With whom 2 world war. Western Front of Germany

It would seem that the answer to this question is absolutely clear. Any more or less educated European will name the date - September 1, 1939 - the day the Nazi Germany attacked Poland. And the more prepared will explain: more precisely, the world war began two days later - on September 3, when Great Britain and France, as well as Australia, New Zealand and India, declared war on Germany.

True, they did not immediately participate in hostilities, waging the so-called waiting strange war. For Western Europe, the real war began only in the spring of 1940, when German troops invaded Denmark and Norway on April 9, and on May 10, the Wehrmacht launched an offensive in France, Belgium and Holland.

Recall that at that time the largest powers of the world - the USA and the USSR remained out of the war. For this reason alone, there are doubts about the complete validity of the date of the beginning of the planetary slaughter established by Western European historiography.

And therefore, I think, by and large it can be assumed that it would be more correct to consider the starting point of the Second World War as the date of involvement in the hostilities of the Soviet Union - June 22, 1941. Well, from the Americans it was possible to hear that the war acquired a truly global character only after the treacherous Japanese attack on the Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor and the announcement in December 1941 by Washington of war against militaristic Japan, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

However, Chinese scholars and politicians most persistently and, say, from their own point of view, convincingly defend the illegality of the countdown of the world war adopted in Europe from September 1, 1939. I have repeatedly encountered this at international conferences and symposiums, where Chinese participants invariably defend the official position of their country that the start of World War II should be considered the date of the unleashing of a full-scale war in China by militaristic Japan - July 7, 1937. There are also such historians in the "Celestial Empire" who believe that this date should be September 18, 1931 - the beginning of the Japanese invasion of the North-Eastern provinces of China, then called Manchuria.

One way or another, it turns out that this year the PRC will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the start of not only the Japanese aggression against China, but also the Second World War.

One of the first in our country to seriously pay attention to such a periodization of the Second World War was the authors of the collective monograph prepared by the Foundation for Historical Perspective “The Score of the Second World War. Thunderstorm in the East” (author-comp. A.A. Koshkin. M., Veche, 2010).

In the preface, the head of the Foundation, Doctor of Historical Sciences N.A. Narochnitskaya notes:

“According to the ideas established in historical science and in the public consciousness, World War II began in Europe with an attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, after which Great Britain, the first of the future victorious powers, declared war on the Nazi Reich. However, this event was preceded by large-scale military clashes in other parts of the world, which are unreasonably considered by Eurocentric historiography as peripheral, and therefore secondary.

By September 1, 1939, a truly world war was already in full swing in Asia. China, fighting Japanese aggression since the mid-1930s, has already lost twenty million lives. In Asia and Europe, the Axis powers - Germany, Italy, and Japan - have been delivering ultimatums, bringing in troops, and redrawing borders for several years. Hitler, with the connivance of Western democracies, seized Austria and Czechoslovakia, Italy occupied Albania and waged war in North Africa, where 200,000 Abyssinians died.

Since the end of the Second World War is considered the surrender of Japan, the war in Asia is recognized as part of the Second World War, but the question of its beginning needs a more reasonable definition. The traditional periodization of World War II needs to be rethought. In terms of the scale of the redistribution of the world and military operations, in terms of the victims of aggression, the Second World War began precisely in Asia long before the German attack on Poland, long before the Western powers entered the world war.

The word in the collective monograph was also given to Chinese scientists. Historians Luan Jinghe and Xu Zhiming note:

“According to one of the generally accepted points of view, the Second World War, which lasted six years, began on September 1, 1939 with the German attack on Poland. Meanwhile, there is another view of the starting point of this war, which at different times involved more than 60 states and regions and which disrupted the lives of over 2 billion people around the world. The total number of mobilized from both sides amounted to more than 100 million people, the death toll - more than 50 million. The direct costs of waging the war amounted to 1.352 trillion US dollars, financial losses reached 4 trillion dollars. We cite these figures to once again indicate the scale of those huge disasters that the Second World War brought to mankind in the 20th century.

There is no doubt that the formation of the Western Front meant not only the expansion of hostilities, it also played a decisive role in the course of the war.

However, an equally important contribution to the victory in World War II was made on the Eastern Front, where the eight-year war of the Chinese people against the Japanese invaders was going on. This resistance became an important part of the world war.

An in-depth study of the history of the Chinese people's war against the Japanese invaders and understanding of its significance will help to create a more complete picture of the Second World War.

This is what the proposed article is devoted to, in which it is argued that the actual date of the start of the Second World War should be considered not September 1, 1939, but July 7, 1937 - the day when Japan unleashed a full-scale war against China.

If we accept this point of view and do not strive to artificially separate the Western and Eastern fronts, there will be all the more reason to call the anti-fascist war ... the Great World War.

The author of the article in the collective monograph, a prominent Russian sinologist, full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.S. Myasnikov, who does a lot to restore historical justice, to properly assess the contribution of the Chinese people to the victory over the so-called "Axis countries" - Germany, Japan and Italy, who aspired to enslave peoples and world domination. An eminent scientist writes:

“As for the beginning of the Second World War, there are two main versions: European and Chinese ... Chinese historiography has long been saying that it is time to move away from Eurocentrism (which, in essence, is similar to negritude) in assessing this event and admit that the beginning of this war is falling on July 7, 1937 and is connected with the open aggression of Japan against China. Let me remind you that the territory of China is 9.6 million square meters. km, that is, approximately equal to the territory of Europe. By the time the war began in Europe, most of China, where its largest cities and economic centers were located - Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, was occupied by the Japanese. Almost the entire railway network of the country fell into the hands of the invaders, its sea coast was blocked. Chongqing became the capital of China during the war.

It should be borne in mind that China lost 35 million people in the war of resistance against Japan. The European public is not sufficiently aware of the heinous crimes of the Japanese military.

So, on December 13, 1937, Japanese troops captured the then capital of China - Nanjing and carried out a mass extermination of civilians and a robbery of the city. 300 thousand people became victims of this crime. These and other crimes were condemned by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East at the Tokyo Trial (1946-1948).

But, finally, objective approaches to this problem began to appear in our historiography... The collective work gives a detailed picture of military and diplomatic moves, which fully confirms the need and validity of revising the outdated Eurocentric point of view.”

For our part, I would like to note that the proposed revision will cause resistance from Japan’s pro-government historians, who not only do not recognize the aggressive nature of their country’s actions in China and the number of victims in the war, but also do not consider the eight-year extermination of the Chinese population and the all-out plunder of China to be a war. They stubbornly call the Japanese-Chinese war an "incident" allegedly caused by China, despite the absurdity of such a name for military and punitive actions, during which tens of millions of people were killed. They do not recognize Japan's aggression in China as an integral part of the Second World War, claiming that they participated in the global conflict, opposing only the United States and Great Britain.

High marks for the heroism and self-sacrifice of Chinese soldiers in this war are also given in modern Russia, both by historians and leaders of the Russian Federation. Such assessments are duly contained in the 12-volume work of prominent Russian historians "The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" published by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory. Therefore, there is reason to expect that our scientists and politicians, during the events planned for the upcoming 80th anniversary of the start of the Japanese-Chinese war, will treat with understanding and solidarity the position of the Chinese comrades, who consider the events that took place in July 1937 the starting point that then fell upon almost the entire a world of unprecedented planetary tragedy.

One way or another, it turns out that this year the PRC will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the start of not only the Japanese aggression against China, but also the Second World War.

One of the first in our country to seriously pay attention to such a periodization of the history of the Second World War, the authors of the collective monograph prepared by the Foundation for Historical Perspective “Score of the Second World War. Thunderstorm in the East” (author-comp. A.A. Koshkin. M., Veche, 2010).

In the preface, the head of the Foundation, Doctor of Historical Sciences N.A. Narochnitskaya notes:

The word in the collective monograph was also given to Chinese scientists. Historians Luan Jinghe and Xu Zhiming note:

There is no doubt that the formation of the Western Front meant not only the expansion of hostilities, it also played a decisive role in the course of the war.

An in-depth study of the history of the Chinese people's war against the Japanese invaders and understanding of its significance will help to create a more complete picture of the Second World War.

If we accept this point of view and do not strive to artificially separate the Western and Eastern fronts, there will be all the more reason to call the anti-fascist war ... the Great World War.

It should be borne in mind that China lost 35 million people in the war of resistance against Japan. The European public is not sufficiently aware of the heinous crimes of the Japanese military.

In conclusion, it should be recognized that our country has always objectively and comprehensively assessed the contribution of the Chinese people to the victory of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition in World War II.
High marks for the heroism and self-sacrifice of Chinese soldiers in this war are also given in modern Russia, both by historians and leaders of the Russian Federation. Such assessments are duly contained in the 12-volume work of prominent Russian historians "The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" published by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory. Therefore, there is reason to expect that our scientists and politicians, during the events planned for the upcoming 80th anniversary of the start of the Japanese-Chinese war, will treat with understanding and solidarity the position of the Chinese comrades, who consider the events that took place in July 1937 the starting point that then fell upon almost the entire a world of unprecedented planetary tragedy.

Rate the news

The first major defeat of the Wehrmacht was the defeat of the Nazi troops in the Battle of Moscow (1941-1942), during which the Nazi "blitzkrieg" was finally thwarted, and the myth of the invincibility of the Wehrmacht was dispelled.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a war against the United States with the attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 8, the United States, Great Britain and a number of other states declared war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The entry into the war of the United States and Japan influenced the balance of power and increased the scale of the armed struggle.

In North Africa, in November 1941 and in January-June 1942, hostilities were conducted with varying success, then until the autumn of 1942 there was a lull. In the Atlantic, German submarines continued to inflict great damage on the Allied fleets (by the autumn of 1942, the tonnage of ships sunk, mainly in the Atlantic, amounted to over 14 million tons). At the beginning of 1942, Japan occupied Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma in the Pacific Ocean, inflicted a major defeat on the British fleet in the Gulf of Thailand, the Anglo-American-Dutch fleet in the Java operation and established dominance at sea. The American Navy and Air Force, significantly reinforced by the summer of 1942, defeated the Japanese fleet in naval battles in the Coral Sea (May 7-8) and at Midway Island (June).

Third period of the war (November 19, 1942 - December 31, 1943) began with the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops, culminating in the defeat of the 330,000th German group during the Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943), which marked the beginning of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War and had a great influence on the further course of the entire Second World War. The mass expulsion of the enemy from the territory of the USSR began. The Battle of Kursk (1943) and access to the Dnieper completed a radical turning point in the course of the Great Patriotic War. The Battle of the Dnieper (1943) overturned the enemy's plans for a protracted war.

At the end of October 1942, when the Wehrmacht was fighting fierce battles on the Soviet-German front, the Anglo-American troops intensified military operations in North Africa, conducting the El Alamein operation (1942) and the North African landing operation (1942). In the spring of 1943 they carried out the Tunisian operation. In July-August 1943, the Anglo-American troops, using the favorable situation (the main forces of the German troops participated in the Battle of Kursk), landed on the island of Sicily and captured it.

On July 25, 1943, the fascist regime in Italy collapsed; on September 3, it concluded a truce with the Allies. The withdrawal of Italy from the war marked the beginning of the disintegration of the fascist bloc. On October 13, Italy declared war on Germany. Nazi troops occupied its territory. In September, the Allies landed in Italy, but could not break the defense of the German troops and in December they suspended active operations. In the Pacific Ocean and in Asia, Japan sought to hold on to the territories captured in 1941-1942 without weakening the groupings near the borders of the USSR. The Allies, having launched an offensive in the Pacific Ocean in the autumn of 1942, captured the island of Guadalcanal (February 1943), landed on New Guinea, and liberated the Aleutian Islands.

Fourth period of the war (January 1, 1944 - May 9, 1945) began with a new offensive of the Red Army. As a result of the crushing blows of the Soviet troops, the Nazi invaders were expelled from the borders of the Soviet Union. During the subsequent offensive, the USSR Armed Forces carried out a liberation mission against the countries of Europe, played a decisive role with the support of their peoples in the liberation of Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria and other states. Anglo-American troops landed on June 6, 1944 in Normandy, opening a second front, and launched an offensive in Germany. In February, the Crimean (Yalta) Conference (1945) was held by the leaders of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain, which considered the issues of the post-war structure of the world and the participation of the USSR in the war with Japan.

In the winter of 1944-1945, on the Western Front, the Nazi troops inflicted a defeat on the Allied forces during the Ardennes operation. To alleviate the position of the allies in the Ardennes, at their request, the Red Army began its winter offensive ahead of schedule. Having restored the situation by the end of January, the Allied forces crossed the Rhine River during the Meuse-Rhine operation (1945), and in April they carried out the Ruhr operation (1945), which ended with the encirclement and capture of a large enemy grouping. During the North Italian operation (1945), the Allied forces, slowly moving north, with the help of Italian partisans, completely captured Italy in early May 1945. In the Pacific theater of operations, the allies carried out operations to defeat the Japanese fleet, liberated a number of islands occupied by Japan, approached Japan directly and cut off its communications with the countries of Southeast Asia.

In April-May 1945, the Soviet Armed Forces defeated the last groupings of Nazi troops in the Berlin operation (1945) and the Prague operation (1945) and met with the Allied troops. The war in Europe is over. On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally. May 9, 1945 became Victory Day over Nazi Germany.

At the Berlin (Potsdam) conference (1945), the USSR confirmed its consent to enter the war with Japan. On August 6 and 9, 1945, for political purposes, the United States carried out atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 8, the USSR declared war on Japan and on August 9 began hostilities. During the Soviet-Japanese War (1945), Soviet troops, having defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army, eliminated the center of aggression in the Far East, liberated Northeast China, North Korea, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, thereby hastening the end of World War II. On September 2, Japan surrendered. World War II is over.

The Second World War was the largest military clash in the history of mankind. It lasted 6 years, there were 110 million people in the ranks of the Armed Forces. Over 55 million people died in World War II. The greatest victims were the Soviet Union, which lost 27 million people. The damage from the direct destruction and destruction of material assets on the territory of the USSR amounted to almost 41% of all countries participating in the war.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

World War II (September 1, 1939 - September 2, 1945) is a military conflict between two world military-political coalitions.

It has become the largest armed conflict in mankind. 62 states took part in this war. About 80% of the entire population of the Earth participated in hostilities on one side or another.

We bring to your attention a brief history of World War II. From this article you will learn the main events associated with this terrible tragedy on a global scale.

First period of World War 2

September 1, 1939 The armed forces entered the territory of Poland. In this regard, after 2 days, France and Germany declared war.

The Wehrmacht troops did not meet decent resistance from the Poles, as a result of which they managed to occupy Poland in just 2 weeks.

At the end of April 1940, the Germans occupied Norway and Denmark. After that, the army annexed. It is worth noting that none of the listed states could adequately resist the enemy.

Soon the Germans attacked France, which was also forced to capitulate in less than 2 months. This was a real triumph for the Nazis, since at that time the French had good infantry, aviation and navy.

After the conquest of France, the Germans turned out to be head and shoulders stronger than all their opponents. In the process of conducting the French campaign, Italy became an ally of Germany, headed by.

After that, Yugoslavia was also captured by the Germans. Thus, Hitler's lightning offensive allowed him to occupy all the countries of Western and Central Europe. Thus began the history of World War II.

Then the Nazis began to seize African states. The Fuhrer planned to conquer countries on this continent within a few months, and then launch an offensive in the Middle East and India.

At the end of this, according to Hitler's plans, the reunification of the German and Japanese troops was to take place.

Second period of World War 2

The battalion commander leads his soldiers on the attack. Ukraine, 1942

This came as a complete surprise to Soviet citizens and the country's leadership. As a result, the USSR united against Germany.

Soon, the United States joined this alliance, agreeing to provide military, food and economic assistance. As a result, countries have been able to rationally use their own resources and support each other.

Stylized photo "Hitler vs Stalin"

At the end of the summer of 1941, British and Soviet troops entered Iran, as a result of which Hitler had certain difficulties. Because of this, he was unable to place military bases there, necessary for the full conduct of the war.

Anti-Hitler coalition

On January 1, 1942 in Washington, representatives of the Big Four (USSR, USA, Great Britain and China) signed the Declaration of the United Nations, thus laying the foundation for the Anti-Hitler coalition. Later, 22 more countries joined it.

The first serious defeats of Germany in World War II began with the Battle of Moscow (1941-1942). Interestingly, Hitler's troops approached the capital of the USSR so close that they could already see it through binoculars.

Both the German leadership and the entire army were confident that they would soon defeat the Russians. Napoleon once dreamed of the same thing, entering during the year in.

The Germans were so overconfident that they didn't even bother with appropriate winter gear for their soldiers, because they thought the war was almost over. However, everything turned out quite the opposite.

The Soviet army accomplished a heroic feat by launching an active offensive against the Wehrmacht. He commanded the main military operations. It was thanks to the Russian troops that the blitzkrieg was thwarted.

A column of captured Germans on the Garden Ring, Moscow, 1944

Fifth period of World War 2

So, in 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, the Soviet Union announced its intention to go to war with Japan, which was not surprising to anyone, because the Japanese army fought on the side of Hitler.

The USSR was able to defeat the Japanese army without much difficulty, freeing Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and some territories.

The military operation, which lasted less than 1 month, ended with the surrender of Japan, which was signed on September 2. The biggest war in human history is over.

Results of World War II

As mentioned earlier, World War II is the largest military conflict in history. It lasted for 6 years. During this time, more than 50 million people died in total, although some historians give even higher numbers.

The USSR suffered the most damage from the Second World War. The country lost about 27 million citizens, and also suffered severe economic losses.

On April 30, at 22:00, the Banner of Victory was hoisted over the Reichstag

In conclusion, I would like to say that the Second World War is a terrible lesson for all mankind. Until now, a lot of documentary photo and video material has been preserved, helping to see the horrors of that war.

What is worth - the angel of death of the Nazi camps. But she was not alone!

People should do everything possible so that such tragedies of a universal scale never happen again. Never again!

If you liked a brief history of the Second World War - share it on social networks. If you like interesting facts about everything- subscribe to the site. It's always interesting with us!

Liked the post? Press any button:

The largest in human history, the Second World War was a logical continuation of the First World War. In 1918, Kaiser's Germany lost to the Entente countries. The result of the First World War was the Treaty of Versailles, according to which the Germans lost part of their territory. Germany was forbidden to have a large army, navy and colonies. An unprecedented economic crisis began in the country. It worsened even more after the Great Depression of 1929.

German society survived its defeat with difficulty. There were massive revanchist sentiments. Populist politicians began to play on the desire to “restore historical justice”. The National Socialist German Workers' Party, headed by Adolf Hitler, began to enjoy great popularity.

Causes

Radicals came to power in Berlin in 1933. The German state quickly became totalitarian and began to prepare for the coming war for supremacy in Europe. Simultaneously with the Third Reich, its "classic" fascism arose in Italy.

The Second World War (1939-1945) is an event not only in the Old World, but also in Asia. Japan has been a source of concern in this region. In the Land of the Rising Sun, just like in Germany, imperialist sentiments were extremely popular. China, weakened by internal conflicts, became the object of Japanese aggression. The war between the two Asian powers began in 1937, and with the outbreak of conflict in Europe, it became part of the general Second World War. Japan became an ally of Germany.

In the Third Reich, he left the League of Nations (the predecessor of the UN), stopped his own disarmament. In 1938, the Anschluss (accession) of Austria took place. It was bloodless, but the causes of World War II, in short, were that European politicians turned a blind eye to Hitler's aggressive behavior and did not stop his policy of absorbing more and more territories.

Soon Germany annexed the Sudetenland, inhabited by Germans, but belonging to Czechoslovakia. Poland and Hungary also took part in the division of this state. In Budapest, the alliance with the Third Reich was observed until 1945. The example of Hungary shows that the causes of the Second World War, in short, were, among other things, the consolidation of anti-communist forces around Hitler.

Start

On September 1, 1939 they invaded Poland. A few days later, Germany declared war on France, Great Britain and their numerous colonies. Two key powers had allied agreements with Poland and acted in its defense. Thus began the Second World War (1939-1945).

A week before the Wehrmacht attacked Poland, German diplomats signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. Thus, the USSR was aloof from the conflict between the Third Reich, France and Great Britain. By signing an agreement with Hitler, Stalin was solving his own problems. In the period before the start of World War II, the Red Army entered Eastern Poland, the Baltic states and Bessarabia. In November 1939, the Soviet-Finnish war began. As a result, the USSR annexed several western regions.

While German-Soviet neutrality was maintained, the German army was engaged in the occupation of most of the Old World. 1939 was met with restraint by overseas countries. In particular, the United States declared its neutrality and maintained it until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Blitzkrieg in Europe

Polish resistance was broken after only a month. All this time, Germany acted only on one front, since the actions of France and Great Britain were of little initiative. The period from September 1939 to May 1940 received the characteristic name of the "Strange War". During these few months, Germany, in the absence of active action by the British and French, occupied Poland, Denmark and Norway.

The first stages of World War II were short-lived. In April 1940, Germany invaded Scandinavia. Air and naval assault forces entered key Danish cities without hindrance. A few days later, the monarch Christian X signed the capitulation. In Norway, the British and French landed troops, but he was powerless before the onslaught of the Wehrmacht. The early periods of World War II were characterized by the overwhelming advantage of the Germans over their enemy. The long preparation for the future bloodshed had an effect. The whole country worked for the war, and Hitler did not hesitate to throw all new resources into her cauldron.

In May 1940, the invasion of the Benelux began. The whole world was shocked by the unprecedented destructive bombing of Rotterdam. Thanks to their swift throw, the Germans managed to take key positions before the allies appeared there. By the end of May, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg capitulated and were occupied.

In the summer, the battles of World War II moved to French territory. In June 1940, Italy joined the campaign. Her troops attacked the south of France, and the Wehrmacht attacked the north. An armistice was soon signed. Most of France was occupied. In a small free zone in the south of the country, the Pétain regime was established, which went to cooperate with the Germans.

Africa and the Balkans

In the summer of 1940, after Italy entered the war, the main theater of operations moved to the Mediterranean. The Italians invaded North Africa and attacked British bases in Malta. On the "Black Continent" then there was a significant number of English and French colonies. The Italians at first concentrated on the eastern direction - Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan.

Some French colonies in Africa refused to recognize the new government of France headed by Pétain. Charles de Gaulle became the symbol of the national struggle against the Nazis. In London, he created a liberation movement called "Fighting France". British troops, together with de Gaulle's detachments, began to recapture the African colonies from Germany. Equatorial Africa and Gabon were liberated.

In September, the Italians invaded Greece. The attack took place against the background of the battles for North Africa. Many fronts and stages of World War II began to intertwine with each other due to the ever-increasing expansion of the conflict. The Greeks managed to successfully resist the Italian onslaught until April 1941, when Germany intervened in the conflict, occupying Hellas in just a few weeks.

Simultaneously with the Greek campaign, the Germans launched the Yugoslav campaign. The forces of the Balkan state were split into several parts. The operation began on April 6, and on April 17 Yugoslavia capitulated. Germany in World War II looked more and more like an undisputed hegemon. Pro-fascist puppet states were created on the territory of occupied Yugoslavia.

Invasion of the USSR

All previous stages of the Second World War faded in scale compared to the operation that Germany was preparing to carry out in the USSR. The war with the Soviet Union was only a matter of time. The invasion began exactly after the Third Reich occupied most of Europe and was able to concentrate all its forces on the Eastern Front.

Parts of the Wehrmacht crossed the Soviet border on June 22, 1941. For our country, this date was the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Until the last moment, the Kremlin did not believe in the German attack. Stalin refused to take the intelligence data seriously, considering it disinformation. As a result, the Red Army was completely unprepared for Operation Barbarossa. In the early days, airfields and other strategic infrastructure in the west of the Soviet Union were bombed without hindrance.

The USSR in World War II was faced with another German blitzkrieg plan. In Berlin, they were going to capture the main Soviet cities of the European part of the country by winter. For the first few months everything went according to Hitler's expectations. Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States were completely occupied. Leningrad was under blockade. The course of World War II brought the conflict to a key turning point. If Germany defeated the Soviet Union, she would have no opponents left, except for overseas Great Britain.

The winter of 1941 was approaching. The Germans were in the vicinity of Moscow. They stopped on the outskirts of the capital. On November 7, a festive parade was held dedicated to the next anniversary of the October Revolution. Soldiers went directly from Red Square to the front. The Wehrmacht was stuck a few dozen kilometers from Moscow. The German soldiers were demoralized by the most severe winter and the most difficult conditions of warfare. On December 5, the Soviet counteroffensive began. By the end of the year, the Germans were driven back from Moscow. The previous stages of the Second World War were characterized by the total advantage of the Wehrmacht. Now the army of the Third Reich has stopped its world expansion for the first time. The battle for Moscow was the turning point of the war.

Japanese attack on the USA

Until the end of 1941, Japan remained neutral in the European conflict, while at the same time fighting with China. At a certain moment, the country's leadership faced a strategic choice: to attack the USSR or the USA. The choice was made in favor of the American version. On December 7, Japanese aircraft attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. As a result of the raid, almost all American battleships and, in general, a significant part of the American Pacific Fleet were destroyed.

Until that moment, the United States did not openly participate in World War II. When the situation in Europe changed in favor of Germany, the American authorities began to support Great Britain with resources, but they did not interfere in the conflict itself. Now the situation has changed 180 degrees, since Japan was an ally of Germany. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Washington declared war on Tokyo. Great Britain and its dominions did the same. A few days later, Germany, Italy and their European satellites declared war on the United States. Thus, the contours of the unions that clashed in a face-to-face confrontation in the second half of the Second World War finally took shape. The USSR had been at war for several months and also joined the anti-Hitler coalition.

In the new 1942, the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies, where they began to seize island after island without much difficulty. At the same time, the offensive in Burma developed. By the summer of 1942, Japanese forces controlled all of Southeast Asia and much of Oceania. The United States in World War II changed the situation in the Pacific theater of operations somewhat later.

Soviet counteroffensive

In 1942, the Second World War, the table of events of which, as a rule, includes basic information, found itself at its key stage. The forces of the opposing alliances were approximately equal. The turning point came towards the end of 1942. In the summer, the Germans launched another offensive in the USSR. This time their key target was the south of the country. Berlin wanted to cut off Moscow from oil and other resources. For this it was necessary to cross the Volga.

In November 1942, the whole world anxiously awaited news from Stalingrad. The Soviet counter-offensive on the banks of the Volga led to the fact that since then the strategic initiative has finally been with the USSR. In World War II, there was no more bloody and large-scale battle than the Battle of Stalingrad. The total losses of both sides exceeded two million people. At the cost of incredible efforts, the Red Army stopped the Axis offensive on the Eastern Front.

The next strategically important success of the Soviet troops was the Battle of Kursk in June - July 1943. That summer, the Germans made their last attempt to seize the initiative and launch an offensive against the Soviet positions. The plan of the Wehrmacht failed. The Germans not only did not succeed, but also left many cities in central Russia (Orel, Belgorod, Kursk), while following the "scorched earth tactics". All tank battles of the Second World War were marked by bloodshed, but the battle of Prokhorovka became the largest. It was a key episode of the entire Battle of Kursk. By the end of 1943 - the beginning of 1944, Soviet troops liberated the south of the USSR and reached the borders of Romania.

Allied landings in Italy and Normandy

In May 1943, the Allies cleared North Africa of the Italians. The British fleet began to control the entire Mediterranean Sea. The earlier periods of World War II were characterized by Axis successes. Now the situation has become just the opposite.

In July 1943, American, British and French troops landed in Sicily, and in September - on the Apennine Peninsula. The Italian government renounced Mussolini and a few days later signed a truce with advancing opponents. The dictator, however, managed to escape. Thanks to the help of the Germans, he created the puppet republic of Salo in the industrial north of Italy. The British, French, Americans and local partisans gradually recaptured more and more new cities. On June 4, 1944, they entered Rome.

Exactly two days later, on the 6th, the Allies landed in Normandy. So the second or Western Front was opened, as a result of which the Second World War was ended (the table shows this event). In August, a similar landing began in the south of France. On August 25, the Germans finally left Paris. By the end of 1944, the front had stabilized. The main battles took place in the Belgian Ardennes, where each of the parties made, for the time being, unsuccessful attempts to develop their own offensive.

On February 9, as a result of the Colmar operation, the German army stationed in Alsace was surrounded. The Allies managed to break through the defensive Siegfried Line and reach the German border. In March, after the Meuse-Rhine operation, the Third Reich lost territories beyond the western bank of the Rhine. In April, the Allies took control of the Ruhr industrial region. At the same time, the offensive in northern Italy continued. April 28, 1945 fell into the hands of the Italian partisans and was executed.

Capture of Berlin

Opening a second front, the Western allies coordinated their actions with the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1944, the Red Army began to attack. Already in the fall, the Germans lost control of the remnants of their possessions in the USSR (with the exception of a small enclave in western Latvia).

In August, Romania withdrew from the war, which had previously acted as a satellite of the Third Reich. Soon the authorities of Bulgaria and Finland did the same. The Germans began to hastily evacuate from the territory of Greece and Yugoslavia. In February 1945, the Red Army carried out the Budapest operation and liberated Hungary.

The path of the Soviet troops to Berlin ran through Poland. Together with her, the Germans also left East Prussia. The Berlin operation began at the end of April. Hitler, realizing his own defeat, committed suicide. On May 7, an act of German surrender was signed, which entered into force on the night of the 8th to the 9th.

Defeat of the Japanese

Although the war ended in Europe, bloodshed continued in Asia and the Pacific. The last force to resist the allies was Japan. In June, the empire lost control of Indonesia. In July, Britain, the United States and China presented her with an ultimatum, which, however, was rejected.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These cases were the only ones in human history when nuclear weapons were used for combat purposes. On August 8, the Soviet offensive began in Manchuria. The Japanese Surrender Act was signed on September 2, 1945. This ended World War II.

Losses

Studies are still underway on how many people were injured and how many died in World War II. On average, the number of lives lost is estimated at 55 million (of which 26 million are Soviet citizens). The financial damage amounted to 4 trillion dollars, although it is hardly possible to calculate the exact figures.

Europe has been hardest hit. Its industry and agriculture were restored for many more years. How many died in World War II and how many were destroyed became clear only after some time, when the world community was able to clarify the facts about Nazi crimes against humanity.

The largest bloodshed in the history of mankind was carried out by completely new methods. Entire cities perished under the bombing, centuries-old infrastructure was destroyed in a few minutes. The genocide of the Second World War organized by the Third Reich, directed against Jews, Gypsies and the Slavic population, terrifies with its details to this day. German concentration camps became real "death factories", and German (and Japanese) doctors conducted cruel medical and biological experiments on people.

Results

The results of the Second World War were summed up at the Potsdam Conference, held in July - August 1945. Europe was divided between the USSR and the Western allies. Communist pro-Soviet regimes were established in the eastern countries. Germany lost a significant part of its territory. was annexed to the USSR, several more provinces passed to Poland. Germany was first divided into four zones. Then, on their basis, the capitalist FRG and the socialist GDR emerged. In the east, the USSR received the Kuril Islands, which belonged to Japan, and the southern part of Sakhalin. The communists came to power in China.

Western European countries after World War II lost a significant part of their political influence. The former dominant position of Great Britain and France was occupied by the United States, which suffered less than others from German aggression. The process of disintegration of colonial empires started. In 1945, the United Nations was established to maintain world peace. Ideological and other contradictions between the USSR and the Western allies led to the start of the Cold War.

Portal for the student. Self-training