II Weltkriege

Weltkriege, II (1939-45 War). (Passing reference only is made to Japanese operations.)The war began with the invasion of Poland (1 September-6 October 1939), in which the USSR joined with the Germans on 17 September. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. After a winter of desultory naval warfare, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway (7 April-24 May 1940). On 10 May a German attack through Holland and Belgium into France isolated the British and some French forces, a large part of which were evacuated from Dunkirk (26 May-4 June). France was completely defeated (14-22 June) and occupied except for the south-east, which was governed by a puppet regime set up at Vichy under Pétain. When the French defeat was clear, Italy declared war. A projected invasion of Britain was prepared by air attack (Battle of Britain, 3 August-17 September), but failure to achieve air supremacy led to its indefinite postponement. Bombing of Britain continued until the spring of 1941. In February 1941 the Afrika-Korps came to the assist-ance of the Italians in North Africa, and remained there with varying fortunes until its surrender in May 1943. In April 1941 the Germans overran Yugoslavia and Greece, and in May captured Crete. On 22 June 1941 Germany invaded Russia, at first with success. On 11 December 1941, after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (7 December), Germany declared war on the USA. While British and Anglo-American operations in North Africa captured the German forces there (23 October 1942-13 May 1943), the German 6th Army was liquidated at Stalingrad (8 January-2 February 1943).

The Anglo-Americans captured Sicily in July 1943, and invaded Italy. On 6 June 1944 the Anglo-American invasion of Normandy began, and Paris was occupied in August. By July the German armies on the Russian front were in retreat. The naval war, primarily a German submarine war, reached its climax in 1943; the air war led to Allied supremacy from July 1943. A German conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and seize power failed on 20 July 1944 (see Resistance Movements, 2). In August the British and American forces invaded southern France. On 11 October the Russians made their first crossing of the German frontier; they took Budapest on 13 February. On 23 March 1945 the final offensive from the west crossed the Rhine, and on 20 April the Russian investment of Berlin began. On 30 April Hitler committed suicide, and on 7 May Germany capitulated unconditionally. The Japanese surrendered in August 1945 after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.