100 Facts About World War 2

World War 2 was the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Spanning from 1939 to 1945, it involved most of the world‘s nations and resulted in an estimated 70-85 million fatalities. Here are 100 facts that highlight the key events, turning points, and lasting impact of this devastating war:

The Road to War

The seeds of World War 2 were planted in the aftermath of World War 1 with the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed harsh reparations and territorial losses on Germany.
The global economic crisis of the Great Depression in the 1930s helped fascist leaders like Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy rise to power.
Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles by remilitarizing Germany and allying with Mussolini‘s Italy and Imperial Japan.
In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria and the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia while Britain and France‘s policy of appeasement failed to prevent further aggression.
The final spark came on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war.

Early Axis Victories

Germany quickly conquered Poland using its "blitzkrieg" tactic of mobile warfare with tanks and air support. The Soviet Union also invaded Poland from the east.
In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to secure access to iron ore and naval bases.
The Nazis launched their attack on Western Europe in May 1940, swiftly overrunning the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.
The British managed to evacuate over 300,000 Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk as the Germans closed in.
The British Royal Air Force heroically resisted the German Luftwaffe onslaught in the Battle of Britain, preventing a German invasion of the UK.
In June 1940, Mussolini‘s Italy entered the war on Germany‘s side and invaded southern France.
Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, formally establishing the Axis alliance.
In April 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece while its Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel arrived in North Africa to aid the struggling Italians against the British.
In June 1941, Hitler launched the massive invasion of the Soviet Union, breaking their non-aggression pact.
By the end of 1941, the Germans had advanced to the outskirts of Moscow and Leningrad while overrunning Ukraine.

The War Goes Global

In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, destroying much of the American Pacific fleet.
The U.S. declared war on Japan the following day. Germany and Italy then declared war on the U.S., bringing America fully into the conflict.
Japan swiftly conquered the Philippines, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, and much of Burma and China‘s coast.
The Allies turned the tide in the Pacific with their victory at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers.
On the Eastern Front, the German advance was halted at the Battle of Moscow in January 1942.
The British defeated Rommel at the Second Battle of El Alamein in November 1942, driving the Germans out of Egypt.
American and British troops landed in French North Africa that same month, trapping Axis forces in Tunisia by May 1943.
The Soviets surrounded and captured over 250,000 Germans at Stalingrad in February 1943, marking a turning point.

Driving Towards Victory

The Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943, leading to Mussolini‘s fall from power and Italy‘s surrender that September.
Germany seized control of Italy and continued to fight the Allies there for another 20 months.
The Allies conducted massive air raids against German cities like Hamburg and Dresden, killing tens of thousands of civilians.
American forces under Douglas MacArthur made their way from Australia towards the Philippines and Japan.
The British and Indians pushed back the Japanese in Burma and China with help from American supplies and advisors.
The Red Army launched a huge offensive that threw the Germans out of the Soviet Union by 1944.
On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France on D-Day, opening a second front.
Allied forces liberated Paris in August 1944 and pushed into Germany.
Hitler launched a desperate counteroffensive in the Ardennes in December 1944 that was defeated in the Battle of the Bulge.
The Soviets launched a winter offensive in January 1945 that brought them to the Oder River in Germany.
American Marines captured the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa after brutal fighting in early 1945 to provide bases for the invasion of Japan.

The Horrors of the Holocaust

During the war, the Nazi regime murdered approximately 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.
Other victims of the Holocaust included Roma, homosexuals, Slavs, Soviet prisoners of war, and the mentally and physically disabled.
Most of those killed died in purpose-built extermination camps like Auschwitz using poison gas.
The largest single massacre was at Babi Yar in Ukraine where over 33,000 Jews were shot in 1941.
Many others died in ghettos, forced labor, or during death marches from the camps.
The Nazis also brutally suppressed resistance movements and committed reprisal killings of civilians across occupied Europe.

The End of the War

The Red Army reached Berlin in April 1945. Hitler committed suicide in his bunker on April 30th.
Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1945, known as Victory in Europe or VE Day.
The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki on August 9th after Japan refused to surrender.
The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria on August 9th.
Japan announced its surrender on August 15th. The formal signing took place on September 2nd, 1945.

A New World Order

The victorious Allies – the U.S., Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union – established the United Nations in October 1945.
Germany was divided into East and West Germany, occupied by Soviet and Western Allied forces respectively.
Europe lay in ruins with its cities bombed out and millions homeless and starving.
The U.S. launched the Marshall Plan to provide billions in aid to rebuild Western Europe and counter Soviet influence.
The U.S. and Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers, dividing Europe and much of the world into competing blocs.
This rivalry, known as the Cold War, would last over 40 years and shape global politics.
Decolonization accelerated as European colonial empires disintegrated in Africa and Asia over the following decades.

Staggering Statistics

An estimated 70-85 million people perished due to the war, representing about 3% of the 1940 global population.
This included approximately 50-56 million deaths directly caused by the war through military action, crimes against humanity, and war-related famine and disease.
The Soviet Union suffered the highest death toll at around 27 million, followed by China at 15-20 million.
Poland had the highest per capita losses with about 17% of its population killed.
About 21-25 million of the total deaths were military and 50-55 million were civilians.
The war resulted in an estimated 35% increase in global deaths over the five-year period compared to the prewar rate.

Economic Impact

The war cost over a trillion dollars in 1944 USD, equivalent to about $16 trillion in 2022 dollars.
The U.S. spent the most at about $341 billion (1944 USD), funding much of the Allied war effort.
Germany spent about $272 billion, diverting most of its economy to military production.
The Soviet Union spent around $192 billion despite having its European industrial heartland occupied.
U.S. war expenditure was over a third of its GDP each year from 1942 to 1945, requiring a massive economic mobilization.
Half of British production was allocated to the war effort, enabled by lend-lease support from the U.S.
At the war‘s end, the U.S. accounted for half of global economic output and held 80% of the world‘s gold.

Technological Advances

The war spurred huge advances in technologies like jet engines, radar, aerospace engineering, television, atomic energy and digital computing.
At its peak, the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb employed 130,000 people and cost about $2 billion.
Electronic digital computers like the British Colossus were developed to break German codes.
Over 300,000 jets were built by Germany, Britain and the U.S. in the latter stages of the war.
Mass production techniques pioneered by American companies like GM became the global standard.
Progress was also made in sanitation, vaccine development, trauma surgery, burn treatment, reconstructive surgery and prosthetics.

Major Weapons and Equipment

Germany deployed about 1,350 Tigers, one of the most powerful and feared tanks of the war.
The Soviet T-34 was the most-produced tank of the war at over 84,000 units.
The British Spitfire and American P-51 Mustang were among the iconic Allied fighter aircraft.
The American M1 Garand was the first semi-automatic rifle widely issued to infantry.
Submachine guns like the American Thompson and German MP 40 saw widespread use.
Germany was the first to deploy guided missiles like the V-1 buzz bomb and V-2 ballistic missile.
Japan used biological and chemical weapons in China, including plague, cholera, and mustard gas.

Heroic Personalities

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill led his nation‘s resistance against the Nazis with resolute defiance.
American General Dwight D. Eisenhower served as Supreme Allied Commander and later became President.
Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov oversaw the defense of Moscow and capture of Berlin.
American General George Patton commanded armored forces from North Africa to Germany.
British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery led the 8th Army to victory at El Alamein.
Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur led the U.S. "island hopping" campaign in the Pacific.
French Resistance leader Jean Moulin helped unite the movement before his capture and death.
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg saved tens of thousands of Jews by issuing protective passports.

Infamous Personalities

German dictator Adolf Hitler instigated the war in Europe and orchestrated the Holocaust.
SS chief Heinrich Himmler oversaw the concentration camps and Einsatzgruppen death squads.
Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels controlled the German media and stoked antisemitism.
Japanese Emperor Hirohito was the ceremonial leader of Japan throughout the war.
General Hideki Tojo was Prime Minister of Japan for most of the war and approved the Pearl Harbor attack.
Benito Mussolini was the fascist dictator of Italy until his overthrow in July 1943.
Marshal Philippe Petain led the collaborationist Vichy regime in France after the 1940 armistice.

Memorable Quotes

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." – Winston Churchill after becoming Prime Minister in 1940.
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." – Churchill on the Battle of Britain.
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." – Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto after Pearl Harbor.
"D-Day was a day that will live in infamy." – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the Pearl Harbor attack.
"I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even yet imagine?" – Joseph Goebbels in 1943.
"Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months." – Eisenhower‘s message before D-Day.
"Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds." – American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer after the first atomic bomb test, quoting Hindu scripture.

The Second World War changed the course of human history with its unprecedented scale, savagery, and global impact. Over 75 years later, its scars and echoes still shape our world. May we never forget its lessons on the dangers of fascism, racism, and unbridled aggression—and the need for international cooperation to safeguard peace.