World War II: Key Events, Turning Points, and Aftermath
The End of the War in Europe
In the most critical moment of the German collapse, with Berlin surrounded by Soviet troops, Hitler, isolated and in despair, committed suicide on April 30, 1945. The final surrender of German forces was signed on May 8. The war had officially ended in Europe.
The Pacific Theater and the Atomic Bombings
In the Pacific, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur practically annihilated the Japanese Navy in the naval battle of Leyte Gulf and opened the way for U.S. occupation of the Philippines, the primary objective of the campaign. In March 1944, Manila surrendered, and in March and June of the following year, the United States captured the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa after a bitter struggle with the Japanese. This opened the way for a massive bombing of Japan and even a possible invasion. However, the United States was preparing something much stronger. Indeed, the United States, from experiments by Germans, had developed an atomic bomb. Harry S. Truman, who assumed the U.S. presidency after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, had estimated that the bomb could be used to defeat Japan in a way that would cost fewer U.S. casualties than a traditional invasion. On August 6, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Eighty thousand people were burned to death or died following radiation, and another seventy thousand were severely affected. Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and on August 9, the Americans dropped the second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki. The Japanese, faced with this show of force, formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.
The Devastation and Casualties of World War II
World War II resulted in a death toll of between 35 and 60 million, including a large number of civilians. The massive bombing of cities and industrial facilities also generated huge material losses. The offensive capability of new weapons and tactics of war (transport and aerial bombing, aircraft carriers, parachute units, tanks with powerful guns, bombs and rocket-propelled V-1 and V-2 launched by the Germans on London, and atomic bombs) explains the widespread destruction and massacres, particularly in the Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, France, and the UK.
The Post-War World Order
The peace conferences in Tehran (1943), Yalta, and Potsdam (both in 1945) changed the world map and laid the foundations for a new historical period in which the old Europe ceded its hegemony to the two new superpowers that were consolidated during and after the war: the United States and the Soviet Union.
Operation Overlord and the Liberation of Europe
Since 1944, German forces had begun a partial withdrawal from the east to prepare to contain the expected Allied invasion in western Europe. It was not known, however, where this would occur. The mission was entrusted to General Dwight Eisenhower and was named “Operation Overlord.” On June 6, 1944 (to be known as D-Day), 156,000 men landed on the beaches of Normandy, from southern Britain. The invading forces were composed of British, Canadians, and Americans, and small groups of other nationalities. The Allies made rapid progress in the north of France thanks to their air force, capable of decisively interfering with the movement of German reserves.
The German Resistance and the Plot Against Hitler
Doubts and dissent began to emerge among the Germans themselves.
Apart from the progress of the Allies, an event demoralized the German commanders: the failure and the consequences of a conspiracy against Hitler. The disastrous course the war had taken and warnings of the Nazi regime’s crimes led a number of civilians and officers to form a secret opposition that finally decided to kill the Fuhrer. The plot failed, and the Nazi reaction was brutal: 200 conspirators involved and five thousand more remotely related to the conspiracy were sentenced to death. Hitler and his fanatical supporters, increasingly alienated from his people, still had hope of tipping the balance in their favor through the use of new weapons that German scientists were perfecting. But the reality was that the Allied superiority was already insurmountable despite the fruitless efforts of Germany. The Allies quickly consolidated their control of France and began a move towards Germany, which would end with the occupation of the country between March and April 1945. Hitler ordered the mobilization of all men aged between 16 and 60 years in a desperate attempt to defend the Third Reich. Meanwhile, the Soviet army moved westward and occupied the eastern half of Germany. Before his troops were ready for the final assault, the Allies intensified their aerial bombardment. This offensive culminated on February 13, 1945, with a series of five attacks on Dresden, which was completely destroyed.