The Second World War was fought from 1931 to 1945 in two main theatres: Asia and the Pacific, and Europe and North Africa. It involved the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan against the Allied powers led by the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and United States. Over 70 million people were killed making it the deadliest conflict in history, including around 20 million Chinese and 23 million Soviet citizens. The war ended in 1945 with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

1. The Second World War,
1931-1945

2. World War II Snapshot
Deadliest conflict in human history:
• 100 m. military personnel
• 70 m. killed
• 2/3 civilians
• TOTAL war

3. Two separate theatres of conflict:
• Asia & Pacific (1931-1945)
• Europe & N. Africa (1935-1945)

4. Nuclear War
• Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945
• Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945

5. Axis Powers:
1. Nazi Germany (Third Reich)
led by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Der Fuhrer
2. Fascist Italy
led by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, Il Duce
3. Imperial Japan
led by Emperor Hirohito
Prime Minister Hideki Tojo

6. Grand Alliance of United Nations
(the Allies):
1. United Kingdom of Great Britain
led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill
2. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
led by General Secretary of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin
3. United States of America
led by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
and President Harry S Truman
4. Free French Forces
led by General Charles de Gaulle
5. Republic of China
led by Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi)

7. Country Population in 1939 Number of Dead total population
Killed
Soviet Union 175,500,000 23,600,000 13.44%
China 517,568,000 20,000,000 3.86%
Germany 69,623,000 7,503,000 10.77%
Japan 71,380,000 2,680,000 3.75%
France 41,700,000 562,000 1.35%
Italy 44,394,000 459,500 1.04%
Britain 47,760,000 450,400 0.94%
United States 131,028,000 418,500 0.32%
WWII Casualties:

10. 1931: Japanese
invaded Manchuria,
China.

11. 1935: Germany violated Treaty
of Versailles. Italy invaded
Ethiopia.

12. Remilitarization of the Rhineland
March 1936

13. 1936: Germany signed
alliances with Italy and Japan.
Axis Powers backed Franco in
Spanish Civil War.

14. 1937: Japan committed Rape of Nanjing, China.

15. 1938: Germany
completed
Anschluss with
Austria.

16. 1938: Britain
and France
appeased
annexation of
Czechoslovakia
in Munich
Conference.

17. Kristallnacht
“Night of the Broken Glass”
November 9-10, 1938

18. 8/1939: Nazi-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact signed.

22. 9/1939: German blitzkrieg of Poland.

23. 9/1939: France and Britain declared war.

24. 4/1940: Blitzkrieg of Denmark and Norway

25. 5/1940: Blitzkrieg of Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and
France.

26. 6/1940: British troops escaped during Miracle
at Dunkirk. France fell to Germany.

28. 8/1940: Aerial Battle of Britain

29. 9/1940: Japan invaded French Indochina.

30. 6/1941:
Germany
invaded USSR.
Einsatzgruppen
swept Eastern
Europe.

32. Marched to
the forest.

33. Forced to undress.

34. Forced to dig their own grave.

35. Shot into a ditch.

36. Nazis executing a Jew at the edge of
a mass grave.
Ukraine, January 1942

37. Babi Yar Massacre
September 28 - 29, 1941

38. 8/1941: USA and Britain signed
Atlantic Charter.

39. 12/1941: Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and USA
entered war. Japanese captured Philippines, Burma, Thailand,
Indochina, and Indonesia.

50. 1942: Nazi death camps were in peak operation.

51. 100,000
Victims
Extermination Camps
Camp Deaths Survivors
Auschwitz-Birkenau 1.1-1.6 million 7,000
Belzec 600,000 2
Chelmno 152,000 2
Majdanek 170-235,000 <600
Sobibor 250,000 50
Treblinka 870,000-925,000 <100

52. 5/1942: Japanese invasion of Australia prevented at Battle of
Coral Sea.

53. 6/1942: Four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk at Battle of
Midway, a turning point of the war.

54. 8/1942: MacArthur began US island-hopping campaign.

56. 10/1942: British repulsed Axis forces at El Alamein, Egypt, a
turning point of the war.

57. 11/1942: US troops landed in North Africa.

58. 2/1943: Germans
defeated at Battle of
Stalingrad, a turning
point of the war.

59. 7/1943: Soviets defeated Germans at tank Battle of Kursk.

60. 7/1943: Allied invasion of Sicily,
Italy. Mussolini removed from
power.

61. 1943: Japan used forced labor to build Burma-Thailand Death
Railway.

62. 11/1943: FDR and Churchill made Stalin a promise to open a
second front at the Tehran Conference.

63. 6/1944: Rome fell to Allies. USA, Britain, and Canada invaded
Normandy, France on D-Day.

64. 8/1944: Allies liberated Paris.

65. 10/1944: USA crippled Japanese fleet and landed in
Philippines at Battle of Leyte Gulf. Japanese pilots began
kamikaze attacks.

66. 12/1944: Allies repulsed final German offensive at Battle of
the Bulge

67. 1/1945: Soviets captured Warsaw, Poland and liberated
Auschwitz death camp.

72. 2/1945: Stalin promised free elections in Eastern Europe after
the war at Yalta Conference. Allies firebombed Dresden,
Germany.

73. 4/1945: Soviets entered Berlin,
Germany. Mussolini killed by
Italian resistance fighters. Hitler
committed suicide.

74. 5/1945: Germany surrendered on V-E Day.

75. 6/1945: USA captured
Okinawa and began
bombardment of Japanese
main islands.

77. 7/1945: Stalin, Atlee, and
Truman discussed post-war
order including
denazification at the
Potsdam Conference.

78. 8/1945: USA used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
USSR invaded Manchuria.

82. 9/1945: Japanese surrendered on V-J Day.

83. 11/1945: Nuremberg Trials of Nazi leadership began.

84. 3/1946: Churchill proclaimed an “Iron Curtain” had
descended across Europe.