World War II

The SecondWorldWar and WWII redirect here. Forother uses, see The Second World War (disambiguation)and WWII (disambiguation).

World War II (WWII or WW2), also known as theSecond World War (after the recent Great War), wasa global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, though re-lated conicts began earlier. It involved the vast majorityof the worlds nationsincluding all of the great pow-erseventually forming two opposing military alliances:the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread warin history, and directly involved more than 100 millionpeople from over 30 countries. In a state of "total war",the major participants threw their entire economic, in-dustrial, and scientic capabilities behind the war eort,erasing the distinction between civilian and military re-sources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, includingthe Holocaust (during which approximately 11 millionpeople were killed)[1][2] and the strategic bombing of in-dustrial and population centres (during which approxi-mately one million people were killed, including the useof two nuclear weapons in combat),[3] it resulted in an es-timated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These madeWorld War II the deadliest conict in human history.[4]

The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and thePacic and was already at war with the Republic of Chinain 1937,[5] but the world war is generally said to have be-gun on 1 September 1939[6] with the invasion of Polandby Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Ger-many by France and the United Kingdom. From late1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties,Germany conquered or controlled much of continentalEurope, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy andJapan. Following the MolotovRibbentrop Pact, Ger-many and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed ter-ritories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland,Romania and the Baltic states. The United Kingdom andthe British Commonwealth were the only Allied forcescontinuing the ght against the European Axis powers,with campaigns in North Africa and the Horn of Africaas well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic. In June1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion ofthe Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of warin history, which trapped the major part of the Axis mil-itary forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941,Japan attacked the United States and European territo-ries in the Pacic Ocean, and quickly conquered much ofthe Western Pacic.The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the crit-

ical Battle ofMidway, near Hawaii, and Germany was de-feated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingradin the Soviet Union. In 1943, with a series of Germandefeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasion of Italywhich brought about Italian surrender, and Allied victo-ries in the Pacic, the Axis lost the initiative and under-took strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the West-ern Allies invaded German-occupied France, while theSoviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and in-vaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945the Japanese suered major reverses in mainland Asiain South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crip-pled the Japanese Navy and captured keyWestern Pacicislands.The war in Europe ended with an invasion of Germanyby the Western Allies and the Soviet Union culminat-ing in the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troopsand the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8May 1945. Following the PotsdamDeclaration by the Al-lies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrenderunder its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombson the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6August and 9 August respectively. With an invasion ofthe Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of ad-ditional atomic bombings, and the Soviet Unions decla-ration of war on Japan and invasion of Manchuria, Japansurrendered on 15 August 1945. Thus ended the war inAsia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.World War II altered the political alignment and socialstructure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was es-tablished to foster international co-operation and preventfuture conicts. The victorious great powersthe UnitedStates, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, andFrancebecame the permanent members of the UnitedNations Security Council.[7] The Soviet Union and theUnited States emerged as rival superpowers, setting thestage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46years. Meanwhile, the inuence of European great pow-ers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia and Africabegan. Most countries whose industries had been dam-aged moved towards economic recovery. Political inte-gration, especially in Europe, emerged as an eort to endpre-war enmities and to create a common identity.[8]

1 ChronologySee also: Timeline of World War II

1

2 2 BACKGROUND

The start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1September 1939,[9][10] beginning with the German inva-sion of Poland; Britain and France declared war on Ger-many two days later. The dates for the beginning of war inthe Pacic include the start of the Second Sino-JapaneseWar on 7 July 1937,[11] or even the Japanese invasion ofManchuria on 19 September 1931.[12][13]

Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, whoheld that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe andits colonies occurred simultaneously and the two warsmerged in 1941. This article uses the conventional dat-ing. Other starting dates sometimes used for World WarII include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 Octo-ber 1935.[14] The British historian Antony Beevor viewsthe beginning of the Second World War as the Battlesof Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces ofMongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September1939.[15]

The exact date of the wars end is also not universallyagreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time thatthe war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945(V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan(2 September 1945); it is even claimed in some Euro-pean histories that it ended on V-E Day (8 May 1945).A peace treaty with Japan was signed in 1951 to for-mally tie up any loose ends such as compensation to bepaid to Allied prisoners of war who had been victimsof atrocities.[16] A treaty regarding Germanys future al-lowed the reunication of East and West Germany totake place in 1990 and resolved other post-World WarII issues.[17]

2 BackgroundMain article: Causes of World War II

World War I had radically altered the political Europeanmap, with the defeat of the Central PowersincludingAustria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottoman Empireand the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia.Meanwhile, existing victorious Allies such as France,Belgium, Italy, Greece and Romania gained territories,and new Nation states were created out of the collapse ofAustria-Hungary and the Ottoman and Russian Empires.To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations wascreated during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The or-ganisations primary goals were to prevent armed conictthrough collective security, military and naval disarma-ment, and settling international disputes through peacefulnegotiations and arbitration.Despite strong pacist sentiment after World War I,[18]its aftermath still caused irredentist and revanchistnationalism in several European states. These sentimentswere especially marked in Germany because of the sig-nicant territorial, colonial, and nancial losses incurred

by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germanylost around 13 percent of its home territory and all ofits overseas colonies, while German annexation of otherstates was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and lim-its were placed on the size and capability of the countrysarmed forces.[19]

The German Empire was dissolved in the German Revo-lution of 19181919, and a democratic government, laterknown as the Weimar Republic, was created. The inter-war period saw strife between supporters of the new re-public and hardline opponents on both the right and left.Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territo-rial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered thatthe promises made by Britain and France to secure Italianentrance into the war were not fullled with the peace set-tlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement ledby Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nation-alist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda thatabolished representative democracy, repressed socialist,left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressiveexpansionist foreign policy aimed at forging Italy as aworld power, promising the creation of a "New RomanEmpire".[20]

The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland,1930

In Germany, the Weimar Republic was attacked by right-wing elements such as the Freikorps and the Nazi party,resulting in events such as the Kapp Putsch and the BeerHall Putsch. With the onset of the Great Depression in1929, domestic support for Nazism and its leader AdolfHitler rose and, in 1933, he was appointed Chancellorof Germany. In the aftermath of the Reichstag re,Hitler created a totalitarian single-party state led by theNazis.[21]

The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched aunication campaign against regional warlords and nom-inally unied China in the mid-1920s, but was soon em-broiled in a civil war against its former Chinese com-munist allies.[22] In 1931, an increasingly militaristicJapanese Empire, which had long sought inuence inChina[23] as the rst step of what its government saw asthe countrys right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Inci-dent as a pretext to launch an invasion of Manchuria and

3establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.[24]

Too weak to resist Japan, China appealed to the Leagueof Nations for help. Japan withdrew from the Leagueof Nations after being condemned for its incursion intoManchuria. The two nations then fought several bat-tles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the TangguTruce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteerforces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression inManchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.[25]

Adolf Hitler at a German National Socialist political rally inWeimar, October 1930

Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrowthe German government in 1923, eventually became theChancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democ-racy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision ofthe world order, and soon began a massive rearmamentcampaign.[26] It was at this time that multiple politicalscientists began to predict that a second Great War mighttake place.[27] Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance,allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy de-sired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggra-vated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basinwas legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiatedthe Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament pro-gramme and introduced conscription.[28]

Hoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom,France and Italy formed the Stresa Front; however, inJune 1935, the United Kingdom made an independentnaval agreement with Germany, easing prior restric-tions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germanys goalsof capturing vast areas of eastern Europe, drafted atreaty of mutual assistance with France. Before takingeect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required togo through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations,which rendered it essentially toothless.[29] The UnitedStates, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passedthe Neutrality Act in August of the same year.[30] Twomonths later, Italy invaded Ethiopia through Italian So-maliland and Eritrea;[31] Germany was the onlymajor Eu-ropean nation to support the invasion. Italy subsequentlydropped its objections to Germanys goal of absorbingAustria.[32]

Hitler deed the Versailles and Locarno treaties byremilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936. He encoun-tered little opposition from other European powers.[33]When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, Hitlerand Mussolini supported the fascist and authoritarianNationalist forces in their civil war against the Soviet-supported Spanish Republic. Both sides used the con-ict to test new weapons and methods of warfare,[34] withthe Nationalists winning the war in early 1939. In Oc-tober 1936, Germany and Italy formed the RomeBerlinAxis. Amonth later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the followingyear. In China, after the Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintangand communist forces agreed on a ceasere to present aunited front to oppose Japan.[35]

3 Pre-war events

3.1 Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)Main article: Second Italo-Abyssinian WarThe Second ItaloAbyssinian War was a brief colonial

Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to ght the SecondItalo-Abyssinian War

war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936.The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Em-pire (also known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of theKingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia), which was launchedfrom Italian Somaliland and Eritrea.[31] The war resultedin the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexationinto the newly created colony of Italian East Africa(Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI); in addition, it ex-posed the weakness of the League of Nations as a forceto preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were mem-ber nations, but the League did nothing when the formerclearly violated the Leagues own Article X.[36]

3.2 Spanish Civil War (193639)Main article: Spanish Civil WarDuring the Spanish Civil War, Hitler and Mussolini lentmilitary support to the Nationalist rebels, led by General

4 3 PRE-WAR EVENTS

The bombing of Guernica in 1937, sparked Europe-wide fearsthat the next war would be based on bombing of cities with veryhigh civilian casualties

Francisco Franco. The Soviet Union supported the ex-isting government, the Spanish Republic. Over 30,000foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades,also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany andthe USSR used this proxy war as an opportunity to testin combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. Thebombing of Guernica by the German Condor Legion inApril 1937 heightened widespread concerns that the nextmajor war would include extensive terror bombing at-tacks on civilians.[37][38] The Nationalists won the civilwar in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, bargained withboth sides during the Second World War, but never con-cluded any major agreements. He did send volunteers toght on the Eastern Front under German command butSpain remained neutral and did not allow either side touse its territory.[39]

3.3 Japanese invasion of China (1937)

Main article: Second Sino-Japanese WarSee also: Nanshin-ronIn July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese impe-

Japanese Imperial Army soldiers during the Battle of Shanghai,1937

rial capital of Beijing after instigating the Marco Polo

Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese cam-paign to invade all of China.[40] The Soviets quicklysigned a non-aggression pact with China to lend materielsupport, eectively ending Chinas prior co-operationwith Germany. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployedhis best army to defend Shanghai, but, after three monthsof ghting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to pushthe Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nankingin December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens ofthousands if not hundreds of thousands of Chinese civil-ians and disarmed combatants were murdered by theJapanese.[41][42]

In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their rstmajor victory at Taierzhuang but then the city of Xuzhouwas taken by Japanese in May.[43] In June 1938, Chineseforces stalled the Japanese advance by ooding the Yel-low River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese toprepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was takenby October.[44] Japanese military victories did not bringabout the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan hadhoped to achieve; instead the Chinese government relo-cated inland to Chongqing and continued the war.[45][46]

Red Army soldiers on the attack at the Battle of Lake Khasan

3.4 Soviet-Japanese border conicts

Main article: SovietJapanese border conicts

Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic borderclashes with the Soviet Union and Mongolia, culminat-ing in the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939. Afterthis, Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Neutrality Pactin April 1941, and Japan turned its focus to the SouthPacic.[47][48]

3.5 European occupations and agreements

Further information: Anschluss, Appeasement, MunichAgreement, German occupation of Czechoslovakia andMolotovRibbentrop PactIn Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more

5Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano picturedjust before signing the Munich Agreement, 29 September 1938

aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Aus-tria, again provoking little response from other Europeanpowers.[49] Encouraged, Hitler began pressing Germanclaims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakiawith a predominantly ethnic German population; andsoon Britain and France followed the counsel of primeminister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this terri-tory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which wasmade against the wishes of the Czechoslovak govern-ment, in exchange for a promise of no further territorialdemands.[50] Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forcedCzechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungaryand Poland.[51]

Although all of Germanys stated demands had beensatised by the agreement, privately Hitler was furiousthat British interference had prevented him from seiz-ing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subse-quent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish war-mongers and in January 1939 secretly ordered a majorbuild-up of the German navy to challenge British navalsupremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the re-mainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it intothe German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia anda pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic.[52] Hitleralso delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania, forcing the con-cession of the Klaipda Region.Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further de-mands on the Free City of Danzig, Britain and Franceguaranteed their support for Polish independence; whenItaly conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guar-antee was extended to Romania and Greece.[53] Shortlyafter the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germanyand Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pactof Steel.[54] Hitler accused Britain and Poland of try-ing to encircle Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the GermanPolish Non-Aggression Pact.In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signedtheMolotovRibbentrop Pact,[55] a non-aggression treatywith a secret protocol. The parties gave each other rights

German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop signing the NaziSovietnon-aggression pact. Standing behind him are Molotov and theSoviet leader Joseph Stalin, 1939

to spheres of inuence (western Poland and Lithuaniafor Germany; eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latviaand Bessarabia for the USSR). It also raised the ques-tion of continuing Polish independence.[56] The agree-ment was crucial to Hitler because it assured that Ger-many would not have to face the prospect of a two-frontwar, as it had in World War I, after it defeated Poland.The situation reached a general crisis in late August asGerman troops continued to mobilise against the Pol-ish border. In a private meeting with the Italian for-eign minister, Count Ciano, Hitler asserted that Polandwas a doubtful neutral that needed to either yield tohis demands or be liquidated to prevent it from draw-ing o German troops in the future unavoidable warwith theWestern democracies. He did not believe Britainor France would intervene in the conict.[57] On 23 Au-gust Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August,but upon hearing that Britain had concluded a formalmutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy wouldmaintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.[58] In responseto British demands for direct negotiations, Germany de-manded on 29 August that a Polish plenipotentiary im-mediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover ofDanzig and the Polish Corridor to Germany as well as toagree to safeguard the German minority in Poland. ThePoles refused to comply with this request and on the nightof 3031 August in a violent interview with Neville Hen-derson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered itsproposals rejected.[59]

4 Course of the war

Further information: Diplomatic history of World WarII

6 4 COURSE OF THE WAR

4.1 War breaks out in Europe (193940)Main articles: Invasion of Poland, Occupation of Poland(193945), Nazi crimes against the Polish nation, Sovietinvasion of Poland and Soviet repressions of Polish citi-zens (193946)On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland un-

Soldiers of the German Wehrmacht tearing down the bordercrossing between Poland and the Free City of Danzig, 1 Septem-ber 1939

der the false pretext that the Poles had carried out a se-ries of sabotage operations against German targets.[60]Two days later, on 3 September, after a British ultima-tum to Germany to cease military operations was ig-nored, France and the United Kingdom, followed bythe fully independent Dominions[61] of the British Com-monwealth[62]Australia (3 September), Canada (10September), New Zealand (3 September), and SouthAfrica (6 September)declared war on Germany. How-ever, initially the alliance provided limited direct militarysupport to Poland, consisting of a cautious, half-heartedFrench probe into the Saarland.[63] The Western Alliesalso began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimedto damage the countrys economy and war eort.[64] Ger-many responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Al-lied merchant and warships, which was to later escalateinto the Battle of the Atlantic.

German Panzer I tanks near the city of Bydgoszcz, during theInvasion of Poland, September 1939

On 17 September 1939, after signing a cease-re with

Japan, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east.[65] ThePolish army was defeated and Warsaw surrendered to theGermans on 27 September, with nal pockets of resis-tance surrendering on 6 October. Polands territory wasdivided between Germany and the Soviet Union, withLithuania and Slovakia also receiving small shares. Af-ter the surrender of Polands armed forces, the Polish re-sistance established an Underground State and a partisanHome Army.[66] About 100,000 Polish military person-nel were evacuated to Romania and the Baltic countries;many of these soldiers later fought against the Germans inother theatres of the war.[67] Polands Enigma codebreak-ers were also evacuated to France.[68]

On 6 October Hitler made a public peace overture tothe United Kingdom and France, but said that the futureof Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germanyand the Soviet Union. Chamberlain rejected this on 12October, saying Past experience has shown that no re-liance can be placed upon the promises of the presentGerman Government.[59] After this rejection Hitler or-dered an immediate oensive against France,[69] but badweather forced repeated postponements until the springof 1940.[70][71][72]

German and Soviet army ocers pictured shaking handsafter Nazi Germany and Soviet Union annexed new territoriesin Eastern Europe, 1939

After signing the GermanSoviet Treaty of Friendship,Cooperation and Demarcation, the Soviet Union forcedthe Baltic countriesEstonia, Latvia and Lithuaniatoallow it to station Soviet troops in their countries un-der pacts of mutual assistance.[73][74][75] Finland re-jected territorial demands, prompting a Soviet invasionin November 1939.[76] The resulting Winter War endedin March 1940 with Finnish concessions.[77] The UnitedKingdom and France treating the Soviet attack on Finlandas tantamount to its entering the war on the side of theGermans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supportingthe USSRs expulsion from the League of Nations.[75]

In June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia,Latvia and Lithuania,[74] and the disputed Romanianregions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertza.Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement andeconomic co-operation[78][79] gradually stalled,[80][81] and

4.2 Western Europe (194041) 7

both states began preparations for war.[82]

4.2 Western Europe (194041)

Map of the French Maginot Line

In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norwayto protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which theAllies were attempting to cut o by unilaterally miningneutral Norwegian waters.[83] Denmark capitulated aftera few hours, and despite Allied support, during which theimportant harbour of Narvik temporarily was recapturedfrom the Germans, Norway was conquered within twomonths.[84] British discontent over the Norwegian cam-paign led to the replacement of the British Prime Minis-ter, Neville Chamberlain, with Winston Churchill on 10May 1940.[85]

Germany launched an oensive against France and, ad-hering to the Manstein Plan also attacked the neutral na-tions of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on10 May 1940.[86] That same day British forces landed inIceland and the Faroes to preempt a possible German in-vasion of the islands.[87] The U.S. in close co-operationwith the Danish envoy to Washington D.C., agreed toprotect Greenland, laying the political framework forthe formal establishment of bases in April 1941. TheNetherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkriegtactics in a few days and weeks, respectively.[88] TheFrench-fortied Maginot Line and the main body theAllied forces which had moved into Belgium were cir-cumvented by a anking movement through the thicklywooded Ardennes region,[89] mistakenly perceived by Al-lied planners as an impenetrable natural barrier againstarmoured vehicles.[90][91] As a result, the bulk of the Al-lied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclementand were beaten. The majority were taken prisoner,whilst over 300,000, mostly British and French, wereevacuated from the continent at Dunkirk by early June,although abandoning almost all of their equipment.[92]

On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on bothFrance and the United Kingdom.[93] Paris fell to the Ger-mans on 14 June and eight days later France surrenderedand was soon divided into German and Italian occupa-

tion zones,[94] and an unoccupied rump state under theVichy Regime, which, though ocially neutral, was gen-erally aligned with Germany. France kept its eet but theBritish feared the Germans would seize it, so on 3 July,the British attacked it.[95]

View of London after the German Blitz, 29 December 1940

On 19 July, Hitler again publicly oered to end the war,saying he had no desire to destroy the British Empire.The United Kingdom rejected this, with Lord Halifaxresponding there was in his speech no suggestion thatpeace must be based on justice, no word of recogni-tion that the other nations of Europe had any right toselfdetermination ...[96]

Following this, Germany began an air superiority cam-paign over the United Kingdom (the Battle of Britain)to prepare for an invasion.[97] The campaign failed, andthe invasion plans were cancelled by September.[97] Frus-trated, and in part in response to repeated British air raidsagainst Berlin, Germany began a strategic bombing oen-sive against British cities known as the Blitz.[98] However,the air attacks largely failed to disrupt the British war ef-fort.

German Luftwae, Heinkel He 111 bombers during the Battle ofBritain

8 4 COURSE OF THE WAR

Using newly captured French ports, the German Navyenjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, us-ing U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic.[99]The British scored a signicant victory on 27 May 1941by sinking the German battleship Bismarck.[100] Perhapsmost importantly, during the Battle of Britain the RoyalAir Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaes as-sault, and the German bombing campaign largely endedin May 1941.[101]

Throughout this period, the neutral United States tookmeasures to assist China and the Western Allies. InNovember 1939, the American Neutrality Act wasamended to allow cash and carry purchases by theAllies.[102] In 1940, following the German capture ofParis, the size of the United States Navy was signicantlyincreased. In September, the United States further agreedto a trade of American destroyers for British bases.[103]Still, a large majority of the American public continuedto oppose any direct military intervention into the conictwell into 1941.[104]

Although Roosevelt had promised to keep the UnitedStates out of the war, he nevertheless took concrete stepsto prepare for war. In December 1940 he accused Hitlerof planning world conquest and ruled out negotiationsas useless, calling for the US to become an arsenal fordemocracy and promoted the passage of Lend-Lease aidto support the British war eort.[96] In January 1941 se-cret high level sta talks with the British began for thepurposes of determining how to defeat Germany shouldthe US enter the war. They decided on a number ofoensive policies, including an air oensive, the earlyelimination of Italy, raids, support of resistance groups,and the capture of positions to launch an oensive againstGermany.[105]

At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact unitedJapan, Italy and Germany to formalise the Axis Powers.The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with theexception of the Soviet Union, not in the war which at-tacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to waragainst all three.[106] The Axis expanded in November1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined theTripartite Pact.[107] Romania would make a major contri-bution (as didHungary) to theAxis war against theUSSR,partially to recapture territory ceded to the USSR, par-tially to pursue its leader Ion Antonescu's desire to com-bat communism.[108]

4.3 Mediterranean (194041)

Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating asiege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland inAugust, and making an incursion into British-held Egyptin September 1940. In October 1940, Italy started theGreco-Italian War because of Mussolinis jealousy ofHitlers success but within days was repulsed and pushedback into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred.[109]

Australian troops of the British Commonwealth Forces man afront-line trench during the Siege of Tobruk; North African Cam-paign, August 1941

The United Kingdom responded to Greek requests for as-sistance by sending troops to Crete and providing air sup-port to Greece. Hitler decided that when the weather im-proved he would take action against Greece to assist theItalians and prevent the British from gaining a foothold inthe Balkans, to strike against the British naval dominanceof the Mediterranean, and to secure his hold on Roma-nian oil.[110]

In December 1940, British Commonwealth forces be-gan counter-oensives against Italian forces in Egypt andItalian East Africa.[111] The oensive in North Africa washighly successful and by early February 1941 Italy hadlost control of eastern Libya and large numbers of Ital-ian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy alsosuered signicant defeats, with the Royal Navy puttingthree Italian battleships out of commission by a carrierattack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warshipsat the Battle of Cape Matapan.[112]

The Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler sentGerman forces to Libya in February, and by the end ofMarch they had launched an oensive which drove backthe Commonwealth forces which had been weakened tosupport Greece.[113] In under a month, Commonwealthforces were pushed back into Egypt with the exceptionof the besieged port of Tobruk.[114] The Commonwealthattempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again inJune, but failed on both occasions.[115]

By late March 1941, following Bulgaria's signing of theTripartite Pact, the Germans were in position to inter-vene in Greece. Plans were changed, however, becauseof developments in neighbouring Yugoslavia. The Yu-goslav government had signed the Tripartite Pact on 25March, only to be overthrown two days later by a British-

4.4 Axis attack on the USSR (1941) 9

encouraged coup. Hitler viewed the new regime as hos-tile and immediately decided to eliminate it. On 6 AprilGermany simultaneously invaded both Yugoslavia andGreece, making rapid progress and forcing both nationsto surrender within the month. The British were drivenfrom the Balkans after Germany conquered the Greek is-land of Crete by the end of May.[116] Although the Axisvictory was swift, bitter partisan warfare subsequentlybroke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia,which continued until the end of the war.The Allies did have some successes during this time. Inthe Middle East, Commonwealth forces rst quashed anuprising in Iraq which had been supported byGerman air-craft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria,[117] then,with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria andLebanon to prevent further such occurrences.[118]

4.4 Axis attack on the USSR (1941)Further information: Operation Barbarossa,Einsatzgruppen, World War II casualties of the So-viet Union and Nazi crimes against Soviet POWsWith the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable,

Animation of the WWII European Theatre

Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made prepara-tions. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions withGermany and the Japanese planning to take advantageof the European War by seizing resource-rich Europeanpossessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed theSovietJapanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941.[119] Bycontrast, the Germans were steadily making preparationsfor an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on theSoviet border.[120]

Hitler believed that Britains refusal to end the war wasbased on the hope that the United States and the SovietUnion would enter the war against Germany sooner or

Soviet civilians in Leningrad leaving destroyed houses, after aGerman bombardment of the city; Battle of Leningrad, 10 De-cember 1942

later.[121] He therefore decided to try to strengthen Ger-manys relations with the Soviets, or failing that, to at-tack and eliminate them as a factor. In November 1940,negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Unionwould join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed someinterest, but asked for concessions from Finland, Bul-garia, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered un-acceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the di-rective to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy andRomania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Bar-barossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plot-ting against them. They were joined shortly by Fin-land and Hungary.[122] The primary targets of this sur-prise oensive[123] were the Baltic region, Moscow andUkraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 cam-paign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from theCaspian to the White Seas. Hitlers objectives wereto eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, ex-terminate Communism, generate Lebensraum (livingspace)[124] by dispossessing the native population[125]and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed todefeat Germanys remaining rivals.[126]

Although the Red Army was preparing for strategiccounter-oensives before the war,[127] Barbarossa forcedthe Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defence.During the summer, the Axis made signicant gains intoSoviet territory, inicting immense losses in both person-nel and materiel. By the middle of August, however, theGerman Army High Command decided to suspend theoensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre,and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops ad-vancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad.[128] TheKiev oensive was overwhelmingly successful, resultingin encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies,and made further advance into Crimea and industriallydeveloped Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov)possible.[129]

The diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and themajority of their air forces from France and the centralMediterranean to the Eastern Front[130] prompted Britain

10 4 COURSE OF THE WAR

to reconsider its grand strategy.[131] In July, the UK andthe Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Ger-many[132] The British and Soviets invaded Iran to securethe Persian Corridor and Irans oil elds.[133] In August,the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issuedthe Atlantic Charter.[134]

By October Axis operational objectives in Ukraine andthe Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges ofLeningrad[135] and Sevastopol continuing.[136] A majoroensive against Moscow was renewed; after two monthsof erce battles in increasingly harsh weather the Ger-man army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow,where the exhausted troops[137] were forced to suspendtheir oensive.[138] Large territorial gains were made byAxis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve itsmain objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands,the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the So-viet Union retained a considerable part of its military po-tential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe hadended.[139]

By early December, freshly mobilised reserves[140] al-lowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axistroops.[141] This, as well as intelligence data which es-tablished that a minimal number of Soviet troops inthe East would be sucient to deter any attack by theJapanese Kwantung Army,[142] allowed the Soviets to be-gin a massive counter-oensive that started on 5 Decem-ber all along the front and pushed German troops 100250 kilometres (62155 mi) west.[143]

4.5 War breaks out in the Pacic (1941)

Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero ghters on the Imperial Japanese Navyaircraft carrier Shkaku, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor

In 1939 the United States had renounced its trade treatywith Japan and beginning with an aviation gasoline banin July 1940 Japan had become subject to increasing eco-nomic pressure.[96] During this time, Japan launched itsrst attack against Changsha, a strategically importantChinese city, but was repulsed by late September.[144] De-spite several oensives by both sides, the war between

China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. To increasepressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to bet-ter position Japanese forces in the event of a war withthe Western powers, Japan had occupied northern In-dochina.[145] Afterwards, the United States embargoediron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan.[146] Othersanctions soon followed.In August of that year, Chinese communists launchedan oensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan insti-tuted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce humanand material resources for the communists.[147] Contin-ued antipathy between Chinese communist and national-ist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941,eectively ending their co-operation.[148] In March, theJapanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chi-nese 19th army but was repulsed during Battle of Shang-gao.[149] In September, Japan attempted to take the cityof Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalistforces.[150]

German successes in Europe encouraged Japan to in-crease pressure on European governments in SoutheastAsia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japansome oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, but nego-tiations for additional access to their resources ended infailure in June 1941.[151] In July 1941 Japan sent troopsto southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutchpossessions in the Far East. The United States, UnitedKingdom and other Western governments reacted to thismove with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oilembargo.[152][153]

Since early 1941 the United States and Japan had beenengaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve theirstrained relations and end the war in China. Dur-ing these negotiations Japan advanced a number ofproposals which were dismissed by the Americans asinadequate.[154] At the same time the US, Britain, and theNetherlands engaged in secret discussions for the jointdefence of their territories, in the event of a Japaneseattack against any of them.[155] Roosevelt reinforced thePhilippines (an American protectorate scheduled for in-dependence in 1946) and warned Japan that the USwould react to Japanese attacks against any neighboringcountries.[155]

Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinchof the American-British-Dutch sanctions, Japan preparedfor war. On 20 November it presented an interim pro-posal as its nal oer. It called for the end of Amer-ican aid to China and the supply of oil and other re-sources to Japan. In exchange they promised not tolaunch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdrawtheir forces from their threatening positions in south-ern Indochina.[154] The American counter-proposal of 26November required that Japan evacuate all of China with-out conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts withall Pacic powers.[156] That meant Japan was essentiallyforced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in

4.6 Axis advance stalls (194243) 11

USS Arizona during the Japanese surprise air attack on theAmerican pacic eet, 7 December 1941

China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in theDutch East Indies by force;[157] the Japanese military didnot consider the former an option, and many ocersconsidered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration ofwar.[158]

Japan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asiato create a large defensive perimeter stretching into theCentral Pacic; the Japanese would then be free to ex-ploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhaustingthe over-stretched Allies by ghting a defensive war.[159]To prevent American intervention while securing theperimeter it was further planned to neutralise the UnitedStates Pacic Fleet and the American military presencein the Philippines from the outset.[160] On 7 December(8 December in Asian time zones), 1941, Japan attackedBritish and American holdings with near-simultaneousoensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pa-cic.[161] These included an attack on the American eetat Pearl Harbor, landings in Thailand andMalaya[161] andthe battle of Hong Kong.These attacks led the United States, Britain, China, Aus-tralia and several other states to formally declare war onJapan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involvedin large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries,maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan.[162] Ger-many, followed by the other Axis states, declared war onthe United States in solidarity with Japan, citing as justi-cation the American attacks on German submarines andmerchant ships that had been ordered by Roosevelt.[122]

4.6 Axis advance stalls (194243)In January 1942, the United States, Britain, Soviet Union,China, and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued theDeclaration by United Nations, thereby arming theAtlantic Charter,[163] and agreeing to not to sign separatepeace with the Axis powers.During 1942, Allied ocials debated on the appropri-

Seated at the Casablanca Conference; US President Franklin D.Roosevelt and British PM Winston Churchill, January 1943

ate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeatingGermany was the primary objective. The Americansfavoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Ger-many through France. The Soviets were also demandinga second front. The British, on the other hand, arguedthat military operations should target peripheral areas tothrow a ring around Germany which would wear outGerman strength, lead to increasing demoralisation, andbolster resistance forces. Germany itself would be sub-ject to a heavy bombing campaign. An oensive againstGermany would then be launched primarily by Allied ar-mour without using large-scale armies.[164] Eventually,the British persuaded the Americans that a landing inFrance was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead fo-cus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.[165]

At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Alliesreiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declarationby the United Nations, and demanded the unconditionalsurrender of their enemies. The British and Americansagreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediter-ranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediter-ranean supply routes.[166] Although the British argued forfurther operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey intothe war, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a Britishcommitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediter-ranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland and to in-vade France in 1944.[167]

4.6.1 Pacic (194243)

By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thai-land had almost fully conquered Burma, Malaya, theDutch East Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inicting se-vere losses on Allied troops and taking a large num-ber of prisoners.[168] Despite stubborn resistance by Fil-ipino and US forces, the Philippine Commonwealth waseventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government

12 4 COURSE OF THE WAR

Map of Japanese military advances, until mid-1942

into exile.[169] On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British sol-diers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division dur-ing the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chi-nese 38th Division.[170] Japanese forces also achievednaval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea andIndian Ocean,[171] and bombed the Allied naval base atDarwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Alliedsuccess against Japan was a Chinese victory at Chang-sha.[172] These easy victories over unprepared US andEuropean opponents left Japan overcondent, as well asoverextended.[173]

In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capturePort Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever com-munications and supply lines between the United Statesand Australia. The Allies, however, prevented the in-vasion by intercepting and defeating the Japanese navalforces in the Battle of the Coral Sea.[174] Japans nextplan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seizeMidway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to beeliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces tooccupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.[175] In early June,Japan put its operations into action but the Americans,having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, werefully aware of the plans and force dispositions and usedthis knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midwayover the Imperial Japanese Navy.[176]

With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminishedas a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus ona belated attempt to capture Port Moresby by an overlandcampaign in the Territory of Papua.[177] The Americansplanned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in thesouthern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as arst step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanesebase in Southeast Asia.[178]

Both plans started in July, but bymid-September, the Bat-tle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, andtroops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw fromthe Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island,where they faced Australian and United States troops inthe Battle of Buna-Gona.[179] Guadalcanal soon became

US Marines during the Guadalcanal Campaign, in the Pacictheatre, 1942

a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments oftroops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By thestart of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the islandandwithdrew their troops.[180] In Burma, Commonwealthforces mounted two operations. The rst, an oensiveinto the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously,forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943.[181] The sec-ond was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanesefront-lines in February which, by the end of April, hadachieved mixed results.[182]

4.6.2 Eastern Front (194243)

Red Army soldiers on the counterattack, during the Battle of Stal-ingrad, February 1943

Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany andits allies stopped a major Soviet oensive in central andsouthern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they hadachieved during the previous year.[183] In May the Ger-mans defeated Soviet oensives in the Kerch Peninsulaand at Kharkiv,[184] and then launched their main summeroensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seizethe oil elds of the Caucasus and occupy Kuban steppe,while maintaining positions on the northern and centralareas of the front. The Germans split Army Group Southinto two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lowerDon River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, whileArmy Group B headed towards the Volga River. The

4.7 Allies gain momentum (194344) 13

Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on theVolga.[185]

By mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stal-ingrad in bitter street ghting when the Soviets begantheir second winter counter-oensive, starting with anencirclement of German forces at Stalingrad[186] and anassault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the lat-ter failed disastrously.[187] By early February 1943, theGerman Army had taken tremendous losses; Germantroops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender,[188] andthe front-line had been pushed back beyond its positionbefore the summer oensive. In mid-February, after theSoviet push had tapered o, the Germans launched an-other attack on Kharkiv, creating a salient in their frontline around the Russian city of Kursk.[189]

4.6.3 Western Europe/Atlantic & Mediterranean(194243)

An American B-17 bombing raid, by the 8th Air Force, on theFocke Wulf factory in Germany, 9 October 1943

Exploiting poor American naval command decisions, theGerman navy ravaged Allied shipping o the AmericanAtlantic coast.[190] By November 1941, Commonwealthforces had launched a counter-oensive, Operation Cru-sader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains theGermans and Italians had made.[191] In North Africa,the Germans launched an oensive in January, push-ing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line byearly February,[192] followed by a temporary lull in com-bat which Germany used to prepare for their upcomingoensives.[193] Concerns the Japanese might use basesin Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invadethe island in early May 1942.[194] An Axis oensive inLibya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt untilAxis forces were stopped at El Alamein.[195] On the Con-tinent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets,culminating in the disastrous Dieppe Raid,[196] demon-strated the Western Allies inability to launch an invasionof continental Europe without much better preparation,equipment, and operational security.[197]

In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling asecond attack against El Alamein[198] and, at a highcost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies tothe besieged Malta.[199] A few months later, the Alliescommenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodg-ing the Axis forces and beginning a drive west acrossLibya.[200] This attack was followed up shortly after byAnglo-American landings in French North Africa, whichresulted in the region joining the Allies.[201] Hitler re-sponded to the French colonys defection by ordering theoccupation of Vichy France;[201] although Vichy forcesdid not resist this violation of the armistice, they man-aged to scuttle their eet to prevent its capture by Germanforces.[202] The now pincered Axis forces in Africa with-drew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies inMay 1943.[203]

In early 1943 the British and Americans began the Com-bined Bomber Oensive, a strategic bombing campaignagainst Germany. The goals were to disrupt the Germanwar economy, reduce German morale, and "de-house"the German civilian population.[204]

4.7 Allies gain momentum (194344)

US Navy Douglas SBDDauntless ies patrol over theUSSWash-ington and USS Lexington during the Gilbert and Marshall Is-lands campaign, 1943

Following the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initi-ated several operations against Japan in the Pacic. InMay 1943, Allied forces were sent to eliminate Japaneseforces from the Aleutians,[205] and soon after began ma-jor operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surround-ing islands, and to breach the Japanese Central Pacicperimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.[206] By theend of March 1944, the Allies had completed both ofthese objectives, and additionally neutralised the majorJapanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April,the Allies then launched an operation to retake WesternNew Guinea.[207]

In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Sovi-ets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 making

14 4 COURSE OF THE WAR

preparations for large oensives in central Russia. On4 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around theKursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had ex-hausted themselves against the Soviets deeply echelonedand well-constructed defences[208] and, for the rst timein the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it hadachieved tactical or operational success.[209] This decisionwas partially aected by the Western Allies invasion ofSicily launched on 9 July which, combined with previousItalian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mus-solini later that month.[210] Also, in July 1943 the Britishrebombed Hamburg killing over 40,000 people.

Red Army troops following T-34 tanks, in a counter-oensive onGerman positions, at the Battle of Kursk, August 1943

On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-oensives, thereby dispelling any hopes of the GermanArmy for victory or even stalemate in the east. TheSoviet victory at Kursk marked the end of Germansuperiority,[211] giving the Soviet Union the initiativeon the Eastern Front.[212][213] The Germans attemptedto stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortiedPanther-Wotan line; however, the Soviets broke throughit at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Oensives.[214]

On 3 September 1943, the Western Allies invaded theItalian mainland, following an Italian armistice withthe Allies.[215] Germany responded by disarming Ital-ian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas,[216]and creating a series of defensive lines.[217] German spe-cial forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon estab-lished a new client state in German occupied Italy namedthe Italian Social Republic,[218] causing an Italian civilwar. The Western Allies fought through several linesuntil reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.[219]

German operations in the Atlantic also suered. ByMay 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increas-ingly eective, the resulting sizeable German submarinelosses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlanticnaval campaign.[220] In November 1943, Franklin D.Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran.[221]The former conference determined the post-war returnof Japanese territory,[222] while the latter included agree-ment that the Western Allies would invade Europe in1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on

Japan within three months of Germanys defeat.[223]

Ruins of the Benedictine monastery, during the Battle of MonteCassino; Italian Campaign, May 1944

From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle ofChangde, the Chinese forced Japan to ght a costly war ofattrition, while awaiting Allied relief.[224][225][226] In Jan-uary 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italyagainst the line at Monte Cassino and attempted to out-ank it with landings at Anzio.[227] By the end of January,a major Soviet oensive expelled German forces from theLeningrad region,[228] ending the longest and most lethalsiege in history.The following Soviet oensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group Northaided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national inde-pendence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet oper-ations in the Baltic Sea region.[229] By late May 1944,the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axisforces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania,which were repulsed by the Axis troops.[230] The Alliedoensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense ofallowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June,Rome was captured.[231]

The Allies experienced mixed fortunes in mainland Asia.In March 1944, the Japanese launched the rst of two in-vasions, an operation against British positions in Assam,India,[232] and soon besieged Commonwealth positionsat Imphal and Kohima.[233] In May 1944, British forcesmounted a counter-oensive that drove Japanese troopsback to Burma,[233] and Chinese forces that had invadednorthern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops inMyitkyina.[234] The second Japanese invasion of Chinaattempted to destroy Chinas main ghting forces, securerailways between Japanese-held territory and capture Al-lied airelds.[235] By June, the Japanese had conqueredthe province of Henan and begun a renewed attack againstChangsha in the Hunan province.[236]

4.8 Allies close in (1944)

On 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years ofSoviet pressure,[237] the Western Allies invaded northern

4.9 Axis collapse, Allied victory (194445) 15

American troops approaching Omaha Beach, during the Invasionof Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944

France. After reassigning several Allied divisions fromItaly, they also attacked southern France.[238] These land-ings were successful, and led to the defeat of the GermanArmy units in France. Paris was liberated by the localresistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both ledby General Charles de Gaulle, on 25 August[239] and theWestern Allies continued to push back German forces inwestern Europe during the latter part of the year. Anattempt to advance into northern Germany spearheadedby a major airborne operation in the Netherlands endedwith a failure.[240] After that, the Western Allies slowlypushed into Germany, unsuccessfully trying to cross theRur river in a large oensive. In Italy the Allied advancealso slowed down, when they ran into the last major Ger-man defensive line.[241]

On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic oensivein Belarus (known as "Operation Bagration") that re-sulted in the almost complete destruction of the Ger-man Army Group Centre.[242] Soon after that, anotherSoviet strategic oensive forced German troops fromWestern Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The successfuladvance of Soviet troops prompted resistance forces inPoland to initiate several uprisings. Though, the largestof these in Warsaw, where German soldiers massacred200,000 civilians, as well as a national Slovak Uprisingin the south did not receive Soviet support, and were putdown by German forces.[243] The Red Armys strategicoensive in eastern Romania cut o and destroyed theconsiderable German troops there and triggered a suc-cessful coup d'tat in Romania and in Bulgaria, followedby those countries shift to the Allied side.[244]

In September 1944, Soviet Red Army troops advancedinto Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of theGerman Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania andYugoslavia to rescue them from being cut o.[245] By thispoint, the Communist-led Partisans under Marshal JosipBroz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guer-rilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, con-trolled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and were en-gaged in delaying eorts against the German forces fur-

German SS soldiers from the Dirlewanger Brigade, tasked withsuppressing partisan uprisings against Nazi occupation, August1944

ther south. In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with lim-ited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisansin a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massiveassault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted un-til the fall of Budapest in February 1945.[246] In contrastwith impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, the bitterFinnish resistance to the Soviet oensive in the KarelianIsthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and ledto the signing of Soviet-Finnish armistice on relativelymild conditions,[247][248] with a subsequent shift to the Al-lied side by Finland.By the start of July, Commonwealth forces in SoutheastAsia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, push-ing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River[249] whilethe Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanesewere having greater successes, having nally capturedChangsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by earlyAugust.[250] Soon after, they further invaded the provinceof Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chineseforces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November[251]and successfully linking up their forces in China and In-dochina by the middle of December.[252]

In the Pacic, American forces continued to press backthe Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944 they begantheir oensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, anddecisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of thePhilippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation ofthe Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, and providedthe United States with air bases to launch intensive heavybomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In lateOctober, American forces invaded the Filipino island ofLeyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another largevictory during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largestnaval battles in history.[253]

4.9 Axis collapse, Allied victory (194445)On 16 December 1944, Germany attempted its last des-perate measure for success on the Western Front by us-

16 4 COURSE OF THE WAR

Yalta Conference held in February 1945, withWinston Churchill,Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin

ing most of its remaining reserves to launch a massivecounter-oensive in the Ardennes to attempt to split theWestern Allies, encircle large portions of Western Alliedtroops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerpto prompt a political settlement.[254] By January, the of-fensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectivesfullled.[254] In Italy, the Western Allies remained stale-mated at the German defensive line. In mid-January1945, the Soviets and Poles attacked in Poland, pushingfrom the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, andoverran East Prussia.[255] On 4 February, US, British, andSoviet leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreedon the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when theSoviet Union would join the war against Japan.[256]

In February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania,while Western Allies entered western Germany andclosed to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Alliescrossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encirclingthe German Army Group B,[257] while the Soviets ad-vanced to Vienna. In early April, the Western Allies -nally pushed forward in Italy and swept across westernGermany, while Soviet and Polish forces stormed Berlinin late April. The American and Soviet forces linkedup on Elbe river on 25 April. On 30 April 1945, theReichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat ofthe Third Reich.[258]

Several changes in leadership occurred during this period.On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeededby Harry Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italianpartisans on 28 April.[259] Two days later, Hitler commit-ted suicide, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral KarlDnitz.[260]

German forces surrendered in Italy on 29 April. Totaland unconditional surrender was signed on 7 May, to beeective by the end of 8 May.[261] German Army GroupCentre resisted in Prague until 11 May.[262]

In the Pacic theatre, American forces accompanied by

The German Reichstag after its capture by the Allies, 3 June 1945

the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advancedin the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 andcaptured Manila in March following a battle which re-duced the city to ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon,Mindanao, and other islands of the Philippines until theend of the war.[263] On the night of 910 March, B-29bombers of the US Army Air Forces struck Tokyo withincendiary bombs, which killed 100,000 people within afew hours. Over the next ve months, American bombersrebombed 66 other Japanese cities, causing the destruc-tion of untold numbers of buildings and the deaths of be-tween 350,000500,000 Japanese civilians.[264]

Japanese foreign aairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs theJapanese Instrument of Surrender on board the USS Missouri, 2September 1945

In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, over-running the oilelds there. British, American, and Chi-nese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma inMarch, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3

17

May.[265] Chinese forces started to counterattack in Battleof West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June1945. American forces also moved towards Japan, takingIwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June.[266]At the same time American bombers were destroyingJapanese cities, American submarines cut o Japaneseimports, drastically reducing Japans ability to supply itsoverseas forces.[267]

On 11 July, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany.They conrmed earlier agreements about Germany,[268]and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender ofall Japanese forces by Japan, specically stating that thealternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.[269]During this conference, the United Kingdom held its gen-eral election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill asPrime Minister.[270]

The Allies called for unconditional Japanese surrenderin the Potsdam declaration of 27 July, but the Japanesegovernment was internally divided on whether to makepeace and did not respond. In early August the UnitedStates dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities ofHiroshima and Nagasaki. Like the Japanese cities pre-viously bombed by American airmen, the US and its al-lies justied the atomic bombings as military necessity toavoid invading the Japanese home islands which wouldcost the lives of between 250,000500,000 Allied troopsand millions of Japanese troops and civilians.[271] Be-tween the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to theYalta agreement, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, andquickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was thelargest Japanese ghting force.[272][273] The Red Armyalso captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, with the surrenderdocuments nally signed aboard the deck of the Ameri-can battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, end-ing the war.[274]

5 Aftermath

Main articles: Aftermath of World War II andConsequences of NazismThe Allies established occupation administrations inAustria and Germany. The former became a neutralstate, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latterwas divided into western and eastern occupation zonescontrolled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accord-ingly. A denazication program in Germany led to theprosecution of Nazi war criminals and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towardsamnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West Ger-man society.[275]

Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory.Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark and mostof Pomerania were taken over by Poland, East Prussiawas divided between Poland and the USSR, followed

Ruins of Warsaw in January 1945, after the deliberate destruc-tion of the city by the occupying German forces

Post-war Soviet territorial expansion; resulted in Central Euro-pean border changes, the creation of a Communist Bloc, and startof the Cold War

by the expulsion of the 9 million Germans from theseprovinces, as well as the expulsion of 3 million Germansfrom the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Germany. Bythe 1950s, every fth West German was a refugee fromthe east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polishprovinces east of the Curzon line, from which 2 million

18 6 IMPACT

Poles were expelled;[276] north-east Romania,[277][278]parts of eastern Finland,[279] and the three Baltic stateswere also incorporated into the USSR.[280][281]

In an eort to maintain peace,[282] the Allies formed theUnited Nations, which ocially came into existence on24 October 1945,[283] and adopted the Universal Dec-laration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common stan-dard for all member nations.[284] The great powers thatwere the victors of the warthe United States, SovietUnion, China, Britain, and Franceformed the perma-nent members of the UNs Security Council.[7] The vepermanent members remain so to the present, althoughthere have been two seat changes, between the Republicof China and the Peoples Republic of China in 1971,and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, theRussian Federation, following the dissolution of the So-viet Union. The alliance between the Western Allies andthe Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before thewar was over.[285]

Germany had been de facto divided, and two indepen-dent states, the Federal Republic of Germany and theGerman Democratic Republic[286] were created withinthe borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, ac-cordingly. The rest of Europe was also divided intoWestern and Soviet spheres of inuence.[287] Most east-ern and central European countries fell into the Sovietsphere, which led to establishment of Communist-ledregimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupa-tion authorities. As a result, Poland, Hungary, East Ger-many,[288] Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Albania[289]became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslaviaconducted a fully independent policy, causing tensionwith the USSR.[290]

Post-war division of the world was formalised by twointernational military alliances, the United States-ledNATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact;[291] the long pe-riod of political tensions and military competition be-tween them, the Cold War, would be accompanied by anunprecedented arms race and proxy wars.[292]

In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japanand administrated Japans former islands in the West-ern Pacic, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and theKuril Islands.[293] Korea, formerly under Japanese rule,was divided and occupied by the US in the South and theSoviet Union in the North between 1945 and 1948. Sep-arate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th paral-lel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate govern-ment for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the KoreanWar.[294]

In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed thecivil war in June 1946. Communist forces were vic-torious and established the Peoples Republic of Chinaon the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated toTaiwan in 1949.[295] In the Middle East, the Arab re-jection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Pales-tine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation

of the Arab-Israeli conict. While European colo-nial powers attempted to retain some or all of theircolonial empires, their losses of prestige and resourcesduring the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading todecolonisation.[296][297]

The global economy suered heavily from the war, al-though participating nations were aected dierently.The US emerged much richer than any other nation; ithad a baby boom and by 1950 its gross domestic prod-uct per person was much higher than that of any of theother powers and it dominated the world economy.[298]The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial disarma-ment in Western Germany in the years 19451948.[299]Because of international trade interdependencies this ledto European economic stagnation and delayed Europeanrecovery for several years.[300][301]

Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform inWestern Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisa-tion of European economic policy that the Marshall Plan(19481951) both directly and indirectly caused.[302][303]The post-1948 West German recovery has been calledthe German economic miracle.[304] Italy also experiencedan economic boom[305] and the French economy re-bounded.[306] By contrast, the United Kingdom was ina state of economic ruin,[307] and although it received aquarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more thanany other European country,[308] continued relative eco-nomic decline for decades.[309]

The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and mate-rial losses, also experienced rapid increase in productionin the immediate post-war era.[310] Japan experiencedincredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of themost powerful economies in the world by the 1980s.[311]China returned to its pre-war industrial production by1952.[312]

6 Impact

6.1 Casualties and war crimes

Main articles: World War II casualties, War crimes dur-ing World War II, War crimes in occupied Poland dur-ing World War II, German war crimes, War crimes ofthe Wehrmacht, Japanese war crimes, Allied war crimesduring World War II and Soviet war crimesEstimates for the total casualties of the war vary, becausemany deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 75million people died in the war, including about 20 millionmilitary personnel and 40 million civilians.[313][314][315]Many of the civilians died because of deliberate genocide,massacres, mass-bombing, disease, and starvation.The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people duringthe war,[316] including 8.7 million military and 19 millioncivilian deaths. The largest portion of military dead were5.7 million ethnic Russians, followed by 1.3 million eth-

6.2 Concentration camps, slave labour, and genocide 19

Allie

d Fo

rces

Axis

World War II Deaths

0 12 24

Allied Civilians58%

Axis Civilians 4%

Allied Military25%

Military deaths (millions)Civilian deaths (millions)

Total deaths (millions)Total deaths as % of 1939 population

OtherItaly

JapanRomaniaHungary

FranceUnited KingdomUnited StatesLithuaniaCzechoslovakiaGreeceBurmaLatvia

Soviet UnionChinaPolandIndonesiaIndiaYugoslaviaFrench Indochina

Germany

Axis Military13%

0 12 24

World War II deaths

nic Ukrainians.[317] A quarter of the people in the SovietUnion were wounded or killed.[318] Germany sustained5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Frontand during the nal battles in Germany.[319]

Of the total deaths in World War II, approximately 85percentmostly Soviet and Chinesewere on the Al-lied side and 15 percent on the Axis side. Many of thesedeaths were caused by war crimes committed by Ger-man and Japanese forces in occupied territories. An es-timated 11[320] to 17 million[321] civilians died as a director indirect result of Nazi ideological policies, includingthe systematic genocide of around 6 million Jews dur-ing the Holocaust, along with a further 5 to 6 millionethnic Poles and other Slavs (including Ukrainians andBelarusians)[322]Roma, homosexuals, and other ethnicandminority groups.[321] Hundreds of thousands (varyingestimates) of ethnic Serbs, along with gypsies and Jews,were murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustae inYugoslavia,[323] with retribution-related killings just af-ter the war ended.

Chinese civilians being buried alive by soldiers of the ImperialJapanese Army, during the Nanking Massacre, December 1937

The best-known Japanese atrocity was the Nanking Mas-sacre, in which several hundred thousand Chinese civil-ians were raped and murdered.[324] Between 3 million to

more than 10million civilians, mostly Chinese (estimatedat 7.5 million[325]), were killed by the Japanese occupa-tion forces.[326] Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported 2.7 millioncasualties occurred during the Sank Sakusen. GeneralYasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Heipei andShantung.[327]

Axis forces employed biological and chemical weapons.The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of suchweapons during their invasion and occupation of China(see Unit 731)[328][329] and in early conicts againstthe Soviets.[330] Both the Germans and Japanese testedsuch weapons against civilians[331] and, sometimes onprisoners of war.[332]

The Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn mas-sacre of 22,000 Polish ocers,[333] and the imprisonmentor execution of thousands of political prisoners by theNKVD,[334] in the Baltic states, and eastern Poland an-nexed by the Red Army.The mass-bombing of civilian areas, notably the citiesof Warsaw, Rotterdam and London; including the aerialtargeting of hospitals and eeing refugees[335] by theGerman Luftwae, along with the bombing of Tokyo,and German cities of Dresden, Hamburg and Cologneby the Western Allies may be considered as war crimes.The latter resulted in the destruction of more than 160cities and the deaths of more than 600,000 Germancivilians.[336] However, no positive or specic customaryinternational humanitarian law with respect to aerial war-fare existed before or during World War II.[337]

6.2 Concentration camps, slave labour,and genocide

Further information: Genocide, The Holocaust, Naziconcentration camps, Extermination camp, Forcedlabour under German rule during World War II,Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany and Nazi hu-man experimentationThe German Government led by Adolf Hitler and theNazi Party was responsible for the Holocaust, the killingof approximately 6 million Jews, as well as 2.7 millionethnic Poles,[338] and 4 million others who were deemed"unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentallyill, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, Freemasons,Jehovahs Witnesses, and Romani) as part of a pro-gramme of deliberate extermination. About 12 million,most of whom were Eastern Europeans, were employedin the German war economy as forced labourers.[339]

In addition to Nazi concentration camps, the Sovietgulags (labour camps) led to the death of citizens of oc-cupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, andEstonia, as well as German prisoners of war (POWs) andeven Soviet citizens who had been or were thought tobe supporters of the Nazis.[340] Sixty percent of SovietPOWs of the Germans died during the war.[341] RichardOvery gives the number of 5.7 million Soviet POWs.

20 6 IMPACT

Female SS camp guards remove bodies from lorries and carrythem to a mass grave, inside the German Bergen-Belsen concen-tration camp, 1945

Of those, 57 percent died or were killed, a total of 3.6million.[342] Soviet ex-POWs and repatriated civilianswere treated with great suspicion as potential Nazi collab-orators, and some of them were sent to the Gulag uponbeing checked by the NKVD.[343]

Prisoner identity photograph taken by the German SS of afourteen-year-old Polish girl, sent as forced labour to Auschwitz,December 1942

Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which wereused as labour camps, also had high death rates. TheInternational Military Tribunal for the Far East found thedeath rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 percent (forAmerican POWs, 37 percent),[344] seven times that ofPOWs under the Germans and Italians.[345] While 37,583prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and14,473 from the United States were released after thesurrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released wasonly 56.[346]

According to historian Zhifen Ju, at least ve million Chi-nese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo wereenslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Devel-opment Board, or Kain, for work in mines and war in-dustries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million.[347]The US Library of Congress estimates that in Java, be-tween 4 and 10 million romusha (Japanese: manual la-

borers), were forced to work by the Japanese military.About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent toother Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, and only52,000 were repatriated to Java.[348]

On 19 February 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Or-der 9066, interning about 100,000 Japanese living onthe West Coast. Canada had a similar program.[349][350]In addition, 14,000 German and Italian citizens whohad been assessed as being security risks were alsointerned.[351]

In accordance with the Allied agreement made at theYalta Conference millions of POWs and civilians wereused as forced labour by the Soviet Union.[352] In Hun-garys case, Hungarians were forced to work for the So-viet Union until 1955.[353]

6.3 Occupation

Main articles: German-occupied Europe, Lebensraum,Untermensch, Collaboration with the Axis Powers dur-ing World War II, Resistance during World War II andNazi plunderIn Europe, occupation came under two forms. In West-

Blindfolded Polish citizens just before execution by German sol-diers in Palmiry, 1940

ern, Northern and Central Europe (France, Norway, Den-mark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions ofCzechoslovakia) Germany established economic policiesthroughwhich it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichmarks(27.8 billion US Dollars) by the end of the war, this g-ure does not include the sizeable plunder of industrialproducts, military equipment, raw materials and othergoods.[354] Thus, the income from occupied nations wasover 40 percent of the income Germany collected fromtaxation, a gure which increased to nearly 40 percent oftotal German income as the war went on.[355]

In the East, the much hoped for bounties of Lebensraumwere never attained as uctuating front-lines and Sovietscorched earth policies denied resources to the Germaninvaders.[356] Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policyencouraged excessive brutality against what it consideredto be the "inferior people" of Slavic descent; most Ger-

6.5 Advances in technology and warfare 21

man advances were thus followed bymass executions.[357]Although resistance groups formed in most occupied ter-ritories, they did not signicantly hamper German op-erations in either the East[358] or the West[359] until late1943.In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as be-ing part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was forpurposes of liberating colonised peoples.[360] AlthoughJapanese forces were originally welcomed as liberatorsfrom European domination in some territories, their ex-cessive brutality turned local public opinion against themwithin weeks.[361] During Japans initial conquest it cap-tured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3) of oil (~5.5105tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by1943 was able to get production in the Dutch East In-dies up to 50 million barrels (~6.8106 t), 76 percent ofits 1940 output rate.[361]

6.4 Home fronts and production

Main articles: Military production during World War IIand Home front during World War IIIn Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies

1938 19401939 1941 1942 1943 1944 19450.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

Year

Allie

s / A

xis

GDP

Allies / Axis GDP

2.382.15

1.581.75

2.062.31

2.86

5.02

Allied to Axis GDP ratio

had signicant advantages in both population and eco-nomics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom,France, Poland and British Dominions) had a 30 percentlarger population and a 30 percent higher gross domesticproduct than the European Axis (Germany and Italy); ifcolonies are included, it then gives the Allies more thana 5:1 advantage in population and nearly 2:1 advantagein GDP.[362] In Asia at the same time, China had roughlysix times the population of Japan, but only an 89 percenthigher GDP; this is reduced to three times the populationand only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese coloniesare included.[362]

Though the Allies economic and population advantageswere largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkriegattacks of Germany and Japan, they became the deci-sive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet

Union joined the Allies, as the war largely settled into oneof attrition.[363] While the Allies ability to out-producethe Axis is often attributed to the Allies having more ac-cess to natural resources, other factors, such as Germanyand Japans reluctance to employ women in the labourforce,[364] Allied strategic bombing,[365] and Germanyslate shift to a war economy[366] contributed signicantly.Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to ghta protracted war, and were not equipped to do so.[367]To improve their production, Germany and Japan usedmillions of slave labourers;[368] Germany used about 12million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,[339] whileJapan used more than 18 million people in Far EastAsia.[347][348]

6.5 Advances in technology and warfareMain article: Technology during World War IIAircraft were used for reconnaissance, as ghters,

B-29 Superfortress strategic bombers on the Boeing assembly linein Wichita, Kansas, 1944

bombers, and ground-support, and each role was ad-vanced considerably. Innovation included airlift (the ca-pability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies,equipment, and personnel);[369] and of strategic bomb-ing (the bombing of enemy industrial and population cen-tres to destroy the enemys ability to wage war).[370] Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences suchas radar and surface-to-air artillery, such as the German88 mm gun. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneeredand, though late introduction meant it had little impact, itled to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.[371]

Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval war-fare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines.Although aeronautical warfare had relatively little successat the start of the war, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor,and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominantcapital ship in place of the battleship.[372][373][374]

In the Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital partof Allied convoys, increasing the eective protection ra-dius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap.[375] Car-

22 7 SEE ALSO

riers were also more economical than battleships becauseof the relatively low cost of aircraft[376] and their not re-quiring to be as heavily armoured.[377] Submarines, whichhad proved to be an eective weapon during the FirstWorld War,[378] were anticipated by all sides to be im-portant in the second. The British focused developmenton anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonarand convoys, while Germany focused on improving itsoensive capability, with designs such as the Type VIIsubmarine and wolfpack tactics.[379] Gradually, improv-ing Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, hedgehog,squid, and homing torpedoes proved victorious.

A V-2 rocket launched from a xed site in Peenemnde, 1943

Land warfare changed from the static front lines ofWorldWar I to increased mobility and combined arms. Thetank, which had been used predominantly for infantrysupport in the First World War, had evolved into the pri-mary weapon.[380] In the late 1930s, tank design was con-siderably more advanced than it had been during WorldWar I,[381] and advances continued throughout the warwith increases in speed, armour and repower.At the start of the war, most commanders thoughtenemy tanks should be met by tanks with superiorspecications.[382] This idea was challenged by the poorperformance of the relatively light early tank guns againstarmour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germanys use of com-bined arms, were among the key elements of theirhighly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland andFrance.[380] Many means of destroying tanks, includ-ing indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed andself-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank

weapons, and other tanks were utilised.[382] Even withlarge-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the back-bone of all forces,[383] and throughout the war, most in-fantry were equipped similarly to World War I.[384]

Nuclear gadget being raised to the top of the detonation tower,at Alamogordo Bombing Range; Trinity nuclear test, July 1945

The portable machine gun spread, a notable example be-ing the German MG34, and various submachine gunswhich were suited to close combat in urban and junglesettings.[384] The assault rie, a late war development in-corporating many features of the rie and submachinegun, became the standard postwar infantry weapon formost armed forces.[385][386]

Most major belligerents attempted to solve the prob-lems of complexity and security involved in usinglarge codebooks for cryptography by designing