The typical date agreed upon by historians to answer the question of when did World War 2 start is September 1 st, 1939. Hitler Committing Suicide On 23 August, when tripartite negotiations about a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom and Soviet Union stalled,[59] the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany. [112] Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by his vice president, Harry S. Truman. The Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war. [335], Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. World War II was the biggest and deadliest war in history, involving more than 30 countries. Overview On May 8, 1945, World War II in Europe came to an end. A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951. War would continue until 1945. [305] During this conference, the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister. World War II - Japanese Surrender, Pacific Theater, Atomic Bombs [113] In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an "arsenal of democracy" and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort, which was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it was invaded by Germany. [57] Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the GermanPolish Non-Aggression Pact. Historic Figures Family History Hands on History History for Kids On This Day World War Two The causes, events and people of the most destructive war in history. This is the date that Germany invaded Poland; however, France and Great Britain did not declare war on the Germans until September 3 rd. The final battles of the European theatre of World War II continued after the definitive surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies, signed by Field marshal Wilhelm Keitel on 8 May 1945 in Karlshorst, Berlin. [194], At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration and demanded the unconditional surrender of their enemies. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5billion reichsmarks (27.8billion U.S. dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include the sizeable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods. [360] Most suggest that some 60million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40million civilians. [156], Following the Japanese false flag Mukden Incident in 1931, the Japanese shelling of the American gunboat USS Panay in 1937, and the 193738 Nanjing Massacre, Japanese-American relations deteriorated. In early April, Soviet troops captured Knigsberg, while the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany capturing Hamburg and Nuremberg. [253] The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory[254] and the military planning for the Burma campaign,[255] 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. . Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. World War 2 was a global war, which began in 1939 and ended in 1945. At 4:45 on the morning of September 1, 1939 (the morning following the staged attack), German troops entered Poland. [446] The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG 34, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe had ended. [195] Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland and to invade France in 1944. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic. [280] Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions,[281] although Finland was forced to fight their former German allies. The origins and the political background", "World War II: Combatants and Casualties (19371945)", "Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm", "Non-Jewish Holocaust Victims: The 5,000,000 others", "Human Losses of the Croats in World War II and the Immediate Post-War Period Caused by the Chetniks (Yugoslav Army in the Fatherand) and the Partisans (People's Liberation Army and the Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia/Yugoslav Army) and the Communist Authorities: Numerical Indicators", "Od rzezi woyskiej do akcji Wisa. [401], The Soviet Gulag became a de facto system of deadly camps during 194243, when wartime privation and hunger caused numerous deaths of inmates,[402] including foreign citizens of Poland and other countries occupied in 193940 by the Soviet Union, as well as Axis POWs. [102] The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14June. [16], Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World WarI,[17] irredentist and revanchist nationalism emerged in several European states in the same period. The Allied landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944, opened a second front in Europe, and Germany's abortive offensive at the Ardennes in the winter of 1944-45 marked the Third Reich 's final push in the west. The Soviets were also demanding a second front. [257][258][259][unreliable source?] By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June. [390] Soviet soldiers committed mass rapes in occupied territories, especially in Germany. which was liberated by the end of August. The official document of Japan's surrender is known as Instrument of Surrender, and it was signed between Japan on one side and the Allies countries on the other on September 2, 1945. How and when did WW2 end? [124] The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at the end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the right and left. [44][unreliable source?] [269], On 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure,[270] the Western Allies invaded northern France. Bos, "Feminists Interpreting the Politics of Wartime Rape: Berlin, 1945"; Yugoslavia, 19921993. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943. Must Reads Introduction to the Holocaust [58], The situation reached a general crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. [386] Both the Germans and the Japanese tested such weapons against civilians,[387] and sometimes on prisoners of war. [383], Axis forces employed biological and chemical weapons. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and recaptured Manila in March. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and the British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, the Allies had more than a 5:1 advantage in population and a nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP. After 1942, the number reached 10million. Read More Test Your Knowledge How much do you know about V-J. [446] The assault rifle, a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard post-war infantry weapon for most armed forces. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. [134], On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them. [62], In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which only served as a pretext to worsen relations. Later that year, US President Harry S. Truman announced Japan's surrender and the end of World War II. In October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. [236], After the Guadalcanal campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, including an attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor which resulted in the United States and United Kingdom declaring war against Japan. [109] The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck. The vast majority of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The British, on the other hand, argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralisation, and bolster resistance forces. [73] A significant part of Polish military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of the war. [263] The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, Rome was captured on June 4. [279] 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 engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. How Did World War II End? [204] In mid-May, Japan started the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign in China, with the goal of inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided the surviving American airmen in the Doolittle Raid by destroying Chinese air bases and fighting against the Chinese 23rd and 32nd Army Groups. [420], The United States produced about two-thirds of all the munitions used by the Allies in World War II, including warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition. The United Kingdom and France subsequently declared war on Germany on 3 September. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones,[103] and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. [438][bettersourceneeded] Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, hedgehog, squid, and homing torpedoes proved effective against German submarines. [447], Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma machine. [261] 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. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945. When Did WW2 End? This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France. In August, 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. World War II: Iwo Jima. [175] On 3 November, Nagano explained in detail the plan of the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Emperor. More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. [375] Also, more than 100,000 Poles were massacred by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Volhynia massacres, between 1943 and 1945. [87] The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu with a course set firmly towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee. [164][unreliable source? [293] In Italy, German forces surrendered on 29 April. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and had not equipped themselves to do so. For other uses, see. [287], In the Pacific, U.S. forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland. On 22 June 1941, Germany led the European Axis powers in an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the Eastern Front, the largest land theatre of war in history. [442][443] At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications. [448] Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward, eventually leading to its war with the United States and the Western Allies. [31] 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. [24] In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the RomeBerlin Axis. On the night of 910 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced his decision to accept the terms demanded by the Allies in the Potsdam Declaration. [8] The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World WarII as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939. [202], 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. Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basisof Archival Evidence. The Cold War was over, the division of Europe between communism and democracy came to an end, and a new world order suddenly arrived. [391][392] The exact number of German women and girls raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation is uncertain, but historians estimate their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as two million,[393] while figures for women raped by German soldiers in the Soviet Union go as far as ten million. [367], An estimated 11[368] to 17million[369] civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Hitler's racist policies, including mass killing of around 6million Jews, along with Roma, homosexuals, at least 1.9million ethnic Poles[370][371] and millions of other Slavs (including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), and other ethnic and minority groups. In Italy, Allied advance also slowed due to the last major German defensive line. [172] As a result, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe resigned. [249] German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic,[250] causing an Italian civil war. Many participants threw their economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind this total war, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. In September, Japan attempted to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces. World War II in Europe | Holocaust Encyclopedia [436] Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War,[437] were expected by all combatants to be important in the second. It called for the end of American aid to China and for lifting the embargo on the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. [419], In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. [262] 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. Ward Wilson. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. When Did World War II Start? - ThoughtCo Germany started World War II in Europe on September 1, 1939, by invading Poland. Japan soon captured much of the western Pacific, but its advances were halted in 1942 after losing the critical Battle of Midway; later, Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and, though late introduction meant it had little impact, it led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide. [181], Japan planned to seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific. [396] The USAAF bombed a total of 67 Japanese cities, killing 393,000 civilians, including from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and destroying 65% of built-up areas. Did you know? [413] Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged extreme brutality against what it considered to be the "inferior people" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass executions. [169] At the same time the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them. [154] This, as well as intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army,[155] allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100250 kilometres (62155mi) west. [431][432][433] In the Atlantic, escort carriers became a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap. World War II officially ended in Asia on September 2, 1945, with the surrender of Japan on the USS Missouri. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes. [149] A major offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops[150] were forced to suspend their offensive. When Did World War 2 End? The Battle of Stalingrad and Allied Invasions Shaped the End of WWII After storming across Europe in the first three years of the war, overextended Axis forces were put on the defensive. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.[291]. [295] On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide in his headquarters, and he was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dnitz and Joseph Goebbels. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, and the Second World War came to an end. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century-long Cold War. July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918 Participants: Bulgaria France Germany Italy Japan Ottoman Empire Portugal Russia United Kingdom United States . [264], The Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign. [40][41] Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. As early as 1923, in his memoir and propaganda tract "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle), Adolf Hitler had predicted a general European war that would result in "the extermination of the. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany,[304] and the American, British and Chinese governments reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction". . Throughout Italy's alliance with the Nazi regime, the Italians increasingly were subordinated to Germany to include their campaign in 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. [146] In late August the British and Soviets invaded neutral Iran to secure the Persian Corridor, Iran's oil fields, and preempt any Axis advances through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or India. When Did WW2 End? - History [337], In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administered Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Retrieved 4 August 2011. In February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while the Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. [185] These included an attack on the American fleets at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, as well as invasions of Guam, Wake Island, Malaya,[185] Thailand, and Hong Kong. [132] However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact. All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. [222] In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala line by early February,[223] followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. [239], In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 - 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Bibliography v t e World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. [273] After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Rur river in a large offensive. While European 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. [119], In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa. [338] Korea, formerly under Japanese colonial rule, was divided and occupied by the Soviet Union in the North and the United States in the South between 1945 and 1948. [20] Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers. [350] Italy also experienced an economic boom[351] and the French economy rebounded. [118] Germany started preparation for an invasion of the Balkans to assist Italy, to prevent the British from gaining a foothold there, which would be a potential threat for Romanian oil fields, and to strike against the British dominance of the Mediterranean. [152], By early December, freshly mobilised reserves[153] allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. [130], Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. [61] The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World WarI. [55], Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig, the United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of Romania and Greece. [135][189], On 1 January 1942, the Allied Big Four[190]the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and the United Statesand 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter,[191] and agreeing not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers. [33] Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria. [147], By October, Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad[148] and Sevastopol continuing. [228][pageneeded], In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein[229] and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes[449] and British Ultra, a pioneering method for decoding Enigma benefiting from information given to the United Kingdom by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum ("living space")[137] by dispossessing the native population[138] and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.
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