World War II, or the Second World War, was a global military conflict. It began as the joining of what had initially been two separate conflicts, with the first beginning in Asia in 1937 (the Second Sino-Japanese War) and the other beginning in Europe in 1939 (the German and Soviet invasion of Poland).
The war split the majority of the world's nations into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history, and placed the participants in a state of "total war", which erased the distinction between civil and military resources and resulted in the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort. Over 70 million people, the majority of them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.
The Allies won the war, and as a result, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the world's leading superpowers. This set the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. The United Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The self-determination spawned by the war accelerated decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Europe itself began moving toward integration.
The
Warsaw Uprising (
Powstanie Warszawskie) was a
World War II struggle by the
Polish Home Army (
Armia Krajowa) to liberate
Warsaw from
German occupation. The Uprising began on August 1, 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion,
Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army would reach the city. The Soviet advance stopped short, however, while Polish resistance against the German forces continued for 63 days (until
October 2).The Uprising began at a crucial juncture as the
Soviet Army was approaching Warsaw. The Uprising's chief objective was to drive the German occupiers from the city, helping with the larger fight against the Axis. Secondary political objectives were to liberate Warsaw before the
Red Army arrived, so as to underscore Polish
sovereignty, and to undo the Allied division of
Central Europe into
spheres of influence.
Polish authorities were to reappear in liberated Warsaw and challenge the
Soviet puppet government that was to rule Poland.
A
battleship is a large, heavily
armored warship with a main
battery consisting of the largest
calibre of
guns. Battleships are larger, better armed, and better armored than
cruisers and
destroyers.Battleship design continually evolved to incorporate and adapt technological advances to maintain an edge. The word
battleship was coined around 1794 and is a shortened form of
line-of-battle ship, the dominant wooden sailing warship during the
Age of Sail. The term came into formal use in the late 1880s to describe a type of
ironclad warship, now referred to as
pre-dreadnought battleships. In 1906 the launching of
HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design, and battleships constructed subsequently were referred to as
dreadnoughts. Battleships were a potent symbol of
naval dominance and national might, and for decades the battleship was a major factor in both
diplomacy and
military strategy. The global
arms race in battleship construction in the early 20th century was one of the causes of
World War I, which saw a clash of huge battle fleets at the
Battle of Jutland. The
Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships but did not end the evolution of design. Both the
Allies and the
Axis Powers deployed battleships of old construction and new during
World War II.
The
Battle of Cape Esperance, also known as the
Second Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the
Sea Battle of Savo Island (サボ島沖海戦), took place October 11 – 12, 1942, and was a
naval battle of the
Pacific campaign of
World War II between the
Imperial Japanese Navy and
United States Navy. The battle was the third of five major naval engagements during the
Guadalcanal campaign and took place at the entrance to the
strait between
Savo Island and
Guadalcanal in the
Solomon Islands.On the night of
October 11, Japanese naval forces in the Solomon Islands area, under the command of
Gunichi Mikawa, sent a major supply and reinforcement convoy to their forces on Guadalcanal. The convoy consisted of two
seaplane tenders and six
destroyers and was commanded by
Rear Admiral Takatsugu Jojima. At the same time but in a separate operation, three heavy
cruisers and two destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral
Aritomo Gotō were to
bombard the
Allied airfield on Guadalcanal (called
Henderson Field by the Allies) with the object of destroying Allied aircraft and the airfield's facilities.
