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The history of this world is incomplete without the inclusion of the Second World War or World War 2, the most vicious and gruelling warfare waged by humans against each other. It involved the vast majority of the countries and Global powers during the period 1939 to 1945. The war was primarily waged between two opposing military alliances: The Allies mainly comprising the United Kingdom & British Empire, the Third Republic of France, Soviet Union, United States of America and their allies, and the Axis Powers involving Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Empire of Japan and their allies.
It started on 1st September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and placid support from the Soviet Union and the subsequent declaration of war on Germany by Poland’s allies, France and the United Kingdom. Germany’s Axis Powers had significant gains in the earlier years of the Second World war, mainly between 1939 to 1941 when it conquered and dominated much of continental Europe and parts of Africa.
The largest gain on the Axis side came with the rapid defeat of France at the hands of Germany due to Germany’s advanced warfare technique of Blitzkrieg that involved multi-frontier attack using infantry and armoured divisions. Adolf Hitler, the Dictator/ Fuhrer of Germany during the war, is mainly attributed as the perpetrator of the war due to his Nationalist Fascist and Racial supremacy-based political ideology leading to Germany’s aggressive stance in much of continental Europe.
With France’s fall in 1940, the war was primarily waged between the Axis Powers and the British Empire, with minor gains and losses on both sides. It was a multi-frontier conflict with battles occurring in various regions, including mainland Europe, Eurasia, the Balkans, the Atlantic, and the Pacific Ocean, East Asia, and Northern and Central Africa, and Ariel attacks on the British Isles.
The war took a significant turn in 1941 with two significant events:
- The Invasion of Soviet Russia and its Union in June 1941
- Leading to the largest land warfare in human history
- The Pearl Harbour bombing by Japanese Kamikaze in December 1941
It forced the United States of America to enter the war on the Allies side. Following the US declaration of war on the Imperial Japanese Empire, Germany and Italy’s European Axis powers declared war against the US in solidarity with their Asian Ally.
The Axis Powers had significant strategic gains throughout 1941, including Imperial Japan. It captured and dominated much of the Western Pacific, Eastern China and Manchuria, and Southern Asia. However, its advances were obstructed after a significant naval defeat at the US navy’s hands at the Battle of Midway on the Pacific Ocean. Fascist Italy subsequently suffered significant defeats in North Africa and the Balkans and eventually surrendered to the Allies with their Fascist Dictator, Benito Mussolini, being publicly executed.
The collective Allied invasions of Sicily and the Italian Mainland in 1943, along with German defeat at the Eastern front, forced the Axis powers to retreat on all fronts strategically. The war was concluded in 1945 with the Allied invasion of German-controlled territories, the fall of Berlin at the Soviet Union’s hands, and the Nuclear Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan by the United States of America.
