In the autumn of , in what became known as the Phoney War, preparations were being made, but many people felt their lives would never be touched.
However, all too soon, the reality of war began to bring suffering and hardship to thousands of people and to disrupt the peaceful routine of everyday life. Families were broken up as men were sent to the front lines to fight, some never to return, and children were evacuated from cities to stay with strangers, away from the bombing. Shops had limited supplies of food and what was available was often rationed.
People built air raid shelters in their gardens and windows and doors had to be blacked out, while gas masks were carried for protection in case of a possible gas attack.
A definitive account of the build up and first few months of the Second World War is captured in the book, Outbreak While at sea, the Battle of the Atlantic 3 September to 8 May was arguably the pivotal campaign of the war, and the longest. The early battles in the Atlantic heavily favoured the Germans, as they used their submarines U-boats to sneak up on British ships and sink them with torpedoes.
The book also covers the intelligence of the Bletchley Park intercepts and how breaking German secret codes played an important part in the battle and the rest of the war.
The fighting in Poland was brief. The German blitzkrieg, or lightning war, with its use of new techniques of mechanized and air warfare, crushed the Polish defenses, and the conquest was almost complete when Soviet forces entered Sept. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: Wars and Battles.
Heavy casualties sustained in the campaigns at Iwo Jima February and Okinawa April-June , and fears of the even costlier land invasion of Japan led Truman to authorize the use of a new and devastating weapon.
Developed during a top secret operation code-named The Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb was unleashed on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. On August 15, the Japanese government issued a statement declaring they would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and on September 2, U. Although more than 1 million African Americans served in the war to defeat Nazism and fascism, they did so in segregated units.
The same discriminatory Jim Crow policies that were rampant in American society were reinforced by the U. Black servicemen rarely saw combat and were largely relegated to labor and supply units that were commanded by white officers.
There were several African American units that proved essential in helping to win World War II, with the Tuskegee Airmen being among the most celebrated. But the Red Ball Express, the truck convoy of mostly Black drivers were responsible for delivering essential goods to General George S. Yet, despite their role in defeating fascism, the fight for equality continued for African American soldiers after the World War II ended. They remained in segregated units and lower-ranking positions, well into the Korean War , a few years after President Truman signed an executive order to desegregate the U.
World War II proved to be the deadliest international conflict in history, taking the lives of 60 to 80 million people, including 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Civilians made up an estimated million deaths from the war, while military comprised 21 to 25 million of those lost during the war.
Millions more were injured, and still more lost their homes and property. The legacy of the war would include the spread of communism from the Soviet Union into eastern Europe as well as its eventual triumph in China, and the global shift in power from Europe to two rival superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union—that would soon face off against each other in the Cold War. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Food, gas and clothing were rationed. Communities conducted scrap Soviet armies occupied eastern Poland, and the two countries subsequently formally divided Poland between them.
French and British troops offered ineffective resistance against the lightning-like strikes, or blitzkrieg, of German tanks and airplanes. A large part of the French army surrendered, and some , British and French soldiers were trapped at Dunkirk on the coast of northern France.
However, because Hitler, for a combination of political and military reasons, had halted the advance of his armored divisions, the British were able to rescue the men at Dunkirk. France, however, surrendered in June.
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