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.
British anti-invasion preparations of World War II entailed a large-scale division of
military and civilian mobilization in response to the threat of invasion by
German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The army needed to recover from the
defeat of the
British Expeditionary Force in France, and 1.5 million men were enrolled as part-time soldiers in the
Home Guard. The rapid construction of
field fortifications transformed much of Britain, especially southern England, into a prepared battlefield. Short of heavy weapons and equipment, the British had to make the best use of whatever was available.The German invasion plan,
Operation Sea Lion, was never taken beyond the preliminary assembly of forces. Today, little remains of Britain's anti-invasion preparations. Only reinforced concrete structures such as
pillboxes are common, and until recently, even these have been unappreciated as historical monuments.On 1 September 1939,
Germany invaded Poland; two days later, Britain and France declared war on
Germany, launching World War II. Within three weeks, the
Red Army of the
Soviet Union invaded the
eastern regions of Poland in fulfillment of the secret
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Germany.
The
German S-mine (
Schrapnellmine in
German), also known as the
Bouncing Betty, is the best-known version of a class of mines known as
bounding mines. These mines launch into the air at about waist height and explode, propelling
shrapnel horizontally at lethal speeds. The S-mine was an
anti-personnel landmine developed by
Germany in the 1930s and used extensively by German forces during
World War II. It was designed to be used in open areas to attack unshielded infantry. Two versions were produced, designated by the year of their first production: the SMi-35 and SMi-44. There are only minor differences between the two models.The S-mine entered production in 1935 and served as a key part of the defensive strategy of the
Third Reich. Until production ceased with the defeat of Germany in 1945, Germany produced over 1.93 million S-mines.These mines were responsible for inflicting heavy casualties and slowing, or even repelling, drives into German-held territory throughout the war. The design was lethal, successful and much imitated, and remains one of the definitive weapons of World War II.
The
Battle of Greece (also known as
Operation Marita, was a
World War II battle that occurred on the Greek mainland and in southern
Albania. The battle was fought between the
Allied (
Greece and the
British Commonwealth) and
Axis (
Nazi Germany,
Fascist Italy and
Bulgaria) forces. With the
Battle of Crete and several naval actions, the Battle of Greece is considered part of the wider
Aegean component of the
Balkan Campaign of World War II. The Battle of Greece is generally regarded as a continuation of the
Greco-Italian War, which began when Italian troops invaded Greece on October 28, 1940. Within weeks the Italians were driven from Greece and Greek forces pushed on to occupy much of southern
Albania. In March 1941, a major Italian counterattack failed, and Germany was forced to come to the aid of its ally. Operation Marita began on April 6, 1941, with German troops invading Greece through
Bulgaria in an effort to secure its southern flank. The combined Greek and British forces fought back with great tenacity, but were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, and finally collapsed.
Athens fell on
April 27.
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