World War II, or the Second World War, was a global military
conflict. It began as the joining of what had initially been two separate conflicts, with the first beginning in Asia in 1937 (the
Second Sino-Japanese War) and the other beginning in
Europe in 1939 (the German and Soviet
invasion of Poland).
The war split the
majority of the world's nations into two opposing military alliances: the
Allies and the
Axis. It involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history, and placed the participants in a state of "
total war", which erased the distinction between civil and military resources and resulted in the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort. Over
70 million people, the majority of them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in
human history.
The Allies won the war, and as a result, the
Soviet Union and the
United States emerged as the world's leading
superpowers. This set the stage for the
Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. The
United Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The
self-determination spawned by the war accelerated
decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Europe itself began moving toward
integration.
The
GermanS-mine (Schrapnellmine in
German), also known as the Bouncing Betty, is the best-known version of a class of mines known as
bounding mines. These mines launch into the air at about waist height and explode, propelling
shrapnel horizontally at lethal speeds. The S-mine was an
anti-personnellandmine developed by
Germany in the 1930s and used extensively by German forces during
World War II. It was designed to be used in open areas to attack unshielded infantry. Two versions were produced, designated by the year of their first production: the SMi-35 and SMi-44. There are only minor differences between the two models.The S-mine entered production in 1935 and served as a key part of the defensive strategy of the
Third Reich. Until production ceased with the defeat of Germany in 1945, Germany produced over 1.93 million S-mines.These mines were responsible for inflicting heavy casualties and slowing, or even repelling, drives into German-held territory throughout the war. The design was lethal, successful and much imitated, and remains one of the definitive weapons of World War II.
The Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive on the
Western Front and was launched towards the end of
World War II. It was also
Adolf Hitler's last offensive in the war. This offensive was called Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Operation The Guard on the Rhine) by the German armed forces (Wehrmacht). It was officially named the Battle of the Ardennes by the
U.S. Army, but it is known to the general public simply as the Battle of the Bulge. The “
bulge” was the initial incursion the Germans put into the Allies’ line of advance, as seen in maps presented in contemporary newspapers.The offensive was launched in the
Ardennes. The German offensive was supported by subordinate operations known as Unternehmen Bodenplatte,
Unternehmen Greif, and Unternehmen Währung. Germany’s planned goal for these operations was to split the British and American
Allied line in half, capturing
Antwerp,
Belgium, and then proceeding to
encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the
Western Allies to negotiate a
peace treaty in the
Axis Powers’ favor.
The following are images from various World War II-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1Am Großen Wannsee 56–58, Berlin (from The Holocaust)
Image 2Jews from
Carpathian Ruthenia on the selection ramp at
Auschwitz II, c. May 1944. Women and children are lined up on one side, men on the other, waiting for the SS to determine who was fit for work. About 20 percent at Auschwitz were selected for work and the rest gassed. (from The Holocaust)
Image 18Clement Attlee, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, circa 28 July – 1 August 1945 (from Diplomatic history of World War II)
Image 19Bodies being pulled out of a train carrying Romanian Jews from the
Iași pogrom, July 1941 (from The Holocaust)
Image 39British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain and Hitler at a meeting in Germany on 24 September 1938, and Hitler demanded the immediate annexation of Czechoslovak border areas. (from Causes of World War II)
Image 40The poster (c. 1937) reads: "60,000
RM is what this person with hereditary illness costs the community in his lifetime. Fellow citizen, that is your money too. Read Neues Volk, the monthly magazine of the
Office of Racial Policy of the
Nazi Party." (from The Holocaust)
Image 41Grave of German soldiers fallen during invasion of Poland in Końskie. Visible inscription "For Fuhrer und Vaterland" (from Causes of World War II)
Image 441935 poster of the puppet state of
Manchukuo promoting harmony among peoples. The caption reads: "With the help of Japan, China, and Manchukuo, the world can be in peace." (from Diplomatic history of World War II)
Image 45Italian Social Republic (RSI) as of 1943 in yellow and green. The green areas were German military operational zones under direct German administration. (from Diplomatic history of World War II)
Image 52Jews arrive with their belongings at the
Auschwitz II extermination camp, summer 1944, thinking they were being resettled. (from The Holocaust)
Image 63Soviet POWs held by the Nazis in
Mauthausen concentration camp. It is estimated that at least 3.3 million Soviet POWs died in German custody. (from World War II casualties)
Image 64Germany
invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 which directly led to the Anglo-French declaration of war on Germany on 3 September. The Soviet Union joined Germany's invasion of Poland on 17 September. (from Causes of World War II)
Prisoners interned by the
Nazis in Ebensee concentration camp, a
subcamp of Mauthausen-Gusen in
Ebensee,
Austria, are liberated by the
United States Army. The prisoners are malnourished, incredibly pale and show signs of abuse and mistreatment. The camp was reputedly used for medical experiments by
Aribert Heim, known as "Doctor Death".
Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi (辰口 信夫, Tatsuguchi Nobuo), sometimes mistakenly referred to as Nebu Tatsuguchi (August 31, 1911 – May 30, 1943), was a
surgeon in the
Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during
World War II. He was killed during the
Battle of Attu on
Attu Island,
Alaska on May 30, 1943. A devout
Seventh-day Adventist, Tatsuguchi studied medicine and was licensed as a
physician in the United States (US). He returned to his native
Japan to practice medicine at the
Tokyo Adventist
Sanitarium, where he received further medical training. In 1941, he was ordered to cease his medical practice and conscripted into the IJA as an acting medical officer. In late 1942 or early 1943, Tatsuguchi was sent to Attu, which had been occupied by Japanese forces in October 1942. The
United States Army landed on the island on May 11, 1943 intending to retake the island from the Japanese. Throughout the resulting battle, Tatsuguchi kept a diary in which he recorded the events of the battle and his struggle to care for the wounded in his field hospital.
"Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
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