Facts about World War II

3. 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 Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 13 September 1931, and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937. Others follow A. J. P. Taylor, who held that there was a simultaneous Sino-Japanese War in East Asia, and a Second European War in Europe and her colonies. The two wars merged in 1941, becoming a single global conflict, at which point the war continued until 1945. This article uses the conventional dating. The exact date of the war's end is 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). The Treaty of Peace with Japan was not signed until 1951.

4. World map of colonization at the end of the Second World War (1945)

5. Causes of World War 2 World War 2, the second longest war in the history, was fought between the Allies and the Allied nations during 1939-1945. Let us take a brief look into the causes of 6-year long war, that led to destruction and bloodshed of millions...

7. They wanted to dominate the whole world.

8. There was no place for concepts like multilingualism and multiculturalism, Marxism, Communism and Bolshevism

9. They tried to promote their culture, increased military power and planned for expansion in nearby countries.

11. Fascism was influenced by fanaticism, violence, racism and totalitarianism.

12. They aimed for regeneration of ethnic, social, cultural and economic peace of their country.

13. They denied individual freedom, rights and democracy.

14. Both Fascism and Nazism had same intention to gain power and fought against Allied nations.Isolation of the United StatesThe idea of an international organization, the League of Nations, was framed by Woodrow Wilson of the United States. The New Republican government vetoed that idea and the United States remained aloof from the world and their activities before World War 2.

15. Failure of the League of NationsLeague of Nations was established in 1919 after World War First to maintain peace among the members of the League. The League of Nations proved a failure because of many reasons. They could not resolve the worldwide economic crisis, the Great Depression in the late 1930's. They were unable to control wars after world war first. Japan is one of the members of League of Nations, declared war against Manchuria in 1931. When League of Nations aimed to solve war issues of Japan. Japan quit from its membership of the League of Nations. Thus, there was lack of unity among its members and no pre-planned resolutions for the world war 2. Some Contemporary Events During the World War 2German Invasion of PolandWorld War Two or the Second World War began in September 1939, in Europe, when Germans invaded Poland. Poland was ruled by France and Britain according to an earlier agreement. Therefore, Britain and France declared war against Germany along with other colonized countries. These colonized countries included Austria, New Zealand, Canada and India who participated in world war 2.Italian Invasion of AlbaniaAlthough Italy helped Albania during the worldwide depression in the 1930s, Albania denied the demands of Italy. Italy paid the amount of interest on the loan taken from the Society for the Economic Development of Albania. Italy's demands were - teaching of Italian language in Albanian schools, grant of Albania's sugar, taking Tiran instead of Gendarmerie and inviting Italy for membership of Albanian custom union. Instead of granting their demands, Albania's President Zong denied the domination of Italy. The Albanian president Zong terminated Italian advisers from military, and cut down the budget of Albania by 30%. As a result, Mussolini invaded Albania in 1939 and forced the president and his family into exile. Thus, Albania became a territory of Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III. Japanese Invasion of ManchuriaJapan almost lost all its territories in World War I. Japan attacked Manchuria in 1931, which was a part of China. Manchuria was a rich source of minerals that could be helpful to regain Japan's power in Asia. The League of Nations restricted Japan to colonize Manchuria. In contrast, Japan not only refused to accept their decision as a member of League of Nations but quit from its membership and continued the battle. Later on, Japan called a war against United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941. This was known as the largest Asian war ever fought in the twentieth century. It resulted in United States declaring war against Japan and other nations like Germany and Italy, who had signed the Tripartite Treaty. United States participated in the World War 2 and dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August, 1945, respectively that proved Japan's surrender, after Italy and Germany. Thus the power of United States helped to end the terrible World War Two completely. The above given reasons were the main causes of world war 2. Some other reasons included anti-communism, dictatorship, isolationism, militarism, European civil war, Spanish civil war, the Great Depression, the Munich Agreement, colonialism and globalization.

18. Adolf Hitler

19. Adolf Hitler, who ruled Germany for 12 years, which resulted in millions of deaths in World War II, including the holocaust, is regarded as one of the most despicable men in history, with his name becoming synonymous with evil. Given below are some facts about Adolf Hitler. Born on the 20th of April, 1889, in Brannau, a town in Austria, Adolf Hitler was the 4th child of Klara Hitler and Alois Schickelgruber.Adolf Hitler’s early life was spent in Austria. He liked drawing; however, he was unsuccessful in passing the examination at the academy of arts. He then went to Munich and joined the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment of World War I, wherein he was gassed and wounded, and was also given an award for bravery in action. It was in 1919, after the end of the war, that Hitler joined what was known as the German Workers Party, which he later renamed as the National Socialist German Workers Party, which in turn was abbreviated to the Nazi Party. Soon, he took charge of the propaganda of the party and by the year 1921 he was made the leader.It was in 1923 that the National Socialist German Workers Party, led by Adolf Hitler tried to seize power, from the ruling German Weimar Republic, in the famous Beer-Hall Putsch. However, Hitler was unsuccessful and was imprisoned.It was during the nine months that he spent in prison that Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, or My Struggle, his autobiography as well as his manifesto. He then emerged from prison and became a populist spokesman for nationalistic and poor Germans.After that, in 1932, Hitler tried to become the chancellor by challenging Paul von Hindenburg in the election that was held, but could not succeed. Later, after the death of Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler became the Fuhrer and Chancellor, or Reichskanzler, in 1934. He at once set about establishing an absolute dictatorship, enforcing his newly formed rules with the help of the Gestapo, the brutal secret police. Concentration camps were set up for the organized killing of Jews, political opponents, and Gypsies. He then went about invading and annexing as much territory as he could in Europe, such as the Sudetenland and Austria, in 1938, and then invading Poland on the 1st of September, 1939, whereupon France and Britain declared war on Germany on the 3rd of September, thus beginning World War II.In the initial years of the war, Adolf Hitler, using the might of the German infantry and tanks to unleash a Blitzkrieg, had remarkable success, sweeping through large parts of Western Europe, with nations falling one by one to the great German war machine.

20. Hitler attacked the U.S.S.R. in 1941, ignoring a non-aggression pact he had earlier signed with them in 1939. After initial victories, Hitler’s forces suffered crushing defeats, first at Moscow in December 1941, and then later in Stalingrad, in the winter of 1942 to 1943.It was in the month of December in 1941 that the United States of America entered the war. The Allies began their invasion of occupied Europe by landing on the French coast at Normandy Beach, in 1944. Then German cities began being bombed and destroyed and the allied troops entered Germany and made their way to Berlin by 1945. In the meantime, Italy, under the rule of the Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, who was an ally of Germany, also fell.During the war, many high ranking Nazis became desperate, and a number of attempts were made to assassinate Hitler, all of which were unsuccessful. In the meantime, the forces of the Soviet Union were also closing in on Berlin, which was the place Hitler had his headquarters.As it became quite apparent that the war was lost, and his hand-picked lieutenants went against his orders, on realizing the futility of continuing, Adolf Hitler committed suicide on the 30th of April, 1945. However, on the night before, he married Eva Braun, his long-term mistress, who also committed suicide with him. Thus came to an end both the war as well as Nazi rule. The official name of the Nazi regime was the Third Reich, which Hitler had bragged would last 1000 years, but it collapsed within a week after the death of Hitler. However, it can be said Hitler was the one who was responsible for three of 20th century’s most climactic events: 1) World War II; 2) The Holocaust; and 3) The Cold War, which followed World War II. Plus, Israel would not have come into existence in the Middle East if the holocaust had not taken place.

21. Swastika

22. Following a brief surge of popularity in Western culture, the swastika was adopted as a symbol of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (the Nazi Party) in 1920. After Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 the Swastika became a commonly used symbol of Nazi Germany; in 1935 the Nazi Party Flag, which incorporated a Swastika, was made the sole State Flag of Germany. As a result in the western world the Swastika has been strongly associated with Nazism and related ideologies such as Fascism and White Supremacism since the 1930s. Its use is now largely stigmatized in the west; it has notably been outlawed in Germany if used as a symbol of Nazism. Many modern political extremists and Neo- Nazi groups such as Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging and Russian National Unityuse stylized swastikas or similar symbols.

24. cross cramponned,~nnée, or ~nny, in heraldry, as each arm resembles a cramponor angle-iron (German: Winkelmaßkreuz).

25. fylfot, chiefly in heraldry and architecture. The term is coined in the 19th century based on a misunderstanding of a Renaissance manuscript.

26. gammadion, tetragammadion (Greek: τέτραγαμμάδιον), or cross gammadion (Latin: crux gammata; French: croix gammée), as each arm resembles the Greek letterΓ (gamma).

27. tetraskelion (Greek: τετρασκέλιον), literally meaning "four legged", especially when composed of four conjoined legs (compare triskelion(Greek: τρισκέλιον)).The Tibetan swastika (卍) is known as g-yung drung

28. Native American traditions The swastika shape was used by some Native Americans. It has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. It is frequently used as a motif on objects associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). It was also widely used by many southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo. Among various tribes, the swastika carried different meanings. To the Hopi it represented the wandering Hopi clan; to the Navajo it was one symbol for a whirling log (tsil no'oli'), a sacred image representing a legend that was used in healing rituals (after learning of the Nazi association, the Navajo discontinued use of the symbol). A brightly colored First Nations saddle featuring swastika designs is on display at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada. Chilocco Indian Agricultural Schoolbasketball team in 1909 S.E.C.C. design from Oklahoma

29. As the symbol of Nazism Since World War II, the swastika is often associated with the flag of Nazi Germany and the Nazi Party in the Western World. Prior to this association, swastikas were used throughout the western world.

30. In Deutschland Erwache (ISBN 0-912138-69-6), Ulric of England (sic) says: [...] what inspired Hitler to use the swastika as a symbol for the NSDAP was its use by the Thule Society (German: Thule- Gesellschaft) since there were many connections between them and the DAP ... from 1919 until the summer of 1921 Hitler used the special Nationalsozialistische library of Dr. Friedrich Krohn, a very active member of the Thule - Gesellschaft ... Dr. Krohn was also the dentist from Sternberg who was named by Hitler in Mein Kampf as the designer of a flag very similar to one that Hitler designed in 1920 ... during the summer of 1920, the first party flag was shown at Lake Tegernsee ... these home-made ... early flags were not preserved, the Ortsgruppe München (Munich Local Group) flag was generally regarded as the first flag of the Party.

31. The President of the United States had a strategic dilemma throughout the start of World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was secretly aiding the British in their war against Nazi Germany. He did not want war with Japan, because it would prevent the full weight of the United States military and industry from being brought to bear on Germany. He felt that the China Incident -as the Second Sino Japanese War was known in the late 1930's - was diverting the attention away from the more important threat in Europe. United States of America in World War II

32. However, President Roosevelt wanted the U.S. to become involved in the European war. When the war broke out in 1939, he proclaimed a limited emergency and authorized increases in the size of the Regular Army and the National Guard. Congress also agreed to amend the Neutrality Act to permit munitions sales to the French and British. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Japan had invaded Manchuria. Roosevelt reacted by shutting off American trade with Japan. This made the Japanese even more aggressive since they needed resources from abroad to feed their industries. Japan decided to invade the resource-rich British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia. Japan viewed the U.S. as the most significant threat to their aggressive ambitions. The U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was the only force capable of challenging Japan's navy, and American bases in the Philippines could threaten lines of communications between the Japanese home islands and the East Indies. Every oil tanker heading for Japan would have to pass by American-held Luzon. From these needs and constraints, Japan's war plans emerged. Back on the European front, the rapid defeat of France and the possible collapse of Britain dramatically accelerated American defense preparations. Roosevelt directed the transfer of large stocks of World War I munitions to France and Britain in the spring of 1940 and went further in September when he agreed to the transfer of fifty over-age destroyers to Britain in exchange for bases in the Atlantic and Caribbean. In March 1941, Congress repealed some provisions of the Neutrality Act. Passage of the Lend-Lease Act, which gave the President authority to sell, transfer, or lease war goods to the government of any country whose defenses he deemed vital to the defense of the United States, spelled the virtual end of neutrality. The President proclaimed that the United States would become the "arsenal of democracy." In the spring of 1941 American and British military representatives held their first combined staff conferences to discuss strategy in the event of active U.S. participation in the war. The staffs agreed that if the United States entered the war, the Allies would concentrate on the defeat of Germany first. The President authorized active naval patrols in the western half of the Atlantic, and in July, American troops took the place of British forces guarding Iceland. However, Roosevelt was unable to directly enter the war, since the American people were still in favor of neutrality. The Japanese took care of this in December when they attacked Pearl Harbor. The day after the attack, on December 8, 1941, the U.S. declared war on Japan and Germany

33. The date - 7th December, 1941, is considered by many as one of the most ill-fated date in the American history. The then President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt famously described it as - "a date which will live in infamy", and true to his words it did. This was the day when Japanese forces attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, United States. The attacks, which came with no warning whatsoever, left the entire nation in a state of shock. What was even worse was the fact that this attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in the United States declaring a war on Japan, and indirectly joining the World War II. Before we get into the details of this attack, let's have a brief look at some general Pearl Harbor facts, including its strategical importance.

34. World war 2, Vintage paper, United States declares War on Germany, Italy. US sinks 3 Jap Warships. Long Beach=Telegram Thursday, December 11, 1941

36. Women in World War Two

37. Women in World War Two (1939-1945) had many dangerous duties to carry out and performed tasks on par with men during this period. Here’s a look at some of the courageous women in World War Two. Women had a significant part to play during World War II. World War Two or the Second World War was the time when women also made their own contributions during this very difficult period. Some of their notable efforts have been recorded in history but the efforts of many women and their contributions have often gone unnoticed in World War 2. Their struggles and the kind of sacrifices that were seen in World War II were really commendable, with women taking over many things during this period. World War 2 was the time when women left their kitchen work and moved on to shipyards and defense places to secure a place for themselves. Women came to the front during World War 2 and there were a number of women who made a distinctive mark and embedded their names in history. The lives of the women thus changed drastically, from a homemaker, women had new responsibilities and various roles to play during World War 2. Women took over places initially meant for men and excelled in the same as well. This was possibly because of the absence of men at work due to a marked shortage of people. Here’s a look at some of the strong figures of women in World WarII

38. Tatiana Nikolaevna Baramzina:Born on December 12 in the year 1919, Tatiana Nikolaevna Baramzina was born in Glazov and was also the recipient of the Gold Star Award. In the year 1943, Tatiana Nikolaevna Baramzina was sent to the Central Women’s Sniper Training School and upon her graduation in April, she was further sent to the 3rd Belorussian Front. She managed to kill around 16 enemies out here in the first three months itself! Unfortunately, she was captured by the enemies and tortured before she was shot point blank. Tatiana Nikolaevna Baramzina passed away on July 5, 1944. Today, the street where she grew up has been re-named in her memory. Katya Budanova:This dynamic lady served as a female fighter pilot during World War 2. She was born on 7th December, 1916. She had 11 victories to her credit and she was also known as the one of the world’s two female fighter aces. Her interest in aviation increased when she worked with an aircraft factory in her early years of life. She was assigned to a unit that consisted only of female pilots - the 586th Fighter Regiment. Katya Budanova was well known for her aggressive behavior and there were many incidents where she bombed down enemy aircrafts. During World War II, she also had a solo combat where she shot down one aircraft but was herself killed in the same combat on July 19, 1943. Anne Frank:Anne Frank was a German born Jewish girl who was known all over with the publication of her diary that recounted all her experiences when the Germans occupied the Netherlands in World War II. Anne was born on June 12, 1929 and she, along with her family, went into hiding in July 1942. Two years later, her family was captured and seven months from her arrest, Anne Frank died due to typhus in early March 1945. Margaret Ringenberg:Margaret Ringenberg was born on 17th June, 1921.She began her career during World War Two when she turned a ferry pilot for the Women Airforce Service Pilots. From thereon she turned flight instructor in 1945. She even wrote her own book named ‘Girls Can’t Be Pilots’. She has many trophies to her credit. Hannah Szenes:Hannah Szenes was born on 17th July, 1921 and was trained to parachute by the British army into Yugoslavia during World War II. This task was given in order to save the Jews of Hungary. Her secret mission was not revealed even when she was tortured following her arrest at the Hungarian border. Hannah Szenes had to brave immense tortures, yet she did not lose heart. She bravely battled it out and tried to sing to keep her spirits high! She also kept a record of events in her diary till 7th November, 1944, when she was finally executed by a firing squad. These names are just a few of the women who played a significant part in World War 2. Their stories go a long way in showing the kind of lifestyles they led and their struggles and sacrifices.

40. When it came to raiding civilians by air, the Germans killed 543,000 people along with more in Britain amounting to 60,400.

41. One of the many causes as to why World War 2 started off, was the inability of the League of nations to intervene and prevent its onset.

42. The war began on September 1st, 1939 and continued until September 2nd, 1945.

43. The US got involved in the war, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 by the Japanese.

44. Hitler executed 84 German generals as one of his many vicious and cut throat traits.

45. Those heading the Allies were Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

46. Barely a teenage, Calvin Graham entered the war as a soldier, lying about his real age and was discharged after being wounded in battle.

47. 15 million Americans took up jobs to help out during the war.

48. A major defeat for the Germans was waving the white flag at Stalingrad where they surrendered in the year 1943.

49. The number of soldiers that served in the war, taking only the Americans into consideration were 16,112,566, where 671,846 were wounded among these.

51. The length of service on an average scale for a US soldier in the military was 33 months.

52. German aircrafts didn't fare too well when it came to battling it out in the sky. Up to 45 percent of their crafts were destroyed because of accidents and not because of being gunned down.

53. The major leaders who headed the Axis league were Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler and Emperor Hirohito.

54. There was a time when the Koreans were made to fight for both the Japanese and Germans during the war, switching sides due to being forced into submission.

55. The allies released 3.4 million tons worth of bombs, leaving it at about 27.700 tons of this on an average in a month.

56. The territories that were under the World War 2 grip were South-East Asia, Europe, Africa, China, the Middle East, Pacific, Mediterranean and Atlantic.

57. The holocaust, when it began, saw the murders of Jews already taking place in the concentration camp of Auschwitz in the year 1942. There were a total of 1,500,000 Jews killed including others amounting to 2.000.000.

58. The war involved nearly all countries of the world while it lasted, making it history's most massive and influential wars to have hit the planet.

59. At least 1.9 billion people are said to have served in World War 2.

64. "We must remind future generations what happened in 1936- 1942, so that we will not make a wrong step again, so that our sons will have a chance to live.“ - Wing Commander Guy Gibson

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