World War II

Collage of WWII images (from left to right): Task Force Phoenix commandos storm a Nazi German armored train, 1945; US soldiers throwing smoke grenades to cover an advance towards German soldiers, 1944, a British soldier raids an underground tunnel network in Egypt, North Africa, 1943; US soldiers storm a Nazi German bunker during D-Day, 1944; US soldiers storming a bridge across the Rhine River, 1945; US Marines attacking an Imperial Japanese outpost on Makin Island, 1942; Task Force Phoenix commandos participate in the Battle of Berlin alongside the Soviet Red Army, 1945; a British soldier engages Afrika Korps soldiers in El Daba, Egypt, 1942

## General information

### Location

Global:* North Africa
* East Asia
* Europe

### Outcome

Allied Victory:Dissolution of Nazi Germany, Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan

Allied occupation in Germany, Japan, Austria

Allied divide both Germany and Korea into communist and capitalist state

Dissolution of the League of Nations

Creation of the United Nations

Emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as superpowers

## Major Events

### Battles

African Front:* Battle of El Alamein
* Battle of El Daba
* Battle of Kasserine Pass
* Operation Bluefish
* Operation Battleaxe
* Battle of Gazala
* Battle of Tobruk

Mediterranean Front:

* Operation Avalanche

Pacific Front:

* Battle of Peleliu
* Raid on Makin Island
* Battle of Iwo Jima
* Battle of Guadacanal
* Battle of Leyte Gulf
* Battle of Okinawa
* Operation Red Dragon
* Soviet Invasion of Manchuria
* Battle of Mutanchiang

Eastern Front:

* Battle of Stalingrad
* Battle of Seelow Heights
* Battle of Berlin
* Operation Dark Phoenix

## Combatants

### Allied Combatants

Allied Powers:* United States of America
* United Kingdom
* France
* China
* Soviet Union
* Canada

Occupied countries with governments-in-exile:

French Republic (until 1940, 1944-1945)

Free France

Netherlands (from 1940)

Belgium (from 1940)

Norway (from 1940)

Greece (from 1941)

### Opposition Combatants

Axis Powers:* Nazi Germany
* Italy
* Imperial Japanese Empire

## Commanders and Leaders

### Allied Forces

Allied Powers:Franklin D. Roosevelt (from 1941-1945)

Harry S. Truman (1945)

Neville Chamberlain (from 1939-1940)

Winston Churchill (from 1940-1945)

William Lyon Mackenzie King

Joseph Stalin

Albert Lebrun (from 1939-1940)

Charles De Gaulle

Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy (from 1940-1945)

Hubert Pierlot

Johan Nygaardsvold

Emmanouil Tsouderos (from 1941-1944)

Georgios Papandreou (from 1944-1945)

Task Force Phoenix:

* Aaron Dean

### Opposition Forces

Nazi Germany:* Adolf Hitler (from 1939-1945)
* Karl Dönitz (1945)
* Ernst Kals
* Maximilian von Weichs
* Friedrich Paulus
* Hermann Hoth
* Erich von Manstein
* W. F. von Richthofen

Romania:

* Petre Dumitrescu
* C. Constantinescu

Italy:

* Benito Mussolini (deceased

Imperial Japanese Empire

* Emperor Hirohito
* Hideki Tojo
* Kunio Nakagawa (deceased)
* Sadae Inoue
* Tadamichi Kuribayashi (deceased)
* Takeichi Nishi (deceased)
* Sadasue Senda (deceased)
* Rinosuke Ichimaru (deceased)
* Mitsuru Ushijima (deceased)
* Isamu Chō (deceased)
* Minoru Ōta (deceased)
* Seiichi Itō (deceased)

## Strength

### Allied Strength

US Armed ForcesBritish Armed Forces

Soviet Armed Forces

Task Force Phoenix commandos

### Enemy Strength

Nazi Germany:* Wehrmacht
* Luftwaffe
* Waffen-SS
* Kriegsmarine

Italy:

* Royal Italian Army
* Royal Italian Navy
* Royal Italian Air Force

## Casualties and losses

### Total deaths

Over 73,000,000

**World War II** (often abbreviated as **WWII** or **WW2,** also known as the **Second World War** or, on the Eastern Front, the **Great Patriotic War**) was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations including all of the great powers, eventually forming two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis Powers.

World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. The United Kingdom and France subsequently declared war on Germany on 3 September. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had partitioned Poland and marked out their "spheres of influence" across Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan (along with other countries later on). However, in 1941, Hitler broke his pact with the USSR and invaded the country, leading to the USSR declaring war on Nazi Germany.

It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilized. 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 was the deadliest conflict in human history, resulting in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities.

WWII is significant in that it changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe. After the war, the United Nations was founded to ensure such a war never happened again. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War that would happen years later.