World War II — European Theatre
Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland triggered global war. Operation Barbarossa, the Holocaust (~6 million Jews), and the Eastern Front (>30 million dead) made it the deadliest theatre in history. Berlin fell May 1945.
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Belligerents
- Allies (UK, USA, USSR, France)
- Axis (Germany, Italy)
Casualties
~40 million in Europe
Key events
- 1939 — Poland invaded
- 1941 — Barbarossa / Pearl Harbor
- 1942–43 — Stalingrad / Midway
- 1944 — D-Day
- 1945 — VE / VJ Day; nuclear age begins
Aftermath
Established the post-1945 world: UN, IMF/World Bank, NATO, decolonization, US–USSR bipolarity. The Holocaust drove the founding of Israel (1948). Nuclear weapons made great-power war suicidal. European integration (ECSC → EU) born from refusal to repeat. Defined geopolitics for 80+ years.
Weapons & matériel
- Bolt & semi-auto rifles (Garand, K98)
- Submachine guns (Thompson, PPSh, MP40)
- Tanks (T-34, Sherman, Tiger, Panther)
- Strategic bombers (B-17, B-29, Lancaster)
- Fighters (Spitfire, Mustang, Bf 109, Zero)
- Aircraft carriers (Pacific decisive)
- U-boats / Liberty ships
- V-1, V-2 missiles
- Atomic bombs (Hiroshima, Nagasaki)
- Radar / sonar / cryptography
Technology
Manhattan Project ($30B today), jet propulsion, ballistic missiles, radar, computing (Colossus, ENIAC), penicillin scaled industrially
Economy
Lend-Lease: $50B from US ($660B today). Bretton Woods reshaped post-war finance. War spending ended the Great Depression
Cost
~$4 trillion (1945 dollars) ≈ $60–70 trillion in 2025. US: $341B. USSR: industrial collapse + reconstruction
Sources
- Antony Beevor
- Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won
- USSBS reports