Key Facts
- Duration
- 6 years (1 Sep 1939 – 2 Sep 1945)
- Total deaths
- 60–75 million
- Countries involved
- Nearly all of the world's countries
- Nuclear weapons used
- 2 atomic bombs (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Aug 1945)
- Germany's surrender
- 8 May 1945 (V-E Day)
- Japan's surrender
- 2 September 1945 (V-J Day)
Strategic Narrative Overview
Germany rapidly conquered Western Europe by mid-1940, while Italy joined the Axis. Britain withstood the aerial Battle of Britain. Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, opening a massive Eastern Front. Japan's December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war. Allied momentum turned at Stalingrad and Midway in 1942–1943. Italy fell in 1943, France was liberated after the Normandy landings in 1944, and the Axis was forced into retreat on every front.
01 / The Origins
Unresolved grievances from World War I, the rise of fascism in Europe, and Japanese militarism created mounting instability through the 1930s. Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria, the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937, and Germany's annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland preceded the formal outbreak. On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland; Britain and France declared war on Germany in response, drawing Europe into open conflict.
03 / The Outcome
Soviet forces captured Berlin in May 1945, and Germany surrendered unconditionally on 8 May. The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, prompting Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945. Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied by Allied powers. War crimes tribunals prosecuted Axis leaders. The United Nations was established, the United States and Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers, and European colonial empires began to collapse.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
3 belligerents
Adolf Hitler, Hideki Tojo, Benito Mussolini.
Side B
3 belligerents
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin.
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.