Second World War 1939-1945

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This was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units from over 30 different countries. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These deaths make World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.

Norwegian Campaign
9 April – 10 June 1940
The United Kingdom and France came to Norway's aid with an expeditionary force. Despite moderate success in the northern parts of Norway, Germany's invasion of France in May 1940 eventually compelled the Allies to withdraw and the Norwegian government to seek exile in London. The campaign subsequently ended with the occupation of Norway by Germany.

Battle for France
10 May 1940- 22June 1940
Germany launched an offensive against France and, for reasons of military strategy, also invaded the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940.The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively. The French-fortified Maginot Line and the Allied forces in Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by French planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.As a result, the bulk of the Allied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclement and were annihilated.

British troops were forced to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk, abandoning their heavy equipment by early June. On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and Britain; Paris fell on 14 June and eight days later France surrendered and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime.

Battle of Britain
10 July – 31 October 1940
Germany began an air superiority campaign over Britain (the Battle of Britain) to prepare for an invasion. The campaign failed, and the invasion plans were cancelled by September. Frustrated, and in part in response to repeated British air raids against Berlin, Germany began a strategic bombing offensive against British cities known as the Blitz.

Battle of Greece
6–30 April 1941
German troops invaded through Bulgaria, creating a second front. Greece had already received a small reinforcement from British Commonwealth forces in anticipation of the German attack but no more help was sent after the invasion began. The Greek army found itself vastly outnumbered in its effort to defend against both Italian and German troops. As a result, the Bulgarian defensive line did not receive adequate troop reinforcements and was quickly overrun by the Germans who then outflanked the Greek forces in the Albanian borders, forcing their surrender. The British Commonwealth forces then performed a tactical retreat with an ultimate goal of evacuation. The German army reached the city of Athens on 27 April and Greece's southern shore on April 30, capturing 7,000 British Commonwealth forces, and ending the battle to their complete victory. The conquest of Greece was completed with the capture of Crete a month later. Following its conquest, Greece was occupied by military forces of Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria.

Western Desert campaign
11 June 1940 – 4 February 1943
The Western Desert Campaign was a back-and-forth struggle which began in September 1940 with the Italian invasion of Egypt. Italian forces in Libya advanced upon British and Commonwealth forces, who were stationed in Egypt to protect British interests there. The Italians halted to bring up supplies, and the British counterattacked. What started as a five-day raid in December 1940 turned into a major offensive operation, resulting in the destruction of an Italian army. With his holdings in Africa threatened, Benito Mussolini asked Hitler to provide a contingent of ground and air forces to prevent a total collapse. Erwin Rommel commanded the Axis forces Over the course of the next two years, Axis forces under Rommel launched assaults three times against the Allies. Each time, the Axis forces pushed the Allies back to the Egyptian frontier, but each time the Allies regrouped and counterattacked. On the final Axis push the Allies were driven deep into Egypt. However, at El Alamein the Allies recovered and then drove the Axis forces west. Axis forces never recovered, and were driven completely out of Libya to Tunisia. The final chapter of the Axis in Africa concluded with the Allied victory in Tunisia.

Far East campaign (Burma)
January 1942 – July 1945
The Japanese Army invaded Malaya from Indochina, moving into northern Malaya and Thailand by amphibious assault on 8 December 1941. Japanese troops in Thailand coerced the Thai government to let the Japanese use their military bases for the invasion of other nations in Southeast Asia and then proceeded overland across the Thai–Malayan border to attack Malaya. At this time, the Japanese began bombing strategic sites in Singapore, and air raids were conducted on Singapore from 29 December onwards, although anti-aircraft fire kept most of the Japanese bombers from totally devastating the island as long as ammunition was available. The British withdraw all troops back into Singapore before surrendering 15 February 1942 to Japanese forces also capturing Hong Kong and Burma this is arguably the most devastating loss in British military history. The British 14th Army comprising of units from Commonwealth commanded by Lieutenant General William Slim fought a hard and brutal campaign against the Japanese defeating them at the Battles of Kohima
4 April – 22 June 1944 and Imphal 8 March – 3 July 1944. The defeats at Kohima and Imphal was the largest defeat to that date in Japanese history suffering 55,000 casualties, including 13,500 dead. Most of these losses were the result of starvation, disease and exhaustion. The Allies suffered 17,500 casualties, almost entirely from battle. Allied offensives reoccupied Burma from late-1944 to mid-1945.

Italian campaign
July – September 1944
The campaign (code named Operation Husky) began with the invasion of Sicily on the 9th July with British and American airborne units followed by land troops capturing the Island on the 17th August. The Germans and Italians have evacuated more than 100,000 men across the Strait of Messina. German casualties exceed 10,000 and the Italians lose more than 100,000, mostly as prisoners. The Allies suffer 7,000 dead and 15,000 wounded.

Allied forces launched their invasion of Italy on 3 September 1943. It began with British forces skipping across the Strait of Messina to Calabria. A few days later, more British and American forces landed several hundred miles to the north at Salerno. Their plan was simple: the northern forces would throw a net across the Italian peninsula while the British army chased the Germans into it from the south. German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring had convinced Hitler that Italy could be easily defended because of its ideal terrain. Kesselring formed the six divisions in the south of Italy into the Tenth Army under General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, but he had anticipated a landing at Salerno and stationed the 16th Panzer Division in the area. At Salerno, Fifth Army attacked with two corps abreast: the U.S. VI Corps and the British X Corps. Initial resistance was light, but the Germans reinforced by 11 September and, despite their weakness, launched a counteroffensive that almost split Fifth Army between the two invading corps. By 15 September, the beachhead was secure, in large part because of an overwhelming weight of firepower in the form of accurate naval gunfire and massive air support and because more reserves were landed. Fifth Army then began an advance on Naples, 30 miles away. Henceforth, the campaign in Italy became a slow, remorseless, and grinding battle of attrition, and as the rain and snow turned the battlefield into a muddy quagmire, the appalling struggles resembled World War I battles. Kesselring had fortified a series of defensive lines, known collectively as the Winter Line, between Gaeta and Pescara. The western end based on the Garigliano and Rapido Rivers, known as the Gustav Line, was particularly strong and hinged on the great fortress of the Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino.

The Winter Line Campaign, lasting from 15 November 1943 to 15 January 1944, marked the failure of the Allied plan for a major winter offensive. Eighth Army was to break through on the Adriatic coast and then swing left behind the Germans, at which time Fifth Army would advance. When the two came within supporting distance, Fifth Army would launch an amphibious operation south of Rome. Although its efforts to break into the German position were initially successful, Eighth Army fell victim as much to weather as to the German defense. In early December, the Sangro River, vital to Eighth Army communications, rose 8 feet, and bridges were under water or washed away.

By mid-December, it was clear that the efforts to break through the German defenses were futile. Meanwhile, Fifth Army successfully cleared the heights dominating the Mignano gap after much hard fighting, but it was stopped at the Rapido River. Allied forces had reached the defensive position of the Gustav Line, which generally ran along the Garigliano, Rapido, and Sangro Rivers. One of the key points was the town of Cassino on the Rapido. However, four successive attacks by Fifth Army failed to make any significant headway. The winter campaign had degenerated into a situation in which two separate armies were attempting to penetrate the Gustav Line. In four months, the Allies had slogged just 70 miles from Salerno and were still 80 miles from Rome. Fifth Army alone had incurred 40,000 casualties, far exceeding German losses, and a further 50,000 men were sick; meanwhile, six experienced divisions were withdrawn for the cross-Channel invasion of France, Operation OVERLORD.

The Italian Campaign gave the Allies useful victories in the interval between the reconquest of the Mediterranean and the reconquest of northwest Europe. In a theater of increasingly secondary importance, Kesselring's position was merely a defensive one, and the best the Allies could claim was that they kept 22 enemy divisions from fighting in another theater. Allied casualties came to 188,746 for Fifth Army and 123,254 for Eighth Army, whereas German casualties were about 434,646 men. The Italian Campaign did, however, afford the Allies experience in amphibious operations and the stresses of coalition warfare, all of which proved invaluable during the invasion of France.