought several small conflicts, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei until the Tanggu Truce in 1933. Afterwards Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.
Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, became the leader of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, espousing a radical racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearming campaign.[9] This worried France and the United Kingdom, who had lost much in the previous war, as well as Italy, which saw its territorial ambitions threatened by those of Germany.[10] To secure its alliance, the French allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired to conquer. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Saarland was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, speeding up remilitarisation and introducing conscription. Hoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front. The Soviet Union, concerned due to Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of eastern Europe, concluded a treaty of mutual assistance with France.
Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, rendering it essentially toothless[11][12] and in June 1935, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany easing prior restrictions. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August.[13] In October, Italy invaded Ethiopia, with Germany the only major European nation supporting her invasion. Italy then revoked objections to Germany's goal of making Austria a satellite state.[14]
In direct violation of the Versailles and Locarno treaties, Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland in March 1936. He received little response from other European powers.[15] When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, Hitler and Mussolini supported fascist Generalísimo Francisco Franco's nationalist forces in his civil war against the Soviet-supported Spanish Republic. Both sides used the conflict to test new weapons and methods of warfare[16] and the nationalists would prove victorious in early 1939.
With tensions mounting, efforts to strengthen or consolidate power were made. In October, Germany and Italy formed the Rome-Berlin Axis and a month later Germany and Japan, each believing communism and the Soviet Union in particular to be a threat, signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year. In China, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan.[17]
Chronology
Other dates for the beginning of war include the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931,[18][19] the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937,[20][21] or one of several other events. Other sources follow A. J. P. Taylor, who holds that there was a simultaneous Sino-Japanese War in East Asia, and a Second European War in Europe and her colonies, but they did not become a World War until they merged in 1941; at which point the war continued until 1945. This article uses the conventional dating.[22]
The end of the War also has several dates. Some sources end it from the armistice of August 14, 1945, rather than the formal surrender; in some European histories, it ended on V-E Day. The Treaty of Peace with Japan was not signed until 1951.
Course of the war
- See also: Timeline of World War II
War in China
In mid-1937, following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japan began a full invasion of China. The Soviets quickly lent support to China, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. Starting at Shanghai, the Japanese pushed Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December. In June 1938 Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; though this bought time to prepare their defenses at Wuhan, the city was still taken by October.[23] During this time, Japanese and Soviet forces engaged in a minor skirmish at Lake Khasan; in May 1939, they became involved in a more serious border war[24] that ended with signing a cease-fire agreement on September 15 and restoring the status quo.[25]
War breaks out in Europe
In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers.[26] Encouraged, Hitler began making claims on the Sudetenland, a Czechoslovakian province with predominant ethnic German population; France and Britain conceded these for a promise of no further territorial demands.[27] However, soon after that, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede part of her remaining territories to Hungary and Poland. In March 1939 Germany invaded the rump of Czechoslovakia to split it onto the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and pro-German Slovak Republic.
Alarmed, and with Hitler making further demands on Danzig, France and Britain guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece.[28] Shortly after the Franco-British pledges to Poland, Germany and Italy formalized their own alliance with the Pact of Steel.
In April, 1938, the USSR launched the tripartite alliance negotiations with the UK and France in an attempt to contain Germany.[29] However, these negotiations failed due to mutual mistrust[30] and because the collective security system in Europe was severely undermined by the Munich agreement and the subsequent events.[31] Apprehensive of a possible war with Hitler while the Western powers remained neutral or tacitly favorable to Hitler[32], the Soviet Union signed the non-aggression pact with Germany, including a secret agreement to split Poland and Eastern Europe between them.[33]
On September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler launched his invasion of Poland and World War II broke out. France, Britain, and the countries of the Commonwealth declared war on Germany but provided little military support to Poland other than a small French attack into the Saarland.[34] On September 17, 1939, after signing an armistice with Japan, the Soviets launched their own invasion of Poland.[35] By early October, the campaign ended with division of Poland among Germany, the Soviet Union, Lithuania and Slovakia[36], although officially Poland never surrendered.
At the same time as the battle in Poland, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by early October.[37]
Following the invasion of Poland, the Soviet Union began moving troops into the Baltic States. Finnish resistance to similar pressure by the Soviet Union in late November led to the four-month Winter War, ending with Finnish concessions.[38] France and the United Kingdom, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war on the side of the Germans[39] responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting its expulsion from the League of Nations.[39] Though China had the authority to veto such an action, it was unwilling to alienate itself from either the Western powers or the Soviet Union and instead abstained.[39] The Soviet Union was displeased by this course of action and as a result suspended all military aid to China.[39] By June 1940, the Soviet Armed Forces completed the occupation of the Baltic States.[40]
In Western Europe, British troops deployed to the Continent, but neither Germany nor the Allies launched direct attacks on the other. In April, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to secure shipments of iron-ore from Sweden which the allies would try to disrupt. Denmark immediately capitulated, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months.[41] British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain by Winston Churchill on May 10, 1940.[42]
Axis advances
On that same day, Germany invaded France and the Low Countries. The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few weeks. The French fortified Maginot Line was circumvented by a flanking movement through the Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by France as an impenetrable natural barrier against armored vehicles. British troops were forced to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk, abandoning their heavy equipment by the end of the month.[43] On June 10, Italy invaded, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom;[43] twelve days later France surrendered and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones,[44] and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime. On July 14, the British attacked the French fleet in Algeria to prevent their seizure by Germany.[45]
With France neutralized, Germany began an air superiority campaign over Britain to prepare for an invasion.[46] The campaign failed and by September the invasion plans were cancelled. 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.[47] 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 early September. Japan increased its blockade of China in September by seizing several bases in the northern part of the now-isolated French Indochina.[48]
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.[49] In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of United States Navy was significantly increased and after the Japanese incursion into Indochina, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan.[50] In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases.[51] Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941.[52]
At the end of September the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Italy and Germany formalized the Axis Powers. The pact stipulated, with the exception of the Soviet Union, any country not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three.[53] The Soviet Union expressed interest in joining the Tripartite Pact, sending a modified draft to Germany in November and offering a very German-favourable economic deal;[54] while Germany remained silent on the former, they accepted the latter.[55] Regardless of the pact, the United States continued to support the United Kingdom and China by introducing the Lend-Lease policy[56] and creating a security zone spanning roughly half of the Atlantic Ocean where the United States Navy protected British convoys.[57] As a result, Germany and the United States found themselves engaged in sustained, if undeclared, naval warfare in the North Atlantic by October 1941, even though the United States remained officially neutral.[58]
The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined the Tripartite Pact.[59] These countries participated in the subsequent invasion of the USSR, with Romania making the largest contribution in order to recapture territory ceded to the USSR and pursue its leader's desire to combat communism.[60]
In October, Italy invaded Greece but within days were repulsed and pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred.[61] Shortly after this, in Africa, Commonwealth forces launched offensives against Egypt and Italian East Africa. 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. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission via carrier attack at Taranto, and several more warships neutralized at Cape Matapan.[62]
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. In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port of Tobruk. The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions. In early April the Germans similarly intervened in the Balkans, invading Greece and Yugoslavia; 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.[63]
The Allies did have some successes during this time though. 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,[64] then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences.[65] In the Atlantic, the British scored a much needed public morale boost by sinking the German flagship Bismarck.[66] Perhaps most importantly, during the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe's assault, and on May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the bombing campaign.[67]
In Asia, in spite of several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. In August of that year, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.[68] Mounting tensions between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation.[69]
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 a neutrality agreement in April, 1941.[70] By contrast the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, amassing forces on the Soviet border.[71]
The war becomes global
On June 22, 1941, Germany, along with other European Axis members and Finland, invaded the Soviet Union. The primary objectives of this surprise offensive[72] were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine with an ultimate goal to end campaign of 1941 near the line connecting Caspian and White Seas. Hitler's goals were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate so-called 'living space'[73] by dispossessing the native population[74] and provide guaranteed access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.[75] Although before the war the Red Army was preparing for a strategic counter-offensive[76], "Barbarossa"' forced Stavka to adopt a strategic defence. During the summer, Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in personnel and matériel, however by the middle of August, German OKH decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Center, and to divert a part of its armored force to reinforce troops advancing toward central Ukraine and Leningrad[77]. 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 possible.
The diversion of three quarters of Axis troops and majority of air forces from France and central Mediterranean to the East[78][79] prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider her grand stategy.[80] In July, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany[81] and shortly after jointly invaded Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oilfields.[82] In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter.[83] In November, Commonwealth forces launched a counter-offensive in the desert, reclaiming all gains the Germans and Italians had made.[84]
Japan, hoping to capitalize on Germany's success in Europe, made several demands, including a steady supply of oil, from the Dutch East Indies; these talks, however, broke down in June.[85] In July, Japan seized military control of southern Indochina since it would not only put her in a better position to coerce the Dutch East Indies into yielding, but it would also be a blow against China; should war be necessary, it also improved their strategic position against the Americans and British.[86] The United States, United Kingdom and other western governments reacted to the seizure of Indochina with a freeze on assets, while the United States (which supplied 80% of Japan's oil[87]) responded by placing a complete oil embargo.[88] Thus Japan was essentially forced to choose between withdrawing from Asia, or seizing the oil she 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.[89] The Imperial General Headquarters thus planned to create a large perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific in order to facilitate a defensive war while exploiting the resources of Southeast Asia; to prevent intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralize the United States Pacific Fleet on the outset.[90]
By October, when Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only Leningrad[91] and Sevastopol resisting in sieges[92] a major offensive against Moscow had been renewed. After two months of fierce battles, the German army almost reached Moscow suburbs, where the exhausted troops[93] were forced to suspend their offensive.[94] Despite impressive territorial gains, no strategic goals of the campaign had been fully accomplished: two major Soviet cities hadn’t been captured, Red Army's capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of WWII in Europe had ended.[95]
