Second World War

noun

a war between the Allies (Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, USSR, Yugoslavia) and the Axis (Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Rumania, Slovakia, Thailand) from 1939 to 1945

• Syn: ↑World War II, ↑World War 2

• Members of this Topic: ↑Free French, ↑Fighting French

• Instance Hypernyms: ↑world war

• Part Meronyms:

↑Bataan, ↑Corregidor, ↑Battle of Britain, ↑Battle of the Ardennes Bulge, ↑Battle of the Bulge, ↑Ardennes counteroffensive, ↑Bismarck Sea, ↑battle of the Bismarck Sea, ↑Coral Sea, ↑battle of the Coral Sea, ↑Dunkirk, ↑Dunkerque, ↑El Alamein, ↑Al Alamayn, ↑Battle of El Alamein, ↑Eniwetok, ↑Guadalcanal, ↑Battle of Guadalcanal, ↑Iwo, ↑Iwo Jima, ↑invasion of Iwo, ↑Kwajalein, ↑Leyte, ↑Leyte Island, ↑Leyte invasion, ↑Midway, ↑Battle of Midway, ↑Okinawa, ↑Okinawa campaign, ↑Philippine Sea, ↑battle of the Philippine Sea, ↑Saipan, ↑Salerno, ↑Somme, ↑Somme River, ↑Battle of the Somme, ↑Tarawa, ↑Makin, ↑Tarawa-Makin, ↑Battle of Wake, ↑Battle of Wake Island

* * *

the ˌSecond ˌWorld ˈWar 7 [Second World War] (also ˌWorld ˌWar ˈTwo) noun singular

the second large international war, that was fought between 1939 and 1945

See also: ↑World War Two  

Culture:

The war was fought between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) and the ↑Allies (Britain and the countries in the ↑British Empire, France, and later the USSR and the US). Many other countries were also involved both directly and indirectly.

The war started when Germany, under Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, invaded and took control of other countries and the Allies wanted to prevent German power growing in this way. Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939 when German troops entered Poland, and soon afterwards Winston Churchill, who in Britain is closely associated with the Allies’ victory in the war, became the British ↑prime minister.

In 1940 Germany attacked Britain but was not successful, mainly because of the British victory in the ↑Battle of Britain. In 1941 Germany invaded Russia and Japan attacked ↑Pearl Harbor, an action which brought the US into the war. In 1942 Japan increased its control over several countries in Asia but was checked by US forces in the Pacific. In the same year, at the Battle of El Alamein, Allied forces began to defeat Germany and Italy in northern Africa. In 1943 the Allies took Italy and Russian forces began to advance on Germany from the east. In 1944 the Allies invaded northern Europe with the ↑Normandy landings and began to defeat Germany in Europe. The war ended in 1945 when the Allies took control of Germany, Hitler killed himself, and Japan was defeated as a result of atom bombs being dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and ↑Nagasaki. Germany and Japan surrendered separately in 1945.

Over 50 million people were killed in the war, more than 20 million of them Russians. World War II is also remembered for the very large number of Jewish and other people killed in German concentration camps and the harsh treatment of prisoners of war captured by the Japanese.

See also ↑D-Day, See also ↑Dunkirk

.