1. The inter-war years

‘The inter-war years’ looks at the period after the First World War when the victorious powers were drafting peace treaties with Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the successor of the Ottoman Empire. The fundamental issue was how to reorganize Europe and territories elsewhere as the basic assumption of territoriality shifted from the dynastic to the national principle. The treaty with Germany had numerous aspects including provisions for war crime trials, the demilitarization of Germany's western border, reparations, and limitations on Germany's military, which were deeply resented by the German people. Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 and the increasing disregard for the peace treaty brought a Second World War closer.

Introduction

The enormous loss of life and physical destruction caused by the First World War led people to hope that there would never be another such catastrophe. How then did it come about that there was a Second World War causing twice the 30 million deaths and many times more destruction as had been caused in the previous conflict? The ‘Introduction’ poses several questions: why did this war start so soon after World War I? Why was it considered a world war and not just European? What triggered the involvement of various nations? How did the Allies win? These questions are considered in subsequent chapters.

Conclusion

The ‘Conclusion’ shows how the world was changed forever by World War II, during which around sixty million people had been killed, the majority of them civilians. There were huge losses in the Soviet Union and China, but the country most damaged was Poland. Massive destruction and economic dislocation characterized much of Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and portions of North Africa. The war and its ending also brought about enormous population movements. Countries faced massive reconstruction, the defeated had reparations to pay, and war criminals had to be dealt with. The war also provided new developments in technology and medicine, which transformed post-war life.

8. Allied victory, 1944–5

The Western Allies intended to fight until the Axis powers surrendered unconditionally. ‘Allied victory, 1944–45’ considers the Allied strategy, agreed at a conference in Tehran, that there would be 1944 offensives on all major fronts in Europe, specifically including an invasion across the Channel to be supported by an invasion on the Mediterranean coast of France. The Soviet Union push into Germany met with the Americans in Berlin in April 1945. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, and Germany surrendered on May 8. It took the devastation of the atomic bomb later in the year for Japan to surrender.

2. World War II begins

The German attack on Poland began on September 1 1939, and triggered the declaration of war on Germany by Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa. Germany and the Soviet Union were agreed on a dual attack on Poland from the West and East, which left Poland unable to defend itself. An important aspect of the war between Germany and the Allies was the war of the oceans. The battles between warships, targets on merchant ships, and the use of submarines in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans continued from 1939 up until Germany's surrender in May 1945 and drew in many Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

7. Developments on the home front and in technical and medical fields

‘Developments on the home front and in technical and medical fields’ describes the social, political, and economic impacts of World War II on each of the countries that participated. There was severe war rationing in Germany and programs of compulsory sterilization continued until the latter stages of the war; Poland was the most dramatically changed country; the European Jewish population was decimated; Fascism was defeated in Italy; Britain lost its colonial powers; and in Russia, Stalin was transformed from being a feared and hated dictator into the benign saviour of his people. There were significant developments in military technology and medical practices applied during the war that had considerable post-war importance.

6. The turning tide: autumn 1942–spring 1944

‘The turning tide: autumn 1942 – spring 1944’ describes the key war strategies and battle results around the world that contributed to the Axis downfall. The Germans were spread too thinly in their battles in the Soviet Union, on the Western front, in the Mediterranean, and in North Africa. The fall of Mussolini in 1943, subsequent surrender of Italy, and rise in resistance movements in territories held by the Germans, Italians, and Japanese, all helped boost the Allied war effort, but the willingness of the Allies to coordinate their efforts was critical. While the Allies at times even shared secret intelligence, the Axis powers did nothing of the sort.

3. War in the West: 1940

‘War in the West: 1940’ outlines Germany's plans to invade England and France. The original plan was to strike in late 1939, but the postponement to spring 1940 had three major effects on that offensive. First, the time was utilized by the Germans to remedy some of the problems encountered in the campaign against Poland. Secondly, repeated warnings of the forthcoming offensive by German opponents of the Hitler regime had the unintended effect of having the last—and accurate—warning essentially disregarded. Thirdly, the time was used for a major reorientation of the planned German offensive that interacted fatally with the plans of the French and British to cope with any German attack.

5. Japan expands its war with China

Japan had been in open war with China since July 1937 and was continuing occasional advances against Chinese resistance. ‘Japan expands its war with China’ describes how German victories in the West in early 1940 suggested an opportunity to close off much of China's outside aid. In July 1941, Japanese forces occupied the southern part of French Indo-China, moving away from war with China to prepare attacks on territories controlled by the Netherlands, Britain, and the United States in East and Southeast Asia as well as the South Pacific. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 brought the United States fully into the war, in both the Pacific and in Europe.

4. Barbarossa: the German invasion of the Soviet Union

‘Barbarossa: The German invasion of the Soviet Union’ outlines Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, which began in the early hours of June 22 1941 with an army of over three million men and over six hundred-thousand horses joined by half a million men in the armies of Romania and Finland. The German air force struck Soviet airfields and Soviet planes, destroying several thousand in the first few days and securing control of the air for the early phase of the campaign. Stalin's errors made for easy early German victories. However, the superior Soviet tanks and tenacity of the Red Army resulted in a much longer and, eventually, unsuccessful battle for Germany.