Second World War

Warning: mkdir() [function.mkdir]: Permission denied in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 12

Warning: mkdir() [function.mkdir]: No such file or directory in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 12

Warning: fopen(/home/templatecore2cache//*cluesnet.com/5d/5df819f890c70429aa5ea5ae1096e19417e87139.tc2cache) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 130

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 131

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 132

World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a World war military War; the Amalgamation (politics) of two separate conflicts, one beginning in Asia, 1937, as the Second Sino-Japanese War and the other beginning in Europe, 1939, with the Invasion of Poland (1939). It is regarded as the historical successor to World War I.

This global conflict split a Participants in World War II into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis Powers. Spanning much of the globe, World War II resulted in the deaths of over World War II casualties, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.

World War II was the most widespread war in history, and countries involved mobilized more than 100 million military personnel. Total war erased the distinction between civil and military resources and saw the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort; nearly two-thirds of those killed in the war were civilians. For example, nearly 11 million of the civilian casualties were victims of the Holocaust, which was largely conducted in Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union.

The conflict ended in an Allied victory. As a result, the United States and Soviet Union emerged as the world's two leading superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War for the next 45 years. Self determination gave rise to decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Europe itself began traveling the History of the European Union. Course of the war Overview In September 1931, Japan Mukden Incident under false pretexts and captured it from the Chinese.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party became leader of Germany. Under the Nazis, Germany began to rearm and to pursue a new nationalist foreign policy. By 1937, Hitler also began demanding the cession of territories which had historically been part of Germany, like the Rhineland and Gdansk.

In July 1937, Japan launched a Second Sino-Japanese war, beginning with the Strategic bombing during World War II and followed by the Nanking massacre in December.

In Europe, Nazi Germany, and to a lesser extent Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946), asserted increasingly hostile and aggressive foreign policies and demands, which the United Kingdom and French Third Republic initially attempted to defuse primarily through diplomacy and Appeasement of Hitler.

In September 1939, Germany Invasion of Poland (1939) Poland in Soviet invasion of Poland (1939), and war in Europe followed. The French and British did not declare war at first, hoping they could persuade Hitler through appeasement, but Hitler did not respond. The United Kingdom and France declared war. During the winter of 1939–1940 there was little overt indication of hostilities since neither side was willing to engage the other directly. This period was called the Phoney War.

In spring 1940, Germany captured Denmark and Norway, and in the early summer France and the Low Countries. Italy declared war in June 1940 and the Regio Esercito (WWII) attacked France just before the surrender. The United Kingdom was then targeted; the Germans attempted to cut the island off from vitally needed supplies and obtain air superiority in order to make a seaborne invasion possible. This never came to pass, but the Germans continued to attack the British mainland throughout the war, primarily from the air. Unable to engage German forces on the continent, the United Kingdom concentrated on combating German and Italian forces in the Mediterranean Basin. It had limited success however; it failed to prevent the Axis Balkans Campaign and fought indecisively in the Western Desert Campaign. It had greater Battle of the Mediterranean, dealing severe damage to the Regia Marina, and inflicted the first major defeat on Germany by winning the Battle of Britain.

In June 1941, the extent of the war increased when Germany Operation Barbarossa, bringing the Soviet Union into alliance with the United Kingdom. The German attack was initially highly successful, overrunning great tracts of Soviet territory, but began to stall by the winter.

Since invasion mainland China and French Indochina in 1940, Japan had been subject to increasing economic sanctions by the United States, Great Britain and Netherlands, and was attempting to reduce these sanctions through diplomatic negotiations. In December 1941, however, the war expanded once more when Empire of Japan, already in its fifth year of war with Republic of China, launched near simultaneous attacks Attack on Pearl Harbor and British assets in Southeast Asia; four days later, Germany declared war on the United States. This brought the United States and Japan into the greater conflict and turned previously separate Asian and European wars into a single global one.

In 1942, though Axis forces continued to make gains, the tide began to turn. Japan suffered its first major defeat against American forces in the Battle of Midway, where four of Japan's aircraft carriers were destroyed. German forces in Africa were being Tunisia campaign, and Germany’s renewed summer offensive in the Soviet Union had ground to a halt.

In 1943 Germany suffered devastating losses to the Soviets at Battle of Stalingrad, and then again at Battle of Kursk, the greatest tank battle in military history. Their forces were expelled from Africa, and Allied forces Italian Campaign (World War II). Italy was forced to sign the Italian Armistice in September 1943. The Japanese continued to lose ground as the American forces seized island after island in the Pacific Ocean.

In 1944, the course of the war was clearly becoming unfavorable for the Axis. Germany became boxed in as the Soviet offensive became a juggernaut in the east, pushing the Germans out of Russia and pressing into Poland and Kingdom of Romania; in the west, the Western Allies Battle of Normandy, Operation Overlord and the Low Countries and reaching Germany’s western borders. While Japan launched a Battle of Henan-Hunan-Guangxi, in the Pacific, their navy suffered continued heavy losses as American forces captured airfields within bombing range of Tokyo.

In 1945 the war ended. In Europe, a final Battle of the Bulge failed, while Soviet forces Battle of Berlin in May, forcing Germany to surrender. In Asia, American forces captured the Japanese islands of Battle of Iwo Jima and Battle of Okinawa while British forces in Southeast Asia managed to expel Japanese forces there. Initially unwilling to surrender, Japan finally capitulated after the Operation August Storm and the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

European Theatre Events leading up to the war in Europe of Fascist Italy (left) and Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany.Germany and France had been struggling for dominance in Continental Europe for 80 years and had fought two previous wars, the Franco-Prussian War and World War I. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Communist revolutionary movements began spreading across Europe, briefly taking power in both Budapest and Bavaria; in response, fascist and nationalist groups were born.Matanle, Ivor: History of World War II, 1939-1945, page 10. Tiger Books International, 1994. ISBN 1-85501-603-6

In 1922, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his Italian fascism party took control of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) and set the model for German dictator Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party, which, aided by the civil unrest caused by the Great Depression, took power in Germany and eliminated its democratic government, the Weimar Republic. These two leaders began to re-militarize their countries and become increasingly hostile. Mussolini first Second Italo-Abyssinian War and then seized Albania, with both Italy and Germany actively supporting Francisco Franco's Falange in the Spanish Civil War against the Second Spanish Republic (which was supported by the Soviet Union). Hitler then broke the Treaty of Versailles by increasing the size of the Germany’s military, and Remilitarization of the Rhineland. He started his own expansion by Anschluss and sought the same against the Sudetenland (Sudetenland) of Czechoslovakia.

The British and French governments followed a policy of appeasement in order to avoid military confrontation after the high cost of the First World War. This policy culminated in the Munich Agreement in 1938, which would give the Sudetenland to Germany in exchange for Germany making no further territorial claims in Europe. Chamberlain's radio broadcast, September 1938Churchill, Winston S. The Second World War. (6 volumes). (1948–1953). ISBN 978-0395416853 In March 1939, Germany annexed the remainder of Czechoslovakia. Mussolini, following suit, Italian invasion of Albania in April.

The failure of the Munich Agreement pushed the United Kingdom and France to prepare for war with Germany. France and Second Polish Republic pledged on May 19, 1939, to Franco-Polish Military Alliance in the event either was attacked. The following August, the British Polish-British Common Defence Pact.

On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which provided for sales of oil and food from the Soviets to Germany, thus reducing the danger of a British blockade such as the one that had nearly starved Germany in World War I. Also included was a secret agreement that would divide Central Europe into German and Soviet areas of interest, including a provision to partition Poland. Each country agreed to allow the other a free hand in its area of influence, including military occupation.

Germany’s war against the Western Allies Blitzkrieg in September 1939.On September 1, 1939, Germany Invasion of Poland (1939), using the false pretext of a faked "Gleiwitz incident" on a German border post. On September 3, the United Kingdom issued an ultimatum to Germany. No reply was received, and Britain, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany, followed later that day by France. Soon afterwards, South Africa, Canada and Nepal also declared war on Germany. Immediately, the UK began seizing German ships and implementing a blockade.

Despite the French and British treaty obligations and promises to the Polish government, both France and the UK were Western betrayal. The French mobilized slowly and then mounted only a short Saar Offensive in the Saarland; neither did the British send land forces in time to support the Poles. Meanwhile, on September 8, the Germans siege of Warsaw, having ripped through the Polish defenses. On September 17, the Soviet Union, pursuant to its prior agreement with Germany, Soviet invasion of Poland (1939). Poland was soon overwhelmed, and the Battle of Kock (1939) on October 6.

during the Battle of France.After Poland fell, Germany paused to regroup during the winter while the British and French stayed on the defensive. The period was referred to by journalists as "the Phoney War" because of the inaction on both sides. In Eastern Europe, the Soviets began Occupation of Baltic states leading to a Winter War, a conflict which ended with Moscow Peace Treaty to the Soviets on March 12, 1940. In early April 1940, both German and Allied forces launched nearly simultaneous operations around Norway over Swedish iron ore during World War II. It was a two month Norwegian campaign which resulted in complete German control of Denmark and Norway, though at a heavy cost to their surface navy. The fall of Norway led to the Norway Debate in London, which resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Neville Chamberlain, who was replaced by Winston Churchill.

On May 10, 1940, the Germans Battle of France. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the French Army advanced into Flanders and planned to fight a mobile war in the north, while maintaining a static continuous front along the Maginot Line further south. This was foiled by an unexpected German thrust through the Ardennes, splitting the Allies in two. The BEF and Military of France, encircled in the north, were evacuated from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. Italy attacked France in the Alps in June 10 1940. France, overwhelmed by the blitzkrieg, was forced to sign an armistice with Germany on June 22 1940, leading to the direct German occupation of Paris and two-thirds of France, and the establishment of a German puppet state headquartered in Vichy, France known as Vichy France.

.With only the United Kingdom remaining as an opposing force in Europe, Germany began to prepare Operation Sealion, the invasion of Britain. Most of the British Army's heavy weapons and supplies had been lost at Dunkirk, but the Royal Navy was still stronger than the Kriegsmarine and kept control of the English Channel. The Germans then attempted to gain air superiority by destroying the Royal Air Force (RAF) using the Luftwaffe. The ensuing air war in the late summer of 1940 became known as the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe initially targeted RAF Fighter Command aerodromes and radar stations, but Luftwaffe Commander Hermann Göring and Hitler, angered by British bombing raids on German cities, switched their attention towards bombing English cities, an offensive which became known as The Blitz. This diversion of resources allowed the RAF to rebuild their airbases, eventually leading Hitler to give up on his goal of establishing air superiority over the English Channel; this in turn led to the permanent postponing of Operation Sealion.

With Germany and her allies having total control of the continent, the United Kingdom and its allies settled for Strategic bombing during World War II and British Commandos#Some World War II operations in mainland Europe. Many of the conquered nations formed Government in exile#World War II and military units within the United Kingdom as well as domestic Resistance during World War II. Germany, meanwhile, fortified its position by constructing the Atlantic Wall.

Battle of the Atlantic .The Battle of the Atlantic, a nautical campaign which lasted the duration of the war, started after the German invasion of Poland with the torpedoing of the British liner SS Athenia by a U-boat (U-boat). Having faced Battle of the Atlantic (1914–1918), the British quickly implemented a convoy solution to protect merchant vessels; they were short of Military escort ships though, so many merchant ships had to sail without protection. At first, U-boats primarily operated within British waters while the Atlantic Ocean was covered by German surface vessels. The British attempted to counter the U-boat threat by forming anti-submarine hunting groups, which were ultimately ineffective because the U-boats proved too elusive.

With the German conquest of Norway and France by June 1940, U-boats enjoyed decreased resistance. The French Navy was removed as an Allied force, and additional ports in France on the Atlantic Ocean became available to the Kriegsmarine (Kriegsmarine), allowing them to increase the range of their vessels. The Royal Navy became severely stretched, having to remain stationed in the English Channel to protect against a German invasion, send forces to the Mediterranean Sea to make up for the loss of the French fleet, and provide escort for merchant vessels. This was somewhat mitigated by the Destroyers for Bases Agreement with the United States Navy in September 1940, in which the British exchanged several of their oversea bases for fifty Town class destroyer which were then used for escort duties. The success of U-boats in this period led to an increase of their production and the development of the wolf pack technique.

The German surface navy, which had suffered substantial losses in the capture of Norway, had mixed results. While there were several successful merchant raids, such as Operation Berlin, they also suffered several losses, such as the heavy cruiser German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and battleship German battleship Bismarck. The Last battle of the battleship Bismarck had deeper ramifications on naval policy though, because as a result Hitler ordered all heavy surface vessels to Norwegian waters, shifting them from raiding operations to protection from a potential Allied invasion of Scandinavia. While the Royal Navy also suffered the loss of capital ships, such as the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous (50), the battleship HMS Royal Oak (08) and the battlecruiser HMS Hood (51), their larger surface navy was better able to absorb the losses.

In May 1941, the British captured an intact Enigma machine, which greatly assisted in Cryptanalysis and allowed for plotting convoy routes which evaded U-boat positions. In the summer of 1941, the Soviet Union entered the war on the side of the Allies, but they lost much of their equipment and manufacturing base in the first few weeks following the German invasion. The Western Allies attempted to remedy this by sending Arctic convoys of World War II, which faced constant harassment from German forces. In September, many of the U-boats operating in the Atlantic were Mediterranean U-boat Campaign to block British supply routes. When the United States entered the war that December, they did not take precautionary anti-submarine measures; this resulted in shipping losses so great that the Germans referred to it as a second happy time.

In February 1942, several German capital ships that were stationed in the port of Brest, France, managed to comply with Hitler's earlier order and Operation Cerberus to their home bases in German waters, dealing a significant blow to the Royal Navy's reputation. In June, the Leigh light allowed Allied aircraft to illuminate U-boats that had been detected by the airplanes radar, but this was soon negated by the Germans with Metox, a radar detection system that gave them advance notice of such an aircraft's approach. In American waters, the institution of shore Blackout (wartime) and an interlocking convoy system resulted in a drop in attacks, and the U-boats shifted their operations back to the mid-Atlantic by August. In December, a strong German surface navy force Battle of the Barents Sea and failed to destroy a single merchant ship; this resulted in the resignation of Grand Admiral (Großadmiral) Erich Raeder, supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine. He was replaced by Commander of Submarines Karl Dönitz, and all naval building priorities turned to the U-boats.

In January, 1943, the British developed the H2S radar system which was undetectable by Metox. As before, this was followed by a counter-invention on the German side, the Naxos radar detector, which allowed German fighters to home in on Allied aircraft utilizing the H2S. In the spring, the Battle of the Atlantic began to turn in favour of the Allies with the pivotal point being Black May (1943), a period where the Allies had fewer ships sunk and the Kriegsmarine lost 25% of their active U-boats. That December, the German surface fleet lost their last active battlecruiser in the Battle of North Cape. By this time, the Kriegsmarine was unable to regain the initiative; Allied production, such as the mass production Liberty ships, improved antisubmarine warfare tactics, sea route patrols with B-24 Liberator, and ever-improving technology led to increasing U-boat losses and more supplies getting through. This allowed for the massive supply build up in the United Kingdom needed for the eventual invasion of Western Europe in mid-1944.

Mediterranean, Africa, and the Middle East Control of Southern Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa was important because the British Empire depended on shipping through the Suez Canal. If the canal fell into Axis hands or if the Royal Navy lost control of the Mediterranean, then transport between the United Kingdom, India, and Australia would have to go around the Cape of Good Hope, an increase of several thousand miles.

Almost immediately after declaring war on France and the United Kingdom in June 1940, Italy initiated the siege of Malta (1940), an island under British control located in the Mediterranean between mainland Italy and its History of Libya as Italian Colony. Minimal resources were initially placed by both sides though, the Italians needing to reserve their strength for other planned invasions and the British not believing they could effectively defend it. As the importance of the North African campaign increased though, so did that of Malta and the disruptions of Axis supply lines that Allied forces stationed there could provide.

firing during the Battle of Calabria.Following the French surrender, the British Attack on Mers-el-Kébir anchored in North Africa in July 1940, out of fear that it might fall into German hands; this contributed to a souring of British-French relations for the next few years. Soon following this action was the Battle of Calabria, the first large conflict between the Allied navies and the Regia Marina (Regia Marina).

With France no longer a threat, the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) was able to relax its guard on its western possessions in Africa which bordered French territory and focus on the Commonwealth of Nations forces in the east. In June 1940 the Italians made small incursions into Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, starting the North African campaign, and into Sudan and Kenya. In August, Italy Italian conquest of British Somaliland, located in the Horn of Africa, expelling British Commonwealth forces and enlarging the Italian Empire in Italian East Africa.

The Allies, including Free French Forces, under Charles de Gaulle, then attempted to replace Vichy control over French territories with that of the Free French. In September, 1940, they made a Battle of Dakar, though in November, they later Battle of Gabon. Between these attempts, the Italians launched their own offensive from Albania and Greco-Italian War.

Starting in November of 1940, the Allies had a string of successful operations against Italian forces. On November 12 they launched the first all-aircraft naval attack Battle of Taranto. Then, in December, British Commonwealth forces under General (United Kingdom) Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, launched Operation Compass, expelling Italian forces from Egypt and pushing them all the way west across Libya. Starting in January, 1941, British Commonwealth forces began a offensive into Italian East Africa, culminating in an Italian defeat. Italy was also facing problems in the Balkans, where the Hellenic Army had pushed the Italians out of Greece and were now stalemated in southern Albania.

s during the Battle of Crete.Alarmed by the Italian setbacks, Hitler authorized reinforcements, and Operation Sonnenblume in February. British Commonwealth leader started redeploying their forces, Operation Lustre starting in early March; in an effort to secure their transportation lines, the Allied navies managed to engage the Regia Marina in the Battle of Cape Matapan, doing significant damage to the Italian fleet. The German forces in Africa, led by German General Erwin Rommel, however, launched an offensive against the now depleted British Commonwealth forces near the end of March. During this offense, the Allies also feared having their oil supply cut due to a 1941 Iraqi coup d'état in early April. They were further pressed when the Balkans Campaign. By the middle of April, Rommel's forces had pushed British Commonwealth forces forces back into Egypt with the exception of the port of Tobruk, which he siege of Tobruk. Shortly after, the British responded to the coup in Iraq by Anglo-Iraqi War. By the end of April, German forces (with Italian and other Axis Armies) had conquered Yugoslavia, mainland Greece and further Battle of Crete, forcing a withdraw of all British Commonwealth forces from the Balkans.

In June 8, British Commonwealth and Free French forces Syria-Lebanon campaign due to the Vichy allowance of Axis forces to pass through the area and utilize military bases. A week later, Wavell launched Operation Battleaxe, which was intended to be a major offensive in the Western Desert, but resulted in the loss of nearly half of the British Commonwealth tanks in the region. Frustrated by the lack of success, Churchill had Wavell replaced with Claude Auchinleck in early July. In late August, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the British and the Soviets launched a Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran to secure its oilfields and the Persian Corridor supply route for Soviet use.

passes a burning German Panzer IV during Operation Crusader in the Western Desert Campaign.There was then a lull in activity. The Soviet-German war had significantly reduced the importance of the Mediterranean theatre to the Germans and the British Commonwealth armies were re-grouping. On November 18, the Allies launched Operation Crusader, an offensive in the Western Desert which pushed Rommel back to his original starting point at El Agheila in Libya. The British suffered a significant blow in the Italian Mare Nostrum though, losing several ships shortly after the First Battle of Sirte.

With the entry of Japan into the war in December 1941, the British Commonwealth forces were again forced to withdraw units in North Africa, transferring some to Burma.

Once again Rommel took advantage of the situation, and on January 21, launched an offensive which pushed the British Commonwealth forces back to Gazala, just west of Tobruk. There was another lull in activity as both sides built up their forces. In May, after the Japanese Indian Ocean raid, British Commonwealth forces Battle of Madagascar to prevent the Imperial Japanese Navy from using as launch point for further such attacks. Rommel (with his Afrika Korps and the Regio Esercito (WWII)) Battle of Gazala in late May, overrunning successively the British position in the Western Desert (Battle of Tobruk) and chasing them well into Egypt, First Battle of El Alamein. Shortly after, the Royal Navy Operation Pedestal from the Italian Regia Marina.

Like Wavell before him, Auchinleck's perceived failures led to his replacement by Churchill, this time by Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis with Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein taking over Eighth Army (United Kingdom).

In late October, after building up his forces, Montgomery Second Battle of El Alamein, pushing the Axis forces back and pursuing them across the desert. In November, Allied forces Operation Torch with minimal resistance; in retaliation, the Germans Case Anton, though they Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon. Soon, Rommel's forces were Tunisia Campaign and by May of 1943, were forced to evacuate Africa entirely.

In July, the Italian Campaign (World War II) began with the Allied invasion of Sicily. The continued series of Italian defeats led to Mussolini being dismissed by the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and subsequently arrested. His successor, Pietro Badoglio, then began negotiating surrender with the Allies. On September 3 the Allies invaded Allied invasion of Italy and the Armistice with Italy. This was made public on September 8, the same day the Allies launched a subsequent invasion of the Italian held Dodecanese Campaign. Germany had been planning for such an event though, and executed Operation Achse, the seizure of northern and central Italy. A few days later, Operation Eiche and before the end of September created the Italian Social Republic, a German client state.

.From October until mid-1944, the Allies fought through a series of defensive lines and fortifications designed to slow down their progress. On April 25, a little over a year and half after its creation, the Italian Social Republic was overthrown by Italian resistance movement; Mussolini, Clara Petacci and several of his ministers were captured by the partisans while attempting to flee and executed. Shortly after, one of strongest of the German defensive lines, the Winter Line, was breached nearly simultaneously in May at Battle of Monte Cassino by British-led forces and at Operation Shingle by the Americans; though the Allies could have encircled and potentially destroyed the Tenth Army (Germany) in Italy, the American forces instead moved towards Rome, capturing the city on June 4.

In August, Allied forces in Italy were divided, with a significant portion Operation Dragoon to assist in the liberation of Western Europe while the remainder pressed north to engage the remaining German forces, notably at the Gothic Line. Fighting in Italy would continue until early May, 1945, only a few days prior to the general German surrender.

Liberation of Western Europe on Battle of Normandy, 6 June 1944.

.

By the Spring of 1944, the Allied preparations for the invasion of France and the initial stages for the liberation of western Europe (Operation Overlord) were complete. They had assembled around 120 Divisions,consisting of over 2 million men, of which 1.3 million were Americans, 600,000 were British and the rest Canadian, Free French and Polish. The invasion, code-named Operation Neptune but commonly referred to as D-Day, was set for June 5th but bad weather postponed the invasion to June 6, 1944.Richard Overy Almost 85–90% of all German troops were deployed on the Eastern Front and only 400,000 Germans in two armies, the German Seventh Army and the newly-created Fifth Panzer Army, were stationed in the area. The Germans had also constructed an elaborate series of fortifications along the coast called the Atlantic Wall, but in many places the Wall was incomplete. The Allied forces under supreme command of Dwight D. Eisenhower had launched an elaborate deception campaign to convince the Germans that the landings would occur in the Calais area which caused the Germans to deploy many of their forces in that sector. Only 50,000 Germans were deployed in the Normandy sector on the day of the invasion.

The invasion began with 17,000 airborne troops being dropped in Normandy to serve as a screening force to prevent the Germans from attacking the beaches. During the early morning, a massive naval flotilla bombarded German defenses on the beaches, but due to lack of visibility most of the shots missed their targets. Additionally, most of the troop transport ships (with personnel, trucks, and equipment) were off-course, some as much as thousands of yards from their respective landing zone amongst the five beach areas (Utah, Omaha, Sword, Juno and Gold). The Americans in particular suffered heavy losses on Omaha beach due to the German fortifications being left intact. However by the end of the first day, most of the Allied objectives were accomplished even though the British and Canadian objective of capturing Caen proved too optimistic. The Germans launched no significant counterattack on the beaches as Hitler believed the landings to be a decoy. Only three days later the German High command realized that Normandy was the actual invasion, but by then the Allies had already consolidated their beachheads.

The bocage terrain of Normandy where the Americans had landed made it ideal ground for defensive warfare. Nevertheless, the Americans made steady progress and captured the deep-water port of Battle of Cherbourg on June 26, one of the primary objectives of the invasion. However, the Germans had Naval mine the harbor and destroyed most of the port facilities before surrendering, and it would be another month before the port could be brought back into limited use. The British launched another Battle of Villers-Bocage on June 13 to capture Caen but were held back as the Germans had moved in large number of troops to hold the city. The city was to remain in German hands for another 6 weeks. It finally fell to British and Canadian forces on July 9.

Allied firepower, improved tactics, and numerical superiority eventually resulted in a Breakout (military) of American mechanized forces at the western end of the Normandy pocket in Operation Cobra on July 23. The allied advance to this point had been considerably slower than expected. Seven weeks after D-Day, U.S. First Army was holding an east-west line that ran from Caumont to Saint-Lô to Lessay on the Channel. Pre-D-Day projections had put the Americans on that line by D Plus Five. Ambrose, Stephen. Citizen Soldiers. Page 77. When Hitler learned of the American breakout, he ordered his forces in Normandy to launch an immediate counter-offensive. However the German forces moving in open countryside were now easily targeted by Allied aircraft, as they had initially escaped Allied air attacks due to their well camouflaged defensive positions.

The Americans placed strong formations on their flanks which blunted the attack and then began to encircle the German Seventh Army and large parts of the German Fifth Panzer Army in the Falaise Pocket. Some 50,000 Germans were captured, but 100,000 managed to escape the pocket. Worse still, the British and Canadians—whose initial strategic objective to draw in enemy reserves and protect the American flanks so as to promote a later turning movement north had been achievedChurchill, Winston S. The Second World War Volume V1. p. 33—now began to break through the German lines. Any hope the Germans had of containing the Allied thrust into France by forming new defensive lines was now gone. The Allies raced across France, advancing as much as in two weeks. Patton's Third Army advanced . The German forces retreated into Northern France, Holland and Belgium.

By August 1944, Allied forces stationed in Corsica launched Operation Dragoon, invading the French Riviera on August 15 with the 6th Army Group, led by Lieutenant General Jacob Devers), and linked up with forces from Normandy. The clandestine French Resistance in Paris rose against the Germans on August 19, and the Free French 2nd Armored Division (France) under Philippe Leclerc de Hautecloque, pressing forward from Normandy, received the surrender of the German forces on behalf of Dietrich von Choltitz from Paris and liberated the city on August 25.

Around this time the Germans began launching V-1 flying bomb (known as the "buzz bomb"), the world's first cruise missile, at targets in southern England and Belgium. Later they would employ the much-larger V-2 rocket, a Liquid fuels guided ballistic missile. These weapons were inaccurate and could only target large areas such as cities; they had little military effect and were intended to demoralize and/or terrorize Allied civilians.

.

Logistical problems plagued the Allies as they fanned out across France and the Low Countries, advancing towards the German border. With the supply lines still running back to Normandy, and critical shortages in fuel and other supplies all along the front, the Allies slowed the general advance and focused the available supplies on a narrow front strategy. Allied paratroopers and armor attempted a war-winning advance through the Netherlands and across the Rhine River with Operation Market Garden in September (the goal was to end the war by Christmas). The plan was to land paratroopers near bridges on the Rhine River, hold the position, and wait for the armour to cut through enemy lines to reinforce them and then cross into Germany. The plan was conceived and led by British General Montgomery, and included British, American, Polish, and Canadian forces. Although the plan encountered some initial success, many of the bridges were blown up, and the advancing armored columns ran into delays. As a result, the British 1st Airborne Division, holding the last bridge, was nearly annihilated. The Germans were able to entrench all along the front and the war continued through the winter.

In order to improve the supply situation, the Canadian First Army was assigned to clear the entrance to the port of Antwerp, the Battle of the Scheldt estuary, which they successfully accomplished by late November 1944 making Canada the only country to successfully complete all D-Day objectives. In October, the Americans captured Battle of Aachen, the first major German city to be occupied.

Hitler had been planning to launch a major counteroffensive against the Allies since mid-September. The objective of the attack was to capture Antwerp. Not only would the capture or destruction of Antwerp prevent supplies from reaching the allied armies, it would also split allied forces in two, demoralizing the alliance and forcing its leaders to negotiate. For the attack, Hitler concentrated the best of his remaining forces in the west, launching the attack through the Ardennes in southern Belgium, a hilly and in places a heavily wooded region, and the site of his victory in 1940. Dense cloud cover denied the Americans the use of their reconnaissance and ground attack aircraft.

.Parts of the attack managed to break through the thinly-held American lines (about 4 divisions which were either new or refitting to cover about of the front-line), and dash headlong for the River Meuse. However the northern section of the line held, constricting the advance to a narrow corridor. The German advance was delayed at St. Vith, which American forces defended for several days. At the vital road junction of Battle of Bastogne, the American 101st Airborne Division held out, surrounded, for the duration of the battle. George S. Patton's Third United States Army to the South made a rapid 90 degree turn and rammed into the German southern flank, relieving Bastogne.

The weather by this time had cleared unleashing allied air power as the German attack ground to a halt at Dinant. In an attempt to keep the offensive going, the Germans launched a Operation Bodenplatte on Allied airfields in the Low Countries on January 1, 1945. The Germans destroyed 465 aircraft but lost 277 of their own planes. Whereas the Allies were able to make up their losses in days, the Luftwaffe was not capable of launching a major air attack again.A World At Arms, p 769, Gerhard Weinberg

Allied forces from the north and south met up at Houffalize and by the end of January they had pushed the Germans back to their starting positions. Many German units were caught in the pocket created by the Bulge and forced to surrender or retreat without their heavy equipment. Months of the Reich's war production were lost whereas German forces on the Eastern front were virtually starved of resources at the very moment the Red Army was preparing for its massive offensive against Germany. The final obstacle to the Allies was the river Rhine, which was crossed in late March 1945, aided by the fortuitous capture of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. Also, Operation Varsity, a parachute-assault in late March, got a foothold on the east bank of the Rhine River. Once the Allies had crossed the Rhine, the British fanned out northeast towards Hamburg, crossing the river Elbe and moving on towards Denmark and the Baltic Sea.

The U.S. Ninth Army went south as the northern pincer of the Ruhr encirclement, and the U.S. First Army went north as the southern pincer of the Ruhr encirclement. These armies were commanded by General of the Army Omar Bradley who had over 1.3 million men under his command (the 12th Army Group). On April 4, the encirclement was completed, and the German Army Group B, which included the 5th Panzer Army, 7th Army and the 15th Army and was commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Walther Model, was trapped in the Ruhr Pocket. Some 300,000 German soldiers then became prisoners of war. The 1st and 9th U.S. Armies then turned east, halting their advance at the Elbe river where they met up with Soviet troops in mid-April.

Soviet-German War The Eastern Front of the European Theatre of World War II encompassed the conflict in central and eastern Europe from June 22, 1941 to May 8, 1945. It was the largest theatre of war in history in terms of numbers of soldiers, equipment and casualties and was notorious for its unprecedented ferocity, destruction, and immense loss of life. It was here that the bulk of the European war was fought; where the Red Army halted the Germans in 1941 and then inflicted the first major defeats at Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kursk in 1943. The fighting involved millions of German and Soviet troops along a broad front hundreds of kilometres long. It was by far the deadliest single theatre of World War II, with over 5 million Axis deaths; Soviet military deaths were about 10.6 million (out of which 2.8 - 3.5 million Soviet prisoners of war (of 5.5 million) died in German captivity"Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century", Greenhill Books, London, 1997, G. F. KrivosheevChristian Streit: Keine Kameraden: Die Wehrmacht und die Sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen, 1941-1945, Bonn: Dietz (3. Aufl., 1. Aufl. 1978), ISBN 3801250164), and civilian deaths were about 14 to 19 million. WWII: The Casualties More people fought and died on the Eastern Front than in all other theatres of World War II combined; the German army suffered 80% to 93% of all its casualties there.Osbourne, Andrew, World leaders gather as Russia remembers. The AgeRozhnov, Konstantin, Who won World War II?. BBC. Russian historian Valentin Falin Although the Soviet Union was victorious in the war, the cost to the nation was an estimated 27 million dead, about half of all World War II casualties and the vast majority of Allies of World War II deaths, and had devastated the Soviet economy in the struggle.http://countrystudies.us/russia/12.htm In Soviet and Russian sources, the conflict is referred to as the Great Patriotic War.

Invasion of the Soviet Union

For the campaign against the Soviet Union, the Germans allotted three army groups, totalling approximately 3.3 million men, along with 1 million from other Axis countries. Among these were 19 panzer divisions, and in total the “Barbarossa” force had about 3,000 tanks, 7,000 artillery pieces, and 2,500 aircraft. "World War II." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 19 Sept. 2007 . It was in effect the largest and most powerful invasion force in human history. Their Soviet opponents had vast amounts of equipment, but much of it was obsolete and poorly maintained and troop training levels were inadequate. In addition, a Great Purge in 1937 had crippled the Red Army, reducing its morale and efficiency just before the German invasion.http://www.redarmystudies.net/0411030.htm, citing Alan Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (New York: Vintage Books, 1993), 489. With up to 50% of army officers executed, the result was that the Red Army officer corps in 1941 had many inexperienced senior officers.Glantz, David M., Stumbling Colossus, p. 58.

The battle of Greece and the invasion of Yugoslavia delayed the German invasion of the Soviet Union by a critical six weeks, but on

Second World War
A general Second World War resource. Articles include a biography of Adolf Hitler, important dates, casualty figures, high commands, trivia, recommended books, and a glossary of ...

Second World War
An online encyclopedia focused on the Second World War.

James Holland's Second World War Forum
James Holland’s Second World War Forum - James Holland’s Second World War Forum ... I am a historian of the Second World War and the aim of this site is to enable others to ...

Second World War Online Learning Resource for Northern Ireland
Welcome to the Second World War Online Learning Resource for Northern Ireland. This website lets you explore how the Second World War

The Red Cross's involvement in the Second World War
When war was declared in September 1939, the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John joined forces and formed the Joint War Organisation.

Second World War Online Learning Resource for Northern Ireland
Welcome to the Second World War Online Learning Resource for Northern Ireland ... Northern Ireland’s museums have played an active part in recording the memories of people who ...

BBC - History - World War Two
The Ending of World War One How did the peace brokered at the end of the Great War lead the world into a second, yet more destructive conflict?

Centre for Second World War Studies
centre for first world war studies ... Home Welcome Centre News Second World War News Centre Events Degree Programmes

BBC - Children of World War 2
Find out what life was like for Children growing up in the Second World War (1939-1945). A website aimed at 7-9 year olds.