World War II (often abbreviated as World War II or WW2 ), also known as Second World War , is a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although the conflict reflecting the ideological clash between what would become the Allied bloc and the Axis Block began earlier. Most countries of the world - including all the major powers - eventually formed two opposing military alliances: Allies and Axis. It is the most global war in history; directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of total warfare, the main participants threw all their economic, industrial and scientific abilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, characterized by 50 to 85 million casualties, mostly civilians in the Soviet Union and China. These include massacres, Holocaust genocide, strategic bombings, planned deaths from hunger and disease and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
The Japanese Empire aims to dominate Asia and the Pacific and has been at war with the Republic of China in 1937, but world war is generally said to have started on September 1, 1939, the day of Polish invasion by Nazi Germany and subsequent war declarations in Germany by France and England. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled most of the European continent, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union divided and annexed their European neighboring regions, Poland, Finland, Romania, and the Baltic states. The battle continues primarily between the forces of the European Axis and the British and British Commonwealth coalitions, with campaigns including the North African and East African campaigns, the British Air Battle, the Blitz bombing campaign, and the Balkan Campaign, as well as the longstanding battle of the Atlantic Ocean. On June 22, 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest ground war theater in history, trapping the main part of the Axis military forces into an atrition war. In December 1941, the Japanese attacked the United States and Europe colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.
Axis Progress was suspended in 1942 when the Japanese lost the Mid-Middle Battle, and Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and later, convincingly, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. In 1943, with a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy causing Italy's surrender, and Allied victories in the Pacific, Poros lost the initiative and made strategic retreats on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied Germany, while the Soviet Union regained all its territorial losses and attacked Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945, Japan experienced a major setback in mainland Asia in Southern Central China and Burma, while the Allies paralyzed the Japanese Navy and seized the important islands of the Western Pacific.
The war in Europe ended with a German invasion by the Western Allies and Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet forces, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the subsequent German unconditioning on May 8, 1945. After the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and Japan's refusal to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 respectively. With the imminent invasion of the Japanese archipelago, the possibility of additional atomic bombardment and Soviet invasion of Manchuria, Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945. Thus ending the war in Asia, strengthening the total Allied victory.
World War II changed the political harmony and the social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to encourage international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The great powers that win - China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States - become permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as a rival superpower, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of the great powers of Europe faded, while the decolonization of Africa and Asia began. Most of the countries whose industries are damaged are moving toward economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an attempt to end pre-war hostilities and to create a common identity.
Video World War II
Chronology
The beginning of the war in Europe was generally held September 1, 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland; Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of the war in the Pacific included the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on July 7, 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931.
Others followed the English historian A. J. P. Taylor, who declared that the Japanese-Chinese War and the war in Europe and its colonies coincided, and the two wars merged in 1941. This article uses a conventional dating. Other start dates sometimes used for World War II include the Abyssinian Italian invasion on October 3, 1935. The English historian Antony Beevor saw the beginnings of World War II when the Battle of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and Mongolian and Soviet troops from May to September 1939.
The exact date of the end of the war was also not universally approved. Generally accepted at the end of the war with the August 14, 1945 (VJ Day) truce, rather than the official Japanese surrender, which on September 2, 1945. The peace treaty with Japan was signed in 1951. A treaty regarding the future of Germany enabled the reunification of East Germany and the West took place in 1990 and solved most of the problems post-World War II. Formal peace agreements between Japan and the Soviet Union have never been signed.
Maps World War II
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Europe
World War I had radically changed the political map of Europe, with the defeat of the Central Bloc - including Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire-and the 1917 Bolshevik power struggle in Russia, leading eventually to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the winning World War I allies, such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and a new nation-state was created from the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire and Russia.
In order to prevent future world wars, the League of Nations was created during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The main objective of the organization was to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military and maritime disarmament, and resolve international disputes through peace negotiations and arbitration.
Despite strong pacifist sentiments after World War I, the result still caused irrational and revanchist nationalism in some European countries. These sentiments were mainly marked in Germany because of significant territorial, colonial and financial losses incurred by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost about 13 percent of its original territory and all of its property abroad, while the annexation of Germany over other countries was forbidden, reparations imposed, and restrictions placed on the size and capability of the state armed forces.
The German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution from 1918 to 1919, and the democratic government, which came to be known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw a dispute between supporters of the new republic and hard-line opponents on the right and left. Italy, as an ally of the Entente, has made some post-war territorial advantage; However, Italian nationalists are angry that the promises made by Britain and France to secure the Italian entrance into war are not met in a peaceful settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with the agenda of nationalist, totalitarian and class collaboration that abolished representative democracy, suppressed the socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued aggressive aggressive expansionist policies aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of the "New Roman Empire".
Adolf Hitler, after a failed attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, supported a radical revision, racially motivated the world order, and immediately embarked on a massive arms campaign. Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allows Italy freely in Ethiopia, which Italy wants as its colonial possession. This situation was exacerbated in early 1935 when the Saar Basin Region was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler rejected the Versailles Treaty, speeded up the arms program again, and introduced conscription.
To detain Germany, Britain, France and Italy formed Stresa Front in April 1935; however, in June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, reducing previous restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned about Germany's goal of controlling large areas of Eastern Europe, developed mutual aid agreements with France. But before taking action, the Franco-Soviet pact must go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which is basically toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year.
Hitler opposed the Treaties of Versailles and Locarno by the remodeling of the Rhineland in March 1936, facing little resistance. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome-Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy will follow in the following year.
Asia
The Kuomintang Party (KMT) in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally united China in the mid-1920s, but soon engaged in a civil war against former Chinese Communist Party allies and new regional warlords. In 1931, the increasingly militarized Japanese Empire, which has long sought influence in China as the first step of what the government sees as the state's right to govern Asia, used the Mukden Incident as a pretext to launch the invasion of Manchuria and establish the Manchukuo puppet state.
Too weak to fight against Japan, China asks for the help of the League of Nations. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being criticized for its attack on Manchuria. The two countries then fought in several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Trend was signed in 1933. After that, Chinese volunteers continued resistance against Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan. After the Xi'an Events of 1936, the Kuomintang and the communist forces approved a ceasefire to present a united front against the Japanese.
Pre-war events
The Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) by the Italian Royal Army ( Regno d'Italia ) , which was launched from Somaliland and Eritrea Italy. The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation to the new East African Italian colony ( Africa Orientale Italiana , or AOI); besides exposing the weaknesses of the League of Nations as a force for maintaining peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia are member states, but the League did nothing when the first clear violation of Article X Liga. Germany was the only major European country to openly support the invasion. Italy then dropped its objection against the German goal to absorb Austria. The Spanish Civil War (1936-39)
Spanish Civil War (1936-39) h3>When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini gave military support to the Nationalist rebels, led by General Francisco Franco. The Soviet Union supports the existing government, the Spanish Republic. More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in their most advanced weapons and tactics fight. The Nationalists won a civil war in April 1939; Franco, now a dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally liked Poros. His greatest collaboration with Germany was the volunteer submission to fight on the Eastern Front. Japan's invasion of China (1937)
Soviet-Japanese border conflictIn the mid-1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of Mongolia. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which emphasized the expansion of Japan to the north, was favored by the Imperial Army during this time. With Japan's defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and Nazi Germany's allies pursued neutrality with the Soviets, this policy would prove difficult to sustain. Japan and the Soviet Union finally signed the Pact of Neutrality in April 1941, and Japan adopted the Nanshin-ron doctrine, promoted by the Navy, which took the focus to the south, leading eventually to its war with the United States and the Western Allies.
European jobs and agreements
In Europe, Germany and Italy became more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, once again provoking little response from other European powers. Feeling compelled, Hitler began to suppress the German claim in Sudetenland, a Czechoslovakia region with a predominantly ethnic German population; and soon Britain and France follow the advice of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and surrender this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which is made contrary to the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for promises of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to surrender additional territory to Hungary and Poland annex Zaolzie Czechoslovakia territory.
Although all the demands stated by Germany have been fulfilled by the treaty, personally Hitler was furious that British intervention prevented him from seizing all Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches, Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war fighters" and in January 1939 secretly ordered the main buildup of the German navy to challenge the supremacy of the British navy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia and then divided it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the pro-German client state of the Slovak Republic. Hitler also handed over the March 20, 1939 ultimatum to Lithuania, forcing the concession of Klaip?
Very worried and with Hitler making further demands in the Free City of Danzig, England and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee extended to Romania and Greece. Shortly after Franco-Britain's pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formulated their own alliance with the Steel Pact. Hitler accused Britain and Poland of trying to "besiege" Germany and abandon the British-German Navy Treaty and the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact.
The situation reached a general crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilize against the Polish border. On August 23, when the tripartite negotiations on military alliances between France, Britain and the Soviet Union ceased, the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany. This pact has a secret protocol that defines the "influence influences" of Germany and the Soviets "(western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raises the question of continuing Polish independence.The pact neutralizes the possibility of Soviet opposition to the campaign against Poland and assured that Germany should not face the prospect of a two-way war, as it did in World War I. Soon after, Hitler ordered the attack to continue August 26, but after hearing that Britain had completed the aid agreement reciprocity with Poland, and that Italy would keep its neutrality, he decided to postpone it.
In response to British demands for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany filed a lawsuit against Poland, which only served as a pretext to exacerbate relations. On August 29, Hitler demanded that a full-power minister immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig, and to allow plebiscites in the Polish Corridor where the German minority would vote for secession. Poland refused to comply with Germany's demands, and on the night of August 30-31 in a violent encounter with British ambassador Neville Henderson, Ribbentrop stated that Germany considers its claims rejected.
The course of the war
War broke out in Europe (1939-40)
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland after staging several border incidents of a false flag, which served as a pretext for Hitler to begin hostilities against the country. Britain responded with an ultimatum to Germany to stop military operations, and on September 3, after the ultimatum was ignored, France, Britain, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany. The alliance is joined by South Africa (6 September) and Canada (10 September). The alliance does not provide direct military support to Poland, beyond the careful French investigation into Saarland. The Western Allies also initiated the German marine blockade, aimed at undermining the country's economy and the war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat battles against Allied merchants and warships, which would then escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic.
On September 8, German forces reached the outskirts of Warsaw. Polish counterattack to the west halted German progress for several days, but it was surrounded and surrounded by Wehrmacht. The remains of Polish troops broke into besieged Warsaw. On September 17, 1939, after signing a ceasefire with Japan, the Soviets invaded Eastern Poland under the pretext that the Polish state had been as if nothing else. On September 27, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to Germany, and the last major operating unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6 October. Despite the military defeat, the Polish government never gave up. Important parts of Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania and the Baltic states; many of them will fight against the Axis in other war theaters. The Polish government in exile also established the Underground State and the resistance movement; especially the Polish Home Home Forces will grow into one of the greatest resistance movements of the war.
Germany annexed the western region and occupied the central part of Poland, and the Soviet Union annexed its eastern part; a small part of the Polish region was moved to Lithuania and Slovakia. On October 6, Hitler made a public reconciliation to Britain and France, but said that Poland's future would be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected, and Hitler ordered a direct attack on France, which would be postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather.
The Soviet Union forced the Baltic States - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, countries within the scope of Soviet influence "- to sign the" reciprocal aid pact "setting the placement of Soviet troops in these countries. Soon afterwards, the Soviet military The contingent was transferred there, Finland refused to sign a similar agreement and refused to hand over part of its territory to the Soviet Union, which prompted the Soviet invasion of November 1939, and the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations. ended in March 1940 with minimal Finnish concession.
In June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and disputed Romania in Bessarabia, North Bukovina and Hertza. Meanwhile, the Nazi-Soviet political approach and economic cooperation gradually stalled, and both countries began preparations for war.
Western Europe (1940-41)
In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect iron ore shipments from Sweden, which the Allies tried to break. Denmark surrendered after several hours, and Norway was conquered within two months despite Allied support. British dissatisfaction over the Norwegian campaign led to the appointment of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister at 10 May 1940.
On the same day, Germany launched an attack on France. To avoid a strong Maginot Line fortress on the French-German border, Germany directs its assault on neutral countries in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The German maneuvered flanking through the Ardennes region, which the Allies mistakenly regarded as an impenetrable natural barrier against armored vehicles. Successfully applying new blitzkrieg tactics, the Wehrmacht quickly advanced to the Channel and broke off Allied forces in Belgium, trapping most Allied troops inside a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The British managed to evacuate large numbers of Allied forces from the continent in early June, despite leaving almost all of their equipment.
On June 10, Italy invaded France, declaring war on France and Britain. The Germans turned south against the weak French army, and Paris fell on them in June 14. Ã, . Eight days later France signed a ceasefire with Germany; the region is divided into the German and Italian occupation zones, and the uninhabited states under the Vichy regime, which, although officially neutral, are generally parallel to Germany. France maintained its fleet, which Britain attacked on July 3 in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany.
The British battle began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and ports. Britain rejected Hitler's ultimatum, and the German air superiority campaign began in August but failed to defeat the RAF Combat Command. Because of this, the proposed German invasion of Britain was postponed indefinitely on September 17th. . The German strategic bombing attack intensified with night raids in London and other cities in Blitz, but failed to significantly interfere with British war effort and largely ended in May 1941.
Using the newly captured port of France, the German Navy enjoyed success against the overwhelming Royal Navy, using U-ships against British voyages in the Atlantic. The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by drowning the German battleship Bismarck .
In November 1939, the United States, which took steps to assist China and the Western Allies, amended the Act of Neutrality to allow the purchase of "cash and carry" by the Allies. In 1940, after Germany captured Paris, the size of the United States Navy increased significantly. In September, the United States further approved the American destroyer trade for the British base. However, most American public continues to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict until 1941.
In December 1940 Roosevelt accused Hitler of plotting the world's conquest and putting aside all talks as useless, calling on the United States to be "a storehouse of democracy" and promoting Lend-Lease's aid program to support the British war effort. The US embarked on a strategic plan to prepare for a full-scale attack against Germany.
In late September 1940, the Tripartite Pact officially united Japan, Italy and Germany as the Axis Block. The Tripartite pact provides that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, who attacks every Axis Power will be forced to fight against all three. The axis was expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined. Romania and Hungary will make a major contribution to the Aus war against the Soviet Union; in the case of Romania in part to reclaim the territories left to the Soviet Union. Mediterranean Mediterranean (1940-41) Mediterranean (1940-41)
Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, embarked on a Maltese siege in June, conquered British Somaliland in August, and made an invasion of British-controlled Egypt in September 1940. In October 1940, Italy started the Greek-Italian War because of Mussolini's jealousy from Hitler's success but within days it is broken off with some territorial advantages and deadlock is imminent. The United Kingdom responded to requests for assistance from Greece by sending troops to Crete and providing air support to Greece. Hitler decided that as the weather improved he would take action against Greece to help the Italians and prevent England from gaining a foothold in the Balkans, to strike against the dominance of the British navy in the Mediterranean, and to secure its holdings on Romanian oil.
In December 1940, British Commonwealth troops began a counterattack against Italian troops in Egypt and East Africa Italy. The attack in North Africa was very successful and in early February 1941 Italy lost control of eastern Libya and a large number of Italian soldiers have been held captive. The Italian navy also suffered a significant defeat, with the Royal Navy placing three Italian warships out of commission by aircraft carrier attacks on Taranto, and neutralizing some other warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.
Germany immediately intervened to help Italy. Hitler sent German troops to Libya in February, and by the end of March Axis had launched an attack that pushed back the weakened Commonwealth forces to support Greece. In less than a month, the Commonwealth forces were pushed back to Egypt with the exception of the beleaguered port of Tobruk that fell later. The Commonwealth tried to repel the Axis troops in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions.
At the end of March 1941, after Bulgaria signed the Tripartite Pact, Germany was in a position to intervene in Greece. The plan was changed, however, due to developments in neighboring Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav government signed a Tripartite pact on March 25, only to be ousted two days later by a British-driven coup. Hitler saw the new regime as the enemy and immediately decided to eliminate it. On April 6 Germany simultaneously attacked Yugoslavia and Greece, making rapid progress and forcing the two countries to surrender within a month. Britain was expelled from the Balkans after the Germans conquered Greece's Crete island in late May. Despite the rapid axis victory, bitter partisan warfare then broke out against the occupation of the Yugoslav Shaft, which continued until the end of the war.
The Allies did have some success during this time. In the Middle East, the Commonwealth forces first canceled an insurgency in Iraq that had been supported by German aircraft from Syrian-controlled Vichy bases, then, with the help of Free France, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such incidents.
Axis attack USSR (1941)
With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the soviets wary of escalating tensions with Germany and Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing Southeast Asia's resource rich fortunes, the two powers signed the Soviet-Japan Neutrality Pact in April 1941. In contrast, Germany steadily made preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, mobilizing troops on the Soviet border.
Hitler believed that Britain'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. He therefore decided to try to strengthen German relations with the Soviets, or fail, to attack and eliminate them as a factor. In November 1940, negotiations were made to determine whether the Soviet Union would join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed interest, but requested concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany deems unacceptable. On December 18, 1940, Hitler issued a directive to prepare for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
On June 22, 1941, Germany, backed by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of conspiring against them. They were soon joined by Finland and Hungary. The main target of this sudden attack was the Baltic, Moscow and Ukraine regions, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from the Caspian to the White Sea. Hitler's aim was to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military force, destroy Communism, produce Lebensraum ("living space") by depriving the indigenous population and ensuring access to the strategic resources needed to defeat the remaining German rivals.
Although the Red Army was preparing for a strategic backlash before the war, Barbarossa forced the supreme command of the Soviets to adopt strategic defenses. During the summer, Poros made significant gains to Soviet territory, causing huge losses both in personnel and material. In mid-August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend an attack from the very depleted Army Group Center, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to strengthen the advance forces towards the center of Ukraine and Leningrad. Offensive Kiev is very successful, resulting in the siege and removal of four Soviet soldiers, and allow further progress to the Crimea and develop the industry of Eastern Ukraine (First Battle of Kharkov).
The transfer of three quarters of the Axis and most of their air forces from France and the Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted Britain to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, Britain and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany. Britain and the Soviets invaded neutral Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iranian oil fields. In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter.
In October the operational goals of Axis in Ukraine and the Baltic region were reached, with only the siege of Leningrad and Sevastopol continuing. Major attacks on Moscow are renewed; After two months of fierce fighting in increasingly bad weather, the Germans almost reached the outskirts of Moscow, where exhausted troops were forced to suspend their attacks. Major territorial gains were made by the Axis, but their campaigns failed to reach its primary goal: the two main cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet ability to fight was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained much of its military potential. Stage blitzkrieg The war in Europe has ended.
In early December, newly mobilized reserves allowed the Soviets to reach numerical parity with the Axis troops. This, as well as intelligence data that determined that the minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be enough to prevent any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army, allowing the Soviets to embark on a massive counterattack that began on Dec. 5 along the front and pushed the German forces 100-250 kilometers 62-155Ã, mi) west.
War broke out in the Pacific (1941)
In 1939, the United States had abandoned its trade agreements with Japan; and, beginning with a gasoline flight ban in July 1940, Japan was subjected to increasing economic pressure. During this time, Japan launched its first attack on Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed in late September. Despite several attacks by both sides, the war between China and Japan came to a dead end in 1940. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to put Japanese troops better in the event of a war with Western powers, the Japanese invaded and occupied north of Indochina. After that, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical components against Japan. Other sanctions soon follow.
Chinese nationalist troops launched a massive counterattack in early 1940. In August, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted a crackdown in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. The continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in an armed clash in January 1941, effectively ending their cooperation. In March, the 11th Japanese army attacked the headquarters of China's 19th army but was repulsed during the Shanggao Battle. In September, Japan sought to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.
Germany's success in Europe prompted Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan with some supply of oil from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941. In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch ownership in Far East. The United States, the United Kingdom and other Western governments reacted to this move by freezing Japanese assets and a total oil embargo. At the same time, Japan planned the invasion of the Far East Soviet, intending to exploit the German invasion in the west, but abandoned operations after sanctions.
Since the beginning of 1941 the United States and Japan have engaged in negotiations in an effort to improve their tense relations and end the war in China. During this negotiation Japan put forward a number of proposals which the United States rejected as inadequate. At the same time the US, UK, and the Netherlands are engaged in secret discussions for joint defense of their territory, in the event of Japanese attacks against them. Roosevelt strengthened the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the US would react to Japan's attack on any "neighboring country".
Frustrated by the lack of progress and feeling the fall of American-British-Dutch sanctions, Japan prepares for war. On November 20 a new government under Hideki Tojo presented a provisional proposal as his last offer. It calls for an end to US aid to China and for oil and other resources to Japan. Instead Japan promised not to launch any kind of attack in Southeast Asia and withdraw its troops from southern Indochina. The November 26 counter-November proposal requires Japan to evacuate all of China unconditionally and conclude a non-aggression pact with all Pacific powers. It meant that Japan was basically forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the necessary resources in the Indies by force; The Japanese military did not regard the former as an option, and many officers regarded the oil embargo as an unspoken declaration of war.
Japan plans to seize the European colonies in Asia to create a large perimeter of defense that extends to the Central Pacific; Japan would then be free to exploit Southeast Asia's resources while exhausting the widespread Allied with defensive warfare. To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it is planned further to neutralize the US Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in the Philippines from the beginning. On December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American ownership with an almost simultaneous attack on Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These include attacks on American fleets in Pearl Harbor, Philippines, landings in Thailand and Malaya and the battle of Hong Kong.
These attacks led the United States, Britain, China, Australia and some other countries to formally declare war on Japan, while the Soviet Union, deeply involved in large-scale hostilities with the European Axis, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan. Germany, followed by other Axis countries, declared war on the United States in solidarity with Japan, citing the justification of the American assault on German warships ordered by Roosevelt.
In late April 1942, Japan and its allies, Thailand, almost completely conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inflicting heavy losses on Allied forces and taking large numbers of prisoners. Despite the stubborn resistance by Philippine and US troops, the Commonwealth of the Philippines was finally arrested in May 1942, forcing his government to be alienated. On April 16, in Burma, 7,000 British troops were besieged by Japan's 33rd Division during the Yenangyaung Battle and rescued by the 38th Division of China. Japanese troops also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean, and bombed Allied naval bases in Darwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was China's victory in Changsha. This easy victory over this undesirable US and European opponent made Japan overconfident, too much.
In early May 1942, Japan began operations to capture Port Moresby with amphibious assault and thereby disconnect the lines of communication and supply between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when the Allied forces, which centered on two American carriers, fought the Japanese naval forces for a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The next Japanese plan, motivated by previous Doolittle Attacks, was to seize the Midway Atoll and lure American carriers to the battlefield to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan will also send troops to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In mid-May, Japan initiated the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign in China, with the aim of causing retaliation against Chinese people who assist American aviators who survived the Doolittle Attack by destroying air bases and fighting the Military Groups 23 and 32 of the Chinese Army. In early June, Japan operated but the Americans, after deciphering the Japanese naval code by the end of May, were fully aware of the plans and sequences of combat, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory in Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.
With his capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, the Japanese chose to focus on a late attempt to capture Port Moresby through land campaigns in the Papuan Territory. The Americans are planning a counterattack against Japan's position in the southern Solomon Islands, especially Guadalcanal, as the first step towards capturing Rabaul, Japan's main base in Southeast Asia.
Both plans began in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal was prioritized for Japan, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from Port Moresby to the north of the island, where they face Australia and England. Stating troops in Buna-Gona Battle. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitment of troops and ships in battle for Guadalcanal. In early 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. In Burma, the Commonwealth forces launched two operations. The first, the attack on the Arakan area in late 1942, became a disaster, forcing a retreat back to India in May 1943. The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind the Japanese front line in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.
The Eastern Front (1942-43)
Despite many losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies halted the massive Soviet invasions in central and southern Russia, retaining most of the territorial gains they had achieved over the previous year. In May the Germans defeated the Soviet invasion of the Kerch Peninsula and in Kharkov, and then launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the Caucasus oil field and occupy Kubanah while retaining the position in the north and center of the front area. Germany divides the Southern Group Army into two groups: The Army Group A progresses to the lower Don River and invades the southeast into the Caucasus, while the Army Group B goes to the Volga River. The Soviets decided to stand at Stalingrad in the Volga.
In mid-November, Germany almost captured Stalingrad in a street battle as the Soviets embarked on their second winter retaliatory strike, beginning with the siege of German troops in Stalingrad and the attack on the prominent Rzhev near Moscow, although the latter failed with catastrophe.. By early February 1943, the German Army had lost so much; The German forces in Stalingrad have been forced to surrender, and the frontline has been pushed back beyond its position before the summer attacks. In mid-February, after the Soviet insistence subsided, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating an important line on their front line around the Kursk city of the Soviets.
Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942-43 )
Utilizing the bad American naval commander's decision, the German navy struck Allied shipments from the Atlantic coast of America. In November 1941, the Commonwealth forces launched a counterattack, Operation Crusader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the profits that Germany and Italy had made. In North Africa, Germany launched an offensive in January, pushing Britain back into position at Gazala Line in early February, followed by a temporary pause in the battle that Germany used to prepare for their upcoming attacks. Japan's concerns may use a base in Madagascar that Vichy holds caused the British to attack the island in early May 1942. Axis attacks in Libya forced the Allied forces deep inside Egypt until the Axis troops stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, the raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in a catastrophic Dieppe Raid, show the inability of the Western Allies to launch attacks on the European continent without much improved preparation, equipment and operational security.
In August 1942, the Allies successfully repulsed a second attack on El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to deliver much-needed supplies to beleaguered Malta. A few months later, the Allies started their own offensive in Egypt, deprived the Axis troop and began their westward journey across Libya. This attack was followed up soon after by the Anglo-American landing at France North Africa, which resulted in the territory joining the Allies. Hitler responded to the defection of the French colony by ordering the occupation of Vichy France; although Vichy's troops did not fight this ceasefire violation, they managed to fend off their fleet to prevent his capture by German forces. The Axis troops in Africa retreated to Tunisia, conquered by the Allies in May 1943.
In June 1943, Britain and America started a strategic bombing campaign against Germany in order to disrupt the war economy, reduce morale, and "execute" civilians. The flames in Hamburg were one of the first attacks in this campaign, causing significant casualties and causing huge losses to the infrastructure of this important industrial center.
Allies gain momentum (1943-44)
After the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies started operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and US troops were sent to obliterate Japanese troops from the Aleutians. Soon after, the US, with support from Australian and New Zealand troops, began a major operation to isolate Rabaul by capturing the surrounding islands, and penetrated the Central Pacific perimeter of Japan in Gilbert and the Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and had also neutralized the main Japanese base on the Truck in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to reclaim New Guinea. In the Soviet Union, both Germany and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for a major offensive in central Russia. On July 4, 1943, the Germans attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German troops had been fighting against the very deep and well-built Soviet defense and, for the first time in the war, Hitler canceled operations before achieving tactical or operational success. This decision was partly influenced by the Western Allied invasion of Sicily that was launched on July 9 which, combined with Italy's previous failure, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month.
On July 12, 1943, the Soviets launched their own counterattack, thereby eliminating the chances of a German victory or even a deadlock in the east. The Soviet victory at the Kursk marked the end of Germany's superiority, giving the Soviet Union an initiative on the Eastern Front. The Germans tried to stabilize their eastern fronts along the hastily fortified Panther-Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through in Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensives.
On September 3, 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following an Italian truce with the Allies. Germany with the help of fascists responded by disarming Italian troops in many places without higher orders, seizing control of the territory over Italy, and creating a series of defensive lines. The German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who soon established a new clientele in Italy occupied by Germany called the Italian Social Republic, which led to the Italian civil war. Western allies struggled through several lines to reach Germany's main line of defense in mid-November.
The German operation in the Atlantic also suffered. In May 1943, when Allied countermeasures became more effective, substantial German submarine losses forced the temporary suspension of the German naval campaign. In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. The previous conference established a return of Japanese territory and military planning for the post-war Burma Campaign, while the latter included an 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. beat.
From November 1943, during the seven weeks of the Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced the Japanese to wage war, while awaiting the help of the Allies. In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and tried to besiege it by landing at Anzio. In late January, a major Soviet invasion expelled German forces from the Leningrad region, ending the longest and deadliest siege in history.
The next Soviet offensive was suspended at the pre-war Estonia border by the Northern German Army Group aided by Estonia hoping to rebuild national independence. This delay slows down Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region. At the end of May 1944, the Soviets had liberated the Crimea, largely ousting the Axis troops from Ukraine, and made an invasion to Romania, which was repelled by the Axis troops. Allied attacks in Italy have been successful and, at the expense of allowing some divisions of Germany to resign, on 4 June, Rome was arrested.
The Allies have mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, Japan launched its first attack of two invasions, operations against British positions in Assam, India, and immediately surrounded the Commonwealth position in Imphal and Kohima. In May 1944, British troops mounted a counterattack that drove Japanese troops back to Burma, and Chinese troops who had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 surrounded Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese invasion of China aims to destroy China's main combat troops, securing the railway line between the Japanese-held territory and capturing the Allied airfield. In June, Japan conquered Henan province and initiated a new offensive against Changsha in Hunan province.
Close ally (1944)
On June 6, 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure, the Western Allies invaded northern France. After assigning some of the Allied divisions of Italy, they also attacked southern France. This landing succeeded, and led to the defeat of the units of the German Army in France. Paris was freed by local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle, on August 25 and the Western Allies continued to push back the German forces in Western Europe during later part of the year. Attempts to advance to northern Germany pioneered by large air operations in the Netherlands failed. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Ruhr river in a major attack. In Italy, Allied progress also slowed as Germany's last major line of defense.
On June 22, the Soviets launched a strategic assault on Belarus ("Baggage Operation") that destroyed the German Army Group Center almost completely. Soon after that another Soviet strategic strike forced the German forces from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. Soviet advance pushed the resistance forces in Poland to start some revolt against the German occupation. However, the largest in Warsaw, where German soldiers massacred 200,000 civilians, and the national uprising in Slovakia, did not receive Soviet support and were subsequently suppressed by Germany. The strategic offensive of the Red Army in eastern Romania cut and destroyed German troops there and sparked a successful coup in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by the shift of those countries to the Allied side.
In September 1944, Soviet forces advanced to Yugoslavia and forced a quick withdrawal from the German E and F Troops Group in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to save them from being cut off. At this point, the communist-led Partisans under Marsip Bro Tito, who led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against occupation since 1941, controlled much of the Yugoslav region and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces farther south. In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian troops, helped the Partisans in the joint liberation of the capital Belgrade on October 20. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive attack on the German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945. Unlike the impressive Soviet victory in the Balkans, the bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet invasion of Isthmus Karelian denied the occupation of the Soviet Union. Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish ceasefire on relatively mild conditions, although Finland was forced to fight their former allies.
In early July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia drove the Japanese siege in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while China captured Myitkyina. In September 1944, Chinese troops seized Mount Song to reopen the Burma Road. In China, Japan has more success, after finally seizing Changsha in mid-June and Hengyang city in early August. Soon after, they invaded Guangxi province, winning major battles against Chinese troops in Guilin and Liuzhou in late November and successfully linked their troops to China and Indochina in mid-December.
In the Pacific, US forces continue to push back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began attacking the islands of Mariana and Palau, and convincingly defeated the Japanese troops in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. This defeat led to the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, and granted the United States air base to launch an intensive bomber attack on Japanese home islands. In late October, American troops stormed the island of Leyte in the Philippines; Soon afterwards, Allied sea forces scored another major victory in the Battle of Leyte Bay, one of the greatest maritime battles in history.
On December 16, 1944, Germany made a final effort on the Western Front using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counterattack in the Ardennes and along the French-German border to divide the Western Allies, besieging most of the Western Allied forces and capturing the supply port their major in Antwerp to ask for a political settlement. In January, the attack has been repulsed without a strategic goal fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remain deadlocked in the German line of defense. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles attacked in Poland, pushing from Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and invading East Prussia. On February 4, Soviet, British and US leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the post-war German occupation, and when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.
In February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while the Western Allies entered West Germany and closed to the Rhine. In March, the West Allies crossed the northern and southern Rhine Ruhr, surrounded the German Army B Group, while Soviet advanced to Vienna. In early April, the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept West Germany to capture Hamburg and Nuremberg, while Soviet and Polish troops invaded Berlin in late April. The US and Soviet forces met on the Elbe river on April 25. On April 30, 1945, the Reichstag was arrested, marking the defeat of the German Nazi military.
Some changes in leadership took place during this period. On April 12, President Roosevelt died and was replaced by Harry S. Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by an Italian partisan on April 28. Two days later, Hitler committed suicide, and was succeeded by Great Admiral Karl DÃÆ'¶nitz.
German troops surrendered in Italy on 29 April. The total and unconditional surrender was signed on 7 May, to be effective by the end of May 8. The German Army Group Center fought back in Prague until May 11.
In the Pacific theater, American troops accompanied by Philippine Commonwealth forces advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte in late April 1945. They landed in Luzon in January 1945 and regained Manila in March after the battle that brought the city down into ruins.. The fighting continued in Luzon, Mindanao, and other islands in the Philippines until the end of the war. Meanwhile, the United States Air Force (USAAF) Air Force destroys strategic and populated cities in Japan in an attempt to destroy Japan's war industry and civil morals. On the night of March 9-10, USAAF B-29 bombers struck Tokyo with thousands of incendiary bombs, killing 100,000 civilians and destroying 16 square miles (41 km 2 ) within hours. Over the next five months, USAAF bombed a total of 67 cities in Japan, killing 393,000 civilians and destroying 65% of the area built.
In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, past the oil fields there. British, American and Chinese troops defeated Japan in northern Burma in March, and England pushed to reach Rangoon on 3 May. Chinese troops began a counterattack in the Hunan Barat Battle between April 6 and June 7, 1945. US naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima in March, and Okinawa at the end of June. At the same time, American submarines cut Japanese imports, drastically reducing Japan's ability to supply its foreign troops.
On July 11, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed previous agreements about Germany, and reaffirmed the demand for surrender without s
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