The War That Changed Everything
World War II remains the largest and most destructive armed conflict in recorded history. From September 1939 to September 1945, it drew in nations from six continents, mobilised over 100 million military personnel, and produced casualties on a scale that had never before been seen.
Origins
The war grew out of unresolved tensions from World War I, the punishing terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the global Great Depression and the rise of fascist and nationalist movements across Europe and Asia. Adolf Hitler's Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, triggering declarations of war from Britain and France. Within two years, the conflict had expanded to encompass the Soviet Union, the United States, Japan, China and dozens of other nations.
Key Turning Points
The Battle of Stalingrad (1942–43) marked the turning of the tide on the Eastern Front. The Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 — D-Day — opened the Western Front. In the Pacific, the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal halted Japanese expansion. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945; Japan surrendered on 2 September 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Holocaust
The systematic genocide of six million Jews and millions of others — Roma, disabled people, political prisoners, Soviet POWs — carried out by Nazi Germany remains one of history's greatest crimes. The Nuremberg Trials that followed established the principle of individual criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity.
Legacy
The war produced the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, NATO, the Marshall Plan and the beginning of the Cold War. It accelerated decolonisation across Asia and Africa, established the United States and Soviet Union as superpowers, and planted the seeds of the European integration project that eventually became the European Union.
