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The war was found as several different conflicts around the world. The common thread was that the Allies (US, Britain, Australia, Canada, USSR, Free French) were fighting the aggression by the Axis (Germany and Italy in Europe, and Japan in Asia and the Pacific).

The progression of war in Europe began with the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. In 1940, German forces overran Belgium and France and the British army narrowly escaped by its retreat at Dunkirk. Britain itself came under a concerted German air attack. Following the entry of the US into the war in December, 1941, the Allies advanced across northern Africa and then to Italy as the Axis forces were pushed back. After a major landing at Normandy in June 1944, France was retaken and Germany itself was invaded. This took place during continual air attacks on German troops and factories throughout Europe.

On the Russian Front, the Soviets were overpowered by the initial German attack in 1941, but over four winters took the offensive and drove to Berlin by April, 1945. As the war in Europe neared its end, Mussolini was killed in Italy, and Hitler committed suicide.

In the Pacific, Japan had seized much of western China after the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937). Japan consolidated its grip on Indochina and captured most of the island groups of the western Pacific. After attacking Pearl Harbor on December, 1941, and occupying the Philippines, they faced naval and amphibious assaults by US fleets for the next three years. The Japanese advanced into India and Burma and were opposed by Commonwealth forces there. Moves to attack New Guinea and Australia were repulsed, and soon Japan's war resources were mostly exhausted. Bombings of Tokyo and other cities began in 1944, and in August 1945 two atomic bombs were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Within days, Japan faced the destruction of their army in Manchuria by the Russians, and finally capitulated. The official surrender took place on September 2, 1945.

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11y ago

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