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What events led up to the conflict starting? 

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What events led up to the conflict starting? 

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Who and what was IMPACTED as a result of the conflict? 

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Who and what was IMPACTED as a result of the conflict? 

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How many people died or were injured during this conflict? 

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How many people died or were injured during this conflict? 

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What type of destruction occurred as a result of the war? 

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What type of destruction occurred as a result of the war? 

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What changes happened as a result of the conflict?  Examples- changes in land ownership, government, or freedom? 

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What changes happened as a result of the conflict?  Examples- changes in land ownership, government, or freedom? 

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https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II

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Home World History Wars, Battles & Armed Conflicts
Table of Contents

Also called:

Second World War

(Show more)

Date:

September 3, 1939 - September 2, 1945

(Show more)

What was the cause of World War II?

What countries fought in World War II?

Who were the leaders during World War II?

What were the turning points of World War II?

How did World War II end?

How many people died during World War II?

World War II, conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939-45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers- Germany, Italy, and Japan-and the Allies- France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China. The war was in many respects a continuation, after an uneasy 20-year hiatus, of the disputes left unsettled by World War I. The 40,000,000-50,000,000 deaths incurred in World War II make it the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in history.

Along with World War I, World War II was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It resulted in the extension of the Soviet Union's power to nations of eastern Europe, enabled a communist movement to eventually achieve power in China, and marked the decisive shift of power in the world away from the states of western Europe and toward the United States and the Soviet Union.
(Read Sir John Keegan's Britannica entry on the Normandy Invasion.)

Axis initiative and Allied reaction

The outbreak of war

By the early part of 1939 the German dictator Adolf Hitler had become determined to invade and occupy Poland. Poland, for its part, had guarantees of French and British military support should it be attacked by Germany. Hitler intended to invade Poland anyway, but first he had to neutralize the possibility that the Soviet Union would resist the invasion of its western neighbour. Secret negotiations led on August 23-24 to the signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in Moscow. In a secret protocol of this pact, the Germans and the Soviets agreed that Poland should be divided between them, with the western third of the country going to Germany and the eastern two-thirds being taken over by the U.S.S.R.

Pop Quiz: 17 Things to Know About World War II

Having achieved this cynical agreement, the other provisions of which stupefied Europe even without divulgence of the secret protocol, Hitler thought that Germany could attack Poland with no danger of Soviet or British intervention and gave orders for the invasion to start on August 26. News of the signing, on August 25, of a formal treaty of mutual assistance between Great Britain and Poland (to supersede a previous though temporary agreement) caused him to postpone the start of hostilities for a few days. He was still determined, however, to ignore the diplomatic efforts of the western powers to restrain him. Finally, at 12:40 pm on August 31, 1939, Hitler ordered hostilities against Poland to start at 4:45 the next morning. The invasion began as ordered. In response, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, at 11:00 am and at 5:00 pm, respectively. World War II had begun.

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World War II | Facts, Summary, History, Dates, Combatants, & Causes

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World War II was a conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during 1939-45. The main combatants were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China). It was the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in human history.

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https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/world-war-ii-history

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World War II: Summary, Combatants & Facts

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World War II was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. Rising to power in an unstable Germany, Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi Party) rearmed the nation and signed treaties with Italy and Japan to further his ambitions of world domination. Hitler’s invasion of Poland drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, and World War II had begun. The majority of the world’s countries eventually formed two opposing alliances: the Allies and the Axis.

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The war started in September of 1939. (The Story of World War 2 Stewart Graff)

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It ended in August of 1945, lasting almost 6 years. (The Story of World War 2 Stewart Graff)

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The Nazi’s took control by promising Germany a “glorious future”
(BrainPop)

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Effect found in an eyewitness book on world war 2 page 62 the aftermath

“The countries of the world faced a huge task in 1945. Both victors and vanquished had suffered terrible losses, with an estimated 55 million people losing their lives in battle or on the home front.”

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The Treaty of Versailles made Germany give up land which angered Hitler, and he vowed to get revenge for this “humiliation”
(BrainPop)

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Hitler said the the Germans were a master race, superior to all other people. He said it was their destiny to rule over all other countries
(BrainPop)

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Effect found in world war 2 eyewitness book page 62 the aftermath

Soviet Union: lost more than 20 million lives

Poland: lost one-fifth of its entire prewar population

6 million Jews lost their lives in the Holocaust

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Germany printed more money but that caused inflation to spiral out of control making German money worthless (Brainpop)

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Hitler wanted to attack Poland first but didn’t have a reason to fight them so he made up an excuse. (The Story of World War 2 Stewart Graff)

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Country’s like Japan, France, Germany, and the U.S.A. Where all a big part of the war.
(BrainPop)

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“Hitler blamed the Jews for all of Germany’s problems, including the defeat in World War One.”
(BrainPop)

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Nobody wanted to start a second World War, so everyone stood by at first when Hitler began his search for power
(BrainPop)

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Russia and Germany teamed up on the attack of Poland and would then divide the conquered country. (The Story of World War 2 Stewart Graff)

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“The German Air Force bombed cities and towns. The bombs crashed into homes, factories, office buildings, apartment houses, and schools. The bombs blasted them to ruins.” (The Story of World War 2 Stewart Graff)

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The main combatants were the axis powers ( Germany, Italy, and japan) and the Allie’s France Great Britain and the United States the Soviet Union and to a lesser extent china.(Britannica.com

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Germany angered the Treaty of Versailles, which was the peace treaty that ended world war 1 in 1919
(BrainPop)

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The Germans were breaking the treaty were they can’t do anything to Poland. (Brainpop)

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Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the British in the Malaya.
( EYEWITNESS BOOKS)

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There where 3 big dictators who where the biggest impacts
(BrainPop)

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The Allied powers were led by Winston Churchill (United Kingdom); Joseph Stalin(Soviet Union); Charles de Gaulle (France); and Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (United States). The Axis powerswere led by Adolf Hitler (Germany), Benito Mussolini (Italy), and Hideki Tojo (Japan).
(britannica.com)

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The war in the Pacific turned against Japan during the Battle of Midway (June 3–6, 1942), an American victory that destroyed the Japanese first-line carrier force and, together with the Battle of Guadalcanal, ended Japan’s ability to prosecute an offensive war.

The tide of the war in Europe shifted with the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad(February 1943). More than one million Soviet troops and tens of thousands of civilians died in the defense of the city, but the destruction of two entire German armies marked the beginning of the end of the Third Reich.
(Britanica)

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The people that were involved were the bad side which was a party of the Germans, Japanese and Italy. The other side was a party made of the u.s, Soviet Union, France, Great Britain and China.  (Brainpop)

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When tensions grew, Japan bowed Pearl Harbor
(Britanica)

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Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, and the war in Europe ended on May 8.

(britannica.com)

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From The Story of World War 2

World war 2 began in Europe

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Estimates of the total number of people killed during World War II have ranged from 35,000,000 to 60,000,000
(britannica.com)

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From The Story of World War 2 the first chapter called: The Story

“The war also came to people in their homes—in cities and towns and on farms. The war brought hunger and sickness, cruelty and death, and sadness to millions of men, women, and children. It was a tome of daring actions or blood and sweat, a time when people learned they could be brave. This is the story of that war—World War 2.”

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Germany had been defeated by the allied powers and signed the Treaty of Versailles to end the war 1919 (brainpop)

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People were forced to live a different life style.
( Growing Up in World War 2 )

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All countries (withe exception os the U.S.) emerged from the war with cities ruined/bombed
(Eyewitness Books: World War II)

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Germany air bombed Britain for 4 years.
(World War 2 Told Through 100 Artifacts)

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Hitler leader of the Nazi party promised to restore power to Germany 🇩🇪

(BrianPop)

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After the war, many leading Japanese and Nazi official stood trial, charged with various war crimes
(Eyewitness Books: World War II)

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“The US emerged from the war far stronger and far richer that it had entered it. With exception of its pacific islands, no part of the country had been bombed or invaded, and its people now entered a time of full employment and rising wages.
(Eyewitness Books: World War II)

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Effect from The Story of World War 2 chapter 10: The Guns Fall Silent

Under a photo it says “American planes dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. Smoke rose 20,000 feet above the Japanese city.

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Over 9 million Jewish died in the holocaust. (Brain pop)

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Germany invaded Poland and Czechoslovakia and then poland attacked Germany. Brainpop

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When Germany and Russia invaded Poland, England and France declared war against Germany, but they couldn’t save Poland. (The Story of World War 2 Stewart Graff)

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“Trainloads of children were sent from London into the country to be safe from the bombs.” (The Story of World War 2 Stewart Graff)

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World war 2 ends (1945)
(History.com)

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“People waited anxiously. The armies waited. Nothing happened through the winter. English began to call it the ‘phony war.’ Suddenly the Germans attacked.” (The Story of World War 2 Stewart Graff)

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Combat and bombing had flattened cities and towns, destroyed bridges and railroads, and scorched the countryside. (International Monetary Fund.com)

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Adolf Hitler blamed the jewish
(Brain pop)

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Britain and France didn’t want to get involved because they thought hittler wouldn’t start a war
(Brain pop)

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Estimates of the total number of people killed during world war 2 have ranged from 35,000,000 to 60,000,000 a significant span, because statistics about the wars casualties are in inexact. (Britannica.com)

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From the eyewitness book World War 2 page 8 a chapter called Heading to war

“In 1933, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party came to power in Germany and began to build up the country’s military strength. The Rhineland, a German industrial area which lay next to the border with France and Belgium, had been set as a military-free zone at the end of World War 1.”

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As Soviet troops entered the heart of Berlin, Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, in his underground bunker. Although there is some speculation about the manner of his death, it is widely believed that he shot himself. Eva Braun, whom he had recently married, also took her own life. According to his wishes, both bodies were burned and buried. Almost immediately, however, conspiracy theories began. The Soviets initially claimed that they were unable to confirm Hitler’s death and later spread rumors that he was alive. According to subsequent reports, however, the Soviets recovered his burnt remains, which were identified through dental records. Hitler’s body was secretly buried before being exhumed and cremated, with the ashes scattered in 1970.
(https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adolf-Hitler)

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Poland land was claimed by Germany and badly damaged (brain pop)

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On December 7 1941 attacked usa Pearl Harbor was bombed
(Brain pop)

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That started world war 2 for America
(Brain pop)

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Germany claimed France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Poland and Czechoslovakia and damaged all the land pretty badly. (BrainPop)

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Sixty million people died in the Second World War.

(The National WWII Museum)

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The Soviet Union ,had grown especially do to the defeat of Germany in the Second World War.

(The National WWII Museum)

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Hitler was found by the American military. (The national world war 2 museum)

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Hitler poisoned him self after he was found (The national world WWII museum)

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On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, and the Second World War came to an end. (Library of congress.gov)

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“World War II proved to be the deadliest international conflict in history, taking the lives of 60 to 80 million people, including 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Civilians made up an estimated 50-55 million deaths from the war, while military comprised 21 to 25 million of those lost during the war. Millions more were injured, and still more lost their homes and property.

The legacy of the war would include the spread of communism from the Soviet Union into eastern Europe as well as its eventual triumph in China, and the global shift in power from Europe to two rival superpowers–the United States and the Soviet Union–that would soon face off against each other in the Cold War.”

(History.com)

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At the end of the war, millions of people were dead and millions more homeless, the European economy had collapsed, and much of the European industrial infrastructure had been destroyed. The Soviet Union, too, had been heavily affected.
(Wikepideia.com)

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The devastation of the Great War (as World War I was known at the time) had greatly destabilized Europe, and in many respects World War II grew out of issues left unresolved by that earlier conflict. In particular, political and economic instability in Germany, and lingering resentment over the harsh terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty, fueled the rise to power of Adolf Hitlerand National Socialist German Workers’ Party, abbreviated as NSDAP in German and the Nazi Party in English.

In late August 1939, Hitler and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, which incited a frenzy of worry in London and Paris. Hitler had long planned an invasion of Poland, a nation to which Great Britain and France had guaranteed military support if it were attacked by Germany. The pact with Stalin meant that Hitler would not face a war on two fronts once he invaded Poland, and would have Soviet assistance in conquering and dividing the nation itself. On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from the west; two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany, beginning World War II.

On September 17, Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east. Under attack from both sides, Poland fell quickly, and by early 1940 Germany and the Soviet Union had divided control over the nation, according to a secret protocol appended to the Nonaggression Pact. Stalin’s forces then moved to occupy the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and defeated a resistant Finland in the Russo-Finnish War. During the six months following the invasion of Poland, the lack of action on the part of Germany and the Allies in the west led to talk in the news media of a “phony war.” At sea, however, the British and German navies faced off in heated battle, and lethal German U-boat submarines struck at merchant shipping bound for Britain, sinking more than 100 vessels in the first four months of World War II.

(History.com)

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The west

On April 9, 1940, Germany simultaneously invaded Norway and occupied Denmark, and the war began in earnest. On May 10, German forces swept through Belgium and the Netherlands in what became known as “blitzkrieg,” or lightning war. Three days later, Hitler’s troops crossed the Meuse River and struck French forces at Sedan, located at the northern end of the Maginot Line, an elaborate chain of fortifications constructed after World War I and considered an impenetrable defensive barrier. In fact, the Germans broke through the line with their tanks and planes and continued to the rear, rendering it useless. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was evacuated by sea from Dunkirk in late May, while in the south French forces mounted a doomed resistance. With France on the verge of collapse, Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini formed an alliance with Hitler, the Pact of Steel, and Italy declared war against France and Britain on June 10.

On June 14, German forces entered Paris; a new government formed by Marshal Philippe Petain (France’s hero of World War I) requested an armistice two nights later. France was subsequently divided into two zones, one under German military occupation and the other under Petain’s government, installed at Vichy France. Hitler now turned his attention to Britain, which had the defensive advantage of being separated from the Continent by the English Channel.

To pave the way for an amphibious invasion (dubbed Operation Sea Lion), German planes bombed Britain extensively beginning in September 1940 until May 1941, known as the Blitz, including night raids on London and other industrial centers that caused heavy civilian casualties and damage. The Royal Air Force (RAF) eventually defeated the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) in the Battle of Britain, and Hitler postponed his plans to invade. With Britain’s defensive resources pushed to the limit, Prime Minister Winston Churchill began receiving crucial aid from the U.S. under the Lend-Lease Act, passed by Congress in early 1941.

(History.com)

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By the end of World War II, much of Europe and Asia, and parts of Africa, lay in ruins. Combat and bombing had flattened cities and towns, destroyed bridges and railroads, and scorched the countryside. The war had also taken a staggering toll in both military and civilian lives.
(International monetary fund)

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The treaty forced Germany to surrender colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific; cede territory to other nations like France and Poland; reduce the size of its military; pay war reparations to the Allied countries; and accept guilt for the war.
(University of Denver)

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“In North Africa, British and American forces had defeated the Italians and Germans by 1943. An Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy followed, and Mussolini’s government fell in July 1943, though Allied fighting against the Germans in Italy would continue until 1945.

On the Eastern Front, a Soviet counteroffensive launched in November 1942 ended the bloody Battle of Stalingrad, which had seen some of the fiercest combat of World War II. The approach of winter, along with dwindling food and medical supplies, spelled the end for German troops there, and the last of them surrendered on January 31, 1943.

On June 6, 1944–celebrated as “D-Day”–the Allies began a massive invasion of Europe, landing 156,000 British, Canadian and American soldiers on the beaches of Normandy, France. In response, Hitler poured all the remaining strength of his army into Western Europe, ensuring Germany’s defeat in the east. Soviet troops soon advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, while Hitler gathered his forces to drive the Americans and British back from Germany in the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944-January 1945), the last major German offensive of the war.

An intensive aerial bombardment in February 1945 preceded the Allied land invasion of Germany, and by the time Germany formally surrendered on May 8, Soviet forces had occupied much of the country. Hitler was already dead, having died by suicide on April 30 in his Berlin bunker.

World War II Ends (1945)

At the Potsdam Conference of July-August 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman(who had taken office after Roosevelt’s death in April), Churchill and Stalin discussed the ongoing war with Japan as well as the peace settlement with Germany. Post-war Germany would be divided into four occupation zones, to be controlled by the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States and France. On the divisive matter of Eastern Europe’s future, Churchill and Truman acquiesced to Stalin, as they needed Soviet cooperation in the war against Japan.

Heavy casualties sustained in the campaigns at Iwo Jima (February 1945) and Okinawa (April-June 1945), and fears of the even costlier land invasion of Japan led Truman to authorize the use of a new and devastating weapon. Developed during a top secret operation code-named The Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb was unleashed on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. On August 15, the Japanese government issued a statement declaring they would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and on September 2, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan’s formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

African”

(History.com)

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On July 25, 1943, Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested upon leaving a meeting with King Vittorio Emanuele, who tells Il Duce that the war is lost.
(History.com)

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Gross private investment rose by 223 percent in real terms, with a whopping six-fold real increase in residential- housing expenditures. The private economy boomed as the government sector stopped buying munitions and hiring soldiers. Factories that had once made bombs now made toasters, and toaster sales were rising.
(Mercactus.org)