The Second World War

The Second World War was an unprecedented event. Starting as a European conflict with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ended with the Japanese surrender in August 1945. It eventually, became the first war to involve every continent and, in the case of the Pacific, war between continents. Most nations, most of the world's manufacturing capacity and most of the Earth's people, were directly or indirectly involved in the conflict. The use of air and sea power and the advance of technology made it the first conflict in which civilians were in the front line, and in which the distinction between combatants and noncombatants was almost erased. It was also an economic struggle, decided in the end not by individual or collective skill or valor but by the balance of resources available to the participants. In the long-term consequences of the war, was the swan song of the European authority. Europe, for centuries, the master of empires, entered the conflict with trappings of world leadership. In 1945, it was clear that the victory had been won by the resources and manpower of the United States and the Soviet Union, and that the age of the superpowers had dawned., Casualities: 1,078,162, Freedom Is Not Free