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Second World War

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CAUSE
.3
BELLIGERENTS
5
I.

Axis
powers.............
.5
Allies
..
.5

II.

COURSE
OF
THE
WAR..
7
I.
II.

Timeline
.7
Notable
events
and
battles.12
a. Fall
of
France
.12
b. Battle
of
Stalingrad
..13
c. Attack
on
Pearl
Harbour..14
d. DDay
..15
e. Japanese
Instrument
of
Surrender16

AFTERMATH
19
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AND
RESOURCES.21
2

CAUSES OF WORLD WAR II

Some long-term causes of World War II are found in the conditions
preceding World War I and seen as common for both World Wars. Supporters
of this view paraphrase Clausewitz: World War II was continuation of World
War I by the same means. In fact, World Wars had been expected before
Mussolini and Hitler came to power and Japan invaded China.
Among the causes of World War II were Italian fascism in the 1920s, Japanese
militarism and invasions of China in the 1930s, and especially the political
takeover in 1933 of Germany by Hitler and his Nazi Party and its aggressive
foreign policy. The immediate cause was Britain and France declaring war on
Germany after it invaded Poland in September 1939.
Problems arose in Weimar Germany that experienced strong currents of
revanchism after the Treaty of Versailles that concluded its defeat in World
War I in 1918. Dissatisfactions of treaty provisions included the
demilitarizarion of the Rhineland, the prohibition of unification with Austria
and the loss of German-speaking territories such as Danzig, Eupen-Malmedy
and Upper Silesia despite Wilson's Fourteen Points, the limitations on the
Reichswehr making it a token military force, the war-guilt clause, and last but
not least the heavy tribute that Germany had to pay in the form of war
reparations, and that become an unbearable burden after the Great
Depression. The most serious internal cause in Germany was the instability
of the political system, as large sectors of politically active Germans rejected
the legitimacy of the Weimar Republic.
3

After his rise and take-over of power in 1933 to a large part based on these
grievances, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis heavily promoted them and also ideas
of vastly ambitious additional demands based on Nazi ideology such as
uniting all Germans (and further all Germanic peoples) in Europe in a single
nation; the acquisition of "living space" (Lebensraum) for primarily agrarian
settlers (Blut und Boden), creating a "pull towards the East" (Drang nach
Osten) where such territories were to be found and colonized, in a model that
the Nazis explicitly derived from the American Manifest Destiny in the Far
West and its clearing of native inhabitants; the elimination of Bolshevism;
and the hegemony of an "Aryan"/"Nordic" so-called Master Race over the
"sub-humans" (Untermenschen) of inferior races, chief among them Slavs
and Jews.
Tensions created by those ideologies and the dissatisfactions of those powers
with the interwar international order steadily increased. Italy laid claim on
Ethiopia and conquered it in 1935, Japan created a puppet state in Manchuria
in 1931 and expanded beyond in China from 1937, and Germany
systematically flouted the Versailles treaty, reintroducing conscription in
1935 with the Stresa Front's failure after having secretly started rearmament, remilitarizing the Rhineland in 1936, annexing Austria in March
1938, and the Sudetenland in October 1938.
All those aggressive moves met only feeble and ineffectual policies of
appeasement from the League of Nations and the Entente Cordiale, in
retrospect symbolized by the "peace for our time" speech following the
Munich Conference, that had allowed the annexation of the Sudeten from
interwar Czechoslovakia. When the German Fhrer broke the promise he had
made at that conference to respect that country's future territorial integrity
in March 1939 by sending troops into Prague, its capital, breaking off
Slovakia as a German client state, and absorbing the rest of it as the
"Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia", Britain and France tried to switch to a
policy of deterrence.
As Nazi attentions turned towards resolving the "Polish Corridor Question"
during the summer of 1939, Britain and France committed themselves to an
alliance with Poland, threatening Germany with a two-front war. On their
side, the Germans assured themselves of the support of the USSR by signing
a non-aggression pact with them in August, secretly dividing Eastern Europe
into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence.

Nazi dictatorship

Hitler and his Nazis took full control of Germany in

193334 (Machtergreifung), turning it into a
dictatorship with a highly hostile outlook toward the
Treaty of Versailles and Jews. It solved its
unemployment crisis by heavy military spending.
Hitler's diplomatic strategy was to make seemingly
reasonable demands, threatening war if they were not
met. When opponents tried to appease him, he
accepted the gains that were offered, then went to the
next target. That aggressive strategy worked as
Germany pulled out of the League of Nations (1933),
rejected the Versailles Treaty and began to re-arm
(1935) with the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, won
back the Saar (1935), re-militarized the Rhineland (1936), formed an alliance
("axis") with Mussolini's Italy (1936), sent massive military aid to Franco in
the Spanish Civil War (193639), seized Austria (1938), took over
Czechoslovakia after the British and French appeasement of the Munich
Agreement of 1938, formed a peace pact with Stalin's Russia in August 1939,
and finally invaded Poland in September 1939.

Re-militarization of the Rhineland

In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the spirit of the Locarno Pact and
the Stresa Front, Germany re-militarized the Rhineland on March 7, 1936. It
moved German troops into the part of western Germany where, according to
the Versailles Treaty, they were not allowed. France could not act because of
political instability at the time. According to his official Biography, King
Edward VIII, who thought the Versailles provision was unjust, ordered the
government to stand down.

BELLIGERENTS
I.

Axis powers

powers agreed on their opposition

to the Allies, but did not completely
coordinate their activity.

The Axis powers also known as

the Axis, were the nations that
fought in the Second World War
against the Allied forces. The Axis

The Axis grew out of the diplomatic

efforts of Germany, Italy and Japan
5

to secure their own specific

expansionist interests in the mid1930s. The first step was the treaty
signed by Germany and Italy in
October 1936. Mussolini declared
on 1 November that all other
European countries would from
then on rotate on the Rome-Berlin
axis, thus creating the term "Axis".
The almost simultaneous second
step was the signing in November
1936 of the Anti-Comintern Pact, an
anti-communist treaty between
Germany and Japan. Italy joined
the Pact in 1937. The "RomeBerlin
Axis" became a military alliance in
1939 under the so-called "Pact of
Steel", with the Tripartite Pact of
1940 leading to the integration of
the military aims of Germany and
its two treaty-bound allies.

The Allies of World War II, called

the United Nations from the 1
January 1942 declaration, were the
countries that together opposed
the Axis powers during the Second
World War (19391945). The Allies
promoted the alliance as seeking to
stop German, Japanese and Italian
aggression.
The anti-German coalition at the
start of the war (1 September
1939) consisted of France, Poland
and Great Britain, soon to be joined
by the British Commonwealth
(Canada, Australia, New Zealand
and South Africa). Poland was a
minor factor after its defeat in
1939; France was a minor factor
after its defeat in 1940. After first
having cooperated with Germany in
partitioning
Poland
whilst
remaining neutral in the Allied-Axis
conflict, the Soviet Union perforce
joined the Allies in June 1941 after
being invaded by Germany. The
United
States
provided
war
materiel and money all along, and
officially joined in December 1941
after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor. As of 1942, the "Big Three"
leaders of the United Kingdom, the
Soviet Union, and the United States
controlled Allied policy; relations
between the United Kingdom and
the United States were especially
close. China had been already at
war with Japan since the Marco Polo
Bridge Incident of 1937 but
officially joined the Allies in 1941.
The Big Three and China were
referred as a "trusteeship of the
powerful", then were recognized as

At its zenith during World War II,

the Axis presided over territories
that occupied large parts of
Europe, North Africa, and East Asia.
There were no three-way summit
meetings and cooperation and
coordination was minimal, with a
bit more between Germany and
Italy. The war ended in 1945 with
the defeat of the Axis powers and
the dissolution of their alliance. As
in
the
case
of
the
Allies,
membership of the Axis was fluid,
with some nations switching sides
or changing their degree of military
involvement over the course of the
war.
II.

Allies

the Allied "Big Four" in Declaration

by United Nations and later the

"Four
Policemen"
of
Nations" for the Allies.

"United

Allied Powers
Allies entering after the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Axis Powers
Neutral Powers
Tripartite Pact:

State of Burma
Reorganized National
Government of China
Independent State of Croatia
Provisional Government of
Free India
Combatant States of Allied
Forces:

Germany
Japan
Italy (until 1943)
Affiliate States:
Bulgaria
Hungary

United States
Soviet Union
United Kingdom
China
France
Poland
Canada
Australia
Yugoslavia
Greece
Netherlands
Belgium
New Zealand

Romania
Thailand
Co-belligerent States:
Finland (until 1944)
Iraq (Coup d'tat AprilMay 1941)
Client States:
Albanian Kingdom
7

South Africa
Norway
Denmark
Luxembourg
Czechoslovakia
Ethiopia
Brazil
Mexico
Colombia
Cuba
Philippines

September 1939 and was a

central figure of the Holocaust.
Benito
Amilcare
Andrea
Mussolini (left; 29 July 1883 28
April 1945) was an Italian
politician, journalist, and leader of
the National Fascist Party, ruling
the country as Prime Minister
from 1922 until he was ousted in
1943. He ruled constitutionally
until 1925, when he dropped all
pretense of democracy and set
up a legal dictatorship. Known as
Il Duce ("the leader"), Mussolini
was the founder of fascism.

Italian Social Republic

Kingdom of Kampuchea
Kingdom of Laos
Manchukuo
Mengjiang
Government of National
Salvation
Second Philippine Republic
Slovakia
Vichy France
Empire of Vietnam

Mongolia

Co-belligerent States:
Finland (194445)
Italy (194345)
Romania (194445)
Bulgaria (194445)

Adolf Hitler (right; 20 April

1889 30 April 1945) was a
German politician who was the
leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP),
Chancellor of Germany from 1933
to 1945, and Fhrer ("leader") of
Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.
As dictator of Nazi Germany, he
initiated World War II in Europe
with the invasion of Poland in

Hungary (1945)
Joseph
Stalin
(left;
birth
surname:
Jughashvili;
18
December 1878 5 March 1953)
was the leader of the Soviet
Union from the mid-1920s until
his death in 1953. Holding the
post of the General Secretary of
the Central Committee of the
8

Communist Party of the Soviet

Union, he was effectively the
dictator of the state.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(middle; January 30, 1882 April
12, 1945), commonly known as
FDR,
was
an
American
statesman and political leader
who served as the President of
the United States from 1933 to
1945.

Sir Winston Leonard SpencerChurchill

(right;
30 November 1874 24 January
1965) was a British statesman
who was the Prime Minister of
the U.K. from 1940 to 1945 and
again from 1951 to 1955. He won
the Nobel Prize in Literature, and
was the first person to be made
an honorary citizen of the United
States.

COURSE OF THE WAR

Timeline

January - Soviet-Finland war ends

in Finlands surrender.
April - Germany invades Norway
and Denmark and will soon
conquer both countries.
May - Germany invades the
Netherlands,
Belgium,
and
Luxembourg.
June - Germany conquers France.
German troops occupy northern
and western France. Pro-German
French officials set up a capital in
Vichy and run the rest of France
under Germanys watchful eye.
Italy, under fascist dictator Benito
Mussolini, declares war on England
and France.

1939
August - Germany, under Nazi
dictator Adolf Hitler, and the Soviet
Union, under Communist dictator
Joseph
Stalin,
sign
the
Nonaggression Pact, which secretly
accepts Germanys plan to invade
Poland.
September - Germany invades
Poland in a blitzkrieg (lightning
war). England and France react by
declaring war on Germany. This
begins the European War, which
will become World War II.
November - The Soviet Union
invades Finland, occupies part of
Poland,
and,
by
threatening
invasion, takes over Lithuania,
Estonia, and Latvia.
December - The United States,
which supplies Japan with nearly all
its aviation fuel, stops the export of
any technical information about the
production of aviation fuel.

Using more than a thousand

warships, yachts, fishing boats, and
smaller craft at the battered port of
Dunkirk, England evacuates more
than
338,000
troops
from
conquered France.
Battle of the Atlantic begins as
German submarines, called Uboats, begin sinking ships carrying

1940
9

oil and other war supplies from

America to England. The U-boats
will sink three million tons of
merchant cargo.
July - Japanese troops begin to
occupy the French colony of
Indochina.
The United States responds by
cutting off oil exports to Japan.
September - Hundreds of German
warplanes begin bombing London
every night for 57 nights in attacks
that will continue until May 1941.
More than 40,000 people will die in
the Blitz as Londoners call the air
raid campaign.
Germany, Italy, and Japan sign a
treaty (the Tripartite Pact) that
makes the three countries allies
against England and France. The
treaty is also seen as a warning to
the United States: Stop helping
England and France. (The United
States
had
traded
50
old
destroyers to England in exchange
for naval and air bases in the
Western Hemisphere.)
October - More than 400,000
Polish Jews are herded into a part
of Warsaw known as the Warsaw
Ghetto. This continues in Poland
the Nazi campaign against the Jews
the Holocaust, in which six
million Jews will be killed, along
with hundreds of thousands of
other minorities.
Italy invades Greece. German
troops later come to the aid of
Italian troops.

January Japanese Adm. Isoroku

Yamamoto begins planning an air
attack on Pearl Harbor.
March The United States begins
Lend-Lease, allowing President
Roosevelt to send ammunition and
other war supplies to England. No
longer a neutral nation, the United
States now will give England all
help short of war.
April Germany conquers Greece
and Yugoslavia.
June More than three million
German troops invade the Soviet
Union. (Operation Barbarossa)
September As German conquest
of the Soviet Union continues,
German troops besiege Leningrad
(now St. Petersburg). During the
siege, which will continue until
January 1944, more than 500,000
people in Leningrad will die of
starvation.
October A German submarine
torpedoes the U.S. Navy destroyer
Reuben James in the North Atlantic.
It is the first U.S. warship sunk in
the European War. Only 45 of the
ships 160 crew members survive.
Japanese Army and Navy officers
say Japan should get ready for
war against the United States.
Gen. Hideki Tojo becomes prime
minister in a military-controlled
government.
November The United States
tells Japan to get out of China and
Indochina. Tojo decides that Japans
only choice is to go to war.
Japan
sends
diplomats
to
Washington to try to find ways to
avoid war with the United States.
Six Japanese aircraft carriers and
other warships secretly leave

1941

10

northern Japan and head for Pearl

Harbor.
The United States cuts off all oil
exports to Japan.

The
U.S.
government
forces
thousands of Japanese-Americans
to move from the U.S. West Coast
to relocation camps in isolated
areas.
May In the battle of the Coral
Sea, U.S. warships turn back a
Japanese invasion force heading for
New Guinea.
June U.S. carrier-based aircraft,
alerted to Japanese moves by code
breakers, stop a Japanese invasion
of Midway, a U.S. base that guards
Hawaii. U.S. dive-bombers sink four
Japanese carriers; one U.S. carrier
is lost. The Battle of Midway is the
turning point of the Pacific War.
Japanese troops land on Attu and
Kiska in the Aleutian Islands.
August U.S. Marines land on
Japanese-held Guadalcanal in the
Solomon Islands. This is the first
battle in a U.S. island hopping
campaign that will keep moving
U.S. forces closer to Japan.
September An aircraft launched
from a Japanese submarine drops
fire
bombs
on
forests
near
Brookings, Oregon, in the first
bombing of the continental United
States.
October After months of desert
fighting, the British Eighth Army in
North Africa puts Germanys Afrika
Corps to flight.
November U.S. and British
troops invade French North Africa
and will later link up with the
British Eighth Army.
December German troops are
near Moscow. But, forced to fight in
freezing weather, the troops pull
backdefeated by the Russian
winter, which had also defeated
Napoleons army in 1812.

December - Japan attacks Pearl

Harbor. Almost at the same time,
Japanese warplanes attack the
Philippines and two U.S. islands:
Wake and Guam, which are later
occupied. Japanese troops invade
Malaya and Thailand and seize
Shanghai. Later in December
Japanese troops invade Burma and
Hong Kong.
Three days after Pearl Harbor,
Germany and Italy declare war on
the United States.

1942
January - Manila, Philippines, falls
to Japanese troops.
February

Japanese
carrier
planes bomb Darwin, Australia.
In the Battle of the Java Sea, Japan
defeats an Allied strike force,
putting Japan in control of Java and
the Netherlands Indies.
April First U.S. troops arrive in
Australia.
On the Bataan Peninsula of the
Philippines, U.S. and Filipino troops,
low on food and ammunition,
surrender. Japanese troops force
about 76,000 prisoners to march to
distant camps; at least 5,200
Americans die on the march.
Sixteen U.S. bombers, led by Lt.
Col. James Doolittle, take off from
an aircraft carrier 800 miles (1300
kilometers) off Tokyo and make the
first bombing raid against Japan.

11

November U.S. Marines land on

Tarawa, an atoll in the Gilbert
Islands.

1943
January Japans attempt to take
New Guinea ends as Australian and
U.S. troops defeat Japanese troops
at landing sites. Australia is no
longer threatened by invasion.
February

German
troops
surrender
at
Stalingrad
(now
Volgograd). The Soviet Red Army,
turning the tide of war, begins an
offensive that will end in the
capture of Berlin in 1945.
April

U.S. code
breakers
intercept a Japanese radio message
saying that Admiral Yamamoto is
flying to the Solomon Islands. He is
killed when U.S. fighters shoot
down his plane.
May The U.S. Navy announces
that, except for the U.S.S. Arizona,
U.S.S. Utah, and U.S.S. Oklahoma,
all warships sunk at Pearl Harbor
have been repaired and returned to
sea.
U.S. forces retake Attu as Japanese
troops evacuate Adak, thus ending
Japan s occupation of Alaskas
Aleutian Islands.
June The Royal Air Force and U.S.
Eighth Air Force begin round-theclock bombing of Germany.
A Japanese destroyer rams and
sinks a small U.S. Navy vessel, PT109, commanded by Lt. (and future
President) John F. Kennedy. He and
other survivors swim for five hours
to reach a small island, where they
are later rescued.
July U.S. and British forces land
in Sicily.
September Italy surrenders. But
German troops, continuing to fight
the Allies in Italy, seize Rome.

1944
June U.S. troops enter Rome. On
D-Day, June 6, 155,000 Allied
troops land on the beaches of
Normandy, France, to begin the
liberation of Europe.
U.S. Marines land on Saipan in the
Northern
Marianas
Islands.
Japans last aircraft carrier forces
are defeated as Japan loses 220
warplanes in one battle with U.S.
carrier planes.
July U.S. troops liberate Guam.
August French and American
troops liberate Paris.
U.S. Marines take Tinian Island in
the Northern Marianas Islands. It
will become a base from which B29 bombers can bomb Japan.
September A U.S. Navy torpedo
plane, piloted by Lt. (and future
President) George Bush, is shot
down near Okinawa. He parachutes
into the sea; a U.S. submarine
rescues him.
October British and Greek troops
liberate Athens.
U.S.
troops
land
on
Leyte,
beginning the liberation of the
Philippines.
November U.S. troops in
Germany begin a drive to reach the
Rhine River.
December German forces launch
a surprise attack in the Ardennes
region of Belgium, beginning the
Battle of the Bulge (so called
because the German drive put a
bulge in the Allied battle line).

12

1945

U.S. soldiers free 32,000 survivors

of the Dachau concentration camp.
It will become a memorial for
victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler kills
himself.

January In the largest land battle

ever fought by the U.S. Army,
American
soldiers
turn
back
German troops, winning the Battle
of the Bulge.
Soviet troops, continuing their
eastern offensive, take Warsaw,
Poland.
February U.S. Marines land on
Iwo Jima, in the Bonin Islands. It will
be a base for fighter planes
escorting B-29s flying from Tinian
Island.
March U.S. troops cross the
Rhine River.
U.S. Eighth Air Force bomber
about 1,250 in allattack Berlin in
the heaviest air raid made on the
city.
B-29s bomb Tokyo, burning half the
city; more than 80,000 people die.
U.S. forces invade Okinawa, in
Japans Ryukyu Islands. The Allies
want Okinawa as the base for the
expected
invasion
of
Japan.
Fighting will continue until U.S.
forces win in July.
The U.S. Army liberates Manila,
Philippines, after fierce street
battling.
April Vienna, Austria falls to
Soviet troops.
Soviet
troops
enter
Berlin,
beginning a street-by-street battle.
Italian guerrilla fighters capture
and kill Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini. German forces in Italy
surrender.

May 7th Germany surrenders.

July The first atomic bomb for
combat use is assembled on Tinian
Island.
August Atomic bombs are
dropped on Hiroshima (August 6)
and Nagasaki (August 9).
Japan surrenders (August 14). At
least 100,000 people died in the
atomic bombings.
September 2nd - Japanese officials
sign the surrender document on
the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Harbor.

13

Notable events and battles

a. Fall of France
The Battle of France, also known
as the Fall of France, was the
German invasion of France and the
Low Countries during the Second
World War. Beginning on 10 May
1940, German forces defeated Allied
forces in a series of mobile
operations, eventually leading to the
conquest of France, Belgium and the
Netherlands and the end of land
operations on what had been the
Western Front.
The German plan for the invasion of
France consisted of two main
operations. In Fall Gelb (Case
Yellow), German armoured units
pushed through the Ardennes and
then along the Somme valley to cut
off and surround the Allied units,
that had advanced into Belgium to
meet the expected German threat. When British, Belgian and adjacent
French forces were pushed back to the sea by the mobile and well-organized
German operation, the British government decided to evacuate the British
Expeditionary Force (BEF) as well as several French divisions at Dunkirk in
Operation Dynamo.
After the withdrawal of the BEF, the German forces launched a second
operation, Fall Rot (Case Red) on 5 June 1940. While the depleted French
forces put up stiff initial resistance, German air superiority and armoured
mobility overwhelmed the remaining French forces. German armour
outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France, with German
forces arriving in Paris unopposed on 14 June. This caused a chaotic period of
flight for the French government and ended organised French military
resistance. German commanders met with French officials on 18 June with
the goal of forcing the new French government to accept all of the
agreements in an armistice offered by Germany. Chief among the
government leaders was Marshal Philippe Ptain, the newly appointed prime
minister and one of the supporters of an armistice.

On 22 June, the Second Armistice at Compigne was signed by France and

Germany, which resulted in a division of France, whereby Germany would
occupy the north and west, Italy would control a small occupation zone in the
south-east and an unoccupied zone, the zone libre, would be governed by
the Vichy government led by Marshal Ptain. France remained under Axis
occupation until the re-conquest of France by the Allies after the Allied
landings in June 1944.

b. Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of
World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet
Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern
Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe.
Marked by constant close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by
air raids, it is often regarded as one of the single largest (nearly 2.2 million
personnel) and bloodiest (1.72 million wounded, killed or captured) battles
in the history of warfare. The heavy losses inflicted on the German
Wehrmacht make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the
whole war. It was a turning point in the European theatre of World War II;
German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast
military force from the West to replace their losses.
The German offensive to capture Stalingrad began in late summer 1942,
using the German 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. The attack
was supported by intensive Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city
to rubble. The fighting degenerated into house-to-house fighting, and both
sides poured reinforcements into the city. By mid-November 1942, the
Germans had pushed the Soviet defenders back at great cost into narrow
zones generally along the west bank of the Volga River.
On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a twopronged attack targeting the weaker Romanian and Hungarian forces
protecting the German 6th Army's flanks. The Axis forces on the flanks were
overrun and the 6th Army was cut off and surrounded in the Stalingrad area.
Adolf Hitler ordered that the army stay in Stalingrad and make no attempt to
break out; instead, attempts were made to supply the army by air and to
break the encirclement from the outside. Heavy fighting continued for
another two months. By the beginning of February 1943, the Axis forces in
Stalingrad had exhausted their ammunition and food. The remaining
elements of the 6th Army surrendered. The battle lasted five months, one week, and three
days.

c. Attack on Pearl Harbour

The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor,
the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General
Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, was a surprise military
strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at
Pearl Harbor, in the United States Territory of Hawaii, on the morning of
December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War
II.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific
Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in
Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the
Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were
coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake
Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked
by 353 Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves,
launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were
damaged, with four sunk. All but Arizona were later raised, and six were
returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or
damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,and
one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed
and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the
power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage
facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also
home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were
light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed.
One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly
to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European
theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on
Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading
since the Fall of France in 1940, disappeared. Clandestine support of the
United Kingdom (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance.
Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare
war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the
same day.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action
by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while

negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D.

Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy".
Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without
explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to
be a war crime.

d. D-Day
The Normandy landings (codenamed Operation Neptune) were the
landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 (termed D-Day) of the Allied
invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest
seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of Germanoccupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, and contributed to the
Allied victory on the Western Front.
Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the
invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed
Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of
the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, but
postponing would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion
planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the
time of day that meant only a few days in each month were deemed
suitable. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in
command of German forces and of developing fortifications along the
Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion.
The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval
bombardment and an airborne assaultthe landing of 24,000 American,
British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry
and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06:30. The
target 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five
sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beach. Strong winds blew the
landing craft east of their intended positions, particularly at Utah and
Omaha. The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements
overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with
obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making
the work of the beach-clearing teams difficult and dangerous. Casualties
were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs. At Gold, Juno, and Sword,
several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two
major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled using specialised tanks.

The Allies failed to achieve all of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. L,
and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, a major objective, was
not captured until 21 July. Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were
linked on the first day, and all five beachheads were not connected until 12
June; however, the operation gained a foothold which the Allies gradually
expanded over the coming months. German casualties on D-Day were
around 1,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414
confirmed dead. Museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area host
many visitors each year.

e. Japanese Instrument of Surrender

The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that
formalized the surrender of the Empire of Japan, marking the end of World
War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan, the United
States of America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the
Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Provisional
Government of the French Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the
Dominion of New Zealand. The signing took place on the deck of
USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
The date is sometimes known as Victory over Japan Day, although that
designation more frequently refers to the date of Emperor Hirohito's
Gyokuon-hs (Imperial Rescript of Surrender), the radio broadcast
announcement of the acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration at
noon Japan Standard Time on August 15.

The ceremony aboard the deck of the Missouri lasted 23 minutes and was
broadcast throughout the world. The instrument was first signed by the
Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu "By Command and on behalf
of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Government" (9:04 am). General
Yoshijir Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff, then signed the document
"By Command and on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters"
signed (9:06 am).
At 9:08 a.m., U.S. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, the Commander
in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers,
accepted the surrender on behalf of the Allied Powers and signed in his
capacity as Supreme Commander.
After MacArthur's signature as Supreme Commander, the following
representatives signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of each of the
Allied Powers:

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz for the United States (9:12 a.m.)

General Hsu Yung-chang for China (9:13 a.m.)

Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom (9:14 a.m.)

Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko for the Soviet Union (9:16 a.m.)

General Sir Thomas Blamey for Australia (9:17 a.m.)

Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave for Canada (9:18 a.m.)

Gnral de Corps d'Arme Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque for France

(9:20 a.m.)

Lieutenant Admiral C. E. L. Helfrich for the Netherlands (9:21 a.m.)

Air Vice-Marshal Leonard M. Isitt for New Zealand (9:22 a.m.)

On September 6, Colonel Bernard Theilen took the document and an imperial

rescript to Washington, D.C., and presented them to President Harry S.
Truman in a formal White House ceremony the following day. The documents
were then exhibited at the National Archives.
Text of the declaration

We, acting by command of and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government
and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, hereby accept the provisions set forth in the
declaration issued by the heads of the Governments of the United States, China, and Great
Britain on 26 July 1945 at Potsdam, and subsequently adhered to by the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, which four powers are hereafter referred to as the Allied Powers.
We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial
General Headquarters and of all Japanese Armed Forces and all Armed Forces under Japanese
control wherever situated.
We hereby command all Japanese forces wherever situated and the Japanese people to cease
hostilities forthwith, to preserve and save from damage all ships, aircraft, and military and civil
property, and to comply with all requirements which may be imposed by the Supreme
Commander for the Allied Powers or by agencies of the Japanese Government at his direction.
We hereby command the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters to issue at once orders to the
commanders of all Japanese forces and all forces under Japanese control wherever situated to
surrender unconditionally themselves and all forces under their control.
We hereby command all civil, military, and naval officials to obey and enforce all proclamations,
orders, and directives deemed by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to be proper to
effectuate this surrender and issued by him or under his authority; and we direct all such
officials to remain at their posts and to continue to perform their non-combatant duties unless
specifically relieved by him or under his authority.
We hereby undertake for the Emperor, the Japanese Government, and their successors to carry
out the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration in good faith, and to issue whatever orders and
take whatever action may be required by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers or by
any other designated representative of the Allied Powers for the purpose of giving effect to that
declaration.
We hereby command the Japanese Imperial Government and the Japanese Imperial General
Headquarters at once to liberate all Allied Prisoners of War and civilian internees now under
Japanese control and to provide for their protection, care, maintenance, and immediate
transportation to places as directed.
The authority of the Emperor and the Japanese Government to rule the State shall be subject to
the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, who will take such steps as he deems proper to
effectuate these terms of surrender.
Signed at TOKYO BAY, JAPAN at 09.04 on the SECOND day of SEPTEMBER, 1945

AFTERMATH

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 into 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 exNazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and reintegration of ex-Nazis into West German society.
Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among 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 the
expulsion 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 Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon
line, from which 2 million Poles were expelled; north-east Romania, parts of
eastern Finland, and the three Baltic states were also incorporated into the
USSR.
In an effort to maintain peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which
officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member
nations. The great powers that were the victors of the warthe United
States, Soviet Union, China, Britain, and Franceformed the permanent
members of the UN's Security Council. The five permanent members remain
so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the
Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in 1971, and between
the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following
the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The alliance between the Western Allies
and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.
Germany had been de facto divided, and two independent states, the Federal
Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were created
within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, accordingly. The
rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence.
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,
East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Albania became Soviet

satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy,

causing tension with the USSR.
Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military
alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact; the
long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the
Cold War, would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and proxy
wars.
In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administrated
Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed
Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. 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.
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. 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 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.
The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating
nations 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. The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial
disarmament in Western Germany in the years 19451948. Because of
international trade interdependencies this led to European economic
stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years.
Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany,
and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the
Marshall Plan (19481951) both directly and indirectly caused. The post-1948
West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle. Italy
also experienced an economic boom and the French economy rebounded. By
contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, and although it
received a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other
European country, continued relative economic decline for decades.

The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also
experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era.
Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the
most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s. China returned to its
pre-war industrial production by 1952.

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http://en.wikipedia.org