World War II

"WWII" redirects here. For other uses, see 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 winter 1943–1944, US naval force in the Lingayen Gulf, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Surrender, Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad Date 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945 Location Europe, Pacific, Atlantic, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Result Allied victory Creation of the United Nations Emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as superpowers Beginning of the Cold War. (more...) Belligerents Allies  Soviet Union (1941–45)  United States (1941–45)  British Empirea  China (at war 1937–45)  France  Poland  Canada  Australia  New Zealand  South Africa  Yugoslavia (1941–45)  Belgium (1940–45)  Netherlands (1940–45)  Greece (1940–45)  Norway (1940–45) and others Axis  Germany  Japan (at war 1937–45)  Italy (1940–43)  Romania (1941–44)  Hungary (1940–45)  Bulgaria (1941–44) Co-belligerents and puppet states  Finland (1941–44)  Iraq (1941)  Thailand (1941–45) Slovakia(1941–45)  Croatia (1941–45) and others Commanders and leaders Allied leaders Joseph Stalin Franklin D. Roosevelt Winston Churchill and others Axis leaders Adolf Hitler Hirohito Benito Mussolini and others Casualties and losses Military dead: Over 16,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 45,000,000 Total dead: Over 61,000,000 (1937–45) ...further details Military dead: Over 8,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 4,000,000 Total dead: Over 12,000,000 (1937–45) ...further details a Includes United Kingdom and its dependencies: British India, British West Africa, British Malaya, Newfoundland, and others. World War II seriesv · d · e Precursors Asian events · European events · Timeline v · d · e Campaigns of World War II Europe Poland – Phoney War – Denmark & Norway France & Benelux – Britain – Balkans – Yugoslav Front – Eastern Front –Finland - Western Front (1944–45) Asia & The Pacific China – Pacific Ocean – South-East Asia  South West Pacific – Japan – Manchuria (1945) Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa Other Campaigns Atlantic – Strategic Bombing - North America Contemporaneous Wars Chinese Civil – Winter War – Soviet–Japanese Border – French–Thai – Ili Rebellion 1939 · 1940 · 1941 · 1942 · 1943 · 1944 · 1945 Eastern front · Western Front · Pacific War · Battles · Mediterranean, Middle East and African Campaigns · Commanders Technology · Military operations · Manhattan Project Air warfare of World War II · Home front · Collaboration · Resistance Aftermath Casualties · Further effects · War crimes · Japanese war crimes · Consequences of Nazism Depictions World War II articles Alphabetical index: 0-9 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 Campaigns  |  Countries  |  Equipment Lists  |  Outline  |  Timeline  |  Portal  |  Category v · d · e History of World War II by country and region Albania · Australia · Austria (Anschluss) · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies (Indonesia)  · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · India · Iran · Iraq · Ireland · Italy · Japan · Laos · Latvia · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak (Malaysia)  · Manchukuo · Mexico · Mongolia · Nepal · Netherlands · New Zealand · Newfoundland · Norway · Philippines · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Singapore · Slovakia · South Africa · Soviet Union · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Thailand · Turkey · Ukraine · United Kingdom · United States · Vietnam · Yugoslavia v · d · eWorld War II Western Europe · Eastern Europe · Africa · Mediterranean · Asia and the Pacific · Atlantic Casualties · Military engagements · Topics · Conferences · Commanders Participants Allies (Leaders) Ethiopia · China · Czechoslovakia · Poland · United Kingdom · India · France · Australia · New Zealand · South Africa · Canada · Norway · Belgium · Netherlands · Greece · Yugoslavia · Soviet Union · United States · Philippines · Mexico · Brazil Axis and Axis-aligned (Leaders) Bulgaria · Reorganized National Government of China · Croatia · Finland · Germany · Hungary · Iraq · Italy · Italian Social Republic · Japan · Manchukuo · Romania · Slovakia · Thailand · Vichy France Resistance Austria · Baltic States · Belgium · Czech lands · Denmark · Estonia · Ethiopia · France · Germany · Greece · Hong Kong · India · Italy · Jewish · Korea · Latvia · Luxembourg · Netherlands · Norway · Philippines · Poland (Anti-communist) · Romania · Thailand · Soviet Union · Slovakia · Western Ukraine · Vietnam · Yugoslavia Timeline  Prelude Africa · Asia · Europe 1939 Invasion of Poland · Phoney War · Winter War · Battle of the Atlantic · Battle of Changsha (1939) · Winter Offensive in China 1940 Denmark and Norway · Battle of the Netherlands · Battle of Belgium · Battle of France · Battle of Britain · Libya and Egypt · British Somaliland · Baltic states · Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina · Invasion of French Indochina · Invasion of Greece  · Operation Compass 1941 East Africa Campaign · Invasion of Yugoslavia · Yugoslav Front · Battle of Greece · Battle of Crete · Invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) · Continuation War · June Uprising · Middle East Campaign  · Battle of Kiev  · Siege of Leningrad · Battle of Moscow · Siege of Sevastopol · Attack on Pearl Harbor · Battle of Hong Kong · Battle of the Philippines · Battle of Changsha (1941) · Battle of Malaya · Battle of Borneo 1942 Japanese Conquest of Burma · Battle of Changsha (1942) · Battle of the Coral Sea · Battle of Gazala · Battle of Midway · Case Blue · Battle of Stalingrad · Dieppe Raid · Second Battle of El Alamein · Operation Torch · Guadalcanal Campaign 1943 End in Africa · Battle of Kursk · Battle of Smolensk · Solomon Islands · Invasion of Sicily · Lower Dnieper Offensive · Invasion of Italy · Gilbert and Marshall Islands · Battle of Changde 1944 Cassino and Anzio · Narva · Korsun–Shevchenkovsky Offensive  · Operation Tempest · Operation Ichi-Go · Invasion of Normandy · Mariana and Palau Islands · Operation Bagration · Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive · Tannenberg Line · Warsaw Uprising · Jassy–Kishinev Offensive · Belgrade Offensive · Liberation of Paris · Gothic Line · Operation Market Garden · Tallinn Offensive · Operation Crossbow · Operation Pointblank · Lapland War · Budapest Offensive · Battle of Leyte Gulf · Battle of the Bulge · Burma Campaign 1945 Vistula–Oder Offensive · Battle of Iwo Jima · Battle of Okinawa · Final offensive in Italy · Battle of Berlin · Prague Offensive · Siege of Budapest · Battle of West Hunan · Surrender of Germany · Soviet invasion of Manchuria · Philippine liberation  · Borneo Campaign · Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki · Surrender of Japan Aspects General Air warfare of World War II · Attacks on North America · Blitzkrieg · Comparative military ranks · Cryptography · Home front · Military awards · Military equipment · Military production · Nazi plunder · Technology · Total war · Strategic bombing · Bengal famine of 1943 Aftermath Effects · Expulsion of Germans · Operation Paperclip · Operation Keelhaul · Occupation of Germany · Morgenthau Plan · Territorial changes · Soviet occupations (Romania, Poland, Hungary, Baltic States) · Occupation of Japan · First Indochina War · Indonesian National Revolution · Cold War · Decolonization · Contemporary culture  War crimes Allied war crimes · German war crimes · Italian war crimes · Japanese war crimes · Soviet war crimes · United States war crimes · The Holocaust War rape Rape during the occupation of Japan · Comfort women  · Rape of Nanking  · Rape during the occupation of Germany Prisoners Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union · Japanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union · Japanese prisoners of war in World War II · German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Category · Portal  definition ·  textbooks ·  quotes ·  source texts ·  media ·  news stories World War II, or the Second World War1 (often abbreviated as WWII or WW2), was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, which involved most 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, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilised. 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 was the deadliest conflict in human history,2 resulting in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. The war is generally accepted to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and Slovakia, 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 and annexed territories of its six European neighbours. Britain and the Commonwealth remained the only major force continuing the fight against the Axis in North Africa and in extensive naval warfare. 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, from this moment on, was tying down the major part of the Axis military power. In December 1941, Japan, which had been at war with China since 1937,3 and aimed to dominate Asia, attacked the United States and European possessions in the Pacific Ocean, quickly conquering much of the region. The Axis advance was stopped in 1942 after the defeat of Japan in a series of naval battles and after defeats of European Axis troops 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 the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded France, while the Soviet Union regained all territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. The war in Europe ended with the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops and subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. The Japanese Navy was defeated by the United States, and invasion of the Japanese Archipelago ("Home Islands") became imminent. The war ended with the total victory of the Allies over Germany and Japan in 1945. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts (such as World War III). The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which would last for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers started to decline, while the decolonization of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration emerged as an effort to stabilise postwar relations. Contents 1 Chronology 2 Background 3 Pre-war events 3.1 Invasion of Ethiopia 3.2 Spanish Civil War 3.3 Japanese invasion of China 3.4 Japanese invasion of the Soviet Union and Mongolia 3.5 European occupations and agreements 4 Course of the war 4.1 War breaks out in Europe 4.2 Axis advances 4.3 The war becomes global 4.4 Axis advance stalls 4.5 Allies gain momentum 4.6 Allies close in 4.7 Axis collapse, Allied victory 5 Aftermath 6 Impact 6.1 Casualties and war crimes 6.2 Concentration camps and slave work 6.3 Home fronts and production 6.4 Occupation 6.5 Advances in technology and warfare 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links // Chronology See also: Timeline of World War II The start of the war is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland; Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. Other dates for the beginning of war include the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 13 September 1931;4 the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937;.56 Others follow A. J. P. Taylor, who held that there was a simultaneous Sino-Japanese War in East Asia, and a Second European War in Europe and her colonies. The two wars merged in 1941, becoming a single global conflict, at which point the war continued until 1945. This article uses the conventional dating.7 The exact date of the war's end is not universally agreed upon. It has been suggested that the war ended at the armistice of 14 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan (2 September 1945); in some European histories, it ended on V-E Day (8 May 1945). The Treaty of Peace with Japan was not signed until 1951.8 Background Main article: Causes of World War II World War I radically altered the diplomatic and political situations in Eurasia and Africa, with the defeat of the Central Powers, including Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire; and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia. Meanwhile, the success of the Allied Entente powers including the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Italy, Serbia, and Romania, and the creation of new states from the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire, resulted in fundamental changes to the map of Eastern Europe. In the aftermath of the war, major unrest in Europe rose, especially irredentist and revanchist nationalism and class conflict. Irredentism and revanchism were strong in Germany because she was forced to accept significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses as part of the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all of its overseas colonies, while German annexation of other states was prohibited, massive reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of Germany's armed forces.9 Meanwhile, the Russian Civil War had led to the creation of the Soviet Union. After Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin seized power in the USSR and repudiated the New Economic Policy favouring the Five Year Plans instead.10 In the interwar period, domestic civil conflict occurred in Germany involving nationalists and reactionaries versus communists and moderate democratic political parties. A similar scenario occurred in Italy. Although Italy as an Entente ally made some territorial gains, Italian nationalists were angered that the terms of the Treaty of London upon which Italy had agreed to wage war on the Central Powers, were not fulfilled with the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Italian Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed political forces supporting class conflict or liberalism, and pursued an aggressive foreign policy aimed at forcefully forging Italy as a world power, and promising to create a "New Roman Empire."11 In Germany, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler pursued establishing such a fascist government in Germany. With the onset of the Great Depression, Nazi support rose and, in 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, and in the aftermath of the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian single-party state led by the Nazis.12 The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese communist allies.13 In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had long sought influence in China14 as the first step of its right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as justification to invade Manchuria and established the puppet state of Manchukuo.15 Too weak to resist Japan, China appealed to the League of Nations for help. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several minor conflicts, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until signing the Tanggu Truce in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.16 Benito Mussolini (left) and Adolf Hitler (right) Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign.17 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, speeding up his rearmament programme and introducing conscription.18 Hoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front. 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 toothless.1920 However, in June 1935, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August.21 In October, Italy invaded Ethiopia, with Germany the only major European nation supporting the invasion. Italy then revoked objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria.22 Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno treaties by remilitarizing the Rhineland in March 1936. He received little response from other European powers.23 When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, Hitler and Mussolini supported fascist Generalissimo Francisco Franco's nationalist forces in his civil war against the Soviet-supported Spanish Republic. Both sides used the conflict to test new weapons and methods of warfare,24 and the nationalists won the war in early 1939. Mounting tensions led to several efforts to strengthen or consolidate power. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome-Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year. In China, after the Xi'an Incident the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire in order to present a united front to oppose Japan.25 Pre-war events Invasion of Ethiopia Main article: Second Italo–Abyssinian War The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia) and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia). 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.26 Spanish Civil War Main article: Spanish Civil War The ruins of Guernica after the bombing. Germany and Italy lent support to the Nationalist insurrection led by general Francisco Franco in Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the Spanish Republic which showed leftist tendencies. Both sides used this war as an opportunity to test improved weapons and tactics. The Bombing of Guernica, a city of 5000 - 7000 inhabitants, was considered a horrifying attack at the time, with a propaganda figure of 1,654 people killed widely circulated in the west, leading to charges of "terror bombing".27 In reality the attack was tactical operation against a city with militarily important communications close to the front-line, and modern estimates yield no more than 300 - 400 dead at the high-end.2728 Japanese invasion of China Main article: Second Sino-Japanese War A Chinese machine gun nest in the Battle of Shanghai, 1937. In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beiping after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China.29 The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December 1937 and committed the Nanking Massacre. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; although this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, the city was taken by October.30 Japanese military victories, however, did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve, instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing to continue their resistance.31 Japanese invasion of the Soviet Union and Mongolia See also: Nanshin-ron and Soviet-Japanese Border Wars Soviet troops fought the Japanese during the Battle of Khalkin Gol in Mongolia, 1939. On 29 July 1938, the Japanese invaded the USSR and were checked at the Battle of Lake Khasan. Although the battle was a Soviet victory, the Japanese dismissed it as an inconclusive draw, and on 11 May 1939 decided to move the Japanese-Mongolian border up to the Khalkin Gol River by force. After initial successes the Japanese assault on Mongolia was checked by the Red Army that inflicted the first major defeat on the Japanese Kwantung Army.3233 These clashes convinced the Japanese government that they should focus on conciliating the Soviet government to avoid interference in the war against China and instead turn their military attention southward, towards the US and European holdings in the Pacific. They also prevented the sacking of experienced Soviet military leaders such as Zhukov, who would later play a vital role in the defence of Moscow.34 European occupations and agreements Further information: Anschluss, Appeasement, Munich Agreement, German occupation of Czechoslovakia, and Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact From left to right (front): Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured before signing the Munich Agreement. In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers.35 Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population; and soon France and Britain conceded this territory to him, against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands.36 Soon after that, however, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary and Poland.37 In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic.38 Alarmed, and with Hitler making further demands on Danzig, France and Britain guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece.39 Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel.40 In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact,41 a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol. The parties gave each other rights, “in the event of a territorial and political rearrangement,” to “spheres of influence” (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany, and eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the USSR). It also raised the question of continuing Polish independence.42 Course of the war War breaks out in Europe Common parade of German Wehrmacht and Soviet Red Army on 23 September 1939 in Brest, Eastern Poland at the end of the Invasion of Poland. At centre is Major General Heinz Guderian and at right is Brigadier Semyon Krivoshein. On 1 September 1939, Germany and Slovakia — a client state in 1939 — attacked Poland. On 3 September 1939 after Germany failed to withdraw in accordance with French and British demands, France and Britain, followed by the countries of the Commonwealth, declared war on Germany but provided little military support to Poland other than a small French attack into the Saarland.43 On 17 September 1939, after signing a nonaggression pact with Japan, the Soviets launched their own invasion of Poland.44 By early October, Poland was divided among Germany, the Soviet Union, Lithuania and Slovakia, although Poland never officially surrendered and continued the fight outside its borders.45 At the same time as the battle in Poland, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September.46 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."474849 Finland rejected territorial demands and was invaded by the Soviet Union in November 1939.50 The resulting conflict ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions.51 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.49 German troops by the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, after the 1940 fall of France. 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 1940.52 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 a British blockade.53 In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to secure shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were about to disrupt.54 Denmark immediately capitulated, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months.55 In May 1940 Britain invaded Iceland.56 British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain by Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.57 Axis advances Germany invaded France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940, the same day Neville Chamberlain resigned as British Prime Minister.58 The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively.59 The French fortified Maginot Line was circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region,58 mistakenly perceived by French planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.60 British troops were forced to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk, abandoning their heavy equipment by the end of the month. On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom;61 twelve days later France surrendered and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones,62 and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime. On 3 July, the British attacked the French fleet in Algeria to prevent its possible seizure by Germany.63 In June, during the last days of the Battle of France, the Soviet Union initiated staged elections in the Baltic states and forcefully and illegally annexed them,48 followed by the annexation of the region of Bessarabia in Romania. Whereas the increased cooperation between the USSR and Nazi Germany, which included broad economic cooperation, limited military assistance, population exchange and border agreements made the former a de facto German ally,6465 Soviet takeover of the Baltic states had been considered as a hostile step by Germany.66 This, as well as growing tensions over spheres of influence demonstrated impossibility of further expansion of Nazi-Soviet cooperation, and both states had begun the countdown to war.67 With France neutralized, Germany began an air superiority campaign over Britain (the Battle of Britain) to prepare for an invasion.68 The campaign failed, and the invasion plans were canceled by September. Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic.69 Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland in August, and making an incursion into British-held Egypt in September 1940. Japan increased its blockade of China in September by seizing several bases in the northern part of the now-isolated French Indochina.70 The Battle of Britain ended the German advance in Western Europe. Throughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow 'cash and carry' purchases by the Allies.71 In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased and, after the Japanese incursion into Indochina, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan.72 In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases.73 Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941.74 At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact united Japan, Italy and Germany to formalize the Axis Powers.75 The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three.76 During this time, the United States continued to support the United Kingdom and China by introducing the Lend-Lease policy authorizing the provision of materiel and other items77 and creating a security zone spanning roughly half of the Atlantic Ocean where the United States Navy protected British convoys.78 As a result, Germany and the United States found themselves engaged in sustained naval warfare in the North and Central Atlantic by October 1941, even though the United States remained officially neutral.7980 The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined the Tripartite Pact.81 These countries participated in the subsequent invasion of the USSR, with Romania making the largest contribution to recapture territory ceded to the USSR and pursue its leader Ion Antonescu's desire to combat communism.82 In October 1940, Italy invaded Greece but within days was repulsed and pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred.83 In December 1940, British Commonwealth forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa.84 By early 1941, with Italian forces having been pushed back into Libya by the Commonwealth, Churchill ordered a dispatch of troops from Africa to bolster the Greeks.85 The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at Cape Matapan.86 German paratroopers invading the Greek island of Crete, May 1941. The Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler sent German forces to Libya in February, and by the end of March they had launched an offensive against the diminished Commonwealth forces.87 In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port of Tobruk.88 The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions.89 In early April, following Bulgaria's signing of the Tripartite Pact, the Germans intervened in the Balkans by invading Greece and Yugoslavia following a coup; here too they made rapid progress, eventually forcing the Allies to evacuate after Germany conquered the Greek island of Crete by the end of May.90 The Allies did have some successes during this time. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first quashed a coup in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria,91 then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences.92 In the Atlantic, the British scored a much-needed public morale boost by sinking the German flagship Bismarck.93 Perhaps most importantly, during the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe's assault, and the German bombing campaign largely ended in May 1941.94 In Asia, despite several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. In order to increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan had seized military control of southern Indochina95 In August of that year, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures (the Three Alls Policy) in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.96 Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation.97 With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941.98 By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, amassing forces on the Soviet border.99 The war becomes global A German soldier inspecting the remains of destroyed Soviet forces in June 1941 On 22 June 1941, Germany, along with other European Axis members and Finland, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. The primary targets of this surprise offensive100 were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with an ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, connecting the Caspian and White Seas. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum ("living space")101 by dispossessing the native population102 and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.103 Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the war,104 Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By the middle of August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the Second Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad.105 The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made further advance into Crimea and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov) possible.106 German infantry and armoured vehicles battle the Soviet defenders on the streets of Kharkov, October 1941. 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 Front107108 prompted Britain to reconsider its grand strategy.109 In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany110 The British and Soviets invaded Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oil fields.111 In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter.112 By October, when Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad113 and Sevastopol continuing,114 a major offensive against Moscow had been renewed. After two months of fierce battles, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops115 were forced to suspend their offensive.116 Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe had ended.117 The Axis controlled territory in Europe at the time of its maximal expansion (1941–42). By early December, freshly mobilised reserves118 allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops.119 This, as well as intelligence data that established a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East sufficient to prevent any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army,120 allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December along a 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–160 mi) west.121 German successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in south-east Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, while refusing to hand over political control of the colonies. Vichy France, by contrast, agreed to a Japanese occupation of French Indochina.122 The United States, United Kingdom and other Western governments reacted to the seizure of Indochina with a freeze on Japanese assets, while the United States (which supplied 80 percent of Japan's oil123) responded by placing a complete oil embargo.124 That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in Asia and the prosecution of the war against China, or seizing the natural resources it needed by force; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.125 Japan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific; the Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war.126 To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet from the outset.127 On 7 December (8 December in Asian time zones), 1941, Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific.128 These included an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, landings in Thailand and Malaya128 and the battle of Hong Kong. The February 1942 Fall of Singapore saw 80,000 Allied soldiers captured and enslaved by the Japanese. These attacks led the U.S., Britain, Australia and other Allies to formally declare war on Japan. Germany and the other members of the Tripartite Pact responded by declaring war on the United States. In January, the United States, Britain, Soviet Union, China, and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, which affirmed the Atlantic Charter.129 The Soviet Union did not adhere to the declaration; it maintained a neutrality agreement with Japan,130131 and exempted itself from the principle of self-determination.112 From 1941, Stalin persistently asked Churchill, and then Roosevelt, to open a 'second front' in France.132 The Eastern front became the major theatre of war in Europe and the many millions of Soviet casualties dwarfed the few hundred thousand of the Western Allies; Churchill and Roosevelt said they needed more preparation time, leading to claims they stalled to save Western lives at the expense of Soviet lives.133 Meanwhile, by the end of April 1942, Japan and her ally Thailand had almost fully conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore,134 and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite a stubborn resistance in Corregidor, the Philippines was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing the government of the Philippine Commonwealth into exile.135 Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean,136 and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. The only real Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha in early January 1942.137 These easy victories over unprepared opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.138 Germany retained the initiative as well. Exploiting dubious American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast.139 Despite considerable losses, European Axis members stopped a major Soviet offensive in Central and Southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they achieved during the previous year.140 In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early February,141 followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives.142 Axis advance stalls American dive bombers engage the Mikuma at the Battle of Midway, June 1942. In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The Allies, however, intercepted and turned back Japanese naval forces, successfully preventing the invasion.143 Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier bombing on Tokyo, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.144 In early June, Japan put its operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of the plans and force dispositions and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.145 With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua.146 The Americans planned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.147 Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, the battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna-Gona.148 Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops.149 In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943.150 The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved dubious results.151 A Soviet soldier waving the Red Banner over the central plaza in Stalingrad, 1943. On Germany's eastern front, the Axis defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov,152 and then launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split the Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A struck lower Don River while Army Group B struck south-east to the Caucasus, towards Volga River.153 The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad, which was in the path of the advancing German armies. By mid-November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad154 and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously.155 By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender156 and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Russian city of Kursk.157 British Crusader tanks moving to forward positions during the North African Campaign. By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive, Operation Crusader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made.158 In the West, concerns the Japanese might utilize bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942.159 This success was offset soon after by an Axis offensive in Libya which pushed the Allies back into Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein.160 On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous Dieppe Raid,161 demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.162 In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta.163 A few months later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya.164 This attack was followed up shortly after by an Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies.165 Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France;165 although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces.166 The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies in May 1943.167 Allies gain momentum A contemporary video showing bombing of Hamburg by the Allies. Following the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Allied forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians,168 and soon after began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and to breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.169 By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and additionally neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies then launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea.170 In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 making preparations for large offensives in Central Russia. On 4 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences171172 and, for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success.173 This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month.174 On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any hopes of the German Army for victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk heralded the downfall of German superiority,175 giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front.176177 The Germans attempted to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther-Wotan line, however, the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensives.178 Soviet soldiers preparing the rafts to cross the Dnieper (the sign reads "You will give me Kiev!")... In early September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following an Italian armistice with the Allies.179 Germany responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas,180 and creating a series of defensive lines.181 German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic.182 The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.183 German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign.184 In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo185 and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran.186 The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory,185 while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.186 British troops firing a mortar during the Battle of Imphal, North East India, 1944. In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and attempted to outflank it with landings at Anzio.187 By the end of January, a major Soviet offensive expelled German forces from the Leningrad region,188 ending the longest and most lethal siege in history. The following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region.189 By late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops.190 The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June Rome was captured.191 The Allies experienced mixed fortunes in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against British positions in Assam, India,192 and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima.193 In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma,193 and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina.194 The second Japanese invasion attempted to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields.195 By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a renewed attack against Changsha in the Hunan province.196 Allies close in Allied Invasion of Normandy, 6 June 1944 On 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure,197 the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France.198 These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces on 25 August199 and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in Western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spear-headed by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands ended with a failure.200 The Allies also continued their advance in Italy until they ran into the last major German defensive line. On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus (known as "Operation Bagration") that resulted in the almost complete destruction of the German Army Group Centre.201 Soon after that, another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The successful advance of Soviet troops prompted resistance forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings, though the largest of these, in Warsaw, as well as a Slovak Uprising in the south, were not assisted by the Soviets and were put down by German forces.202 The Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.203 Polish rebels during the Warsaw Uprising. In September 1944, Soviet Red Army troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of the German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off.204 By this point, the Communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and were engaged in delaying efforts against the German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945.205 In contrast with impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, the bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to the signing of Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions,206207 with a subsequent shift to the Allied side by Finland. By the start of July, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River208 while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanese were having greater successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August.209 Soon after, they further invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November210 and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by the middle of December.211 In the Pacific, American forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944 they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, scoring a decisive victory against Japanese forces in the Philippine Sea within a few days. These defeats led to the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Tōjō and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.212 Axis collapse, Allied victory American and Soviet troops meet in April 1945, east of the Elbe River. On 16 December 1944, Germany attempted its last desperate measure for success on the Western Front by marshalling German reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes to attempt to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp in order to prompt a political settlement.213 By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled.213 In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia.214 On 4 February, U.S., British, and Soviet leaders met in Yalta. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany,215 and when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.216 In February, the Soviets invaded Silesia and Pomerania, while Western Allied forces entered Western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. In March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling a large number of German troops,217 while the Soviets advanced to Vienna. In early April, the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across Western Germany, while Soviet forces stormed Berlin in late April; the two forces linked up on Elbe river on 25 April. On 30 April 1945, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Third Reich.218 A devastated Berlin street in the city centre post Battle of Berlin, taken 3 July 1945. Several changes in leadership occurred during this period. On 12 April, U.S. President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Harry Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April.219 Two days later, Hitler committed suicide, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.220 German forces surrendered in Italy on 29 April and in Western Europe on 7 May.221 On the Eastern Front, Germany surrendered to the Soviets on 8 May. A German Army Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May.222 In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and seized Manila in March, leaving it in ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war.223 Atomic explosion at Nagasaki, 9 August 1945. In May 1945, Australian troops landed on Borneo, overrunning the oilfields there. British, American and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May.224 American forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June.225 American bombers destroyed Japanese cities, and American submarines cut off Japanese imports.226 On 11 July, the Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany,227 and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces by Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction".228 During this conference the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.229 When Japan continued to reject the Potsdam terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. Between the two bombs, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the primary Japanese fighting force.230231 The Red Army also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August 1945 Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.221 Aftermath Main article: Aftermath of World War II The Supreme Commanders on 5 June 1945 in Berlin: Bernard Montgomery, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Georgy Zhukov and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany. The former became a neutral state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided onto western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accordingly. A denazification program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.232 Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory, the eastern territories: Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland; East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR, followed by the expulsion of the 9 million Germans from these provinces, as well as of 3 million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, to Germany. By the 1950s, every fifth West German was a refugee from the east. The USSR also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon line (from which 2 million Poles were expelled),233 Eastern Romania,234235 and part of eastern Finland236 and three Baltic states.237238 Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives the "Victory" sign to crowds in London on Victory in Europe Day. In an effort to maintain peace,239 the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945,240 and adopted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations.241 The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over,242 Germany had been de facto divided, and two independent states, Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic243 were created within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, accordingly. The rest of Europe was also divided onto Western and Soviet spheres of influence.244 Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, Poland, Hungary,245 Czechoslovakia,246 Romania, Albania,247 and East Germany became Soviet Satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy causing tension with the USSR.248 Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact;249 the long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the Cold War, would be accompanied by unprecedented arms race and proxy wars.250 World map of colonization at the end of the Second World War in 1945. With the end of the war, the Wars of national liberation ensued, leading to the creation of Israel, the often bloody Decolonization of Asia and (somewhat later) of Africa. In Asia, the United States occupied Japan and administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.251 Korea, formerly under Japanese rule, was divided and occupied by the US in the South and the Soviet Union in the North between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.252 In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949.253 In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. While the European colonial powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonisation.254255 The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although WWII participants were affected differently. The US emerged much richer than any other nation; it had a baby boom and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers and it dominated the world economy.256257 The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany in the years 1945–1948.258 Due to international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years.259260 Recovery began with the mid 1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalization of European economic policy that the Marshall plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused.261262 The post 1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle.263 Also the Italian264265 and French economies rebounded.266 By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin,267 and continued relative economic decline for decades.268 The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era.269 Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s.270 China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.271 Impact Casualties and war crimes Main articles: World War II casualties and War crimes during World War II Estimates for the total casualties of the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians.272273274 Many civilians died because of disease, starvation, massacres, bombing and deliberate genocide. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war,275 almost half of all World War II deaths.276 One of every four Soviet citizens was killed or wounded in that war.277 Of the total deaths in World War II approximately 85 percent—mostly Soviet and Chinese—were on the Allied side and 15 percent on the Axis side. Many of these deaths were caused by war crimes committed by German and Japanese forces in occupied territories. An estimated 11278 to 17279 million civilians died as a direct or indirect result of Nazi ideological policies, including the systematic genocide of around six million Jews during The Holocaust along with a further five million Roma, Slavs, homosexuals and other ethnic and minority groups.280 Roughly 7.5 million civilians died in China under Japanese occupation,281 and the Serbs were targeted by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše.282 Chinese civilians to be buried alive by Japanese soldiers. The most well-known Japanese atrocity was the Nanking Massacre, in which several hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.283 Between 3 million to more than 10 million civilians, mostly Chinese, were killed by the Japanese occupation forces.284 Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Sankō Sakusen. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Heipei and Shantung.285 The Axis forces employed limited biological and chemical weapons. The Italians used mustard gas during their conquest of Abyssinia,286 while the Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during their invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731)287288 and in early conflicts against the Soviets.289 Both the Germans and Japanese tested such weapons against civilians290 and, in some cases, on prisoners of war.291 While many of the Axis's acts were brought to trial in the world's first international tribunals,292 incidents caused by the Allies were not. Examples of such Allied actions include population transfer in the Soviet Union and Japanese American internment in the United States; the Operation Keelhaul,293 expulsion of Germans after World War II, mass rape of German women by Soviet Red Army; the Soviet Union's Katyn massacre, for which Germans faced counter-accusations of responsibility. Large numbers of famine deaths can also be partially attributed to the war, such as the Bengal famine of 1943 and the Vietnamese famine of 1944–45.294 It has also been suggested by some historians the mass-bombing of civilian areas in enemy territory, including Tokyo and most notably the German cities of Dresden, Hamburg, and Cologne by Western Allies,295 which resulted in the destruction of more than 160 cities and killing a total of more than 600,000 German civilians296 be considered war crimes. Concentration camps and slave work Further information: The Holocaust, Consequences of German Nazism, Japanese war crimes, and Allied war crimes during World War II The Nazis were responsible for The Holocaust, the killing of approximately six million Jews (overwhelmingly Ashkenazim), as well as two million ethnic Poles and four million others who were deemed "unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet POWs, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Romani) as part of a programme of deliberate extermination. About 12 million, most of whom were Eastern Europeans, were employed in the German war economy as forced labourers.297 Dead bodies in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp after liberation, possibly political prisoners or Soviet POWs In addition to Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet gulags (labour camps) led to the death of citizens of occupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as German prisoners of war (POWs) and even Soviet citizens who had been or were thought to be supporters of the Nazis.298 Sixty percent of Soviet POWs of the Germans died during the war.299 Richard Overy gives the number of 5.7 million Soviet POWs. Of those, 57 percent died or were killed, a total of 3.6 million.300 Soviet ex-POWs and repatriated civilians were treated with great suspect as potential Nazi collaborators, and some of them were sent to GULAG upon check by NKVD.301 Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent),302 seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.303 While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from United States were released after the surrender of Japan, the number for the Chinese was only 56.304 According to historian Zhifen Ju, at least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million.305 The U.S. Library of Congress estimates that in Java, between 4 and 10 million romusha (Japanese: "manual laborers"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese laborers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.306 Mistreated and starved prisoners in the Mauthausen camp, Austria, 1945 On 19 February 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, interning thousands of Japanese, Italians, German Americans, and some emigrants from Hawaii who fled after the bombing of Pearl Harbor for the duration of the war. The U.S. and Canadian governments interned 150,000 Japanese-Americans,307308 as well as nearly 11,000 German and Italian residents of the U.S.307 In accordance with the Allied agreement made at the Yalta conference millions of POWs and civilians were used as forced labor by the Soviet Union.309 More than a million were also put to work in the West.citation needed In Hungary's case, Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.310 Home fronts and production Main articles: Military production during World War II and Home front during World War II Allied to Axis GDP ratio In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, it then gives the Allies more than a 5:1 advantage in population and nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP.311 In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan, but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.311 Though the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies, as the war largely settled into one of attrition.312 While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis is often attributed to the Allies having more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the labour force,313314 Allied strategic bombing,315316 and Germany's late shift to a war economy317 contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and were not equipped to do so.318319 To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers;320 Germany used about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,297 while Japan pressed more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.305306 Occupation Main articles: Collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II, Resistance during World War II, and German-occupied Europe Soviet partisans hanged by German forces in January 1943 In Europe, occupation came under two very different forms. In Western, Northern and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichmarks (27.8 billion US Dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include the sizable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods.321 Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on.322 In the East, the much hoped for bounties of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders.323 Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged excessive brutality against what it considered to be the "inferior people" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass executions.324 Although resistance groups did form in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East325 or the West326 until late 1943. In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples.327 Although Japanese forces were originally welcomed as liberators from European domination in many territories, their excessive brutality turned local public opinions against them within weeks.328 During Japan's initial conquest it captured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3) of oil (~5.5×105 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by 1943 was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels (~6.8×10^6 t), 76 percent of its 1940 output rate.328 Advances in technology and warfare Main article: Technology during World War II Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers and ground-support, and each role was advanced considerably. Innovation included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment and personnel);329 and of strategic bombing (the bombing of civilian areas to destroy industry and morale).330 Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery, such as the German 88 mm gun. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered, and though late introduction meant it had little impact, it led to jets becoming standard in worldwide air forces.331 U-995 Type VIIC at the German navy memorial at Laboe. Between 1939 and 1945, 3,500 Allied merchant ships (gross tonnage 14.5 million) were sunk at a cost of 783 German U-boats. Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although at the start of the war aeronautical warfare had relatively little success, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, the South China Sea and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship.332333334 In the Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap.335 Carriers were also more economical than battleships due to the relatively low cost of aircraft336 and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured.337 Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War338 were anticipated by all sides to be important in the second. The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII submarine and Wolf pack tactics.339 Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, hedgehog, squid, and homing torpedoes proved victorious. Land warfare changed from the static front lines of World War I to increased mobility and combined arms warfare, wherein tight coordination was sought between the various elements of military forces. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon of these forces during the Second.340 In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced in all areas than it had been during World War I,341 and advances continued throughout the war in increasing speed, armour and firepower. At the start of the war, most commanders saw that the threat of enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications.342 This line of thinking was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat; the latter factor, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France.340 Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were utilised.342 Even with large-scale mechanisation of the various armies, the infantry remained the backbone of all forces,343 and throughout the war, most infantry equipment was similar to that utilised in World War I.344 Another advance was the spread of the portable machine gun, a notable example being the German MG42, and various submachine guns which were well suited to close-quarters combat in urban and jungle settings.344 The assault rifle, a late war development which incorporated many of the best features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard postwar infantry weapon for nearly all armed forces.345346 Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security presented by using large codebooks for cryptography with the use of ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma machine.347 SIGINT (signals intelligence) was the countering process of decryption, with the notable examples being the British ULTRA and the Allied breaking of Japanese naval codes.348 Another important aspect of military intelligence was the use of deception operations, which the Allies used on several occasions to great effect, such as operations Mincemeat and Bodyguard.348349 Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons, the development of artificial harbours and oil pipelines under the English Channel.350 See also World War II portal War portal Book:World War II Books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. Main article: Outline of World War II Air warfare of World War II Atlas of the World Battle Fronts Battles (list) Effects of World War II List of World War II military operations Declaration of war by the United Kingdom Declaration of war by the United States World War II in contemporary culture Documentaries The World at War (1974), a 26-part Thames Television series that covers most aspects of World War II from many points of view. It includes interviews with many key figures including Karl Dönitz, Albert Speer, and Anthony Eden. Battlefield (documentary series), a television documentary series initially issued in 1994–1995 that explores many of the most important battles fought during the Second World War. Notes ^ "Second World War" is preferred by British authors, "World War II" by American authors; both versions are correct. ^ Sommerville, Donald (2008). The Complete Illustrated History of World War Two: An Authoritative Account of the Deadliest Conflict in Human History with Analysis of Decisive Encounters and Landmark Engagements. Lorenz Books. p. 5. ISBN 0754818985.  ^ Barrett, David P; Shyu, Lawrence N (2001). China in the anti-Japanese War, 1937–1945: politics, culture and society. Volume 1 of Studies in modern Chinese history. New York: Peter Lang. p. 6. ISBN 0-8204-4556-8.  ^ Bradley, James; Powers, Ron (2000). Flags of Our Fathers. Bantam. p. 58. ISBN 0553111337.  ^ Chickering, Roger (2006) (Google books). A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945. Cambridge University Press. p. 64. ISBN 0275987108. http://books.google.com/?id=evVPoSwqrG4C&dq=A+World+at+Total+War:+Global+Conflict+and+the+Politics+of+Destruction,+1937%E2%80%931945&printsec=frontcover&q=A%20World%20at%20Total%20War%3A%20Global%20Conflict%20and%20the%20Politics%20of%20Destruction%2C%201937%E2%80%931945. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Fiscus, James W (2007) (Google books). Critical Perspectives on World War II. Rosen Publishing Group. p. 44. ISBN 1404200657. http://books.google.com/?id=6MTcnkLfDZAC&dq=Critical+Perspectives+on+World+War+II&printsec=frontcover&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Among other starting dates sometimes used for World War II are the 1935 Italian invasion of Abyssinia; (Ben-Horin, Eliahu (1943). The Middle East: Crossroads of History. W. W. Norton & Co. p. 169; Taylor, A. J. P (1979). How Wars Begin. Hamilton. p. 124. ISBN 0241100178; Yisreelit, Hevrah Mizrahit (1965). Asian and African Studies, p. 191). For 1941 see (Taylor, A. J. P (1961). The Origins of the Second World War. Hamilton. p. vii; Kellogg, William O (2003). American History the Easy Way. Barron's Educational Series. p. 236 ISBN 0764119737). There also exists the viewpoint that both World War I and World War II are part of the same "European Civil War" or "Second Thirty Years War". (Canfora, Luciano; Jones, Simon (2006). Democracy in Europe: A History of an Ideology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 155. ISBN 1405111313; Prin, Gwyn (2002). The Heart of War: On Power, Conflict and Obligation in the Twenty-First Century. Routledge. p. 11. ISBN 0415369606). ^ Masaya, Shiraishi (1990). Japanese relations with Vietnam, 1951–1987. SEAP Publications. p. 4. ISBN 0877271224.  ^ Kantowicz 1999, p. 149 ^ Davies 2008, pp. 134–140 ^ Shaw 2000, p. 35 ^ Bullock 1962, p. 265 ^ Preston 1998, p. 104 ^ Myers 1987, p. 458 ^ Smith 2004, p. 28 ^ Coogan, Anthony (July 1993). "The Volunteer Armies of Northeast China". History Today 43. http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000186948. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "Although some Chinese troops in the Northeast managed to retreat south, others were trapped by the advancing Japanese Army and were faced with the choice of resistance in defiance of orders, or surrender. A few commanders submitted, receiving high office in the puppet government, but others took up arms against the invader. The forces they commanded were the first of the volunteer armies".  ^ Brody 1999, p. 4 ^ Zalampas 1989, p. 62 ^ Record 2005, p. 50 ^ Mandelbaum 1988, p. 96 ^ Schmitz, David F (2001). The First Wise Man. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 124. ISBN 0842026320.  ^ Kitson 2001, p. 231 ^ Adamthwaite 1992, p. 52 ^ Graham 2005, p. 110 ^ Busky 2002, p. 10 ^ Barker, A. J (1971). The Rape of Ethiopia 1936. Ballantine Books. pp. 131–2. ISBN 0345024621.  ^ a b Corum, James S.. "Inflated by Air Common Perceptions of Civilian Casualties from Bombing". Thesis. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air War College. Air University. p. 10. http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA399072. Retrieved 29 December 2010.  ^ Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. London: Phoenix. p. 258. ISBN 0753821656.  ^ Fairbank, John King; Feuerwerker, Albert; Twitchett, Denis Crispin (1986). The Cambridge history of China. Cambridge University Press. pp. 547–551. ISBN 0521243386.  ^ Fairbank, John King; Feuerwerker, Albert; Twitchett, Denis Crispin (1986). The Cambridge history of China. Cambridge University Press. p. 566. ISBN 0521243386.  ^ Taylor, Jay (2009). The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the struggle for modern China. Harvard University Press. pp. 150–152. ISBN 9780674033382.  ^ Coox, Alvin D. (1990). Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939. Stanford University Press. p. 189. ISBN 0804718350.  ^ Sella, Amnon (October 1983). "Khalkhin-Gol: The Forgotten War". Journal of Contemporary History 18 (4): 651–87.  ^ Chaney, Otto Preston (1996). Zhukov. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 76. ISBN 0806128070.  ^ Collier, Martin; Pedley, Philip (2000). Germany 1919–45. Heinemann. p. 144. ISBN 0435327216.  ^ Kershaw 2001, pp. 121–2 ^ Kershaw 2001, p. 157 ^ Davies 2008, pp. 143–4 ^ Lowe, Cedric James; Marzari, F (2002). Italian Foreign Policy 1870–1940. Taylor & Francis. p. 330. ISBN 0415273722.  ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds (2002). "Pact of Steel". Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 674. ISBN 0198604467.  ^ Shore, Zachary (2003). What Hitler Knew: The Battle for Information in Nazi Foreign Policy. Oxford University Press US. p. 108. ISBN 0195154592.  ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds (2002). "Nazi-Soviet Pact". Oxford University Press. p. 608. ISBN 0198604467.  ^ May, Ernest R (2000) (Google books). Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France. I.B.Tauris. p. 93. ISBN 1850433291. http://books.google.com/?id=ArNzWonLNj8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Strange+Victory:+Hitler%27s+Conquest+of+France#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Zaloga, Steven J.; Gerrard, Howard (2002) (Google books). Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg. Osprey Publishing. p. 83. ISBN 1841764086. http://books.google.com/?id=oQeAKAjlEwMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=poland+1939:+The+Birth+of+Blitzkrieg#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Hempel, Andrew (2003) (Google books). Poland in World War II: An Illustrated Military History. Hippocrene Books. p. 24. ISBN 0781810043. http://books.google.com/?id=9SmbqqQfp1gC&dq=Poland+in+World+War+II:+An+Illustrated+Military+History'&printsec=frontcover&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Jowett & Andrew 2002, p. 14 ^ Smith, David J. (2002) (Google books). The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Routledge. 1st edition. p. 24. ISBN 0415285801. http://books.google.com/?id=YaYbzQQN97EC&lpg=PA142&dq=The%20Baltic%20States%3A%20Estonia%2C%20Latvia%20and%20Lithuania&pg=PA142#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ a b Bilinsky, Yaroslav (1999) (Google books). Endgame in NATO's Enlargement: The Baltic States and Ukraine. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 9. ISBN 0275963632. http://books.google.com/?id=pbocXztNVsUC&lpg=PR3&dq=Endgame%20in%20NATO's%20Enlargement%3A%20The%20Baltic%20States%20and%20Ukraine%7C&pg=PR3#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ a b Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 55–56 ^ Spring, D. W (April 1986). "The Soviet Decision for War against Finland, 30 November 1939". Europe-Asia Studies (Taylor & Francis, Ltd.) 38 (2): 207–226. doi:10.1080/09668138608411636. http://www.jstor.org/stable/151203. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Hanhimäki, Jussi M (1997) (Google books). Containing Coexistence: America, Russia, and the "Finnish Solution. Kent State University Press. p. 12. ISBN 0873385586. http://books.google.com/?id=OWfudYWUOt0C&lpg=PP1&dq=Containing%20Coexistence%3A%20America%2C%20Russia%2C%20and%20the%20%22Finnish%20Solution&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 95 & 121 ^ Shirer, William L (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon and Schuster. pp. 668–9. ISBN 0671728687.  ^ Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 57–63 ^ Commager, Henry Steele (2004) (Google books). The Story of the Second World War. Brassey's. p. 9. ISBN 1574887416. http://books.google.com/?id=H2nUNdqobOkC&lpg=PP1&dq=The%20Story%20of%20the%20Second%20World%20War&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds (2002). "Iceland". Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 436. ISBN 0198604467.  ^ Reynolds, David (27 April 2006) (Google books). From World War to Cold War: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 76. ISBN 0199284113. http://books.google.com/?id=Qk_xKD62G7cC&lpg=PP1&dq=From%20World%20War%20to%20Cold%20War%3A%20Churchill%2C%20Roosevelt%2C%20and%20the%20International%20History%20of%20the%201940s&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ a b Crawford, Keith; Foster, Stuart J (2007) (Google books). War, nation, memory: international perspectives on World War II in school history textbooks. Information Age Publishing. p. 68. ISBN 159311852X. http://books.google.com/?id=zw-O7t_6GJQC&lpg=PP1&dq=War%2C%20nation%2C%20memory%3A%20international%20perspectives%20on%20World%20War%20II%20in%20school%20history%20textbooks&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Shirer, William L (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon and Schuster. pp. 721–3. ISBN 0671728687.  ^ Regan, Geoffrey (2000). The Brassey's book of military blunders. Brassey's. p. 152. ISBN 157488252X.  ^ Kennedy, David M (1999) (Questia books). Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945. Oxford University Press. p. 439. ISBN 0195038347. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=52284041. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Klaus, Autbert (2001). Germany and the Second World War Volume 2: Germany's Initial Conquests in Europe. Oxford University Press. p. 311. ISBN 0198228880. http://books.google.com/?id=Z5p4tGO7-VkC&lpg=PA1&dq=Germany%20and%20the%20Second%20World%20War%20Volume%202%3A%20Germany's%20Initial%20Conquests%20in%20Europe&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ Brown, David (2004). The Road to Oran: Anglo-French Naval Relations, September 1939 – July 1940. Taylor & Francis. p. xxx. ISBN 0714654612.  ^ Ferguson, Niall (2006). The War of the World Penguin, pp.367, 376, 379, 417 ^ Snyder, Timothy (2010). Bloodlands, Random House, from p. 118 onwards ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. p. 56. ISBN 0300112041.  ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. p. 59. ISBN 0300112041.  ^ Kelly, Nigel; Rees, Rosemary; Shuter, Jane (1998). Twentieth Century World. Heinemann. p. 38. ISBN 0435309838.  ^ Goldstein, Margaret J (2004). World War II. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 35. ISBN 0822501392.  ^ Mercado, Stephen C (2003). The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School. Brassey's. p. 109. ISBN 1574885383.  ^ Brown, Robert J. (2004). Manipulating the Ether: The Power of Broadcast Radio in Thirties America. McFarland. p. 91. ISBN 0786420669.  ^ Morison, Samuel Eliot (2002). History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. University of Illinois Press. p. 60. ISBN 0252070658.  ^ Maingot, Anthony P. (1994). The United States and the Caribbean: Challenges of an Asymmetrical Relationship. Westview Press. p. 52. ISBN 0813322413.  ^ Cantril, Hadley (September 1940). "America Faces the War: A Study in Public Opinion". The Public Opinion Quarterly 4 (3): 390.  ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 182 ^ Bilhartz, Terry D.; Elliott, Alan C. (2007). Currents in American History: A Brief History of the United States. M.E. Sharpe. p. 179. ISBN 9780765618214.  ^ Murray & Millett 2001, p. 165 ^ Knell, Hermann (2003). To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War II. Da Capo. p. 205. ISBN 0306811693.  ^ Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 233–245 ^ Schoenherr, Steven (1 October 2005). "Undeclared Naval War in the Atlantic 1941". History Department at the University of San Diego. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww2Timeline/Prelude18.html. Retrieved 15 February 2010. dead link ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds (2002). "Tripartite Pact". Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 877. ISBN 0198604467.  ^ Deletant, Dennis (2002). "Romania". In Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D. Oxford Companion to World War II. pp. 745–46. ISBN 0198604467.  ^ Clogg, Richard (1992). A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge University Press. p. 118. ISBN 0521808723.  ^ Andrew, Stephen (2001). The Italian Army 1940–45 (2): Africa 1940–43. Osprey Publishing. pp. 9–10. ISBN 1855328658.  ^ Brown, David (2002). The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean. Routledge. pp. 64–65. ISBN 0714652059.  ^ Jackson, Ashley (2006). The British Empire and the Second World War. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 106. ISBN 1852854170.  ^ Laurier, Jim (2001). Tobruk 1941: Rommel's opening move. Osprey Publishing. pp. 7–8. ISBN 1841760927.  ^ Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 263–67 ^ Macksey, Kenneth (1997). Rommel: battles and campaigns. Da Capo Press. pp. 61–63. ISBN 0306807866.  ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 229 ^ Watson, William E (2003). Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 80. ISBN 0275974707.  ^ Jackson, Ashley (2006). The British Empire and the Second World War. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 154. ISBN 1852854170.  ^ Stewart, Vance (2002). Three Against One: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin Vs Adolph Hitler. Sunstone Press. p. 159. ISBN 0865343772.  ^ Dear, I.C.B and Foot, M.R.D. (editors) (2005). "Blitz". The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 108–109. ISBN 9780192806703.  ^ United States. Air Force Logistics Management Agency (2004). AFLMA Year in Review. DIANE Publishing. p. 33. ISBN 1428993886.  ^ Joes, Anthony James (2004). Resisting Rebellion: The History And Politics of Counterinsurgency. University Press of Kentucky. p. 224. ISBN 0813123399.  ^ Fairbank, John King; Goldman, Merle (1994). China: A New History. Harvard University Press. p. 320. ISBN 0674116739.  ^ Garver, John W (1988). Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937–1945: The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism. Oxford University Press. p. 114. ISBN 0195054326.  ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 195 ^ Sella, Amnon (July 1978). ""Barbarossa": Surprise Attack and Communication". Journal of Contemporary History 13 (3): 555–83. doi:10.1177/002200947801300308.  ^ Kershaw, Ian (2007). Fateful Choices. Allen Lane. pp. 66–69. ISBN 0713997125.  ^ Steinberg, Jonathan (June 1995). "The Third Reich Reflected: German Civil Administration in the Occupied Soviet Union, 1941–4". The English Historical Review 110 (437): 620–51.  ^ Hauner, Milan (January 1978). "Did Hitler Want a World Dominion?". Journal of Contemporary History 13 (1): 15–32. doi:10.1177/002200947801300102.  ^ Roberts, Cynthia A (December 1995). "Planning for War: The Red Army and the Catastrophe of 1941". Europe-Asia Studies 47 (8): 1293–26. doi:10.1080/09668139508412322.  ^ Wilt, Alan F. (December 1981). "Hitler's Late Summer Pause in 1941". Military Affairs 45 (4): 187–91. doi:10.2307/1987464. http://jstor.org/stable/1987464.  ^ Erickson, John (2003). The Road to Stalingrad. Cassell Military. pp. 114–137. ISBN 0304365416.  ^ Glantz 2001, p. 9 ^ "Hitler Can Be Beaten". New York Times. 5 August 1941. pp. C18. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20C16FA3C5E1A7A93C7A91783D85F458485F9. Retrieved 17 February 2010.  ^ Farrell, Brian P (October 1993). "Yes, Prime Minister: Barbarossa, Whipcord, and the Basis of British Grand Strategy, Autumn 1941". The Journal of Military History 57 (4): 599–625. doi:10.2307/2944096. http://jstor.org/stable/2944096.  ^ Pravda, Alex; Duncan, Peter J. S (1990). Soviet-British Relations Since the 1970s. Cambridge University Press. p. 29. ISBN 0521374944.  ^ Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce; Smith, Alastair; Siverson, Randolph M.; Morrow, James D (2005). The Logic of Political Survival. MIT Press. p. 425. ISBN 0262524406.  ^ a b Louis, William Roger (1998). More Adventures with Britannia: Personalities, Politics and Culture in Britain. University of Texas Press. p. 223. ISBN 029274708X.  ^ Kleinfeld, Gerald R (October 1983). "Hitler's Strike for Tikhvin". Military Affairs 47 (3): 122–128. doi:10.2307/1988082. http://jstor.org/stable/1988082.  ^ Shukman, Harold (2001). Stalin's Generals. Phoenix Press. p. 113. ISBN 1842125133.  ^ Glantz 2001, p. 26, "By 1 November [the Wehrmacht] had lost fully 20% of its committed strength (686,000 men), up to 2/3 of its ½-million motor vehicles, and 65 percent of its tanks. The German Army High Command (OKH) rated its 136 divisions as equivalent to 83 full-strength divisions." ^ Reinhardt, Klaus; Keenan, Karl B (1992). Moscow-The Turning Point: The Failure of Hitler's Strategy in the Winter of 1941–42. Berg. p. 227. ISBN 0854966951.  ^ Milward, A.S. (1964). "The End of the Blitzkrieg". The Economic History Review 16 (3): 499–518. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1964.tb01744.x.  ^ Rotundo, Louis (January 1986). "The Creation of Soviet Reserves and the 1941 Campaign". Military Affairs 50 (1): 21–8. doi:10.2307/1988530. http://jstor.org/stable/1988530.  ^ Glantz 2001, p. 26 ^ Garthoff, Raymond L (October 1969). "The Soviet Manchurian Campaign, August 1945". Military Affairs 33 (2): 312.  ^ Welch, David (1999). Modern European History, 1871–2000: A Documentary Reader. Routledge. p. 102. ISBN 041521582X.  ^ Weinberg, Gerhard L (2005). A World At Arms. Cambridge University Press. p. 248. ISBN 0521618266.  ^ Anderson, Irvine H., Jr. (May 1975). "De Facto Embargo on Oil to Japan: A Bureaucratic Reflex". The Pacific Historical Review 44 (2): 201.  ^ Peattie, Mark R.; Evans, David C. (1997). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Naval Institute Press. p. 456. ISBN 0870211927.  ^ Lightbody, Bradley (2004). The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis. Routledge. p. 125. ISBN 0415224047.  ^ Weinberg, Gerhard L (2005). A World At Arms. Cambridge University Press. p. 310. ISBN 0521618266.  ^ Morgan, Patrick M (1983). Strategic Military Surprise: Incentives and Opportunities. Transaction Publishers. p. 51. ISBN 0878559124.  ^ a b Wohlstetter, Roberta (1962). Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision. Stanford University Press. pp. 341–43. ISBN 0804705984.  ^ Mingst, Karen A.; Karns, Margaret P (2007). United Nations in the Twenty-First Century. Westview Press. p. 22. ISBN 0813343461.  ^ Dunn, Dennis J (1998). Caught Between Roosevelt & Stalin: America's Ambassadors to Moscow. The University Press of Kentucky. p. 157. ISBN 0813120233.  ^ According to Ernest May (May, Ernest (1955). "The United States, the Soviet Union and the Far Eastern War". The Pacific Historical Review 24 (2): 156. ) Churchill stated: "Russian declaration of war on Japan would be greatly to our advantage, provided, but only provided, that Russians are confident that will not impair their Western Front". ^ Rees, Laurence (2009). World War Two Behind Closed Doors, BBC Books, p. 99. ^ Rees, Laurence (2009). World War Two Behind Closed Doors, BBC Books, p. 406-7. ^ Klam, Julie (2002). The Rise of Japan and Pearl Harbor. Black Rabbit Books. p. 27. ISBN 1583401881.  ^ Lewis, Morton. "XXIX. Japanese Plans and American Defenses". In Greenfield, Kent Roberts. The Fall of the Philippines. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 529. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 53-63678. http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/5-2/5-2_29.htm.  (Table 11). ^ Hill, J. R.; Ranft, Bryan (2002). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy. Oxford University Press. p. 362. ISBN 0198605277.  ^ Hsiung 1992, p. 158 ^ Perez, Louis G. (1 June 1998) (Google Books). The history of Japan. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 145. ISBN 0313302960. http://books.google.com/?id=ahYF-A3oylkC&pg=PA145. Retrieved 12 November 2009.  ^ Gooch, John (1990). Decisive Campaigns of the Second World War. Routledge. p. 52. ISBN 0714633690.  ^ Glantz 2001, p. 31 ^ Molinari, Andrea (2007). Desert Raiders: Axis and Allied Special Forces 1940–43. Osprey Publishing. p. 91. ISBN 1846030064.  ^ Mitcham, Samuel W.; Mitcham, Samuel W. Jr (1982). Rommel's Desert War: The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps. Stein & Day. p. 31. ISBN 9780811734134.  ^ Maddox, Robert James (1992). The United States and World War II. Westview Press. pp. 111–12. ISBN 0813304369.  ^ Salecker, Gene Eric (2001). Fortress Against the Sun: The B-17 Flying Fortress in the Pacific. Da Capo Press. p. 186. ISBN 1580970494.  ^ Ropp, Theodore (1962). War in the Modern World. Macmillan Publishing Company. p. 368. ISBN 0801864453.  ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 339 ^ Gilbert, Adrian (2003). The Encyclopedia of Warfare: From Earliest Times to the Present Day. Globe Pequot. p. 259. ISBN 1592280277.  ^ Swain, Bruce (2001). A Chronology of Australian Armed Forces at War 1939–45. Allen & Unwin. p. 197. ISBN 1865083526.  ^ Hane, Mikiso (2001). Modern Japan: A Historical Survey. Westview Press. p. 340. ISBN 0813337569.  ^ Marston, Daniel (2005). The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Osprey Publishing. p. 111. ISBN 1841768820.  ^ Brayley, Martin J (2002). The British Army, 1939–45: The Far East. Osprey Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 1841762385.  ^ Read, Anthony (2004). The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 764. ISBN 0393048004.  ^ Davies, Norman (2006). Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory. Macmillan. p. 100. ISBN 0333692853.  ^ Badsey, Stephen (2000). The Hutchinson Atlas of World War II Battle Plans: Before and After. Taylor & Francis. pp. 235–36. ISBN 1579582656.  ^ Black, Jeremy (2003). World War Two: A Military History. Routledge. p. 119. ISBN 0415305349.  ^ Gilbert, Sir Martin (2004). The Second World War: A Complete History. Macmillan. pp. 397–400. ISBN 0805076239.  ^ Shukman, Harold (2001). Stalin's Generals. Phoenix Press. p. 142. ISBN 1842125133.  ^ Gannon, James (2002). Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies: How Spies and Codebreakers Helped Shape the Twentieth Century. Brassey's. p. 76. ISBN 1574884735.  ^ Paxton, Robert O (1972). Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944. Knopf. p. 313. ISBN 0394473604.  ^ Rich, Norman (1992). Hitler's War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and the Course of Expansion. Norton. p. 178. ISBN 0393008029.  ^ Penrose, Jane (2004). The D-Day Companion. Osprey Publishing. p. 129. ISBN 1841767794.  ^ Neillands, Robin (2005). The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253347815.  ^ Thomas, David Arthur (1988). A Companion to the Royal Navy. Harrap. p. 265. ISBN 0245545727.  ^ Thomas, Nigel; Andrew, Stephen (1998). German Army 1939–1945 (2): North Africa & Balkans. Osprey Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 185532640X.  ^ a b Ross, Steven T (1997). American War Plans, 1941–1945: The Test of Battle. Frank Cass & Co. p. 38. ISBN 0714646342.  ^ Bonner, Kit; Bonner, Carolyn (2001). Warship Boneyards. MBI Publishing Company. p. 24. ISBN 0760308705.  ^ Collier, Paul (2003). The Second World War (4): The Mediterranean 1940–1945. Osprey Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 1841765392.  ^ Thompson, John Herd; Randall, Stephen J (1994). Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies. University of Georgia Press. p. 164. ISBN 0820324035.  ^ Kennedy, David M (1999). Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945. Oxford University Press. p. 610. ISBN 0195038347.  ^ Rottman, Gordon L (2002). World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-Military Study. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 228. ISBN 0313313954.  ^ Glantz, David M. (September 1986). "Soviet Defensive Tactics at Kursk, July 1943". CSI Report No. 11. (Combined Arms Research Library). OCLC 278029256. Archived from the original on 6 March 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080306082607/http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/glantz2/glantz2.asp. Retrieved 17 February 2010.  ^ Glantz, David M (1989). Soviet military deception in the Second World War. Routledge. pp. 149–59. ISBN 9780714633473.  ^ Kershaw, Ian (2001). Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 592. ISBN 0393322521.  ^ O'Reilly, Charles T (2001). Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945. Lexington Books. p. 32. ISBN 0739101951.  ^ Bellamy, Chris T (2007). Absolute war: Soviet Russia in the Second World War. BAlfred A. Knopf. p. 595. ISBN 0375410864.  ^ O'Reilly, Charles T (2001). Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945. Lexington Books. p. 35. ISBN 0739101951.  ^ Healy, Mark (1992). Kursk 1943: The tide turns in the East. Osprey Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 1855322110.  ^ Glantz 2001, pp. 50–55 ^ McGowen, Tom (2002). Assault From The Sea: Amphibious Invasions in the Twentieth Century. Twenty-First Century Books. pp. 43–44. ISBN 0761318119.  ^ Lamb, Richard (1996). War in Italy, 1943–1945: A Brutal Story. Da Capo Press. pp. 154–55. ISBN 0306806886.  ^ Hart, Stephen; Hart, Russell; Hughes, Matthew (2000). The German Soldier in World War II. MBI Publishing Company. p. 151. ISBN 0760308462.  ^ Blinkhorn, Martin (1984). Mussolini and Fascist Italy. Methuen & Co. p. 52. ISBN 0415102316.  ^ Read, Anthony; Fisher, David (1992). The Fall of Berlin. Hutchinson. p. 129. ISBN 0091753376.  ^ Read, Anthony (2004). The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 804. ISBN 0393048004.  ^ a b Iriye, Akira (1981). Power and culture: the Japanese-American war, 1941–1945. Harvard University Press. p. 154. ISBN 0674695828.  ^ a b Polley, Martin (2000). A-Z of modern Europe since 1789. Taylor & Francis. p. 148. ISBN 041518598X.  ^ Weinberg 1995, pp. 660–661 ^ Glantz, David M (2001). The siege of Leningrad, 1941–1944: 900 days of terror. Zenith Imprint. pp. 166–69. ISBN 0760309418.  ^ Glantz, David M (2002). The Battle for Leningrad: 1941–1944. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0700612084.  ^ Chubarov, Alexander (2001). Russia's Bitter Path to Modernity: A History of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 122. ISBN 0826413501.  ^ Havighurst, Alfred F (1962). Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century. The University of Chicago Press. p. 344. ISBN 0226319717.  ^ Lightbody, Bradley (2004). The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis. Routledge. p. 224. ISBN 0415224047.  ^ a b Zeiler, Thomas W (2004). Unconditional Defeat: Japan, America, and the End of World War II. Scholarly Resources. p. 60. ISBN 0842029915.  ^ Craven, Wesley Frank; Cate, James Lea (1953). The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume Five—The Pacific, Matterhorn to Nagasaki. Chicago University Press. p. 207.  ^ Hsiung, James Chieh; Levine, Steven I (1992). China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945. M.E. Sharpe. p. 163. ISBN 156324246X.  ^ Coble, Parks M (2003). Chinese Capitalists in Japan's New Order: The Occupied Lower Yangzi, 1937–1945. University of California Press. p. 85. ISBN 0520232682.  ^ Rees, Laurence (2009). World War Two Behind Closed Doors, BBC Books, p. 406-7. "Stalin always believed that Britain and America were delaying the second front so that the Soviet Union would bear the brunt of the war" ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 695 ^ Badsey, Stephen (1990). Normandy 1944: Allied Landings and Breakout. Osprey Publishing. p. 91. ISBN 0850459214.  ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds (2002). "Market-Garden". Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 877. ISBN 0198604467.  ^ The operation "was the most calamitous defeat of all the German armed forces in World War II" (Zaloga, Steven J (1996). Bagration 1944: The destruction of Army Group Centre. Osprey Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 1855324784. ) ^ Berend, Ivan T. (1999). Central and Eastern Europe, 1944–1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 0521550661.  ^ "Armistice Negotiations and Soviet Occupation". US Library of Congress. http://countrystudies.us/romania/23.htm. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "The coup speeded the Red Army's advance, and the Soviet Union later awarded Michael the Order of Victory for his personal courage in overthrowing Antonescu and putting an end to Romania's war against the Allies. Western historians uniformly point out that the Communists played only a supporting role in the coup; postwar Romanian historians, however, ascribe to the Communists the decisive role in Antonescu's overthrow"  ^ Hastings, Max; Paul Henry, Collier (2004). The Second World War: a world in flames. Osprey Publishing. pp. 223–4. ISBN 1841768308.  ^ Wiest, Andrew A; Barbier, M. K (2002). Strategy and Tactics Infantry Warfare. Zenith Imprint. pp. 65–6. ISBN 0760314012.  ^ Wiktor, Christian L (1998). Multilateral Treaty Calendar – 1648–1995. Kluwer Law International. p. 426. ISBN 9041105840.  ^ Newton, Steven H (1995). Retreat from Leningrad : Army Group North, 1944/1945. Atglen, Philadelphia: Schiffer Books. ISBN 0887408060.  ^ Marston, Daniel (2005). The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Osprey Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 1841768820.  ^ Jowett & Andrew 2002, p. 8 ^ Howard, Joshua H (2004). Workers at War: Labor in China's Arsenals, 1937–1953. Stanford University Press. p. 140. ISBN 0804748969.  ^ Drea, Edward J (2003). In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. University of Nebraska Press. p. 54. ISBN 0803266383.  ^ Cook, Chris; Bewes, Diccon (1997). What Happened Where: A Guide to Places and Events in Twentieth-Century History. UCL Press. p. 305. ISBN 1857285328.  ^ a b Parker, Danny S (2004). Battle of the Bulge: Hitler's Ardennes Offensive, 1944–1945. Da Capo Press. pp. xiii–xiv, 6–8, 68–70 & 329–330. ISBN 0306813912.  ^ Glantz 2001, p. 85 ^ Solsten, Eric (1999). Germany: A Country Study. DIANE Publishing. pp. 76–7. ISBN 0788181793.  ^ United States Dept. of State (1967). The China White Paper, August 1949. Stanford University Press. p. 113. ISBN 0804706085.  ^ Buchanan, Tom (2006). Europe's troubled peace, 1945–2000. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 21. ISBN 0631221638.  ^ Shepardson, Donald E (January 1998). "The Fall of Berlin and the Rise of a Myth". The Journal of Military History 62 (1): 135–154. doi:10.2307/120398. http://jstor.org/stable/120398.  ^ O'Reilly, Charles T (2001). Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945. Lexington Books. p. 244. ISBN 0739101951.  ^ Kershaw 2001, p. 823 ^ a b Donnelly, Mark (1999). Britain in the Second World War. Routledge. p. xiv. ISBN 0415174252.  ^ Glantz, David M. (1995). When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p. 34. ISBN 0700608990.  ^ Chant, Christopher (1986). The Encyclopedia of Codenames of World War II. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 118. ISBN 0710207182.  ^ Drea, Edward J (2003). In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. University of Nebraska Press. p. 57. ISBN 0803266383.  ^ Jowett & Andrew 2002, p. 6 ^ Poirier, Michel Thomas (20 October 1999). "Results of the German and American Submarine Campaigns of World War II". U.S. Navy. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/history/wwii-campaigns.html. Retrieved 13 April 2008.  ^ Williams, Andrew J (2006). Liberalism and War: The Victors and the Vanquished. Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 0415359805.  ^ Miscamble, Wilson D (2007). From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War. Cambridge University Press. p. 201. ISBN 0521862442.  ^ Miscamble, Wilson D (2007). From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War. Cambridge University Press. pp. 203–4. ISBN 0521862442.  ^ Glantz, David M (2005). "August Storm: The Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria". Leavenworth Papers (Combined Arms Research Library). OCLC 78918907. Archived from the original on 2 March 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080302130751/http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/glantz3/glantz3.asp. Retrieved 25 January 2010  ^ Pape, Robert A (Autumn 1993). "Why Japan Surrendered". International Security 18 (2): 154–201. doi:10.2307/2539100. http://jstor.org/stable/2539100.  ^ Norbert Frei. Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration. Translated by Joel Golb. New York: Columbia University Press. 2002. ISBN 0231118821, p, 41–66. ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. p. 43. ISBN 0300112041.  ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. p. 55. ISBN 0300112041.  ^ Shirer, William L. (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon and Schuster. p. 794. ISBN 0671728687  ^ Kennedy-Pipe, Caroline (1995). Stalin's Cold War. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719042011.  ^ Wettig, Gerhard (2008). Stalin and the Cold War in Europe. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0742555429.  ^ Senn, Alfred Erich (2007). Lithuania 1940: revolution from above. Rodopi. ISBN 9789042022256.  ^ Yoder, Amos (1997). The Evolution of the United Nations System. Taylor & Francis. p. 39. ISBN 1560325461.  ^ "History of the UN". United Nations. http://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm. Retrieved 2010-01-25.  ^ "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 2". United Nations. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/. Retrieved 2009-11-14. "* Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty"  ^ Kantowicz, Edward R (2000). Coming Apart, Coming Together. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 0802844561.  ^ Wettig, Gerhard (2008). Stalin and the Cold War in Europe. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 96–100. ISBN 0742555429.  ^ Trachtenberg, Marc (1999). A Constructed Peace: The Making of the European Settlement, 1945–1963. Princeton University Press. p. 33. ISBN 0691002738.  ^ Granville, Johanna (2004). The First Domino: International Decision Making during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 1585442984.  ^ Grenville, John Ashley Soames (2005). A History of the World from the 20th to the 21st Century. Routledge. pp. 370–71. ISBN 0415289548.  ^ Cook, Bernard A (2001). Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 17. ISBN 0815340575.  ^ Geoffrey Swain. The Cominform: Tito's International? The Historical Journal, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Sep., 1992), pp. 641–663 ^ Leffler, Melvyn P.; Painter, David S (1994). Origins of the Cold War: An International History. Routledge. p. 318. ISBN 0415341094.  ^ Bellamy, Christopher (2001). "Cold War". In Holmes, Richard. The Oxford Companion to Military History (Oxford Reference Online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198606966.  ^ Weinberg, Gerhard L. (2005). A World At Arms. Cambridge University Press. p. 911 ^ Connor, Mary E. (2009). "History". In Connor, Mary E.. The Koreas. Asia in Focus. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 43–45. ISBN 1598841602. http://books.google.com/?id=j2gYgXGENM0C.  ^ Lynch, Michael (2010). The Chinese Civil War 1945–49. Botley: Osprey Publishing. pp. 12–13. ISBN 9781841766713.  ^ Roberts, J.M. (1996). The Penguin History of Europe. London: Penguin Books. p. 589. ISBN 0140265619.  ^ Darwin, John (2007). After Tamerlane: The Rise & Fall of Global Empires 1400–2000. London: Penguin Books. pp. 441–443, 464–468. ISBN 9780141010229.  ^ Harrison, Mark (1998). "The economics of World WarII: an overview". In Harrison, Mark. The Economics of World War II: Six great powers in international comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 0521620465.  ^ Dear, I.C.B and Foot, M.R.D. (editors) (2005). "World trade and world economy". The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1006. ISBN 9780192806703.  ^ Nicholas Balabkins, "Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945 - 1948", Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 207 ^ Vladimir Petrov, Money and conquest; allied occupation currencies in World War II. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press (1967) p. 263 ^ Nicholas Balabkins, "Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945 - 1948", Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 208, 209 ^ Dornbusch, Rüdiger; Nölling, Wilhelm; Layard, P. Richard G (1993). Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. P.190, 191, ISBN 0262041367. ^ Nicholas Balabkins, "Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945 - 1948", Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 212 ^ Dornbusch, Rüdiger; Nölling, Wilhelm; Layard, P. Richard G (1993). Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. p29 -p30, 32, ISBN 0262041367. ^ Bull, Martin J.; Newell, James (2005). Italian Politics: Adjustment Under Duress. Polity. p. 20. ISBN 0745612997.  ^ Bull, Martin J.; Newell, James (2005). Italian Politics: Adjustment Under Duress. Polity. p. 21. ISBN 0745612997.  ^ Harrop, Martin (1992). Power and Policy in Liberal Democracies. Cambridge University Press. p. 23. ISBN 0521345790.  ^ Dornbusch, Rüdiger; Nölling, Wilhelm; Layard, P. Richard G (1993). Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. p. 117. ISBN 0262041367.  ^ Emadi-Coffin, Barbara (2002). Rethinking International Organization: Deregulation and Global Governance. Routledge. p. 64. ISBN 0415195403.  ^ Smith, Alan (1993). Russia And the World Economy: Problems of Integration. Routledge. p. 32. ISBN 0415089247.  ^ Harrop, Martin (1992). Power and Policy in Liberal Democracies. Cambridge University Press. p. 49. ISBN 0521345790.  ^ Genzberger, Christine (1994). China Business: The Portable Encyclopedia for Doing Business with China. Petaluma, California: World Trade Press. p. 4. ISBN 0963186434. http://books.google.com/?id=YSCunEaqnI8C&pg=PA4&dq=China+pre-war+production+1953#v=onepage&q=China%20pre-war%20production%201953&f=false.  ^ O'Brien, Prof. Joseph V. "World War II: Combatants and Casualties (1937–1945)". Obee's History Page. John Jay College of Criminal Justice. http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob62.html. Retrieved 20 April 2007.  ^ White, Matthew. "Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm". Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century. Matthew White's Homepage. http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second. Retrieved 20 April 2007.  ^ "World War II Fatalities". secondworldwar.co.uk. http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/casualty.html. Retrieved 20 April 2007.  ^ "Rulers and victims: the Russians in the Soviet Union". Geoffrey A. Hosking (2006). Harvard University Press. p.242. ISBN 0-674-02178-9 ^ "Leaders mourn Soviet wartime dead". BBC News. 9 May 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4530565.stm. Retrieved 7 December 2009.  ^ "The World's Wasted Wealth 2: Save Our Wealth, Save Our Environment". J. W. Smith (1994). p.204. ISBN 0-9624423-2-1 ^ Florida Center for Instructional Technology (2005). "Victims". A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. University of South Florida. http://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/victims.htm. Retrieved 2 February 2008.  ^ Niewyk, Donald L. and Nicosia, Francis R. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, pp. 45-52. ^ Todd, Allan (2001). The Modern World. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 0199134251.  ^ Winter, J. M (2002). "Demography of the War". In Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D. Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 290. ISBN 0198604467.  ^ "Jasenovac". jewishvirtuallibrary.org. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Jasenovac.html. Retrieved 25 January 2010.  ^ Chang, Iris (1997). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. BasicBooks. p. 102. ISBN 0465068359.  ^ Rummell, R. J. "Statistics". Freedom, Democide, War. The University of Hawaii System. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP3.HTM. Retrieved 25 January 2010.  ^ Himeta, Mitsuyoshi (姫田光義) (日本軍による『三光政策・三光作戦をめぐって』) (Concerning the Three Alls Strategy/Three Alls Policy By the Japanese Forces), Iwanami Bukkuretto, 1996, Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2000 ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 319. ISBN 1576079996.  ^ Gold, Hal (1996). Unit 731 testimony. Tuttle. pp. 75–7. ISBN 0804835659.  ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 320. ISBN 1576079996.  ^ Harris (2002). Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–1945, and the American Cover-up. Routledge. p. 74. ISBN 0415932149.  ^ Sabella, Robert; Li, Fei Fei; Liu, David (2002). Nanking 1937: Memory and Healing. M.E. Sharpe. p. 69. ISBN 0765608162.  ^ "Japan tested chemical weapons on Aussie POW: new evidence". The Japan Times Online. 27 July 2004. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/nn20040727a9.html. Retrieved 25 January 2010.  ^ Aksar, Yusuf (2004). Implementing International Humanitarian Law: From the Ad Hoc Tribunals to a Permanent International Criminal Court. Routledge. p. 45. ISBN 0714684708.  ^ Hornberger, Jacob (April 1995). "Repatriation—The Dark Side of World War II". The Future of Freedom Foundation. http://www.fff.org/freedom/0495a.asp. Retrieved 25 January 2010.  ^ Koh, David (21 August 2008). "Vietnam needs to remember famine of 1945". The Straits Times (Singapore). http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/hepr-vn/2008-August/000188.html. Retrieved 25 January 2010.  ^ Harding, Luke (22 October 2003). "Germany's forgotten victims". guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/oct/22/worlddispatch.germany. Retrieved 21 January 2010.  ^ "Germany's forgotten victims". Guardian.co.uk. October 22, 2003. ^ a b Marek, Michael (27 October 2005). "Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Laborers". dw-world.de. Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5mtTTntBR. Retrieved 19 January 2010.  ^ Applebaum, Anne (16 October 2003). "Gulag: Understanding the Magnitude of What Happened". Heritage Foundation. http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/Gulag-Understanding-the-Magnitude-of-What-Happened. Retrieved 19 January 2010.  ^ North, Jonathan (January 2006). "Soviet Prisoners of War: Forgotten Nazi Victims of World War II". HistoryNet.com. Weider History Group. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5mtUpwcaB. Retrieved 19 January 2010.  ^ Overy, Richard (2004). The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 568–69. ISBN 0393020304.  ^ Zemskov V.N. On repatriation of Soviet citizens. Istoriya SSSR., 1990, No.4, (in Russian). See also [1] (online version), and Edwin Bacon. Glasnost' and the Gulag: New Information on Soviet Forced Labour around World War II. Soviet Studies, Vol. 44, No. 6 (1992), pp. 1069-1086; Michael Ellman. Soviet Repression Statistics: Some Comments. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 54, No. 7 (Nov., 2002), pp. 1151-1172. ^ "Japanese Atrocities in the Philippines". American Experience: the Bataan Rescue. PBS Online. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5mtVNGYHW. Retrieved 18 January 2010.  ^ Tanaka, Yuki (1996). Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II. Westview Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0813327180.  ^ Bix, Herbert (2001). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. HarperCollins. p. 360. ISBN 0060931302.  ^ a b Ju, Zhifen (June 2002). "Japan's atrocities of conscripting and abusing north China draughtees after the outbreak of the Pacific war". Joint Study of the Sino-Japanese War:Minutes of the June 2002 Conference. Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/sino-japanese/session6.htm. Retrieved 18 February 2010.  ^ a b "Indonesia: World War II and the Struggle For Independence, 1942–50; The Japanese Occupation, 1942–45". Library of Congress. 1992. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+id0029). Retrieved 9 February 2007.  ^ a b "Concentration camps and slave work". Vets Home. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5mtX2kt9s. Retrieved 12 November 2009.  ^ Department of Labour of Canada. (24 January 1947). Report on the Re-establishment of Japanese in Canada, 1944–1946. Office of the Prime Minister. p. 23. ISBN 0405112661.  ^ Eugene Davidson "The death and life of Germany: an account of the American occupation". p.121 ^ Stark, Tamás. "“Malenki Robot” – Hungarian Forced Labourers in the Soviet Union (1944–1955)" (PDF). Minorities Research. http://www.epa.hu/00400/00463/00007/pdf/155_stark.pdf. Retrieved 22 January 2010.  ^ a b Harrison, Mark (2000). The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison. Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 0521785030.  ^ Harrison, Mark (2000). The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0521785030.  ^ Hughes, Matthew; Mann, Chris (2000). Inside Hitler's Germany: Life Under the Third Reich. Potomac Books Inc. p. 148. ISBN 1574882813.  ^ Bernstein, Gail Lee (1991). Recreating Japanese Women, 1600–1945. University of California Press. p. 267. ISBN 9780520070172.  ^ Hughes, Matthew; Mann, Chris (2000). Inside Hitler's Germany: Life Under the Third Reich. Potomac Books Inc. p. 151. ISBN 1574882813.  ^ Griffith, Charles (1999). The Quest: Haywood Hansell and American Strategic Bombing in World War II. DIANE Publishing. p. 203. ISBN 1585660698.  ^ Overy, R.J (1995). War and Economy in the Third Reich. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 26. ISBN 0198205996.  ^ Lindberg, Michael; Daniel, Todd (2001). Brown-, Green- and Blue-Water Fleets: the Influence of Geography on Naval Warfare, 1861 to the Present. Praeger. p. 126. ISBN 0275964868.  ^ Cox, Sebastian (1998). The Strategic Air War Against Germany, 1939–1945. Frank Cass Publishers. p. 84. ISBN 0714647225.  ^ Unidas, Naciones (2005). World Economic And Social Survey 2004: International Migration. United Nations Pubns. p. 23. ISBN 9211091470.  ^ Liberman, Peter (1998). Does Conquest Pay?: The Exploitation of Occupied Industrial Societies. Princeton University Press. p. 42. ISBN 0691002428.  ^ Milward, Alan S (1979). War, Economy, and Society, 1939–1945. University of California Press. p. 138. ISBN 0520039424.  ^ Milward, Alan S (1979). War, Economy, and Society, 1939–1945. University of California Press. p. 148. ISBN 0520039424.  ^ Perrie, Maureen; Lieven, D. C. B; Suny, Ronald Grigor (2007). The Cambridge History of Russia. Cambridge University Press. p. 232. ISBN 0521861942.  ^ Hill, Alexander (2005). The War Behind The Eastern Front: The Soviet Partisan Movement In North-West Russia 1941–1944. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 0714657115.  ^ Christofferson, Thomas R; Christofferson, Michael S (2006). France During World War II: From Defeat to Liberation. Fordham University Press. p. 156. ISBN 9780823225637.  ^ Ikeo, Aiko (1997). Economic Development in Twentieth Century East Asia: The International Context. Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 0415149002.  ^ a b Boog, Horst; Rahn, Werner; Stumpf, Reinhard; Wegner, Bernd (2001). Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt Germany and the Second World War—Volume VI: The Global War. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 266. ISBN 0198228880.  ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 76. ISBN 1576079996.  ^ Levine, Alan J. (1992). The Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1940–1945. Greenwood Press. p. 217. ISBN 0275943194.  ^ Sauvain, Philip (2005). Key Themes of the Twentieth Century: Teacher's Guide. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 128. ISBN 1405132183.  ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 163. ISBN 1576079996.  ^ Bishop, Chris; Chant, Chris (2004). Aircraft Carriers: The World's Greatest Naval Vessels and Their Aircraft. Silverdale Books. p. 7. ISBN 1845090799.  ^ Chenoweth, H. Avery; Nihart, Brooke (2005). Semper Fi: The Definitive Illustrated History of the U.S. Marines. Main Street. p. 180. ISBN 1402730993.  ^ Sumner, Ian; Baker, Alix (2001). The Royal Navy 1939–45. Osprey Publishing. p. 25. ISBN 1841761958.  ^ Hearn, Chester G. (2007). Carriers in Combat: The Air War at Sea. Stackpole Books. p. 14. ISBN 081173398X.  ^ Gardiner, Robert; Brown, David K (2004). The Eclipse of the Big Gun: The Warship 1906–1945. Conway. p. 52. ISBN 0851779530.  ^ Rydill, Louis (1995). Concepts in Submarine Design. Cambridge University Press. p. 15. ISBN 052155926X.  ^ Rydill, Louis (1995). Concepts in Submarine Design. Cambridge University Press. p. 16. ISBN 052155926X.  ^ a b Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 125. ISBN 1576079996.  ^ Dupuy, Trevor Nevitt (1982). The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare. Jane's Information Group. p. 231. ISBN 0710601239.  ^ a b Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 108. ISBN 1576079996.  ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 734. ISBN 1576079996.  ^ a b Cowley, Robert; Parker, Geoffrey (2001). The Reader's Companion to Military History. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 221. ISBN 0618127429.  ^ "Infantry Weapons Of World War 2". Grey Falcon (Black Sun). http://greyfalcon.us/Infantry%20Weapons%20Of%20World%20War%202.htm. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "These all-purpose guns were developed and used by the German army in the 2nd half of World War 2 as a result of studies which showed that the ordinary rifle's long range is much longer than needed, since the soldiers almost always fired at enemies closer than half of its effective range. The assault rifle is a balanced compromise between the rifle and the sub-machine gun, having sufficient range and accuracy to be used as a rifle, combined with the rapid-rate automatic firepower of the sub machine gun. Thanks to these combined advantages, assault rifles such as the American M-16 and the Russian AK-47 are the basic weapon of the modern soldier"  ^ Sprague, Oliver; Griffiths, Hugh (2006). "The AK-47: the worlds favourite killing machine" (PDF). controlarms.org. p. 1. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT30/011/2006/en/11079910-d422-11dd-8743-d305bea2b2c7/act300112006en.pdf. Retrieved 14 November 2009.  ^ Ratcliff, Rebecca Ann (2006). Delusions of Intelligence: Enigma, Ultra and the End of Secure Ciphers. Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN 0521855225.  ^ a b Schoenherr, Steven (2007). "Code Breaking in World War II". History Department at the University of San Diego. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww2timeline/espionage.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009. dead link ^ Rowe, Neil C.; Rothstein, Hy. "Deception for Defense of Information Systems: Analogies from Conventional Warfare". Departments of Computer Science and Defense Analysis U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. Air University. http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nps/mildec.htm. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  ^ "Konrad Zuse (1910–1995)". Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale. http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/zuse.html. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "Konrad Zuse builds Z1, world's first programme-controlled computer. Despite certain mechanical engineering problems it had all the basic ingredients of modern machines, using the binary system and today's standard separation of storage and control. Zuse's 1936 patent application (Z23139/GMD Nr. 005/021) also suggests a von Neumann architecture (re-invented in 1945) with programme and data modifiable in storage"  References Adamthwaite, Anthony P (1992). The Making of the Second World War. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415907160.  Brody, J Kenneth (1999). The Avoidable War: Pierre Laval and the Politics of Reality, 1935–1936. Transaction Publishers. p. 4. ISBN 0765806223.  Bullock, A. (1962). Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. Penguin Books. ISBN 0140135642  Busky, Donald F (2002). Communism in History and Theory: Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0275977331.  Davies, Norman (2008). No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939–1945. Penguin Group. ISBN 0143114093  Glantz, David M. (2001). "The Soviet‐German War 1941–45 Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay". http://www.strom.clemson.edu/publications/sg-war41-45.pdf  Graham, Helen (2005). The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0192803778.  Hsiung, James Chieh (1992). China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 156324246X  Jowett, Philip S.; Andrew, Stephen (2002). The Japanese Army, 1931–45. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1841763535  Kantowicz, Edward R (1999). The rage of nations. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0802844553.  Kershaw, Ian (2001). Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393322521  Kitson, Alison (2001). Germany 1858–1990: Hope, Terror, and Revival. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199134175.  Mandelbaum, Michael (1988). The Fate of Nations: The Search for National Security in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Cambridge University Press. p. 96. ISBN 052135790X.  Murray, Williamson; Millett, Allan Reed (2001). A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674006801  Myers, Ramon; Peattie, Mark (1987). The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691102228.  Preston, Peter (1998). 'Pacific Asia in the global system: an introduction, Wiley-Blackwell. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 104. ISBN 0631202382.  Record, Jeffery (2005) (PDF). Appeasement Reconsidered: Investigating the Mythology of the 1930s. DIANE Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 1584872160. http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB622.pdf. Retrieved 15 November 2009.  Shaw, Anthony (2000). World War II Day by Day. MBI Publishing Company. ISBN 0760309396.  Smith, Winston; Steadman, Ralph (2004). All Riot on the Western Front, Volume 3. Last Gasp. ISBN 0867196165.  Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1995). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521558794  Zalampas, Michael (1989). Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich in American magazines, 1923–1939. Bowling Green University Popular Press. ISBN 0879724625.  External links Find more about World War II on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary Images and media from Commons Learning resources from Wikiversity News stories from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks World War II Military Situation Maps. Library of Congress World War II Propaganda Leaflet Archive Radio news from 1938 to 1945 The Art of War Online Exhibition at the UK National Archive Deutsche Welle special section on World War II created by a German public broadcaster on both the war and the world 60 years after. v · d · eWorld War II Western Europe · Eastern Europe · Africa · Mediterranean · Asia and the Pacific · Atlantic Casualties · Military engagements · Topics · Conferences · Commanders Participants Allies (Leaders) Ethiopia · China · Czechoslovakia · Poland · United Kingdom · India · France · Australia · New Zealand · South Africa · Canada · Norway · Belgium · Netherlands · Greece · Yugoslavia · Soviet Union · United States · Philippines · Mexico · Brazil Axis and Axis-aligned (Leaders) Bulgaria · Reorganized National Government of China · Croatia · Finland · Germany · Hungary · Iraq · Italy · Italian Social Republic · Japan · Manchukuo · Romania · Slovakia · Thailand · Vichy France Resistance Austria · Baltic States · Belgium · Czech lands · Denmark · Estonia · Ethiopia · France · Germany · Greece · Hong Kong · India · Italy · Jewish · Korea · Latvia · Luxembourg · Netherlands · Norway · Philippines · Poland (Anti-communist) · Romania · Thailand · Soviet Union · Slovakia · Western Ukraine · Vietnam · Yugoslavia Timeline  Prelude Africa · Asia · Europe 1939 Invasion of Poland · Phoney War · Winter War · Battle of the Atlantic · Battle of Changsha (1939) · Winter Offensive in China 1940 Denmark and Norway · Battle of the Netherlands · Battle of Belgium · Battle of France · Battle of Britain · Libya and Egypt · British Somaliland · Baltic states · Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina · Invasion of French Indochina · Invasion of Greece  · Operation Compass 1941 East Africa Campaign · Invasion of Yugoslavia · Yugoslav Front · Battle of Greece · Battle of Crete · Invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) · Continuation War · June Uprising · Middle East Campaign  · Battle of Kiev  · Siege of Leningrad · Battle of Moscow · Siege of Sevastopol · Attack on Pearl Harbor · Battle of Hong Kong · Battle of the Philippines · Battle of Changsha (1941) · Battle of Malaya · Battle of Borneo 1942 Japanese Conquest of Burma · Battle of Changsha (1942) · Battle of the Coral Sea · Battle of Gazala · Battle of Midway · Case Blue · Battle of Stalingrad · Dieppe Raid · Second Battle of El Alamein · Operation Torch · Guadalcanal Campaign 1943 End in Africa · Battle of Kursk · Battle of Smolensk · Solomon Islands · Invasion of Sicily · Lower Dnieper Offensive · Invasion of Italy · Gilbert and Marshall Islands · Battle of Changde 1944 Cassino and Anzio · Narva · Korsun–Shevchenkovsky Offensive  · Operation Tempest · Operation Ichi-Go · Invasion of Normandy · Mariana and Palau Islands · Operation Bagration · Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive · Tannenberg Line · Warsaw Uprising · Jassy–Kishinev Offensive · Belgrade Offensive · Liberation of Paris · Gothic Line · Operation Market Garden · Tallinn Offensive · Operation Crossbow · Operation Pointblank · Lapland War · Budapest Offensive · Battle of Leyte Gulf · Battle of the Bulge · Burma Campaign 1945 Vistula–Oder Offensive · Battle of Iwo Jima · Battle of Okinawa · Final offensive in Italy · Battle of Berlin · Prague Offensive · Siege of Budapest · Battle of West Hunan · Surrender of Germany · Soviet invasion of Manchuria · Philippine liberation  · Borneo Campaign · Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki · Surrender of Japan Aspects General Air warfare of World War II · Attacks on North America · Blitzkrieg · Comparative military ranks · Cryptography · Home front · Military awards · Military equipment · Military production · Nazi plunder · Technology · Total war · Strategic bombing · Bengal famine of 1943 Aftermath Effects · Expulsion of Germans · Operation Paperclip · Operation Keelhaul · Occupation of Germany · Morgenthau Plan · Territorial changes · Soviet occupations (Romania, Poland, Hungary, Baltic States) · Occupation of Japan · First Indochina War · Indonesian National Revolution · Cold War · Decolonization · Contemporary culture  War crimes Allied war crimes · German war crimes · Italian war crimes · Japanese war crimes · Soviet war crimes · United States war crimes · The Holocaust War rape Rape during the occupation of Japan · Comfort women  · Rape of Nanking  · Rape during the occupation of Germany Prisoners Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union · Japanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union · Japanese prisoners of war in World War II · German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Category · Portal  definition ·  textbooks ·  quotes ·  source texts ·  media ·  news stories v · d · e History of World War II by country and region Albania · Australia · Austria (Anschluss) · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies (Indonesia)  · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · India · Iran · Iraq · Ireland · Italy · Japan · Laos · Latvia · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak (Malaysia)  · Manchukuo · Mexico · Mongolia · Nepal · Netherlands · New Zealand · Newfoundland · Norway · Philippines · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Singapore · Slovakia · South Africa · Soviet Union · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Thailand · Turkey · Ukraine · United Kingdom · United States · Vietnam · Yugoslavia v · d · eMajor armed conflicts involving the United States Armed Forces Internal Shays' Rebellion · Whiskey Rebellion · Dorr Rebellion · Mormon War · Bleeding Kansas · Utah War · Civil War · Indian Wars · Brooks–Baxter War · Battle of Blair Mountain · Bonus Army International Revolutionary War · Quasi-War · First Barbary War · War of 1812 · Second Barbary War · Sumatran Expeditions · Mexican–American War · Second Opium War · Spanish–American War · Philippine–American War · Boxer Rebellion · Banana Wars · Border War · World War I · Russian Civil War · World War II · Korean War · Vietnam War · Invasion of the Dominican Republic · Invasion of Grenada · Invasion of Panama · Gulf War · Somali Civil War · Bosnian War · Kosovo War · War in Afghanistan · Iraq War · War in North-West Pakistan · Yemeni al-Qaeda crackdown Related articles List of conflicts in the U.S. · List of wars involving the U.S. · Timeline of U.S. military operations · Length of U.S. participation in major wars · Overseas expansion · Military history · Covert regime-change actions · Casualties of war