World War II

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global military conflict, the joining of what had initially been two separate conflicts. The first began in Asia in 1937 as the Second Sino-Japanese War.  The other began in Europe in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. 

This global conflict split the majority of the world's nations into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. Spanning much of the globe, World War II resulted in the death of over 60 million people, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.

World War II involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history. The war placed the participants in a state of "total war", erasing the distinction between civil and military resources. This resulted in 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. 

From 9 to 11 million of these civilian casualties were victims of the Holocaust - which was conducted by Nazi Germany - largely in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The financial cost of the war is estimated at about a trillion 1944 U.S. dollars worldwide (about 9 trillion in 2007 dollars), making it the most costly war in capital as well as lives.

The Allies were victorious, and, as a result, the United States and Soviet Union emerged as the world's two leading superpowers. This set the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. The United Nations was formed in hopes of preventing another such conflict. 

The self determination spawned by the war gave rise to decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Europe itself began moving toward integration.

Contents

• Overview
• European Theater
  • Events leading up to the war in Europe
  • Germany’s war against the Western Allies
    • Blitzkrieg
    • Battle of the Atlantic
    • Mediterranean, Africa, and the Middle East
    • Liberation of Western Europe
      • Normandy Invasion (D-Day)
      • Battle of the Bulge
    • Western Allied invasion of Germany
  • German-Soviet War
    • Invasion of the Soviet Union
    • Germany’s second offensive
    • Germany’s third offensive
    • Soviet offensive
    • Invasion of Germany
  • End of the war in Europe
• Asia-Pacific Theater
  • Events leading up to the war in Asia
  • China
  • Japanese offensives (1941–1942)
    • Attack on Pearl Harbor
  • Allies re-group and counterattack
    • New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
    • Island hopping campaign
    • Return to the Philippines
    • Japanese home islands
  • South-East Asia
  • Submarine warfare
  • End of the war in Asia
• Aftermath of the war
• Casualties, civilian impact, and atrocities
  • Concentration camps and slave work
  • Chemical and bacteriological weapons
  • Bombings
  • War trials
• See also
• Notes
• References