Book of World War II (All About History)

260 Pages·2014·110.931 MB·English

by  Collective

The Second World War left indelible marks on both the
landscape and the people, not just of Britain and Germany,
but the world. This book aims to put the well-known stories,
memories and ruins of the war into context, and bring to life
the events that led to these lasting changes. Find out how the
war began, who fought and made key decisions throughout its
duration, and how, after years of conflict, it finally came to an
end. Uncover the story behind some of the war's crucial events –
from the Battle of Midway and the attack on Pearl Harbor to the
D-Day landings and the firebombing of Tokyo – and learn how
these defining moments shaped the war. See the chronology of
the war through evocative images, read detailed accounts and
gain an insight into what it was like to live during the period
with this compendium of the last world war.

BOOK OF
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All About History Book Of World War II © 2014 Imagine Publishing Ltd
ISBN 978 1910 155 295
Part of the
bookazine series
World War II
CONTENTS
08 - Introduction 78 - The Siege of Leningrad
10 - Operations map 1931–1941 80 - Operation “Typhoon”
12 - Operations map 1941–1942 82 - Defeat in North Africa
14 - Operations map 1942–1944 84 - The Allied Invasion of Iraq & Syria
16 - Operations map 1944–1945 86 - The Atlantic Charter
18 - Forging the Peace 88 - Operation “Crusader”
20 - Japan’s War in China 90 - Pearl Harbor
22 - Italy’s Wars 92 - Blitzkrieg in Asia
24 - Germany destroys Versailles 94 - Lend-Lease
26 - Arming for War in the 1930s 96 - The Wannsee Conference
28 - The Munich Crisis 98 - The Fall of Singapore
30 - The Occupation and Break-up 100 - Commando Raids: Norway to St Nazaire
of Czechoslovakia 102 - The Siege of Malta
32 - The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 104 - Corregidor: Fall of the Philippines
34 - Germany invades Poland 106 - Japan conquers Burma
36 - Britain and France declare War 108 - The Battle of Coral Sea
38 - The Soviet-Finnish war 110 - Operation “Ironclad”
40 - The Battle of the River Plate 112 - The First Thousand-Bomber Raid
42 - The Invasion of Norway 114 - Oil
44 - Churchill takes over 116 - Operation “Blue”
46 - Germany invades in the West 118 - The Battle of Midway
48 - Dunkirk 120 - Crisis in Egypt
50 - The Fall of France 122 - The Battle of the Atlantic
52 - Germany’s New Order 124 - Into the Caucasus
54 - The Battle of Britain 126 - Battle for the Solomons
56 - The East African Campaigns 128 - The Dieppe Raid
58 - Operation “Sealion” 130 - The tide turns in North Africa
60 - The German Blitz on Britain 132 - The Battle for Stalingrad
62 - The Tripartite Pact 134 - Second Alamein
64 - Naval War in the Mediterranean 136 - Operation “Torch”
66 - Operation “Compass”: 138 - Guadalcanal
Defeat of Italy in North Africa 140 - Operation “Uranus”
68 - German Invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece 142 - Defeat at Stalingrad
70 - The German conquest of Crete 144 - The Casablanca Conference
72 - Sinking the Bismarck 146 - Operation “Longcloth”: Chindits in Burma
74 - Hitler turns East 148 - The end of the Axis in Africa: Tunisia
76 - Operation “Barbarossa” 150 - The Dambusters raid
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152 - Rationing: The war for food 220 - Behind Barbed Wire: The Fate of POWs
154 - The Battle of Kursk 222 - The Battle of the Bulge
156 - Operation “Husky”: Invasion of Sicily 224 - Soviet Advance on Germany:
158 - The Bombing of Hamburg Vistula-Oder Operation
160 - The French Resistance 226 - The Yalta Conference
162 - From Kharkov to Kiev: 228 - Iwo Jima
the Red Army breaks through 230 - The Firebombing of Tokyo
164 - Italy: Invasion and Surrender 232 - The Western Advance into Germany:
166 - Operation “Cartwheel”: War for New Guinea From the Rhine to the Elbe
168 - Island-hopping in the Pacifi c: 234 - Okinawa
Gilbert and Marshall Islands 236 - Liberation of the Camps
170 - The Big Three: The Teheran Conference 238 - Victory in Burma
172 - Partisan War 240 - Battle for Berlin
174 - Battle of the North Cape 242 - Last Days in Hitler’s Bunker
176 - The Battle for Anzio 244 - Victory in Italy
178 - The Battle for Monte Cassino 246 - The German Surrender
180 - The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Deception 248 - The Atomic Bombs
182 - Battle for India: Imphal and Kohima 250 - The Japanese Surrender
184 - Japan’s War in China: Operation “Ichi-Go” 252 - The Casualties
186 - D-Day 254 - The War Crimes Trials
188 - Battle for Normandy 256 - From World War to Cold War
190 - The V-Weapons Campaign 258 - Credits
192 - The Marianas: Defence to the Death
194 - Battle of the Philippine Sea
196 - Operation “Bagration”
198 - Defeat of the Luftwaff e
200 - Stalemate in Italy
202 - July Plot: The Coup that Failed
204 - Breakout: Operation “Cobra”
206 - The Warsaw Uprising
208 - The End of Vichy France:
Operation “Dragoon”
210 - The Liberation of Paris
212 - Operation “Market Garden”
214 - Yugoslavia: Liberation from within
216 - The Recapture of the Philippines
218 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf
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8
INTRODUCTION
T
he Second World War was the largest and of the Allies and the re-establishment of a more
costliest war in human history. Its scale stable world order. It starts with the early years of
was genuinely global, leaving almost no more limited war, when German armies conquered
part of the world unaffected. At its end the political much of Europe with relatively low casualties and
geography of the world was transformed and the with lightning speed. In just 19 months Germany
stage set for the emergence of the modern states’ had conquered an area from Norway to Crete,
system. It is possible to exaggerate the break the French Atlantic coast to Warsaw. It is little
represented by victory in 1945, but the change wonder that Hitler and the German leadership felt
between the pre-war world of economic crisis, confident that they could now build a New Order
European imperialism and militant nationalism on the ruins of the old.
and the post-war world of economic boom, It follows the war’s progress as the Axis states
decolonisation and the ideological confrontation of pushed out into the Soviet Union, South-east Asia
the Cold War was a fundamental one. and the Pacific and almost to the Suez Canal. In the
It is worth remembering that no-one at the start Soviet Union only exceptional efforts staved off
could be certain what direction the war might defeat, but with losses on an extraordinary scale,
take or could anticipate the degree of destruction any other state would have sued for peace. Stalin’s
and violence that it would draw in its wake. A ability to keep his people fighting was a vital
number of different areas of conflict coalesced, element in 1941 and 1942 when the Western Allies
like separate fires growing into a single inferno: were struggling to avoid defeat in the Pacific and
the European conflict over German efforts to Atlantic, and could do little to hinder the German
break the restrictions imposed after her defeat in advance. For the Allies these years turned into
the First World War; the conflicts generated by an a holding operation in which they tried to avoid
expansionist and ambitious Fascist Italy whose anything worse happening. For their Axis enemies
leader, Benito Mussolini, dreamed of re-creating the tantalising prize of a new world order seemed
the Roman Empire; and the war for Asia fought still within their grasp – German soldiers were in
in the east by Imperial Japan, determined to the Caucasus, Japanese soldiers a short step from
assert the right of non-white peoples to a share Australia and German and Italian forces deep
of empire; and in western Asia by an alliance of inside Egypt.
anti-Communist states grouped around Hitler’s However this was not to be. Slowly but surely on
Germany which launched a crusade against the land and sea and in the air, the tide of war began
new Soviet system in 1941. to flow the Allies’ way. It became clear that Axis
As the war grew in scope all the major powers forces, which had once seemed all but unstoppable,
were drawn in. It is often asserted that the entry could be defeated in open battle. Victory in the
of the United States in December 1941 made desert war paved the way for the reconquest of the
victory certain for the Allied powers through Mediterranean; victory in the Solomons opened
sheer economic weight, but the outcome was not a small doorway into the defensive frontier of the
pre-ordained. Germany and her allies had large Japanese Empire through which the Allies poured
resources and captured yet more. German and overwhelming naval, air and military strength;
Japanese forces fought with high skill. To win victory at Stalingrad demonstrated to the world
the war the Allies needed to improve fighting that the Red Army had come of age and the period
power, to co-ordinate their activities and to keep of easy German victories was over.
their populations, even in times of tribulation, The Struggles of the end of the war were the
committed to the cause. The idea that the Axis costliest of the entire conflict. Most Western,
powers, and Germany in particular, lost the war German and Japanese casualties date from the
through their own ineptitude distorts the extent to final 18 months of combat. The sight of distant
which the Allies had to learn to fight with greater victory did not make the war easier to wage
effectiveness and to exploit their own scientific, but called for the most supreme of efforts. The
technical and intelligence resources to the full. It prospect of catastrophic defeat called for desperate
is a measure of the significance they all gave to the measures of defence from the Axis forces. When
war, not simply as the means to their own survival, the war was finally over in August 1945 the world
but as a way to impose one world order or another, had to take stock of the wreckage left behind. The
that they made the sacrifices they did. There was changes provoked by the war were this time more
a powerful sense that this really was a war that permanent than in 1918. Nothing to compare with
would shape the way history would be made. the Second World War has occurred in the sixty-
The Second World War: The Complete Illustrated three years since it ended, but its long shadow has
History is the story of that conflict from its roots in extended down to the present.
the post-war settlement of 1919 to the final victory RICHARD OVERY, 2010
9
World War II
A T L A N T I C
OPERATIONS 1931–1941
O C E A N
B
IR
etween September 1939 and May 1941 alone, was under growing threat in North
the Axis powers in Europe, Germany Africa and the Middle East and, in eastern Asia,
and Italy, came to dominate most of the from the expanding Japanese Empire, which Cor
European continent from Norway in the north to by mid-1941 reached down deep into Chinese
Crete in the south. The Allies had more success in territory and was poised to threaten the eastern
the naval war and in sub-Saharan Africa, European imperial possessions from India to the
but by mid-1941 the British Empire, fighting Dutch East Indies.
Sinking the Bismarck,
24–27 May 1941
GENERAL MAP KEY — TO SPREAD MAPS WORLD MAP KEY
Military units Nationalities Military types FRONTIERS, 1941
XXXXX
JAPANESE EMPIRE, 1937
Army Group German Infantry
XXXX
Army Italian Armour ITALY'S AFRICAN EMPIRE, 1939
XXX
Japanese Airbourne
Corps
XX French
Division
X British EUROPE MAP KEY
Brigade B a y o
III Soviet FRONTIERS, 1941
Regiment
II Other (named) B i s c a
AXIS STATES AXIS CONQUERED TERRITORY
Battalion
I
Company AXIS ALLIES VICHY FRANCE AND TERRITORIES
Oviedo
Porto
U N I O N O F S O V I E T L
GREAT S O C I A L I S T R E P U B L I C S A Douro
BRITAIN
C A N A D A GERMANYPOLAND G
Karafuto
FRANCE U MANCHURIA
MONGOLIA
Caspian Lisbon T Tagus Madrid
ITALY Sea R
UONF IATMEDE RSITCAATES ATNLOARNTTHIC see map right TURKEY C H I N A O KORESA JAPAPN A I
OCEAN Operation “Compass”– IRAQ PERSIA P
Defeat of Italy in North Africa, Japan's Wars in China,
7 December 1940–9 February 1941 1931–39
LIBYA EGYPT
I N D I A
Formosa
SIAM
FRENCH WEST AFRICA SUDAN ERITREA INDFROE-NCHCHINASeville POACCEIAFINC
Italy's Wars,
1935–39 PHILIPPINES
A F R I C A
ABYSSINIA ITALIAN Ceylon Gibraltar
COLOMBIA SOMALILAND MALAY STATES (British)
KENYA The East African Campaigns,
5 August–16 May 1941
BCEOLNGGIAON DUTCH EAST INDIES
TANGANYIKA
B R A Z I L
PERU SOUTH ANGOLA
ATLANTIC
OCEAN INDIAN OCEAN M O R O C C O
A U S T R A L I A
SOUTH
ARGENTINA Battle of the River Plate, 13 December 1939 AFRICA
10