World War II 1939-1945

World War II (also called the Second World War) was a conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939-45. The principal belligerents came to be collectively defined as the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan) and the Allies (United Kingdom, United States of America, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – the so-called ‘Big Three’ – and, to a lesser extent, France, later Free France, and China). With some notable exceptions, most of the independent states world-wide ultimately joined the war (at least, formally) as well as many national resistance movements.

The war was in some respects a continuation of the disputes left unsettled by World War I. In Germany, the rise of Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), resulted in substantial German military and diplomatic gains from 1933 to 1939, including occupation of the Rhineland, the annexation of Austria, the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and the shocking Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939 which included secret provisions for the division of Poland. Meanwhile, Italy under the dictatorship of Mussolini, secured Ethiopia and Albania, while Japan pursued the conquest of northern China.

Although reluctant to bring about another world war, the governments of France (Daladier) and UK (Chamberlain) provided a security guarantee to Poland. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The British and French declared war on Germany two days later. Although the USSR joined in the occupation of Poland later in September, France and UK declined to declare war on the Soviets too. Germany and the USSR partitioned Poland as agreed. Although officially at war, no significant offensive operations were conducted by France, Germany or the UK in the following months and the war was sarcastically referred to as the ‘sitzkrieg’ in contrast to the ‘blitzkrieg’ in Poland. Germany did conduct an effective submarine campaign against merchant shipping bound for Britain during the period. In April 1940 Germany invaded Norway and Denmark. On May 10, 1940, the Germans launched an offensive in the west which swept through The Netherlands and Belgium into France; by June 22 more than half of France, including Paris, was occupied and the British were forced to withdraw from the continent. France agreed to an armistice, relocating its government to Vichy. In the following months the Germans carried out an air war over Great Britain. This Battle of Britain was won by the Royal Air Force.

Italy, having joined the war on the Axis side in June 1940, pursued territorial gains in North and East Africa with limited success. The Italians invaded Greece on October 28, 1940. Greek military resistance proved substantial and forced the Italian military back into Albania. In the meantime, German military successes drew Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia into joining the Axis during November 1940; Bulgaria joined in March 1941. In April Germany attacked Yugoslavia (following an anti-Axis coup) and Greece, both of which were overrun by the end of the month. On June 22, 1941, Germany launched a massive surprise invasion of the Soviet Union. German forces drove deep into Soviet territory and at one point reached the outskirts of Moscow before Soviet counterattacks and winter weather slowed the offensive to a halt in December.

Japan, the other principle Axis member, sought to resolve its increasingly precarious geostrategic situation by seizing European colonial holdings in Asia and the Pacific. To cripple what it foresaw would be its main opponent in such a Pacific war, Japan attacked United States installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the Philippines on December 7-8, 1941. Within days the United States was at war with all the principle Axis powers. Japan swiftly invaded and occupied the Philippines, most of Southeast Asia and Burma (now Myanmar), the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), and many Pacific Ocean islands. Despite the enormous initial advantage gained by its sudden offensives, Japan lost the crucial Battle of Midway in June 1942. The American strategy in the Pacific was to use naval and amphibious forces to advance up the chains of islands toward Japan while smaller land forces cooperated with Chinese and British efforts on the Asian mainland.

In North Africa the British, who in 1940-41 had defeated much larger Italian forces, were locked in a seesaw battle with a combined German and Italian force. In November 1942 the first Allied offensive began with U.S. and British landings in North Africa. Axis forces were gradually squeezed into Tunisia and were finally eliminated in May 1943. In July Allied troops from North Africa landed in Sicily and thereafter invaded Italy in September. The fascist government was overthrown, and in October, Italy joined the Allies.

In the summer of 1942, Germany renewed its offensive on the Eastern Front. Although initially successful, the Soviet counter-offensive begun on November 19, 1942 led to the worst military defeat experienced by the Germans thus far in the war. Axis forces in the Soviet Union lost momentum and the Red Army began to push them back from the western portions of the Soviet Union in 1943. By this time, Germany was also preparing for an Allied invasion of Western Europe while coping with an ever increasing Allied strategic bombing campaign. The Allied invasion came on June 6, 1944 on the beaches of Normandy in northern France. With command of the air the Allies quickly consolidated their foothold and began the advance eastward that ended in the occupation of the German homeland in March-April 1945. At the same time, the Soviet forces in 1944 had pushed the Germans completely out of Soviet territory and advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania. In early 1945 they occupied the eastern third of Germany. At the climax of the German collapse, with Berlin encircled by Soviet troops, Hitler committed suicide on April 30; on May 8 the surrender of all German forces was signed.

In the Pacific the American strategy led to the Allied invasion of the Philippines by October 1944. The naval battle in Leyte Gulf that followed all but eliminated the Japanese navy. The capture, after bitter fighting, of the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in March and June of 1945 opened the way for both the strategic bombing of Japan itself and a possible invasion. The war in the Pacific came to a sudden and dramatic end after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) and the Soviet entry into the war against Japan on August 9, 1945; Japan's formal surrender was signed on September 2.

References

Clodfelter, 955-956; COW139; Kohn, 543-8.

Category

Inter-State War

Region(s)

Eastern Europe, Western Europe, East Asia, Oceania, North Africa, East Africa, North America, Caribbean, South Asia, South America, West Africa

Belligerents

Germany, Poland, France (later Free France and Vichy France), UK, Australia, New Zealand, Nepal, South Africa, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, USSR, Finland, Japan, USA, China, Panama, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Ethiopia, Iraq, Bolivia, Colombia, Iran, Liberia, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Uruguay, Venezuela, Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Chile, Mongolia

Dispute

Territory, Governance

Initiation Date

September 1, 1939

Termination Date

September 2, 1945

Duration

6 years, 2 days
(2194 days)

Outcome

Imposed Settlement
(Allied victory)

Fatalities

Total: 41,156,000
Military: 16,812,000
Civilian: 24,344,000

Magnitude

7.6