World War II, the Soviet Red Army occupies the Reichstag in Germany

The Second World War was the largest and most costly war in human history.

From 1939 to 1945, the Anti-Fascist Allies waged a protracted struggle against the fascist Axis led by Germany, Italy, and Japan, and 61 countries and regions with a population of more than 2 billion people were involved in the war, bringing profound disasters to all mankind.

In the end, the anti-fascist camp won the war, and the political, economic, technological and cultural effects of the war continue to this day, which is known as the Second World War.

World War II was the largest war in human history, and it had a significant and far-reaching impact on the subsequent trend of the world pattern. Let's take a look.

During World War II, at a series of international conferences such as the Yalta Conference, representatives of the Central Powers reached many consensuses and established an international system for maintaining the post-war world order, and a number of international organizations represented by the United Nations were established one after another.

After the war, the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union intensified, and the world political pattern of bipolar confrontation was formed on the basis of the Yalta system, which lasted until the early 90s of the 20th century.

Yalta Conference

After the end of World War II, national liberation movements surged, a large number of emerging countries became independent, and developing countries stepped onto the international stage.

At the same time, during World War II, a number of new technologies represented by jets, radars, computers, and atomic bombs were applied, which changed the way of warfare, promoted the development of civilian technology, and contributed to the progress of human history.

In the end, the anti-fascist camp won World War II, but all the countries involved in the war paid a heavy price.

The devastation of war is unprecedented, the Eurasian continent is littered with rubble, according to incomplete statistics, the global death toll during World War II may be as high as 55 million, and various war crimes, massacres, slavery and genocide have written a dark page in history.

How did such a far-reaching global war break out? The main reason was that the "Great Depression" of 1929-1933 exacerbated the contradictions between the great powers.

European theater

The German Nazi Party took advantage of people's dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles and the economic situation to successfully rise to power, rearmament and a series of annexation and intervention operations.

In 1938, Austria and Czechoslovakia were annexed by Nazi Germany, while Britain, France and other countries pursued a policy of appeasement and watched the fire from across the strait.

The process of fascism and military expansion in Italy was not hindered, and they successively invaded and occupied small and weak countries such as Ethiopia and Albania, and the source of World War II in Europe gradually took shape.

September 1, 1939 Wehrmacht in Poland

During the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, German and Italian fascists sent troops to support Franco's right-wing National Army, helping Franco seize power, and the war was seen as a prelude to World War II.

Asian theater

As early as September 18, 1931, Japan created the "September 18 Incident" to invade and occupy Northeast China, and in 1937, it provoked the Lugou Bridge Incident and launched a full-scale war of aggression against China.

From a longitudinal point of view, this world war, which caused heavy losses to the countries participating in the war, can be divided into several stages

Defense phase (1939-1941)

On September 1, 1939, the German army gathered a large number of armored troops and invaded Poland with the support of the air force.

This advanced tactic of air-ground integration, spearhead by armored forces, and rapid advance to encirclement came to be known as the "Blitzkrieg", and the German invasion of Poland was seen as a sign of the full-scale outbreak of World War II.

During the Polish Campaign, Britain and France declared war on Germany, but did not take substantive action, which is known as the "Sit-down War".

In 1940, the German army broke the deadlock of "sit-down warfare" and successively captured Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium with "blitzkrieg" tactics.

Bypassing the "Maginot Line" and breaking into French territory, it was pushed all the way to the English Channel, where France, as a traditional military power, was defeated by Germany. On the eve of the defeat, a large number of Anglo-French troops withdrew from Dunkirk to Britain, preserving strength for future counteroffensives.

Maginot Line

From July to October 1940, the German army launched a large-scale air raid and submarine warfare against Britain, but the British army resolutely counterattacked, but failed to force Britain to submit, which was also the first defeat since Germany launched a war of aggression.

For Germany, the Soviet Union in the East was also a big problem. After the occupation of Poland and the Balkans, Germany and the European Axis powers launched Operation Barbarossa, which invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

The Three Routes were directed at Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, which was the beginning of the Eastern Front of World War II. The Soviet Union was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses, losing large swathes of the country, but quickly held its ground.

Outside the autumn, the rains were frequent, the roads were muddy, and the German offensive slowed down and stopped under the city of Moscow. In the winter, the weather was cold, and it was difficult for the German troops who could not get winter clothes to move, and in addition to the combat attrition, many people were frozen to death and frostbitten, and the legend of the invincibility of the "blitzkrieg" was shattered.

February 1943

In the North African theater, the German-Italian forces had pushed the British to the Egyptian-Libyan border, and the situation was critical.

Since Japan's imports of strategic goods were restricted by the United States, they decided to strike first. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese naval air force attacked Pearl Harbor and severely damaged the U.S. Pacific Fleet, an event that forced the United States to enter the war and the beginning of the Pacific theater of World War II.

Turning Point (1942-1943)

The United Nations Declaration issued in 1942 proclaimed the establishment of the World Anti-Fascist Alliance, and the United States and Britain provided war materials to their allies under the Lend-Lease Act. Although the situation eased somewhat, the situation on the Eastern Front was still unfavorable for the Soviet Union.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets and Germans engaged in fierce street battles day after day. In the end, the Soviet reinforcements surrounded the German 6th Army in the city, the German army was cut off from supplies, infectious diseases were epidemic, and the Soviet army suffered heavy casualties.

In February 1943, the German army in Stalingrad could no longer support itself and surrendered to the Soviet army, which reversed the situation on the Eastern Front and turned the defense into an offensive.

In the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the U.S. military, which had mastered the Japanese battle plan in advance, launched several air raids and successfully destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers, achieving more victory with less. The situation in the Pacific theater took a turn, and the balance of war tipped in favor of the Allies.

Battle of Midway

In October 1942, during the Battle of El Alamein, the British army suffered a heavy defeat to the German-Italian army, and the situation in the North African theater was reversed, and the German-Italian army fell into passivity, and surrendered in April of the following year.

Following this, the Allies landed in Sicily, Italy, and in September 1943 Italy surrendered to the Allies, and the Axis bloc began to disintegrate.

The situation on the Eastern Front was relatively calm in the first half of 1943. In July, in order to regain the initiative on the battlefield, the Germans launched the Battle of Kursk.

However, the resistance of the Soviet army and the landing of the Allied forces in Italy caused the German offensive to be abandoned halfway, and the German army on the Eastern Front lost its strategic offensive capability, and since then it has been defeated one after another. By November of the same year, the Soviets had successfully recaptured a series of important cities, including Kiev.

Counteroffensive phase (1944-1945)

At the Tehran Conference, the Allied leaders decided to open a second battlefield, and on June 6, 1944, the British and American forces landed in Normandy, France, and recaptured Paris in August.

At the same time, the Soviet Union drove out the German army that had been besieging Leningrad for a long time, launched Operation "Bagration", and advanced all the way to Warsaw, Poland, and Nazi Germany was thus caught in a situation of fighting on two fronts, and there was no way back.

Romania, Bulgaria and other Axis members also turned to the side of the Allies. Subsequently, Nazi Germany suffered a series of major setbacks, such as the defeat in the Ardennes counterattack, and the strategic bombing carried out by the United States and Britain seriously weakened Germany's war potential.

The Allied and Soviet armies regained most of Western and Eastern Europe, and the war swept through Germany itself. In February 1945, the Allied heads of state at the Yalta Conference agreed to force Nazi Germany to surrender unconditionally.

At the end of April, the American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe River in Germany, and the Soviets launched a final general assault on Berlin, taking the Nazi nest after a bloody battle.

Shortly after Hitler's suicide on April 30, the German armed forces surrendered on May 8, bringing the end of Nazi Germany and ending World War II in Europe.

The Allied forces launched a full-scale offensive in the Pacific theater, bombing the Japanese mainland, and the anti-Japanese armed forces in China and other places also launched counteroffensives.

Japan's military strength was gradually depleted, and the strategic points it had previously occupied were recaptured by the Allies, but Japan still tried to resist stubbornly on its own soil.

In August 1945, the U.S. military dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, and the Soviet Army sent troops to Northeast China to destroy the Japanese Kwantung Army, and Japan's hope of stubborn resistance was dashed.

On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's unconditional surrender. On 2 September, the Japanese delegates signed the Instrument of Unconditional Surrender, ending the Second World War.

On September 2, 1945, Japanese representatives signed the "Instrument of Surrender" on the battleship Missouri