A Brief History of World War II
The insecurity created in Europe by World War I set the stage for another international conflict — World War II — which broke out two decades later. Adolf Hitler rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party in Germany. He rearmed his nation and launched his evil plan for world domination. Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September of 1939 caused Great Britain and France to finally declare war on Germany, marking the beginning of the Second Great War.
In April 1940, the war really took off when Germany invaded Norway and occupied Denmark. By May, German forces swept through Belgium and the Netherlands in what became known as “blitzkrieg,” or lightning war. Just days later, Hitler’s troops crossed into France and forced British troops to evacuate by sea at Dunkirk. With France on the verge of collapse, Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini formed an alliance with Hitler — the Pact of Steel — and joined the Axis Powers.
On June 14, 1940, German forces entered the City of Paris, and France officially fell to German occupation. Hitler then turned his attention to Britain, which had the defensive advantage of being separated from the European Continent by the English Channel. To pave the way for an invasion, German planes bombed Britain mercilessly from September 1940 until May 1941. It was known as the “Blitz.” The British Royal Air Force finally defeated the German Luftwaffe, and Hitler postponed his plans to invade. With Britain’s resources nearly tapped, Prime Minister Winston Churchill negotiated crucial aid from the United States in early 1941.
Meanwhile on the European Continent, German troops had conquered Yugoslavia and Greece. Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria were also forced to join the Axis Powers. An emboldened Hitler then ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941.
With Britain and the European Allies facing Germany, the United States was the only nation capable of combating increased Japanese aggression in the Pacific. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the key U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, claiming the lives of more than 2,300 troops. This attack unified public opinion in America, and the next day, Congress declared war on Japan. Germany and the other Axis Powers promptly declared war on the United States, making World War II a true global conflict.
After a long string of Japanese victories, the U.S. Pacific Fleet won the Battle of Midway in June of 1942, which proved to be a turning point in the Pacific Front. By mid-1943, the Allied navy began a series of assaults on key Japanese-held islands. This “island-hopping” strategy proved successful, and Allied forces moved closer to their ultimate goal of invading mainland Japan.
On the Eastern Front, the Soviets launched a counteroffensive in November of 1942. This ended the Battle of Stalingrad, which saw some of the bloodiest combat of World War II. Ultimately, it was the harsh winter and dwindling supplies that spelled the end for German troops on the Eastern Front, and the last of them surrendered on January 31, 1943. Meanwhile, Allied forces defeated the Axis Powers in North Africa. An Allied invasion of Italy soon followed, and Mussolini’s government fell by July 1943.
Then came June 6, 1944 – “D-Day” – when the Allied Powers began a massive invasion of Europe, landing 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops on the beaches of Normandy, France. In response, Hitler poured the remaining strength of his army into Western Europe. He gathered his forces for the last major German offensive of the war known as the Battle of the Bulge. Then, after a period of intense Allied bombing, the Allied Powers finally invaded Germany in February of 1945. Germany formally surrendered on May 8, shortly after Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, heavy Allied casualties at the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the fears of even greater bloodshed in a land invasion of Japan, led U.S. President Harry Truman to authorize the use of a new, devastating weapon. Developed during a top-secret operation code-named ‘The Manhattan Project,’ the atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August of 1945. A couple days later, the Japanese empire was finished. On September 2, 1945, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan’s formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Through blood, courage, and moral resolve, the United States and Allied Powers finally won the war in 1945. However, over six years, World War II took more lives and destroyed more property around the world than any conflict in history. Among the estimated 50 to 70 million people killed, 6 million Jews were murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitler’s evil “Final Solution,” or what we know today as the “Holocaust.”
A Brief History of World War II
Randall acts as the lead writer for ColdWater’s Drive Thru History® TV series and Drive Thru History® “Adventures” curriculum.
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