| World War II |
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing, Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein, German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front winter 1943–1944, US naval force in the Lingayen Gulf, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Surrender, Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad |
|
|
| Belligerents |
Allies
22x20px Soviet Union (1941–45)[nb 1]
 United States (1941–45)
 British Empire
 China (at war 1937–45)
 France[nb 2]
 Poland
 Canada
 Australia
 New Zealand
 South Africa
 Yugoslavia (1941–45)
 Greece (1940–45)
 Norway (1940–45)
 Netherlands (1940–45)
 Belgium (1940–45)
 Czechoslovakia
 Brazil (1942–45)
...and others
Client and puppet states
 Philippines (1941–45)
 Mongolia (1941–45)
...and others
|
Axis
 Germany
 Japan (at war 1937–45)
 Italy (1940–43)
 Hungary (1940–45)
 Romania (1941–44)
 Bulgaria (1941–44)
Co-belligerents
 Finland (1941–44)
 Thailand (1942–45)
22x20px Iraq (1941)
Client and puppet states
 Manchukuo
 Italian Social Republic (1943–45)
 Independent State of Croatia (1941–45)
 Slovakia
...and others
|
| Commanders and leaders |
Allied leaders
22x20px Joseph Stalin
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston Churchill
Chiang Kai-shek
Charles de Gaulle
...and others
|
Axis leaders
Adolf Hitler
Hirohito
Benito Mussolini
...and others
|
| Casualties and losses |
Military dead:
Over 16,000,000
Civilian dead:
Over 45,000,000
Total dead:
Over 61,000,000 (1937–45)
...further details |
Military dead:
Over 8,000,000
Civilian dead:
Over 4,000,000
Total dead:
Over 12,000,000 (1937–45)
...further details |
World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated as WWII or WW2), was a global war that was under way by 1939 and ended in 1945. It involved a vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. These deaths make the war the deadliest conflict in human history.[1]
Although Japan was already at war with China in 1937,[2] the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany, and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and most of the countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth. Germany set out to establish a large empire in Europe. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or subdued much of continental Europe; amid Nazi-Soviet agreements, the nominally neutral Soviet Union fully or partially invaded, occupied and annexed territories of its six European neighbours, including Poland. Britain and the Commonwealth remained the only major force continuing the fight against the Axis, with battles taking place in North Africa as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic. In June 1941, the European Axis launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, giving a start to the largest land theatre of war in history, which tied down the major part of the Axis' military forces. In December 1941, Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and join the Axis, attacked the United States and European possessions in the Pacific Ocean, quickly conquering much of the West Pacific.
The Axis advance was stopped in 1942, after Japan lost a series of naval battles and European Axis troops were defeated in North Africa and, decisively, at Stalingrad. In 1943, with a series of German defeats in Eastern Europe, the Allied invasion of Fascist Italy, and American victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. The war in Europe ended with the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. During 1944 and 1945 the United States defeated the Japanese Navy and captured key West Pacific islands, dropping atomic bombs on the country as the invasion of the Japanese Archipelago ("Home Islands") became imminent. The war in Asia ended on 15 August 1945 when Japan agreed to surrender.
The total victory of the Allies over the Axis in 1945 ended the conflict. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The great powers that were the victors of the war—the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain, and France—became the permanent members of the UN's Security Council.[3] The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers started to decline, while the decolonisation of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to stabilise postwar relations.
The start of the war is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland; Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. Other dates for the beginning of war include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937.[4][5]
Others follow British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and the two wars merged in 1941. This article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935.[6]
The exact date of the war's end is also not universally agreed upon. It has been suggested that the war ended at the armistice of 14 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan (2 September 1945); in some European histories, it ended on V-E Day (8 May 1945). However, the Treaty of Peace with Japan was not signed until 1951,[7] and that with Germany not until 1990.[8]
World War I radically altered the political map, with the defeat of the Central Powers, including Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottoman Empire; and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia. Meanwhile, existing victorious Allies such as France, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Romania gained territories, while new states were created out of the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Russian and Ottoman Empires.
In the aftermath of the war, irredentist and revanchist nationalism became important in a number of European states. Irredentism and revanchism were strong in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses incurred by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all of its overseas colonies, while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces.[9] Meanwhile, the Russian Civil War had led to the creation of the Soviet Union.[10]
The German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the right and left. Although Italy as an Entente ally made some territorial gains, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by Britain and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled with the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive foreign policy aimed at forcefully forging Italy as a world power—a "New Roman Empire".[11] In Germany, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler sought to establish a fascist government in Germany. With the onset of the Great Depression, domestic support for the Nazis rose and, in 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. In the aftermath of the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian single-party state led by the Nazis.[12]
The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese communist allies.[13] In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had long sought influence in China[14] as the first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as a pretext to launch an invasion of Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.[15] Too weak to resist Japan, China appealed to the League of Nations for help. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.[16]
Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign.[17] Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme and introduced conscription.[18]
Hoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front. The Soviet Union, concerned due to Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of eastern Europe, wrote a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless.[19][20] However, in June 1935, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August.[21] In October, Italy invaded Ethiopia, and Germany was the only major European nation to support the invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria.[22]
Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno treaties by remilitarizing the Rhineland in March 1936. He received little response from other European powers.[23] When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, Hitler and Mussolini supported the fascist and authoritarian Nationalist forces in their civil war against the Soviet-supported Spanish Republic. Both sides used the conflict to test new weapons and methods of warfare,[24] with the Nationalists winning the war in early 1939. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome-Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year. In China, after the Xi'an Incident the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire in order to present a united front to oppose Japan.[25]
The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia) and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia). The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI); in addition, it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did nothing when the former clearly violated the League's own Article X.[26]
The ruins of Guernica after the bombing.
Germany and Italy lent support to the Nationalist insurrection led by general Francisco Franco in Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the Spanish Republic, which showed leftist tendencies. Both Germany and the USSR used this proxy war as an opportunity to test improved weapons and tactics. The deliberate Bombing of Guernica by the German Condor Legion in April 1937 contributed to widespread concerns that the next major war would include extensive terror bombing attacks on civilians.[27][28]
In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beijing after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China.[29] The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 and committed the Nanking Massacre.
In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defenses at Wuhan, but the city was taken by October.[30] Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve, instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war.[31]
On 29 July 1938, the Japanese invaded the USSR and were checked at the Battle of Lake Khasan. Although the battle was a Soviet victory, the Japanese dismissed it as an inconclusive draw, and on 11 May 1939 decided to move the Japanese-Mongolian border up to the Khalkhin Gol River by force. After initial successes the Japanese assault on Mongolia was checked by the Red Army that inflicted the first major defeat on the Japanese Kwantung Army.[32][33]
These clashes convinced some factions in the Japanese government that they should focus on conciliating the Soviet government to avoid interference in the war against China and instead turn their military attention southward, towards the US and European holdings in the Pacific, and also prevented the sacking of experienced Soviet military leaders such as Georgy Zhukov, who would later play a vital role in the defence of Moscow.[34]
In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers.[35] Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population; and soon France and Britain conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands.[36] Soon after that, however, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary and Poland.[37] In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic.[38]
Alarmed, and with Hitler making further demands on Danzig, France and Britain guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece.[39] Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel.[40]
In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact,[41] a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol. The parties gave each other rights, "in the event of a territorial and political rearrangement," to "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany, and eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the USSR). It also raised the question of continuing Polish independence.[42]
On 1 September 1939, Germany and Slovakia—a client state in 1939—attacked Poland.[43] On 3 September France and Britain, followed by the countries of the Commonwealth,[44] declared war on Germany but provided little support to Poland other than a small French attack into the Saarland.[45] Britain and France also began a naval blockade of Germany on 3 September which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort.[46][47] On 17 September, after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviets also invaded Poland.[48] Poland's territory was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, with Lithuania and Slovakia also receiving small shares. The Poles did not surrender; they established a Polish Underground State and an underground Home Army, and continued to fight with the Allies on all fronts outside Poland.[49] About 100,000 Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania and the Baltic countries; many of these soldiers later fought against the Germans in other theaters of the war.[50] Poland's Enigma codebreakers were also evacuated to France.[51] During this time, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September.[52]
Following the invasion of Poland and a German-Soviet treaty governing Lithuania, the Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts of "mutual assistance."[53][54][55] Finland rejected territorial demands and was invaded by the Soviet Union in November 1939.[56] The resulting conflict ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions.[57] France and the United Kingdom, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war on the side of the Germans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR's expulsion from the League of Nations.[55]
In Western Europe, British troops deployed to the Continent, but in a phase nicknamed the Phoney War by the British and "Sitzkrieg" (sitting war) by the Germans, neither side launched major operations against the other until April 1940.[58] The Soviet Union and Germany entered a trade pact in February 1940, pursuant to which the Soviets received German military and industrial equipment in exchange for supplying raw materials to Germany to help circumvent the Allied blockade.[59]
In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to secure shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were about to disrupt.[60] Denmark immediately capitulated, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months.[61] In May 1940 Britain invaded Iceland to preempt a possible German invasion of the island.[62] British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.[63]
Germany invaded France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940.[64] The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively.[65] The French fortified Maginot Line and the Allied forces in Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region,[66] mistakenly perceived by French planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.[67] British troops were forced to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk, abandoning their heavy equipment by early June.[68] On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom;[69] twelve days later France surrendered and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones,[70] and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime. On 3 July, the British attacked the French fleet in Algeria to prevent its possible seizure by Germany.[71]
In June, during the last days of the Battle of France, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,[54] and then annexed the disputed Romanian region of Bessarabia. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement and economic cooperation[72][73] gradually stalled,[74][75] and both states began preparations for war.[76]
With France neutralized, Germany began an air superiority campaign over Britain (the Battle of Britain) to prepare for an invasion.[77] The campaign failed, and the invasion plans were canceled by September.[77] Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic.[78] Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland in August, and making an incursion into British-held Egypt in September 1940. Japan increased its blockade of China in September by seizing several bases in the northern part of the now-isolated French Indochina.[79]
Throughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies.[80] In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased and, after the Japanese incursion into Indochina, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan.[81] In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases.[82] Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941.[83]
At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact united Japan, Italy and Germany to formalize the Axis Powers.[84] The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three.[85] During this time, the United States continued to support the United Kingdom and China by introducing the Lend-Lease policy authorizing the provision of materiel and other items[86] and creating a security zone spanning roughly half of the Atlantic Ocean where the United States Navy protected British convoys.[87] As a result, Germany and the United States found themselves engaged in sustained naval warfare in the North and Central Atlantic by October 1941, even though the United States remained officially neutral.[88][89]
The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined the Tripartite Pact.[90] In October 1940, Italy invaded Greece but within days was repulsed and pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred.[91] In December 1940, British Commonwealth forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa.[92] By early 1941, with Italian forces having been pushed back into Libya by the Commonwealth, Churchill ordered a dispatch of troops from Africa to bolster the Greeks.[93] The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by a carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.[94]
The Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler sent German forces to Libya in February, and by the end of March they had launched an offensive against the diminished Commonwealth forces.[95] In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port of Tobruk.[96] The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions.[97] In early April, following Bulgaria's signing of the Tripartite Pact, the Germans intervened in the Balkans by invading Greece and Yugoslavia following a coup; here too they made rapid progress, eventually forcing the Allies to evacuate after Germany conquered the Greek island of Crete by the end of May.[98]
The Allies did have some successes during this time. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first quashed a coup in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria,[99] then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences.[100] In the Atlantic, the British scored a much-needed public morale boost by sinking the German flagship Bismarck.[101] Perhaps most importantly, during the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe's assault, and the German bombing campaign largely ended in May 1941.[102]
In Asia, despite several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. In order to increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan had seized military control of southern Indochina[103] In August of that year, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures (the Three Alls Policy) in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.[104] Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation.[105] With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941.[106] By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, amassing forces on the Soviet border.[107]
On 22 June 1941, Germany, along with other European Axis members and Finland, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. The primary targets of this surprise offensive[108] were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with an ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, connecting the Caspian and White Seas. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum ("living space")[109] by dispossessing the native population[110] and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.[111]
Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the war,[112] Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By the middle of August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad.[113] The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made further advance into Crimea and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov) possible.[114]
The diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front[115] prompted Britain to reconsider its grand strategy.[116] In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany[117] The British and Soviets invaded Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oil fields.[118] In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter.[119]
Romania made the largest contribution to recapture territory ceded to the USSR and pursue its leader Ion Antonescu's desire to combat communism.[120] By October, when Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad[121] and Sevastopol continuing,[122] a major offensive against Moscow had been renewed. After two months of fierce battles, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops[123] were forced to suspend their offensive.[124] Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe had ended.[125]
The Axis-controlled territory in Europe at the time of its maximal expansion (1941–42).
By early December, freshly mobilised reserves[126] allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops.[127] This, as well as intelligence data that established a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East sufficient to prevent any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army,[128] allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December along a 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–160 mi) west.[129]
German successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in south-east Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, while refusing to hand over political control of the colonies. Vichy France, by contrast, agreed to a Japanese occupation of French Indochina.[130] In July 1941, the United States, United Kingdom and other Western governments reacted to the seizure of Indochina with a freeze on Japanese assets, while the United States (which supplied 80 percent of Japan's oil[131]) responded by placing a complete oil embargo.[132] That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in Asia and the prosecution of the war against China, or seizing the natural resources it needed by force; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.[133]
Japan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific; the Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war.[134] To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet from the outset.[135] On 7 December (8 December in Asian time zones), 1941, Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific.[136] These included an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, landings in Thailand and Malaya[136] and the battle of Hong Kong.
The February 1942
Fall of Singapore saw 80,000 Allied soldiers captured and enslaved by the Japanese.
These attacks led the U.S., Britain, Australia and other Allies to formally declare war on Japan. Germany and the other members of the Tripartite Pact responded by declaring war on the United States. In January, the United States, Britain, Soviet Union, China, and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, which affirmed the Atlantic Charter.[137] The Soviet Union did not adhere to the declaration; it maintained a neutrality agreement with Japan,[138][139] and exempted itself from the principle of self-determination.[119] From 1941, Stalin persistently asked Churchill, and then Roosevelt, to open a 'second front' in France.[140] The Eastern front became the major theatre of war in Europe and the many millions of Soviet casualties dwarfed the few hundred thousand of the Western Allies; Churchill and Roosevelt said they needed more preparation time, leading to claims they stalled to save Western lives at the expense of Soviet lives.[141]
Meanwhile, by the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost fully conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore,[142] and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite a stubborn resistance in Corregidor, the Philippines was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing the government of the Philippine Commonwealth into exile.[143] Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean,[144] and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. The only real Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha in early January 1942.[145] These easy victories over unprepared opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.[146]
Germany retained the initiative as well. Exploiting dubious American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast.[147] Despite considerable losses, European Axis members stopped a major Soviet offensive in Central and Southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they achieved during the previous year.[148] In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early February,[149] followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives.[150]
In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The Allies, however, prevented the invasion by intercepting and defeating the Japanese naval forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea.[151] Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.[152] In early June, Japan put its operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of the plans and force dispositions and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.[153]
With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua.[154] The Americans planned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.[155]
Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna-Gona.[156] Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops.[157] In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943.[158] The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved dubious results.[159]
On Germany's eastern front, the Axis defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov,[160] and then launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split the Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A struck lower Don River while Army Group B struck south-east to the Caucasus, towards Volga River.[161] The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad, which was in the path of the advancing German armies.
By mid-November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad[162] and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously.[163] By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender[164] and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Russian city of Kursk.[165]
By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive, Operation Crusader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made.[166] In the West, concerns the Japanese might utilize bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942.[167] This success was offset soon after by an Axis offensive in Libya which pushed the Allies back into Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein.[168] On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous Dieppe Raid,[169] demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.[170]
In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein[171] and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta.[172] A few months later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya.[173] This attack was followed up shortly after by an Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies.[174] Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France;[174] although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces.[175] The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies in May 1943.[176]
Following the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Allied forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians,[177] and soon after began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and to breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.[178] By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and additionally neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies then launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea.[179]
In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 making preparations for large offensives in Central Russia. On 4 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences[180][181] and, for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success.[182] This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month.[183]
On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any hopes of the German Army for victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk heralded the downfall of German superiority,[184] giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front.[185][186] The Germans attempted to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther-Wotan line, however, the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensives.[187]
In early September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following an Italian armistice with the Allies.[188] Germany responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas,[189] and creating a series of defensive lines.[190] German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic.[191] The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.[192]
German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign.[193] In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo[194] and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran.[195] The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory,[194] while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.[195]
From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief.[196][197] In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and attempted to outflank it with landings at Anzio.[198] By the end of January, a major Soviet offensive expelled German forces from the Leningrad region,[199] ending the longest and most lethal siege in history. The following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region.[200] By late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops.[201] The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June Rome was captured.[202]
The Allies experienced mixed fortunes in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against British positions in Assam, India,[203] and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima.[204] In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma,[204] and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina.[205] The second Japanese invasion attempted to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields.[206] By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a renewed attack against Changsha in the Hunan province.[207]
Red Army personnel and equipment crossing a river during the northern Summer of 1944
On 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure,[208] the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France.[209] These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces on 25 August[210] and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in Western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spear-headed by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands ended with a failure.[211] After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, unsuccessfully trying to cross the Rur river in a large offensive. In Italy the Allied advance also slowed down, when they ran into the last major German defensive line.
On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus (known as "Operation Bagration") that resulted in the almost complete destruction of the German Army Group Centre.[212] Soon after that, another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The successful advance of Soviet troops prompted resistance forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings, though the largest of these, in Warsaw, as well as a Slovak Uprising in the south, were not assisted by the Soviets and were put down by German forces.[213] The Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.[214]
In September 1944, Soviet Red Army troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of the German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off.[215] By this point, the Communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and were engaged in delaying efforts against the German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945.[216] In contrast with impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, the bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to the signing of Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions,[217][218] with a subsequent shift to the Allied side by Finland.
By the start of July, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River[219] while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanese were having greater successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August.[220] Soon after, they further invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November[221] and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by the middle of December.[222]
In the Pacific, American forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944 they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Tōjō and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.[223]
On 16 December 1944, Germany attempted its last desperate measure for success on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes to attempt to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp in order to prompt a political settlement.[224] By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled.[224] In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia.[225] On 4 February, U.S., British, and Soviet leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany,[226] and when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.[227]
In February, the Soviets invaded Silesia and Pomerania, while Western Allies invaded Western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the German Army Group B,[228] while the Soviets advanced to Vienna. In early April, the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across Western Germany, while Soviet forces stormed Berlin in late April; the two forces linked up on Elbe river on 25 April. On 30 April 1945, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Third Reich.[229]
A devastated Berlin street in the city centre post
Battle of Berlin, taken 3 July 1945.
Several changes in leadership occurred during this period. On 12 April, U.S. President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Harry Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April.[230] Two days later, Hitler committed suicide, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.[231]
German forces surrendered in Italy on 29 April. The German instrument of surrender was signed on 7 May in Rheims,[232] and ratified on 8 May in Berlin.[233] German Army Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May.[234]
In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and captured Manila in March following a battle which reduced the city to ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war.[235]
In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, overrunning the oilfields there. British, American and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May.[236] Chinese forces started to counterattack in Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June.[237] American bombers destroyed Japanese cities, and American submarines cut off Japanese imports.[238]
On 11 July, the Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany,[239] and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces by Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction".[240] During this conference the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.[241] When Japan continued to ignore the Potsdam terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. Between the two bombs, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force.[242][243] The Red Army also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August 1945 Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.[232]
The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany. The former became a neutral state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided onto western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accordingly. A denazification program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.[244] Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory, the eastern territories: Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland; East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR, followed by the expulsion of the 9 million Germans from these provinces, as well as of 3 million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, to Germany. By the 1950s, every fifth West German was a refugee from the east. The USSR also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon line (from which 2 million Poles were expelled),[245] Eastern Romania,[246][247] and part of eastern Finland[248] and three Baltic states.[249][250]
In an effort to maintain peace,[251] the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945,[252] and adopted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations.[253] The great powers that were the victors of the war—the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain, and France—formed the permanent members of the UN's Security Council.[254] The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over,[255] Germany had been de facto divided, and two independent states, Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic[256] were created within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, accordingly. The rest of Europe was also divided onto Western and Soviet spheres of influence.[257] Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, Poland, Hungary,[258] Czechoslovakia,[259] Romania, Albania,[260] and East Germany became Soviet Satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy causing tension with the USSR.[261]
Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact;[262] the long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the Cold War, would be accompanied by unprecedented arms race and proxy wars.[263]
In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.[264] Korea, formerly under Japanese rule, was divided and occupied by the US in the South and the Soviet Union in the North between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.[265] In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949.[266] In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. While European colonial powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonisation.[267][268]
The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The US emerged much richer than any other nation; it had a baby boom and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers and it dominated the world economy.[269][270] The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany in the years 1945–1948.[271] Due to international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years.[272][273] Recovery began with the mid 1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalization of European economic policy that the Marshall plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused.[274][275] The post 1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle.[276] Also the Italian[277][278] and French economies rebounded.[279] By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin,[280] and continued relative economic decline for decades.[281] The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era.[282] Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s.[283] China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.[284]
Estimates for the total casualties of the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians.[285][286][287] Many civilians died because of disease, starvation, massacres, bombing and deliberate genocide. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war,[288] including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths. The largest portion of military dead were ethnic Russians (5,756,000), followed by ethnic Ukrainians (1,377,400).[289] One of every four Soviet citizens was killed or wounded in that war.[290] Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.[291]
Of the total deaths in World War II approximately 85 percent—mostly Soviet and Chinese—were on the Allied side and 15 percent on the Axis side. Many of these deaths were caused by war crimes committed by German and Japanese forces in occupied territories. An estimated 11[292] to 17[293] million civilians died as a direct or indirect result of Nazi ideological policies, including the systematic genocide of around six million Jews during The Holocaust along with a further five million Roma, homosexuals as well as Slavs and other ethnic and minority groups.[294] Roughly 7.5 million civilians died in China under Japanese occupation,[295] and hundreds of thousands (varying estimates) of ethnic Serbs, along with gypsies and Jews, were murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in Yugoslavia,[296] with retribution-related killings of Croatian civilians just after the war ended.
Chinese civilians to be buried alive by Japanese soldiers.
The best-known Japanese atrocity was the Nanking Massacre, in which several hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.[297] Between 3 million to more than 10 million civilians, mostly Chinese, were killed by the Japanese occupation forces.[298] Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Sankō Sakusen. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Heipei and Shantung.[299]
The Axis forces employed limited biological and chemical weapons. The Italians used mustard gas during their conquest of Abyssinia,[300] while the Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during their invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731)[301][302] and in early conflicts against the Soviets.[303] Both the Germans and Japanese tested such weapons against civilians[304] and, in some cases, on prisoners of war.[305]
While many of the Axis's acts were brought to trial in the world's first international tribunals,[306] incidents caused by the Allies were not. Examples of such Allied actions include population transfers in the Soviet Union and Japanese American internment in the United States; the Operation Keelhaul,[307] expulsion of Germans after World War II, rape during the occupation of Germany; the Soviet Union's Katyn massacre, for which Germans faced counter-accusations of responsibility. Large numbers of famine deaths can also be partially attributed to the war, such as the Bengal famine of 1943 and the Vietnamese famine of 1944–45.[308]
It has been suggested by some historians[who?] that the mass-bombing of civilian areas in enemy territory, including Tokyo and most notably the German cities of Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne by Western Allies, which resulted in the destruction of more than 160 cities and the deaths of more than 600,000 German civilians be considered as war crimes.[309]
The Nazis were responsible for The Holocaust, the killing of approximately six million Jews (overwhelmingly Ashkenazim), as well as two million ethnic Poles and four million others who were deemed "unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet POWs, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Romani) as part of a programme of deliberate extermination. About 12 million, most of whom were Eastern Europeans, were employed in the German war economy as forced labourers.[310]
In addition to Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet gulags (labour camps) led to the death of citizens of occupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as German prisoners of war (POWs) and even Soviet citizens who had been or were thought to be supporters of the Nazis.[311] Sixty percent of Soviet POWs of the Germans died during the war.[312] Richard Overy gives the number of 5.7 million Soviet POWs. Of those, 57 percent died or were killed, a total of 3.6 million.[313] Soviet ex-POWs and repatriated civilians were treated with great suspicion as potential Nazi collaborators, and some of them were sent to the GULAG upon being checked by the NKVD.[314]
Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent),[315] seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.[316] While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from United States were released after the surrender of Japan, the number for the Chinese was only 56.[317]
According to historian Zhifen Ju, at least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million.[318] The U.S. Library of Congress estimates that in Java, between 4 and 10 million romusha (Japanese: "manual laborers"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese laborers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.[319]
On 19 February 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, interning thousands of Japanese, Italians, German Americans, and some emigrants from Hawaii who fled after the bombing of Pearl Harbor for the duration of the war. The U.S. and Canadian governments interned 150,000 Japanese-Americans,[320][321] In addition, 14,000 German and Italian residents of the U.S. who had been assessed as being security risks were also interned.[322]
In accordance with the Allied agreement made at the Yalta Conference millions of POWs and civilians were used as forced labor by the Soviet Union.[323] In Hungary's case, Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.[324]
The Soviet
T-34, the most-produced tank of the war, going to the front. Over 57,000 T-34s had been built in the USSR by 1945.
In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, it then gives the Allies more than a 5:1 advantage in population and nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP.[325] In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan, but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.[325]
Though the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies, as the war largely settled into one of attrition.[326] While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis is often attributed to the Allies having more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the labour force,[327][328] Allied strategic bombing,[329][330] and Germany's late shift to a war economy[331] contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and were not equipped to do so.[332][333] To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers;[334] Germany used about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,[310] while Japan pressed more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.[318][319]
In Europe, occupation came under two very different forms. In Western, Northern and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichmarks (27.8 billion US Dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include the sizable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods.[335] Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on.[336]
In the East, the much hoped for bounties of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders.[337] Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged excessive brutality against what it considered to be the "inferior people" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass executions.[338] Although resistance groups did form in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East[339] or the West[340] until late 1943.
In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples.[341] Although Japanese forces were originally welcomed as liberators from European domination in many territories, their excessive brutality turned local public opinions against them within weeks.[342] During Japan's initial conquest it captured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3) of oil (~5.5×105 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by 1943 was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels (~6.8×10^6 t), 76 percent of its 1940 output rate.[342]
Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers and ground-support, and each role was advanced considerably. Innovation included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment and personnel);[343] and of strategic bombing (the bombing of civilian areas to destroy industry and morale).[344] Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery, such as the German 88 mm gun. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered, and though late introduction meant it had little impact, it led to jets becoming standard in worldwide air forces.[345]
Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although at the start of the war aeronautical warfare had relatively little success, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, the South China Sea and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship.[346][347][348] In the Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap.[349] Carriers were also more economical than battleships due to the relatively low cost of aircraft[350] and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured.[351] Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War[352] were anticipated by all sides to be important in the second. The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII submarine and wolfpack tactics.[353] Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, hedgehog, squid, and homing torpedoes proved victorious.
Land warfare changed from the static front lines of World War I to increased mobility and combined arms. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon.[354] In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War I,[355] and advances continued throughout the war in increasing speed, armour and firepower.
Boeing B-17E in flight. The Allies had lost 160,000 airmen and 33,700 planes during the air war over Europe.
[356]
At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications.[357] This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France.[354] Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were utilised.[357] Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces,[358] and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.[359]
The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG42, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings.[359] The assault rifle, a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard postwar infantry weapon for most armed forces.[360][361]
Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security presented by using large codebooks for cryptography with the use of ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma machine.[362] SIGINT (signals intelligence) was the countering process of decryption, with the notable examples being the Allied breaking of Japanese naval codes[363] and British Ultra, which was derived from methodology given to Britain by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding Enigma for seven years before the war.[364] Another aspect of military intelligence was the use of deception, which the Allies used to great effect, such as in operations Mincemeat and Bodyguard.[363][365] Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons and the development of artificial harbours and oil pipelines under the English Channel.[366]
Documentaries
- Footnotes
- ^ 23 August 1939, the USSR and Germany sign non-aggression pact, secretly dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. USSR armistice with Japan 16 September 1939; invades Poland 17 September 1939; attacks Finland 30 September 1939; forcibly incorporates Baltic States June 1940; takes eastern Romania 4 July 1940. 22 June 1941, USSR is invaded by European Axis; USSR aligns with countries fighting Axis.
- ^ After the fall of the Third Republic in 1940, the de facto government was the Vichy Regime. It conducted pro-Axis policies until November 1942 while remaining formally neutral. The Free French Forces, based out of London, were recognized by all Allies as the official government in September 1944.
- Citations
- ^ Sommerville, Donald (2008). The Complete Illustrated History of World War Two: An Authoritative Account of the Deadliest Conflict in Human History with Analysis of Decisive Encounters and Landmark Engagements. Lorenz Books. p. 5. ISBN 0-7548-1898-5.
- ^ Barrett, David P; Shyu, Lawrence N (2001). China in the anti-Japanese War, 1937–1945: politics, culture and society. Volume 1 of Studies in modern Chinese history. New York: Peter Lang. p. 6. ISBN 0-8204-4556-8.
- ^ The UN Security Council, http://www.unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/united-nations/the-un-security-council.html, retrieved 5-15-2012
- ^ Chickering, Roger (2006). A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945. Cambridge University Press. p. 64. ISBN 0-275-98710-8. http://books.google.com/?id=evVPoSwqrG4C. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Fiscus, James W (2007). Critical Perspectives on World War II. Rosen Publishing Group. p. 44. ISBN 1-4042-0065-7. http://books.google.com/?id=6MTcnkLfDZAC. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ (Ben-Horin, Eliahu (1943). The Middle East: Crossroads of History. W. W. Norton & Co. p. 169; Taylor, A. J. P (1979). How Wars Begin. Hamilton. p. 124. ISBN 0241100178; Yisreelit, Hevrah Mizrahit (1965). Asian and African Studies, p. 191). For 1941 see (Taylor, A. J. P (1961). The Origins of the Second World War. Hamilton. p. vii; Kellogg, William O (2003). American History the Easy Way. Barron's Educational Series. p. 236 ISBN 0764119737). There also exists the viewpoint that both World War I and World War II are part of the same "European Civil War" or "Second Thirty Years War". (Canfora, Luciano; Jones, Simon (2006). Democracy in Europe: A History of an Ideology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 155. ISBN 1405111313; Prin, Gwyn (2002). The Heart of War: On Power, Conflict and Obligation in the Twenty-First Century. Routledge. p. 11. ISBN 0415369606).
- ^ Masaya, Shiraishi (1990). Japanese relations with Vietnam, 1951–1987. SEAP Publications. p. 4. ISBN 0-87727-122-4.
- ^ "German-American Relations – Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (two plus four)". Usa.usembassy.de. http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/2plusfour8994e.htm. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
- ^ Kantowicz 1999, p. 149
- ^ Davies 2008, pp. 134–140
- ^ Shaw 2000, p. 35
- ^ Bullock 1962, p. 265
- ^ Preston 1998, p. 104
- ^ Myers 1987, p. 458
- ^ Smith 2004, p. 28
- ^ Coogan, Anthony (July 1993). "The Volunteer Armies of Northeast China". History Today 43. http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000186948. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "Although some Chinese troops in the Northeast managed to retreat south, others were trapped by the advancing Japanese Army and were faced with the choice of resistance in defiance of orders, or surrender. A few commanders submitted, receiving high office in the puppet government, but others took up arms against the invader. The forces they commanded were the first of the volunteer armies"
- ^ Brody 1999, p. 4
- ^ Zalampas 1989, p. 62
- ^ Record 2005, p. 50
- ^ Mandelbaum 1988, p. 96
- ^ Schmitz, David F (2001). The First Wise Man. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 124. ISBN 0-8420-2632-0.
- ^ Kitson 2001, p. 231
- ^ Adamthwaite 1992, p. 52
- ^ Graham 2005, p. 110
- ^ Busky 2002, p. 10
- ^ Barker, A. J (1971). The Rape of Ethiopia 1936. Ballantine Books. pp. 131–2. ISBN 0-345-02462-1.
- ^ Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. London: Phoenix. pp. 258–260. ISBN 0-7538-2165-6.
- ^ Budiansky, Stephen (2004). Air power : The Men, Machines, and Ideas that Revolutionized War, from Kitty Hawk to Gulf War II. London: Viking. pp. 209–211. ISBN 0-670-03285-9.
- ^ Fairbank, John King; Feuerwerker, Albert; Twitchett, Denis Crispin (1986). The Cambridge history of China. Cambridge University Press. pp. 547–551. ISBN 0-521-24338-6.
- ^ Fairbank, John King; Feuerwerker, Albert; Twitchett, Denis Crispin (1986). The Cambridge history of China. Cambridge University Press. p. 566. ISBN 0-521-24338-6.
- ^ Taylor, Jay (2009). The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the struggle for modern China. Harvard University Press. pp. 150–152. ISBN 978-0-674-03338-2.
- ^ Coox, Alvin D. (1990). Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939. Stanford University Press. p. 189. ISBN 0-8047-1835-0.
- ^ Sella, Amnon (October 1983). "Khalkhin-Gol: The Forgotten War". Journal of Contemporary History 18 (4): 651–87.
- ^ Chaney, Otto Preston (1996). Zhukov. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 76. ISBN 0-8061-2807-0.
- ^ Collier, Martin; Pedley, Philip (2000). Germany 1919–45. Heinemann. p. 144. ISBN 0-435-32721-6.
- ^ Kershaw 2001, pp. 121–2
- ^ Kershaw 2001, p. 157
- ^ Davies 2008, pp. 143–4
- ^ Lowe, Cedric James; Marzari, F (2002). Italian Foreign Policy 1870–1940. Taylor & Francis. p. 330. ISBN 0-415-27372-2.
- ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds. (2002). "Pact of Steel". Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 674. ISBN 0-19-860446-7.
- ^ Shore, Zachary (2003). What Hitler Knew: The Battle for Information in Nazi Foreign Policy. Oxford University Press US. p. 108. ISBN 0-19-515459-2.
- ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds. (2002). "Nazi-Soviet Pact". Oxford University Press. p. 608. ISBN 0-19-860446-7.
- ^ Evans, Richard J. (2008). The Third Reich at War 1939–1945. London: Allen Lane. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-7139-9742-2.
- ^ Weinberg 2005
- ^ Keegan, John (1997). The Second World War. London: Pimlico. p. 35. ISBN 0-7126-7348-2.
- ^ Roskill, S.W. (1954). The War at Sea 1939–1945 Volume 1 : The Defensive. History of the Second World War. United Kingdom Military Series. London: HMSO. p. 64. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-RN-I/index.html.
- ^ Fritz, Martin (2005). "Economic Warfare". In Dear, I.C.B; Foot, M.R.D.. The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-19-280670-3.
- ^ Zaloga, Steven J.; Gerrard, Howard (2002). Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. p. 83. ISBN 1-84176-408-6. http://books.google.com/?id=oQeAKAjlEwMC. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Hempel, Andrew (2003). Poland in World War II: An Illustrated Military History. New York: Hippocrene Books. p. 24. ISBN 0-7818-1004-3. http://books.google.com/?id=9SmbqqQfp1gC. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Zaloga, Stephen J. (2004). Poland 1939 : The Birth of Blitzkrieg. London: Praeger. pp. 88–89. ISBN 0-275-98278-5.
- ^ Budiansky, Stephen (2001). Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II. London: Penguin. pp. 120–121. ISBN 0-14-028105-3.
- ^ Jowett & Andrew 2002, p. 14
- ^ Smith, David J. (2002). The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Routledge. 1st edition. p. 24. ISBN 0-415-28580-1. http://books.google.com/?id=YaYbzQQN97EC&pg=PA142. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ a b Bilinsky, Yaroslav (1999). Endgame in NATO's Enlargement: The Baltic States and Ukraine. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 9. ISBN 0-275-96363-2. http://books.google.com/?id=pbocXztNVsUC. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ a b Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 55–56
- ^ Spring, D. W (April 1986). "The Soviet Decision for War against Finland, 30 November 1939". Europe-Asia Studies (Taylor & Francis, Ltd.) 38 (2): 207–226. DOI:10.1080/09668138608411636. JSTOR 151203.
- ^ Hanhimäki, Jussi M (1997). Containing Coexistence: America, Russia, and the "Finnish Solution. Kent State University Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-87338-558-6. http://books.google.com/?id=OWfudYWUOt0C. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Weinberg 1995
- ^ Shirer, William L (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon and Schuster. pp. 668–9. ISBN 0-671-72868-7.
- ^ Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 57–63
- ^ Commager, Henry Steele (2004). The Story of the Second World War. Brassey's. p. 9. ISBN 1-57488-741-6. http://books.google.com/?id=H2nUNdqobOkC. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds. (2002). "Iceland". Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 436. ISBN 0-19-860446-7.
- ^ Reynolds, David (27 April 2006). From World War to Cold War: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 76. ISBN 0-19-928411-3. http://books.google.com/?id=Qk_xKD62G7cC. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Evans, Richard J. (2008). The Third Reich at War 1939–1945. London: Allen Lane. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-0-7139-9742-2.
- ^ Shirer, William L (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon and Schuster. pp. 721–3. ISBN 0-671-72868-7.
- ^ Keegan, John (1997). The Second World War. London: Pimlico. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0-7126-7348-2.
- ^ Regan, Geoffrey (2000). The Brassey's book of military blunders. Brassey's. p. 152. ISBN 1-57488-252-X.
- ^ Keegan, John (1997). The Second World War. London: Pimlico. pp. 66–67. ISBN 0-7126-7348-2.
- ^ Overy, Richard; Wheatcroft, Andrew (1999). The Road to War (Revised and updated ed.). London: Penguin. p. 207. ISBN 0-14-028530-X.
- ^ Klaus, Autbert (2001). Germany and the Second World War Volume 2: Germany's Initial Conquests in Europe. Oxford University Press. p. 311. ISBN 0-19-822888-0. http://books.google.com/?id=Z5p4tGO7-VkC. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ Brown, David (2004). The Road to Oran: Anglo-French Naval Relations, September 1939 – July 1940. Taylor & Francis. p. xxx. ISBN 0-7146-5461-2.
- ^ Ferguson, Niall (2006). The War of the WorldPenguin, pp.367, 376, 379, 417
- ^ Snyder, Timothy (2010).Bloodlands, Random House, from p. 118 onwards
- ^ H. W. Koch. Hitler's 'Programme' and the Genesis of Operation 'Barbarossa'. The Historical Journal, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Dec., 1983), pp. 891–920
- ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. p. 56. ISBN 0-300-11204-1.
- ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. p. 59. ISBN 0-300-11204-1.
- ^ a b Kelly, Nigel; Rees, Rosemary; Shuter, Jane (1998). Twentieth Century World. Heinemann. p. 38. ISBN 0-435-30983-8.
- ^ Goldstein, Margaret J (2004). World War II. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 35. ISBN 0-8225-0139-2.
- ^ Overy, Richard; Wheatcroft, Andrew (1999). The Road to War (Revised and updated ed.). London: Penguin. pp. 288–289. ISBN 0-14-028530-X.
- ^ Overy, Richard; Wheatcroft, Andrew (1999). The Road to War (Revised and updated ed.). London: Penguin. pp. 328–330. ISBN 0-14-028530-X.
- ^ Morison, Samuel Eliot (2002). History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. University of Illinois Press. p. 60. ISBN 0-252-07065-8.
- ^ Maingot, Anthony P. (1994). The United States and the Caribbean: Challenges of an Asymmetrical Relationship. Westview Press. p. 52. ISBN 0-8133-2241-3.
- ^ Cantril, Hadley (September 1940). "America Faces the War: A Study in Public Opinion". The Public Opinion Quarterly 4 (3): 390.
- ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 182
- ^ Bilhartz, Terry D.; Elliott, Alan C. (2007). Currents in American History: A Brief History of the United States. M.E. Sharpe. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-7656-1821-4.
- ^ Murray & Millett 2001, p. 165
- ^ Knell, Hermann (2003). To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War II. Da Capo. p. 205. ISBN 0-306-81169-3.
- ^ Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 233–245
- ^ Schoenherr, Steven (1 October 2005). "Undeclared Naval War in the Atlantic 1941". History Department at the University of San Diego. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww2Timeline/Prelude18.html. Retrieved 15 February 2010. [dead link]
- ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds. (2002). "Tripartite Pact". Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 877. ISBN 0-19-860446-7.
- ^ Clogg, Richard (1992). A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge University Press. p. 118. ISBN 0-521-80872-3.
- ^ Andrew, Stephen (2001). The Italian Army 1940–45 (2): Africa 1940–43. Osprey Publishing. pp. 9–10. ISBN 1-85532-865-8.
- ^ Brown, David (2002). The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean. Routledge. pp. 64–65. ISBN 0-7146-5205-9.
- ^ Jackson, Ashley (2006). The British Empire and the Second World War. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 106. ISBN 1-85285-417-0.
- ^ Laurier, Jim (2001). Tobruk 1941: Rommel's opening move. Osprey Publishing. pp. 7–8. ISBN 1-84176-092-7.
- ^ Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 263–67
- ^ Macksey, Kenneth (1997). Rommel: battles and campaigns. Da Capo Press. pp. 61–63. ISBN 0-306-80786-6.
- ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 229
- ^ Watson, William E (2003). Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 80. ISBN 0-275-97470-7.
- ^ Jackson, Ashley (2006). The British Empire and the Second World War. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 154. ISBN 1-85285-417-0.
- ^ Stewart, Vance (2002). Three Against One: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin Vs Adolph Hitler. Sunstone Press. p. 159. ISBN 0-86534-377-2.
- ^ Dear, I.C.B and Foot, M.R.D. (editors), ed. (2005). "Blitz". The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 108–109. ISBN 978-0-19-280670-3.
- ^ Overy, Richard; Wheatcroft, Andrew (1999). The Road to War (Revised and updated ed.). London: Penguin. p. 289. ISBN 0-14-028530-X.
- ^ Joes, Anthony James (2004). Resisting Rebellion: The History And Politics of Counterinsurgency. University Press of Kentucky. p. 224. ISBN 0-8131-2339-9.
- ^ Fairbank, John King; Goldman, Merle (1994). China: A New History. Harvard University Press. p. 320. ISBN 0-674-11673-9.
- ^ Garver, John W (1988). Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937–1945: The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism. Oxford University Press. p. 114. ISBN 0-19-505432-6.
- ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 195
- ^ Sella, Amnon (July 1978). ""Barbarossa": Surprise Attack and Communication". Journal of Contemporary History 13 (3): 555–83. DOI:10.1177/002200947801300308.
- ^ Kershaw, Ian (2007). Fateful Choices. Allen Lane. pp. 66–69. ISBN 0-7139-9712-5.
- ^ Steinberg, Jonathan (June 1995). "The Third Reich Reflected: German Civil Administration in the Occupied Soviet Union, 1941–4". The English Historical Review 110 (437): 620–51.
- ^ Hauner, Milan (January 1978). "Did Hitler Want a World Dominion?". Journal of Contemporary History 13 (1): 15–32. DOI:10.1177/002200947801300102.
- ^ Roberts, Cynthia A (December 1995). "Planning for War: The Red Army and the Catastrophe of 1941". Europe-Asia Studies 47 (8): 1293–26. DOI:10.1080/09668139508412322.
- ^ Wilt, Alan F. (December 1981). "Hitler's Late Summer Pause in 1941". Military Affairs 45 (4): 187–91. DOI:10.2307/1987464. JSTOR 1987464.
- ^ Erickson, John (2003). The Road to Stalingrad. Cassell Military. pp. 114–137. ISBN 0-304-36541-6.
- ^ Glantz 2001, p. 9
- ^ Farrell, Brian P (October 1993). "Yes, Prime Minister: Barbarossa, Whipcord, and the Basis of British Grand Strategy, Autumn 1941". The Journal of Military History 57 (4): 599–625. DOI:10.2307/2944096. JSTOR 2944096.
- ^ Pravda, Alex; Duncan, Peter J. S (1990). Soviet-British Relations Since the 1970s. Cambridge University Press. p. 29. ISBN 0-521-37494-4.
- ^ Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce; Smith, Alastair; Siverson, Randolph M.; Morrow, James D (2005). The Logic of Political Survival. MIT Press. p. 425. ISBN 0-262-52440-6.
- ^ a b Louis, William Roger (1998). More Adventures with Britannia: Personalities, Politics and Culture in Britain. University of Texas Press. p. 223. ISBN 0-292-74708-X.
- ^ Deletant, Dennis (2002). "Romania". In Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D. Oxford Companion to World War II. pp. 745–46. ISBN 0-19-860446-7.
- ^ Kleinfeld, Gerald R (October 1983). "Hitler's Strike for Tikhvin". Military Affairs 47 (3): 122–128. DOI:10.2307/1988082. JSTOR 1988082.
- ^ Shukman, Harold (2001). Stalin's Generals. Phoenix Press. p. 113. ISBN 1-84212-513-3.
- ^ Glantz 2001, p. 26, "By 1 November [the Wehrmacht] had lost fully 20% of its committed strength (686,000 men), up to 2/3 of its ½-million motor vehicles, and 65 percent of its tanks. The German Army High Command (OKH) rated its 136 divisions as equivalent to 83 full-strength divisions."
- ^ Reinhardt, Klaus; Keenan, Karl B (1992). Moscow-The Turning Point: The Failure of Hitler's Strategy in the Winter of 1941–42. Berg. p. 227. ISBN 0-85496-695-1.
- ^ Milward, A.S. (1964). "The End of the Blitzkrieg". The Economic History Review 16 (3): 499–518. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1964.tb01744.x.
- ^ Rotundo, Louis (January 1986). "The Creation of Soviet Reserves and the 1941 Campaign". Military Affairs 50 (1): 21–8. DOI:10.2307/1988530. JSTOR 1988530.
- ^ Glantz 2001, p. 26
- ^ Garthoff, Raymond L (October 1969). "The Soviet Manchurian Campaign, August 1945". Military Affairs 33 (2): 312.
- ^ Welch, David (1999). Modern European History, 1871–2000: A Documentary Reader. Routledge. p. 102. ISBN 0-415-21582-X.
- ^ Weinberg, Gerhard L (2005). A World At Arms. Cambridge University Press. p. 248. ISBN 0-521-61826-6.
- ^ Anderson, Irvine H., Jr. (May 1975). "De Facto Embargo on Oil to Japan: A Bureaucratic Reflex". The Pacific Historical Review 44 (2): 201.
- ^ Peattie, Mark R.; Evans, David C. (1997). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Naval Institute Press. p. 456. ISBN 0-87021-192-7.
- ^ Lightbody, Bradley (2004). The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis. Routledge. p. 125. ISBN 0-415-22404-7.
- ^ Weinberg, Gerhard L (2005). A World At Arms. Cambridge University Press. p. 310. ISBN 0-521-61826-6.
- ^ Morgan, Patrick M (1983). Strategic Military Surprise: Incentives and Opportunities. Transaction Publishers. p. 51. ISBN 0-87855-912-4.
- ^ a b Wohlstetter, Roberta (1962). Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision. Stanford University Press. pp. 341–43. ISBN 0-8047-0598-4.
- ^ Mingst, Karen A.; Karns, Margaret P (2007). United Nations in the Twenty-First Century. Westview Press. p. 22. ISBN 0-8133-4346-1.
- ^ Dunn, Dennis J (1998). Caught Between Roosevelt & Stalin: America's Ambassadors to Moscow. The University Press of Kentucky. p. 157. ISBN 0-8131-2023-3.
- ^ According to Ernest May (May, Ernest (1955). "The United States, the Soviet Union and the Far Eastern War". The Pacific Historical Review 24 (2): 156. ) Churchill stated: "Russian declaration of war on Japan would be greatly to our advantage, provided, but only provided, that Russians are confident that will not impair their Western Front".
- ^ Rees, Laurence (2009). World War Two Behind Closed Doors, BBC Books, p. 99.
- ^ Rees, Laurence (2009). World War Two Behind Closed Doors, BBC Books, p. 406-7.
- ^ Klam, Julie (2002). The Rise of Japan and Pearl Harbor. Black Rabbit Books. p. 27. ISBN 1-58340-188-1.
- ^ Lewis, Morton. "XXIX. Japanese Plans and American Defenses". In Greenfield, Kent Roberts. The Fall of the Philippines. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 529. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 53-63678. http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/5-2/5-2_29.htm. (Table 11).
- ^ Hill, J. R.; Ranft, Bryan (2002). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy. Oxford University Press. p. 362. ISBN 0-19-860527-7.
- ^ Hsiung 1992, p. 158
- ^ Perez, Louis G. (1 June 1998). The history of Japan. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 145. ISBN 0-313-30296-0. http://books.google.com/?id=ahYF-A3oylkC&pg=PA145. Retrieved 12 November 2009.
- ^ Gooch, John (1990). Decisive Campaigns of the Second World War. Routledge. p. 52. ISBN 0-7146-3369-0.
- ^ Glantz 2001, p. 31
- ^ Molinari, Andrea (2007). Desert Raiders: Axis and Allied Special Forces 1940–43. Osprey Publishing. p. 91. ISBN 1-84603-006-4.
- ^ Mitcham, Samuel W.; Mitcham, Samuel W. Jr (1982). Rommel's Desert War: The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps. Stein & Day. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8117-3413-4.
- ^ Maddox, Robert James (1992). The United States and World War II. Westview Press. pp. 111–12. ISBN 0-8133-0436-9.
- ^ Salecker, Gene Eric (2001). Fortress Against the Sun: The B-17 Flying Fortress in the Pacific. Da Capo Press. p. 186. ISBN 1-58097-049-4.
- ^ Ropp, Theodore (1962). War in the Modern World. Macmillan Publishing Company. p. 368. ISBN 0-8018-6445-3.
- ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 339
- ^ Gilbert, Adrian (2003). The Encyclopedia of Warfare: From Earliest Times to the Present Day. Globe Pequot. p. 259. ISBN 1-59228-027-7.
- ^ Swain, Bruce (2001). A Chronology of Australian Armed Forces at War 1939–45. Allen & Unwin. p. 197. ISBN 1-86508-352-6.
- ^ Hane, Mikiso (2001). Modern Japan: A Historical Survey. Westview Press. p. 340. ISBN 0-8133-3756-9.
- ^ Marston, Daniel (2005). The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Osprey Publishing. p. 111. ISBN 1-84176-882-0.
- ^ Brayley, Martin J (2002). The British Army, 1939–45: The Far East. Osprey Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 1-84176-238-5.
- ^ Read, Anthony (2004). The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 764. ISBN 0-393-04800-4.
- ^ Davies, Norman (2006). Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory. Macmillan. p. 100. ISBN 0-333-69285-3.
- ^ Badsey, Stephen (2000). The Hutchinson Atlas of World War II Battle Plans: Before and After. Taylor & Francis. pp. 235–36. ISBN 1-57958-265-6.
- ^ Black, Jeremy (2003). World War Two: A Military History. Routledge. p. 119. ISBN 0-415-30534-9.
- ^ Gilbert, Sir Martin (2004). The Second World War: A Complete History. Macmillan. pp. 397–400. ISBN 0-8050-7623-9.
- ^ Shukman, Harold (2001). Stalin's Generals. Phoenix Press. p. 142. ISBN 1-84212-513-3.
- ^ Gannon, James (2002). Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies: How Spies and Codebreakers Helped Shape the Twentieth Century. Brassey's. p. 76. ISBN 1-57488-473-5.
- ^ Paxton, Robert O (1972). Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944. Knopf. p. 313. ISBN 0-394-47360-4.
- ^ Rich, Norman (1992). Hitler's War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and the Course of Expansion. Norton. p. 178. ISBN 0-393-00802-9.
- ^ Penrose, Jane (2004). The D-Day Companion. Osprey Publishing. p. 129. ISBN 1-84176-779-4.
- ^ Neillands, Robin (2005). The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34781-5.
- ^ Keegan, John (1997). The Second World War. London: Pimlico. p. 277. ISBN 0-7126-7348-2.
- ^ Thomas, David Arthur (1988). A Companion to the Royal Navy. Harrap. p. 265. ISBN 0-245-54572-7.
- ^ Thomas, Nigel; Andrew, Stephen (1998). German Army 1939–1945 (2): North Africa & Balkans. Osprey Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 1-85532-640-X.
- ^ a b Ross, Steven T (1997). American War Plans, 1941–1945: The Test of Battle. Frank Cass & Co. p. 38. ISBN 0-7146-4634-2.
- ^ Bonner, Kit; Bonner, Carolyn (2001). Warship Boneyards. MBI Publishing Company. p. 24. ISBN 0-7603-0870-5.
- ^ Collier, Paul (2003). The Second World War (4): The Mediterranean 1940–1945. Osprey Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 1-84176-539-2.
- ^ Thompson, John Herd; Randall, Stephen J (1994). Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies. University of Georgia Press. p. 164. ISBN 0-8203-2403-5.
- ^ Kennedy, David M (1999). Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945. Oxford University Press. p. 610. ISBN 0-19-503834-7.
- ^ Rottman, Gordon L (2002). World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-Military Study. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 228. ISBN 0-313-31395-4.
- ^ Glantz, David M. (September 1986). "Soviet Defensive Tactics at Kursk, July 1943". CSI Report No. 11. (Combined Arms Research Library). OCLC 278029256. Archived from the original on 6 March 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080306082607/http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/glantz2/glantz2.asp. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
- ^ Glantz, David M (1989). Soviet military deception in the Second World War. Routledge. pp. 149–59. ISBN 978-0-7146-3347-3.
- ^ Kershaw, Ian (2001). Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 592. ISBN 0-393-32252-1.
- ^ O'Reilly, Charles T (2001). Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945. Lexington Books. p. 32. ISBN 0-7391-0195-1.
- ^ Bellamy, Chris T (2007). Absolute war: Soviet Russia in the Second World War. BAlfred A. Knopf. p. 595. ISBN 0-375-41086-4.
- ^ O'Reilly, Charles T (2001). Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945. Lexington Books. p. 35. ISBN 0-7391-0195-1.
- ^ Healy, Mark (1992). Kursk 1943: The tide turns in the East. Osprey Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 1-85532-211-0.
- ^ Glantz 2001, pp. 50–55
- ^ McGowen, Tom (2002). Assault From The Sea: Amphibious Invasions in the Twentieth Century. Twenty-First Century Books. pp. 43–44. ISBN 0-7613-1811-9.
- ^ Mazower, Mark (2009). Hitler's Empire : Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe. London: Penguin. p. 362. ISBN 978-0-14-101192-9.
- ^ Hart, Stephen; Hart, Russell; Hughes, Matthew (2000). The German Soldier in World War II. MBI Publishing Company. p. 151. ISBN 0-7603-0846-2.
- ^ Blinkhorn, Martin (1984). Mussolini and Fascist Italy. Methuen & Co. p. 52. ISBN 0-415-10231-6.
- ^ Read, Anthony; Fisher, David (1992). The Fall of Berlin. Hutchinson. p. 129. ISBN 0-09-175337-6.
- ^ Padfield, Peter (1998). War Beneath the Sea : Submarine Conflict During World War II (paperback. ed.). New York: John Wiley. pp. 335–336. ISBN 0-471-24945-9.
- ^ a b Iriye, Akira (1981). Power and culture: the Japanese-American war, 1941–1945. Harvard University Press. p. 154. ISBN 0-674-69582-8.
- ^ a b Polley, Martin (2000). A-Z of modern Europe since 1789. Taylor & Francis. p. 148. ISBN 0-415-18598-X.
- ^ ed. Hsiung, James C. and Steven I. Levine China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan 1937–1945, p.161
- ^ Hsu Long-hsuen and Chang Ming-kai (1971) History of The Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) 2nd Ed. Translated by Wen Ha-hsiung. Chung Wu Publishing. pp.412–416, Map 38
- ^ Weinberg 1995, pp. 660–661
- ^ Glantz, David M (2001). The siege of Leningrad, 1941–1944: 900 days of terror. Zenith Imprint. pp. 166–69. ISBN 0-7603-0941-8.
- ^ Glantz, David M (2002). The Battle for Leningrad: 1941–1944. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1208-4.
- ^ Chubarov, Alexander (2001). Russia's Bitter Path to Modernity: A History of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 122. ISBN 0-8264-1350-1.
- ^ Havighurst, Alfred F (1962). Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century. The University of Chicago Press. p. 344. ISBN 0-226-31971-7.
- ^ Lightbody, Bradley (2004). The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis. Routledge. p. 224. ISBN 0-415-22404-7.
- ^ a b Zeiler, Thomas W (2004). Unconditional Defeat: Japan, America, and the End of World War II. Scholarly Resources. p. 60. ISBN 0-8420-2991-5.
- ^ Craven, Wesley Frank; Cate, James Lea (1953). The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume Five—The Pacific, Matterhorn to Nagasaki. Chicago University Press. p. 207.
- ^ Hsiung, James Chieh; Levine, Steven I (1992). China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945. M.E. Sharpe. p. 163. ISBN 1-56324-246-X.
- ^ Coble, Parks M (2003). Chinese Capitalists in Japan's New Order: The Occupied Lower Yangzi, 1937–1945. University of California Press. p. 85. ISBN 0-520-23268-2.
- ^ Rees, Laurence (2009). World War Two Behind Closed Doors, BBC Books, p. 406-7. "Stalin always believed that Britain and America were delaying the second front so that the Soviet Union would bear the brunt of the war"
- ^ Weinberg 1995, p. 695
- ^ Badsey, Stephen (1990). Normandy 1944: Allied Landings and Breakout. Osprey Publishing. p. 91. ISBN 0-85045-921-4.
- ^ Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D, eds. (2002). "Market-Garden". Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 877. ISBN 0-19-860446-7.
- ^ The operation "was the most calamitous defeat of all the German armed forces in World War II" (Zaloga, Steven J (1996). Bagration 1944: The destruction of Army Group Centre. Osprey Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 1-85532-478-4. )
- ^ Berend, Ivan T. (1999). Central and Eastern Europe, 1944–1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-521-55066-1.
- ^ "Armistice Negotiations and Soviet Occupation". US Library of Congress. http://countrystudies.us/romania/23.htm. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "The coup speeded the Red Army's advance, and the Soviet Union later awarded Michael the Order of Victory for his personal courage in overthrowing Antonescu and putting an end to Romania's war against the Allies. Western historians uniformly point out that the Communists played only a supporting role in the coup; postwar Romanian historians, however, ascribe to the Communists the decisive role in Antonescu's overthrow"
- ^ Hastings, Max; Paul Henry, Collier (2004). The Second World War: a world in flames. Osprey Publishing. pp. 223–4. ISBN 1-84176-830-8.
- ^ Wiest, Andrew A; Barbier, M. K (2002). Strategy and Tactics Infantry Warfare. Zenith Imprint. pp. 65–6. ISBN 0-7603-1401-2.
- ^ Wiktor, Christian L (1998). Multilateral Treaty Calendar – 1648–1995. Kluwer Law International. p. 426. ISBN 90-411-0584-0.
- ^ Newton, Steven H (1995). Retreat from Leningrad : Army Group North, 1944/1945. Atglen, Philadelphia: Schiffer Books. ISBN 0-88740-806-0.
- ^ Marston, Daniel (2005). The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Osprey Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 1-84176-882-0.
- ^ Jowett & Andrew 2002, p. 8
- ^ Howard, Joshua H (2004). Workers at War: Labor in China's Arsenals, 1937–1953. Stanford University Press. p. 140. ISBN 0-8047-4896-9.
- ^ Drea, Edward J (2003). In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. University of Nebraska Press. p. 54. ISBN 0-8032-6638-3.
- ^ Cook, Chris; Bewes, Diccon (1997). What Happened Where: A Guide to Places and Events in Twentieth-Century History. UCL Press. p. 305. ISBN 1-85728-532-8.
- ^ a b Parker, Danny S (2004). Battle of the Bulge: Hitler's Ardennes Offensive, 1944–1945. Da Capo Press. pp. xiii–xiv, 6–8, 68–70 & 329–330. ISBN 0-306-81391-2.
- ^ Glantz 2001, p. 85
- ^ Solsten, Eric (1999). Germany: A Country Study. DIANE Publishing. pp. 76–7. ISBN 0-7881-8179-3.
- ^ United States Dept. of State (1967). The China White Paper, August 1949. Stanford University Press. p. 113. ISBN 0-8047-0608-5.
- ^ Buchanan, Tom (2006). Europe's troubled peace, 1945–2000. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 21. ISBN 0-631-22163-8.
- ^ Shepardson, Donald E (January 1998). "The Fall of Berlin and the Rise of a Myth". The Journal of Military History 62 (1): 135–154. DOI:10.2307/120398. JSTOR 120398.
- ^ O'Reilly, Charles T (2001). Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945. Lexington Books. p. 244. ISBN 0-7391-0195-1.
- ^ Kershaw 2001, p. 823
- ^ a b Donnelly, Mark (1999). Britain in the Second World War. Routledge. p. xiv. ISBN 0-415-17425-2.
- ^ Pinkus, Oscar . The war aims and strategies of Adolf Hitler, McFarland, 2005, ISBN 0-7864-2054-5, ISBN 978-0-7864-2054-4, p. 501-3
- ^ Glantz, David M. (1995). When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p. 34. ISBN 0-7006-0899-0.
- ^ Chant, Christopher (1986). The Encyclopedia of Codenames of World War II. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 118. ISBN 0-7102-0718-2.
- ^ Drea, Edward J (2003). In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. University of Nebraska Press. p. 57. ISBN 0-8032-6638-3.
- ^ Jowett & Andrew 2002, p. 6
- ^ Poirier, Michel Thomas (20 October 1999). "Results of the German and American Submarine Campaigns of World War II". U.S. Navy. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/history/wwii-campaigns.html. Retrieved 13 April 2008.
- ^ Williams, Andrew J (2006). Liberalism and War: The Victors and the Vanquished. Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 0-415-35980-5.
- ^ Miscamble, Wilson D (2007). From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War. Cambridge University Press. p. 201. ISBN 0-521-86244-2.
- ^ Miscamble, Wilson D (2007). From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War. Cambridge University Press. pp. 203–4. ISBN 0-521-86244-2.
- ^ Glantz, David M (2005). "August Storm: The Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria". Leavenworth Papers (Combined Arms Research Library). OCLC 78918907. Archived from the original on 2 March 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080302130751/http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/glantz3/glantz3.asp. Retrieved 25 January 2010
- ^ Pape, Robert A (Autumn 1993). "Why Japan Surrendered". International Security 18 (2): 154–201. DOI:10.2307/2539100. JSTOR 2539100.
- ^ Norbert Frei. Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration. Translated by Joel Golb. New York: Columbia University Press. 2002. ISBN 0231118821, p, 41–66.
- ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. p. 43. ISBN 0-300-11204-1.
- ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. p. 55. ISBN 0-300-11204-1.
- ^ Shirer, William L. (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon and Schuster. p. 794. ISBN 0-671-72868-7
- ^ Kennedy-Pipe, Caroline (1995). Stalin's Cold War. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-4201-1.
- ^ Wettig, Gerhard (2008). Stalin and the Cold War in Europe. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-7425-5542-9.
- ^ Senn, Alfred Erich (2007). Lithuania 1940: revolution from above. Rodopi. ISBN 978-90-420-2225-6.
- ^ Yoder, Amos (1997). The Evolution of the United Nations System. Taylor & Francis. p. 39. ISBN 1-56032-546-1.
- ^ "History of the UN". United Nations. http://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 2". United Nations. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "* Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty"
- ^ The UN Security Council, http://www.unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/united-nations/the-un-security-council.html, retrieved 5-15-2012
- ^ Kantowicz, Edward R (2000). Coming Apart, Coming Together. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 0-8028-4456-1.
- ^ Wettig, Gerhard (2008). Stalin and the Cold War in Europe. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 96–100. ISBN 0-7425-5542-9.
- ^ Trachtenberg, Marc (1999). A Constructed Peace: The Making of the European Settlement, 1945–1963. Princeton University Press. p. 33. ISBN 0-691-00273-8.
- ^ Granville, Johanna (2004). The First Domino: International Decision Making during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 1-58544-298-4.
- ^ Grenville, John Ashley Soames (2005). A History of the World from the 20th to the 21st century. Routledge. pp. 370–71. ISBN 0-415-28954-8.
- ^ Cook, Bernard A (2001). Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 17. ISBN 0-8153-4057-5.
- ^ Geoffrey Swain. The Cominform: Tito's International? The Historical Journal, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Sep., 1992), pp. 641–663
- ^ Leffler, Melvyn P.; Painter, David S (1994). Origins of the Cold War: An International History. Routledge. p. 318. ISBN 0-415-34109-4.
- ^ Bellamy, Christopher (2001). "Cold War". In Holmes, Richard. The Oxford Companion to Military History (Oxford Reference Online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860696-6.
- ^ Weinberg, Gerhard L. (2005). A World At Arms. Cambridge University Press. p. 911
- ^ Connor, Mary E. (2009). "History". In Connor, Mary E.. The Koreas. Asia in Focus. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 43–45. ISBN 1-59884-160-2. http://books.google.com/?id=j2gYgXGENM0C.
- ^ Lynch, Michael (2010). The Chinese Civil War 1945–49. Botley: Osprey Publishing. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-1-84176-671-3.
- ^ Roberts, J.M. (1996). The Penguin History of Europe. London: Penguin Books. p. 589. ISBN 0-14-026561-9.
- ^ Darwin, John (2007). After Tamerlane: The Rise & Fall of Global Empires 1400–2000. London: Penguin Books. pp. 441–443, 464–468. ISBN 978-0-14-101022-9.
- ^ Harrison, Mark (1998). "The economics of World WarII: an overview". In Harrison, Mark. The Economics of World War II: Six great powers in international comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 0-521-62046-5.
- ^ Dear, I.C.B and Foot, M.R.D., ed. (2005). "World trade and world economy". The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1006. ISBN 978-0-19-280670-3.
- ^ Nicholas Balabkins, "Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945–1948", Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 207
- ^ Vladimir Petrov, Money and conquest; allied occupation currencies in World War II. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press (1967) p. 263
- ^ Nicholas Balabkins, "Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945–1948", Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 208, 209
- ^ Dornbusch, Rüdiger; Nölling, Wilhelm; Layard, P. Richard G (1993). Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. P.190, 191, ISBN 0-262-04136-7.
- ^ Nicholas Balabkins, "Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945–1948", Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 212
- ^ Dornbusch, Rüdiger; Nölling, Wilhelm; Layard, P. Richard G (1993). Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. p29 -p30, 32, ISBN 0-262-04136-7.
- ^ Bull, Martin J.; Newell, James (2005). Italian Politics: Adjustment Under Duress. Polity. p. 20. ISBN 0-7456-1299-7.
- ^ Bull, Martin J.; Newell, James (2005). Italian Politics: Adjustment Under Duress. Polity. p. 21. ISBN 0-7456-1299-7.
- ^ Harrop, Martin (1992). Power and Policy in Liberal Democracies. Cambridge University Press. p. 23. ISBN 0-521-34579-0.
- ^ Dornbusch, Rüdiger; Nölling, Wilhelm; Layard, P. Richard G (1993). Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. p. 117. ISBN 0-262-04136-7.
- ^ Emadi-Coffin, Barbara (2002). Rethinking International Organization: Deregulation and Global Governance. Routledge. p. 64. ISBN 0-415-19540-3.
- ^ Smith, Alan (1993). Russia And the World Economy: Problems of Integration. Routledge. p. 32. ISBN 0-415-08924-7.
- ^ Harrop, Martin (1992). Power and Policy in Liberal Democracies. Cambridge University Press. p. 49. ISBN 0-521-34579-0.
- ^ Genzberger, Christine (1994). China Business: The Portable Encyclopedia for Doing Business with China. Petaluma, California: World Trade Press. p. 4. ISBN 0-9631864-3-4. http://books.google.com/?id=YSCunEaqnI8C&pg=PA4.
- ^ O'Brien, Prof. Joseph V. "World War II: Combatants and Casualties (1937–1945)". Obee's History Page. John Jay College of Criminal Justice. http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob62.html. Retrieved 20 April 2007. [dead link]
- ^ White, Matthew. "Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm". Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century. Matthew White's Homepage. http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
- ^ "World War II Fatalities". secondworldwar.co.uk. http://secondworldwar.co.uk/index.php/fatalities. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
- ^ "Rulers and victims: the Russians in the Soviet Union". Geoffrey A. Hosking (2006). Harvard University Press. p.242. ISBN 0-674-02178-9
- ^ Michael Ellman and S. Maksudov Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War: A Note. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 46, No. 4, Soviet and East European History (1994), pp. 671–680
- ^ "The World's Wasted Wealth 2: Save Our Wealth, Save Our Environment". J. W. Smith (1994). p.204. ISBN 0-9624423-2-1
- ^ Jeffrey Herf. The Nazi Extermination Camps and the Ally to the East. Could the Red Army and Air Force Have Stopped or Slowed the Final Solution? Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 4.4 (2003) 913–930
- ^ Florida Center for Instructional Technology (2005). "Victims". A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. University of South Florida. http://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/victims.htm. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
- ^ Niewyk, Donald L. and Nicosia, Francis R. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, pp. 45–52.
- ^ Todd, Allan (2001). The Modern World. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 0-19-913425-1.
- ^ Winter, J.M. (2002). "Demography of the War". In Dear, I.C.B.; Foot, M.R.D.. Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. p. 290. ISBN 0-19-860446-7.
- ^ "Jasenovac". jewishvirtuallibrary.org. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Jasenovac.html. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ Chang, Iris (1997). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. BasicBooks. p. 102. ISBN 0-465-06835-9.
- ^ Rummell, R. J. "Statistics". Freedom, Democide, War. The University of Hawaii System. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP3.HTM. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ Himeta, Mitsuyoshi (姫田光義) (日本軍による『三光政策・三光作戦をめぐって』) (Concerning the Three Alls Strategy/Three Alls Policy By the Japanese Forces), Iwanami Bukkuretto, 1996, Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2000
- ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 319. ISBN 1-57607-999-6.
- ^ Gold, Hal (1996). Unit 731 testimony. Tuttle. pp. 75–7. ISBN 0-8048-3565-9.
- ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 320. ISBN 1-57607-999-6.
- ^ Harris (2002). Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–1945, and the American Cover-up. Routledge. p. 74. ISBN 0-415-93214-9.
- ^ Sabella, Robert; Li, Fei Fei; Liu, David (2002). Nanking 1937: Memory and Healing. M.E. Sharpe. p. 69. ISBN 0-7656-0816-2.
- ^ "Japan tested chemical weapons on Aussie POW: new evidence". The Japan Times Online. 27 July 2004. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/nn20040727a9.html. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ Aksar, Yusuf (2004). Implementing International Humanitarian Law: From the Ad Hoc Tribunals to a Permanent International Criminal Court. Routledge. p. 45. ISBN 0-7146-8470-8.
- ^ Hornberger, Jacob (April 1995). "Repatriation—The Dark Side of World War II". The Future of Freedom Foundation. http://www.fff.org/freedom/0495a.asp. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ Koh, David (21 August 2008). "Vietnam needs to remember famine of 1945". The Straits Times (Singapore). http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/hepr-vn/2008-August/000188.html. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ Harding, Luke (22 October 2003). "Germany's forgotten victims". The Guardian. UK: Guardian News and Media. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/oct/22/worlddispatch.germany. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
- ^ a b Marek, Michael (27 October 2005). "Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Laborers". dw-world.de. Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5mtTTntBR. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- ^ Applebaum, Anne (16 October 2003). "Gulag: Understanding the Magnitude of What Happened". Heritage Foundation. http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/Gulag-Understanding-the-Magnitude-of-What-Happened. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- ^ North, Jonathan (January 2006). "Soviet Prisoners of War: Forgotten Nazi Victims of World War II". HistoryNet.com. Weider History Group. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5mtUpwcaB. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- ^ Overy, Richard (2004). The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 568–69. ISBN 0-393-02030-4.
- ^ Zemskov V.N. On repatriation of Soviet citizens. Istoriya SSSR., 1990, No.4, (in Russian). See also [1] (online version), and Edwin Bacon. Glasnost' and the Gulag: New Information on Soviet Forced Labour around World War II. Soviet Studies, Vol. 44, No. 6 (1992), pp. 1069–1086; Michael Ellman. Soviet Repression Statistics: Some Comments. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 54, No. 7 (Nov., 2002), pp. 1151–1172.
- ^ "Japanese Atrocities in the Philippines". American Experience: the Bataan Rescue. PBS Online. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5mtVNGYHW. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
- ^ Tanaka, Yuki (1996). Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II. Westview Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0-8133-2718-0.
- ^ Bix, Herbert (2001). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. HarperCollins. p. 360. ISBN 0-06-093130-2.
- ^ a b Ju, Zhifen (June 2002). "Japan's atrocities of conscripting and abusing north China draughtees after the outbreak of the Pacific war". Joint Study of the Sino-Japanese War:Minutes of the June 2002 Conference. Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/sino-japanese/session6.htm. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
- ^ a b "Indonesia: World War II and the Struggle For Independence, 1942–50; The Japanese Occupation, 1942–45". Library of Congress. 1992. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+id0029). Retrieved 9 February 2007.
- ^ "Manzanar National Historic Site". U.S. National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- ^ Department of Labour of Canada (24 January 1947). Report on the Re-establishment of Japanese in Canada, 1944–1946. Office of the Prime Minister. p. 23. ISBN 0-405-11266-1.
- ^ Kennedy, David M. (2001). Freedom From Fear : The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945. New York City: Oxford University Press. pp. 749–750. ISBN 0-19-514403-1.
- ^ Eugene Davidson "The Death and Life of Germany: an Account of the American Occupation" p.121
- ^ Stark, Tamás. ""Malenki Robot" – Hungarian Forced Labourers in the Soviet Union (1944–1955)" (PDF). Minorities Research. http://www.epa.hu/00400/00463/00007/pdf/155_stark.pdf. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
- ^ a b Harrison, Mark (2000). The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison. Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-521-78503-0.
- ^ Harrison, Mark (2000). The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0-521-78503-0.
- ^ Hughes, Matthew; Mann, Chris (2000). Inside Hitler's Germany: Life Under the Third Reich. Potomac Books Inc. p. 148. ISBN 1-57488-281-3.
- ^ Bernstein, Gail Lee (1991). Recreating Japanese Women, 1600–1945. University of California Press. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-520-07017-2.
- ^ Hughes, Matthew; Mann, Chris (2000). Inside Hitler's Germany: Life Under the Third Reich. Potomac Books Inc. p. 151. ISBN 1-57488-281-3.
- ^ Griffith, Charles (1999). The Quest: Haywood Hansell and American Strategic Bombing in World War II. DIANE Publishing. p. 203. ISBN 1-58566-069-8.
- ^ Overy, R.J (1995). War and Economy in the Third Reich. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 26. ISBN 0-19-820599-6.
- ^ Lindberg, Michael; Daniel, Todd (2001). Brown-, Green- and Blue-Water Fleets: the Influence of Geography on Naval Warfare, 1861 to the Present. Praeger. p. 126. ISBN 0-275-96486-8.
- ^ Cox, Sebastian (1998). The Strategic Air War Against Germany, 1939–1945. Frank Cass Publishers. p. 84. ISBN 0-7146-4722-5.
- ^ Unidas, Naciones (2005). World Economic And Social Survey 2004: International Migration. United Nations Pubns. p. 23. ISBN 92-1-109147-0.
- ^ Liberman, Peter (1998). Does Conquest Pay?: The Exploitation of Occupied Industrial Societies. Princeton University Press. p. 42. ISBN 0-691-00242-8.
- ^ Milward, Alan S (1979). War, Economy, and Society, 1939–1945. University of California Press. p. 138. ISBN 0-520-03942-4.
- ^ Milward, Alan S (1979). War, Economy, and Society, 1939–1945. University of California Press. p. 148. ISBN 0-520-03942-4.
- ^ Perrie, Maureen; Lieven, D. C. B; Suny, Ronald Grigor (2007). The Cambridge History of Russia. Cambridge University Press. p. 232. ISBN 0-521-86194-2.
- ^ Hill, Alexander (2005). The War Behind The Eastern Front: The Soviet Partisan Movement In North-West Russia 1941–1944. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 0-7146-5711-5.
- ^ Christofferson, Thomas R; Christofferson, Michael S (2006). France During World War II: From Defeat to Liberation. Fordham University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-8232-2563-7.
- ^ Ikeo, Aiko (1997). Economic Development in Twentieth Century East Asia: The International Context. Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 0-415-14900-2.
- ^ a b Boog, Horst; Rahn, Werner; Stumpf, Reinhard; Wegner, Bernd (2001). Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt Germany and the Second World War—Volume VI: The Global War. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 266. ISBN 0-19-822888-0.
- ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. Sanata Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 76. ISBN 1-57607-999-6.
- ^ Levine, Alan J. (1992). The Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1940–1945. Greenwood Press. p. 217. ISBN 0-275-94319-4.
- ^ Sauvain, Philip (2005). Key Themes of the Twentieth Century: Teacher's Guide. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 128. ISBN 1-4051-3218-3.
- ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 163. ISBN 1-57607-999-6.
- ^ Bishop, Chris; Chant, Chris (2004). Aircraft Carriers: The World's Greatest Naval Vessels and Their Aircraft. Wigston, Leics: Silverdale Books. p. 7. ISBN 1-84509-079-9.
- ^ Chenoweth, H. Avery; Nihart, Brooke (2005). Semper Fi: The Definitive Illustrated History of the U.S. Marines. New York: Main Street. p. 180. ISBN 1-4027-3099-3.
- ^ Sumner, Ian; Baker, Alix (2001). The Royal Navy 1939–45. Osprey Publishing. p. 25. ISBN 1-84176-195-8.
- ^ Hearn, Chester G. (2007). Carriers in Combat: The Air War at Sea. Stackpole Books. p. 14. ISBN 0-8117-3398-X.
- ^ Gardiner, Robert; Brown, David K (2004). The Eclipse of the Big Gun: The Warship 1906–1945. London: Conway Maritime. p. 52. ISBN 0-85177-953-0.
- ^ Rydill, Louis (1995). Concepts in Submarine Design. Cambridge University Press. p. 15. ISBN 0-521-55926-X.
- ^ Rydill, Louis (1995). Concepts in Submarine Design. Cambridge University Press. p. 16. ISBN 0-521-55926-X.
- ^ a b Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 125. ISBN 1-57607-999-6.
- ^ Dupuy, Trevor Nevitt (1982). The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare. Jane's Information Group. p. 231. ISBN 0-7106-0123-9.
- ^ Kenneth K. Hatfield (2003). "Heartland heroes: remembering World War II.". University of Missouri Press. p.91. ISBN 0-8262-1460-6
- ^ a b Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 108. ISBN 1-57607-999-6.
- ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla Mary Roberts (2004). Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 734. ISBN 1-57607-999-6.
- ^ a b Cowley, Robert; Parker, Geoffrey (2001). The Reader's Companion to Military History. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 221. ISBN 0-618-12742-9.
- ^ "Infantry Weapons Of World War 2". Grey Falcon (Black Sun). http://greyfalcon.us/Infantry%20Weapons%20Of%20World%20War%202.htm. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "These all-purpose guns were developed and used by the German army in the 2nd half of World War 2 as a result of studies which showed that the ordinary rifle's long range is much longer than needed, since the soldiers almost always fired at enemies closer than half of its effective range. The assault rifle is a balanced compromise between the rifle and the sub-machine gun, having sufficient range and accuracy to be used as a rifle, combined with the rapid-rate automatic firepower of the sub machine gun. Thanks to these combined advantages, assault rifles such as the American M-16 and the Russian AK-47 are the basic weapon of the modern soldier"
- ^ Sprague, Oliver; Griffiths, Hugh (2006). "The AK-47: the worlds favourite killing machine" (PDF). controlarms.org. p. 1. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT30/011/2006/en/11079910-d422-11dd-8743-d305bea2b2c7/act300112006en.pdf. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
- ^ Ratcliff, Rebecca Ann (2006). Delusions of Intelligence: Enigma, Ultra and the End of Secure Ciphers. Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN 0-521-85522-5.
- ^ a b Schoenherr, Steven (2007). "Code Breaking in World War II". History Department at the University of San Diego. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww2timeline/espionage.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009. [dead link]
- ^ Macintyre, Ben (10 December 2010). "Bravery of thousands of Poles was vital in securing victory". The Times (London): p. 27.
- ^ Rowe, Neil C.; Rothstein, Hy. "Deception for Defense of Information Systems: Analogies from Conventional Warfare". Departments of Computer Science and Defense Analysis U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. Air University. http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nps/mildec.htm. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ^ "Konrad Zuse (1910–1995)". Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale. http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/zuse.html. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "Konrad Zuse builds Z1, world's first programme-controlled computer. Despite mechanical engineering problems it had all the basic ingredients of modern machines, using the binary system and today's standard separation of storage and control. Zuse's 1936 patent application (Z23139/GMD Nr. 005/021) also suggests a von Neumann architecture (re-invented in 1945) with programme and data modifiable in storage"
- Adamthwaite, Anthony P (1992). The Making of the Second World War. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-90716-0.
- Brody, J Kenneth (1999). The Avoidable War: Pierre Laval and the Politics of Reality, 1935–1936. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. p. 4. ISBN 0-7658-0622-3.
- Bullock, A. (1962). Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-013564-2
- Busky, Donald F (2002). Communism in History and Theory: Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-97733-1.
- Davies, Norman (2008). No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939–1945. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 0-14-311409-3
- Glantz, David M. (2001). "The Soviet‐German War 1941–45 Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay". http://www.strom.clemson.edu/publications/sg-war41-45.pdf [dead link]
- Graham, Helen (2005). The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280377-8.
- Holland, J (2006). Together We Stand, Turning the Tide in the West:North Africa, 1942-43. London: Harper Collins.
- Hsiung, James Chieh (1992). China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 1-56324-246-X
- Jowett, Philip S.; Andrew, Stephen (2002). The Japanese Army, 1931–45. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-353-5
- Kantowicz, Edward R (1999). The rage of nations. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-4455-3.
- Kershaw, Ian (2001). Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-32252-1
- Kitson, Alison (2001). Germany 1858–1990: Hope, Terror, and Revival. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-913417-5.
- Mandelbaum, Michael (1988). The Fate of Nations: The Search for National Security in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Cambridge University Press. p. 96. ISBN 0-521-35790-X.
- Murray, Williamson; Millett, Allan Reed (2001). A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00680-1.
- Myers, Ramon; Peattie, Mark (1987). The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10222-8.
- Preston, Peter (1998). 'Pacific Asia in the global system: an introduction, Wiley-Blackwell. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 104. ISBN 0-631-20238-2.
- Record, Jeffery (2005) (PDF). Appeasement Reconsidered: Investigating the Mythology of the 1930s. DIANE Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 1-58487-216-0. http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB622.pdf. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- Shaw, Anthony (2000). World War II Day by Day. MBI Publishing Company. ISBN 0-7603-0939-6.
- Smith, Winston; Steadman, Ralph (2004). All Riot on the Western Front, Volume 3. Last Gasp. ISBN 0-86719-616-5.
- Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1995). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55879-4.
- Weinberg, Gerhard L. (2005). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85316-8.
- Zalampas, Michael (1989). Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich in American magazines, 1923–1939. Bowling Green University Popular Press. ISBN 0-87972-462-5.
 Wikipedia topics related to World War II |
|
|
|
|
lez:Дуьньядин кьведлагьай дяве
![World War 2/II in Colour / The Second World War in Colour [FULL FILM DOCUMENTARY]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130820223001im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gmkg4TpgEGM/default.jpg "World War 2/II in Colour / The Second World War in Colour [FULL FILM DOCUMENTARY]")
