"The Second World War", "World War Two", and "WWII" redirect here.

For other
uses, see The Second World War (disambiguation), WWII (disambiguation), and World War
II (disambiguation).
World War II

in the

Clockwise from top left:

German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front, 1943British Matilda II tanks during
the North African campaign, 1941Soviet troops at the Battle of Stalingrad, 1942–1943U.S.
warships in Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines, 1945Soviet soldier raising a flag over the
Reichstag after the Battle of Berlin, 1945U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki in Japan, 1945
Date 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945[a]
(6 years, 1 day)
Location
Major theaters:
EuropePacificAtlanticIndian OceanSouth-East AsiaChinaJapanMiddle
EastMediterraneanNorth AfricaHorn of AfricaCentral AfricaAustraliaCaribbeanNorth and
South America
Result
Allied victory
Fall of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan
Allied military occupations of Germany, Japan, Austria, and Korea
Beginning of the Nuclear Age
Dissolution of the League of Nations and creation of the United Nations
Decolonisation of Asia and Africa and decline of European international influence
Emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as rival superpowers and
beginning of the Cold War (see Aftermath of World War II)

Participants
Allies Axis
Commanders and leaders
Main Allied leaders:
Soviet Union Joseph Stalin
United States Franklin D. Roosevelt
United Kingdom Winston Churchill
Republic of China (1912–1949) Chiang Kai-shek
Main Axis leaders:
Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler
Empire of Japan Hirohito
Fascist Italy (1922–1943) Benito Mussolini
Casualties and losses
Military dead:
Over 16,000,000
Civilian dead:
Over 45,000,000
Total dead:
Over 61,000,000
(1937–1945)
...further details
Military dead:
Over 8,000,000
Civilian dead:
Over 4,000,000
Total dead:
Over 12,000,000
(1937–1945)
...further details
vte
Campaigns of World War II
World War II
Navigation
CampaignsCountriesEquipment
TimelineOutlineListsHistoriography
PortalCategoryBibliography
 vte
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a
global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries,
including all of the great powers, fought as part of two opposing military alliances: the Allies
and the Axis. Many participants threw their economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities
behind this total war, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft
played a major role, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and the delivery of
the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict
in history, resulting in an estimated 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens
of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and
disease. In the wake of Axis defeat, Germany, Austria and Japan were occupied, and war
crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders.

The causes of World War II are debated, but contributing factors included the Second
Italo-Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War, Second Sino-Japanese War, Soviet–Japanese border
conflicts, the rise of fascism in Europe, and European tensions in the aftermath of World War
I. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi
Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. The United Kingdom and France subsequently
declared war on Germany on 3 September. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August
1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had partitioned Poland and marked out their "spheres of
influence" across Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. From late 1939 to early
1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of
continental Europe, in a military alliance with Italy, Japan and other countries called the Axis.
Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, and the fall of France in
mid-1940, the war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the British
Empire, with war in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz of the United Kingdom,
and the Battle of the Atlantic. On 22 June 1941, Germany led the European Axis powers in an
invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the Eastern Front, the largest land theatre of war in
history.

Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with the Republic of
China by 1937. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories with near-
simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, including an attack on
the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor which resulted in the United States and United Kingdom
declaring war against Japan. The European Axis powers declared war on the United States in
solidarity. Japan soon conquered much of the western Pacific, but its advances were halted in
1942 after losing the critical Battle of Midway; later, Germany and Italy were defeated in
North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including a series
of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and the Italian
mainland, and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and
forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-
occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed Germany
and its allies back. During 1944 and 1945, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while
the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key western Pacific islands. The war in
Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories and the invasion of
Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the Fall of Berlin to
Soviet troops, Hitler's suicide, and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration (issued
26 July 1945), the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima on 6 August and Nagasaki on 9 August. Faced with an imminent invasion of the
Japanese archipelago, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, and the Soviet Union's
declared entry into the war against Japan on the eve of invading Manchuria, Japan announced
on 10 August its intention to surrender, signing a surrender document on 2 September 1945.

World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe and set
the foundation for the international order of the world's nations for the rest of the 20th century
and into the present day. The United Nations was established to foster international co-
operation and prevent future conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the
Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—becoming the permanent
members of its Security Council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival
superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century-long Cold War. In the wake of
European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation
of Africa and Asia. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards
economic recovery and expansion. Political and economic integration, especially in Europe,
began as an effort to forestall future hostilities, end pre-war enmities, and forge a sense of
common identity.

Start and end dates

 See also: List of timelines of World War II
Timelines of World War II
Chronological
Prelude
(in Asiain Europe)
1939194019411942
194319441945 onwards
By topic
Diplomacy
Declarations of war
EngagementsOperations
Battle of Europe air operations
Eastern FrontManhattan Project
United Kingdom home front
Surrender of the Axis armies
vte
It is generally considered that, in Europe, World War II started on 1 September 1939,[1]
[2] beginning with the German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France's
declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning
of the Pacific War include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937,[3][4] or
the earlier Japanese invasion of Manchuria, on 19 September 1931.[5][6] Others follow the
British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and
its colonies occurred simultaneously, and the two wars became World War II in 1941.[7]
Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of
Abyssinia on 3 October 1935.[8] The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of
World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of
Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939.[9] Others view the Spanish
Civil War as the start or prelude to World War II.[10][11]

The exact date of the war's end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally
accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 (V-J Day),
rather than with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially ended
the war in Asia. A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951.[12] A 1990
treaty regarding Germany's future allowed the reunification of East and West Germany to take
place and resolved most post–World War II issues.[13] No formal peace treaty between Japan
and the Soviet Union was ever signed,[14] although the state of war between the two
countries was terminated by the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, which also
restored full diplomatic relations between them.[15]

History
Background
Main article: Causes of World War II
Aftermath of World War I
World War I had radically altered the political European map with the defeat of the
Central Powers—including Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire—
and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, which led to the founding of the Soviet
Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I, such as France, Belgium, Italy,
Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of the collapse
of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman and Russian Empires.

The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930

To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was created during the 1919 Paris
Peace Conference. The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through
collective security, military and naval disarmament, and settling international disputes
through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.[16]

Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I,[17] irredentist and revanchist
nationalism emerged in several European states in the same period. These sentiments were
especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial
losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent
of its home territory and all its overseas possessions, while German annexation of other states
was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of
the country's armed forces.[18]

Germany
The German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a
democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar
period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the
right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however,
Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France
to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to
1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist,
totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy,
repressed socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist
foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, and promising the creation of a "New
Roman Empire".[19]

Adolf Hitler at a German Nazi political rally in Nuremberg, August 1933

Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in
1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 when Paul Von Hindenburg and
the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed
himself Führer of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated
revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign.[20] Meanwhile,
France, to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a
colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar
Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles,
accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.[21]

European treaties
The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to
contain Germany, a key step towards military globalisation; however, that June, the United
Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The
Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe,
drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the Franco-
Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which
rendered it essentially toothless.[22] The United States, concerned with events in Europe and
Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year.[23]

Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno Treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in
March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of appeasement.[24] In October
1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan
signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy joined the following year.[25]

Asia
The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against
regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a
civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party allies[26] and new regional warlords. In
1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan, which had long sought influence in
China[27] as the first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia,
staged the Mukden Incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria and establish the puppet state of
Manchukuo.[28]

China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into
Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until
the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the
resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.[29] After the 1936
Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a
united front to oppose Japan.[30]

Pre-war events
Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
Main article: Second Italo-Ethiopian War

Benito Mussolini inspecting troops during the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935
and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also
known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia), which was
launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea.[31] The war resulted in the military occupation
of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa
Orientale Italiana, or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a
force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did
little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's Covenant.[32] The United
Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions
were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion.[33] Italy subsequently dropped
its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria.[34]

Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

Main article: Spanish Civil War

The bombing of Guernica in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, sparked fears abroad
in Europe that the next war would be based on bombing of cities with very high civilian
casualties.
When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the
Nationalist rebels, led by General Francisco Franco. Italy supported the Nationalists to a
greater extent than the Nazis did: altogether Mussolini sent to Spain more than 70,000 ground
troops and 6,000 aviation personnel, as well as about 720 aircraft.[35] The Soviet Union
supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic. More than 30,000 foreign
volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both
Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their
most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco,
now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally favoured the
Axis.[36] His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on
the Eastern Front.[37]

Japanese invasion of China (1937)

Main article: Second Sino-Japanese War

Japanese Imperial Army soldiers during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937

In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after
instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to
invade all of China.[38] The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend
materiel support, effectively ending China's prior co-operation with Germany. From
September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan, engaged the Kuomintang Army
around Xinkou,[39][unreliable source?] and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan.[40]
[41] Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after
three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces
back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or
hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the
Japanese.[42][43]

In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang,
but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May.[44][unreliable source?] In
June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this
manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was
taken by October.[45] Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese
resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland
to Chongqing and continued the war.[46][47]

Soviet–Japanese border conflicts

Main article: Soviet–Japanese border conflicts

Red Army artillery unit during the Battle of Lake Khasan, 1938
In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes
with the Soviet Union and Mongolia. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which
emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this
time. With the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese
War[48] and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets, this policy would prove
difficult to maintain. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April
1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its
focus southward, eventually leading to its war with the United States and the Western Allies.
[49][50]

European occupations and agreements

Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured just before signing the
Munich Agreement, 29 September 1938
In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938,
Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers.[51]
Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of
Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United Kingdom
and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against
the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further
territorial demands.[52] Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede
additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed the Trans-Olza region of Czechoslovakia.
[53]

Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement,
privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of
Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish
"war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to
challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of
Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and
Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic.[54] Hitler also delivered an
ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region,
formerly the German Memelland.[55]

German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (right) and the Soviet leader Joseph
Stalin, after signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, 23 August 1939
Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig,
the United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy
conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of
Romania and Greece.[56] Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and
Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel.[57] Hitler accused the United
Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced the Anglo-German
Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.[58]

The situation reached a general crisis in late August as German troops continued to
mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August, when tripartite negotiations about a military
alliance between France, the United Kingdom and Soviet Union stalled,[59] the Soviet Union
signed a non-aggression pact with Germany.[60] This pact had a secret protocol that defined
German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany;
eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the
question of continuing Polish independence.[61] The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet
opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the
prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War I. Immediately after that, Hitler ordered
the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded
a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he
decided to delay it.[62]

In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made
demands on Poland, which only served as a pretext to worsen relations.[63] On 29 August,
Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the
handover of Danzig, and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German
minority would vote on secession.[63] The Poles refused to comply with the German
demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British
ambassador Nevile Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims
rejected.[64]

Course of the war

For a chronological guide, see List of timelines of World War II.
See also: Diplomatic history of World War II
War breaks out in Europe (1939–1940)
Main article: European theatre of World War II

Soldiers of the German Wehrmacht tearing down the border crossing into Poland, 1
September 1939
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag
border incidents as a pretext to initiate the invasion.[65] The first German attack of the war
came against the Polish defenses at Westerplatte.[66] The United Kingdom responded with an
ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum
was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany,[67] followed by Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa, and Canada. During the Phoney War period, the alliance provided no
direct military support to Poland, outside of a cautious French probe into the Saarland.[68]
The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the
country's economy and the war effort.[69] Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare
against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the
Atlantic.[70]
 Soldiers of the Polish Army during the defence of Poland, September 1939
On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw. The Polish counter-
offensive to the west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and
encircled by the Wehrmacht. Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged
Warsaw. On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviet
Union invaded Poland[71] under the pretext that the Polish state had ostensibly ceased to
exist.[72] On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to the Germans, and the last
large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6 October. Despite the military
defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a
clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland.[73] A significant part of Polish
military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the
Axis in other theatres of the war.[74]

Germany annexed the western and occupied the central part of Poland, and the Soviet
Union annexed its eastern part; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania
and Slovakia. On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and
France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and
the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected,[64] and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive
against France,[75] which was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather.[76][77]
[78]

Finnish machine gun nest aimed at Soviet Red Army positions during the Winter War,
February 1940
After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts that stipulated the
creation of Soviet military bases in these countries. In October 1939, significant Soviet
military contingents were moved there.[79][80][81] Finland refused to sign a similar pact and
rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in
November 1939,[82] and was subsequently expelled from the League of Nations for this
crime of aggression.[83] Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success
during the Winter War was modest,[84] and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with
some Finnish concessions of territory.[85]

In June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania,[80] and the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa
region. In August 1940, Hitler imposed the Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to
the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary.[86] In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded
Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to the Treaty of
Craiova.[87] The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King
Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu with a
course set firmly towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee.[88] Meanwhile,
German-Soviet political rapprochement and economic co-operation[89][90] gradually stalled,
[91][92] and both states began preparations for war.[93]

Western Europe (1940–1941)

Main article: Western Front (World War II)

German advance into Belgium and Northern France, 10 May – 4 June 1940, swept past
the Maginot Line (shown in dark red)
In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore
from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off.[94] Denmark capitulated after six
hours, and Norway was conquered within two months[95] despite Allied support. British
discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain, who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.[96]

On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France. To circumvent the
strong Maginot Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack
at the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.[97] The Germans
carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region,[98] which was mistakenly
perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.[99][100]
By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics, the Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the
Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a
cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able to evacuate
a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although abandoning
almost all their equipment.[101]

On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United
Kingdom.[102] The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell
to them on 14 June. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany; it was divided
into German and Italian occupation zones,[103] and an unoccupied rump state under the
Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France
kept its fleet, which the United Kingdom attacked on 3 July in an attempt to prevent its
seizure by Germany.[104]

London seen from St. Paul's Cathedral after the German Blitz, 29 December 1940
The air Battle of Britain[105] began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping
and harbours.[106] The United Kingdom rejected Hitler's peace offer,[107] and the German
air superiority campaign started in August but failed to defeat RAF Fighter Command, forcing
the indefinite postponement of the proposed German invasion of Britain. The German
strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in the
Blitz, but failed to significantly disrupt the British war effort[106] and largely ended in May
1941.[108]

Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-
extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic.[109] The British
Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship
Bismarck.[110]

In November 1939, the United States was taking measures to assist China and the
Western Allies and amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the
Allies.[111] In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States
Navy was significantly increased. In September the United States further agreed to a trade of
American destroyers for British bases.[112] Still, a large majority of the American public
continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941.[113] In
December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any
negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an "arsenal of democracy" and
promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British
war effort, which was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it
was invaded by Germany.[107] The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a
full-scale offensive against Germany.[114]

At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and
Germany as the Axis powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the
exception of the Soviet Union, which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war
against all three.[115] The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia, and
Romania joined.[116] Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to the Axis war
against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet
Union.[117]