brief summary world war 2

World War 2

A comprehensive World War 2 history guide with facts and information on one of the most important events in British history.

World War 2 Summary

Known as one of the most brutal conflicts in recent history, the Second World War wreaked havoc for six years, involving 113 countries from six continents. Starting in 1939, the Allied forces – mainly Britain, Russia, and the USA – sought to stop Nazi Germany in its conquest for European domination. By 1945, Western Europe had been rampaged, an entire race of people had come close to eradication, and the dynamic of power in many participating countries was to change forever.

What followed was six years of turmoil. One of Hitler’s key aims as Fuhrer of Germany was the destruction of the Jewish race, and even before the war began the Nazis had implemented a number of laws which discriminated against the Jews. Things became gradually worse, with the Nazis establishing Jewish ghettos in Poland in 1940, and the concentration camps 1942. It is estimated that 6 million Jews were killed during the reign of Hitler. Other social minorities were targeted by the Nazis, including homosexuals, communists, Romani, and people with disabilities.

The battles of WW2 were fought at sea, in the air, as well as on land. Some of the most well-known battles include the Battle of Britain (1940), Stalingrad (1942-3), El Alamein (1942-3), Iwo Jima (1945), and the Battle of the Bugle (1944-5). The D-Day landings in June 1944 are also some of the most famous events from the war, since many people consider it a turning point in the course of the war. D-Day resulted in the liberation of Paris, and allowed the Allied forces to close in around Germany. By 1944, the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union was proving unsuccessful, and the Soviets were bringing the Eastern front closer to Germany, meaning that the final year of the war saw Hitler stop fighting his own offense, and switching to tactics of defence.

By May 1945, Hitler had committed suicide, and the Nazi regime had collapsed. Japan surrendered in August 1945, and the Allied forces had achieved victory. All territory that had been claimed by Germany was split between the Western and Eastern Allied countries, and Germany itself was divided likewise. Many other countries who previously boasted empires lost their own territories in the years that followed, with the hangover of the Nazi dictatorship leaving bad associations with colonisation. Approximately 73 million people are thought to have died during the conflict, and the economic repercussions were felt across the participating countries for decades after peace was declared.

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A Brief History of World War II — The Bloodiest War in Human History

The carnage of World War II was unprecedented and brought the world closest to the term “total warfare.” On average 27,000 people were killed each day between September 1, 1939, until the formal surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 . Western technological advances had turned upon itself, bringing about the most destructive war in human history. The primary combatants were the Axis nations of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan, and the Allied nations, Great Britain (and its Commonwealth nations), the Soviet Union, and the United States. Seven days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler , Germany unconditionally surrendered on May 7, 1945 . The Japanese would go on to fight for nearly four more months until their surrender on September 2 , which was brought on by the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese towns of Nagasaki and Hiroshima . Despite winning the war, Britain largely lost much of its empire, which was outlined in the basis of the Atlantic Charter.  The war precipitated the revival of the U.S. economy, and by the war’s end, the nation would have a gross national product that was nearly greater than all the Allied and Axis powers combined. The USA and USSR emerged from World War II as global superpowers. The fundamentally disparate, one-time allies became engaged in what was to be called the Cold War , which dominated world politics for the latter half of the 20th century.

Facts & Information

Every issue of  World War II  magazine is packed with powerful stories about the campaigns, commanders, strategies, and the everyday men and women who fought the world’s largest and deadliest conflict. Written by leading historians and journalists,  World War II  uncovers fresh perspectives on the war’s triumphs and blunders. Special sections test your wits, showcase weapons, explore worldwide travel destinations for war buffs, and, in collaboration with the National WWII Museum, expertly answer readers’ questions about artifacts found in dusty attics or long-forgotten trunks. 

When did World War II Start?

September 1, 1939

When did World War II End?

September 2, 1945

Where Did World War II Take Place?

Europe, Pacific, Atlantic, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean, and Northern Africa

How Many People Died in World War II?

The most destructive war in all of history, its exact cost in human lives is unknown, but casualties in World War II may have totaled over 60 million service personnel and civilians killed. Nations suffering the highest losses, military and civilian, in descending order, are:

• USSR: 42,000,000
• Germany: 9,000,000
• China: 4,000,000
• Japan: 3,000,000

Allied Commanders

• Joseph Stalin
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Winston Churchill
• Chiang Kai-shek
• Charles de Gaulle

Axis Commanders

• Adolf Hitler
• Emperor Hirohito
• Benito Mussolini

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What happened in world war ii:, when did world war ii begin.

Some say it was simply a continuation of the First World War that had theoretically ended in 1918. Others point to 1931, when Japan seized Manchuria from China. Others to Italy’s invasion and defeat of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935, Adolf Hitler’s re-militarization of Germany’s Rhineland in 1936, the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 are sometimes cited. The two dates most often mentioned as “the beginning of World War II” are July 7, 1937, when the “ Marco Polo Bridge Incident ” led to a prolonged war between Japan and China, and September 1, 1939 , when Germany invaded Poland , which led Britain and France to declare war on Hitler’s Nazi state in retaliation. From the invasion of Poland until the war ended with Japan’s surrender in September 1945 , most nations around the world were engaged in armed combat.

Origins of World War II

No one historic event can be said to have been the origin of World War II. Japan’s unexpected victory over czarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) left open the door for Japanese expansion in Asia and the Pacific. The United States U.S. Navy first developed plans in preparation for a naval war with Japan in 1890. War Plan Orange, as it was called, would be updated continually as technology advanced and greatly aided the U.S. during World War II.

The years between the first and second world wars were a time of instability. The Great Depression that began on Black Tuesday , 1929 plunged the worldwide recession. Coming to power in 1933, Hitler capitalized on this economic decline and the deep German resentment due to the emasculating Treaty of Versailles , signed following the armistice of 1918. Declaring that Germany needed Lebensraum  or “living space,” Hitler began to test the Western powers and their willingness to monitor the treaty’s provision. By 1935 Hitler had established the Luftwaffe, a direct violation of the 1919 treaty. Remilitarizing the Rhineland in 1936 violated Versailles and the Locarno Treaties (which defined the borders of Europe) once again. The Anschluss of Austria and the annexation of the rump of Czechoslovakia was a further extension of Hitler’s desire for  Lebensraum. Italy’s desire to create the Third Rome pushed the nation to closer ties with Nazi Germany. Likewise, Japan, angered by their exclusion in Paris in 1919, sought to create a Pan-Asian sphere with Japan in order to create a self-sufficient state.

Competing ideologies further fanned the flames of international tension. The Bolshevik Revolution in czarist Russia during the First World War, followed by the Russian Civil War, had established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), a sprawling communist state. Western republics and capitalists feared the spread of Bolshevism. In some nations, such as Italy, Germany and Romania, ultra-conservative groups rose to power, in part in reaction to communism.

Germany, Italy and Japan signed agreements of mutual support but, unlike the Allied nations they would face, they never developed a comprehensive or coordinated plan of action.

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World War II Summary and Synopsis

From 1939 to 1945, World War II engulfed the Allied and Axis nations in a conflict of unprecedented proportion, shaping the future for generations.

by Mike Haskew

World War II spanned six long years from 1939 to 1945. The Allied powers, principally The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, defeated the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. The scope of World War II was truly global, and its cost was tremendous. [text_ad]

50 Million Lives Lost

An estimated 50 million lives were lost, and untold treasure was expended during the war. Although the Japanese Army had been fighting in China since 1931, the beginning of World War II is generally accepted as September 1, 1939, the date that the German Army invaded Poland. The Nazi juggernaut was initially successful both against the Poles and the Western Allies, and France and the Low Countries fell in the spring of 1940.

On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler turned on Joseph Stalin and his Soviet partners and invaded Russia along a 1,000-mile front. Although huge gains were made in the beginning, the war on the Eastern Front turned with the annihilation of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad, and the Soviet Red Army eventually conquered Berlin, the German capital city. Elsewhere, the Germans were defeated at El Alamein in North Africa in 1942 and subsequently ejected from the African continent with tremendous losses. D-Day, the Allied invasion of Northwest France took place on June 6, 1944, and Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. The Fascist government was deposed in Italy in 1943, and the country changed to the Allied side for the remainder of the war.

Pearl Harbor: The U.S. Enters the War

The United States entered World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Early in the war, Japanese forces were victorious from the central Pacific to the frontier of India. However, following the great U.S. naval triumph at the Battle of Midway, American forces in ever growing numbers mounted an offensive strategy called “island hopping” across the Pacific, and Commonwealth and U.S. forces seized the initiative on the Asian continent.

On August 6, 1945, a single American plane dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, and the Japanese formally surrendered aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

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World War II (WWII) was a long and bloody war that lasted about six years. Officially beginning on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, World War II lasted until both the Germans and the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies in 1945. Here is a timeline of major events during the war.

Sept. 1 may be the official start of World War II, but it didn't start in a vacuum. Europe and Asia had been tense for years prior to 1939 because of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich in Germany, the Spanish Civil War, the Japanese invasion of China, the German annexation of Austria, and the imprisonment of thousands of Jews in concentration camps. After Germany's occupation of areas of Czechoslovakia not previously agreed to in the Munich Pact and its invasion of Poland, the rest of Europe realized it couldn't try to appease Germany any longer. The United States tried to remain neutral, and the Soviet Union invaded Finland.

• August 23: Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.
• September 1: Germany invades Poland, starting World War II .
• September 3: Britain and France declare war on Germany.
• September: Battle of the Atlantic begins.

The first full year of the war saw Germany invading its European neighbors: Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, and Romania, and the bombing of Britain lasted for months. The Royal Air Force undertook nighttime raids in Germany in response. Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a joint military and economic agreement, and Italy invaded Egypt, which was controlled by the British, Albania, and Greece. The United States shifted to a stance of "nonbelligerancy" rather than neutrality so it could find ways to help the Allies, and the Lend-Lease Act (the exchange of materiel aid then for 99-year leases on property to be used for foreign military bases) was proposed late in the year. Popular opinion still didn't want Americans in another war "over there." The Soviet Union, meanwhile, took part of Romania and installed Communists in the Baltic States, later annexing them.

• May: Auschwitz is established.
• May 10: Germany invades France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
• May 26: Evacuation begins of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France.
• June 10: Italy declares war on France and Great Britain.
• June 22: France surrenders to Germany.
• July 10: Battle of Britain begins.
• September 16: The United States begins its first peacetime draft.

The year 1941 was one of escalation around the world. Italy may have been defeated in Greece, but that didn't mean that Germany wouldn't take the country. Then it was on to Yugoslavia and Russia. Germany broke its pact with the Soviet Union and invaded there, but the winter and Soviet counterattack killed many German troops. The Soviets next joined the Allies. Within a week of the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan had invaded Burma, Hong Kong (then under British control), and the Philippines, and the United States was officially in the conflict.

• March 11: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease bill.
• May 24: The British ship Hood is sunk by Germany's Bismarck.
• May 27: The Bismarck is sunk.
• June 22: Germany invades the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa).
• August 9: Atlantic Conference begins.
• September 8: Siege of Leningrad begins.
• December 7: The Japanese launch a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii .
• December 11: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; then the United States declares war on Germany and Italy.

U.S. troops first arrived in Britain in January 1942. Also that year, Japan captured Singapore, which was Britain's last location in the Pacific, as well as islands such as Borneo and Sumatra. By the middle of the year, though, the Allies started gaining ground, with the Battle of Midway being the turning point there. Germany captured Libya, but the Allies started making gains in Africa, and Soviet counterattacks made progress as well in Stalingrad.

• January 20: The Wannsee Conference
• February 19: Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066, which allows the internment of Japanese Americans .
• April 18: The Doolittle Raid on Japan
• June 3: The Battle of Midway begins.
• July 1: First Battle of El Alamein begins.
• July 6: Anne Frank and her family go into hiding.
• August 2: Guadalcanal Campaign begins.
• August 21: Battle of Stalingrad begins.
• October 23: Second Battle of El Alamein begins.
• November 8: The Allies invade North Africa ( Operation Torch ).

Stalingrad turned into Germany's first major defeat in 1943, and the North Africa stalemate ended, with the surrender of the Axis powers to the Allies in Tunisia. The tide was finally turning, though not fast enough for the people in the 27 merchant vessels sunk by Germany in the Atlantic in four days in March. But Bletchley codebreakers and long-range aircraft inflicted a serious toll on the U-boats, pretty much ending the Battle of the Atlantic. The autumn of the year saw the fall of Italy to Allied forces, prompting Germany to invade there. The Germans successfully rescued Mussolini, and battles in Italy between forces in the north and south drug on. In the Pacific, Allied forces gained territory in New Guinea—to attempt to protect Australia from Japanese invasion—as well as Guadalcanal. The Soviets continued expelling Germans from their territory, and the Battle of Kursk was key. The end of the year saw Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin meeting in Iran to discuss the invasion of France.

• January 14: Casablanca Conference begins.
• February 2: The Germans surrender at Stalingrad, Soviet Union.
• April 19: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins.
• July 5: Battle of Kursk begins.
• July 25: Mussolini resigns.
• September 3: Italy surrenders.
• November 28: Tehran Conference begins.

American troops played a big role in battles to take back France in 1944, including landings on Normandy beaches that caught the Germans by surprise. Italy was finally liberated as well, and the Soviets' counterattack pushed the German soldiers back to Warsaw, Poland. Germany lost 100,000 soldiers (captured) during the battle in Minsk.   The Battle of the Bulge, however, postponed the Allies marching into Germany for a while. In the Pacific, Japan gained more territory in China, but its success was limited by the Communist troops there. The Allies fought back by taking Saipan and invading the Philippines.

• January 27: After 900 days, the Siege of Leningrad is finally over.  
• June 6: D-Day
• June 19: Battle of the Philippine Sea
• July 20: Assassination attempt against Hitler fails.
• August 4: Anne Frank and her family are discovered and arrested.
• August 25: The Allies liberate Paris.
• October 23: Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.
• December 16: Battle of the Bulge begins.

Liberation of concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, made the extent of the Holocaust clearer to the Allies. Bombs still fell on London and Germany in 1945, but before April was over, two of the Axis leaders would be dead and Germany's surrender would soon follow. Franklin D. Roosevelt also died in April but of natural causes. The war in the Pacific continued, but the Allies made significant progress there through battles at Iwo Jima, the Philippines, and Okinawa, and Japan started to retreat from China. By mid-August, it was all over. Japan surrendered shortly after the second atomic bomb was unleashed on the island nation and Sept. 2, the surrender was formally signed and accepted, officially ending the conflict. Estimates put the death toll at 62 and 78 million,   including 24 million from the Soviet Union,   and 6 million Jews, 60 percent of all the Jewish population in Europe.  

• February 4: Yalta Conference begins.
• February 13: Allies begin bombing Dresden.
• February 19: Battle of Iwo Jima begins.
• April 1: Battle of Okinawa.
• April 12: Franklin D. Roosevelt dies.
• April 16: Battle of Berlin begins.
• April 28: Mussolini is hanged by Italian partisans.
• April 30: Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
• May 7: Germany signs an unconditional surrender.
• July 17: Potsdam Conference begins.
• August 6: The United States drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan .
• August 9: The United States drops a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

Carter, Ian. “ Operation Barbarossa And Germanys Failure In The Soviet Union .”  Imperial War Museums, 27 June 2018.

Salisbury, Harrison. “ The 900 Days: The Siege Of Leningrad .”  Google Books , Hachette Books, 18 Sept. 2003.

Kesternich, Iris, et al. “ The Effects of World War II on Economic and Health Outcomes across Europe .”  The Review of Economics and Statistics , U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Mar. 2014, doi: 10.1162/REST_a_00353

“ Research Starters: Worldwide Deaths in World War II: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans .”  The National WWII Museum | New Orleans.

" Remaining Jewish Population in Europe in 1945 ." Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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World War 2, also known as the Second World War, was a war fought from 1939 to 1945 in Europe and, during much of the 1930s and 1940s, in Asia.

The war in Europe began in earnest on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, and concluded on September 2, 1945, with the official surrender of the last Axis nation, Japan. However, in Asia the war began earlier with Japanese interventions in China, and in Europe, the war ended earlier with the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945.

The conflict spilled over into Africa, included a handful of incidents in the Americas, and a series of major naval battles.

It was the largest armed conflict in history, spanning the entire world and involving more countries than any other war, as well as introducing powerful new weapons, culminating in the first use of nuclear weapons.

However, despite the name, not all countries of the world were involved; some through neutrality (such as the Eire - though Eire supplied some important secret information to the Allies; D-Day's date was decided on the basis of incoming Atlantic weather information supplied from Ireland - Sweden, and Switzerland), others through strategic insignificance (Mexico).

The war ravaged civilians more severely than any previous conflict and served as a backdrop for genocidal killings by Nazi Germany as well as several other mass slaughters of civilians which, although not technically genocide, were significant.

These included the massacre of millions of Chinese and Korean nationals by Japan, internal mass killings in the Soviet Union, and the bombing of civilian targets in German and Japanese cities by the Allies. In total, World War II produced about 50 million deaths, more than any other war to date.

World War 2 Summary

Brief answers to the key questions about world war 2, what was world war 2, who started world war 2, who participated in world war 2, where was world war 2 fought, when was world war 2 fought, why was world war 2 fought, why the allies won, how was world war 2 fought, world war 2 end, aftermath.

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World War II: A Very Short Introduction

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World War II: A Very Short Introduction examines the origins, course, and impact of the Second World War on those who fought and the ordinary citizens who lived through it. Starting with the inter-war years and the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, it examines how the war progressed by examining a number of key events: the war in the West in 1940, Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the expansion of Japan's war with China, developments on the home front, and the Allied victory from 1944–45. Exploring the costs and effects of the war, this VSI considers the long-lasting mark World War II has left on society today.

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World War I

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 11, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

World War I, also known as the Great War, started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the four-year conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers had won, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe—especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe—for years before World War I actually broke out.

A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire , Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements.

The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand —heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire—was shot to death along with his wife, Sophie, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Princip and other nationalists were struggling to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off a rapidly escalating chain of events: Austria-Hungary , like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Serbian nationalism once and for all.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Because mighty Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause. Austro-Hungarian leaders feared that a Russian intervention would involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Great Britain as well.

On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a so-called carte blanche, or “blank check” assurance of Germany’s backing in the case of war. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary then sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to accept.

World War I Begins

Convinced that Austria-Hungary was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to mobilize and appealed to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers quickly collapsed.

Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.

The Western Front

According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind, German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen ), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting Russia in the east.

On August 4, 1914, German troops crossed the border into Belgium. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege , using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal—enormous siege cannons—to capture the city by August 15. The Germans left death and destruction in their wake as they advanced through Belgium toward France, shooting civilians and executing a Belgian priest they had accused of inciting civilian resistance. 

First Battle of the Marne

In the First Battle of the Marne , fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading German army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. The Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to the north of the Aisne River.

The defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches , and the Western Front was the setting for a hellish war of attrition that would last more than three years.

Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December 1916) and the Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916). German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone.

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World War I Books and Art

The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as “ All Quiet on the Western Front ” by Erich Maria Remarque and “ In Flanders Fields ” by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae . In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:

Published in 1915, the poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

Visual artists like Otto Dix of Germany and British painters Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash and David Bomberg used their firsthand experience as soldiers in World War I to create their art, capturing the anguish of trench warfare and exploring the themes of technology, violence and landscapes decimated by war.

The Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded the German-held regions of East Prussia and Poland but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.

Despite that victory, Russia’s assault forced Germany to move two corps from the Western Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne.

Combined with the fierce Allied resistance in France, the ability of Russia’s huge war machine to mobilize relatively quickly in the east ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had hoped to win under the Schlieffen Plan .

Russian Revolution

From 1914 to 1916, Russia’s army mounted several offensives on World War I’s Eastern Front but was unable to break through German lines.

Defeat on the battlefield, combined with economic instability and the scarcity of food and other essentials, led to mounting discontent among the bulk of Russia’s population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants. This increased hostility was directed toward the imperial regime of Czar Nicholas II and his unpopular German-born wife, Alexandra.

Russia’s simmering instability exploded in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks , which ended czarist rule and brought a halt to Russian participation in World War I.

Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face the remaining Allies on the Western Front.

America Enters World War I

At the outbreak of fighting in 1914, the United States remained on the sidelines of World War I, adopting the policy of neutrality favored by President Woodrow Wilson while continuing to engage in commerce and shipping with European countries on both sides of the conflict.

Neutrality, however, it was increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of Germany’s unchecked submarine aggression against neutral ships, including those carrying passengers. In 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles to be a war zone, and German U-boats sunk several commercial and passenger vessels, including some U.S. ships.

Widespread protest over the sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania —traveling from New York to Liverpool, England with hundreds of American passengers onboard—in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion against Germany. In February 1917, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war.

Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships the following month, and on April 2 Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.

Gallipoli Campaign

With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a victory against the Ottoman Empire, which entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914.

After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915. The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula after suffering 250,000 casualties.

Did you know? The young Winston Churchill, then first lord of the British Admiralty, resigned his command after the failed Gallipoli campaign in 1916, accepting a commission with an infantry battalion in France.

British-led forces also combated the Ottoman Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia , while in northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the border between the two nations.

Battle of the Isonzo

The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915, soon after Italy’s entrance into the war on the Allied side. In the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive victory.

After Caporetto, Italy’s allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French—and later, American—troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the Italian Front.

World War I at Sea

In the years before World War I, the superiority of Britain’s Royal Navy was unchallenged by any other nation’s fleet, but the Imperial German Navy had made substantial strides in closing the gap between the two naval powers. Germany’s strength on the high seas was also aided by its lethal fleet of U-boat submarines.

After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, in which the British mounted a surprise attack on German ships in the North Sea, the German navy chose not to confront Britain’s mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to rest the bulk of its naval strategy on its U-boats.

The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no further attempts to break an Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war.

World War I Planes

World War I was the first major conflict to harness the power of planes. Though not as impactful as the British Royal Navy or Germany’s U-boats, the use of planes in World War I presaged their later, pivotal role in military conflicts around the globe.

At the dawn of World War I, aviation was a relatively new field; the Wright brothers took their first sustained flight just eleven years before, in 1903. Aircraft were initially used primarily for reconnaissance missions. During the First Battle of the Marne, information passed from pilots allowed the allies to exploit weak spots in the German lines, helping the Allies to push Germany out of France.

The first machine guns were successfully mounted on planes in June of 1912 in the United States, but were imperfect; if timed incorrectly, a bullet could easily destroy the propeller of the plane it came from. The Morane-Saulnier L, a French plane, provided a solution: The propeller was armored with deflector wedges that prevented bullets from hitting it. The Morane-Saulnier Type L was used by the French, the British Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army), the British Royal Navy Air Service and the Imperial Russian Air Service. The British Bristol Type 22 was another popular model used for both reconnaissance work and as a fighter plane.

Dutch inventor Anthony Fokker improved upon the French deflector system in 1915. His “interrupter” synchronized the firing of the guns with the plane’s propeller to avoid collisions. Though his most popular plane during WWI was the single-seat Fokker Eindecker, Fokker created over 40 kinds of airplanes for the Germans.

The Allies debuted the Handley-Page HP O/400, the first two-engine bomber, in 1915. As aerial technology progressed, long-range heavy bombers like Germany’s Gotha G.V. (first introduced in 1917) were used to strike cities like London. Their speed and maneuverability proved to be far deadlier than Germany’s earlier Zeppelin raids.

By the war’s end, the Allies were producing five times more aircraft than the Germans. On April 1, 1918, the British created the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the first air force to be a separate military branch independent from the navy or army. 

Second Battle of the Marne

With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United States were able to arrive.

On July 15, 1918, German troops launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne . The Allies successfully pushed back the German offensive and launched their own counteroffensive just three days later.

After suffering massive casualties, Germany was forced to call off a planned offensive further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which was envisioned as Germany’s best hope of victory.

The Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide of war decisively towards the Allies, who were able to regain much of France and Belgium in the months that followed.

The Harlem Hellfighters and Other All-Black Regiments

By the time World War I began, there were four all-Black regiments in the U.S. military: the 24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry. All four regiments comprised of celebrated soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War and American-Indian Wars , and served in the American territories. But they were not deployed for overseas combat in World War I. 

Blacks serving alongside white soldiers on the front lines in Europe was inconceivable to the U.S. military. Instead, the first African American troops sent overseas served in segregated labor battalions, restricted to menial roles in the Army and Navy, and shutout of the Marines, entirely. Their duties mostly included unloading ships, transporting materials from train depots, bases and ports, digging trenches, cooking and maintenance, removing barbed wire and inoperable equipment, and burying soldiers.

Facing criticism from the Black community and civil rights organizations for its quotas and treatment of African American soldiers in the war effort, the military formed two Black combat units in 1917, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions . Trained separately and inadequately in the United States, the divisions fared differently in the war. The 92nd faced criticism for their performance in the Meuse-Argonne campaign in September 1918. The 93rd Division, however, had more success. 

With dwindling armies, France asked America for reinforcements, and General John Pershing , commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, sent regiments in the 93 Division to over, since France had experience fighting alongside Black soldiers from their Senegalese French Colonial army. The 93 Division’s 369 regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters , fought so gallantly, with a total of 191 days on the front lines, longer than any AEF regiment, that France awarded them the Croix de Guerre for their heroism. More than 350,000 African American soldiers would serve in World War I in various capacities.

Toward Armistice

By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts.

Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt that destroyed the Ottoman economy and devastated its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in late October 1918.

Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the homefront and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Allied leaders stated their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such a devastating scale.

Some hopeful participants had even begun calling World War I “the War to End All Wars.” But the Treaty of Versailles , signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve that lofty goal.

Saddled with war guilt, heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations , Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a “peace without victory,” as put forward by President Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918.

As the years passed, hatred of the Versailles treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in Germany that would, two decades later, be counted among the causes of World War II .

World War I Casualties

World War I took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian casualties numbered close to 10 million. The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle.

The political disruption surrounding World War I also contributed to the fall of four venerable imperial dynasties: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey.

Legacy of World War I

World War I brought about massive social upheaval, as millions of women entered the workforce to replace men who went to war and those who never came back. The first global war also helped to spread one of the world’s deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people.

World War I has also been referred to as “the first modern war.” Many of the technologies now associated with military conflict—machine guns, tanks , aerial combat and radio communications—were introduced on a massive scale during World War I.

The severe effects that chemical weapons such as mustard gas and phosgene had on soldiers and civilians during World War I galvanized public and military attitudes against their continued use. The Geneva Convention agreements, signed in 1925, restricted the use of chemical and biological agents in warfare and remain in effect today.

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Home » World War II in the Pacific: A Brief Summary

World War II in the Pacific: A Brief Summary

February 28, 2021 Asia-Pacific Front

The Japanese Expansion

In 1931, Japan’s invasion of Manchuria marked the start of the Japanese expansion in East Asia, which continued with a violent attack on China in 1937. Japan became one of the three main Axis Powers after signing the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy on September 27th, 1940. In an effort to curb Japanese militarism and to force Japanese forces to withdraw from China and Manchuria, the United States implemented economic restrictions on Japan, and together with other western powers including Britain, Australia and the Dutch, stopped selling them oil, iron ore and steel. Faced with severe shortages and the risk of economic collapse, Japan sought to weaken the United States as the dominant Pacific power and decided to attack US and British forces in Asia, seizing Southeast Asia’s resources.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

On December 7th, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing severe damage and destruction, temporarily halting the United States’ interference with Japan’s military operations. The operation destroyed eight American battleships, 188 American aircraft and killed 2,403 Americans. The damage, however, was not as severe as Japan had anticipated and the next day, in response to the attack, the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands issued a declaration of war on Japan. Four days after Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, entering them into a two-theatre war.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan achieved success in several military operations. In December 1941, Japan invaded Guam, Hong Kong and Wake Island as well as the Philippines, Malaya, Singapore, Burma and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in early 1942. Thailand was also invaded by Japanese forces who pressured its leaders to declare war on Great Britain and the United States. It was only by mid-1942 that British forces in India as well as New Zealander and Australian forces in New Guinea effectively halted the Japanese advance.

The Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway in June 1942 was the turning point in the Pacific war, marking the end of Japanese expansion. The Battle of Midway was a decisive-naval battle won by the American Navy following the discovery of the plan of the Japanese attack by code-breakers. Similarly to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan aimed to displace the United States as a dominant power in the Pacific, so that they could establish supremacy in East Asia uninterrupted. However, the Japanese fleet suffered heavy losses and were defeated by the Americans.

The Battle of Guadalcanal

In August 1942, the attack carried out by the Allied forces (mainly USA Marines) on the Japanese in the Solomon Islands resulted in a forced withdrawal of Japanese forces from the Island of Guadalcanal in February 1943. This was the first major offensive by Allied forces against Japan and pinpointed the Allied transition from being on the defensive to becoming a strategic initiative in the Pacific. Allied forces continued to lead offensive operations and gradually gained air and naval dominance, eventually leading to Japan’s official surrender on September 2, 1945, and the American occupation of the Japanese home islands.

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