The Second World War

The Second World War was the most deadly, destructive and consequential war in history. Seventeen million military personnel died in the war. Civilian deaths in the Soviet Union and China alone totaled 30 million.

Causes of the war can be traced back to the end of World War I. Germany, Italy, and Japan suffered deep economic problems. Inflation was rampant. However, by the late 1920s, economic order was being restored. This trend reversed when the United States entered the Great Depression. The citizens of what would be the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) supported nationalistic organizations which offered hope in the face of these problems. These organizations soon gave birth to tyranny, however. Totalitarian dictatorships arose in the Soviet Union, Japan, Italy, and Germany; these were led by Josef Stalin, Emperor Hirohito, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler, respectively. These leaders seized power by promising reform through unity. Under the dictatorships, however, terror reigned. Dictators used secret police, threats, imprisonment and even executions to eliminate their opposition.

Some consider the start of World War II to be Japan's invasion of Manchuria, a region in eastern China. Japan continued to demonstrate aggression, effectively conquering eastern China by 1938. Italy, meanwhile, conquered Ethiopia in 1936. Germany, in 1938, united Austria with itself. There was essentially no stopping this aggression, since the League of Nations lacked the power to enforce its treaties. (The League had been formed after World War I as an international forum for disputes.) In 1936, German and Italy allied. Japan joined in 1940, forming the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.

During this time, Spain was in civil war. General Francisco Franco led the rebellious army Nationalists against Spain's government. Hitler and Mussolini supported the revolution. The Spanish Civil War divided the world into those who supported Nazism and Fascism, and those who were against it.

Hitler and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain held several meetings to restore peace. They agreed that if Hitler took Czechoslovakia, he would not try to acquire more territory. Hitler defiantly broke his promise by invading Poland 11 months later, on September 1, 1939. Germany's blitzkrieg (lightning war) quickly overcame the large, but poorly equipped Polish Army. The blitzkrieg relied on speed and surprise. It was carried out flawlessly. Britain and France pledged their support for the Allied cause, but stood by while Hitler swallowed Poland. Journalists dubbed this the Phony War.

German forces then conquered Denmark and Norway, seizing vital ports. Following these invasions, Chamberlain resigned. He was replaced by Winston Churchill on May 10, 1940. Germany, on the same day, created another blitzkrieg, immediately taking Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The French hoped to hold off the aggressive Germans by use of the Maginot Line, a strip of defense along the French-German border. It proved futile, however, as the Germans simply proceeded around it and into France. The blitzkrieg once again made its appearance, this time beginning on June 5. It proved effective once more. The French signed an armistice on June 22. France had fallen.

In a massive air war, the Luftwaffe, the German air force, began to mount assaults on British RAF (Royal Air Force) stations. By September 1940, Germany thought it had destroyed the RAF, so it proceeded to bomb London. This series of attacks on Britain's capital was known as the Blitz. Great Britain remained great, however, and survived Germany's most destructive efforts. Germany halted its air efforts in May 1941.

Meanwhile, British forces in North Africa were fighting to repel the invading Italians. Britain managed to keep Italy out of Egypt and pushed them back to Libya. In the beginning of 1941, the Afrika Korps, led by General Erwin Rommel, was sent to help the Italian forces. Rommel's crafty methods eventually earned him the famed moniker, "The Desert Fox." Britain held on. In May of 1941, Britain had regained control of northern Africa.

In March and April of 1941, the Germans quickly captured Yugoslavia and Greece. When British soldiers retreated to the island of Crete, Germany orchestrated the first ever airborne invasion, dropping thousands of paratroopers who quickly took the island. These conquests were an error on Hitler's part, however. Hitler had been planning to invade the Soviet Union for some time. But, with the delays, he would now have to fight an extended, bitter winter war.

Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, began on June 22, 1941. The Soviets soon suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties. The invasion went well for the Germans. This lasted briefly however. Instead of taking Moscow, Hitler opted for a dual-flank approach, sending some forces north to Leningrad, and some south towards the Black Sea. Meanwhile, the harsh weather began. October rains caught the Germans in mud. In early December, as German troops began to march into Moscow, winter began. Temperatures fell to -40Ð'Ñ". The German advance stopped as abruptly as it began.

Germany's battleships struggled to cut off Allied sea supply routes. But British task forces managed to destroy the bulk of Germany's battleship fleet. The largest such attack was against the German Navy's pride and joy, the Bismarck. A fleet of British warships surrounded and sank the Bismarck in May of 1941. However, the Germans still had a trick up their collective sleeve: the U-Boat. For two years, U-Boats sank every Allied supply ship they could find. But long-range torpedo bombers, warship escorts of supply ships, and the new Allied technology of sonar curbed the threat of the dreaded Unterseeboote.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt hoped to win the war by supplying Allied nations with the weapons they needed, rather than sending the United States into war. The Lend-Lease Act gave 38 nations about $50 billion in U.S. aid.

Japan, stuck in China, decided to cut off vital Chinese supply lines from Southeast Asia. Japan entered and controlled northern Indochina. The U.S. responded by cutting Japan's supply of American goods. Japan wanted to return to its expansion plans, so it turned on the one force that could stop it: the United States Navy. On December 7, 1941, a Japanese task force attacked the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. They sank four battleships, and destroyed nearly 20 aircraft. The next day, the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain declared war on Japan.

The Soviets, in December 1941, recovered and pushed the Germans back 100 miles outside of Moscow. In Spring 1942, the Germans marched