B-17 Flying Fortress bombers in formation
Searchlights over Gibraltar, 1942

WORLD WAR II

1939 to 1945. The deadliest conflict in human history.

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Molotov signs the German-Soviet pact, Moscow, Aug 23, 1939. Ribbentrop and Stalin stand behind.
German troops on parade in Poland, 1939

1939: the spark

Aug 23Germany and the USSR sign a pact. A secret protocol carves up Eastern Europe.
Sep 1Germany invades Poland. Britain and France declare war on Sep 3.
Sep 17The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east.
Battleships ablaze at Pearl Harbor, Dec 7, 1941 (USS West Virginia)
Hitler in occupied Paris, June 1940

1940 to 1941: the Axis tide

Jun 1940France falls and signs an armistice on Jun 22.
Jul to Oct 1940Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe fails to win air superiority.
Jun 22, 1941Operation Barbarossa. Germany invades the USSR.
Dec 7, 1941Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. The US enters the war.
Adolf Hitler, Nazi dictator of Germany 1933 to 1945. Responsible for the Holocaust.
Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator (propaganda portrait). An ally from 1941, and responsible for mass repression at home.
Winston Churchill, British prime minister 1940 to 1945

The leaders

Stalingrad in ruins

1942 to 1943: the turn

Jun 1942Midway. Japan loses four fleet carriers and the Pacific initiative shifts.
Oct to Nov 1942El Alamein. British forces break the Axis advance in North Africa.
Feb 2, 1943Stalingrad ends. The German Sixth Army surrenders.
Dieppe, Aug 19, 1942: wrecked Churchill tanks and burning landing craft after the failed raid. Its lessons shaped the Normandy plan. (IWM)

June 6, 1944: D-Day

Operation OverlordThe largest seaborne invasion in history lands in Normandy, on five beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
~156,000Allied troops landed on the first day.
Lessons of DieppeThe photo above is from the failed 1942 raid. Its lessons shaped the Normandy plan.

1945: Europe falls silent

Apr 30Hitler kills himself in his Berlin bunker.
May 2Berlin surrenders to Soviet forces.
May 8Victory in Europe. Germany's surrender takes effect.
Illustration: the Genbaku Dome

Aug 1945: Hiroshima

8:15 am, Aug 6The B-29 Enola Gay drops the uranium bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima.
~0,000+Killed within moments, mostly civilians. Estimates for the end of 1945 run from 90,000 to 166,000.
Aug 9Nagasaki is hit by the plutonium bomb "Fat Man". Estimates for 1945 run from about 40,000 to 80,000 deaths.
Aug 15 and Sep 2Japan announces its surrender on Aug 15 and signs on Sep 2.

The cost

~0MTotal deaths. Estimates range from 70 to 85 million.
~0MJews murdered in the Holocaust, plus millions of other victims of Nazi persecution.
~0MSoviet deaths, the largest national toll. Estimates vary by source.

Most of the dead were civilians.

Three myths

The cards flip on their own. Tap one to flip it yourself.

"D-Day won the war in Europe."
The Eastern Front consumed most of Germany's military. The Soviets suffered the heaviest losses and destroyed the bulk of the Wehrmacht.
"It began in 1939."
In Europe, yes. In Asia, Japan and China were at war from 1937, and many historians date the Asian war from then.
"It was a war between armies."
Genocide, bombing, famine and occupation killed civilians in vast numbers. They were a majority of the dead.

Casualty figures are estimates and differ between historians. Some backdrops are illustrations, not photographs.