Complete chronology of the Second World War You just need to know this! History of the Second World War.

World War II 1939-1945

a war prepared by the forces of international imperialist reaction and unleashed by the main aggressive states - fascist Germany, fascist Italy and militaristic Japan. World capitalism, like the first, arose due to the law of uneven development of capitalist countries under imperialism and was the result of a sharp aggravation of inter-imperialist contradictions, the struggle for markets, sources of raw materials, spheres of influence and investment of capital. The war began in conditions when capitalism was no longer a comprehensive system, when the world's first socialist state, the USSR, existed and grew stronger. The split of the world into two systems led to the emergence of the main contradiction of the era - between socialism and capitalism. Inter-imperialist contradictions have ceased to be the only factor in world politics. They developed in parallel and in interaction with the contradictions between the two systems. Warring capitalist groups, fighting each other, simultaneously sought to destroy the USSR. However, V. m.v. began as a clash between two coalitions of major capitalist powers. It was imperialist in origin, its culprits were the imperialists of all countries, the system of modern capitalism. Hitler's Germany, which led the bloc of fascist aggressors, bears special responsibility for its emergence. On the part of the states of the fascist bloc, the war bore an imperialist character throughout its entire duration. On the part of the states that fought against the fascist aggressors and their allies, the nature of the war gradually changed. Under the influence of the national liberation struggle of peoples, the process of transforming the war into a just, anti-fascist war was underway. The entry of the Soviet Union into the war against the states of the fascist bloc that treacherously attacked it completed this process.

Preparation and outbreak of war. The forces that unleashed military warfare prepared strategic and political positions favorable to the aggressors long before it began. In the 30s Two main centers of military danger have emerged in the world: Germany in Europe, Japan in the Far East. The strengthening of German imperialism, under the pretext of eliminating the injustices of the Versailles system, began to demand the redivision of the world in its favor. The establishment of a terrorist fascist dictatorship in Germany in 1933, which fulfilled the demands of the most reactionary and chauvinistic circles of monopoly capital, turned this country into a striking force of imperialism, directed primarily against the USSR. However, the plans of German fascism were not limited to the enslavement of the peoples of the Soviet Union. The fascist program for gaining world domination provided for the transformation of Germany into the center of a gigantic colonial empire, the power and influence of which would extend to all of Europe and the richest regions of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the mass destruction of the population in the conquered countries, especially in the countries of Eastern Europe. The fascist elite planned to begin the implementation of this program from the countries of Central Europe, then spreading it to the entire continent. The defeat and capture of the Soviet Union with the aim, first of all, of destroying the center of the international communist and labor movement, as well as expanding the “living space” of German imperialism, was the most important political task of fascism and at the same time the main prerequisite for the further successful deployment of aggression on a global scale. The imperialists of Italy and Japan also sought to redistribute the world and establish a “new order”. Thus, the plans of the Nazis and their allies posed a serious threat not only to the USSR, but also to Great Britain, France, and the USA. However, the ruling circles of the Western powers, driven by a feeling of class hatred towards the Soviet state, under the guise of “non-interference” and “neutrality”, essentially pursued a policy of complicity with the fascist aggressors, hoping to avert the threat of fascist invasion from their countries, to weaken their imperialist rivals with the forces of the Soviet Union, and then with their help, destroy the USSR. They relied on the mutual exhaustion of the USSR and Nazi Germany in a protracted and destructive war.

The French ruling elite, pushing Hitler's aggression to the East in the pre-war years and fighting against the communist movement within the country, at the same time feared a new German invasion, sought a close military alliance with Great Britain, strengthened the eastern borders by building the “Maginot Line” and deploying armed forces against Germany. The British government sought to strengthen the British colonial empire and sent troops and naval forces to its key areas (Middle East, Singapore, India). Pursuing a policy of aiding the aggressors in Europe, the government of N. Chamberlain, right up to the start of the war and in its first months, hoped for an agreement with Hitler at the expense of the USSR. In the event of aggression against France, it hoped that the French armed forces, repelling the aggression together with the British expeditionary forces and British aviation units, would ensure the security of the British Isles. Before the war, the US ruling circles supported Germany economically and thereby contributed to the reconstruction of German military potential. With the outbreak of the war, they were forced to slightly change their political course and, as fascist aggression expanded, switch to supporting Great Britain and France.

The Soviet Union, in an environment of increasing military danger, pursued a policy aimed at curbing the aggressor and creating a reliable system for ensuring peace. On May 2, 1935, a Franco-Soviet treaty on mutual assistance was signed in Paris. On May 16, 1935, the Soviet Union concluded a mutual assistance agreement with Czechoslovakia. The Soviet government fought to create a collective security system that could be an effective means of preventing war and ensuring peace. At the same time, the Soviet state carried out a set of measures aimed at strengthening the country’s defense and developing its military-economic potential.

In the 30s Hitler's government launched diplomatic, strategic and economic preparations for world war. In October 1933, Germany left the Geneva Disarmament Conference of 1932-35 (See Geneva Disarmament Conference of 1932-35) and announced its withdrawal from the League of Nations. On March 16, 1935, Hitler violated the military articles of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 (See Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919) and introduced universal conscription in the country. In March 1936, German troops occupied the demilitarized Rhineland. In November 1936, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy joined in 1937. The activation of the aggressive forces of imperialism led to a number of international political crises and local wars. As a result of the aggressive wars of Japan against China (began in 1931), Italy against Ethiopia (1935-36), and the German-Italian intervention in Spain (1936-39), fascist states strengthened their positions in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Using the policy of “non-intervention” pursued by Great Britain and France, Nazi Germany captured Austria in March 1938 and began preparing an attack on Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia had a well-trained army, based on a powerful system of border fortifications; Treaties with France (1924) and the USSR (1935) provided for military assistance from these powers to Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Union has repeatedly stated its readiness to fulfill its obligations and provide military assistance to Czechoslovakia, even if France does not. However, the government of E. Benes did not accept help from the USSR. As a result of the Munich Agreement of 1938 (See Munich Agreement of 1938), the ruling circles of Great Britain and France, supported by the United States, betrayed Czechoslovakia and agreed to the seizure of the Sudetenland by Germany, hoping in this way to open the “path to the East” for Nazi Germany. The fascist leadership had a free hand for aggression.

At the end of 1938, the ruling circles of Nazi Germany began a diplomatic offensive against Poland, creating the so-called Danzig crisis, the meaning of which was to carry out aggression against Poland under the guise of demands for the elimination of the “injustices of Versailles” against the free city of Danzig. In March 1939, Germany completely occupied Czechoslovakia, created a fascist puppet “state” - Slovakia, seized the Memel region from Lithuania and imposed an enslaving “economic” agreement on Romania. Italy occupied Albania in April 1939. In response to the expansion of fascist aggression, the governments of Great Britain and France, in order to protect their economic and political interests in Europe, provided “guarantees of independence” to Poland, Romania, Greece and Turkey. France also pledged military assistance to Poland in the event of an attack by Germany. In April - May 1939, Germany denounced the Anglo-German naval agreement of 1935, broke the non-aggression agreement concluded in 1934 with Poland and concluded the so-called Pact of Steel with Italy, according to which the Italian government pledged to help Germany if it went to war with the Western powers.

In such a situation, the British and French governments, under the influence of public opinion, out of fear of the further strengthening of Germany and in order to put pressure on it, entered into negotiations with the USSR, which took place in Moscow in the summer of 1939 (see Moscow negotiations 1939). However, the Western powers did not agree to conclude the agreement proposed by the USSR on a joint struggle against the aggressor. By inviting the Soviet Union to make unilateral commitments to help any European neighbor in the event of an attack on it, the Western powers wanted to drag the USSR into a one-on-one war against Germany. The negotiations, which lasted until mid-August 1939, did not produce results due to sabotage by Paris and London of Soviet constructive proposals. Leading the Moscow negotiations to a breakdown, the British government at the same time entered into secret contacts with the Nazis through their ambassador in London G. Dirksen, trying to achieve an agreement on the redistribution of the world at the expense of the USSR. The position of the Western powers predetermined the breakdown of the Moscow negotiations and presented the Soviet Union with an alternative: to find itself isolated in the face of a direct threat of attack by Nazi Germany or, having exhausted the possibilities of concluding an alliance with Great Britain and France, to sign the non-aggression pact proposed by Germany and thereby push back the threat of war. The situation made the second choice inevitable. The Soviet-German treaty concluded on August 23, 1939 contributed to the fact that, contrary to the calculations of Western politicians, the world war began with a clash within the capitalist world.

On the eve of V. m.v. German fascism, through the accelerated development of the military economy, created a powerful military potential. In 1933-39, expenditures on armaments increased more than 12 times and reached 37 billion marks. Germany smelted 22.5 million in 1939. T steel, 17.5 million T pig iron, mined 251.6 million. T coal, produced 66.0 billion. kW · h electricity. However, for a number of types of strategic raw materials, Germany depended on imports (iron ore, rubber, manganese ore, copper, oil and petroleum products, chrome ore). The number of armed forces of Nazi Germany by September 1, 1939 reached 4.6 million people. There were 26 thousand guns and mortars, 3.2 thousand tanks, 4.4 thousand combat aircraft, 115 warships (including 57 submarines) in service.

The strategy of the German High Command was based on the doctrine of “total war”. Its main content was the concept of “blitzkrieg”, according to which victory should be achieved in the shortest possible time, before the enemy fully deploys his armed forces and military-economic potential. The strategic plan of the fascist German command was to, using limited forces in the west as cover, attack Poland and quickly defeat its armed forces. 61 divisions and 2 brigades were deployed against Poland (including 7 tank and about 9 motorized), of which 7 infantry and 1 tank divisions arrived after the start of the war, a total of 1.8 million people, over 11 thousand guns and mortars, 2.8 thousand tanks, about 2 thousand aircraft; against France - 35 infantry divisions (after September 3, 9 more divisions arrived), 1.5 thousand aircraft.

The Polish command, counting on military assistance guaranteed by Great Britain and France, intended to conduct defense in the border zone and go on the offensive after the French army and British aviation actively distracted German forces from the Polish front. By September 1, Poland had managed to mobilize and concentrate troops only 70%: 24 infantry divisions, 3 mountain brigades, 1 armored brigade, 8 cavalry brigades and 56 national defense battalions were deployed. The Polish armed forces had over 4 thousand guns and mortars, 785 light tanks and tankettes and about 400 aircraft.

The French plan for waging war against Germany, in accordance with the political course pursued by France and the military doctrine of the French command, provided for defense on the Maginot Line and the entry of troops into Belgium and the Netherlands to continue the defensive front to the north in order to protect the ports and industrial areas of France and Belgium. After mobilization, the armed forces of France numbered 110 divisions (15 of them in the colonies), a total of 2.67 million people, about 2.7 thousand tanks (in the metropolis - 2.4 thousand), over 26 thousand guns and mortars, 2330 aircraft (in the metropolis - 1735), 176 warships (including 77 submarines).

Great Britain had a strong Navy and Air Force - 320 warships of the main classes (including 69 submarines), about 2 thousand aircraft. Its ground forces consisted of 9 personnel and 17 territorial divisions; they had 5.6 thousand guns and mortars, 547 tanks. The strength of the British army was 1.27 million people. In the event of war with Germany, the British command planned to concentrate its main efforts at sea and send 10 divisions to France. The British and French commands did not intend to provide serious assistance to Poland.

1st period of the war (September 1, 1939 - June 21, 1941)- the period of military successes of Nazi Germany. On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland (see Polish campaign of 1939). On September 3, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. Having an overwhelming superiority of forces over the Polish army and concentrating a mass of tanks and aircraft on the main sectors of the front, the Nazi command was able to achieve major operational results from the beginning of the war. The incomplete deployment of forces, the lack of assistance from the allies, the weakness of the centralized leadership and its subsequent collapse put the Polish army before a disaster.

The courageous resistance of Polish troops near Mokra, Mlawa, on Bzura, the defense of Modlin, Westerplatte and the heroic 20-day defense of Warsaw (September 8-28) wrote bright pages in the history of the German-Polish war, but could not prevent the defeat of Poland. Hitler's troops surrounded a number of Polish army groups west of the Vistula, transferred military operations to the eastern regions of the country and completed its occupation in early October.

On September 17, by order of the Soviet government, Red Army troops crossed the border of the collapsed Polish state and began a liberation campaign into Western Belarus and Western Ukraine in order to protect the lives and property of the Ukrainian and Belarusian population, who were seeking reunification with the Soviet republics. The campaign to the West was also necessary to stop the spread of Hitler's aggression to the east. The Soviet government, confident in the inevitability of German aggression against the USSR in the near future, sought to delay the starting point of the future deployment of troops of a potential enemy, which was in the interests of not only the Soviet Union, but also all peoples threatened by fascist aggression. After the Red Army liberated the Western Belarusian and Western Ukrainian lands, Western Ukraine (November 1, 1939) and Western Belarus (November 2, 1939) were reunited with the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR, respectively.

At the end of September - beginning of October 1939, Soviet-Estonian, Soviet-Latvian and Soviet-Lithuanian mutual assistance treaties were signed, which prevented the seizure of the Baltic countries by Nazi Germany and their transformation into a military springboard against the USSR. In August 1940, after the overthrow of the bourgeois governments of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, these countries, in accordance with the wishes of their peoples, were accepted into the USSR.

As a result of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 (See Soviet-Finnish War of 1939), according to the agreement of March 12, 1940, the USSR border on the Karelian Isthmus, in the area of ​​Leningrad and the Murmansk Railway, was somewhat pushed to the north-west. On June 26, 1940, the Soviet government proposed that Romania return Bessarabia, captured by Romania in 1918, to the USSR and transfer the northern part of Bukovina, inhabited by Ukrainians, to the USSR. On June 28, the Romanian government agreed to the return of Bessarabia and the transfer of Northern Bukovina.

The governments of Great Britain and France after the outbreak of the war until May 1940 continued, only in a slightly modified form, the pre-war foreign policy course, which was based on calculations for reconciliation with fascist Germany on the basis of anti-communism and the direction of its aggression against the USSR. Despite the declaration of war, the French armed forces and the British Expeditionary Forces (which began arriving in France in mid-September) remained inactive for 9 months. During this period, called the “Phantom War,” Hitler’s army prepared for an offensive against the countries of Western Europe. Since the end of September 1939, active military operations were carried out only on sea communications. To blockade Great Britain, the Nazi command used naval forces, especially submarines and large ships (raiders). From September to December 1939, Great Britain lost 114 ships from attacks by German submarines, and in 1940 - 471 ships, while the Germans lost only 9 submarines in 1939. Attacks on Great Britain's sea communications led to the loss of 1/3 of the tonnage of the British merchant fleet by the summer of 1941 and created a serious threat to the country's economy.

In April–May 1940, German armed forces captured Norway and Denmark (see Norwegian Operation of 1940) with the aim of strengthening German positions in the Atlantic and Northern Europe, seizing iron ore wealth, bringing the bases of the German fleet closer to Great Britain, and providing a springboard in the north for an attack on the USSR. . On April 9, 1940, amphibious assault forces landed simultaneously and captured the key ports of Norway along its entire 1800-long coastline. km, and airborne assaults occupied the main airfields. The courageous resistance of the Norwegian army (which was late in deployment) and the patriots delayed the onslaught of the Nazis. Attempts by the Anglo-French troops to dislodge the Germans from the points they occupied led to a series of battles in the areas of Narvik, Namsus, Molle (Molde), and others. British troops recaptured Narvik from the Germans. But they failed to wrest the strategic initiative from the Nazis. At the beginning of June they were evacuated from Narvik. The occupation of Norway was made easier for the Nazis by the actions of the Norwegian “fifth column” led by V. Quisling. The country turned into Hitler's base in northern Europe. But significant losses of the Nazi fleet during the Norwegian operation weakened its capabilities in the further struggle for the Atlantic.

At dawn on May 10, 1940, after careful preparation, Nazi troops (135 divisions, including 10 tank and 6 motorized, and 1 brigade, 2,580 tanks, 3,834 aircraft) invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and then through their territories and into France (see French campaign 1940). The Germans delivered the main blow with a mass of mobile formations and aircraft through the Ardennes Mountains, bypassing the Maginot Line from the north, through northern France to the English Channel coast. The French command, adhering to a defensive doctrine, stationed large forces on the Maginot Line and did not create a strategic reserve in the depths. After the start of the German offensive, it brought the main group of troops, including the British Expeditionary Army, into Belgium, exposing these forces to attack from the rear. These serious mistakes of the French command, aggravated by poor interaction between the Allied armies, allowed Hitler's troops after crossing the river. Meuse and battles in central Belgium to carry out a breakthrough through northern France, cut the front of the Anglo-French troops, go to the rear of the Anglo-French group operating in Belgium, and break through to the English Channel. On May 14, the Netherlands capitulated. The Belgian, British and part of the French armies were surrounded in Flanders. Belgium capitulated on May 28. The British and part of the French troops, surrounded in the Dunkirk area, managed, having lost all their military equipment, to evacuate to Great Britain (see Dunkirk operation 1940).

At the 2nd stage of the summer campaign of 1940, Hitler’s army, with much superior forces, broke through the front hastily created by the French along the river. Somme and En. The danger looming over France required the unity of the people's forces. French communists called for nationwide resistance and organization of the defense of Paris. The capitulators and traitors (P. Reynaud, C. Pétain, P. Laval and others) who determined the policy of France, the high command led by M. Weygand rejected this only way to save the country, as they feared revolutionary actions of the proletariat and the strengthening of the Communist Party. They decided to surrender Paris without a fight and capitulate to Hitler. Having not exhausted the possibilities of resistance, the French armed forces laid down their arms. The Compiègne Armistice of 1940 (signed on June 22) became a milestone in the policy of national treason pursued by the Pétain government, which expressed the interests of part of the French bourgeoisie, oriented toward Nazi Germany. This truce was aimed at strangling the national liberation struggle of the French people. Under its terms, an occupation regime was established in the northern and central parts of France. France's industrial, raw materials and food resources came under German control. In the unoccupied southern part of the country, the anti-national pro-fascist Vichy government led by Pétain came to power, becoming Hitler's puppet. But at the end of June 1940, the Committee of Free (from July 1942 - Fighting) France, headed by General Charles de Gaulle, was formed in London to lead the struggle for the liberation of France from the Nazi invaders and their henchmen.

On June 10, 1940, Italy entered the war against Great Britain and France, striving to establish dominance in the Mediterranean basin. Italian troops captured British Somalia, part of Kenya and Sudan in August, and in mid-September invaded Egypt from Libya to make their way to Suez (see North African campaigns 1940-43). However, they were soon stopped, and in December 1940 they were driven back by the British. An attempt by the Italians to develop an offensive from Albania to Greece, launched in October 1940, was decisively repulsed by the Greek army, which inflicted a number of strong retaliatory blows on the Italian troops (see Italo-Greek War 1940-41 (See Italo-Greek War 1940-1941)). In January - May 1941, British troops expelled the Italians from British Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Italian Somalia, and Eritrea. Mussolini was forced in January 1941 to ask Hitler for help. In the spring, German troops were sent to North Africa, forming the so-called Afrika Korps, led by General E. Rommel. Having gone on the offensive on March 31, Italian-German troops reached the Libyan-Egyptian border in the 2nd half of April.

After the defeat of France, the threat looming over Great Britain contributed to the isolation of the Munich elements and the rallying of the forces of the English people. The government of W. Churchill, which replaced the government of N. Chamberlain on May 10, 1940, began organizing an effective defense. The British government attached particular importance to US support. In July 1940, secret negotiations began between the air and naval headquarters of the United States and Great Britain, which ended with the signing on September 2 of an agreement on the transfer of 50 obsolete American destroyers to the latter in exchange for British military bases in the Western Hemisphere (they were provided to the United States for a period of 99 years). Destroyers were needed to fight the Atlantic communications.

On July 16, 1940, Hitler issued a directive for the invasion of Great Britain (Operation Sea Lion). From August 1940, the Nazis began massive bombing of Great Britain in order to undermine its military and economic potential, demoralize the population, prepare for an invasion and ultimately force it to surrender (see Battle of Britain 1940-41). German aviation caused significant damage to many British cities, enterprises, and ports, but did not break the resistance of the British Air Force, was unable to establish air supremacy over the English Channel, and suffered heavy losses. As a result of the air raids, which continued until May 1941, Hitler's leadership was unable to force Great Britain to capitulate, destroy its industry, and undermine the morale of the population. The German command was unable to provide the required number of landing equipment in a timely manner. The naval forces were insufficient.

However, the main reason for Hitler’s refusal to invade Great Britain was the decision he made back in the summer of 1940 to commit aggression against the Soviet Union. Having begun direct preparations for an attack on the USSR, the Nazi leadership was forced to transfer forces from the West to the East, directing enormous resources to the development of ground forces, and not the fleet necessary to fight against Great Britain. In the autumn, the ongoing preparations for war against the USSR removed the direct threat of a German invasion of Great Britain. Closely connected with plans to prepare an attack on the USSR was the strengthening of the aggressive alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan, which found expression in the signing of the Berlin Pact of 1940 on September 27 (See Berlin Pact of 1940).

Preparing an attack on the USSR, fascist Germany carried out aggression in the Balkans in the spring of 1941 (see Balkan campaign of 1941). On March 2, Nazi troops entered Bulgaria, which joined the Berlin Pact; On April 6, Italo-German and then Hungarian troops invaded Yugoslavia and Greece and occupied Yugoslavia by April 18, and the Greek mainland by April 29. On the territory of Yugoslavia, puppet fascist “states” were created - Croatia and Serbia. From May 20 to June 2, the fascist German command carried out the Cretan airborne operation of 1941 (See Cretan airborne operation of 1941), during which Crete and other Greek islands in the Aegean Sea were captured.

The military successes of Nazi Germany in the first period of the war were largely due to the fact that its opponents, who had an overall higher industrial and economic potential, were unable to pool their resources, create a unified system of military leadership, and develop unified effective plans for waging war. Their military machine lagged behind the new demands of armed struggle and had difficulty resisting more modern methods of conducting it. In terms of training, combat training and technical equipment, the Nazi Wehrmacht was generally superior to the armed forces of Western states. The insufficient military preparedness of the latter was mainly associated with the reactionary pre-war foreign policy course of their ruling circles, which was based on the desire to come to an agreement with the aggressor at the expense of the USSR.

By the end of the 1st period of the war, the bloc of fascist states had sharply strengthened economically and militarily. Most of continental Europe, with its resources and economy, came under German control. In Poland, Germany captured the main metallurgical and engineering plants, the coal mines of Upper Silesia, the chemical and mining industries - a total of 294 large, 35 thousand medium and small industrial enterprises; in France - the metallurgical and steel industry of Lorraine, the entire automotive and aviation industry, reserves of iron ore, copper, aluminum, magnesium, as well as automobiles, precision mechanics products, machine tools, rolling stock; in Norway - mining, metallurgical, shipbuilding industries, enterprises for the production of ferroalloys; in Yugoslavia - copper and bauxite deposits; in the Netherlands, in addition to industrial enterprises, gold reserves amount to 71.3 million florins. The total amount of material assets looted by Nazi Germany in the occupied countries amounted to 9 billion pounds sterling by 1941. By the spring of 1941, more than 3 million foreign workers and prisoners of war worked at German enterprises. In addition, all the weapons of their armies were captured in the occupied countries; for example, in France alone there are about 5 thousand tanks and 3 thousand aircraft. In 1941, the Nazis equipped 38 infantry, 3 motorized, and 1 tank divisions with French vehicles. More than 4 thousand steam locomotives and 40 thousand carriages from occupied countries appeared on the German railway. The economic resources of most European states were put at the service of the war, primarily the war being prepared against the USSR.

In the occupied territories, as well as in Germany itself, the Nazis established a terrorist regime, exterminating all those dissatisfied or suspected of discontent. A system of concentration camps was created in which millions of people were exterminated in an organized manner. The activity of death camps especially developed after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR. More than 4 million people were killed in the Auschwitz camp (Poland) alone. The fascist command widely practiced punitive expeditions and mass executions of civilians (see Lidice, Oradour-sur-Glane, etc.).

Military successes allowed Hitler's diplomacy to push the boundaries of the fascist bloc, consolidate the accession of Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Finland (which were headed by reactionary governments closely associated with fascist Germany and dependent on it), plant its agents and strengthen its positions in the Middle East, in some areas of Africa and Latin America. At the same time, political self-exposure of the Nazi regime took place, hatred of it grew not only among broad sections of the population, but also among the ruling classes of capitalist countries, and the Resistance Movement began. In the face of the fascist threat, the ruling circles of the Western powers, primarily Great Britain, were forced to reconsider their previous political course aimed at condoning fascist aggression, and gradually replace it with a course towards the fight against fascism.

The US government gradually began to reconsider its foreign policy course. It increasingly actively supported Great Britain, becoming its “non-belligerent ally.” In May 1940, Congress approved an amount of 3 billion dollars for the needs of the army and navy, and in the summer - 6.5 billion, including 4 billion for the construction of a “fleet of two oceans.” The supply of weapons and equipment for Great Britain increased. According to the law adopted by the US Congress on March 11, 1941 on the transfer of military materials to warring countries on loan or lease (see Lend-Lease), Great Britain was allocated 7 billion dollars. In April 1941, the Lend-Lease law was extended to Yugoslavia and Greece. US troops occupied Greenland and Iceland and established bases there. The North Atlantic was declared a “patrol zone” for the US navy, which was also used to escort merchant ships heading to the UK.

2nd period of the war (22 June 1941 - 18 November 1942) is characterized by a further expansion of its scope and the beginning, in connection with the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, which became the main and decisive component of military warfare. (for details on the actions on the Soviet-German front, see the article The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-45). On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany treacherously and suddenly attacked the Soviet Union. This attack completed the long course of anti-Soviet policy of German fascism, which sought to destroy the world's first socialist state and seize its richest resources. Nazi Germany sent 77% of its armed forces personnel, the bulk of its tanks and aircraft, i.e., the main most combat-ready forces of the Nazi Wehrmacht, against the Soviet Union. Together with Germany, Hungary, Romania, Finland and Italy entered the war against the USSR. The Soviet-German front became the main front of the military war. From now on, the struggle of the Soviet Union against fascism decided the outcome of the World War, the fate of mankind.

From the very beginning, the struggle of the Red Army had a decisive influence on the entire course of military warfare, on the entire policy and military strategy of the warring coalitions and states. Under the influence of events on the Soviet-German front, the Nazi military command was forced to determine methods of strategic management of the war, the formation and use of strategic reserves, and a system of regroupings between theaters of military operations. During the war, the Red Army forced the Nazi command to completely abandon the doctrine of “blitzkrieg.” Under the blows of the Soviet troops, other methods of warfare and military leadership used by the German strategy consistently failed.

As a result of a surprise attack, the superior forces of the Nazi troops managed to penetrate deeply into Soviet territory in the first weeks of the war. By the end of the first ten days of July, the enemy captured Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, a significant part of Ukraine, and part of Moldova. However, moving deeper into the territory of the USSR, the Nazi troops encountered growing resistance from the Red Army and suffered increasingly heavy losses. Soviet troops fought steadfastly and stubbornly. Under the leadership of the Communist Party and its Central Committee, the restructuring of the entire life of the country on a military basis began, the mobilization of internal forces to defeat the enemy. The peoples of the USSR rallied into a single battle camp. The formation of large strategic reserves was carried out, and the country's leadership system was reorganized. The Communist Party began work on organizing the partisan movement.

Already the initial period of the war showed that the Nazis’ military adventure was doomed to failure. The Nazi armies were stopped near Leningrad and on the river. Volkhov. The heroic defense of Kyiv, Odessa and Sevastopol pinned down large forces of fascist German troops in the south for a long time. In the fierce Battle of Smolensk 1941 (See Battle of Smolensk 1941) (July 10 - September 10) The Red Army stopped the German strike group - Army Group Center, which was advancing on Moscow, inflicting heavy losses on it. In October 1941, the enemy, having brought up reserves, resumed the attack on Moscow. Despite initial successes, he was unable to break the stubborn resistance of Soviet troops, who were inferior to the enemy in numbers and military equipment, and break through to Moscow. In intense battles, the Red Army defended the capital in extremely difficult conditions, bled the enemy’s strike forces dry, and in early December 1941 launched a counteroffensive. The defeat of the Nazis in the Battle of Moscow 1941-42 (See Battle of Moscow 1941-42) (September 30, 1941 - April 20, 1942) buried the fascist plan for a “lightning war”, becoming an event of world-historical significance. The Battle of Moscow dispelled the myth of the invincibility of Hitler's Wehrmacht, confronted Nazi Germany with the need to wage a protracted war, contributed to the further unity of the anti-Hitler coalition, and inspired all freedom-loving peoples to fight the aggressors. The victory of the Red Army near Moscow meant a decisive turn of military events in favor of the USSR and had a great influence on the entire further course of military warfare.

Having carried out extensive preparations, the Nazi leadership resumed offensive operations on the Soviet-German front at the end of June 1942. After fierce battles near Voronezh and in the Donbass, fascist German troops managed to break through to the big bend of the Don. However, the Soviet command managed to remove the main forces of the South-Western and Southern Fronts from the attack, take them beyond the Don and thereby thwart the enemy’s plans to encircle them. In mid-July 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad 1942-1943 began (See Battle of Stalingrad 1942-43) - the greatest battle of military history. During the heroic defense near Stalingrad in July - November 1942, Soviet troops pinned down the enemy strike group, inflicted heavy losses on it and prepared the conditions for launching a counteroffensive. Hitler's troops were unable to achieve decisive success in the Caucasus (see article Caucasus).

By November 1942, despite enormous difficulties, the Red Army had achieved major successes. The Nazi army was stopped. A well-coordinated military economy was created in the USSR; the output of military products exceeded the output of military products of Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union created the conditions for a radical change in the course of the World War.

The liberation struggle of the peoples against the aggressors created objective prerequisites for the formation and consolidation of the anti-Hitler coalition (See Anti-Hitler coalition). The Soviet government sought to mobilize all forces in the international arena to fight against fascism. On July 12, 1941, the USSR signed an agreement with Great Britain on joint actions in the war against Germany; On July 18, a similar agreement was signed with the government of Czechoslovakia, and on July 30 - with the Polish émigré government. On August 9-12, 1941, negotiations were held on warships near Argentilla (Newfoundland) between British Prime Minister W. Churchill and US President F. D. Roosevelt. Taking a wait-and-see attitude, the United States intended to limit itself to material support (Lend-Lease) to countries fighting against Germany. Great Britain, urging the United States to enter the war, proposed a strategy of protracted action using naval and air forces. The goals of the war and the principles of the post-war world order were formulated in the Atlantic Charter signed by Roosevelt and Churchill (See Atlantic Charter) (dated August 14, 1941). On September 24, the Soviet Union joined the Atlantic Charter, expressing its dissenting opinion on certain issues. At the end of September - beginning of October 1941, a meeting of representatives of the USSR, USA and Great Britain was held in Moscow, which ended with the signing of a protocol on mutual supplies.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a war against the United States with a surprise attack on the American military base in the Pacific Ocean, Pearl Harbor. On December 8, 1941, the USA, Great Britain and a number of other states declared war on Japan. The war in the Pacific and Asia was generated by long-standing and deep Japanese-American imperialist contradictions, which intensified during the struggle for dominance in China and Southeast Asia. The entry of the United States into the war strengthened the anti-Hitler coalition. The military alliance of states fighting against fascism was formalized in Washington on January 1 with the Declaration of 26 States of 1942 (See Declaration of 26 States of 1942). The declaration was based on the recognition of the need to achieve complete victory over the enemy, for which the countries waging war were obliged to mobilize all military and economic resources, cooperate with each other, and not conclude a separate peace with the enemy. The creation of an anti-Hitler coalition meant the failure of the Nazi plans to isolate the USSR and the consolidation of all world anti-fascist forces.

To develop a joint plan of action, Churchill and Roosevelt held a conference in Washington on December 22, 1941 - January 14, 1942 (codenamed “Arcadia”), during which a coordinated course of Anglo-American strategy was determined, based on the recognition of Germany as the main enemy in the war, and the Atlantic and European areas - the decisive theater of military operations. However, assistance to the Red Army, which bore the main brunt of the struggle, was planned only in the form of intensifying air raids on Germany, its blockade and the organization of subversive activities in the occupied countries. It was supposed to prepare an invasion of the continent, but not earlier than 1943, either from the Mediterranean Sea or by landing in Western Europe.

At the Washington Conference, a system of general management of the military efforts of the Western allies was determined, a joint Anglo-American headquarters was created to coordinate the strategy developed at the conferences of heads of government; a single allied Anglo-American-Dutch-Australian command was formed for the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, headed by the English Field Marshal A.P. Wavell.

Immediately after the Washington Conference, the Allies began to violate their own established principle of the decisive importance of the European theater of operations. Without developing specific plans for waging war in Europe, they (primarily the United States) began to transfer more and more naval forces, aviation, and landing craft to the Pacific Ocean, where the situation was unfavorable for the United States.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Nazi Germany sought to strengthen the fascist bloc. In November 1941, the Anti-Comintern Pact of the fascist powers was extended for 5 years. On December 11, 1941, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed an agreement on waging war against the United States and Great Britain “to the bitter end” and refusing to sign an armistice with them without mutual agreement.

Having disabled the main forces of the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, the Japanese armed forces then occupied Thailand, Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Burma, Malaya with the fortress of Singapore, the Philippines, the most important islands of Indonesia, seizing vast reserves of strategic raw materials in the southern seas. They defeated the US Asiatic Fleet, part of the British fleet, the air force and ground forces of the allies and, having ensured supremacy at sea, in 5 months of war they deprived the US and Great Britain of all naval and air bases in the Western Pacific. With a strike from the Caroline Islands, the Japanese fleet captured part of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, including most of the Solomon Islands, and created the threat of invasion of Australia (see Pacific campaigns of 1941-45). The ruling circles of Japan hoped that Germany would tie up the forces of the United States and Great Britain on other fronts and that both powers, after seizing their possessions in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, would abandon the fight at a great distance from the mother country.

Under these conditions, the United States began to take emergency measures to deploy the military economy and mobilize resources. Having transferred part of the fleet from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, the United States launched the first retaliatory strikes in the first half of 1942. The two-day Battle of the Coral Sea on May 7-8 brought success to the American fleet and forced the Japanese to abandon further advances in the southwest Pacific. In June 1942, near Fr. Midway, the American fleet defeated large forces of the Japanese fleet, which, having suffered heavy losses, was forced to limit its actions and in the 2nd half of 1942 go on the defensive in the Pacific Ocean. Patriots of the countries captured by the Japanese - Indonesia, Indochina, Korea, Burma, Malaya, the Philippines - launched a national liberation struggle against the invaders. In China, in the summer of 1941, a major offensive by Japanese troops on the liberated areas was stopped (mainly by the forces of the People's Liberation Army of China).

The actions of the Red Army on the Eastern Front had an increasing influence on the military situation in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and North Africa. After the attack on the USSR, Germany and Italy were unable to simultaneously conduct offensive operations in other areas. Having transferred the main aviation forces against the Soviet Union, the German command lost the opportunity to actively act against Great Britain and deliver effective attacks on British sea lanes, fleet bases, and shipyards. This allowed Great Britain to strengthen the construction of its fleet, remove large naval forces from the waters of the mother country and transfer them to ensure communications in the Atlantic.

However, the German fleet soon seized the initiative for a short time. After the United States entered the war, a significant part of German submarines began to operate in the coastal waters of the Atlantic coast of America. In the first half of 1942, losses of Anglo-American ships in the Atlantic increased again. But the improvement of anti-submarine defense methods allowed the Anglo-American command, from the summer of 1942, to improve the situation on the Atlantic sea lanes, deliver a series of retaliatory strikes to the German submarine fleet and push it back to the central regions of the Atlantic. Since the beginning of V.m.v. Until the fall of 1942, the tonnage of merchant ships sunk mainly in the Atlantic from Great Britain, the United States, their allies and neutral countries exceeded 14 million. T.

The transfer of the bulk of the Nazi troops to the Soviet-German front contributed to a radical improvement in the position of the British armed forces in the Mediterranean and North Africa. In the summer of 1941, the British fleet and air force firmly seized supremacy at sea and in the air in the Mediterranean theater. Using o. Malta as a base, they sank 33% in August 1941, and in November - over 70% of cargo sent from Italy to North Africa. The British command re-formed the 8th Army in Egypt, which on November 18 went on the offensive against Rommel's German-Italian troops. A fierce tank battle unfolded near Sidi Rezeh, with varying degrees of success. Exhaustion forced Rommel to begin a retreat along the coast to positions at El Agheila on December 7.

At the end of November - December 1941, the German command strengthened its air force in the Mediterranean basin and transferred some submarines and torpedo boats from the Atlantic. Having inflicted a series of strong blows on the British fleet and its base in Malta, sinking 3 battleships, 1 aircraft carrier and other ships, the German-Italian fleet and aviation again seized dominance in the Mediterranean Sea, which improved their position in North Africa. On January 21, 1942, German-Italian troops suddenly went on the offensive for the British and advanced 450 km to El Ghazala. On May 27, they resumed their offensive with the goal of reaching Suez. With a deep maneuver they managed to cover the main forces of the 8th Army and capture Tobruk. At the end of June 1942, Rommel's troops crossed the Libyan-Egyptian border and reached El Alamein, where they were stopped without reaching the goal due to exhaustion and lack of reinforcements.

3rd period of the war (November 19, 1942 - December 1943) was a period of radical change, when the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition wrested the strategic initiative from the Axis powers, fully deployed their military potential and went on a strategic offensive everywhere. As before, decisive events took place on the Soviet-German front. By November 1942, of the 267 divisions and 5 brigades that Germany had, 192 divisions and 3 brigades (or 71%) were operating against the Red Army. In addition, there were 66 divisions and 13 brigades of German satellites on the Soviet-German front. On November 19, the Soviet counteroffensive began near Stalingrad. The troops of the Southwestern, Don and Stalingrad fronts broke through the enemy’s defenses and, introducing mobile formations, by November 23 encircled 330 thousand people between the Volga and Don rivers. a group from the 6th and 4th German tank armies. Soviet troops stubbornly defended themselves in the area of ​​the river. Myshkov thwarted the attempt of the fascist German command to release the encircled. The offensive on the middle Don by the troops of the Southwestern and left wing of the Voronezh fronts (began on December 16) ended with the defeat of the 8th Italian Army. The threat of a strike by Soviet tank formations on the flank of the German relief group forced it to begin a hasty retreat. By February 2, 1943, the group surrounded at Stalingrad was liquidated. This ended the Battle of Stalingrad, in which from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943, 32 divisions and 3 brigades of the Nazi army and German satellites were completely defeated and 16 divisions were bled dry. The total losses of the enemy during this time amounted to over 800 thousand people, 2 thousand tanks and assault guns, over 10 thousand guns and mortars, up to 3 thousand aircraft, etc. The victory of the Red Army shocked Nazi Germany and caused irreparable harm to its armed forces damage, undermined Germany's military and political prestige in the eyes of its allies, and increased dissatisfaction with the war among them. The Battle of Stalingrad marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the entire military war.

The victories of the Red Army contributed to the expansion of the partisan movement in the USSR and became a powerful stimulus for the further development of the Resistance Movement in Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Greece, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and other European countries. Polish patriots gradually moved from spontaneous, isolated actions during the beginning of the war to mass struggle. Polish communists at the beginning of 1942 called for the formation of a “second front in the rear of Hitler’s army.” The fighting force of the Polish Workers' Party - the Ludowa Guard - became the first military organization in Poland to wage a systematic struggle against the occupiers. The creation at the end of 1943 of the democratic national front and the formation on the night of January 1, 1944 of its central body - the Home Rada of the People (See Home Rada of the People) contributed to the further development of the national liberation struggle.

In Yugoslavia in November 1942, under the leadership of the communists, the formation of the People's Liberation Army began, which by the end of 1942 liberated 1/5 of the country's territory. And although in 1943 the occupiers carried out 3 major attacks on Yugoslav patriots, the ranks of active anti-fascist fighters steadily multiplied and grew stronger. Under the attacks of the partisans, Hitler's troops suffered increasing losses; By the end of 1943, the transport network in the Balkans was paralyzed.

In Czechoslovakia, on the initiative of the Communist Party, the National Revolutionary Committee was created, which became the central political body of the anti-fascist struggle. The number of partisan detachments grew, and centers of the partisan movement formed in a number of regions of Czechoslovakia. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the anti-fascist resistance movement gradually developed into a national uprising.

The French Resistance Movement intensified sharply in the summer and autumn of 1943, after new defeats of the Wehrmacht on the Soviet-German front. Organizations of the Resistance Movement joined the unified anti-fascist army created on French territory - the French Internal Forces, the number of which soon reached 500 thousand people.

The liberation movement, which unfolded in the territories occupied by the countries of the fascist bloc, fettered Hitler's troops, their main forces were bled dry by the Red Army. Already in the first half of 1942, conditions arose for the opening of a second front in Western Europe. The leaders of the USA and Great Britain pledged to open it in 1942, as stated in the Anglo-Soviet and Soviet-American communiqués published on June 12, 1942. However, the leaders of the Western powers delayed the opening of the second front, trying to weaken both Nazi Germany and the USSR at the same time, so that establish their dominance in Europe and throughout the world. On June 11, 1942, the British cabinet rejected the plan for a direct invasion of France across the English Channel under the pretext of difficulties in supplying troops, transferring reinforcements, and a lack of special landing craft. At a meeting in Washington of the heads of government and representatives of the joint headquarters of the United States and Great Britain in the 2nd half of June 1942, it was decided to abandon the landing in France in 1942 and 1943, and instead carry out an operation to land expeditionary forces in French North-West Africa (Operation "Torch") and only in the future begin to concentrate large masses of American troops in Great Britain (Operation Bolero). This decision, which had no compelling reasons, caused a protest from the Soviet government.

In North Africa, British troops, taking advantage of the weakening of the Italian-German group, launched offensive operations. British aviation, which again seized air supremacy in the fall of 1942, sank in October 1942 up to 40% of Italian and German ships heading to North Africa, disrupting the regular replenishment and supply of Rommel’s troops. On October 23, 1942, the 8th British Army under General B. L. Montgomery launched a decisive offensive. Having won an important victory in the battle of El Alamein, over the next three months she pursued Rommel's Afrika Korps along the coast, occupied the territory of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, liberated Tobruk, Benghazi and reached positions at El Agheila.

On November 8, 1942, the landing of the American-British expeditionary forces in French North Africa began (under the overall command of General D. Eisenhower); 12 divisions (over 150 thousand people in total) unloaded in the ports of Algiers, Oran, and Casablanca. Airborne troops captured two large airfields in Morocco. After minor resistance, the commander-in-chief of the French armed forces of the Vichy regime in North Africa, Admiral J. Darlan, ordered not to interfere with the American-British troops.

The fascist German command, intending to hold North Africa, urgently transferred the 5th Tank Army to Tunisia by air and sea, which managed to stop the Anglo-American troops and drive them back from Tunisia. In November 1942, Nazi troops occupied the entire territory of France and tried to capture the French Navy (about 60 warships) in Toulon, which, however, was sunk by French sailors.

At the Casablanca Conference of 1943 (See Casablanca Conference of 1943), the leaders of the United States and Great Britain, declaring the unconditional surrender of the Axis countries as their ultimate goal, determined further plans for waging war, which were based on the course of delaying the opening of a second front. Roosevelt and Churchill reviewed and approved the strategic plan prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for 1943, which included the capture of Sicily in order to put pressure on Italy and create conditions for attracting Turkey as an active ally, as well as an intensified air offensive against Germany and the concentration of the largest possible forces to enter the continent “as soon as German resistance weakens to the required level.”

The implementation of this plan could not seriously undermine the forces of the fascist bloc in Europe, much less replace the second front, since active actions by American-British troops were planned in a theater of military operations that was secondary to Germany. In the main issues of strategy V. m.v. this conference turned out to be fruitless.

The struggle in North Africa continued with varying success until the spring of 1943. In March, the 18th Anglo-American Army Group under the command of the English Field Marshal H. Alexander struck with superior forces and, after lengthy battles, occupied the city of Tunisia, and by May 13 forced the Italian-German troops surrender on the Bon Peninsula. The entire territory of North Africa passed into Allied hands.

After the defeat in Africa, Hitler's command expected the Allied invasion of France, not being ready to resist it. However, the allied command was preparing a landing in Italy. On May 12, Roosevelt and Churchill met at a new conference in Washington. The intention was confirmed not to open a second front in Western Europe during 1943 and the tentative date for its opening was set as May 1, 1944.

At this time, Germany was preparing a decisive summer offensive on the Soviet-German front. Hitler's leadership sought to defeat the main forces of the Red Army, regain the strategic initiative, and achieve a change in the course of the war. It increased its armed forces by 2 million people. through “total mobilization”, forced the release of military products, and transferred large contingents of troops from various regions of Europe to the Eastern Front. According to the Citadel plan, it was supposed to encircle and destroy Soviet troops in the Kursk ledge, and then expand the offensive front and capture the entire Donbass.

The Soviet command, having information about the impending enemy offensive, decided to exhaust the fascist German troops in a defensive battle on the Kursk Bulge, then defeat them in the central and southern sections of the Soviet-German front, liberate Left Bank Ukraine, Donbass, the eastern regions of Belarus and reach the Dnieper. To solve this problem, significant forces and resources were concentrated and skillfully located. The Battle of Kursk 1943, which began on July 5, is one of the greatest battles of military history. - immediately turned out in favor of the Red Army. Hitler's command failed to break the skillful and persistent defense of the Soviet troops with a powerful avalanche of tanks. In the defensive battle on the Kursk Bulge, the troops of the Central and Voronezh Fronts bled the enemy dry. On July 12, the Soviet command launched a counteroffensive on the Bryansk and Western Fronts against the German Oryol bridgehead. On July 16, the enemy began to retreat. The troops of the five fronts of the Red Army, developing a counteroffensive, defeated the enemy’s strike forces and opened their way to the Left Bank Ukraine and the Dnieper. In the Battle of Kursk, Soviet troops defeated 30 Nazi divisions, including 7 tank divisions. After this major defeat, the Wehrmacht leadership finally lost its strategic initiative and was forced to completely abandon the offensive strategy and go on the defensive until the end of the war. The Red Army, using its major success, liberated the Donbass and Left Bank Ukraine, crossed the Dnieper on the move (see the Dnieper article), and began the liberation of Belarus. In total, in the summer and autumn of 1943, Soviet troops defeated 218 fascist German divisions, completing a radical turning point in the military war. A catastrophe loomed over Nazi Germany. The total losses of German ground forces alone from the beginning of the war to November 1943 amounted to about 5.2 million people.

After the end of the struggle in North Africa, the Allies carried out the Sicilian Operation of 1943 (See Sicilian Operation of 1943), which began on July 10. Having absolute superiority of forces at sea and in the air, they captured Sicily by mid-August, and in early September crossed to the Apennine Peninsula (see Italian campaign 1943-1945 (See Italian campaign 1943-1945)). In Italy, the movement for the elimination of the fascist regime and exit from the war grew. As a result of attacks by Anglo-American troops and the growth of the anti-fascist movement, the Mussolini regime fell at the end of July. He was replaced by the government of P. Badoglio, which signed an armistice with the United States and Great Britain on September 3. In response, the Nazis sent additional troops to Italy, disarmed the Italian army and occupied the country. By November 1943, after the landing of Anglo-American troops in Salerno, the fascist German command withdrew its troops to the north, to the area of ​​Rome, and consolidated on the river line. Sangro and Carigliano, where the front has stabilized.

In the Atlantic Ocean, by the beginning of 1943, the positions of the German fleet were weakened. The Allies ensured their superiority in surface forces and naval aviation. Large ships of the German fleet could now only operate in the Arctic Ocean against convoys. Given the weakening of its surface fleet, the Nazi naval command, led by Admiral K. Dönitz, who replaced the former fleet commander E. Raeder, shifted the center of gravity to the actions of the submarine fleet. Having commissioned more than 200 submarines, the Germans inflicted a number of heavy blows on the Allies in the Atlantic. But after the greatest success achieved in March 1943, the effectiveness of German submarine attacks began to rapidly decline. The growth in the size of the Allied fleet, the use of new technology for detecting submarines, and the increase in the range of naval aviation predetermined the increase in losses of the German submarine fleet, which were not replenished. Shipbuilding in the USA and Great Britain now ensured that the number of newly built ships exceeded those sunk, the number of which had decreased.

In the Pacific Ocean in the first half of 1943, the warring parties, after the losses suffered in 1942, accumulated forces and did not carry out extensive actions. Japan increased the production of aircraft more than 3 times compared to 1941; 60 new ships were laid down at its shipyards, including 40 submarines. The total number of Japanese armed forces increased by 2.3 times. The Japanese command decided to stop further advance in the Pacific Ocean and consolidate what had been captured by going over to the defense along the Aleutian, Marshall, Gilbert Islands, New Guinea, Indonesia, Burma lines.

The United States also intensively developed military production. 28 new aircraft carriers were laid down, several new operational formations were formed (2 field and 2 air armies), and many special units; Military bases were built in the South Pacific. The forces of the United States and its allies in the Pacific Ocean were consolidated into two operational groups: the central part of the Pacific Ocean (Admiral C.W. Nimitz) and the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean (General D. MacArthur). The groups included several fleets, field armies, marines, carrier and base aviation, mobile naval bases, etc., in total - 500 thousand people, 253 large warships (including 69 submarines) , over 2 thousand combat aircraft. The US naval and air forces outnumbered the Japanese. In May 1943, formations of the Nimitz group occupied the Aleutian Islands, securing American positions in the north.

In the wake of the Red Army's major summer successes and the landings in Italy, Roosevelt and Churchill held a conference in Quebec (August 11–24, 1943) to again refine military plans. The main intention of the leaders of both powers was to “achieve, in the shortest possible time, the unconditional surrender of the European Axis countries,” and to achieve, through an air offensive, “undermining and disorganizing the ever-increasing scale of Germany’s military-economic power.” On May 1, 1944, it was planned to launch Operation Overlord to invade France. In the Far East, it was decided to expand the offensive in order to seize bridgeheads, from which it would then be possible, after the defeat of the European Axis countries and the transfer of forces from Europe, to strike Japan and defeat it “within 12 months after the end of the war with Germany.” The action plan chosen by the Allies did not meet the goals of ending the war in Europe as quickly as possible, since active operations in Western Europe were planned only in the summer of 1944.

Carrying out plans for offensive operations in the Pacific Ocean, the Americans continued the battles for the Solomon Islands that had begun in June 1943. Having mastered Fr. New George and a bridgehead on the island. Bougainville, they brought their bases in the South Pacific closer to the Japanese ones, including the main Japanese base - Rabaul. At the end of November 1943, the Americans occupied the Gilbert Islands, which were then turned into a base for preparing an attack on the Marshall Islands. MacArthur's group, in stubborn battles, captured most of the islands in the Coral Sea, the eastern part of New Guinea and established a base here for an attack on the Bismarck Archipelago. Having removed the threat of a Japanese invasion of Australia, she secured US sea communications in the area. As a result of these actions, the strategic initiative in the Pacific passed into the hands of the Allies, who eliminated the consequences of the defeat of 1941-42 and created the conditions for an attack on Japan.

The national liberation struggle of the peoples of China, Korea, Indochina, Burma, Indonesia, and the Philippines expanded more and more. The communist parties of these countries rallied the partisan forces in the ranks of the National Front. The People's Liberation Army and guerrilla groups of China, having resumed active operations, liberated a territory with a population of about 80 million people.

The rapid development of events in 1943 on all fronts, especially on the Soviet-German front, required the allies to clarify and coordinate war plans for the next year. This was done at the November 1943 conference in Cairo (see Cairo Conference 1943) and the Tehran Conference 1943 (See Tehran Conference 1943).

At the Cairo Conference (November 22-26), the delegations of the USA (head of delegation F.D. Roosevelt), Great Britain (head of delegation W. Churchill), China (head of delegation Chiang Kai-shek) considered plans for waging war in Southeast Asia, which provided limited goals: the creation of bases for a subsequent attack on Burma and Indochina and the improvement of air supply to Chiang Kai-shek's army. Issues of military operations in Europe were viewed as secondary; The British leadership proposed postponing Operation Overlord.

At the Tehran Conference (November 28 -December 1, 1943), the heads of government of the USSR (head of delegation I.V. Stalin), the USA (head of delegation F.D. Roosevelt) and Great Britain (head of delegation W. Churchill) focused on military issues. The British delegation proposed a plan to invade South-Eastern Europe through the Balkans, with the participation of Turkey. The Soviet delegation proved that this plan does not meet the requirements for the rapid defeat of Germany, because operations in the Mediterranean Sea are “operations of secondary importance”; With its firm and consistent position, the Soviet delegation forced the Allies to once again recognize the paramount importance of the invasion of Western Europe, and Overlord as the main Allied operation, which should be accompanied by an auxiliary landing in southern France and diversionary actions in Italy. For its part, the USSR pledged to enter the war with Japan after the defeat of Germany.

The report of the conference of the heads of government of the three powers said: “We have come to complete agreement as to the scale and timing of the operations to be undertaken from the east, west and south. The mutual understanding we have achieved here guarantees our victory.”

At the Cairo Conference held on December 3-7, 1943, the US and British delegations, after a series of discussions, recognized the need to use landing craft intended for Southeast Asia in Europe and approved a program according to which the most important operations in 1944 should be Overlord and Anvil ( landing in the south of France); The conference participants agreed that "no action should be taken in any other area of ​​the world that could interfere with the success of these two operations." This was an important victory for Soviet foreign policy, its struggle for unity of action among the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and the military strategy based on this policy.

4th war period (1 January 1944 - 8 May 1945) was a period when the Red Army, in the course of a powerful strategic offensive, expelled fascist German troops from the territory of the USSR, liberated the peoples of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and, together with the armed forces of the Allies, completed the defeat of Nazi Germany. At the same time, the offensive of the armed forces of the United States and Great Britain in the Pacific Ocean continued, and the people's liberation war in China intensified.

As in previous periods, the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the struggle on its shoulders, against which the fascist bloc continued to hold its main forces. By the beginning of 1944, the German command, out of 315 divisions and 10 brigades it had, had 198 divisions and 6 brigades on the Soviet-German front. In addition, there were 38 divisions and 18 brigades of satellite states on the Soviet-German front. In 1944, the Soviet command planned an offensive on the front from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea with the main attack in the southwestern direction. In January - February, the Red Army, after a 900-day heroic defense, liberated Leningrad from the siege (see Battle of Leningrad 1941-44). By spring, having carried out a number of major operations, Soviet troops liberated Right Bank Ukraine and Crimea, reached the Carpathians and entered the territory of Romania. In the winter campaign of 1944 alone, the enemy lost 30 divisions and 6 brigades from attacks by the Red Army; 172 divisions and 7 brigades suffered heavy losses; human losses amounted to more than 1 million people. Germany could no longer make up for the damage suffered. In June 1944, the Red Army attacked the Finnish army, after which Finland requested an armistice, an agreement on which was signed on September 19, 1944 in Moscow.

The grandiose offensive of the Red Army in Belarus from June 23 to August 29, 1944 (see Belarusian operation 1944) and in Western Ukraine from July 13 to August 29, 1944 (see Lvov-Sandomierz operation 1944) ended in the defeat of the two largest strategic groupings of the Wehrmacht in the center of the Soviet -German front, breakthrough of the German front to a depth of 600 km, the complete destruction of 26 divisions and inflicting heavy losses on 82 Nazi divisions. Soviet troops reached the border of East Prussia, entered Polish territory and approached the Vistula. Polish troops also took part in the offensive.

In Chelm, the first Polish city liberated by the Red Army, on July 21, 1944, the Polish Committee of National Liberation was formed - a temporary executive body of the people's power, subordinate to the Home Rada of the People. In August 1944, the Home Army, following the orders of the Polish exile government in London, which sought to seize power in Poland before the approach of the Red Army and restore pre-war order, began the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. After a 63-day heroic struggle, this uprising, undertaken in an unfavorable strategic situation, was defeated.

The international and military situation in the spring and summer of 1944 was such that a further delay in the opening of a second front would have led to the liberation of all of Europe by the USSR. This prospect worried the ruling circles of the USA and Great Britain, who sought to restore the pre-war capitalist order in the countries occupied by the Nazis and their allies. London and Washington began to rush to prepare an invasion of Western Europe across the English Channel in order to seize bridgeheads in Normandy and Brittany, ensure the landing of expeditionary forces, and then liberate northwestern France. In the future, it was planned to break through the Siegfried Line, which covered the German border, cross the Rhine and advance deep into Germany. By the beginning of June 1944, the Allied expeditionary forces under the command of General Eisenhower had 2.8 million people, 37 divisions, 12 separate brigades, “commando units”, about 11 thousand combat aircraft, 537 warships and a large number of transports and landing craft.

After the defeats on the Soviet-German front, the fascist German command could maintain in France, Belgium and the Netherlands as part of Army Group West (Field Marshal G. Rundstedt) only 61 weakened, poorly equipped divisions, 500 aircraft, 182 warships. The Allies thus had absolute superiority in forces and means.

Neither geographically nor chronologically the history of the Second World War is comparable to. On a geopolitical scale, the events of the Great Patriotic War unfolded on the Eastern Front, although these events undoubtedly most influenced the outcome of this global military-political crisis. The stages of World War II also coincide with the general stages of the Great Patriotic War.

In contact with

Balance of power

How the Second World War took place, briefly about its main participants. 62 states (out of 73 existing at that time) and almost 80% of the population of the entire globe took part in the conflict.

All participants had one relationship or another with two clearly defined coalitions:

• anti-Hitler,
• Axis coalition.

The creation of the Axis began much earlier than the formation of the anti-Hitler coalition. In 1936, the Anti-Comintern Pact was signed between Japan and Berlin. This was the beginning of the formalization of the union.

Important! A number of countries changed their coalition orientation at the very end of the confrontation. For example, Finland, Italy and Romania. A number of puppet countries formed by the fascist regime, for example, Vichy France, the Greek Kingdom, completely disappeared from the geopolitical map of the world.

Territories affected by hostilities

There were 5 main theaters of war:

• Western European - France, Great Britain, Norway; active combat operations were carried out throughout the Atlantic;
• Eastern European - USSR, Poland, Finland, Austria; combat operations took place in such parts of the Atlantic as the Barents Sea, Baltic Sea, Black Sea;
• Mediterranean - Greece, Italy, Albania, Egypt, all of French North Africa; All countries that had access to the Mediterranean Sea, in whose waters active hostilities were also taking place, joined the hostilities;
• African - Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and others;
• Pacific - Japan, China, USSR, USA, all island countries of the Pacific basin.

Major battles of World War II:

• Battle for Moscow,
• Kursk Bulge (turning point),
• Battle for the Caucasus,
• Operation of the Ardennes (Wehrmacht Blitzkrieg).

What triggered the conflict

We can talk a lot about the reasons for a long time. Each country had objective and subjective reasons for becoming a participant in the military conflict. But overall it came down to this:

• revanchism - the Nazis, for example, tried in every possible way to overcome the conditions of the Versailles Peace of 1918 and again take a leading position in Europe;
• imperialism - all major world powers had certain territorial interests: Italy launched a military invasion of Ethiopia, Japan was interested in Manchuria and Northern China, Germany was interested in the Ruru region and Austria. The USSR was worried about the problem of the Finnish and Polish borders;
• ideological contradictions - two opposing camps have formed in the world: communist and democratic-bourgeois; the member countries of the camps dreamed of destroying each other.

Important! The ideological contradictions that existed the day before made it impossible to prevent the conflict at the initial stage.

The Munich Agreement was concluded between the fascists and the democratic countries of the West, which ultimately led to the Anschluss of Austria and the Ruhr. The Western powers actually disrupted the Moscow Conference, at which the Russians planned to discuss the possibility of creating an anti-German coalition. Finally, in defiance of the Munich Treaty, the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact and the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact were signed. In such difficult diplomatic conditions, it was impossible to prevent war.

Stages

The entire Second World War can be divided into five main stages:

• first – 09.1939 – 06.1941;
• second – 07.1941 – 11.1942;
• third - 12.1942 - 06. 1944;
• fourth – 07/1944 – 05/1945;
• fifth – 06 – 09. 1945

The stages of the Second World War are conditional; they include certain significant events. When did World War II start? How did World War II start? Who started World War II? The beginning is considered to be September 1, 1939, when German troops invaded Poland, that is, in fact, the Germans took the initiative.

Important! The question of when the Second World War began is clear; a direct and accurate answer can be given here, but it is more difficult to say about who started the Second World War; it is impossible to answer unequivocally. All powers of the world are to one degree or another guilty of unleashing a global conflict.

The Second World War ended on September 2, 1945, when the act of surrender of Japan was signed. We can say that Japan has not yet completely closed the page of World War II. A peace treaty has not yet been signed between the Russian Federation and Japan. The Japanese side disputes the Russian ownership of the four South Kuril Islands.

First stage

The main events that unfolded at the first stage can be presented in the following chronological order (table):

The beginning of the war

Second phase

It became a turning point in many ways. The main thing here is that the Germans lost the strategic initiative and speed characteristic of 40-41. The main events take place in the Eastern European theater of operations. The main forces of Germany were also concentrated there, which can no longer provide large-scale support in Europe and North Africa to its coalition allies, which, in turn, led to the successes of the Anglo-American-French forces in the African and Mediterranean theaters of combat.

Second stage of the war

Important! It was at the second stage that the Anti-Hitler Coalition was formed, the USSR, USA, China and Great Britain signed the Declaration of the United Nations (01/01/1942).

Third stage

It is marked by a complete loss of strategic initiative from the outside. On the eastern front, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive. On the Western, African and Pacific fronts, the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition also achieved significant results

An important diplomatic event of the third stage was the Tehran Conference of the Allies (11.1943). At which joint military actions against the Third Reich were agreed upon.

Third stage of the war

These are all the main stages of the Second World War. In total, it lasted exactly 6 years.

Fourth stage

It meant a gradual cessation of hostilities on all fronts except the Pacific. The Nazis suffer a crushing defeat.

At the allied conference in Yalta (02.1945), the leaders of the USA, the USSR and Britain discussed the post-war structure of Europe and the world (they also discussed the main thing - the creation of the UN). The agreements reached in Yalta influenced the entire course of post-war history.

Conventionally, historians divide the Second World War into five periods:

The beginning of the war and the invasion of German troops into Western Europe.

The Second World War began on September 1, 1939 with the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland. On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany; The Anglo-French coalition included the British dominions and colonies (September 3 - Australia, New Zealand, India; September 6 - Union of South Africa; September 10 - Canada, etc.)

The incomplete deployment of the armed forces, the lack of assistance from Great Britain and France, and the weakness of the top military leadership put the Polish army before a disaster: its territory was occupied by German troops. The Polish bourgeois-landowner government secretly fled from Warsaw to Lublin on September 6, and to Romania on September 16.

The governments of Great Britain and France, after the outbreak of the war until May 1940, continued the pre-war foreign policy course in only a slightly modified form, hoping to direct German aggression against the USSR. During this period, called the “Phantom War” of 1939-1940, the Anglo-French troops were virtually inactive, and the armed forces of Nazi Germany, using the strategic pause, were actively preparing for an offensive against the countries of Western Europe.

On April 9, 1940, formations of the Nazi army invaded Denmark without declaring war and occupied its territory. On the same day, the invasion of Norway began.

Even before the completion of the Norwegian operation, the military-political leadership of Nazi Germany began to implement the Gelb plan, which provided for a lightning strike on France through Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. The fascist German troops delivered the main blow through the Ardennes Mountains, bypassing the Maginot Line from the North through Northern France. The French command, adhering to a defensive strategy, placed large forces on the Maginot Line and did not create a strategic reserve in the depths. Having broken through the defenses in the Sedan area, tank formations of fascist German troops reached the English Channel on May 20. On May 14, the Dutch armed forces capitulated. The Belgian army, the British expeditionary force and part of the French army were cut off in Flanders. On May 28, the Belgian army capitulated. The British and parts of the French troops, blocked in the Dunkirk region, managed to evacuate to Great Britain, having lost all their heavy military equipment. At the beginning of June, fascist German troops broke through the front hastily created by the French on the Somme and Aisne rivers.

On June 10, the French government left Paris. Having not exhausted the possibilities of resistance, the French army laid down its arms. On June 14, German troops occupied the French capital without a fight. On June 22, 1940, hostilities ended with the signing of the act of surrender of France - the so-called. Compiègne Armistice of 1940. According to its terms, the territory of the country was divided into two parts: a Nazi occupation regime was established in the northern and central regions, the southern part of the country remained under the control of the anti-national government of Pétain, which expressed the interests of the most reactionary part of the French bourgeoisie, oriented towards fascist Germany (t .n. produced by Vichy).

After the defeat of France, the threat looming over Great Britain contributed to the isolation of the Munich capitulators and the rallying of the forces of the English people. The government of W. Churchill, which replaced the government of N. Chamberlain on May 10, 1940, began organizing a more effective defense. The US government gradually began to reconsider its foreign policy course. It increasingly supported Great Britain, becoming its “non-belligerent ally.”

Preparing a war against the USSR, Nazi Germany carried out aggression in the Balkans in the spring of 1941. On March 1, Nazi troops entered Bulgaria. On April 6, 1941, Italo-German and then Hungarian troops launched an invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece, occupied Yugoslavia by April 18, and the Greek mainland by April 29.

By the end of the First Period of the War, almost all countries of Western and Central Europe found themselves occupied by Nazi Germany and Italy or became dependent on them. Their economy and resources were used to prepare for war against the USSR.

The attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, the expansion of the scale of the war, the collapse of Hitler's Blitzkrieg doctrine.

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941 - 1945 began, which became the most important part of the 2nd World War.

The entry of the USSR into the war determined its qualitatively new stage, led to the consolidation of all the progressive forces of the world in the fight against fascism, and influenced the policies of the leading world powers.

The governments of the leading powers of the Western world, without changing their previous attitude towards the social system of the socialist state, saw in an alliance with the USSR the most important condition for their security and the weakening of the military power of the fascist bloc. On June 22, 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt, on behalf of the British and US governments, issued a statement of support for the Soviet Union in the fight against fascist aggression. On July 12, 1941, an agreement was concluded between the USSR and Great Britain on joint actions in the war against Germany. On August 2, an agreement was reached with the United States on military-economic cooperation and providing material support to the USSR. On August 14, Roosevelt and Churchill promulgated the Atlantic Charter, to which the USSR joined on September 24, expressing a special opinion on a number of issues directly related to the military actions of the Anglo-American troops. At the Moscow meeting (September 29 - October 1, 1941), the USSR, Great Britain and the USA considered the issue of mutual military supplies and signed the first protocol. To prevent the danger of creating fascist bases in the Middle East, British and Soviet troops entered Iran in August–September 1941. These joint military-political actions marked the beginning of the creation of the Anti-Hitler coalition, which played an important role in the war.

During the strategic defense in the summer and autumn of 1941, Soviet troops offered staunch resistance to the enemy, exhausted and bled the forces of the Nazi Wehrmacht. The fascist German troops were unable to capture Leningrad, as envisaged by the invasion plan, and were shackled for a long time by the heroic defense of Odessa and Sevastopol, and stopped near Moscow. As a result of the counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Moscow and the general offensive in the winter of 1941/42, the fascist plan for a “lightning war” finally collapsed. This victory had world-historical significance: it dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the fascist Wehrmacht, confronted fascist Germany with the need to wage a protracted war, inspired the European peoples to fight for liberation against fascist tyranny, and gave a powerful impetus to the Resistance movement in the occupied countries.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a war against the United States with a surprise attack on the American military base at Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean. Two major powers entered the war, which significantly affected the balance of military-political forces and expanded the scale and scope of the armed struggle. On December 8, the USA, Great Britain and a number of other states declared war on Japan; On December 11, Nazi Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

The entry of the United States into the war strengthened the anti-Hitler coalition. On January 1, 1942, the Declaration of 26 States was signed in Washington; Later, new states joined the Declaration. On May 26, 1942, an agreement was signed between the USSR and Great Britain on an alliance in the war against Germany and its partners; On June 11, the USSR and the USA entered into an agreement on the principles of mutual assistance in waging war.

Having carried out extensive preparations, the fascist German command in the summer of 1942 launched a new offensive on the Soviet-German front. In mid-July 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began (1942 - 1943), one of the greatest battles of the 2nd World War. During the heroic defense in July - November 1942, Soviet troops pinned down the enemy strike group, inflicted heavy losses on it and prepared the conditions for launching a counteroffensive.

In northern Africa, British troops managed to stop the further advance of German-Italian troops and stabilize the situation at the front.

In the Pacific Ocean in the first half of 1942, Japan managed to achieve supremacy at sea and occupied Hong Kong, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, the most important islands of Indonesia and other territories. At the cost of great efforts, the Americans managed to defeat the Japanese fleet in the Coral Sea and at Midway Atoll in the summer of 1942, which made it possible to change the balance of forces in favor of the allies, limit Japan's offensive actions and force the Japanese leadership to abandon their intention to enter the war against the USSR.

A radical turning point in the course of the war. The collapse of the offensive strategy of the fascist bloc. The 3rd period of the war was characterized by an increase in the scope and intensity of military operations. The decisive events in this period of the war continued to take place on the Soviet-German front. On November 19, 1942, a counteroffensive of Soviet troops began near Stalingrad, which ended with the encirclement and defeat of a 330-thousand group of troops of the pr-ka. The victory of Soviet troops at Stalingrad shocked Nazi Germany and undermined its military and political prestige in the eyes of its allies. This victory became a powerful stimulus for the further development of the liberation struggle of the peoples in the occupied countries, giving it greater organization and purpose. In the summer of 1943, the military-political leadership of Nazi Germany made a last attempt to regain the strategic initiative and defeat the Soviet troops

in the Kursk region. However, this plan was a complete failure. The defeat of fascist German troops in the Battle of Kursk in 1943 forced fascist Germany to finally switch to strategic defense.

The USSR's allies in the anti-Hitler coalition had every opportunity to fulfill their obligations and open a 2nd front in Western Europe. By the summer of 1943, the strength of the armed forces of the United States and Great Britain exceeded 13 million people. However, the strategy of the USA and Great Britain was still determined by their policies, which ultimately counted on the mutual exhaustion of the USSR and Germany.

On July 10, 1943, American and British troops (13 divisions) landed on the island of Sicily, captured the island, and in early September they landed amphibious assault forces on the Apennine Peninsula, without encountering serious resistance from Italian troops. The offensive of the Anglo-American troops in Italy took place in the context of an acute crisis in which the Mussolini regime found itself as a result of the anti-fascist struggle of the broad masses led by the Italian Communist Party. On July 25, Mussolini's government was overthrown. The new government was headed by Marshal Badoglio, who signed an armistice with the United States and Great Britain on September 3. On October 13, the government of P. Badoglio declared war on Germany. The collapse of the fascist bloc began. Anglo-American forces landed in Italy launched an offensive against the Nazi troops, but, despite their numerical superiority, they were unable to break their defenses and suspended active operations in December 1943.

During the 3rd period of the war, significant changes occurred in the balance of forces of the warring parties in the Pacific Ocean and in Asia. Japan, having exhausted the possibilities of further offensive in the Pacific theater of operations, sought to gain a foothold on the strategic lines conquered in 1941-42. However, even under these conditions, the military-political leadership of Japan did not consider it possible to weaken the grouping of its troops on the border with the USSR. By the end of 1942, the United States made up for the losses of its Pacific Fleet, which began to surpass the Japanese fleet, and intensified its operations on the approaches to Australia, in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean and on Japan's sea lanes. The Allied offensive in the Pacific Ocean began in the fall of 1942 and brought the first successes in the battles for the island of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands), which was abandoned by Japanese troops in February 1943. During 1943, American troops landed on New Guinea, drove the Japanese out of the Aleutian Islands, and a number of significant losses to the Japanese navy and merchant fleet. The peoples of Asia rose more and more decisively in the anti-imperialist liberation struggle.

The defeat of the fascist bloc, the expulsion of enemy troops from the USSR, the creation of a second front, liberation from the occupation of European countries, the complete collapse of fascist Germany, and its unconditional surrender. The most important military-political events of this period were determined by the further growth of the military-economic power of the anti-fascist coalition, the increasing force of the blows of the Soviet Armed Forces and the intensification of the actions of the allies in Europe. On a larger scale, the offensive of the armed forces of the United States and Great Britain unfolded in the Pacific Ocean and Asia. However, despite the well-known intensification of allied actions in Europe and Asia, the decisive role in the final destruction of the fascist bloc belonged to the Soviet people and their Armed Forces.

The course of the Great Patriotic War irrefutably proved that the Soviet Union was capable of, on its own, achieving a complete victory over Nazi Germany and liberating the peoples of Europe from the fascist yoke. Under the influence of these factors, significant changes took place in the military-political activities and strategic planning of the United States, Great Britain and other participants in the anti-Hitler coalition.

By the summer of 1944, the international and military situation was such that a further delay in the opening of the 2nd Front would have led to the liberation of all of Europe by the USSR. This prospect worried the ruling circles of the United States and Great Britain and forced them to rush to invade Western Europe across the English Channel. After two years of preparation, the Normandy landing operation of 1944 began on June 6, 1944. By the end of June, the landing troops occupied a bridgehead about 100 km wide and up to 50 km deep, and on July 25 went on the offensive. It took place in a situation when the anti-fascist struggle of the Resistance forces, which numbered up to 500 thousand fighters by June 1944, was especially intensified in France. On August 19, 1944, an uprising began in Paris; By the time the allied troops arrived, the capital was already in the hands of French patriots.

At the beginning of 1945, a favorable environment was created for the final campaign in Europe. On the Soviet-German front it began with a powerful offensive of Soviet troops from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians.

The last center of resistance to Nazi Germany was Berlin. At the beginning of April, Hitler’s command pulled the main forces to the Berlin direction: up to 1 million people, St. 10 thousand guns and mortars, 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, 3.3 thousand combat aircraft, on April 16, the Berlin operation of 1945, grandiose in scope and intensity, began with troops of 3 Soviet fronts, as a result of which the Berlin enemy group. On April 25, Soviet troops reached the city of Torgau on the Elbe, where they united with units of the 1st American Army. On May 6-11, troops from 3 Soviet fronts carried out the Paris Operation of 1945, defeating the last group of Nazi troops and completing the liberation of Czechoslovakia. Advancing on a broad front, the Soviet Armed Forces completed the liberation of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. Carrying out the liberation mission, Soviet troops met with the gratitude and active support of the European peoples, all democratic and anti-fascist forces of the countries occupied by the fascists.

After the fall of Berlin, capitulation in the West became widespread. On the eastern front, Nazi troops continued their fierce resistance where they could. The goal of the Dönitz government, created after Hitler’s suicide (April 30), was to, without stopping the fight against the Soviet Army, conclude an agreement with the United States and Great Britain on partial surrender. Back on May 3, on behalf of Dönitz, Admiral Friedeburg established contact with the British commander Field Marshal Montgomery and obtained consent to surrender the Nazi troops to the British “individually.” On May 4, the act of surrender of German troops in the Netherlands, North-West Germany, Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark was signed. On May 5, fascist troops capitulated in Southern and Western Austria, Bavaria, Tyrol and other areas. On May 7, General A. Jodl, on behalf of the German command, signed the terms of surrender at Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, which was to take effect on May 9 at 00:01. The Soviet government expressed categorical protest against this unilateral act, so the Allies agreed to consider it a preliminary protocol of surrender. At midnight on May 8, in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, occupied by Soviet troops, representatives of the German High Command, led by Field Marshal W. Keitel, signed an act of unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. Unconditional surrender was accepted on behalf of the Soviet government by Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov together with representatives of the USA, Great Britain and France.

Defeat of imperialist Japan. Liberation of the peoples of Asia from Japanese occupation. End of World War 2. Of the entire coalition of aggressive states that started the war, only Japan continued to fight in May 1945. From July 17 to August 2, the Potsdam Conference of 1945 heads of government of the USSR (J. V. Stalin), the USA (G. Truman) and Great Britain (W. Churchill, from July 28 - K. Attlee) took place, at which, along with a discussion of European problems, a large attention was paid to the situation in the Far East. In a declaration dated July 26, 1945, the governments of Great Britain, the United States and China offered Japan specific terms of surrender, which the Japanese government rejected. The Soviet Union, which denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact in April 1945, confirmed at the Potsdam Conference its readiness to enter the war against Japan in the interests of quickly ending World War II and eliminating the source of aggression in Asia. On August 8, 1945, the USSR, true to its allied duty, declared war on Japan, and on August 9. The Soviet Armed Forces began military operations against the Japanese Kwantung Army concentrated in Manchuria. The entry of the Soviet Union into the war and the defeat of the Kwantung Army accelerated the unconditional surrender of Japan. On the eve of the USSR's entry into the war with Japan, on August 6 and 9, the United States used new weapons for the first time, dropping two atomic bombs. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are beyond any military necessity. About 468 thousand residents were killed, wounded, irradiated, or went missing. This barbaric act was intended, first of all, to demonstrate the power of the United States in order to put pressure on the USSR in solving post-war problems. The signing of the act of surrender of Japan took place on September 2. 1945. World War 2 ended.

The Second World War was prepared and unleashed by the states of the aggressive bloc led by Hitler's Germany. Its origins were rooted in the Versailles system of international relations, based on the dictates of the countries that won the First World War and put Germany in a humiliating position.

This created the conditions for the development of the idea of ​​revenge.

German imperialism, on a new material and technical basis, created a powerful military-economic base, and it was assisted by Western countries. Terrorist dictatorships dominated in Germany and its allies Italy and Japan, and racism and chauvinism were instilled.

The conquest program of Hitler's Reich was aimed at destroying the Versailles order, seizing vast territories and establishing dominance in Europe. This included the liquidation of Poland, the defeat of France, the ousting of England from the continent, the mastery of the resources of Europe, and then a “march to the East,” the destruction of the Soviet Union and the establishment of a “new living space” on its territory. After that, she planned to subjugate Africa, the Middle East and prepare for war with the United States. The ultimate goal was to establish world domination of the “Third Reich”. On the part of Hitler's Germany and its allies, the war was imperialist, aggressive, and unjust.

England and France were not interested in war. They entered the war based on the desire to weaken competitors and maintain their own positions in the world. They bet on the collision of Germany and Japan with the Soviet Union and their mutual exhaustion. The actions of the Western powers on the eve and at the beginning of the war led to the defeat of France, the occupation of almost all of Europe, and the creation of a threat to the independence of Great Britain.

The expansion of aggression threatened the independence of many states. For the peoples of the countries that became victims of the invaders, the struggle against the occupiers from the very beginning acquired a liberating, anti-fascist character.

There are five periods in the history of the Second World War: Period I (September 1, 1939 - June 21, 1941) - the beginning of the war and the invasion of Nazi troops into the countries of Western Europe. II period (June 22, 1941 - November 18, 1942) - the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, the expansion of the scale of the war, the collapse of Hitler's plan for a lightning war. III period (November 19, 1942 - December 1943) - a radical turning point in the course of the war, the collapse of the offensive strategy of the fascist bloc. IV period (January 1944 - May 9, 1945) - the defeat of the fascist bloc, the expulsion of enemy troops from the USSR, the opening of a second front, liberation from the occupation of European countries, the complete collapse of Nazi Germany and its unconditional surrender. The end of the Great Patriotic War. V period (May 9 - September 2, 1945) - the defeat of imperialist Japan, the liberation of the peoples of Asia from the Japanese occupiers, the end of the Second World War.

Confident that England and France would not provide real help to Poland, Germany attacked it on September 1, 1939. Poland became the first state in Europe whose people rose up to defend their national existence. Having an overwhelming superiority of forces over the Polish army and concentrating a mass of tanks and aircraft on the main sectors of the front, the Nazi command was able to achieve important operational results from the beginning of the war. The incomplete deployment of forces, the lack of assistance from the allies, and the weakness of the centralized leadership put the Polish army before a disaster. The courageous resistance of Polish troops near Mlawa, on the Bzura, the defense of Modlin, Westerplatt and the heroic 20-day defense of Warsaw (September 8 - 28) wrote bright pages in the history of the Second World War, but could not prevent the defeat of Poland. On September 28, Warsaw capitulated. The Polish government and military command moved into Romanian territory. During the tragic days for Poland, the troops of the allies - England and France - were inactive. On September 3, England and France declared war on Germany, but did not take any active action. The United States declared its neutrality, hoping that military orders from the warring states would bring huge profits to industrialists and bankers.

The Soviet government, using the opportunities provided by the “secret additional protocol,” sent its troops into Western Ukraine and Western

Belarus. The Soviet government did not declare war on Poland. It motivated its decision by the fact that the Polish state had ceased to exist, its territory had turned into a field for all sorts of surprises and provocations, and in this situation it was necessary to take the population of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine under protection. According to the friendship and border treaty signed by the USSR and Germany on September 28, 1939, the border was established along the Narew, San and Western Bug rivers. Polish lands remained under German occupation, Ukraine and Belarus went to the USSR.

Germany's superiority in forces and the lack of assistance from the West led to the fact that at the end of September and beginning of October 1939 the last pockets of resistance of the Polish troops were suppressed, but the Polish government did not sign the act of surrender.

In the plans of England and France, a significant place was occupied by the war between Finland and the USSR, which began at the end of November 1939. The Western powers sought to turn a local armed conflict into the beginning of a united military campaign against the USSR. The unexpected rapprochement between the USSR and Germany left Finland alone with a powerful enemy. The “Winter War,” which lasted until March 12, 1940, demonstrated the low combat effectiveness of the Soviet Army and the especially low level of training of command personnel, weakened by Stalin’s repressions. Only due to large casualties and a clear superiority in forces was the resistance of the Finnish army broken. Under the terms of the peace treaty, the entire Karelian Isthmus, the northwestern coast of Lake Ladoga, and a number of islands in the Gulf of Finland were included in the territory of the USSR. The war significantly worsened the USSR's relations with Western countries - Great Britain and France, which planned to intervene in the conflict on the side of Finland.

While the Polish campaign and the Soviet-Finnish war were taking place, amazing calm reigned on the Western Front. French journalists called this period the “strange war.” The obvious reluctance of government and military circles in Western countries to escalate the conflict with Germany was explained by a number of reasons. The command of the English and French armies continued to focus on the strategy of positional warfare and hoped for the effectiveness of the defensive Maginot Line covering the eastern borders of France.

The memory of the colossal losses during the First World War also forced extreme caution. Finally, many politicians in these countries counted on the localization of the outbreak of war in Eastern Europe, on Germany’s readiness to be satisfied with the first victories. The illusory nature of this position was shown in the very near future.

Attack of Hitler's troops on Denmark and Norway in April-May 1940

Led to the occupation of these countries. This strengthened German positions in the Atlantic and Northern Europe and brought the bases of the German fleet closer to Great Britain. Denmark capitulated almost without a fight, and the Norwegian armed forces offered stubborn resistance to the aggressor. On May 10, the German invasion of Holland, Belgium, and then through their territory into France began. German troops, bypassing the fortified Maginot Line and breaking through the Ardennes, broke through the Allied front on the Meuse River and reached the English Channel coast. English and French troops were pinned to the sea at Dunkirk. But unexpectedly the German offensive was suspended, which made it possible to evacuate British troops to the British Isles. The Nazis launched a further attack on Paris. On June 10, 1940, Italy declared war on the Anglo-French coalition, seeking to establish dominance in the Mediterranean basin. The French government betrayed the interests of the country. Paris, declared an open city, was given to the Nazis without a fight. The new government was formed by a supporter of surrender - Marshal Petain, associated with the fascists. On June 22, 1940, an armistice agreement was signed in the Compiegne Forest, which meant the surrender of France. France was divided into occupied (northern and central parts) and unoccupied, where the regime of the puppet government of Petain was established. The Resistance movement began to develop in France. The patriotic organization Free France, led by General Charles de Gaulle, began to operate in exile.

Hitler hoped that the defeat of France would force England to leave the war; peace was offered to her. But Germany's successes only strengthened the British desire to continue the fight. On May 10, 1940, a coalition government was formed headed by Germany's enemy W. Churchill. The new government cabinet has taken emergency measures to strengthen the defense system. England was supposed to turn into a “hornet’s nest” - a continuous expanse of fortified areas,

anti-tank and anti-landing lines, deployment of air defense units. The German command was indeed preparing at that time a landing operation on the British Isles (“Seelowe” - “Sea Lion”). But in view of the obvious superiority of the English fleet, the task of crushing the military power of Great Britain was entrusted to the air force - the Luftwaffe under the command of G. Goering. From August to October 1940, the “Battle of Britain” broke out - one of the largest air battles during the Second World War. The battles went on with varying degrees of success, but by mid-autumn it became obvious that the plans of the German command were impracticable. Shifting attacks to civilian targets and massive intimidation bombings of English cities also did not have any effect.

In an effort to strengthen cooperation with its main allies, Germany signed in September 1940 a tripartite pact on a political and military-economic alliance with Italy and Japan, directed against the USSR, Great Britain, and the USA.

As the activity of military operations in western Europe decreased, the attention of the German leadership again focused on the eastern direction. The second half of 1940 and the beginning of 1941 became a decisive time for determining the balance of power on the continent. Germany could firmly count on the occupied territories of France, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, the Czech Republic, as well as the dependent regimes of Quisling in Norway, Tiso in Slovakia, the Vichys in France and the “exemplary protectorate” of Denmark. The fascist regimes in Spain and Portugal chose to remain neutral, but for now this was of little concern to Hitler, who fully counted on the loyalty of the dictators Franco and Salazar. Italy independently captured Albania and began aggression in Greece. However, with the help of English formations, the Greek army repelled the attack and even entered the territory of Albania. In this situation, much depended on the position of government circles in the countries of South-Eastern Europe.

Back in the second half of the 1930s, military-authoritarian nationalist regimes either came to power or further strengthened their positions in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. Nazi Germany viewed this region as its sphere of direct influence. However, with

At the outbreak of the war, the states of South-Eastern Europe were in no hurry to assume any obligations towards the warring parties. Forcing events, the German leadership decided in August 1940 to prepare open aggression against the least loyal Romania. However, in November a coup d'etat took place in Bucharest and the pro-German Antonescu regime came to power. At the same time, fearing the growing influence of Romania, Hungary also announced its readiness to join the German bloc. Bulgaria became another satellite of the Reich in the spring of 1941.

Events unfolded differently in Yugoslavia. In March 1941, the Yugoslav government signed an alliance pact with Germany. However, the patriotic command of the Yugoslav army carried out a coup d'etat and terminated the agreement. Germany's response was the start of military operations in the Balkans in April. The huge superiority in forces allowed the Wehrmacht to defeat the Yugoslav army within a week and a half, and then suppress pockets of resistance in Greece. The territory of the Balkan Peninsula was divided between the countries of the German bloc. However, the struggle of the Yugoslav people continued, and the Resistance movement, one of the most powerful in Europe, expanded in the country.

With the end of the Balkan campaign, only three truly neutral, independent states remained in Europe - Sweden, Switzerland and Ireland. The Soviet Union was chosen as the next target of aggression. Formally, the Soviet-German treaty of 1939 was still in force, but its true potential had already been exhausted. The division of Eastern Europe into spheres of influence allowed the USSR to freely include Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, the Baltic republics - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, which were occupied by Romania back in 1918, and in June 1940. at the request of the USSR they were returned to him; using military measures to achieve territorial concessions to Finland. Germany, using an agreement with the USSR, carried out the first and most important campaigns in Europe, avoiding the dispersion of forces on two fronts. Now nothing separated the two huge powers and the choice could only be made between further military-political rapprochement or an open clash. The decisive moment was the Soviet-German negotiations in November 1940 in Berlin. At them, the Soviet Union was invited to join the Steel Pact.

The USSR's refusal to renounce an obviously unequal union predetermined the inevitability of war. On December 1, 8, the secret plan “Barbarossa” was approved, which provided for a lightning war against the USSR.

The day the Second World War ended is the day Japan, which continued to fight even after the defeat of Germany, signed the Act of Surrender. After the capture of Berlin and the surrender of Hitler's Germany, the USSR, fulfilling its allied duty, began military operations against Japan. According to the recognition of the world community, including the Americans, the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan in June significantly brought the end of the World War closer. During the battles against the imperial Kwantung Army, our troops lost 12 thousand people killed. Japanese losses amounted to 84 thousand killed and 600 thousand captured. Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender on September 2.

On September 2, 1945, after the surrender of Japan, World War II became history. This story is still alive. In forests and fields, many shells, mines, and caches of weapons are still being found, which the warring parties left behind. Until now, search teams have found civilian burials and mass graves of soldiers all over the world. This war cannot be completed until the last soldier is buried.

How our fathers and grandfathers beat the enemy

In this War, the USSR suffered colossal both economic and human losses. More than 9 million soldiers died on the fronts, but historians also call a higher figure. Among the civilian population, the losses were much worse: about 16 million people. The populations of the Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR and Russian SFSR suffered the most.

In the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, victory and the Glory of the Russian People were forged. Thanks to the exceptional courage of Soviet soldiers and officers, who, at the cost of their lives, broke the back of the “fascist hydra” and saved the people from complete destruction, as Hitler and his entourage had planned. The feat of our army will always be glorious for centuries.

Often miracles of heroism and unprecedented courage awed the enemy and forced him to bow his head before the courage of our soldiers and commanders. From the first days of the war, the Germans and their allies faced serious resistance. Many outposts that were planned to be destroyed in the first few hours of the war held out for several days. The historian Smirnov told the world that the last defender of the Brest Fortress was captured by the Germans in 1942, in April. Our pilots, when they ran out of ammunition, boldly went to ram enemy aircraft, their ground combat equipment, railway trains and enemy manpower. Our tankers in the burning tank did not take their vehicles out of the heat of battle, fighting until their last breath. It is worth remembering the brave sailors who died along with their ship, but did not surrender. Often soldiers covered the embrasure with their chests to save their comrades from the enemy’s deadly machine-gun fire. Left without anti-tank guns, the soldiers tied themselves with grenades and threw themselves under the tank, thereby stopping the fascist armored armada.

The Second World War began counting its bloody pages in September 1939, when Germany attacked Poland. The bloody massacre lasted 2076 days, claiming thousands of human lives every day, not sparing the elderly, children and women. The end of the Second World War is a truly great event that marked the establishment of peace throughout the world.

Day of the end of World War II. Holiday date.

The celebration of this day is enshrined at the state level. In accordance with the Federal Law “On days of military glory and memorable dates of Russia” September 2 marks the Day of Military Glory - the date of the end of the Second World War.

In 1941, a Non-Aggression Pact was concluded between the USSR and Japan. Although after Hitler’s troops crossed the border of the Soviet Union, Japan did not enter the war, opening the Western Front, nevertheless, the ruling elite of the country of the “rising sun” did not abandon the thought of aggression. This is evidenced by the hidden mobilization in Manchuria and the doubling of the Kwantung Army.

After the surrender of Germany, the Japanese government wanted to find ways to conclude a peace agreement through the leadership of the Soviet Union in July. Although the emperor’s envoys did not receive a refusal, they were told that they could not be received due to the participation of Stalin and Molotov in the Potsdam Conference. Japan did not agree to peace terms even after the USSR, three months after the end of the war in Europe, in accordance with the obligations assumed during the Yalta Peace Conference, officially declared war on it and ceased all diplomatic relations.

After the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the defeat of the Kwantung Army, and the defeat of the fleet in the Pacific Ocean, the military government of Japan agreed to the terms of surrender on August 14. On August 17, the order was transmitted to the troops. Not everyone received the order to stop resistance, and some Japanese could not imagine themselves as defeated, categorically refused to lay down their arms and fought until September 10. The capitulation began on August 20. And on September 2, the insignificant Act of Surrender of Japan was signed on the US Navy cruiser Missouri. The signing was attended by representatives of all countries that fought against Japan and its satellites: the USSR, the Netherlands, China, Australia, Great Britain, Canada, France and New Zealand.

The next day, the date of the end of World War II, in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, became an official holiday: Happy Victory Day of the USSR over Japan! But for a long time this date was ignored at the state level. But in the Russian Federation this day is celebrated annually in memory of not only those who brought the defeat of Japan closer, but also those who went through the heat of war from the first day to the last day.

Traditions of the end of World War II

It is actively celebrated in the Far East, where fighting took place between Japan and the USSR. On this day it is customary to honor veterans of the Great Patriotic War. In cities, concerts are held in the Houses of Officers, in various theaters and concert halls. Traditionally, flowers are laid at soldier memorials, the Eternal Flame, and the monument to the Unknown Soldier, and memorial services are held in churches. In military units, educational activities are carried out with soldiers aimed at instilling pride in the Russian army.

In addition, events dedicated to this date are taking place all over the world. Recently in Austria it was announced that memorial events would be held in the capital, and a vigil would be held at the monument to those killed in the war. A military brass band will also play on the square in Vienna. These actions are aimed at ousting nationalists from the life of Europe who are holding mourning events for the defeat in World War II. Festivals and concerts are held in other countries.

Let there be peace...

World War II 1939 – 1945 became the worst massacre in the entire history of mankind. The war took place on five continents and involved more than 73 states, which is approximately 80% of the Earth's population at that time. Millions of Soviet soldiers gave their lives so that this war for all mankind would end with the victory of the anti-Hitler coalition.

On the day of the end of the Second World War, I want to believe that there will be no more military conflicts, that evil was buried forever under the ruins of the Reichstag, that there will be no more pain or human suffering on Earth.