World War II

World War II
From left-to-right, top-to-bottom: German and Soviet officers shaking hands at Brest, 1939 Hitler visiting Paris, 1940 A Luftwaffe bomber flying over London, 1940 U.S. ships surrounded by billows of smoke at Pearl Harbor, 1941 A Soviet officer urging his unit to attack, 1942 U.S. troops landing on Omaha Beach, 1944 A Soviet soldier raising his flag over the Reichstag, 1945 The atomic bombing of Nagasaki, 1945
Date 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945 Location Global Status Allied victory
Belligerents
Big Four Soviet Union (1941–45) China United States (1941–45) United Kingdom Other Allied powers Communist Party of China Second Polish Republic (1939) Czechoslovak government-in-exile Third French Republic and colonies (until 1940) Mongolian People's Republic Tuvan People's Republic (until 1944) Kingdom of Denmark (1940) Kingdom of Norway (1940) Kingdom of the Netherlands (1940) Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (1940) Kingdom of Belgium (1940) Free France (1940-1944) Ethiopian government-in-exile (from 1940) Kingdom of Greece (1940-1941) Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1941; switched sides) Republic of Philippines (from 1941) Federative Republic of Brazil (from 1941) United States of Mexico (from 1941) Kingdom of Italy (from 1943; switched sides) Kingdom of Romania (from 1944; switched sides) Kingdom of Bulgaria (from 1944; switched sides) Republic of Finland (from 1944; switched sides)	Main Axis powers Nazi Germany Fascist Italy (1940–43) Imperial Japan Other Axis powers Albania (1940–44) Bohemia and Moravia Bulgaria (1941–44) Burma (1943–45) Croatia (1941–45) Finland (1939–40; 1941–44) Free India (1943–45) Hellenic State (1941–44) Hungary (1941–45) Italian Social Republic (1943–45) Kampuchea (1945) Luang Phrabang (1945) Lokot Autonomy (1941–44) Manchukuo Mengjiang Philippines (1943–45) Provisional Government of the Republic of China (1937–40) Reformed Government of the Republic of China (1938–40) Romania (1941–44) Slovakia Thailand (1941–45) Vietnam (1945) Vichy France (1940–44) Wang Jingwei regime (1940–45) Yugoslavia (1941) Zuyev Republic (1941–44) Military support Finland (1940–44) Francoist Spain (1941–44) Sweden (1940–43) Governments-in-exile Armenian National Council (1942–45) Belarusian Central Council (1944–45) Bulgarian government-in-exile (1944–45) Montenegrin State Council (1944–45) Romanian National Government (1944–45) Sigmaringen enclave (1944–45) Paramilitary groups Chetniks (1941–45) Montenegrin Greens (1941–43) Organisation X (1942–44) Roman Legion (1941–43) Russian Protective Corps (1941–45) Sandžak militia (1941–45) Serbian State Guard (1942–45) Serbian Volunteer Corps (1941–45) Slovene Home Guard (1943–45)
Various resistance-held territories and militias: Republic of Užice (1941) Republic of Bihać (1942-1943) Republic of Poland (from 1944) Political Committee of National Liberation (1944) Yugoslav Partisans (from 1941) EAM (from 1941) EDES (from 1941) Various others
Commanders and leaders
	Main Axis leaders Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hirohito Other Axis leaders Joseph Goebbels Karl Dönitz Lutz von Krosigk Victor Emmanuel III Hiranuma Kiichirō Konoe Fumimaro Tōjō Hideki Koiso Kuniaki

The Red Army raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag on 2 May 1945, six days before Germany surrendered

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global armed conflict which was waged from 1 September 1939 to 2 September 1945. With an estimated total of 50–85 million people dead, it is unanimously considered the deadliest conflict in human history.

Background

Rise of fascism

Adolf Hitler took power in Germany in 1933. Francisco Franco launched a coup against the Second Spanish Republic in 1936, leading to a civil war. Italy and Germany supported the Spanish fascists while Britain and France stayed neutral. Japan and Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936, and Italy joined soon after.^:185–90

Fascist expansion

Following the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, the USSR proposed a collective security system for Europe and signed defense treaties with France and Czechoslovakia.^:185–7 Fascist Japan invaded northeast China in 1931 while the ruling Kuomintang focused on fighting the Communists instead of the Japanese invaders. Italy occupied and colonized Ethiopia in 1935. Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 after announcing a supposed communist uprising. In May, Germany annexed part of Czechoslovakia with support from the West.^:185–90

Attempted anti-fascist alliance

In March 1939 after Germany annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia, the USSR tried to organize an anti-fascist alliance with France and the UK. From June to August, the British secretly met with the Nazis and agreed to allow Germany to invade Eastern Europe in exchange for guaranteeing the integrity of the British Empire. The USSR also proposed a defense agreement with Poland, but Poland refused, and the USSR signed a non-aggression pact with Germany on 23 August 1939.^:185–90

Class character

Graph showing the percentage of casualties in WWII, showing how the Soviet Union was directly affected as a result of imperialist war against socialism.

The character of the war is subject to some contention due to the factor of the socialist Soviet Union as a participant, unlike the First World War which was characterised as an imperialist war for the redivision of the world among the 'great powers' where capitalism had reached its monopoly stage. During the period from the invasion of Poland in September 1939 to the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Comintern designated the war as a second imperialist war and did not co-operate with their respective bourgeois governments and then seemingly reversed their position, something which they are highly maligned for.^{[citation needed]}

British Communist Rajani Palme Dutt clarified that the entry of the Soviet Union only augmented the 'anti-fascist, liberating character' of the war. The fascist invasions culminated in more than 30 million casualties in Europe, and more than 61 million worldwide. The war consisted of a reactionary phase when the ruling classes appeased fascism and did not co-operate with the Soviet struggle for self-determination and then the phase of the united struggle of the peoples against fascism when the Great Alliance was formed in 1941.

Asia-Pacific theatre

Northeast Asia

Japan began its colonial expansion before the outbreak of the war. It invaded Manchuria in 1931 and reached the Soviet border, provoking fears of war.^:185–90 In 1932, Kim Il-sung founded a guerrilla army to resist the occupation of Korea.

The USSR signed a mutual defense agreement with Mongolia in 1934. Mongolia's military spending grew from 34.7% of the state budget in 1934 to 52.5% in 1938, and the term of military service increased from two to three years. In 1938, Japan attacked the Soviet Union at Lake Khasan and tried to capture Vladivostok.^:344–6

Due to repeated Japanese border attacks, Mongolia requested Soviet troops to return in 1937. Japanese aggression increased in early 1939, and Japan launched a full invasion on 1939 May 11. The People's Army fought them at the Halkhin River on May 28 and surrounded them with support from the Soviet Red Army in August. Japan lost 60,000 soldiers (killed or wounded), 700 planes, 340 machine guns, and 12,000 rifles. A peace treaty signed in Moscow took effect on September 15.^:349–50

On 8 August 1945, exactly three months after Germany surrendered, the Soviet Union sent troops into Manchuria and Korea to oust the Japanese colonizers.

Pacific Ocean

Japan attacked U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941 and then colonized Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaya, and New Guinea while the USA was recovering. The USA fought an island-hopping campaign and gradually moved towards Japan. Up to 140,000 people, mostly civilians died in Okinawa during the U.S. invasion.

The United States used atomic bombs against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, killing 443,000 civilians.

European theatre

Poland

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, beginning the European theatre of the war. The Soviet Union forced Germany not to cross the Thasse, Narew, Bug, or Vistula rivers. Following the invasion, France and Britain declared war on Germany but did not actually begin fighting yet.^:185–90 The Nazis used 80% of their strength on the Eastern Front, where they lost over three million soldiers.

Winter War

Though not yet directly involved in the war in late-1939, there were strong fascist and pro-Nazi elements in Finland, and the Soviet government was concerned that at some point or another, Finland might align itself with Nazi Germany, leading Germany to launch an invasion of the Soviet Union from Finland (as the Finnish border was a mere 32 km away from the major port city of Leningrad, and the capture of Leningrad could have had disastrous effects for the Soviet Union).

Due to these concerns, the Soviet government sent a message to the Finnish government on 14 October 1939, asking for Finland to cede the Port of Hanko, the Karelian Isthmus, and four islands to the USSR. This would have effectively given the Soviets naval superiority in the Baltic Sea and made it much more difficult for the Germans to send troops to Finland by boat. In exchange, the Soviets offered Finland a portion of Karelia twice the size of all the other areas combined.

Finland refused however, and on 30 November, the Soviets invaded Finland following the Shelling of Mainila, a false flag operation conducted by the NKVD. Britain, France, Italy, and the United States sent a total of 700 planes, 1,500 cannons, and 6,000 machine guns to Finland. France and Britain also sent 150,000 soldiers to Finland, but Finland sued for peace in March 1940, before the Anglo-French troops could arrive.^:185–90

Western Front

The Nazis invaded Western Europe in May 1940 and began bombing the UK in July. France fell within six weeks. In September 1940, the USA gave 50 old destroyers to the UK in exchange for taking control of British bases in the Americas. The bases were located in eight British colonies: Antigua, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Guiana, Jamaica, Newfoundland, and Saint Lucia, and Trinidad.^:223–4 The U.S. bases prevented Germany from colonizing the Caribbean, Iceland, or Greenland after it took over France, the Netherlands, and Denmark.^:235

The USA created the Lend-Lease program to give military aid to at least thirty countries, starting with the UK. China, Greece, Norway, and the Soviet Union later joined the program.^:237

Eastern Front

Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. General Dmitry Pavlov's incompetence caused the loss of Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on 28 June, and the Military Council ordered his execution.

The Battle of Smolensk began on 10 July 1941 and lasted two months, with Germany losing 250,000 soldiers. The Nazis began their final offensive towards Moscow on 30 September, and 450,000 of the city's inhabitants mobilized to build fortifications and anti-tank defences. Germany bombed Moscow, but their offensive was defeated in early November. The Nazis attempted a second offensive against Moscow on 15 November and occupied some of its southern suburbs but were defeated on 5 December, and the Red Army began a counteroffensive of 720,000 soldiers that pushed 800,000 Nazi soldiers back 100 to 300 km.

The Red Army failed to liberate Crimea in April 1942, and the Nazis counterattacked on 8 May. In May 1942, Aleksandr Vasilevsky, a former assistant to Zhukov, became Chief of Staff. Konstantin Rokossovsky became the commander of the Bryansk front in July. On 23 August 1942, 1,000 German planes began bombing Stalingrad and set the city on fire.^:224–31

The Red Army entered Hungary on 23 August 1944, and Hungary's fascist leader Horthy expected the West to support him against the Soviets.

Middle Eastern theatre

In late 1939, French General Maxime Weygand went to Syria and Turkey to prepare an attack against the Soviet Union and planned to bomb the Baku oilfields.^:185–90 The United States used North Africa to transport cargo by air to Cairo. 65,000 U.S. troops and civilians in Iran and nearby countries transported supplies to the Soviet Union.

External links

• Soviet Storm: WW2 in the East docuseries