World War 2

World War 2 (1939–45) International conflict arising from disputes provoked by the expansionist policies of Germany in Europe and Japan in the Far East. During the 1930s, appeasement failed to check the ambitions of Adolf Hitler's regime in Germany. Having made a defensive pact with the Soviet Union (August 1939), Germany invaded Poland, whereupon Britain and France declared war (September 3). In 1940, German Blitzkrieg tactics resulted in the rapid conquest of Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries, and France (June). Inability to gain command of the air prevented a German invasion of Britain, although bombing (see Blitz, the) devastated British cities. German submarines also took a heavy toll of Britain's merchant fleets. Italy, under Benito Mussolini, having annexed Albania (1939) and invaded Greece (1940), joined Germany in 1941. Germany invaded Greece, where the Italians had been checked, and Yugoslavia. In June 1941, the Germans, violating the pact of 1939, invaded the Soviet Union, advancing to the outskirts of Moscow and Leningrad (now St Petersburg). Italian defeats by the British in North Africa also drew in German troops, who forced a British retreat. In the Pacific, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) drew the USA into the war. Japan rapidly overran se Asia and Burma, but the Battle of Midway (June 1942) indicated growing US naval and air superiority. From 1942, the tide in Europe turned against Germany. Defeat at Stalingrad (January 1943) was followed by a Soviet advance that drove the Germans out of the Soviet Union by August 1944. Defeats in North Africa in 1942–43 led to the Allied invasion of Italy, forcing the Italians to make peace (September 1943). German troops then occupied Italy, where they resisted the Allied advance until 1945. In June 1944, Allied forces invaded Normandy. They liberated France and advanced into Germany, linking up with the Soviets beside the River Elbe in April 1945. Germany surrendered in May. Japan continued to resist, but surrendered in August after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Estimates of the numbers killed in World War 2 exceed 50 million. The great majority of the dead were civilians, many murdered in Nazi concentration camps. Politically, two former allies, the USA and the Soviet Union, emerged as dominant world powers, with antagonistic ideologies. See also Cold War