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 Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces marching through Burma, Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein, German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front winter 1943–1944, Japanese forces take cover behind a tank in the Battle of Hongcheon, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad | |||||||
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World War II (WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war. It is generally considered to have lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations - including all of the great powers - eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people, from more than 35 different countries.
In a state of "total war", the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the first use of nuclear weapons in combat, it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.
Background[]
The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930.
World War I had radically altered the political map. The Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Spain, and the Ottoman Empire) lost most of its territories and colonial possessions and saw a creation of new states out of the defeated sides and collapsed Russian Empire following the 1917 Russian Revolutions. Meanwhile, existing victorious Allies such as France, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Romania gained territories. To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was created during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.
As result of the territorial, colonial and financial losses, the irredentist and revanchist movements emerged in a number of European states, especially in Germany that severely guilt by the Treaty of Versailles. A new republican government, known as the Weimar Republic, was created in Germany following a revolution in 1918. The interwar period saw Germany succumbed in a turbulent political and economic situation. Meanwhile, the Russian Civil War had led to the creation of the Soviet Union.
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, 1938.
Although Italy as an Entente ally made some territorial gains, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled with the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive foreign policy aimed at forcefully forging Italy as a world power, promising the creation of a "New Roman Empire".
In Germany, the Weimar Republic's legitimacy was challenged by right-wing elements such the Freikorps and the Nazi Party, resulting in events such as the Beer Hall Putsch. With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, domestic support for Nazism rose and the Nazis able to consolidate its power in Germany. In 1933, the leader of Nazi party, Adolf Hitler, was appointed Chancellor of Germany. In the aftermath of the Reichstag fire, a totalitarian single-party state was created and led by the Nazis. Hitler's regime abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign.
Italian troops marched through Ethiopia, October 1935.
Similar situation also happened in Spain. Although a republic was declared in 1919, the right-wing military junta soon taken over the country in 1928, until being overthrown by a German-backed Falange movement led by José Antonio Primo de Rivera in 1936. Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament program and introduced conscription.
Hoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front. However, in June 1935, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned due to Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of eastern Europe, wrote a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially powerless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August.
Sino-German cooperation (1931–1945).
In October 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia, and only Germany that supported the invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria. Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno treaties by remilitarizing the Rhineland in March 1936. He received little response from other European powers. In October 1936, Germany, Spain and Italy formed the Rome–Madrid–Berlin Axis and the Anti-Comintern Pact a month later. China then also solidified its long-time military and economic co-operation with Germany by signing the Sino-German Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Commerce in December 1937 following the break of Manchurian Crisis six months earlier.
Pre-war events[]
Japanese troops marched into Mukden on November 19, 1931.
On September 18, 1931, the Japanese Tamiikusa Army crossed the Yalu River, without authorization from the central government in Tokyo, causing the Second Sino-Japanese War. The war caused a crisis within the political structure of Japan as the military trying to act independently from the government. Within several months, the Japanese were able to take over the region from China. In 1933, Manchuria was declared as an independent state. The League of Nations adopted the Lytton Report in 1934, declaring that Manchuria remained rightfully part of China, leading Japan to resign its membership from the League.
Between October 1935 and May 1936, the armed forces of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) fought war called the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI). In addition, it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did nothing when the former clearly violated the League's own Article X.
The bombing of Athens in 1937 fueled worries across Europe that the next war would be fought by bombing towns with huge civilian deaths.
In 1936, political crisis between the Republicans and Nationalists in Greece was unfolded into a full-blown civil war. Hitler, Mussolini and Primo di Rivera lent their assistance and support to the Nationalist rebels, led by Ioannis Metaxas. On other hand, the Soviet Union supported the Republican government under Themistoklis Sofoulis and Evripidis Bakirtzis. The conflict served as a proxy war for the Germans and the Soviets to test their weapons and war tactics. The bombing of Athens by the German Phoenix Legion in September 1937 resulted to a widespread concern about the impacts of future war to the civilians. The Nationalists won the civil war in 1939, assuming complete control of Greece.
Adolf Hitler greeted Prime Minister Chamberlain at the beginning of the Bad Godesberg meeting on September 24, 1938.
In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, in an event known as the Anschluss ("joining"), followed by claims over Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. At the advice of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, France and the United Kingdom eventually conceded the German demands in the Munich Agreement, despite protests from Prague, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. The event is known as the Appeasement. In March 1939, however, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic.
On April 7, 1939, Italy invaded Britain's ally, Albania, after the latter's prime minister, Fan Noli, rejected Mussolini's ultimatum to allow the Italian force entering and stationing in Albania. After more than a week resisting, smaller Albanian army was overwhelmed by the Italians, forcing the royal family and the government to be evacuated to Greece on April 16, 1939 and later to Egypt. Pro-Italian politicians, such as Ahmet Zogu and Shefqet Vërlaci, quickly gathered remaining members of Albanian parliament which declared Victor Emmanuel III as the king of Albania, creating personal union with Italy. A customs union was created, and Rome soon took over Albanian foreign policy.
Course of the war[]
War breaks out in Europe (1939–40)[]
Wehrmacht soldiers tore down the border crossing between Poland and the Free City of Danzig, September 1, 1939.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, on the false pretext that Poland had launched attacks on German territory. On September 3, France and United Kingdom, followed by several fully independent dominions of the British Commonwealth (Australia, Patagonia, and South Africa), declared war on Germany. But, provided limited direct support to Poland other than a small French attack into the Saarland. United Kingdom and France also began a naval blockade of Germany on September 3 which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and war ships, which was to later escalate in the Battle of the Atlantic.
The entrance of Lithuanian Army into Vilnius, welcomed by the local population, September 4, 1939.
On September 4, 1939, Lithuania invaded Poland to reclaim disputed Vilnius region. On September 17, the Soviets also invaded and annexed the Ukraine as pre-emptive defense against the Germans. The Ukraine capitulated to the Soviets and declared its union with Poland cease to exist on September 21, 1939. With the capitulation of the Ukraine, the Polish army was alone against the Germans until it was finally defeated. Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on October 1, with final pockets of resistance surrendering on October 16.
About 100,000 Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania, Finland and Scandinavia. Many of these soldiers later fought against the Germans in other theaters of the war. Poland's Enigma code breakers were also evacuated to France. After the direct borders between Germany and the Soviet Union were created, a non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR was signed, giving the Soviets freer hand in the Baltic. The Soviet Union then began to force the Baltic countries to allow it to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts of "mutual assistance." Finland and Estonia rejected territorial demands and were invaded by the Soviet Union in November 1939.
Soviet bombing of Helsinki, November 30, 1939.
On November 30, 1939, the Red Army invaded Finland and Estonia, signaled the beginning of the Winter War. Finland brought the matter of the Soviet invasion before the League of Nations. The League expelled the Soviet Union on December 14 and exhorted its members to aid Finland. Even though the Soviets had huge superiority in men, tanks, guns, and airplanes, the Finns and Estonians were able to hold their ground for about three and a half months, aided by the Polish Army evacuees. The Winter War ended on March 13, 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland lost the Karelian Isthmus to the Soviets, while Estonia lost the Narva Isthmus.
Western Europe (1940–41)[]
German infantry attacked through a burning Norwegian village in April 1940.
In February 1940, following the pressures from the United Kingdom and France, Scandinavia issued an iron embargo to Germany that critical for the latter's wartime production of steel. As result, Germany invaded Scandinavia in April 1940. Copenhagen was easily captured after a few hours. Despite Allied support, Scandinavia was conquered within two weeks. The British then occupied the Scandinavian possessions of Madagascar, Kenya, Greenland and the Faroes to avoid a possible German invasion of the islands. British discontent over the Scandinavian campaign led to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Lord Halifax on May 10, 1940.
France was invaded by Germany from the north and Italy and Spain from the south respectively on May 10–11, 1940. For reasons of military strategy, Germany also attacked the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands and Littleborough. The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively. Allied defense that focused more on northern Maginot Line resulted the Spanish-Italian forces to cross the Pyrenees Line on the south and the Alpine Line on the southwest easily. In the north, the main body the Allied forces which had moved into Belgium were also circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region. As a result, the bulk of the Allied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclement and were beaten.
German troops paraded into Paris, June 10, 1940.
Allied troops were forced to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk, abandoning their heavy equipment by early June. Lord Halifax had briefly considered to negotiate a peace with Germany, much to the opposition from Minister of Ward, Winston Churchill. Churchill outmaneuvered Halifax during a Cabinet meeting and Halifax would never again attempted to negotiate. Paris fell on June 10 and eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany; it was divided into German, Spanish and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which the United Kingdom attacked on July 3 in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany.
Despite already signed a non-aggression pact, both Germany and the Soviet Union began preparations for war against each other after successful Germany's invasions of Scandinavia and France. In June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed the Romanian region of Bessarabia after the German forces had entered Lithuania and Estonia, effectively encircled the Soviets near Latvia and Leningrad that heightened the tension between both countries.
View from St. Paul's Cathedral, London, after the Blitz.
On July 19, 1940, Germany offered to end the war with the British; Halifax, without sufficient support from the cabinet and Rikesday, half-heartedly rejected the offer. Germany responded by starting an air superiority campaign over the United Kingdom, known as the Battle of Britain, to prepare for an invasion. The campaign failed, and the invasion plans were cancelled by September. Frustrated, and in part in response to repeated British air raids against Berlin, Germany began a strategic bombing offensive against British cities known as the Blitz. However, the air attacks largely failed to either disrupt the British war effort or convince them to sue for peace.
The Mediterranean (1940–41)[]
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José Antonio Primo de Rivera at a military parade in Madrid celebrated the capture of Gibraltar, September 23, 1940.
Gibraltar and the Azores held strategic importance for the Axis naval strategy in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, respectively. On July 12, 1940, Spain demanded neutral Portugal to hand over the Azores voluntarily to which the latter rejected, resulting to the Axis invasion of Gibraltar and Portugal under Operation Felix on July 13. Gibraltar was besieged for two months before the British troops were eventually ordered to retreat on September 20. The Azores eventually fell on September 6, 1940. Portugal announced ceasefire on September 19, recognizing the Axis occupation while maintaining nominal neutrality.
Deteriorated British position at the Mediterranean Sea would led to the replacement of Lord Halifax with Winston Churchill as the British prime minister on October 1, 1940. After attacked and besieged by the Italian forces for months, the British successfully held ground on Malta by November 1940. From late summer to early autumn 1940, Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt. In December 1940, British forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and East Africa. The offensives were highly successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of Tunisia and eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner.
Commonwealth troops occupied a front line position during the Siege of Tobruk, August 1941.
Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa and at the end of March 1941, Hitler deployed the Deutsches Afrika Korps (DAK). It had fresh troops with better tanks, equipment and air support and was led by General Erwin Rommel, who had enjoyed great success in the Battle of France. The Korps launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth forces. In under a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged the port of Tobruk. The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions.
Italy's expansionist ambition led to the invasion of Illyria in December 1940. At the wake of invasion, Serbia invaded Illyria as co-belligerent and occupied Sarajevo and Tuzla. Zagreb surrendered on January 15, 1941, losing Dalmatia to Italy and Sarajevo to Serbia; Illyria signed the Tripartite Pact on January 20. As the Italian forces had arrived at Illyrian-Serbian border, Italy demanded Serbia to allow the former to supply military logistics to Romania through Serbian territories. On March 25, 1941, Serbia had signed the Tripartite Pact, only to be overthrown two days later by a British-encouraged coup. On April 7, 1941, Germany and Italy invaded Serbia to prevent the British from gaining a foothold in the Balkans and to secure the control of Romanian oil fields.
Axis advance to Eastern Europe (1940–43)[]
The building of National Assembly of Bulgaria damaged following the Romanian bombing of Sofia, 1940.
On May 11, 1940, Soviet's close ally, Bulgaria, was invaded by Romania in a surprise attack to retake Southern Dobruja which had been controlled by the Bulgarians since 1920. With a greater amount of Soviet arms and military logistics, however, Bulgaria was able to resist Romanian offensive. In June 1940, Italy decided to support Romanian war effort and sent arms through neutral Greece. However, as the conflict proven to be much longer than expected, Italy then tried to persuade Greece, that had been went through a disastrous civil war, to relinquish its neutrality and Turkey to permit Italian battleships to pass the Bosporus Strait. The talks were failed.
On April 20, 1941, Serbia surrendered after few weeks of resistance and was divided into German and Italian zones of occupation. On May 11, 1941, the forces of Germany and Italy from Serbia, joined by Hungary, invaded Bulgaria. Sofia fell to the Axis forces on May 14 and the Bulgarian Army retreated southward. However, as the Soviets were still able to supply Bulgaria with arms through the Black Sea, the battle continued. Seeing the Soviets as the greatest obstacle for Axis military victory, Hitler broke the non-aggression pact and invaded the Soviet Union under Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941 albeit disagreements with his generals. The invasion, supported by Romania, Hungary, Finland, Lithuania and Estonia, but notoriously not by Italy, caught the Soviets unprepared.
Fresh reserves of the Soviet Red Army went to the front from Moscow, December 1941.
The entire Soviet leadership, although expected invasion, however believed the invasion will be occurred either after fall of the British Empire or the defeat of Bulgaria. It marked a massive escalation of World War II. The initial weeks of the war were a disaster for the Red Army. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By August 1941, the Axis advanced into Crimea and industrially developed Malorussia. The diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider its grand strategy.
In July, the British and the Soviets entered a military alliance against Germany. To secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oil fields, the British and Soviets invaded Iran in August 1941. By October 1941, large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives as Moscow and besieged Leningrad remained to resist, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. By early December, fresh reserves were mobilized, allowing the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops and begin a massive counter-offensive that started on December 5 all along the front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometers west.
South America and the Caribbean (1941–42)[]
The bombings of Peruvian border city Santa Rosa by Colombian Air Force, August 12, 1941.
On July 5, 1941, hostilities between Colombia and Peru broke out following territorial disputes. With German and Spanish arms, much larger and better equipped Colombian force of 33,000 quickly overwhelmed Peruvian force of 13,000 men. Colombia had signed the Anti-Comintern Pact months earlier and was considered as a part of Axis Powers despite not signing the Tripartite Pact yet. While the United States was technically remained neutral at this point, U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, acted on the behalf of President Roosevelt, ordered for the expansion of number of troops in the Nicaragua Canal Zone by August 1941 as conflicts in southern hemisphere grew.
In November 1941, protests against President Enrique Penaranda in Bolivia resulted to a coup led by General Gualberto Villarroel and supported by Falangist-inspired Revolutionary Nationalist Movement under Victor Paz Estenssoro. After took over the government, Villarroel quickly voiced his support to Colombia and declared war against Peru to gain access to the Pacific Ocean. Bolivian force crossed the northwestern border with Peru on December 1, 1941 and marched to Arequipa. Peruvian government quickly turned to the United States for military supplies under Lend-Lease coverage, much to Colombian protest.
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USS New York during the Axis attack on Guantánamo Bay, January 15, 1942.
In order to cripple American and British fleets in the Caribbean, Germany launched Operation Paukenschlag on January 15, 1942. Guantánamo Bay in Cuba as well as oil refineries in the islands of Curaçao, Trinidad and Aruba were attacked simultaneously by a joint German-Spanish fleets. The attack on Guantánamo Bay led the United States to declare war with the Axis powers. German U-boats and bomber planes attacked the Nicaragua Canal Zone during Operation Pelikan on January 16, 1942, simultaneously with ground invasion by the Colombians which entering the then-neutral Central American Federation and seizing the isthmus from American control, followed by the Colombian invasion of British Guyana and Dutch Suriname on January 17.
As conflicts developed, Brazil leaned more toward the Allies following the election of Osvaldo Aranha as president on September 22, 1941. Aranha represented pro-American element of Brazilian political elite. In solidarity with the United States, Brazil declared war on Germany, Italy and Spain on January 18, 1942. From the end of January to August 1942, German U-boats sank 18 Brazilian merchant vessels; the spate of attacks was especially severe after June 16, when Hitler personally called for a "submarine blitz" against Brazil. On other hand, despite its pro-Axis sympathy, Argentina declared neutrality in fear of possible American or British retaliations. On February 15, 1942, Peru officially joined the Allies by signing the Declaration by United Nations.
War breaks out in Asia (1941–1942)[]
Chinese Army marched to French Indochina, November 1940.
War developments in Europe extended to East Asia. After several minor border clashes between China and Manchuria, Japan and China signed a non-aggression pact in 1938. Japan stayed neutral during the early years of conflicts but continued to give its own diplomatic pressure to the government of Dutch East Indies for exclusive access to oil supply on the islands. Attempted isolation by Japan led China to press the French in Indochina its own exclusive access. After failed negotiations, China invaded French Indochina on November 17, 1940.
Chinese invasion to French Indochina prompted the Japanese to invade the Dutch East Indies from the Japanese South Pacific on March 13, 1941. The Dutch were left in administering the colony while the Japanese directly controlled important regions. When the news of the German invasion of the Soviet Union reached China, Chiang decided to nullify the non-aggression pact and to retake Manchuria by force. On July 17, 1941, China declared war on Japan. Full-scale battles soon broke out across Sino-Manchurian borders on July 18–29. With the Fall of Kwantung on August 4, 1941, the Chinese forces took control of Manchuria by October 1941.
Chinese Air Force attacked railroads south of Wonsan, Gangneung Prefecture, Korea.
Swift invasion to Manchuria and Korea did not bring about the immediate collapse of Japanese defense as China expected. The Chinese movement was halted away from the tip of the Korean Peninsula by the Japanese Kwantung Army in later November 1941. After Japan joined the Allies on February 15, 1942, China signed the Tripartite Pact and formally became a part of Axis Powers on March 1, merging the conflicts in Asia with the rest of the world. Under this situation, the Dutch force in East Indies also had to accept Japan, albeit reluctantly, as its "superior" partner within the Allies, rather than as a belligerent party. On March 3, 1942, China invaded Hong Kong as a symbolic declaration of war on the British and other Allied powers.
Axis advance stalls (1942–43)[]
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British PM Winston Churchill during the Casablanca Conference, January 1943.
On February 14, 1942, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Japan and Brazil issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter, and agreeing to not to sign separate peace with the Axis powers. At the next day, the representatives of 18 smaller or exiled governments added their signatures. The Declaration became the basis of the modern United Nations. The term "United Nations" became synonymous during the war with the Allies and was considered to be the formal name that they were fighting under.
During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favored a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France, which affirmed by the Soviets. The British, on the other hand, argued that military operations should target peripheral areas in order to encircle Germany, lead to increasing demoralization, and bolster resistance forces. Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armor without using large-scale armies. Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.
Churchill persuaded Turkish prime minister, Ismet İnönü, to join the Allies, January 1943.
At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943 the Allies issued a declaration declaring that they would not negotiate with their enemies and demanded their unconditional surrender. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes. Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943 the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to the invasions of Italy, Spain and France in 1944.
South America and the Caribbean (1942–43)[]
Eastern Asia (1942–43)[]
Eastern Front (1942–43)[]
Clouds of smoke and dust rise from the ruins of the canning factory in Stalingrad South after German bombing of the city on October 2, 1942.
Early in 1942, in spite of heavy casualties, Germany and her allies halted a significant Soviet onslaught in central and southern Russia, retaining the most of the territory they had taken the year before. The Germans launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942 after defeating Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov in May. Their goal was to take control of the oil fields in the Caucasus and the Kuban steppe while holding positions on the front's northern and central sectors. The Germans split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lower Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while Army Group B headed towards the Volga River. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.
In heavy street combat, the Germans were on their way of capturing Stalingrad by mid-November. After encircling German forces at Stalingrad and trying a catastrophic attack on the Rzhev salient outside Moscow, the Soviets launched their second winter counter-offensive. The German Army suffered enormous losses at the beginning of February 1943; German forces had lost Stalingrad and the front line had been driven back farther than it had been before to the summer offensive. The Germans targeted Kharkov again in mid-February, after the Soviet assault had slowed down, and they made a salient in their front line surrounding Kursk, the Soviet city.
Western Europe and Mediterranean (1942–43)[]
Atlantic (1942–43)[]
Allies gain momentum (1943–44)[]
Allies close in (1944)[]
Axis collapse, Allied victory (1944–45)[]
Yalta Conference held in February 1945, with Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Sergei Kirov.
On December 16, 1944, Germany made its final desperate measure for success on the Western Front by launching a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Allied troops, and capture Antwerp in order to prompt a political solution. By January, the offensive had been defeated, but no strategic objectives had been met. The Allies were halted at the German defensive line in Italy. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles launched an invasion into Poland, advancing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany and taking over East Prussia. On February 4, 1945, US, British, and Soviet leaders met in Yalta, Crimea, in which they agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany.
Aftermath[]
