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World War II:

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global armed conflict that was

underway by 1939 and ended in 1945. It involved a vast majority of the world's

nations

including all of the great powers

eventually forming two opposing militaryalliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with

more than 100 million people serving in military units. In a state of "total war", the

major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific

capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between

civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass

death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in

warfare, it resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. These deaths make

the war the deadliest conflict in human history.

Declarations of War:

On September 1, 1939, the beginning of the German attack, Great Britain and

France sent Adolf Hitler an ultimatum - either withdraw German forces from

Poland or Great Britain and France would go to war against Germany.

On September 3, with Germany's forces penetrating deeper into Poland, Great

Britain and France both declared war on Germany.

World War II had begun.

The Second World War begins:

Although Japan was already at war with China in 1937, the world war is generally

said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany,

and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and most of the

countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth. Germany set out to establish a

large empire in Europe. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and

treaties, Germany conquered or subdued much of continental Europe; amid Nazi-

Soviet agreements, the nominally neutral Soviet Union fully or partially occupied

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and annexed territories of its six European neighbours, including Poland. Britain

and the Commonwealth remained the only major force continuing the fight against

the Axis, with battles taking place in North Africa as well as the long-running

Battle of the Atlantic. In June 1941, the European Axis launched an invasion of the

Soviet Union, giving a start to the largest land theatre of war in history, which tied

down the major part of the Axis' military forces. In December 1941, Japan, which

aimed to dominate Asia, attacked the United States and European possessions in

the Pacific Ocean, quickly conquering much of the West Pacific.

The Axis advance was stopped in 1942, after Japan lost a series of naval battles

and European Axis troops were defeated in North Africa and, decisively, at

Stalingrad. In 1943, with a series of German defeats in Eastern Europe, the Allied

invasion of Fascist Italy, and American victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost theinitiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western

Allies invaded France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses

and invaded Germany and its allies.

The Invasion of Poland:

Since World War I, tensions had existed between Germany and Poland regarding

the free city of Danzig and the "Polish Corridor." The latter was a narrow strip of

land reaching north to Danzig which provided Poland with access to the sea andseparated the province of East Prussia from the rest of Germany. In an effort to

resolve these issues and gain Lebensraumfor the German people, Hitler began

planning the invasion of Poland. Formed after World War I, Poland's army was

relatively weak and ill-equipped compared to Germany. To aid in its defense, Poland

had formed military alliances with Great Britain and France.

Massing their armies along the Polish border, the Germans staged a fake Polish

attack on August 31, 1939. Using this as a pretext for war, German forces flooded

across the border the next day. On September 3, Great Britain and France issuedan ultimatum to Germany to end the fighting. When no reply was received, both

nations declared war.

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War breaks out in Europe

On 1 September 1939, Germany and Slovakiaa client state in 1939attacked

Poland. On 3 September France and Britain, followed by the countries of the

Commonwealth, declared war on Germany but provided little support to Polandother than a small French attack into the Saarland. Britain and France also began a

naval blockade of Germany on 3 September which aimed to damage the country's

economy and war effort. On 17 September, after signing a cease-fire with Japan,

the Soviets also invaded Poland. Poland's territory was divided between Germany

and the Soviet Union, with Lithuania and Slovakia also receiving small shares. The

Poles did not surrender and established a Polish Underground State, an

underground Home Army, and continued to fight with the Allies on all fronts

outside Poland. About 100,000 Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania

and the Baltic countries; many of these soldiers later fought against the Germansin other theaters of the war. Poland's Enigma codebreakers were also evacuated to

France during this time, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a

strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September.

Following the invasion of Poland and a German-Soviet treaty governing Lithuania,

the Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to station Soviet troops in

their countries under pacts of "mutual assistance." Finland rejected territorial

demands and was invaded by the Soviet Union in November 1939. The resulting

conflict ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions. France and the United

Kingdom, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war

on the side of the Germans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the

USSR's expulsion from the League of Nations.

In Western Europe, British troops deployed to the Continent, but in a phase

nicknamed the Phoney War by the British and "Sitzkrieg" (sitting war) by the

Germans, neither side launched major operations against the other until April 1940.

The Soviet Union and Germany entered a trade pact in February 1940, pursuant to

which the Soviets received German military and industrial equipment in exchange

for supplying raw materials to Germany to help circumvent the Allied blockade.

In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to secure shipments of iron

ore from Sweden, which the Allies were about to disrupt. Denmark immediately

capitulated, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months.

In May 1940 Britain invaded Iceland to preempt a possible German invasion of the

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island. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.

Adolf Hitler:

Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German

politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party commonly

referred to as the Nazi Party). He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945,

and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. Hitler is commonly associated

with the rise of fascism in Europe, World War II, and the Holocaust.

No other twentieth-century world leader achieved the degree of infamy that AdolfHitler did. A power-mad dictator intent on world conquest, Hitler used Germany's

tattered national pride and raging anti-Semitism as steppingstones to create oneof the most heinous and morally repulsive governments in world history. Millions of

people died as a result of Hitler's lust for power, and his name has justly become

synonymous with hate, intolerance, and evil.

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau, Austria, the fourth child of

Klara and Alois Hitler. His father worked for the Austrian customs service and was

able to give his family a comfortable lifestyle.

Hitler's father died in 1903, leaving the family without a strong male figure. With

no one to drive him, Hitler began skipping school, and his grades continued to drop.He left school in 1905 with a ninth-grade education.

When his mother died in 1908, Hitler pretended to continue his education in Vienna

in order to receive an orphan's pension. However, he spent most of his days

wandering the city streets and dreaming about his future. Hitler eventually ended

up in a homeless shelter, where he was first introduced to the racist concepts that

would be the cornerstone of his political ideology. He also developed an intense

hatred for socialism, which he came to associate with Jewish people. From 1910 to

1913, he was able to eke out a meager living painting postcards and sketches. Thenhe moved to Munich, Bavaria, in Germany.

On September 1, 1939, German armed forces invaded Poland and henceforth

Hitler's main energies were devoted to the conduct of a war he had unleashed to

dominate Europe and secure Germany's "living space."

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The first phase of World War II was dominated by German Blitzkrieg tactics:

sudden shock attacks against airfields, communications, military installations, using

fast mobile armor and infantry to follow up on the first wave of bomber and

fighter aircraft. Poland was overrun in less than one month, Denmark and Norway in

two months, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and France in six weeks. After the fall ofFrance in June 1940 only Great Britain stood firm.The Battle of Britain, in which

the Royal Air Force prevented the Luftwaffe from securing aerial control over the

English Channel, was Hitler's first setback, causing the planned invasion of the

British Isles to be postponed. Hitler turned to the Balkans and North Africa where

his Italian allies had suffered defeats, his armies rapidly overrunning Greece,

Yugoslavia, the island of Crete and driving the British from Cyrenaica.

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