By Zenith Attreya
World War 2 or WWII was the deadliest war in history with 70-85 million deaths and injuries. So, how did this happen?
First, let’s go back to the first world war. Germany got seriously injured in the treaty of Versailles. So, Germany lost a lot of land and its military was very badly reduced to 100,000 men, which isn’t a lot for a country’s military. Not only that, they had to pay the allies (The US, The UK, France, Italy, Russia, Romania, and Japan) a lot of money.
So came a man with a funny mustache (Hitler), who came and became chancellor, and then dictator. But however, there was another man, Mussolini. Hiter and Mussolini were similar and hated the same countries, so they became allies.
But a lot of things happened in Asia too. Japan had no natural resources and went to war with China and got some. Then some other countries came and decided to get some land too. Japan knew it was going to die if it took on them, so they cooled off for a bit. But then, the other countries set spheres of influence, and this pissed off Japan. One of the countries was Russia, and Japan went to war with them and won. They had taken the Korean peninsula too.
Later, guess what? Japan became allies with Germany and Italy too. Now back in Europe, Germany threw the treaty of Versailles in a trash can and pumped up his army. He very casually took Austria and Czechoslovakia. Italy decided to join the war too by taking Abyssinia, which was very underdeveloped. Italy took Albania too.
Now back to Asia! Obviously, Japan wasn’t into stopping, so they took more of China. And by more of China, I mean taking Shangai and Beijing easily.
In Europe, Germany now wanted to take Poland. But the Allies said if Germany took Poland, it would be a straight war. Now, having a war on both the east and west would be hard, so Germany decided to make an alliance with the Soviet Union (Russia) and promised half of Poland. Germany and the Soviets took Poland, and the UK and France declared war on Germany. But the bloodshed wasn’t happening now, before that, The UK and France found out Norway and Sweden were exporting some things toward Germany, and they said no. So the UK put a bunch of mines on their coastline.
Germany wasn’t just going to sit there and let that happen, so it went to Norway and destroyed both France and the UK. After this, the ruler of the UK resigned, and now came Winston Churchill, which you may have heard before. Germany wanted to take France now, and went through Belgium, surrounded some of the troops of the Allies, and finished off the French ones, but the British troop was able to escape from the English channel.
Hitler also wanted to take over the UK, and Italy had declared war on it too. Hitler did some bombing raids over the UK, and let’s just say it did a lot of damage. But, not for long because the UK afterward destroyed most of the aircraft so, the English channel superiority was in the UK’s hands.
Later on, the Soviet Union declared war on Finland and thought it would be an easy win, apparently not because a person by the name of Simo Haya was able to kill over 500 Russian soldiers without a scope. Because of that, he is known as the “White Death”. But the Soviet Union did get some land through.
Now Italy’s time again, they were able to take Somaliland easily, and then Egypt not very easily, and then trying to take over Greece backfired. Churchill began referring to Italy as “Europe’s soft underbelly”.
Welp, back to Hitler, Hungary, and Romania decided to join the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan). And then, the United States of America! They were just neutral and giving the UK some food and weapons. Germany sent some U-boats to the ocean and sank many US ships.
In Africa, the UK kicked Italy out of Egypt and kept going. Hitler knew Italy was some form of an underbelly, so he said to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, “Let me go to Greece or you die”. Bulgaria let Hitler go, and Yugoslavia died. Germany captured Greece and went to Egypt, and the UK moved some of their troops so they captured the lost land fairly easily. They would advance, but a small port with some soldiers said no.
So remember the alliance with the Soviet Union and Germany, yeah, it flew off after Germany launched a surprise attack from the west. They were so close to Moscow, but then they were face to face with Russia’s largest ally, the winter. Hitler was pretty stupid not giving his men winter clothes to fight in Russia.
Back in Asia, Japan decided to go south and bombed Pearl Harbour and America went to war with Japan. Hitler joined in on the war too. Long story short, Japan almost took the entirety of Indonesia and was now bordering India. Then, the holocaust, where millions of Jewish people died by gas from Hitler.
In the Soviet Union, the factories were moved to the east and they built a lot of war things and pushed Hitler way back westward. Not only that, all of Hitler’s and Italy’s land in Africa was taken by the Allies. It wasn’t looking good for Japan either. They wanted to take some islands and failed, India and China were also able to put up a fight in Thailand, and in Indonesia, Australia was joining in on destroying Japan too.
The Allies went to Italy from the south, and unironically Italy surrendered, and it wasn’t great for Hitler. From the north, the Allies captured one of the beaches of France and sent some ships there. They occupied the whole of France and Belgium pushing Germany too. In Japan, America captured some islands and bombed Japan too. Again in Germany, it was getting attacked by both the east and west, so it fell.
Japan was about to get slapped hard too after America took an island close to the Japanese mainland in just two months. America also made the first nuclear bombs and tested them on Japan, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered all of its captured lands, and the war was over after a long six years.
The peace wasn’t though, the cold war still exists.
Zenith is an avid blogger. He studies in class 5, but has been writing since a very early age and has hundreds of articles to his credit. He has posted several videos on youtube as well. Exceptionally gifted, Zenith excels in academics, sports and other ECAs. His writings can be savored at https://kidscreativewritings.blogspot.com/