World War II

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World War II. Explain like I'm 5
 * Question
 * Answer by /u/Axon350

Best answer
To recap: Germany is angry because they had to pay a huge amount of money as reparation for World War 1. Italy is jealous because they felt like they should have gotten more from WW1. Mussolini has promised to make Italy a great and powerful empire with new colonies. In 1937, China, weakened by years of civil war, is invaded by Japan.

One morning, Adolf Hitler woke up and decided he wanted to rule the country. When elected Chancellor as head of the Nazi Party, he spits in the face of Germany's reparation promises and begins to build a massive army, which he later moves to Austria. The League of Nations, a weak precursor to the United Nations, notices this but does nothing to stop it.

In 1939, Germany invades Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declare war on Germany, and the Second World War has begun. The French tries to help Poland, but fails, especially when Soviet Russia invades Poland two weeks later.

In 1940, Germany was on a roll. They used blitzkrieg, or lightning war, tactics to swiftly invade France, Belgium, and Holland. Italy helped them, and together they divided France. Italy also invaded Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Egypt. Germany attempts to capture Britain via an air battle, but fails, and instead settles for destroying a bunch of its cargo ships.

A year later, Germany quietly stabs its former ally Russia in the back and invades. Unfortunately, they forgot that Russia is known for getting really damn cold in the winter, and had to turn back before they captured Moscow. Germany encouraged Japan to destroy the American fleet in the Pacific Ocean so that the oil reserves in Asia could be theirs.

So Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and in December 1941 America enters the war. Although the Japanese occupied a large number of Pacific islands, American forces prevailed and pushed back the Japanese after many long and costly battles.

Meanwhile in Europe, Germany counterattacks Russia. Thinking ahead, they invade in summer. However, they underestimate how enormous the Russian defense is, and the Russians hold the city of Stalingrad for several months, ending in the defeat of the Germans in '43. Over the next year, Soviet forces staged a counter-counter attack and eventually drove the Germans out. That same year, American forces sent troops to liberate France, in what is known as the D-Day invasion. With Russians coming in from the east and Americans coming in from the west, Mussolini dead and Germany falling, Hitler killed himself in April 1945.

Back to the Pacific. The islands grew closer together near Mainland Japan, and the Japanese soldiers fought relentlessly, refusing to surrender. Russia was making its way to Japan, but slowly and with many losses on both sides. After much deliberation, America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, forcing Japan to surrender and ending the war.

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/u/the_northener
Super.

Except you forgot every other nation participating on the Allied side except for the Americans and Russians.

Leaving out, for a start: Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India, Newfoundland... the list goes on.

These contributions were not insignificant, and in many ways were longer, harder, and greater than many American contributions. Juno and Sword beaches - the Canadian landing zones at Normandy were more heavily defended by the Germans and taken with fewer men than Omaha and Utah.

Commonwealth troops were fighting in Africa long before the U.S. was forced to stop what was basically profiteering on the war through oil trading, by the Japanese. It was Canadian troops that liberated Holland (where Americans and British had failed) and largely Canadians who took the Italian Peninsula.

But by all means, present an American-centric view of history...

Source.

/u/sbt3289
I also think it is important to place emphasis on how shitty things were in Germany when Hitler gained power. Germans were about to eat up anybody promising them food and/or glory because their economy had tanked beyond tanked. You needed wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread, inflation was so high. Germans would have followed a kitty with a bell around it's neck draped with a German flag had it been available, and Hitler was a smooth talker who walked into bars and gathered support from the people who had nothing and took advantage, basically, blaming everything on the Jews. Not to say that they're not responsible for the decisions they made, but it wasn't as simple as take over the world and follow Hitler or live a happy life and keep farming.

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