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• Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939.

• The war ended in 1945. Germany surrendered in May and their ally, Japan, surrendered in September.

• The war involved the world’s major powers, including Britain, France, Russia, the USA, China and Japan. This guide looks at some of the key events of World War Two.

World War Two was a global conflict that involved most of the world’s countries. These countries formed two opposing military alliances, which fought against each other throughout the war. These alliances were known as the Allies and the Axis powers.

The main members of these alliances are listed in the table:

Although Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, there was only a small amount of fighting. The SS Athenia, a British ship, was sunk by a German U-boat while transporting evacuees to Canada. France made a small-scale attempt to attack Germany through the Saar region, but this was soon abandoned. This period of time is often referred to as the ‘Phoney War’.

People in Britain had expected bombing and fighting to start straight away, but it did not. The ‘Phoney War’ ended in April 1940, when Germany invaded Norway. Britain took military action to try and support Norway against Hitler’s invasion, but they failed. This failure was debated by MPs in the House of Commons shortly after. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was strongly criticised for the failure during the debate. He was unable to form a government that would support him, so he had to resign. He was replaced by Winston Churchill in May 1940.

The German army was sweeping through Europe. Their tactics were known as ‘Blitzkrieg’, which means ‘lightning war’. They quickly overwhelmed the defences and armed forces of countries they invaded.

On 10 May 1940, the German army entered France. They swept through the country, capturing Paris on 14 June. The British Expeditionary Force, which had been sent to France to try and stop the German invasion, had to retreat. They reached the English Channel and waited on beaches at Dunkirk to be rescued.

Britain had soldiers fighting from many different countries in its empire. For instance, Major Mohammad Akbar Khan, an Indian soldier, was in charge of 300 Indian soldiers and 23 British troops. He led them through Dunkirk’s heavily bombed harbour. To find out more about the role of troops from across the British Empire during World War Two, read this guide.

Britain organised a huge evacuation effort, sending over a whole range of naval and civilian boats to pick up stranded soldiers. Dutch, Belgian, French and Norwegian ships were also involved in the operation. The evacuation was considered to be a success, with 340,000 French and British soldiers brought back to England in one week. However, there were also big losses: over 68,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or unaccounted for. Over 400 tanks, six destroyers and 145 aircraft were also lost. These losses were hugely damaging to the war effort.

The evacuation of Dunkirk also meant Britain was left to fight against Germany without France, one of its key allies. Churchill privately called Dunkirk ‘a colossal military disaster’, which showed his concern about the loss of men and equipment.

The German air force, the Luftwaffe, fought against the British RAF from July to October 1940, in the Battle of Britain. The RAF were victorious, meaning Germany had to change their tactics to try and invade Britain.

Despite signing the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. This was codenamed Operation Barbarossa. This meant Germany was now fighting a war on two fronts, against Britain in the west and the Soviet Union in the east.

Operation Barbarossa failed. There were mistakes in planning and tactics which meant Germany couldn’t take advantage of early successes. The winter in the Soviet Union also made it difficult. Fuel froze in German tanks and vehicles, and German soldiers froze to death as they weren’t given enough winter clothing.

There were many casualties. Germany suffered over 1 million, while the Soviet Union had almost 5 million.

The support of American forces was crucial for Britain. By early 1944, plans were being made to return to France to try and push Germany back. British, American and Canadian troops planned to land on beaches in Normandy with the aim of liberating France from German occupation. To try and deceive Germany, hundreds of fake wooden planes were built and placed near Dover, to convince German pilots flying over Britain that an invasion was going to take place at Calais. This plan was effective in helping troops land at Normandy with less resistance.

The landings took place on 6 June 1944. This was known as D-Day. 160,000 troops landed on the Normandy beaches; over 4,000 lost their lives. The invasion was a success, and German forces were driven back. This was a key moment in the war and turned it in the Allies’ favour.

Following the D-Day landings, Allied troops began to push Germany back from the west. At the same time, Soviet troops were advancing towards Germany from the east. By February 1945, the Allies were confident enough of victory that they met at Yalta to discuss how to rebuild Europe and recover from the effects of war.

In April 1945, Allied troops entered Berlin. Hitler, realising that defeat was now inevitable, died by suicide on 12 April. Germany surrendered on 8 May. This is known as VE Day (Victory in Europe Day).

While Germany had surrendered, the Pacific Warcontinued. One of the most significant events of World War Two happened in 1945. This was the dropping of atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American forces.

An atom bomb is capable of causing much greater destruction than the bombs that had been used throughout World War Two, and in previous conflicts. The dropping of the atom bombs was the first and only time that nuclear weapons have been used.

The decision to drop the atom bomb was taken by President Harry S. Truman, who had replaced Franklin Roosevelt following his death in April 1945. On 6 August 1945, Truman ordered an atom bomb to be dropped on the city of Hiroshima. It was dropped by a bomber plane named the Enola Gay. It is thought that at least 140,000 people were killed, of a total population of around 350,000.

When the atom bomb was dropped:

• It exploded with the force of 20,000 tons of TNT.
• The temperature at the centre of the explosion reached 3000ºC - 4000ºC – three times hotter than volcanic lava.
• Everything within a mile of the centre of the blast was flattened.
• Fires spread and around 67 per cent of Hiroshima’s buildings were destroyed.

Three days after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a second one was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by a bomber plane called Bockscar. A further 74,000 people, at least, were killed. The Japanese Emperor, Hirohito, announced that Japan would surrender on 15 August. They formally signed a surrender agreement on 2 September.

This brought World War Two to an end.

The consequences of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were huge:

• Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, while lots more suffered terrible injuries.
• Many people who survived the dropping of the atom bombs suffered from poor health, caused by exposure to radiation in the aftermath of the bombs. In Japanese, the survivors of the atom bomb are known as ‘h��������ܲ���’.
• By the 1950s, the USA and the Soviet Union had developed an even more powerful weapon, known as the hydrogen bomb. This could cause even more destruction than the atom bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The dropping of the atom bombs on Japan was a globally significant event. Many historians believe that it changed the world forever. This is because it led to the development of even more powerful weapons and because it had a huge impact on relationships between countries.

After World War Two, there was a lot of tension between the USA and the Soviet Union, but they did not start a war with one another because both countries had nuclear weapons. Both countries knew that, if they used nuclear weapons, entire countries could be destroyed, and millions of people would be killed. For many years, people lived with great fear that there could be a nuclear war. This period of tension was known as the Cold War.