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= World War II = World War II, otherwise knows as WWII or the Second World War, was the biggest global war in history. It was fought from 1939 to 1945 in Europe and Asia. The war in Europe began on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, and concluded on September 2, 1945, with the official surrender of the last Axis nation, Japan. It was the largest war in history, spanning the entire world and involving more countries than any other war, as well as introducing powerful new weapons, and culminating in the first use of nuclear weapons. It was the most widespread war in history, and involved over 100 million people from over 30 countries. WWII devastated civilians more than any previous conflict and served as a backdrop for genocidal killings by Nazi Germany as well as multiple other massacres of civilians which, although not technically genocide, were significant.These included the slaughter of millions of Chinese and Korean nationals by Japan, internal mass killings in the Soviet Union, and the bombing of civilian targets in German and Japanese cities by the Allies. In total, World War II resulted in an estimated 60 million - 85 million casualties.

1939

 * Hitler invades Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later.

1940

 * German 'Blitzkrieg' overwhelms Belgium, Holland and France.


 * Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain.
 * British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk.
 * British victory in Battle of Britain forces Hitler to postpone invasion plans.

1941

 * Hitler begins Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of Russia.
 * The Blitz continues against Britain's major cities.
 * Allies take Tobruk in North Africa, and resist German attacks.
 * Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and the US enters the war.

1942

 * Singapore falls to the Japanese in February - around 25,000 prisoners taken.
 * American naval victory at Battle of Midway, in June, marks turning point in Pacific War.
 * Mass murder of Jewish people at Auschwitz begins.

1943

 * Surrender at Stalingrad marks Germany's first major defeat.
 * Allied victory in North Africa enables invasion of Italy to be launched.
 * Italy surrenders, but Germany takes over the battle.
 * British and Indian forces fight Japanese in Burma.

1944

 * Allies land at Anzio and bomb monastery at Monte Cassino.
 * Soviet offensive gathers pace in Eastern Europe.
 * D Day: The Allied invasion of France. Paris is liberated in August.
 * Guam liberated by the US Okinawa, and Iwo Jima bombed.

1945

 * Auschwitz liberated by Soviet troops.
 * Russians reach Berlin: Hitler commits suicide and Germany surrenders on 7 May.
 * Truman becomes President of the US on Roosevelt's death, and Attlee replaces Churchill.
 * After atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrenders on 14 August.

Medical Advancements

 * In 1936, ‘M+B’ was produced by the firm May and Baker - the first effective sulfonamides that could be used for a variety of infections. It was called ‘M+B 693′ and was used as a treatment for sore throats, pneumonia and gonorrhea. A development of ‘M+B 693′ was ‘M+B 760′. Both proved very effective as treatments against infections.
 * Penicillin had been discovered pre-war by Sir Alexander Fleming, but it took the war to force companies to develop a way of making the highly effective medicine on an industrial scale. By the end of the war, several strains of penicillin were developed. The1945 version of penicillin was some 20 times more potent than the 1939 version.
 * The Russians worked on skin grafts, ‘biogenic agents’ that encouraged healing and the re-growth of a damaged area, and the treatment of those who had received severe wounds.
 * The first full-scale investigation into mosquito bites; Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley, using Australian soldier volunteers, probed the problem in some detail and paved the way for the work of Shortt and Garnham in 1948. Fairley showed that one tablet per day of mepacrine could keep malaria at bay.
 * Work on tetanus had started in World War One, but it was developed and refined in the war years. By immunizing soldiers, the risk of tetanus fell dramatically. At Dunkirk in 1940, it would not have been possible to administer a serum on the ground to soldiers who had been wounded in the withdrawal to the French port. However, of the 17,000 men wounded at Dunkirk and who had been immunized before the campaign started, none got tetanus.
 * Drugs were found to help cope with a gas attack, but most success came in the development of gas masks.Philips WW2 dynamo torch.jpg

Technological Advancements

 * In 1943 in the Netherlands, the Philips company built a dynamo-powered flashlight for the troops. Powered by a handle on top, light was generated by squeezing the handle on top. The unit had no battery to charge, so power was only generated while the handle was being rapidly depressed.
 * Called the Wehrmachtskanister by the Germans, the Jerrycan is a strong container designed for carrying fuel around. It was invented at the bequest of Hitler to provide a way of transporting fuel by hand. The cross design on the side helps strengthen the can, while allowing the contents to expand. There was also an air pocket under the handles. A cam lever release mechanism and short spout with an air-pipe to the air pocket allows smooth and accurate pouring on the contents.
 * The B-29 Super-fortress was introduced in 1944, only experimental aircraft had been produced with pressurized cabins. For this plane, the Americans created the first cabin pressure system, with the nose and cockpit sections linked to the aft via a long tunnel, all pressurized. However, the bomb bays remained unpressurized. Even so, this advancement meant the crew could move around relatively comfortable. After the war, the benefits of pressurized cabins were rolled out to passenger planes, allowing us all to fly at high altitudes in relative comfort.Jerrycan.JPG
 * With the Germans encrypting practically every message, Bletchley Park was put into operation to decode them and give the Allies a massive advantage. In the process, they created the world's first computer. The main focus of Bletchley Park was breaking the code generated by the German Enigma machine; which involved creating another mechanical machine, known as the Bombe. However, the cryptologists were also tasked with breaking the far-harder Lorenz cipher, known as the Tunny. This was created by Lorenz machines, which were far larger, and therefore not portable, but much more complex than Enigma. As this was used by the German High Command, the messages encrypted were incredibly important. Lorenz machines were closer to modern encryption than the substitution-cypher-based Enigma.
 * The U.S. Manhattan Project developed the first Atom bomb in history. On August 6th 1945 the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, then on August 9th 1945 a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It's estimated that between 150,000 and 244,000 people were killed as a direct result. [[File:Frontal view of the reconstructed Colossus at The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park.jpg|thumb|Colossus, the first computer]]

Post-War Times
After the war, millions of people were homeless, the European economy had collapsed, and much of the European industrial infrastructure had been destroyed. The Soviet Union, too, had been heavily affected. Over a quarter of the United Kingdom's national wealth had been spent. The Soviet population decreased by about 40 million during the war; of these, 8.7 million were combat deaths. The 19 million non-combat deaths had a variety of causes: starvation in the siege of Leningrad; conditions in German prisons and concentration camps; mass shootings of civilians; harsh labor in German industry; famine and disease; conditions in Soviet camps; and service in German or German-controlled military units fighting the Soviet Union. Roughly a quarter of the Soviet Union's capital resources were destroyed, and industrial and agricultural output in 1945 fell far short of pre-war levels. To help rebuild the country, the Soviet government obtained

limited credits from Britain and Sweden; it refused assistance offered by the United States under the Marshall Plan. Instead, the Soviet

Union compelled Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe to supply machinery and raw materials. About 10 million Germans were either expelled from Germany or not permitted to return if they had fled during the war. The remainder of Germany was partitioned into four zones of occupation, coordinated by the Allied Control Council. US policy in post-war Germany from April 1945 until July 1947 had been that no help should be given to the Germans in rebuilding their nation.

Documentaries

 * World War II - https://youtu.be/jfRq-JeUCSM
 * World War II from Space- https://youtu.be/TdBSwhms7O4
 * Hitler's Plans for North America - https://youtu.be/yi_2Lv9d8Ow

Veteran Stories

 * WWII Veteran Bill Coleman Tells the Story of His D-Day Jump- https://youtu.be/fJ3F5FeF35Q
 * Walter P. Guenther. First Lieutenant, German Army, World War Two- https://youtu.be/pvgInxa4avM
 * World War II Veteran Tells His Story at Iwo Jima- https://youtu.be/yqvHyGGylog  -