World War II

File:WWII.png A collection of several famous images from the Second World War Date Template:Ubl Location Europe, Pacific, Atlantic, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean, North Africa, Horn of Africa, Australia, briefly North and South America Result Template:Ubl Collapse of Nazi Germany Fall of the Japanese and Italian Empires Allied occupations of Germany and Japan and foundation of the Italian Republic Beginning of the Nuclear Age Dissolution of the League of Nations and creation of the United Nations Emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as rival superpowers and beginning of the Cold War (more...) Participants Allies Axis Commanders and leaders Main Allied leaders Joseph Stalin Template:Country data United StatesTemplate:Namespace detect showall Franklin D. Roosevelt Template:Country data United KingdomTemplate:Namespace detect showall Winston Churchill Template:Country data Republic of China (1912–1949)Template:Namespace detect showall Chiang Kai-shek Main Axis leaders Template:Country data Nazi GermanyTemplate:Namespace detect showall Adolf Hitler Template:Country data Empire of JapanTemplate:Namespace detect showall Hirohito Template:Country data Kingdom of ItalyTemplate:Namespace detect showall Benito Mussolini Casualties and losses Military dead: Over 16,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 45,000,000 Total dead: Over 61,000,000 (1937–1945) ...further details Military dead: Over 8,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 4,000,000 Total dead: Over 12,000,000 (1937–1945) ...further details

Template:Campaignbox World War II

World War II (WWII) was a world-spanning war, considered to have begun when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September of 1939. The nations of the world, including all major powers, effectively became organized into either of two groups: the Axis or the Allies. World War II led to over 70 million casualties (civilian and military) and resulted in an Eastern Bloc being set up over Eastern Europe.

History

As mentioned above, WWII is commonly referred as to starting on September 1, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. On December 7th, 1941, Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor which in turn brought the United States into an ever expanding war.

Beginning

Although universally the war began in 1939 with the Invasion of Poland, some historians have argued that the war stated in 1937 with the Second Sino-Japanese War or even 1931. This wiki uses the "universal dating system", in which the war started 1 September 1939 and ended 2 September 1945.

German transports riding down a road, in Khark'iv.

Outcome

In 1945, the Germans surrendered shortly after the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the encirclement of Berlin by the Red Army. Many Nazi war criminals were taken as prisoners or were executed. At the same time, during Operation Paperclip, German scientists and engineers were being secretly rushed out of the country to the United States and Great Britain. Some of these scientists include the famed Wernher Von Braun. Soon after the collapse of Germany, the United States dropped the first Atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the Japanese government still stalled negotiations, over 1,000 Allied bombers and fighters were dispatched for the final blow to Japan. The official end of the war is commonly referred to as September 2, 1945, with the official Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri.