World War II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
"The Second World War", "WWII", and "WW2" redirect here. For other uses, see The
Second World War (disambiguation) and WWII (disambiguation).

World War II

(clockwise from top left)

 Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing

 Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein

German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front in December 1943

 US naval force in the Lingayen Gulf

 Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender

 Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad

Date 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945
(6 years and 1 day)[a]
Location Europe, Pacific, Atlantic, South-East
Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean, North
Africa, Horn of Africa, Australia,
briefly North and South America
Result Allied victory

 Collapse of Nazi Germany

  Fall of the Japanese and Italian
Empires
 Allied military occupations
of Germany, Japan, Austria 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: Main Axis leaders:

 Joseph  Adolf Hitler

Stalin  Hirohito

 Franklin D.  Benito Mussolini

Roosevelt
 Winston

Churchill
 Chiang Kai-

shek

Casualties and losses

Military dead: Military dead:

Over 16,000,000 Over 8,000,000

Civilian dead: Civilian dead:

Over 45,000,000 Over 4,000,000

Total dead: Total dead:

Over 61,000,000 Over 12,000,000

(1937–1945) (1937–1945)

...further details ...further details

 v

 t

 e
Campaigns
 of World War II

Europe
Poland

Phoney War

Winter War

Denmark and Norway

France and Benelux

Britain

Balkans

Eastern Front

Finland

Lapland

Western Front (1944–

45)

Asia-Pacific

China

Pacific Ocean

South-East Asia

Burma and India

South West Pacific

Japan

Manchuria and

Northern Korea

Mediterranean and Middle

East

North Africa

East Africa

Mediterranean Sea

Adriatic

Malta

Yugoslavia

Iraq

Syria–Lebanon

Iran
 Italy

Dodecanese

Southern France

Other campaigns

Atlantic

Arctic

Strategic bombing

Americas

French West Africa

Indian Ocean 
Madagascar

Contemporaneous wars

Soviet–Japanese border

conflicts
Ecuadorian–Peruvian

War
Ili Rebellion

Afghan tribal revolts

World War II

Alphabetical indices

A B C D E F 
G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S 
T U V W X Y Z
 0–9

Navigation


Ca
mpaigns
Cou
ntries
Equ
 ipment

Tim
eline
Outl
ine
List
s

Por
tal
Cat
egory
Bibl
iography

 v
 t
 e

World War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World

War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's
countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military
alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more
than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. The major participants threw their
entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the
distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest
conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were
civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, genocides including the
Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the
only use of nuclear weapons in war.
Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937,
[b]
 though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II 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 the United Kingdom. From
late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or
controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the