World War II in Europe explanation

World War II in Europe explanation

 Hitler's government dreamed of establishing a vast and modern "living space" (Lebanese serum) in Eastern Europe. German leaders believed that war was necessary for German domination in Europe.

German invaders arrive in Budgash. Poland, September 18, 1939.

After gaining Soviet neutrality (in accordance with the agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union in August 1939 for non-aggression), Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and started World War II. Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3 in response to the attack. Within a month, Poland was defeated by a coalition of German and Soviet forces, and Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Parade of German troops in Warsaw after the surrender of Poland. Warsaw, Poland, September 28-30, 1939

Polish people pass by the ruins of besieged Warsaw.

The temporary silence that resulted from the defeat of Poland ended on April 9, 1940, when German troops invaded Norway and Denmark. On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the lower reaches of Europe (the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg), as well as France. These countries were neutral in the war. On June 22, 1940, France signed a ceasefire agreement with Germany, which annexed the northern half of the country to Germany and allowed the establishment of an allied government in the southern part of the country. The capital was WikiLeaks.

With Germany's encouragement, the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic states in June 1940 and formally annexed it in August 1940. Italy, a member of the Allies (Germany's allies), also joined the war on June 10, 1940. From August 13 to October 31, 1940, Germany launched an air war against England and was defeated. This war is called the Battle of Burton.

The Germans and their allies invaded the Soviet Union on June 22,

Soviet personnel inspect a pile of bodies in the Kluga camp. Due to the rapid advance of the Soviet forces, the Germans did not get a chance to burn the bodies. Kloga, Estonia, 1944.

1941, after strengthening their grip on the Balkan states with the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece on April 6, 1941. This was a direct violation of the German-Soviet agreement. The Germans also occupied the Balkan states in June and July 1941. On this occasion, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin became a key ally against Nazi Germany and its allies during the war. During the summer and autumn of 1941, German troops reached far within the Soviet Union, but increasing Red Army resistance prevented them from capturing key cities such as Leningrad and Moscow. On December 6, 1941, Soviet forces launched a major retaliatory operation that permanently pushed the Germans out of the Moscow suburbs. A day later, on December 7, 1941, Japan, an ally of the Germans, invaded Pearl Harbor. Bombed the air. As a result, the United States immediately declared war on Japan. As the military conflict escalated, on December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

In May 1942, the British Royal Air Force began bombing the

 British soldier d. Days are landing on the shores of Normandy. This was the beginning of the Allied invasion of France to establish a second front against German forces in Europe. Normandy, France, June 6, 1944.

German city of Cologne for the first time inside Germany with thousands of bombers. For the next three years, the Coalition Air Force systematically bombed industrial installations and cities throughout Reich, turning most of Germany's urban areas into ruins by 1945. In late 1942 and early 1943, Allied forces achieved a series of major military victories in North Africa. The failure of the French armed forces to stop the Allied occupation of Morocco and Algeria paved the way for the German occupation of German ally Vicki France on 11 November 1942. Opposition forces in Africa, numbering about 1.5 million, surrendered in May 1943.

On the Eastern Front, during the summer of 1942, the Germans and their allies resumed attacks on the Soviet Union, aimed at capturing Stalingrad, a city on the Volga River, as well as Baku and the Caucasian oil fields. By the end of the summer of 1942, German

German troops in the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of the Eastern Front in December 1943. German troops invaded Soviet territory in June 1941, but were repulsed after the Battle of Stalingrad. December 16, 1943

attacks on both fronts had ceased. In November, the Soviets retaliated against Stalingrad, and on February 2, 1943, the German Sixth Army surrendered to the Soviets. In July 1943, German forces launched another attack on Krisk. It was the largest tank battle in history, but the Soviets thwarted the attack and gained the military advantage they held throughout World War II.

Allied troops landed in Sicily in July 1943 and reached the Italian coast in September. When the Grand Council of the Italian Fascist Party overthrew Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (an ally of Hitler), the Italian army seized power and surrendered to Anglo-American forces under an agreement on September 8. German troops in Italy took control of the northern half of the peninsula, and continued to resist. Mussolini, who was captured by Italian military authorities, was shot dead by German soldiers. The S. Commandos liberated it in September and formed a semi-fascist puppet government in northern Italy (under German supervision). German forces held sway over northern Italy until they surrendered on May 2, 1945.

A German contingent struggles to pass through a catcher near a destroyed Soviet tank. Naval, Soviet Union, Fall 1943.

On June 6, 1944, more than 1.5 million Allied troops landed in France as part of a major military operation. France was liberated in late August. On September 11, 1944, the first contingent of American troops entered Germany. The U.S. troops arrived after Soviet troops entered Germany from the eastern border. In mid-December, the Germans launched a failed counter-attack in Belgium and northern France, known as the Battle of the Bulge. Allied air forces attacked Nazi industrial installations, such as Auschwitz (but not gas chambers).

Soviet forces launched a major offensive on January 12, 1945,

  Generals Eisenhower, Patton and Bradley look at the bodies of prisoners at the Orderdorf concentration camp at Buchenwald. Germany, April 12, 1945.

liberating West Poland and forcing Hungary (German ally) to surrender. In mid-February 1945, Allied forces bombed the German city of Dresden, killing about 35,000 civilians. US troops cross the Rhine on March 7, 1945. A final offensive by the Soviet Union on April 16, 1945, resulted in Soviet troops besieging the German capital, Berlin. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, when Soviet troops entered the Reich Chancellery while fighting. Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Western Allies on May 7, 1945 at Rhine and to the Soviet forces in Berlin on May 9. When the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, the war in the Pacific also ended. Atomic bombings killed 120,000 civilians. Japan officially knelt down on September 2.

Dr. Fritz Klein, a former camp doctor who performed medical experiments on prisoners, stands among the corpses in a mass grave. Bergen Belsen, Germany, after April 15, 1945.

World War II killed an estimated 55 million people worldwide. It was the biggest and most devastating war in history.