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World War II (18 September 1931/7 July 1937 /1 September 1939)
[260
]
[267
]
[278]
- September 2, 1945
[60]
), referred to as World War II, also known as the World Anti-Fascist War, to
Nazi Germany
,
Kingdom of Italy
The three Japanese fascists
Axis powers
And vassal kingdom and
Anti-fascist alliance
A second global war with the world's anti-fascist forces. The scope of the war
Europe
to
Asia
, from
Atlantic
to
Pacific
More than 2 billion people in 60 countries and regions have been involved in wars
[1]
[26]
. Its nature is the world anti-fascist war.
[265]
In 1929,
The world economic crisis
It intensified the internal conflict in Germany. 1931 Made in Japan
The September 18 Incident
It was the beginning of World War II. On July 7, 1937, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, marking the outbreak of World War II in Asia.
The German army attacked on September 1, 1939
Poland
Launch an attack. Then Britain and France declared war on Germany, and the world War broke out.
[267
]
In 1942, the anti-fascist States adopted the"
United Nations Declaration
"And strengthen unity.
[28]
In 1943,
Battle of Stalingrad
The defeat of Central Germany was an important turning point.
On 8 September, Italy surrendered. On 8 May 1945, Germany surrendered. On August 15, Japan surrendered.
[26]
At the end of the war
World Anti-Fascist Alliance
The victory over fascism was over.
[1]
The Second World War profoundly changed human history. Its influence extends to political, economic, military, diplomatic, cultural, and technological dimensions.
[248]
World War II objectively promoted the development of science and technology, led to the development of aviation technology,
Atomic energy
The development and progress of heavy artillery and other fields.
[21]
- Given name
- World War II
- Occurrence time
- September 18, 1931 - September 2, 1945 [260 ] [267 ]
- Ground point
- Europe , East Asia , Southeast Asia , North Africa , Pacific , Atlantic , Mediterranean
- combatant
- Anti-fascist alliance Country: America , The Soviet Union , Britain , France [282 ] , Republic of China Wait vs. Fascist Axis powers : Nazi Germany , Japan, Kingdom of Italy Etc. [2]
- Bear fruit
- Victory of the anti-fascist Allies
- Combatant strength
-
Soviet Union about 22 million
About 14 million in the US
Germany about 17 million
Japan about 7 million
China over 7 million (army over 5 million, militia over 2 million) [258]
- casualty
-
About 70 million people died
About 130 million people were injured - Chief commander
- Franklin Roosevelt , Josef Vesalionovich Stalin , Winston Churchill , Mao Zedong , Chiang Kai-shek , Adolf Hitler , Showa Emperor , Benito Mussolini
- nature
- Just war against fascism
- Turning point
- The Battle of Stalingrad (European Battlefield), Battle of Midway (Pacific Theater), Battle of El Alamein (North African Battlefield)
- War loss
- More than five trillion dollars
- Post-war world pattern
- The Yalta system
- Foreign name
- World War II
- alias
- World War II (abbreviated), the World Anti-Fascist War
- Operational area
- 22 million square kilometers
catalogue
- 1War background
- ▪Historical background
- ▪Country background
- 2Cause of war
- ▪Japan's "mainland policy"
- ▪Appeasement policy
- 3Both camps
- 4Principal leader
- ▪Axis powers
- ▪Allied countries
- ▪Major vassal and Axis partner countries
- 5Chief general
- ▪Allied camp
- ▪The Axis camp
- 6Main battlefield
- ▪Allied side
- ▪The Axis side
- 7Course of war
- ▪Early war
- ▪Outbreak of war
- ▪Expansion of war
- ▪Turning point of war
-
The scourge of World War I
On November 11, 1918, Germany and the Allies were in France
Paris
northeast
The Forest of Compiegne
Sign the surrender agreement.
World War I
In order to
The Entente countries
The victory was declared over. After the war,
The Allied Nations
International conferences were held in Paris in 1919 and Washington in 1922 to discuss the re-establishment of the post-war international order. After several rounds of bargaining, the international system of the early post-war period was established.
Versailles-washington system
".
[132]
The core problem of the Versailles-Washington system was to solve the German problem. Britain, France and the United States manipulated and signed the"
The Treaty of Versailles
In dealing with Germany, the method of "fighting violence with violence" was adopted, which caused Germany to lose 1/8 of its territory and 1/10 of its population, and planted the seeds of hatred in the minds of the Germans.
[132]
therefore
Era of imperialism
None of the inherent basic contradictions has been resolved, and the contradictions between the victorious and defeated countries and between the victorious imperialist countries have been increased. The Third Reich resented the harsh terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty signed after World War I.
[134]
In early 1933,
Adolf Hitler
Chancellor of the Third Reich,
The Nazi Party
Seizing power, Adolf Hitler violated the 20-year armistice agreement of the Versailles Peace Treaty and began to secretly arm
The Third German Reich
.
[134]
As the imbalance in economic, political and military development between the imperialist countries intensified, Germany, Italy and Japan, whose military strength developed rapidly, demanded a re-division of the world sphere of influence, further sharpening the contradictions between the imperialist countries.
[134]
-
League of nations
It was established in 1920
League of nations
Although it was the first attempt by States to establish international institutions to prevent armed conflict and strengthen peace and security in general, it did not play a role in maintaining peace in practice. Its role was simply to help the great powers redraw spheres of influence and consolidate the postwar world system. Manipulated by Britain and France, it lacked strong sanctions against aggression, and its function was further weakened by the absence of the United States. By the time of World War II, the League of Nations had become useless, unable to stop the expansion of fascist forces.
[192]
-
Great crisis of capitalist world economy
From 1929 to 1933,
Capitalist country
One by one, the worst in history
Economic crisis
.
[130]
The economic crisis has intensified the competition in the international market between capitalist countries
International market
As a result, the economic, political and military conflicts generated on this basis also intensified, and the result eventually led to the outbreak of World War II.
[131]
The United States during the Great Economic crisis of 1929
The United States during the Great Economic crisis of 1929
On the one hand, the existing contradictions between capitalist countries have been further deepened, and the struggle for international markets, colonies and spheres of influence has intensified. In order to get rid of the crisis, the major capitalist countries have shifted the contradictions and shifted the crisis, focused on the competition for foreign markets, and continuously expanded the overseas sales of goods in the way of dumping
Trade war
,
Currency war
Later, it further developed into the struggle of "economic blocs".
[130]
In this fierce economic battle, the United States, Britain and France, which have obvious advantages, used their advantages to consolidate and expand their sphere of influence, formed exclusive economic blocs, and implemented them internally
Reciprocal tariff
Institutions that exclude other countries from their traditional markets. The domestic market is small, the desire for the international market of Germany, Italy and Japan in the economic dependence on the outside world, its economic competitiveness is fragile, unable to compete with Britain, France, the United States composition
Capitalist world economic system
The competition in the international market is disadvantageous.
[131]
At the same time, the economic crisis triggered a social crisis, which further intensified the domestic contradictions between Germany and Japan, objectively creating conditions for the fascist forces in both countries to come to power. The imbalance of economic development after the crisis directly led to the deepening of political and military contradictions in capitalist countries. After Italy, Germany and Japan clearly chose the fascist road, stepped up military expansion and war preparation, determined to seize the colonies and the world market by means of war.
[130]
Due to the need to oppose the common economic interests of Germany, Italy, and Japan, Britain, France, and the United States gradually joined together to form an alliance bloc. The result of the development of this antagonism and contradiction between the two different types of capitalist countries eventually led to the outbreak of the Second World War.
[131]
-
Fascist forces came to power
In October 1922,
Kingdom of Italy
King's appointment
Mussolini
As Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, the Fascist dictatorship began to be established in the Kingdom of Italy.
[191]
Western countries
Great Depression
Brought about by the unrest that made
fascism
Malignant development.
The Nazi Party
It quickly expanded to become the largest party in the Third Reich. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in the Third Reich, set fire to the Reichstag in February, and passed the "Parliament Fire" in March.
Enabling act
Followed by a series of fascist laws, the "Head of State Law" was promulgated in August of the following year, a comprehensive reorganization of national life, the establishment of a fascist system of centralized rule, and the acceleration of military expansion and preparation for war.
[190]
Hitler's inauguration parade
Hitler's inauguration parade
From 1931
The September 18 Incident
Since then, Japan has embarked on the path of war and fascism. In Japan, with the military headquarters as the center, the war of aggression was initiated first, and then gradually fascist from top to bottom through the imperial system to adapt to the further expansion of the war of aggression. In 1936, the "Twenty-Six" mutiny launched by young Japanese fascist officers greatly strengthened the strength of the military headquarters. Soon, it came under military control
Hirota Hirotaki
He came to power to form a government and establish a military fascist dictatorship. Later, the Third Reich and the Kingdom of Italy signed an anti-communist pact with Japan and intervened
Spanish Civil War
.
[189]
By November 1933, the fascist movement had spread to 23 countries, rising to 30 six months later.
[188]
"
Mainland policy
It is the embodiment of the Meiji Government's "opening up thousands of miles of waves, and Bu national power in the four sides."
[69]
The first goal of Japan's "continental policy" was to conquer Korea, and the final goal was to conquer China. In order to further promote its policy, Japan has made various preparations. In 1915, under the banner of "Japan-China carrying", Japan used both "aid" and "pressure" to force
Yuan Shikai
接受灭亡中国的“
twenty-one
". Japan also adopted the means of "carrying and assisting" to support
Duan Qirui
. At the same time, the lure of wealth entrenched northeast
Zhang Zuolin
Seized a large number of rights and interests in the northeast. Prime Minister of Japan, 1927
Yoichi Tanaka
The "Intensified aggression against China" was convened.
Eastern Conference
He once again advocated the idea of aggression and expansion since the Meiji period, and demanded the adoption of a positive policy to conquer China by iron and blood as soon as possible. In 1928, when
Zhang Xueliang
In order to maintain national unity, decided to "change the school", obey
Nanjing National government
When Japanese agents confronted him with threats. The Japanese militarists, disillusioned with their attempt to establish a pro-Japanese government by means of "peace diplomacy", launched a large-scale war of aggression against China.
"Eastern Conference"
"Eastern Conference"
In the face of the rise and expansion of the German, Italian and Japanese fascists, the major Western powers such as Britain, France and the United States, instead of coming forward, adopted a policy of appeasement to protect themselves and give way everywhere, which greatly contributed to the arrogance of the fascist countries and played an accelerating role in the evolution of the local war into a full-scale war.
[130]
On September 18, 1931, Japan launched the War of Aggression against China. Britain, the United States and other countries, in order to use Japan to fight against the Soviet Union and suppress the revolutionary forces in China, adopted a policy of tolerating Japanese aggression against China. The next day, the Secretary of State
Stimson
Ignoring China's core interests makes it clear that "the incident is not an inter-governmental but a local local conflict, which does not apply to international conventions." Anglo-french manipulation
League of nations
The complaint against the Chinese government only resulted in the passage of a resolution demanding that both sides cease all conflict and that northeast China be designated a "demilitarized zone" for "international condomity." This is actually conniving and favoring Japanese fascist aggression, which further encourages Japan's aggressive ambitions. On July 7, 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China. However, Western powers such as Britain and the United States continued to adopt it
Appeasement policy
They are unwilling to sanction Japan, and only reaffirm the"
Nine-nation convention
It made no distinction between the aggressor and the victim and demanded that both sides stop their war actions, which made the Japanese fascist aggression even more rampant.
[130]
[133]
Munich Plot (from left, Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini)
Munich Plot (from left, Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini)
In 1935, Italy invaded
Ethiopia
And with the actual connivance of Britain and France. In March 1936, Germany invaded the Rhine Demilitarized Zone and abolished the Logano Convention. For Hitler's blatant tearing up of the
The Treaty of Versailles
"And"
The Locarno Convention
France held its fire, and Britain was reluctant to impose any substantial sanctions. This not only made Hitler succeed in this risky military action, but also let him find out the cards of Anglo-French appeasement policy, resulting in the future German aggression and expansion more brazen.
[132]
July 1936, Spanish Fascist leader
Franco
Rebellion. Under the pretext of opposing the "communist threat," German and Italian fascists intervened in Spain's internal affairs. Britain and France responded with a so-called "non-intervention policy," and the United States declared itself "neutral" in the conflict. In the end, Germany and Italy quickly approached and signed the treaty.
Berlin Agreement
The "Berlin - Rome" axis was established. In March 1938, in the face of the aggressive aggression of German fascism, Britain and France sacrificed their lives
Czechoslovakia
He made an agreement with Hitler, hoping to direct the German Third Reich's aggression toward the Soviet Union. With the continued connivance of Britain and France, Germany annexed without firing a shot
Austria
Austria became a province of Germany. Austria was an ally of Britain and France, and although the two countries issued a note of protest, in fact, Britain, France and the United States recognized the German invasion of Austria in early April, and respectively abolished their embassies and replaced them with consulates in Vienna. In September 1938, Germany sent troops to the German-Czech border and extended the black hand of aggression to Czechoslovakia. On September 29, the heads of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy
Arthur Neville Chamberlain
,
Edward Daladier
, Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini
In the German Third Reich
Munich
Meeting, signing agreements, no
Czechoslovakia
In the case of representatives, the Sudetenland and other areas were forcibly ceded to the Third Reich. History calls this meeting"
Munich conspiracy
". The conference signed the"
Munich Agreement
", stipulating that within 10 days from October 1, the Czech Republic will
The Sudetenland
Ceded to Germany. So far,
Appeasement policy
Reach the peak. The signing of the Munich Agreement had a great negative effect. The Third Reich was even more brazen, taking control of all of Czechoslovakia the following year, and the increase in military and economic power of the Third Reich accelerated the pace of aggression.
[130]
After the signing of the Munich Agreement, the Soviet Union was more distrustful of Britain and France, and for the security of its own country, in 1939, the Soviet Union signed the "Third Reich" with the German Reich.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
". Thus, after negotiating with the Soviet Union for the partition of Poland and the sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, and receiving assurances of Soviet neutrality, Hitler decided to take a gamble. This treaty further accelerated the outbreak of World War II.
[144]
|
Factions
|
nation
|
|---|---|
|
The Axis camp
|
Nazi Germany
, Japan,
Kingdom of Italy
,
Kingdom of Hungary
,
Kingdom of Bulgaria
,
Kingdom of Romania
Slovakia
(
Puppet regime
)
,
Independent State of Croatia
(
Puppet regime
)
.
|
|
Allied camp
|
America
,
The Soviet Union
, the United Kingdom, China
(
Republic of China
)
, France
(
Free France
Provisional government)
Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Union of South Africa
,
British India
, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Turkey,
Yugoslavia
, Poland,
Czechoslovakia
Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Haiti, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador,
Dominican Republic
El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Bolivia,
Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea
Philippines, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia.
|
|
Note: Originally fascist
Axis powers
faction
Italy
,
Finland
,
Hungary
,
Romania
,
Bulgaria
He joined the Axis of Fascism after he left
Anti-fascist alliance
The national camp.
[205]
|
|
|
nation
|
character
|
job
|
Political party
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Nazi Germany
|
The Head of the Third German Reich was also Chancellor of the Third German Reich
|
||
|
Kingdom of Italy
|
Prime minister
|
National Fascist Party
|
|
|
There is no
|
|||
|
Japan
|
Imperial family of Japan
|
||
|
Prime Minister of Japan
|
|||
|
Hungary
|
Leaders of Hungary
|
-
|
|
|
Bulgaria
|
Czars of Bulgaria
|
||
|
Romania
|
Kings of Romania
|
|
nation
|
character
|
job
|
Political party
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Australia
|
Prime Ministers of Australia
|
Unionist party
|
|
|
Prime Ministers of Australia
|
The Labour Party
|
||
|
Poland
|
Ratzkiewicz
|
President of the Polish Government in exile
|
There is no
(as president)
|
|
Netherlands
|
-
|
||
|
America
|
32nd President of the United States
|
Democratic Party of the United States
|
|
|
33rd President of the United States
|
Democratic Party of the United States
|
||
|
Britain
|
King of England
|
-
|
|
|
British prime minister
|
Conservative Party
|
||
|
British prime minister
|
The Labour Party
|
||
|
China
|
Chairman, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Chairman of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission
[268]
|
||
|
President of the Chinese Nationalist Party,
President of the National Government
Chairman of the Armed Services Committee
|
|||
|
The Soviet Union
|
Joint fabric
General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee
[24]
,
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union
|
||
|
Canada
|
Prime Ministers of Canada
|
Liberal Party of Canada
|
|
|
Free France
|
Leader of Free France/President of the Provisional Government of France
|
There is no
(during wartime)
|
|
nation
|
character
|
job
|
Political party
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Free India
|
Interim Leader Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army
|
Indian National Congress Party
|
|
|
President of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
|
unknown
|
||
|
Heads of State of Spain
|
The Spanish Phalangists
|
||
|
Vichy President of France
|
-
|
||
|
Presidents of Finland
|
National Progressive Party
|
||
|
Carl Gustav Mannerheim
(Join the Allies)
|
Presidents of Finland
|
-
|
|
|
"Emperor of Manchukuo"
[3]
|
-
|
|
nation
|
character
|
photograph
|
|---|---|---|
Zhukov
|
||
Rokossovsky
|
||
Konev
|
||
Chester William Nimitz
|
||
Douglas MacArthur
|
||
Dwight David Eisenhower
|
||
George Smith Barton Jr
|
||
Bernard Law Montgomery
|
||
Andrew Brown Cunningham
|
||
|
Deng Xiaoping
[272]
|
Deng Xiaoping
|
|
|
Peng Dehuai
[273]
|
Peng Dehuai
|
|
|
Yang Jingyu
[274]
|
Yang Jingyu
|
|
Zhang Zizhong
|
||
Li Zongren
|
||
|
-
|
||
Alphonse Juan
|
|
nation
|
character
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
Erwin Rommel
[27]
|
Erwin Rommel
|
|
Erich von Manstein
|
||
Heinz von Guderian
|
||
Karl Donitz
|
||
|
Japan
|
Isoroku Yamamoto
|
|
Hideki Tojo
|
||
Rudolph Graziani
|
||
Giovanni Mercer
|
|
Battlefield
|
campaign
|
|---|---|
|
Battlefield in Eastern Europe
|
|
|
Battlefields in Western Europe
|
|
|
Pacific Theater
|
|
|
Asian battlefield
|
Battlefield in China
(
War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
,
August Storm
)
Burma Battlefield
(
Northern Burma and western Yunnan Campaign
)
|
|
African battlefield
|
|
|
Atlantic theater
|
-
China theater command
① Front battle
On August 20, 1937, Chiang Kai-shek issued an order to implement general mobilization throughout the country, and the government shifted to the wartime system, replacing the military committee with a headquarters. At the same time, the headquarters of the National Government issued instructions on four operational guidance plans. In the first order, it was announced that the country would be divided into five war zones, and in November, the sixth, seventh and eighth war zones were set up to provide organizational guarantees for leading the national resistance.
[187]
From 25 to 28 November 1938, the National Government was convened
Nanyue military Conference
Re-adjust the strategic zoning and divide the country into ten war zones.
[185]
January 1945, on the battlefield in China, for rectification
Henan, Hunan and Guangxi Campaign
After the collapse of the army, the national government re-organized the army, adjusted the national theater, and divided the country into nine theater.
[186]
② Battlefield behind enemy lines
War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
During this period, the Communist Party of China led the people's army deep behind enemy lines, mobilized the masses freely, and launched various forms of anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare on a wide scale
E.g.
Tunnel warfare
,
Mine warfare
,
Sparrow warfare
, raid warfare,
Siege warfare
Etc.)
Opened up Shaanxi-Ganning, Shanxi-Chaji, Shanxi-Ji-Henan, Shansi-Sui, Shandong, Northern Jiangsu, Dongjiang, Qiongya and other vast liberated areas of the battlefield, anti-" sweeping ", anti-" Qingxiang ", achieved
The Great victory at Pingxingguan
,
Ambush at Yanmen Pass
,
Night attack Yangmingbao airport
,
Great Battle of a hundred regiments
Victory in the stages of the battle and campaign formed a vast ocean of people's wars.
[197]
Armed under the leadership of the Communist Party of China
(
The Eighth Route Army
,
The New Fourth Army
,
South China people's anti-Japanese guerrilla
)
Mainly in the rear of the Japanese army and in the Japanese-occupied areas, guerrilla warfare was carried out over 125,000 times, killing 527,000 Japanese troops, killing 1.187 million puppet troops, and capturing more than 694,000 units of various kinds
(Straight)
More than 1,800 guns of various kinds, the army grew to more than 1.3 million people, established about 1 million square kilometers, and nearly 100 million people
Anti-japanese base area
.
[196]
[198]
-
Pacific theater
In March 1942, the United States and the United Kingdom redivided the Allies' operational responsibility zones against the Axis Powers, specifying that Britain and the United States were jointly responsible for Europe and the Atlantic region, Britain was responsible for the Middle East, India and the Indian Ocean region, and the United States was responsible for the entire Pacific region. Since then, the leadership of military operations in the Pacific theater has been completely controlled by the United States. The United States divided the Pacific theater into two major theaters: the Southwest Pacific Theater and the Pacific Theater.
[199]
The Southwest Pacific theater includes Australia, Philia, New Guinea, Solomon Islands,
The Dutch East Indies
(except Sumatra)
and
The Bismarck Islands
Etc., by the United States
MacArthur
The general is commander-in-chief. Australian
Thomas Bremen
General is Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Forces, United States
Omar Nelson Bradley
general
(General Kenney since July)
Commander of the Air Force, General Leary of the United States
(General Carpenter since July)
Commander-in-chief of the Navy.
[199]
Pacific theater by the United States
Nimitz
The Admiral is the commander in chief and has jurisdiction over the Pacific region, excluding the Southwest Pacific region, including New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji. The Australian and New Zealand governments oppose dividing the two countries into two different war zones, but the United States does not agree to the adjustment. In order to strengthen cooperation between Australia and the United States, the Australian government requested that the Southwest Pacific Theater Command be located in Australia, and the United States gladly accepted. On March 17, General MacArthur arrived in Australia from the Philippines
Melbourne
(Moved from July to
Brisbane
)
A headquarters was set up. On 28 March and 6 April, the US 32nd and 41st Divisions arrived in Australia. In just four months
(January-April 1942)
About 125,000 U.S. troops were transferred to the southwest and south Pacific, accounting for more than 45% of all U.S. troops sent to various theaters during this period, and a large number of air and artillery troops were sent, more than three-quarters of which were concentrated in northern Australia. General Brett organized the Air Staff, whose chief of staff was at one time Air Lieutenant General Bostock of Australia, and three of the five commanders of the Air Staff were Australians. At the end of April, General Leary's naval strength consisted of three Australian cruisers and four destroyers, three American cruisers, 11 destroyers, 31 submarines, and one Dutch cruiser.
[199]
-
European Theater of Operations
The opening of the European American theater of war was the main strategic action agreed by the British and American governments to defeat Nazi Germany. On May 23, 1942,
Eisenhower
Went to the UK for a 10-day field trip. On his return, he sent a draft of the document to Marshall for review on June 8. In the document, he referred to the United States military command in London as the European Theater Command, and he advocated that "the theater commander should exercise absolute unity of command" and that the theater commander should organize, train and direct the United States forces assigned to the theater. The U.S. government's document on the establishment of the European Theater of Operations states: "The mission of the Commander of the European Theater of Operations is to prepare and conduct military operations in the European Theater of operations to counter the Axis Powers and their collaborators...... European Theater Commander, commanding all U.S. Army units assigned to the European Theater." On June 11th, with the approval of President Roosevelt,
Eisenhower
He was appointed Commander in Chief of the Allied European Theater. therewith
Mark Wayne Clark
Appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Secretary of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Walter Bedell Smith
He was appointed Chief of the General Staff. The deputy commander is British
Montgomery
Marshal.
[200]
-
Southeast Asia Theater
On June 18, 1943, the supreme Allied command center in the Southeast Asia Theater, the Allied Command for Southeast Asia, was established
Colombo
It was founded in August of the same year by US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the first
Quebec Conference
Confirmed in. In October, the British Admiral
Mountbatten
As Commander in Chief of Allied Forces in Southeast Asia,
Stilwell
He was also the deputy commander of the Southeast Asia Theater, responsible for directing the Allied forces in Southeast Asia against Japan.
[201]
-
Theater of war in the Soviet Union
The Supreme Commander of the Allied Soviet Theater was Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and the Supreme Commander of the actual front was
Zhukov
Marshal, whose territory is dominated by the Soviet Union and Germany and their Allies
(Romania, Finland, Hungary and other small countries)
.
[204]
The Soviet High Command was established on April 21, 1942, in order to exercise command over the southern forces
North Caucasus
Direction to headquarters, appointment
Budonni
As commander-in-chief, unified command of the Crimean Front Army,
Sevastopol
Defense area, North Caucasus Military District,
Black Sea Fleet
Operations with the Azov fleet. The General command in the North Caucasus was withdrawn as a result of the dramatic changes on both wings of the Soviet-German battlefield,
The North Caucasus Front
Established. Bujonny is in command. On July 28, 1942, the North Caucasus Front and the South Front were ordered to merge into the North Caucasus Front.
Budonni
As commander, he was responsible for stopping the German advance further south and trying to restore the situation on the left bank of the Don.
[203]
In February 1945, the General Staff of the Soviet High Command began to adjust the senior command of the Far East Forces. In June of the same year, the Soviet High Command sent representatives of the High Command to the Far East to coordinate preparations. On July 30, the Supreme Command of the Soviet Union ordered the formal establishment of the General headquarters of the Far East Army, thus opening the prelude to the Soviet Army's invasion of Northeast China against Japan. The members of the General Command of the Far East Army are as follows: The General commander is the Marshal of the Soviet Union
Wasilevsky
; The military commissar is a general
Joseph Vasilyevich Higgin
; The chief of staff is a general
Vladimir Dmitrievich Ivanov
; The chief of operations was Lieutenant General Potapov; Chief inspector
(Generation)
Major General Chu Weilin; The artillery was commanded by Marshal Chistyakov; The commander of the armored forces was tank General Mikhail Dmitrievich Solomagtin; The commander of the Air Force is an Air marshal
Novikov
; The commander of the Navy is the Marshal of the Navy
Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov
; The director of the engineering Corps is General Nazarov of the Engineering Corps; The director of the Signal Corps was General Nikolai Demjanovich Pusurtsev; The Chief logistics Officer is a general
Vinogradov
.
[202]
Soviet Far East Army combat situation against Japan
Soviet Far East Army combat situation against Japan
In May 1945, most of the main fighting forces of the Soviet Army were in the European theater, and only 40 divisions were stationed in the Far East. The Soviet Supreme Command decided to mobilize combat troops to the Far East in order to ensure the absolute strength superiority of the attack against the Japanese army in the Far East campaign and ensure the complete victory of the campaign. Beginning in May, the 5th Army and the 39th Army were first transferred from the German battlefield
Czechoslovakia
The guards tanks of the 6th Army and the 53rd Army. A total of 27 divisions, 12 brigades, other independent corps and special forces have been mobilized, including the command organs of 2 front armies, 3 military groups, and tank groups. The arms have the main combat units such as infantry mechanized infantry, tank corps, artillery and aviation. Make use of
Trans-siberian Railway
The main line, with the use of 136,000 cars, lasted about two months, completed the "West soldiers to the East" to the Far East to gather troops. In July 1945, while establishing the headquarters of the Far East Army, the command force of the Far East Front Army Group was adjusted and strengthened, and the commanders of eight army groups far away in the European theater were transferred to the Far East to serve separately
The Outer Baikal Front
And the commander of the Army group of the Far Eastern Front. At the beginning of the campaign, the former Soviet Far East Army headquarters assumed control of the 1st Far East Front of the Baikal Front, the 2nd Far East Front, the Pacific Fleet, and the Red Flag Amur District Fleet. Among the commanders of each army, there are seven marshals and more than 200 generals. Participating in the war against Japan were 20 army groups, 33 corps, 134 divisions, with a total strength of 1,577,725 men, 26,137 artillery pieces and various kinds of artillery pieces, 5,556 tanks and self-propelled artillery pieces, more than 3,800 combat aircraft, 1,549 naval aviation aircraft, and 510 ships of various kinds.
[202]
Soviet troops massed in the Far East [202]
Soviet troops massed in the Far East [202]
Marshal Novikov, Commander-in-chief of the Air Force, is responsible for directing the coordination between the air forces and the various front forces; Navy Chief Marshal Kuznetsov is in charge of coordination
Pacific Fleet
Coordination between the fleet of the Red Flag Amur Sector and various front forces; General Vinogradov, head of the General Logistics Department, directs the logistics of the entire unit.
[202]
-
Germany
Germany is located in Central Europe, the east has a strong neighbor of the Soviet Union, the west has a strong enemy of Britain and France, the problem of two fronts of war has become the German foreign expansion strategy faced with a dead knot. Before and after the outbreak of World War II, Hitler used both political inducements and military threats to free Germany from the dilemma of two-front warfare. However, due to the serious disconnection between strategic intention and strength, Germany finally fell into the situation of east-West two-front warfare, and the fascist regime quickly collapsed.
[178]
|
Theater of operations
|
commander-in-chief
|
Command an army
|
|---|---|---|
|
Western theater command
(Organized in Paris, France, October 1940, surrendered in May 1945)
|
German Army Group A and D
|
|
|
Gerd von Rundstedt
[181]
(March 15, 2019 - July 4, 2019)
[182]
|
German Army Group B, Army Group G, Panzer Group West, 1st Parachute Army
|
|
|
German Army Group B
(German 15th and 7th Armies)
G Group Army Group
(German 19th Army and First Army)
The Panzer Group of the Western Front and the 1st Parachute Army
(Assigned to the newly formed German Army Group H in September)
|
||
|
Gerd von Rundstedt
[181]
(9.4, 1944.4-10, 1945.3.10)
[182]
|
||
|
Eastern Theater command
(Organized in Poland on October 3, 1939, dissolved in 1940-1941)
|
Gerd von Rundstedt
[181]
(1939.10-1940.9.20)
|
German Third Army, Eighth Army and Fourteenth Army
|
|
German 18th Army, Second Army and Fourth Army
|
||
|
Southern Theater Command
(Formed in late 1941, surrendered in May 1945)
|
Albert Kesselring
[181]
(1941.11 -- 1945.3.010)
|
Rommel's German Army Group B in Italy, Hube's German forces in Sicily, and German forces in Central Italy, Sardinia, and Corsica
(August 1943)
|
|
The German Tenth and Fourteenth Armies in Italy and the Zangen Campaign Group in northern Italy
(May 1944)
|
||
|
German Army Groups G, C, and E
|
||
|
Southeast theater command
It was organized in Greece in June 1941 and surrendered in May 1945
)
|
German 12th Army
[181]
|
|
|
Walter Kountze
(1941.10.15 -- 1942)
|
||
|
Alexander Lehr
(1942-3.8)
|
German 12th Army/German E Army
(In 1942 and 1943, it was handed over to the German Twelfth Army, which was expanded by Lehr as Commander-in-chief)
[181]
|
|
|
Maximilian von Wicks
(1943.8-1945.3.25)
|
German Army Group E, German Army Group F
(In 1943, he was also Commander-in-chief of the South-Eastern General Headquarters of Germany.)
[181]
|
|
|
Alexander Lehr
(1943.3.25-1945.5)
|
German Army Group E
(Since the German Army Group F General Headquarters was abolished, it became the only army group under the German Southeastern General Headquarters)
[181]
|
Table Reference:
[179-180]
-
Japan
Subject article:
Battle sequence of Japanese invaders in China
Japan fought in China from 1937 to 1941, and was preparing for an invasion of China from 1931 to 1937. The year 1937
The July 7 Incident
After that, the Japanese government decided to send Japanese troops to North China. The North China Garrison Army was formed and later organized into the "North China Front Army". In August, the "Shanghai Expeditionary Force" was organized and sent to Shanghai. In November, Japan formed the "Central China Front Army", with the expansion of the war of aggression against China, in September 1939, the Japanese base camp in order to consolidate the rule in the occupied areas of China, unified deployment of troops, ordered the formation of the "Chinese expeditionary Army"
Nishio Shou Zao
As commander-in-chief,
Panaki Seishiro
As chief of the general staff, he set up a general command in Nanjing, and the "Chinese Expeditionary Army" commanded the North China Front Army, the 11th Army, the 13th Army, the 21st Army and the Third Flying Group, with a total of 23 divisions and 17 brigades, with a strength of 850,000. In the years that followed, the force remained between 800,000 and over a million; At the time of Japan's surrender, its strength was about 1.1 million. In March 1941,
畑俊六
Commander-in-chief of the Japanese Chinese Expeditionary Force in 1944,
Kenji Okamura
On September 9, 1945, Okamura, commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, surrendered to the Chinese Theater Command.
[240]
The year 1941
Pacific War
Eruption,
Combined fleet
Become a major force in the Pacific. In November 1941, the Combined Fleet was expanded to include the battleship Force, the heavy cruiser Force of the 2nd Fleet, the blockade transport Force of the 3rd Fleet, the Occupation Force of the 4th Fleet, the Northern Force of the 5th Fleet, the submarine force of the 6th Fleet, and the aircraft carrier Force of the 1st Air Fleet. The 11th Air Fleet was the shore-based Air Force and the Southern Detachment. Its size is at its highest since its inception.
[242]
The Combined Fleet was commanded by
Isoroku Yamamoto
(August 11, 1941)
,
Kazuichi Koga
(April 21, 1943),
Toyoda subtake
(May 3, 1944),
Shizaburo Ozawa
(May 29, 1945)
[241]
-
Italy
At the start of World War II, Italian troops in Africa were
Ethiopia
and
Eritrea
About 220,000 men, commanded by the Duke of Aosta. In North Africa, another army group of about 250,000 men was divided into two army groups. To the west, facing the French Tunisian direction of Tripoli, was the Fifth Army, comprising the Tenth Corps
(25th Bologna Infantry Division, 55th Savona Infantry Division, 60th Sabraza Semi-motorized Infantry Division)
The 20th Army
(27th Brescia Infantry Division, 61st Siena Infantry Division and 17th Pavia Semi-motorized Infantry Division)
23rd Army
(2nd Libyan Division, 1st Black Shirt Division)
. In the east, facing Cyrenaica towards Egypt, the tenth Army was gathered under the 21st Corps
(62nd Marmalika Infantry Division, 63rd Celine Infantry Division)
The 22nd Army
(64th Cantanzaro Infantry Division, 1st Libyan Division, 4th Blackshirt Division)
. There were also seven indigenous battalions and two paratroop battalions, as well as "Libyan" tank groups. Commander is
Itano Balbo
Marshal, after his death
Rudolph Graziani
The marshal took his place.
[243]
-
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
Subject article:
Second Italian-Ethiopian War
In 1929, the world economic crisis hit Italy hard,
Mussolini
Having concluded that territorial expansion was necessary to relieve domestic economic pressure, he embarked on the path of expansion. First, he wants to annex first
Ethiopia
But if you want to achieve your goal, you must first get the acquiescence of Britain and France. Britain and France eventually appeased Italy's actions,
Mussolini
Thinking that the time was ripe, on October 3, 1935, the war of aggression was launched, and after seven months of resistance, due to the betrayal of Western countries and the huge gap in strength between the two countries, Ethiopia was outnumbered and eventually fell. This war further exposed the weakness of the Western capitalist countries and encouraged the arrogance of fascism.
[130]
An illustration of Italy's outward expansion
-
Spanish Civil War
Subject article:
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War (July 17, 1936 - April 1, 1939) was fought in Spain
Second Spanish Republic
A civil war took place between the Republican government forces of the President of the Republic Manuel Azania and the Popular Front
Left wing
Alliance against
Francisco Franco
centered
The Spanish National Army
and
falange
Etc.
Right wing
Group; the
Fascism
The Popular Front and the Republican government have
The Soviet Union
and
Mexico
While Franco's National Army had
Nazi Germany
,
Kingdom of Italy
and
Portugal
In the end, the pro-fascist Franco forces won the victory and restored the monarchy in Spain. because
Spain
Ideological conflict and
Axis powers
The proxy war between the bloc and the communist forces led to the Spanish Civil War being considered a prelude to World War II.
[142]
Spanish Civil War diagram
Spanish Civil War diagram
-
Japanese invasion of China
Made in Japan, September 18, 1931
The Wicker Lake incident
, shelling Shenyang, launch
The September 18 Incident
. In just three months, the Japanese occupied the three provinces of Northeast China. Thus forming the first war in the East of the world. The Chinese government then asked the League for help, but received no positive response from the League. The event was broken
World War I
The relatively stable world pattern formed later opened the prelude to the Second World War
[259]
[260
]
.
[143]
The Communist Party of China led the people to establish
Northeast anti-Japanese United Army
proceed
War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
.
[270]
In 1932, the Japanese did it again
The January 28 Incident
He attacked Shanghai, established a new military stronghold in the Jiangnan area, and destroyed the emperor of Qing Dynasty
A surname
Hijack to the northeast, set up
The "Manchukuo"
The puppet regime turned Tohoku into a Japanese colony. Then, in 1933, the Japanese army invaded the Jehol and the Great Wall, and in 1935, the Japanese army started again
North China Incident
In 1936, the Japanese Army occupied Suiyuan. Prime Minister of Japan, 1936
Hirota Hirotaki
Put forward the "national policy benchmark" : while ensuring the status of Japan in the East Asia continent, expect to develop towards the southern ocean; Consolidate Japan's "Manchu" national defense, eliminate the threat of the Soviet Union in the north, and guard against Britain and the United States, and realize the close cooperation between Japan, "Manchu" and China; Aimed at the Soviet Union and the United States, the army and navy were expanded.
It was started by Japan on July 7, 1937
The Lugou Bridge Incident
China launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, the Chinese army and people rose up to resist, the anti-Japanese national united front was formally formed, and China set off the climax of the whole nation's resistance. It is also considered a sign of the outbreak of World War II in Asia
[260
]
. On July 16 and 17, the Supreme Commander of the Republic of China
Chiang Kai-shek
In Lushan has published"
Chiang Kai-shek's Statement on the Lushan War of Resistance
"And called on the whole nation to resist war; On July 31, Chiang Kai-shek issued a Letter to All the Soldiers of the Anti-Japanese War, declaring that the war had broken out in an all-out manner.
[159]
On August 13, 1937, the war of aggression against China broke out in Shanghai, commander of the Ninth Army
Zhang Zhizhong
At the command of the eighty-seventh and eighty-eighth divisions, they bravely resisted and attacked the Hongkou Base of the Japanese Marine Corps in Shanghai. The next day, the Chinese air Force joined forces. Japanese general
Ishien Matsui
He was appointed commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force, commanding the Japanese 3rd and 11th Divisions to attack Shanghai, sending Japanese air forces to air raid Shanghai, Nanjing, Nanchang and other places, and constantly increasing troops to further expand the invasion of China.
[160]
The 98th Division of the Chinese army was ordered to go to the Shanghai front, and the first Battalion commander of the 583rd Regiment of the 292nd Brigade was lieutenant Colonel
Yao Ziqing
Be sent to
Baoshan county
City defense. On September 7, after several days of fierce fighting, Yao Ziqing led his troops to death.
Battle of Songhu
Emerge from
Eight hundred brave men
"Defend
Four-row warehouse
The heroic deeds of...
[161]
On November 13, the Nationalist Government issued a letter to all Shanghai compatriots, which aroused the confidence and courage of the Chinese people to fight bravely against Japan, and aroused the international community's condemnation of Japan and support for China's war of resistance. Although the Chinese army suffered heavy losses and Shanghai fell, but
Battle of Songhu
是全民族抗战爆发后的首次大会战，打破了日军“三个月灭亡中国”的狂妄迷梦。
[162]
Songhu battle situation map
Songhu battle situation map
In mid-November 1937, after occupying Shanghai, the Japanese army advanced from Taihu Lake to the west at the same time, threatening Nanjing. In order to break the Japanese army's attempt to destroy the nationalist government's anti-Japanese will by occupying the capital Nanjing, the Nationalist government began to adjust its strategic deployment and made two preparations: one was to officially announce the relocation of the government to Chongqing on November 20 to show the lasting resistance; The second is to urgently formulate the Nanjing guard plan.
[165]
On December 1, the Japanese headquarters issued the "Mainland No. 8 Order", ordering the Central China Front Army to coordinate with the navy and divide the troops into three ways to capture Nanjing. Appointment by Chiang Kai-shek
Tang Shengzhi
He was the commander of the Capital Garrison and deployed the defense of Nanjing. In early December, the Japanese army broke through the defensive positions on the outskirts of Nanjing and the perimeter, and pushed towards the Nanjing city wall. The Chinese defenders and the Japanese launched an unprecedented desperate battle. Due to the disparity in strength between the enemy and me, the gates of Nanjing were successively captured by the Japanese, and the defenders resisted day by day and sacrificed countless lives.
[164]
Due to the fierce attack of the Japanese army, after fierce contention, the main positions of the Nanjing defenders were lost one after another. On the afternoon of December 12, when the battle was drawing to a close, Tang Shengzhi had to give the order to retreat. Due to the disorder of the retreat of the defenders, most of them stayed in the city, and were massacred by the Japanese army with heavy losses.
The Battle of Nanjing
After the defeat, the Japanese army went on a six-week spree of killing, raping, looting, and burning, committing atrocities rarely seen in human history.
[163]
In mid-September 1937, the Japanese invading forces occupied Datong and other places, and divided into left and right sides
Yanmen Pass
with
Pingxingguan
The Battle of Taiyuan began.
Battle of Taiyuan
It is related to the overall situation of China's Anti-Japanese War, such as the Japanese army won Shanxi, the south can attack Central China and the South China Japanese Army, and the west can march straight into the northwest and southwest to threaten the rear of China's Anti-Japanese War. The Japanese transferred the most elite fifth Division into Jin. In order to unify the command of operations in northern Shanxi, four and a half brigades, including the Chahar Dispatch Corps of the Kwantung Army located south of the Inner Great Wall, were assigned to the commander of the Fifth Division
Banagaki Seishiro
Command.
Yan Xishan
There were three army groups, including the Eighth Route Army. Yan Xishan in order to save Shanxi war crisis, to defend Taiyuan, decided to use
Xinkou Campaign
Make a frontal defense to stop the enemy from moving south.
[157]
Taiyuan battle situation map
Taiyuan battle situation map
At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the Battle of Taiyuan, which was the largest, fiercest, longest lasting and most remarkable on the North China battlefield, began. The total strength of the Japanese army in the war was about 140,000, with nearly 30,000 casualties. The total strength of the Chinese army involved in the war was 6 corps and 52 divisions
(Brigade)
A total of about 280,000 people, more than 100,000 casualties. The Eighth Route Army effectively cooperated with the Kuomintang army on the front battlefield in the battle of Taiyuan, the 115 division in Pingxingguan and the 120 division in Yanmenguan have ambushed the Japanese transport convoy for many times, which severely hit the Japanese rear traffic lines and became a model of joint operations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War.
[158]
After the Great Unification Battle,
Battle of Tianzhen
After the gradual retreat of the Chinese army, it was not until October 1937 that the Chinese army finally secured the corner of the front line of Xinkou and launched a fierce battle with the Japanese army, which blocked the Japanese army for more than 20 days at the heavy cost of 55,000 casualties. But on October 26, another Japanese army suddenly attacked the East Gate of Shanxi
Niangzi Pass
The defenders here were weak and difficult to effectively block the Japanese offensive, and Niangziguan, Pingding, and Yangquan fell one after another, so Yan Xishan ordered to abandon the Xinkou front-line position, and the Taiyuan Battle entered
Taiyuan Defense Battle
. Finally, due to insufficient troops and a large gap in equipment, Fu Zuoyi and his troops withdrew from Taiyuan on November 8.
[158]
1938年5月毛泽东发表《
The strategic problem of anti-Japanese guerrilla war
On the strategic position of guerrilla warfare, the development of mobile warfare, and the victory of the final war of resistance against Japan.
[271]
Wuhan battle situation map
In June 1938, the Japanese invaders attacked Wuhan frantically, and successively invested about 250,000 troops. In order to defend Central China and Gongwei Southwest China, the National Government mobilized the Fifth Theater Command, the newly established ninth Theater Command, the First Theater Command, the Third Theater Command and other troops, a total of 14 group armies, 47 armies, and more than 120 divisions, with a total strength of about 1 million. Chiang Kai-shek, personally under the general command, used the advantageous terrain of Dabie Mountain, Poyang Lake and both sides of the Yangtze River to launch large-scale operations with the Japanese army, known in history as"
Battle of Wuhan
". In order to resist the national enemy, the two parties further strengthen cooperation, the CPC Central Committee
Zhou Enlai
,
Ye Jianying
Such as a group of leading cadres to work in Wuhan to strengthen
Anti-japanese national united front
. The two sides fought fiercely until the end of October 1938, and after more than 100 battles, the Japanese army finally occupied the three towns of Wuhan.
[156]
In this battle, the Chinese army fought hundreds of bloody battles, killing and wounding more than 100,000 Japanese troops at the cost of more than 400,000 casualties, greatly depleting the effective forces of the Japanese army and thwarting the strategic attempt of the Japanese army to achieve a quick victory. It was the largest, longest and most annihilated battle carried out by the Chinese army in the strategic defense stage of the Anti-Japanese War.
[155]
-
Battlefield in Eastern Europe
On September 1, 1939, the Germans launched a "Blitzkrieg" attack on Poland with 58 divisions, 2,800 tanks, 2,000 aircraft and 6,000 artillery pieces. Blitzkrieg
Blitz warfare
Its most prominent feature is: the use of convenient new weapons, equipped with rapid reaction forces, to launch a surprise attack on the enemy, and occupy the advantage in a short period of time.
[34]
Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, following the German invasion of Poland. But in reality, the British and French governments just declared rather than fight, and began"
Sit-in warfare
". At this point, the Second World War broke out
[260
]
.
[33]
According to the operational requirements of the "Blitz", the German army dispatched more than 2,000 bombers at the beginning of the war to bombard major airports, power stations, Bridges, administrative centers, and transportation hubs throughout Poland. Guided by tanks and motorized divisions, they quickly broke through the Polish defense lines under the cover of air raids by aircraft. Deep into Poland, the Germans advanced at a rate of 60 kilometers per day.
[35]
Germany also used sleeper agents to create panic and chaos. The Polish authorities were also deceived by the false belief that the main German forces had been contained by the British and French. It was only when the Germans were spotted on the border that the Polish government began a military mobilization. Due to the short time, the Polish army mobilized only 40 divisions and 22 brigades in a rush to respond to the battle, resulting in the German"
blitz
The attack quickly disintegrated. On 16 September, the Polish government was forced to flee the country, and two German regiments met in triumph. On September 17, the German army surrounded the Polish capital
Warsaw
. Then Poland fell.
[33]
The Soviet Union took advantage of the German invasion of Poland and began to expand its territory to the west, establishing the"
Eastern front
".
Barbarossa Project schematic
-
Battlefields in Western Europe
After occupying Poland, the German army immediately stepped up preparations for an attack on Western Europe. In October 1939, the German High Command drew up a plan to invade Western Europe.
Yellow scheme
". The specific course of operation of the plan resembles that of the First World War.
The Schlieffen Plan
". With the German right wing as the main offensive, Army Group B, commanded by Bauke, carried out the main assault on both sides of Liege in central Belgium, through Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, and carried out a lightning attack on northern France, which was quickly captured
English Channel
Port on the coast of France. To carry out this plan, Hitler mobilized 136 divisions, 2,560 tanks, and 3,824 aircraft into three Army groups, A, B, and C. Hitler's planned attack date of 12 November was postponed due to insufficient preparations. However, General Manstein, the chief of staff of the German Left Army Group A, had A different view of the "Yellow plan" and strongly recommended a complete revision of the plan, advocating that the original main direction of the attack be changed to a feints, which would induce British and French troops to move to the area in large numbers, and then the real main attack would be carried out by the left Army Group A. Break through southern Belgium with a massive armored force on a rugged road with the weakest enemy defenses
Ardennes
They attacked the British and French forces and forced their way across the region
Maas
They quickly pushed westward into open areas of France and into the English Channel to cut off the Allies' retreat. Manstein's plan was more unexpected than the Yellow Plan, and Hitler greatly appreciated it and urged it to replace the Yellow Plan.
Yellow scheme
".
[41]
The Manstein Plan
The Manstein Plan
In 1940, Germany launched the "Lightning" offensive
(called "White Lightning")
. On 9 April, Denmark and Norway were attacked.
Diagram of the German invasion of Western Europe
In June, Germany launched a full-scale attack on France, and Italy took advantage and declared war on France. At the front, the French began to follow
Weygand
Ordered a general retreat in an effort to avoid the German assault. The organized French resistance was destroyed. The French withdrew from Paris without a fight and retreated from the fortresses of Epinal, Metz, and Verdun. Under the onslaught of the Germans, the French army retreated, its command failed, and it was too late to secure any area. On 16 June, Petain formed a government and declared a truce. On 22 June, France formally surrendered.
[44]
De Gaulle held talks with Churchill, who no longer believed in the possibility of reestablishing a defense line on French soil, and refused to aid France with air power.
[42]
[281
]
On June 18, 1940, General de Gaulle delivered a speech on the BBC in London calling on the French people to resist the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, also known as the June 18 Declaration. This declaration marked the beginning of the "Free France" movement led by General Charles de Gaulle to fight against fascist aggression and safeguard national independence, and June 18 has thus become an important day symbolizing the French national spirit.
[276]
-
Battlefield in Eastern Europe
On June 22, 1941, the Germans tore up the"
The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
Hitler secretly mobilized 190 divisions, 3,700 tanks, 5,000 aircraft, more than 47,000 various types of artillery, 193 ships, a total of 5.5 million troops, from
Baltic Sea
More than two thousand kilometers to the Black Sea, the Soviet Union launched a fierce attack at the same time, and its mechanized forces began to rapidly advance into the Soviet Union. Prior to this, the German artillery had begun to bombard the headquarters of the Soviet border Army at 3:30, and the Luftwaffe had bombarded the Soviet forward airfields, railway hubs, and seaports. An hour and a half into the invasion of the Soviet Union, the German ambassador in Moscow, Schulenburg, spoke to the Soviet foreign minister
Molotov
Submit a "war letter" declaring war on the Soviet Union.
Soviet-german war
The outbreak of the Second World War further expanded.
[38]
Press ".
The Barbarossa Project
The Germans launched a three-way attack on the Soviet Union. Army Group Nord, commanded by Marshal von Lieb, attacked Leningrad along the Baltic Sea from East Prussia; Army Group Center by
Fedor von Bock
From Poland, under the command of the Marshal, to advance northeastward along Minsk and Smolensk, with the aim of seizing Moscow; Army Group South Road by
Lunsde
Marshal command, advance towards Kiev, and further
Donbass
Regional promotion. Due to the concentration of superior forces in the German surprise attack, coupled with the high modern equipment of the German army, and the accumulation of a lot of combat experience after the war on the Western front, the German army seized the initiative in the early days of the Soviet-German War. On the contrary, due to the lack of ideological preparation of the Soviet leaders, they did not develop a thorough strategic defense plan, resulting in a temporary confusion of the front-line troops. On the first day of the invasion, the German army penetrated 25 to 50 kilometers into the Soviet Union.
[38]
Diagram of the Soviet-German war
Diagram of the Soviet-German war
Leningrad defense situation map
On 10 July, Army Group Centre began to storm the gates of Moscow
Smolensk
But the Soviet Army strongly resisted. Although the Germans captured Smolensk on 16 July, the Soviet High Command soon organized a counterattack and recaptured some surrounding towns. In the Battle of Smolensk, the Germans lost 250,000 men. On 30 July, Hitler was forced to order Army Group Centre "to go on the defensive". The Soviets bought valuable preparation time for the defense of Moscow.
[39]
In the battle to defend Leningrad on the southwest and north fronts, the Soviets also severely weakened the German offensive. The defense of the southern flank, centered around Kiev, lasted for more than two months, beginning in mid-July and ending on September 19,
Kyiv
Before they fall;
Odessa
The campaign also lasted more than two months. On the northern flank, Hitler mobilized 40 divisions to storm Leningrad. By mid-September, the Germans had reached the outskirts of the city and were trying to hold the army and civilians. Under the extremely difficult circumstances of siege and famine, the army and people of Leningrad fought against the enemy. The Germans were never able to take it
Leningrad
.
[38]
Battle of Moscow [40]
-
Battlefields in Western Europe
After the surrender of the Petain government in France, on July 16, 1940, Hitler issued Directive 16 for the invasion of the British mainland, codenamed"
Project Sea Lion
". On August 1, he issued Operational Directive No. 17. Hitler wants to use force to "remind"
Churchill
The Battle of Britain was launched. The objectives of the Battle of Britain were to achieve air supremacy, to destroy the potential of the British war economy, and to destroy the will of the British people to resist fascism. Its ultimate aim was to force Britain to make peace.
[45]
Marshal in charge of the German Air force
Goring
I believe in Italian military strategists
Giulio Duhay
's"
Air supremacy
Theory, that large-scale strategic bombing can play a decisive role in the war, can destroy the other side's material resources and will to fight; Air superiority can be achieved by sustained heavy bombing, destroying the other side's military industries, military installations, and transportation lines, and destroying enemy aircraft on the ground. Therefore, the so-called Battle of Britain is that Germany, without the use of army and navy, mainly relied on air forces against convoys and troops in the English Channel
Dover
to
Portsmouth
Between Britain's major industrial cities, ports, airports, railways, Bridges, and other military installations, intensive and intense bombing was carried out. During the Battle of Britain, Germany mobilized 2,669 aircraft of various types and dropped 60,000 tons of bombs on Britain, killing more than 86,000 British residents.
[45]
From 13 August to 6 September, German troops attacked British air bases and radar stations, seeking to destroy the main force of the British air force. From August 13 to 23, the German Air Force organized five large-scale bombings, which reached a climax, often sending more than 1,000 aircraft a day, bombing day and night. From 7 September to 31 October, the Luftwaffe changed its target and bombed London in full force. The British Air Force breathed its breath, and the Battle of Britain turned a corner. On 12 October, Hitler ordered a postponement of the Sea Lion project. From November to May, Germany continued to bomb London and other major cities in order to conceal its attempt to attack the Soviet Union.
[52]
London during the German operation "Sea Lion"
Map of air forces during the Battle of Britain
On the night of November 14, 1940, German aircraft bombarded Coventry, in central England. The attack lasted for 10 hours. self-attack
Coventry
After that, the Battle of Britain was at a low ebb, and German air power was gradually shifted eastward. Hitler's plans to destroy British military resistance by air power alone, thereby forcing peace or clearing the way for a sea invasion, failed. In May 1941, after the main German air force was transferred to the Eastern front, the bombing of Britain ceased, and the Battle of Britain ended.
[45]
In the most intense four months of the Battle of Britain from July to October 1940, the British Air Force shot down 1,733 German aircraft, wounded 643, lost 915 aircraft, killed 1.47 million people, injured 1.47 million, and destroyed more than 1 million houses. The battle was the first defeat of the German Army in World War II and failed to achieve its intended goal of conquering Britain. Britain became the base for the subsequent European resistance and Allied counterattacks on the continent, leaving Germany in a two-front war after its attack on the Soviet Union.
[52]
Map of Nazi Germany's aggression and expansion in Europe before 1941
Map of Nazi Germany's aggression and expansion in Europe before 1941
-
Asian battlefield
Act of Changsha
War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
In the stage of strategic stalemate, important strategic points have become increasingly prominent. It is not only an important supply base for the national government, but also a gateway to defend the strategic rear in southwest China.
[135]
In September 1939, he was commander of the Japanese 11th Army
Kenji Okamura
More than 100,000 troops were assembled and divided from northern Jiangxi, southern Hubei and northern Hunan into Changsha in an attempt to annihilate the main force of China's Ninth Theater Command, which was mainly stationed in Hunan, southern Hubei and Gan provinces in a short time. Deputy commander of the ninth Theater of the Kuomintang
Xue Yue
In order to defend Changsha, taking northern Hunan as the focus of defense, the operational policy of "retreat and decisive battle" and "striving for the outer wing" was adopted, and more than 30 divisions and 3 advancing columns were mobilized, with a total of about 240,000 people participating in the campaign.
[135]
On 14 September, the Japanese 6th, 33rd, and 106th divisions launched attacks from three directions, occupying several towns and advancing to the outskirts of Changsha. The Chinese military
Luo Zhuoying
,
Guan Linzheng
,
Fan Songfu
Other generals under the command of tenacious resistance, and fight and retreat, constantly block, ambush the Japanese, and surround the Japanese in local areas to annihilate. After nearly a month of fierce fighting between the two sides, Okamura Nizi saw that he could not win and ordered the withdrawal of troops after weighing the advantages and disadvantages. The Chinese army pursued all fronts and recaptured Pingjiang, Nanjiangqiao and other towns. By mid-October, both sides had resumed their pre-war posture. In this battle, the summary army smashed the strategic objectives of the Japanese army trying to encircle and destroy the main force of my ninth theater, consuming a large number of Japanese personnel and equipment. The Japanese army showed its weakness in having insufficient troops for large-scale operations. The morale of the Chinese officers and soldiers has been boosted, and the confidence in the victory of the war of resistance has been further strengthened.
[137]
The first Battle of Changsha
The first Battle of Changsha
From August 20, 1940 to January 24, 1941, the Eighth Route Army of China was in
North China anti-Japanese base area
Launched a large-scale offensive campaign, participating in the total force of 105 regiments, a heavy blow to the Japanese army.
[275]
After 1941, the Japanese army once again gathered more than 120,000 troops in the area south of Yueyang in northern Hunan to launch an offensive against the Chinese army. The battle of the Japanese troops concentrated, the Japanese fourth Division then broke into Changsha city. However, as the other war zones took the initiative to retake the city while the Japanese gathered forces to attack Changsha, the Japanese were forced to abandon the city they had occupied for just two days and withdraw in a hurry to the north.
Second Battle of Changsha
In one month, the Chinese army killed more than 30,000 Japanese soldiers, shot down 6 aircraft, sank 9 powerboats, and failed the Japanese plan to wipe out the main force of the Ninth Theater.
[135]
Second Battle of Changsha
Second Battle of Changsha
By means of ambush, lure, side attack, tail attack, etc., the Japanese army's troops and morale were divided into sections, and finally the Japanese army was "dragged" to the decisive battle area, and then vigorously surrounded and destroyed. Xue Yue founded the "Changsha Battle" based on the experience and lessons of the previous two battles.
The Furnace method
This method of warfare followed
The Third Battle of Changsha
Have achieved excellent results.
[138]
In early 1942, more than 60,000 Japanese troops based in Wuhan marched into northern Hunan to contain the forces of the Ninth Theater Command and cover the action in the direction of Hong Kong, and the Third Changsha Battle immediately began. Chinese troops along the new wall River, Miluo River level resistance, the Japanese commander
Anan Weiji
Insist to march to Changsha, but fall into the "pocket" designed by Xue Yue, trapped in heavy siege. Under the encirclement, the Japanese army retreated in an all-round way, and eventually more than 50,000 people were wiped out, and after two years, there was no large-scale offensive in the Chinese battlefield.
[135]
The Third Battle of Changsha
The Third Battle of Changsha
The three battles of Changsha dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese invading forces in China, shattered the Japanese strategic goal of eliminating the main force of the Chinese army and "forced landing by battle", and aroused the confidence of the Chinese people in the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.
[136]
-
Pacific Theater
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
It is the main US naval base in the Pacific Ocean, the US transport hub to Asia and Australia, and the base to contain Japan's expansion. After the outbreak of the Second World War, with the development of the European war situation and the signing of the Treaty of the Triple Alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan, Japan accelerated its war preparations for the south to seize the colonies of the United States, Britain and the Netherlands in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific. In 1941, Japan made up its mind
Attack Pearl Harbor
. The attack on Pearl Harbor was launched by Japan
Pacific War
An important part of the strategic plan. The United States suffers
isolationism
Influence, and the implementation of the "first Europe after Asia" strategy, lax alert. In mid-November 1941, Japanese advance forces disguised daily patrols, respectively, by the Gulf of Zobo and
Yokosuka
Start at the same point, follow the middle and south routes
Hawaii
. The Japanese attack began on 26 November, meeting only minor resistance. The Japanese destroyed and wounded the United States at the small cost of losing "29 aircraft, one submarine and five special submarines.
Pacific Fleet
All eight battleships and more than 10 other major ships docked in the harbor destroyed 232 American aircraft and killed 3,681 wounded Americans. During the air raid, special submarines infiltrated the harbor also carried out attacks, but without success. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to the United States Pacific Fleet to inflict heavy damage, thus in the Pacific to control the sea, air power, for the attack on the Philippines,
Malaya
and
The Dutch East Indies
Created the conditions.
[52]
At the same time, the Japanese army also launched large-scale attacks against Britain and the United States throughout Southeast Asia, until the following spring, the Japanese Army occupied a large area of Southeast Asia and many islands in the Pacific. The next afternoon, Germany, Italy and Japan declared war on the United States at the same time, the Pacific War broke out, and World War II expanded to its largest scale.
[55]
-
The anti-fascist alliance was established
Subject article:
United Nations Declaration
Before Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States gradually changed its "neutral" attitude for its own security and interests due to the growing fascist forces. And increased aid to Britain, the Soviet Union and other countries. In 1941, the United States Congress passed the Act
Lend-lease act
It authorizes the President to "provide arms and military materiel by sale, transfer, exchange, or lease to countries of great importance to the security of the United States," effectively intervening in the world anti-Fascist War. On June 24, Roosevelt announced that all countries resisting fascist aggression, including the Soviet Union, would receive American aid. The anti-fascist world is gradually becoming united.
[46]
Washington conference
Washington conference
In August 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill met on a warship in the Atlantic Ocean and issued a joint declaration.
Atlantic charter
". Advocate freedom, peace and oppose aggression. At the same time, the United States and Britain began to provide aid to the Soviet Union.
[46]
Churchill arrived in Washington on December 22. At the same time as the Joint Military Conference in Chongqing, the leaders of Britain and the United States also held their first top-level meeting since the Pacific War, code-named "Arcadia", to discuss the global situation. British and American leaders believe they will eventually muster enough force to defeat their common enemy, but whether the troops already committed will last long enough to do so remains an open question.
[46]
Therefore, Roosevelt and Churchill focused on how to coordinate the strategies of the two countries in the war against fascism and how to strengthen cooperation between the two countries. The Arcadia Conference also decided to establish a supreme Allied administration responsible for directing operations in all theaters.
[48]
The Arcadia Conference decided to establish a Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee based in Washington to consult and determine many issues of allied strategy, command, military operations, and logistics, and for this purpose decided to establish ABDA in the Pacific Theater
(i.e. USA, UK, Netherlands and Australia)
Coalition command. According to Roosevelt's opinion, by the British
Verville
The general became commander in chief of the allied forces.
[46]
In addition, the Arcadia Conference also decided to establish the Department of Arms distribution and war Production and other joint American and British agencies.
[48]
In addition to institutional and institutional building, the Arcadia Conference established"
First Europe, then Asia
"Strategic principles. The conference confirmed that the main enemies of the war were
Nazi Germany
The Pacific War to counter Japanese aggression was also an important part of the war. The United States had hoped to open a second front in France by at least 1943. But Churchill was more concerned with preserving Britain's colonies abroad. Therefore, he advocated that the Soviet Union continue to bear the primary responsibility for resistance to the Nazis, at first using only the Luftwaffe to bomb German industry and to try to drive Germany out of North Africa. This opinion prevailed at that time and determined the strategic arrangements for the counter-offensive against fascism,
The second front in Europe
It was not officially opened until 1944. Finally, the most important content of the talks between Churchill and Roosevelt was to build a world grand alliance. After a great deal of telegrams, 26 nations decided to unite to form a new world organization. Roosevelt proposed replacing the original proposed "United Nations" with "United Nations."
The Entente countries
As the official name of the world Organization. Churchill agreed.
[46]
Joint Declaration of the United Nations
Joint Declaration of the United Nations
On January 1, 1942, 26 countries, including China, the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, and Czechoslovakia, issued in Washington, D.C.
Joint Declaration of the United Nations
", whose main content is to concentrate all the economic and military power of States, expressed support for the"
Atlantic charter
Jointly fight against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan until final victory, and never make separate peace with enemy countries.
[47]
The United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China signed the document on the same day, and other countries including Australia signed it in alphabetical order the next day. As an open document, as of May 1, 1945, the Declaration was successively signed by Iran,
Free France
,
Mexico
Including 21 nations and wartime organizations. The United Nations Declaration marked the final formation of the anti-fascist alliance.
World Anti-Fascist Alliance
Its establishment greatly enhanced the strength of anti-fascist countries, encouraged the struggle of people all over the world against fascism, and accelerated the process of victory in World War II.
[46]
-
Pacific Theater
Subject article:
Battle of Midway
On May 5, 1942, the Japanese headquarters were completely destroyed
United States Pacific Fleet
Give the order to occupy
Midway Islands
and
The Aleutian Islands
The Western Order was an attempt to secure forward bases for Japanese naval aviation, to continue its expansion into the Central and Southwest Pacific, and to lure out the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
[55]
At the end of the month, the Japanese mobilized more than 200 ships of various types and about 700 carrier-borne aircraft, divided into six tactical formations, and headed for the target area. By deciphering the Japanese code, the US army mastered the Japanese battle intention, troop composition and attack date, and then strengthened patrols, actively prepared for war, and stood ready to annihilate the enemy.
[139]
In the direction of the Aleutian Islands, the Japanese northern formation attacked first on 3 June
Port Holland
. 7, the Japanese occupation
Kiska
and
Attu Cay
. In the direction of Midway Island, in the early morning of June 4, the Japanese 1st Mobile Formation sent the first wave of 108 aircraft to bomb Midway Island. When the second wave of Japanese aircraft unloaded bombs and heavy torpedoes, they were violently attacked by the carrier aviation of the 16th and 17th Task Force of the U.S. Army, and all four aircraft carriers of the first Japanese mobile formation were sunk. The Japanese suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat in the early hours of the 5th, with the Americans immediately pursuing them. On the evening of the 6th, the Battle of Midway ended.
[139]
Battle of Midway
Battle of Midway
In the Battle of Midway, the Japanese lost four aircraft carriers and two heavy cruisers; The US lost one aircraft carrier and one destroyer. Since then, the Japanese offensive in the Pacific theater has been curbed, the U.S. and Japanese naval forces tend to be balanced, and the war situation has turned in favor of the Allied forces.
[139]
-
Soviet-german battlefield
Battle of Moscow
Afterwards, the German army, which had suffered heavy losses, was unable to launch a large-scale full-scale offensive. Hitler decided to concentrate his forces, early in the planning of the campaign, on the southern front, with the goal of capturing the oil fields of the Caucasus, capturing the wheat-growing areas of the Volga valley, and capturing Stalingrad. Hitler believed that if this were achieved, Russia would lose its oil and food supplies, be cut off from the south, and Germany would be able to win the war easily.
[49]
On 8 May 1942, the German Summer Offensive of 1942 began. After nearly two months of bloody fighting, the last stronghold defended by the Soviet army
Sevastopol
Lost. The Germans took the whole thing
Crimean Peninsula
. On 11 July, Paulus led the German Sixth Army into the Stalingrad Oblast. On 17 July, Paulus's advance forces engaged the Soviets on the Chir and Zimla lines of the Don River. The Battle of Stalingrad begins.
[49]
On July 23, Hitler ordered that the German army in the South be divided into two divisions:
Herman Holt
The panzer Corps and the 17th Army marched south to the Caucasus, occupied the Caucasus oil fields, and undertook this task;
Paullus
The Sixth Army marched east to attack Stalingrad.
[49]
On 22 July, after breaking through the Soviet blockers, the Germans advanced to the front of the Soviet outer defense system, only 120 km from Stalingrad. The two sides are engaged in fierce fighting. It was not until 9 August that the Germans broke through the Soviet lines. The Soviet resistance bought valuable time for the Soviet Command to strengthen the defenses of Stalingrad.
[49]
On 19 August, Paulus launched the first major offensive against Stalingrad. On the 22nd, German tanks broke through the Soviet lines and entered the northern outskirts of Stalingrad, reaching the Volga River. On the 23rd, the Germans dispatched hundreds of aircraft to bombard the city. On 31 August, the Soviet Central Line was breached and the Soviets were forced to withdraw into the inner perimeter. The Germans only entered the city on 13 September. By the 26th, the Germans occupied most of the city. Soviet soldiers and workers' militia fought bloody battles with German infantry using automatic rifles, grenades, and bayonets. Fighting between German and Soviet forces in the ruins lasted for two months, during which the Soviets repelled more than 700 German charges
[51]
Paulus continued to send reinforcements to the front, but still could not achieve a decisive victory.
[49]
Meanwhile, Soviet reinforcements and supplies continued to flow across the Volga River to Stalingrad. The Germans were gradually exhausted and forced to move to the defense. In early November, the Germans made a final attempt to take the city. They occupied the southern part of the "barricade" factory and broke out at a narrow point to the banks of the Volga. But with the main force of the 62nd Army firmly defending the Red October factory area and the narrow strip of land along the river, Hitler was never able to fully capture Stalingrad until the Soviet counteroffensive began.
[50]
In the ongoing assault on Stalingrad, the German Sixth Army ran out of energy and had to stop the offensive and move to the defense.
[49]
Picture of the Battle of Stalingrad
Picture of the Battle of Stalingrad
The Soviet army's active defensive tactics once again crushed Hitler's aggressive plans and bought time for a full-scale Soviet counterattack. Due to the heavy casualties of the Germans, the Soviet army began to outnumber the Germans in numbers and equipment. In this situation, the Soviet High Command decided to organize forces for a counteroffensive.
[51]
In mid-November, the Soviets began planning a counteroffensive. It was planned by the Soviet Supreme Commander assistant Zhukov and the Chief of the General staff
Wasilevsky
Host, and named it "Hurricane". The Soviet army of 1.1 million men had finished massing in the middle of the Don River and around Stalingrad.
[49]
At dawn on 19 November, the Soviets began a major counteroffensive, attacking the German positions. On the night of the 22nd, the Soviet army successfully crossed the Don River. On the 23rd, several Soviet armies met in Karachi, forming a encirclement of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad.
[51]
On January 10, 1943, the Soviets bombarded the encircled enemy with 50 artillery pieces. The German army began to collapse on all fronts. The Soviet command ordered the besieged Germans to surrender, but this was refused. On 22 January, the Soviets launched a full-scale offensive. The commander of the German Sixth Group, Paulus, was running out of ammunition and food and asked Hitler to surrender. On 30 January, the Soviets captured the headquarters of the Sixth Army. Paulus disobeyed the Fuhrer's orders at the last moment and chose to surrender. Two days later, the German Sixth Army was destroyed.
[49]
On February 2, the Soviet Army captured more than 90,000 German soldiers alive, and all 330,000 German soldiers were destroyed. The Battle of Stalingrad ended.
[51]
Battle of Stalingrad
It was one of the biggest battles of World War II. Over the course of 200 days, the Germans lost 1.5 million men, 3,500 tanks and artillery, 12,000 artillery and mortars, 3,000 aircraft and a large number of other munitions and technical weapons. From then on, Germany was forced to shift to strategic defense, and Nazi Germany quickly came to an end.
[49]
Kursk Battle situation map
After the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet-German battlefield fell silent. However, the Soviet positions in the Kursk region posed a great threat to the German lines, so both sides turned towards
Kursk
Move troops in the direction. The German High Command planned to launch a summer offensive code-named "Fortress", mainly with the Kursk shock force, to improve the battlefield situation. For the campaign, Germany mobilized 900,000 troops, 10,000 artillery pieces, 2,700 tanks and automatic guns, and more than 2,000 aircraft. The Soviet High Command, aware of the German strategic intentions, prepared superior troops, artillery, tanks, and aircraft to stand ready. On the morning of July 5, 1943, a large number of German troops, with the cooperation of aircraft and tanks, began to attack, but from the beginning, the Soviet Army was dogged by resistance. On 12 July, the battle intensified, with 1,200 tanks and heavy artillery from both sides engaged in a fierce battle around Prokhorovka, forming the largest tank encounter of World War II, resulting in a crushing defeat for the Germans. On 12 July and 15 July, the Soviet army moved to the north and south of Kursk, and the German army retreated. On August 5, the Soviet army successively recaptured
Oryol
,
Kharkov
Donbass, Kiev and other important cities. For the first time, Moscow fired a victory salute. The German "fortress" plan completely failed, and since then, the German army has completely lost the strategic initiative in the Soviet-German battlefield.
[50]
-
North African battlefield
Subject article:
Battle of El Alamein
First Battle of El Alamein situation map
In April 1943, German and Italian forces in North Africa surrendered. In July 1943, American and British troops landed on the Italian island of Sicily, a coup d 'etat occurred in Italy, the fall of Mussolini's government, and in September, Italy announced its surrender and the Fascist Axis group began to collapse.
[140]
-
Asian battlefield
In 1943, the world anti-Fascist War took a major turn. On the one hand, the world anti-fascist united front has been formed and continues to grow, and the Allied Powers have won victory after victory on all major battlefields. Germany, on the other hand, is being beaten and in a difficult position; The overthrow of Mussolini in Italy; Led by the Communist Party of China
Anti-japanese base area
The army and people launched offensive operations against the Japanese army.
[269]
In the Pacific theater, the U.S. counteroffensive and offensive against the Japanese were increasing, and the Japanese sea traffic could be cut off at any time. So Japan decided to launch a campaign that would turn the tide. In late January 1944, the Japanese Emperor approved the Chief of Staff of the Japanese Army
Sugiyama moto
's"
Operation number one
"Plan.
[166]
Henan, Hunan and Guangxi campaign situation map
Henan, Hunan and Guangxi campaign situation map
whole
Henan, Hunan and Guangxi Campaign
It was composed of three battles of Yu Zhong, Changheng and GUI Liu. In April 1944, the Chinese Army fought hard in the Battle of Henan, and finally failed to prevent the Japanese army from opening the Pinghan Line. In May, the Japanese army attacked Changsha and Hengyang with the goal of capturing the Hunan-Gui Railway. The Chinese 4th Army held out until 18 June, with all casualties and the city of Changsha falling. Then the Japanese attacked Hengyang with 15 infantry battalions and 12 artillery battalions. Hengyang is a railway and highway transportation hub and has an important strategic position. Hengyang defense Battle from June 22 to August 8, a total of 47 days, the 10th Army to less than 20,000 troops, tenacious resistance to the Japanese offensive. More than 20,000 Japanese were killed and 60,000 wounded. The Battle of Hengyang, also known as the Battle of Hengyang, is the most successful battle in the history of Chinese anti-war and the most typical example of outnumbered battles, known as the "Defense of Moscow in the East", and the longest battle in the entire history of Chinese anti-war, with the largest number of casualties on both sides and the most fierce urban battle.
[167]
Guangxi was the last gateway through which the Japanese planned to open the mainland,
Battle of Changheng
After the Japanese army from Hunan, Guangdong and Vietnam three aspects to Guangxi offensive, began
Battle of the Laurel Willow
. At the time of the attack on Guilin, the Japanese army was 150,000, while the Guilin garrison and local militia had a total strength of less than 20,000, and most of the militia soldiers were still armed with local rifles. On November 4, the Japanese army began to attack the city of Guilin, having rushed into the center of Guilin 27 times, but had to withdraw because of heavy losses in the quagmire of street fighting. The Japanese army attacked Guilin from the Li River, but was killed by the accurate firepower of the GUI Jun, and the local militia death squad even tied grenades on the body to blow up the Japanese landing craft. Later, the Japanese used a large number of gas bombs, and the city of Guilin fell on the 10th, with 12,000 defenders killed in the battle
(Half of them were gassed)
. The battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi lasted nearly 8 months, and the Japanese army won with difficulty.
[167]
-
The meeting of the Big Three was held
From November 22 to 26, 1943, the heads of state of China, the United States and the United Kingdom, Chiang Kai-shek, Roosevelt, Churchill and their entourage met in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and signed the"
Cairo Declaration
". It states that the anti-fascist Allies throughout the world will continue to fight against Japan until the unconditional surrender of the Japanese fascists, and clearly stipulates that the Chinese territories occupied by Japan, including the three provinces of Manchuria, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, must be returned to China.
[4]
The Cairo Declaration is the first treaty document with the effect of international law that affirms that Taiwan is Chinese territory. It legally clarifies the illegality of Japan's occupation of Taiwan and provides an international law basis for China to deal with the Taiwan question after the war. The Cairo Declaration has played an important role in safeguarding China's territorial sovereignty and integrity and laid the legal foundation for the liberation of Taiwan.
[53]
Group photo of Cairo Conference
From November 28 to December 1, 1943, Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill and other leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom held a meeting in Tehran, the capital of Iran, and adopted a declaration of concerted action and postwar cooperation between the heads of the three countries in the war against Germany. The conference decided to open a second front in Europe, codenamed"
Eisenhower plan
To defeat Nazi Germany as soon as possible. The Tehran Conference resolved the long-standing basic contradictions and differences on major issues among the three major powers, the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain, and further strengthened and consolidated the economic, political and military unity and cooperation among the countries of the Anti-Fascist Alliance. The war plan of the anti-Fascist Allies against Nazi Germany drawn up at the Tehran Conference played a great role in advancing the decisive victory of the anti-fascist war in Europe in 1944. The meeting also reached a unanimous agreement among the three countries on the idea of rebuilding world peace after the war, laying the foundation for the birth of the United Nations.
[56]
Tehran meeting of the Big Three
In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, the three heads of state of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, convened in the Soviet Union in order to speed up the final victory of the anti-fascist war and solve the major problems after the war
The Yalta Conference
. The main contents of the conference were: the complete elimination of German militarism and fascism, the punishment of war criminals, the realization of democratization after the war, preparations for the establishment of the United Nations after the war, and the participation of the Soviet Union in the war against Japan within three months of the end of the war in Europe.
[57]
Yalta Conference Big Three
-
Chinese counterattack behind enemy bases
In 1943, when the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines were restored and developed, the anti-Japanese army and people fought more than 20,000 battles against Japan behind enemy lines, crushing the Japanese Army's large-scale "mopping up", "encroachment" and "encroachment".
Vigilante campaign
The plain base areas were restored and the mountain base areas developed, creating conditions for the transition to local strategic counterattacks in 1944. In the spring and summer of 1944, according to the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the soldiers and civilians in the anti-Japanese base areas took the opportunity of the reduction of Japanese forces and the decline in combat effectiveness, actively launched local offensive operations against the enemy, effectively attacked and contained the Japanese puppet forces, and cooperated with the frontal battlefield operations. In the counter-offensive of the same year, the anti-Japanese base areas were expanded, and the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army grew from 470,000 to 650,000 men. By carrying out counter-offensive operations, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army have begun to change from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare, and are ready for large-scale offensive operations and strategic counter-attacks.
[168]
In the face of the local counterattack on the anti-Japanese base areas behind the enemy, the Japanese army adopted the means of attack as defense and carried out a "sweep" of the base areas. The Chinese base forces launched offensive operations in accordance with the principle of "the enemy advances while I retreat". In the first half of 1944, the Shandong Military Region launched the spring and summer offensives, opening up the links between the base areas; The Jin-Hebei-Lu-Henan military district launched an offensive against the isolated towns and strongholds of the Japanese army, recovering large areas of land and taking control of some of the Yellow River crossings;
Shanxi Chaji Military Region
Extend to guerrilla and enemy-occupied areas and expand base areas; The army and people of Shansui tightened the siege on the isolated Japanese strongholds, and the base areas were restored and developed. In the second half of the same year, the base areas in North China and Central China launched the autumn and winter offensive, advancing to the Japanese-occupied towns and main lines of communication, on the one hand, constantly attacking the key points and towns guarded by the Japanese army, eliminating the effective forces of the Japanese army, and on the other hand, organizing the masses to carry out traffic attacks to suppress the Japanese army. These offensives not only liberated large areas, but also connected previously divided base areas into large chunks.
[168]
When the Kuomintang army abandoned Henan in the spring of 1944, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China began to draw up a strategic plan to govern Henan. From the beginning of July, the Eighth Route Army
Hebei Luyu Military Region
Formed a detachment to the south and entered the area east of the Yellow River, and the independent regiments that held on to the resistance were expanded
Anti-japanese base area in eastern Henan
; Taihang Military region, a division of the western Henan anti-Japanese independent detachment march into Henan, established
Western Henan anti-Japanese base area
; At the same time, the fifth Division of the New Fourth Army moved north on both sides of the Pinghan Line
Anti-japanese base area in southern Henan
; The Fourth division of the New Fourth Army attacked from Huaibei and restored the anti-Japanese base areas in Henan, Anhui and Soviet border. The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army cooperated closely with each other, opened up the west of Henan, developed the south of Henan, expanded the east of Henan, restored the Soviet border of Henan, Anhui, and further opened up the connection between North and Central China, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, and achieved the strategic purpose of "Wan hub Central Plains".
[168]
In order to adapt to the changing situation of the war and carry out the anti-Japanese guerrilla war in South China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to send troops to develop in the newly occupied areas. In October 1944, more than 5,000 members of the 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army and the cadre brigade headed south from Yan 'an formed the independent First Guerrilla Detachment
(commonly known as southbound detachment)
, in
Wang Zhen
,
A surname
Led the expedition, broke through the Japanese tail-chase intercept, into the northern Hunan area after the establishment of Xiang-Huan-Jiangxi border area.
The New Fourth Army
In the North of the Soviet Union, the central Soviet Union also launched a local counterattack, through
Battle of Axle
The important strongholds of the Japanese army in the base areas were pulled out, and the liberated areas of Jiangsu and Anhui were joined together. At the end of 1944, the New Fourth Army with the main force crossed the Yangtze River and then entered Southern Jiangsu
Zhejiang (Province)
Tianmu Mountain
Establish base areas. The development of the anti-Japanese base areas in the South of the Yangtze River strengthened the strength of the New Fourth Army and prepared for the landing of the Allied counteroffensive.
[168]
In the autumn and winter of 1944, local counter-attacks in the liberated areas not only reduced the Japanese army to the main transportation lines, but also ushered in the second major development of the army led by the Communist Party after the War of Resistance against Japan. By early August 1945, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army had grown to 910,000, and the population of the base areas behind enemy lines had grown to 100 million, laying an important foundation for victory in the Chinese Revolutionary War.
[168]
-
Opening and meeting the second battlefield
In May 1943, the United Kingdom and the United States decided to open a second front in Western Europe in May 1944. After a long period of preparation, on June 6, 1944, the allied forces of Britain, France and the United States concentrated 6,000 ships, more than 20,000 airborne troops and 176,000 offensive troops at the commander in chief
Eisenhower
Under command, across the English Channel in northern France
D-day
Opened the second front in Europe
[280
]
. The victory cleared the way for the allied forces to liberate France and invade Germany
[280
]
. The Soviets also launched more aggressive attacks against the Germans on the eastern front. From then on, the Allies began to attack the German army on two sides, accelerating the demise of German fascism. In 1945, the first French Army
Battle of Balfour
The French killed 10,000 Germans, captured 18,000 and captured 120 artillery pieces
[277
]
. In August, the Allies entered Paris and retook France.
[52]
Normandy landings situation map
Normandy landings situation map
By early February 1945, Allied forces on the Western Front had repelled a German counterattack in the Ardennes
The Siegfried line
. On the eastern front, the Soviets have completed their offensive from the Vistula to the Oder River, reaching the Oder River. With the Soviet army already posing a serious threat to Berlin, the German army transferred more than half of its panzer divisions and a large number of tanks and artillery to the Soviet-German battlefield to deal with the Soviet attack, while in the western battlefield, it attempted to stop the advance of the United States, Britain, France and Canada with the remaining 59 divisions, relying on the Siegfried Line constructed along the west bank of the Rhine. With 59 German divisions scattered along the entire line, the fighting power was greatly weakened. At this time, although Hitler still used deception and coercion to drive the Germans to work for the Fascists, the unfavorable situation of the two-front attack and the large-scale and continuous strategic bombing of the Allies had made the German army and people lose confidence. Therefore, Eisenhower, the commander of the Allied forces, predicted that if another large-scale attack was launched, Germany would be dealt a fatal blow.
[170]
Meeting on the Elbe
Meeting on the Elbe
In March 1945, the Allied forces of the United States, France and Britain forcibly crossed the border
Rhine
And marched into the heart of Germany. In April, the U.S. military was in the process of acquiring
Battle of the Ruhr
After the victory, they reached the Elbe River on the 11th. On the 18th, the 9th Army of the United States captured the river Elbe
Magdeburg
. On the 19th, the British Second Army reached Lauenburg on the banks of the Elbe River, and the American First Army captured it
Leipzig
. At the same time, Soviet forces on the eastern front began a powerful offensive westward from the Oder River on 16 April
Battle of Berlin
. On 25 April, part of the 69th Division of the American First Army met the Soviets on the banks of the Elbe River, 120 km south of Berlin. The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to a rendezvous along the Elbe and its tributary, the Mulde.
[169]
Meeting on the Elbe
By cutting the German army into north and south, the eastern and western fronts of anti-French Germany were joined. To celebrate the meeting of the Allied forces on the Elbe, Stalin ordered Moscow to fire a gun salute and issue a "Message to the Red Army and the Allies" in tribute to the Red Army and the Allies.
[58]
April 12, 1945, President of the United States
Roosevelt
Died of a sudden brain hemorrhage. Vice President
Truman
Take over the presidency.
[57]
Hitler and his lover in the early hours of April 29, 1945
Eva Braun
A wedding in the bunker of the Chancellery in Berlin. On 30 April, the Soviets captured Berlin. At 3 p.m., Hitler shot himself in a bunker in Berlin, Germany, and Eva took poison to kill herself.
[59]
On May 8, 1945, in the Pacific Theater, the United States launched a fierce offensive toward the Japanese mainland. The anti-Japanese forces of China and other countries have also launched counterattacks across Asia.
[52]
On May 7, 1945,
Doenitz
To announce the unconditional surrender of Germany. The instrument of surrender was signed in front of representatives of the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France in Berlin at 12 PM on May 8. The European theater of World War II ended with the fall of Hitler's Empire. May 8 became "European Victory over Fascism Day". On May 9, Germany formally signed an unconditional surrender.
[54]
German Marshal Keitel signs the unconditional surrender
German Marshal Keitel signs the unconditional surrender
July 16, 1945, for the first time
Atomic bomb
The explosion test was successful. The Allies understand the consequences of this deadly weapon, and the responsibilities of its users. But the Japanese made it in the Philippines
Manila massacre
,"
The Bataan Death March
"Made in China
Nanjing Massacre
And the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in the United States has reached the point of anger of the Allies. The Allies believe that Japan will never lay down its butcher's knife without making it pay a heavy price for the belligerent nature of Japanese militarism and forming a fatal deterrent, and the price paid by the people of Asian countries will be even heavier.
[62]
On July 17, 1945, the heads of state and foreign ministers of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union met in Potsdam, southwest of Berlin. During the meeting, the three leaders discussed the conditions for the end of the war against Japan and the policies related to the disposition of Japan after the war. On July 26, China, the United States and the United Kingdom"
The Potsdam Proclamation
Reaffirming the spirit of the Cairo Declaration and stipulating that the terms of the Declaration "shall be implemented", the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation became the foundational documents for determining the postwar order in Northeast Asia.
[4]
Potsdam Conference group photo (from left to right Attlee, Truman, Stalin)
Potsdam Conference group photo (from left to right Attlee, Truman, Stalin)
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped a bomb code-named"
Young boy
"The atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.
[57]
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and attacked northeast China
The Japanese Kwantung Army
By September 2, Japan officially signed the instrument of surrender, which lasted 24 days. The Soviet army called this strategic offensive the "Far East Campaign". It consisted of five campaigns of different sizes, namely three offensive campaigns in Northeast China and the southern Sakhalin Islands
Kuril Islands
The landing campaign. At the same time, the Chinese anti-Japanese forces launched a full-scale attack on the Japanese army.
[63]
On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a bomb code-named"
fatty
The atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.
[62]
Noon, August 15, 1945, Japan
Emperor Hirohito
broadcast
The edict to end the war
"And announced an unconditional surrender. Chiang Kai-shek, the supreme leader of the Chinese Theater Command, delivered a radio speech to the Chinese army and people and the people of the world.
[61]
On August 21, 1945, Major General of the Japanese Army
Takeo Imai
Fly to Zhijiang Qiabian. The representatives of China and the United States announced in three languages, Chinese, Japanese and English, that they asked Takeo Imai to hand over the "Memorandum of Chinese Characters No. 1" to Okamura. According to the memorandum, the Japanese army, navy and air force in the Chinese theater should be ordered to surrender to the Chinese designated commander. In the following two days, the Chinese side sent three memorandums to the Japanese side on the details of the surrender.
[171]
On September 2, 1945, Japanese government representatives on U.S. warships
Uss Missouri
Signed unconditional surrender on the deck of Japan's new foreign minister
Double light mallow
On behalf of the Emperor and the government of Japan, Chief of the Army Staff
Mijiro Umezu
representative
Imperial stronghold
Sign the instrument of surrender. Then, the representative of the Allies who accepted the surrender, the Supreme Commander of the Allies
MacArthur
Admiral, representative of the United States
Nimitz
Admiral, representative of China
Xu Yongchang
The General, the British representative Admiral Flese, the Soviet representative Lieutenant General Djerevyako, and the representatives of Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand and other countries signed in turn.
[61]
At this point, Japan, the last of the three fascist Axis powers, formally surrendered, and World War II ended with the defeat of the Fascist Axis and the victory of the anti-Fascist Allies.
[60]
Contemporary · Chen Jian, "Nanjing, September 9, 1945" [172]
Contemporary · Chen Jian, "Nanjing, September 9, 1945" [172]
On the morning of September 3, 1945, China's wartime capital Chongqing held a celebration meeting and parade. At 9 o 'clock on September 9, a signing ceremony was held in the auditorium of the former Central Military Academy in Nanjing. In the presence of more than 400 participants, Okamura signed and sealed the letter of surrender and the First Order of Chiang Kai-shek, Supreme Commander of the Chinese Theater Command.
[171]
Then commander-in-chief of the Chinese Army
He Yingqin
Immediately make a speech to announce to the world that the signing ceremony of the Japanese surrender has been completed in Nanking.
[172]
-
The Nuremberg Trials
On August 8, 1945, representatives of the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France formally concluded the Agreement on prosecuting and Punishing the Principal War Criminals of the Axis Powers in Europe after negotiations in London.
("
London Agreement
")
And adopted the Charter of the International Military Tribunal. The Charter has a total of 30 articles, which make clear provisions on a series of issues such as the purpose, task, composition and jurisdiction of the tribunal. The jurisdiction provisions are as follows:
1.
Crime against peace
: means the planning, preparation, initiation or conduct of a war of aggression or violation of an international treaty. An agreed or guaranteed war, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy to achieve such an act. 2.
War crimes
: means crimes against the laws or customs of war. Such violations include the killing or ill-treatment of civilians in occupied areas, the deportation of civilians for the purpose of slave labor or for any other purpose, the killing or ill-treatment of prisoners and hostages, the looting of public and private property, and the wanton destruction of towns and villages. 3.
Crimes against humanity
The killing, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts committed against civilians before or during the outbreak of war, as well as acts of persecution on political, racial or religious grounds. The leaders, organizers, initiators and co-conspirators involved in the preparation or execution of a joint plan or conspiracy for any of the above-mentioned crimes shall be held personally responsible.
[150]
A still from the film The Trial at Nuremberg
The Nuremberg Trials were held from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946. The trial was organized by four Allies, the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, and each appointed a judge to the trial: the American judge
Francis Biddle
British judge Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, French judge Henri Donedini Devabre, and Soviet judge General Nikitchenko. By Geoffrey of England. Judge Lawrence has long been president of the court. A chief prosecutor has also been appointed to investigate war crimes and the prosecution of primary war criminals: the Attorney General of the United States
Robert H. Jackson
Soviet Chief Prosecutor Lieutenant General Roman Rudenko, British Chief Prosecutor David Maxwell Fyfe, and French Chief Prosecutor Francois de Maunton.
[151]
Four chief prosecutors, representing the four Allies, formed the prosecution Commission, which was the prosecution in the trial; The Indictment Commission submitted indictments to the Tribunal and the accused on 18 October 1945. The indictment indicts Hitler's chief associates
Hermann Goring
24 other leading figures of the Nazi regime, the German Cabinet and other groups or organizations were convicted of crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and conspiracy. In addition to the individual defendants mentioned above, the prosecution also brought charges against groups or organizations such as the political leadership group of the Nazi Party, the Secret Police and Security Service, the SS, the SSS, the German Cabinet after 30 January 1933, the General Staff and the High Command of the Wehrmacht.
[145]
The indictment Commission charged the individual defendants and organizations with four counts: "joint planning or collusion," crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The four Allies appointed a judge and an associate judge to form the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which conducted the trial. The legal basis for the trial is the Charter of the International Military Tribunal signed by the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union on August 8, 1945.
(commonly known as the London Charter)
.
[149]
After a trial of more than 10 months, on September 30, 1946, the judge announced the verdicts of the defendants and six organizations: 12 people including Goring were sentenced to death by hanging, 7 people including Hess were sentenced to life imprisonment and prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years, and 3 people including Schacht were acquitted. Of the six organizations, the Nazi Party political leadership Group,
The Gestapo
As well as the SS being designated as a criminal organization, the Vanguard, the German Cabinet as well as the General Staff and the Wehrmacht High Command were exonerated.
[174]
The Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg Tribunal was the first international trial of a leader of a country that waged a war of aggression and those responsible for it. It is not only a major initiative of system design on the basis of law after countless war traumas, but also a major achievement of military, political, legal and diplomatic activities of the allied governments after the first and Second World Wars. This is an unprecedented war crimes trial in human history, which has had a tremendous impact not only on the development of law but also on the progress of mankind as a whole.
[149]
-
Tokyo trial
In accordance with the Japanese Instrument of Surrender and the authorization of the Moscow Conference of December 26, 1945 between the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, and with the consent of China, on January 19, 1946, General MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Japan, issued Special Notice No. 1 on the Establishment of an International Military Tribunal for the Far East. To declare and, with the authorization of the Allies, to issue an order establishing it in accordance with the series of joint Declarations of the Allies on the punishment of war criminals, the provisions of the Potsdam Proclamation on the punishment of war criminals and the Instrument of Japanese Surrender
International Military Tribunal for the Far East
Trial of Japanese war criminals. On the same day, the"
Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
The Tribunal will charge Japanese war criminals with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and ordinary war crimes.
[176]
Since December 1945, judges and prosecutors from 11 countries, including the United States, Britain, China, the Soviet Union, France, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada and India, have arrived in Japan to participate in the trial. These 11 countries represent more than two thirds of the world's population and are broadly representative.
[145]
The prosecution of the Tribunal is undertaken by the International Prosecutor's Office. It consists of prosecutors and their assistants from the United States and other countries participating in the trial. The I.P.A. 's chief prosecutor, the You.s. Attorney
Joseph Ginan
Appointed by MacArthur as Chief prosecutor, he was responsible for overall prosecutorial duties on behalf of the eleven countries participating in the trial, with prosecutors from other countries participating as assistant prosecutors, generally on prosecutorial matters relating to their own countries.
[145]
The Court was composed of judges from each of the eleven nations appointed by MacArthur. To avoid the accusation that the United States was monopolizing the trial, MacArthur did not appoint an American as president of the court, but instead appointed Australian judge Sir William Vlad Webb as president.
[177]
Unlike the case of the Prosecutor, the judges of the Tribunal are on an equal footing, but the President has certain prerogatives in judicial proceedings, in the presence of an equal vote in judgment and in administrative matters.
[145]
Tokyo Trial oil painting
The list of accused is determined by the International Prosecutor's Office. After the American occupation of Japan, 118 war suspects were arrested in three batches, including
Hideki Tojo
,
Kenji Tsuchihara
,
Araki Sadao
,
Yoright-hand Matsuoka
And other important criminals. After much discussion, the national prosecutors of the International Prosecutor's Office identified the first batch of 28 accused from the above suspects to bring charges to the Tribunal. In order to ensure a fair trial, the court charter provides for the defendant to be given full rights of defence. Accordingly, the defendants hired defense lawyers through the Japanese government or the Japanese Bar Association and formed a defense team. During the trial, more than 100 Japanese and American defenders participated in the defense activities.
[145]
On April 29, 1946,
International Military Tribunal for the Far East
28 Class-A war criminals including Hideki Tojo were formally indicted. The trial began on 3 May 1946. Chief prosecutor Keenan read out the indictment, which charged Araki Sadao and other 28 defendants with 55 counts of conspiracy to plan, prepare, launch and carry out aggressive war and commit mass murder and torture of prisoners during war.
[145]
During the two and a half years of trial, there were 818 sessions, 131 internal meetings of judges, 419 witnesses, 4,336 pieces of documentary and physical evidence provided by 779 people, 48,412 pages of English trial records, and 1,231 pages of verdicts.
[175]
Scene of the Tokyo Trial, July 22, 1946 (color restoration)
Scene of the Tokyo Trial, July 22, 1946 (color restoration)
Because the court operates in accordance with the common law system, solid personal and physical evidence becomes the key to whether the defendant can be convicted. In this regard, many Chinese war victims and survivors traveled east to Tokyo to testify in court, exposing the facts of Japan's invasion of China and the atrocities of aggression. Such as the experience of the July 7 incident
Qin Dechun
When the general testified in court, he exposed the Japanese occupation of northeast China and provoked
The July 7 Incident
The fact that; Liang Tingfang,
Wu Changde
Other victims and
Bedus
,
John Magee
Several foreigners made them for the Japanese army
Nanjing Massacre
To testify; Pu Yi appeared in court to support the Japanese in Northeast China
Manchurian regime
Testifying about colonial rule and so on have played an important role in proving Japan's crimes of aggression. In particular, more than a dozen Chinese and foreign witnesses about the Nanjing Massacre, they exposed the crimes of the Japanese army to create the Nanjing Massacre, coupled with a large amount of evidence provided by the Japanese Army to prove the massacre, and the court finally sentenced the main responsible for the massacre
Ishien Matsui
The death penalty played a key role.
[176]
On April 16, 1948, the Tokyo Trial ended its court phase. As the 11 judges were deeply divided over the jurisdiction of the tribunal and the applicable law, the question of how to convict the accused was hotly debated in the plenary session. The Indian judge ruled that all defendants were not guilty; Although the judges in Australia, France and the Soviet Union found the defendant guilty, they did not advocate the death penalty because their countries had abolished the death penalty. Dutch judges made separate claims on the convictions of individual defendants; However, the judges of seven countries, including China, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, argued that the defendant should be convicted based on the facts of the crime. The verdict was decided by vote. As a result, all 25 defendants were found guilty, and seven of the ringleaders were sentenced to death. Chinese judge
Mei Rungau
At the judges' meeting, he insisted that the principal offender be severely punished, which played an important role in the final decision of the court.
[176]
Of the 28 defendants, seven were convicted, including Hideki Tojo, in addition to one death and one loss of responsibility
Death by hanging
Sixteen people, including Araki Sadao, were sentenced to life imprisonment, and two people, such as Togo Motoku, were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment.
[174]
November 12, 1948
Tokyo trial
That's it.
[175]
A still from the movie Tokyo Trial
The just and just verdict of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East against the major Japanese war criminals is of great historical significance. Through this trial, a large number of relevant facts have been verified, the war crimes of the war criminals have been exposed and enumerated, and Japan has been confirmed
The September 18 Incident
The war in the Pacific was a war of aggression, and the planners and initiators of the war were punished.
[173]
But the Tokyo trial had many shortcomings. For example, the consortia that participated in the war were not touched, such as Ayukawa, Iwakosu, Nakajima, Fujiwara, Ikeda, etc., were exempted from trial, and some were arrested and subsequently released. Divide 28
Class A war criminal
In addition, there are many war criminals who committed heinous crimes in China, such as
Nishio Shou Zao
,
Tada Nozomu
,
Nobusuke Kishi
,
Kaya Koshinori
In Tojo Hideki, Kenji Dohihara, Hirota Hirotaki, Panigaki Seishiro,
Kimura Hyutaro
, Ishien Matsui,
Akira Muto
The day after the seven were hanged, they were
MacArthur
Ordered to release, Okamura Ninji is at large, the implementation of human experimentation and
Biological warfare
the
Unit 731
He was also granted asylum by the United States;
Double light mallow
,
Mijiro Umezu
After the "Directive No. 5" of March 7, 1950, some Class A war criminals serving their sentences were released. Heavy light mallow,
Nobusuke Kishi
When he returns to politics.
[175]
The total military expenditure of the participating countries was $1,352 billion, and when financial expenditure and material losses were added, the total loss reached $4 trillion.
[147]
The anti-fascist countries and people who directly took part in the war paid a huge human and financial price. During the war, American property lost $350 billion, Soviet property lost $200 billion, and British property lost $150 billion.
[148]
According to the only figures available, China suffered direct economic losses of more than $100 billion and indirect economic losses of $500 billion to $1 trillion between 1937 and 1945, based on the 1937 ratio.
[146]
The fascist states themselves suffered greatly during the war. During the war, the German economy lost $300 billion; The damage to the Japanese economy amounted to $100 billion.
[148]
Died in World War II as a direct result of war or war-related causes
(such as disasters caused by war, famine, lack of medical care, spread of infectious diseases, conscription, recruitment of Labour, massacres, etc.)
About 70 million people
(
The war in Europe and Africa accounted for about two-thirds of the deaths, and one-third of the deaths in Europe and Africa were at the hands of the Nazis
Concentration camp
Or be
Nazi
Those who were massacred and tortured accounted for more than 80% of the total number of civilians and prisoners of war deliberately massacred and tortured by warring parties in World War II
)
.
Of these 70 million, the Soviet Union accounted for 26.6 million
(From 1941 to 1945, military personnel accounted for 35%, and the number of injuries and injuries caused by the war in the Soviet Union was also extremely huge, and the cumulative number of injuries and injuries of the registered military personnel alone reached more than 18.3 million people)
China accounts for about 18 million people
(From 1937 to 1945, soldiers accounted for about 15% of them, and the cumulative number of war casualties was about 16 million, so the cumulative number of casualties was about 35 million)
.
70 million people can be divided into three categories according to the cause of death: one is the death of military personnel; The second is the number of civilians killed in massacres and
Prisoner of War
; Third, those who died from war-related causes.
[32]
The total number of military deaths in World War II is estimated at more than 18 million
(excluding dead captives)
; More than 18 million civilians and prisoners of war were killed deliberately by the warring parties
(More than 80 percent of those deaths were at the hands of the Nazi Third Reich.)
; The number of people who died from war-related causes, such as war-related disasters, famine, lack of medical care, the spread of infectious diseases, conscription and recruitment of labor, was between 15 and 30 million. For example, China listed 35 million casualties, including 18 million deaths, and among the 18 million deaths, the number of deaths belonging to the first two categories accounted for about 20%, and the number of deaths in the first two categories accounted for more than half of the total number of deaths in the Soviet Union. Shortly after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the death toll announced by China was more than 8 million, and the statistical standard was changed.
The military losses in the war are generally composed of death, wounded, captured, missing and other parts, and the death of the soldiers includes the death of the dead, the death of the wounded, the death of other causes and so on. Take the losses of the Soviet Army in the Soviet-German War as an example: the cumulative losses of the Soviet army were 29.593,000. Of those, 6.817 million died
(76% killed in action, 16% killed by wounds, 8% killed by sickness, accidents, etc.)
A total of 4.456 million were captured or missing, and 18.32 million were wounded or wounded
(82.9% injury, 16.6% illness, 0.5% frostbite)
. In addition, the different war situation of the army, the composition of its losses will be greatly different, take the Soviet Army during the Soviet-German War for example, the Soviet army's annual average losses are: 710,000 in 1941, 614,000 in 1942, 655,000 in 1943, 573,000 in 1944, and 700,000 in 1945, the difference is not too great. The ratio of 1941, the worst loss, to 1944, the least loss, is only 1.24 times, but the proportion of death, injury and capture in the losses over the years is quite different. The monthly average number of missing persons killed or captured was 496,000 in 1941, 271,000 in 1942, 192,000 in 1943, 147,000 in 1944 and 186,000 in 1945, a difference of more than 3.37 times. The attacking side has a large proportion of the wounded, while the retreating side, because its wounded could not be evacuated in time, or eventually became prisoners, or died because of lack of effective medical treatment, so the retreating side generally has a large proportion of dead and captured personnel in its losses, especially the besieged troops are the most typical, such as encircled troops
Stalingrad
Of the 280,000 Germans, in addition to more than 30,000 wounded airlifted out of the siege, the rest were either killed or captured. Similar to what happened to Japan in the Pacific, islands were lost one by one
Mastery of the sea
The Japanese death trap, death became the vast majority of the island
Japanese army
The destination.
[5]
-
List of army casualties of World War II
|
Axis powers
|
casualties
|
|---|---|
|
Bulgaria
(Until 1944)
|
9，000
|
|
Nazi Germany
(including Austrians and Sudeten Germans in the German army of the Third Reich)
|
More than 3,500,000
|
|
200，000
|
|
|
Italy
(until 1943)
|
60，000
|
|
More than 1,850,000
|
|
|
Romania
(until 1944)
|
290，000
|
|
82，000
|
|
|
[9]
|
|
-
Civilian casualties
|
nation
|
Civilian casualties
|
|---|---|
|
Albania
|
10，000
|
|
Austria
|
125，000
|
|
Belgium
|
76，000
|
|
Bulgaria
|
10，000
|
|
China
|
Over 17,000,000
|
|
Czechoslovakia
|
294，000
|
|
Denmark
|
2，000
|
|
Ethiopia
|
5，000
|
|
Finland
|
2，000
|
|
France
|
350，000
|
|
People of the Third Reich who were expelled from the Third Reich after World War II
|
2，000，000
|
|
Greece
|
325，000
|
|
Hungary
|
290，000
|
|
India
|
25，000
|
|
Romania
|
200，000
|
|
Poland
|
5，680，000
|
|
The Philippines
|
91，000
|
|
Norse
|
7，000
|
|
Netherlands
|
200，000
|
|
Yugoslavia
|
1，200，000
|
|
America
|
6，000
|
|
Britain
|
92，700
|
|
The Soviet Union
|
Over 17,400,000
|
|
Japan
|
672，000
|
|
[6-10]
|
|
According to incomplete statistics, the death toll in the war is as high as 55 million, and the military accounts for 32 million; Some 35 million were injured; 45 million people were arrested or deported.
[11]
The Second World War was a just war against fascism
The Third German Reich
,
Kingdom of Italy
,
Japanese fascists
Provoked, it has caused great disaster to the whole human race. As an inescapable responsibility for the war, whether Germany and Japan can deeply reflect on the war is an important condition for whether they can be forgiven by the people of the world who are suffering from the war and thus become a political power. While European countries are determined to turn the page on the dark history of 60 years ago, Asian countries are still deeply troubled by historical issues.
After the Second World War, Germany and Japan took completely different attitudes towards history: Germany established a systematic mechanism to reflect on the war and thoroughly reflected on the war; Since the end of the Second World War, Japan has made every effort to deny the aggressive nature of its foreign wars and distort the historical facts of the terrible disasters caused to the invaded countries and their people. Especially in recent years, there has been a heated discussion about glorifying Japan's foreign war and overturning its foreign war aggression. The Japanese Prime Minister, cabinet officials, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as a large number of civil organizations, civil groups and even individuals, have launched this campaign to glorify the war of aggression. This move of Japan has aroused the vigilance and strong opposition of the society, especially the Asian countries which suffered greatly from the Japanese aggression.
[19]
[67]
-
Germany
In Germany, successive post-war German leaders have made no secret of the history of aggression and declared to the world that they bear historical responsibility on behalf of the government and people.
Christian Democratic Union
President and first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
Adenauer
Also attaches great importance to historical reflection.
[141]
He deplored Hitler and the Nazis for destroying Germany, saying they were "the ones who brought the name of Germany into disgrace and disrepute before the whole civilized world".
[193]
Adenauer also stressed the responsibility of the German peasants, the middle class, the workers, and the intellectuals for national socialism's seizing of power in Germany, arguing that the German people of all classes had made an idol of the state, sacrificed it on the altar, and made the individual, the dignity and the role of the individual a victim of this idol. Their political consciousness and sense of responsibility are weak, and they do not see clearly the harm of national socialism's abuse of state power. Adenauer also opposed the materialist worldview, arguing that it further exaggerated the role of power, emphasized the importance of the state that centralizes and embodies power, and devalued the meaning of morality and the dignity of the individual. National socialism is precisely the result of a materialist worldview that worshipping power, disrespecting individual values, and even despising individual values.
[193]
Adenauer called for drawing lessons from history, improving the democratic ideology and democratic consciousness of the German people, so that democracy is regarded as a world view and attaches great importance to the dignity, role and inalienable rights of the individual.
[193]
In 1969 the Bundestag held a general election to
Willy Brandt
Led by the Social Democrats in coalition with the Free Democrats. Brandt, a former anti-fascist fighter with a deep hatred of the Nazi regime, denounced Hitler as a "traitor" and argued that national socialism was "not only a betrayal of this country, it is also a betrayal of Europe".
[194]
Brandt criticized Adenauer's "lax treatment of fellow Nazis and accomplices," which allowed the latter to "live at ease in the bureaucracy and easily retain or acquire new positions in the economy."
[195]
In his view, all Germans, including those in concentration camps and anti-Nazis, "must bear responsibility" for Nazi policies and "cannot escape their part in tolerating Hitler's rise to power" and "cannot escape the consequences of the Nazi policy of genocide."
[194]
Brandt argued against "absolving Germans of guilt for something they had participated in", but also pointed out that responsibility did not equate to crime, that Germans as a whole should not be blamed for Nazi-led crimes, that the idea that all Germans were Nazis was unfounded, and that it made no sense to blame the masses. If all Germans had belonged to the Nazi party, then surely Hitler would not have had to use terror, the Gestapo and the concentration camps to rule.
[194]
"The responsibility cannot be confined to Germany and the German people alone." The Western powers would have acted more wisely if they had not allowed the Spanish Republic to be manipulated by the Soviets, if they had not allowed Spanish democracy to be wounded and killed. A different outcome of the Spanish Civil War would certainly have weakened Hitler and Mussolini and perhaps prevented the outbreak of the Second World War. Other countries are also partly responsible for the fact that Hitler came to power in Germany and was able to build his state apparatus. The wavering policies of Western countries are one of the decisive factors in the fact that there is no active political opposition in Germany. The complacent policies adopted by the West repeatedly weakened the domestic opposition against the Nazi regime.
[194]
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
Richard Weizsacker
"Young people should be helped to understand why remembering the past is extremely important. We need to help them face the truth of history." On May 8, 1985, at a special ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II, Weizsacker also said: "Guilty or not, young or old, we must accept the past and take responsibility for it." Germans must look at the facts - without sugarcoating them or twisting them. There can be no reconciliation without memory." In his speech, the head of state, Weizsacker, for the first time confronted Germany's dark past and defined the end of World War II for the first time as a "day of liberation" from inhumane dictatorship, rather than "surrender, expulsion and loss of freedom." "When a nation burdened with historical guilt does not have the courage to face up to history and complete self-denial, it cannot complete self-redemption." Weizsacker said in his speech. His confession to his crimes was considered "almost unique in the world."
[66]
Chancellor of Germany
Schroeder
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Allied landings, he said: "The German people, having failed to prevent that ugly war, feel that they cannot shirk their historical responsibility." We know who started the war, and we recognize our historical responsibility, and we take that historical responsibility seriously."
[65]
Schroeder reminded Germans that the fall of the Nazi regime should be seen as liberation from dictatorship, even though in 1945 Germans were "understandably shaken by the collapse of the state and worried about their future." "For them, this is the end of the nightmare, the end of the catastrophe." Schroeder wrote that when neo-Nazis today try to "mitigate Nazi crimes by measuring the magnitude of atrocities and misfortunes, we must stand up to them." Mr Schroder said Germany had done much to face up to its "deepest humiliation" and was now "a respected member of the international community". "Remembering the Nazi period, remembering war, genocide and all kinds of crimes has become part of our national identity." This is a permanent moral imperative." In an article published in the Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda on May 7, 2005, Schroder wrote: "We apologize for the harm we have caused to the Russian and other peoples through the hands and in the name of the German people and ask for forgiveness."
[84]
President of Germany
Horst Koehler
In a speech on May 9, 2005, he warned the German people to remember the Nazi tyranny and suffering and never let the Nazi crimes be repeated. In his speech, Koehler stressed that Germany has a duty to always soberly preserve the memory of Nazi crimes and their causes and never allow them to happen again. Germany's rethinking of its past has no end and cannot be written off at any point.
[89]
"We Germans remember with fear and shame the Second World War and the Holocaust, which were started by Germany. We Germans are responsible for this, "Koehler said in a speech at a special session of the Bundestag." We remember the six million Jews who were brutally murdered." Sixty years later, he said, Germany not only looked like a different country from the outside, but "profoundly changed from the inside." For the first time in its history, Germany was completely surrounded by friends and partners, and a stable democracy was established within Germany. He stressed that this was "completely unthinkable" without learning from past history. Koehler also said that there are still a few people in Germany who do not want to learn the lessons of history and are trying to revive racism and the extreme right. But the German people will not give them a chance.
[88]
President of Germany
Steinmeier
When he was foreign minister, he said: "Our country has brought so much war and suffering to the world in the 20th century, and this should be remembered again and again by the international community." "Germans have a special responsibility for international peace and reconciliation." In a speech on May 8, 2020 to mark the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day in World War II, he said that remembering history has no end and it is shameful to deny it. He said Germany, liberated from Nazi-fascist rule by Allied forces on May 8, 1945, needed to be emancipated from the "hatred, incitement, xenophobia and contempt for democracy" that were taking on a new form today.
[112]
The official website of the German Chancellery pointed out that the war lasted nearly six years and claimed the lives of more than 60 million people, including about six million Jews. "It is Germany's task to keep the memory of the war and its disastrous consequences from falling asleep forever." "Never forget the millions of lives lost and the immeasurable suffering caused by the war launched by the Nazi regime." "The article read.
[127]
"It is the task of every German to educate future generations that reconciliation and dialogue are the sure path to world peace." Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller said: "Racism, xenophobia, intolerance and violence have no place in a peaceful society."
[129]
"Xenophobia, racism and nationalism will never lead to good results, and such a path will only lead to deprivation of freedom and suffering." "This is perhaps the most important lesson of World War II," said Dietmar Wojdek, the governor of Brandenburg.
[129]
Among the people, due to the relatively thorough transformation of the Allied forces in Germany, Germans clearly saw the criminal acts of fascism. From the perspective of the country, they believed that the war was wrong, and they also had to bear the responsibility of history. They self-defined themselves as "perpetrators" and constantly used their meager strength to make up for their mistakes. The period of fascist rule is regarded as the dark age of self, but the occupation of the Allies is regarded as a "liberation", and in this way to educate their descendants, this is the German history education - "do not follow the wrong path of the Nazis, do not hate the occupation of the Allies, and do not be an isolated country in Europe."
[64]
-
Japan
But in the 60 years since the defeat of Fascism, the Japanese have adhered to the tenacious attitude of "admitting defeat and not admitting fault" from top to bottom,
Education Ministry
Constantly resorting to the power of textbook revision
falsify
Textbooks, which talk about or even ignore the modern history of World War II, evade the crimes committed, and only promote the mighty "emperor" to keep its people in a comfortable virtual environment. People only see the militaristic society led by the government, the Japanese people were bombed by atomic bombs in World War II, and they always play the role of "victims", constantly complaining that Asia is the world's unfair treatment of them.
[64]
[68]
On the political front, Japanese militarism is still a toxic legacy, a scourge that cannot be stopped, and some people's obsession with the "glory" of the former empire remains stubborn. He continues to violate prohibitions on the understanding of the history of the war.
Comfort woman
Such as numerous atrocities refused to acknowledge, the cabinet minister frequently "gaffe". Since August 15, 1985
Yasuhiro Nakasone
First official visit as Prime Minister during World War II
Yasukuni Jinjia
after
[72]
, and then include
Shinzo Abe
,
Suga Yoshihide
Successive prime ministers, including Yasukuni, have visited the shrine under various names.
[71]
Japan's right-wing politicians have denied the Tokyo Trial, repeatedly made absurd remarks, distorted the historical truth, painted paint for aggression and expansion, and jumped up and down to "whitewash" the case. On April 23, 2013, then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the definition of "aggression" has not been settled in academia or internationally, and in state-to-state relations, there are different conclusions on the issue from different perspectives. On May 8, Abe also said that there are various academic views on "aggression" and there is no absolute definition; On May 16, Abe dodged a question about whether Japan had ever invaded, stressing that the definition of "aggression" should not be politicized or turned into a diplomatic issue.
[152]
Indian judge in Tokyo trial
Radabinord Barr
A large personal opinion argued that the jurisdiction of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was improper, and then argued that all the defendants were innocent. Parr's personal opinion was regarded as the "classic" work of the Tokyo Trial by the Japanese right wing, forming the "Parr myth", which was used as a "weapon" by the Japanese right wing to deny the Tokyo Trial and the history of the war of aggression.
[153]
Mr. Abe "lavished praise" on Mr. Bar during a visit to India in 2007. At that time, Barr raised doubts in the "ex post facto trial" between the victorious countries and the defeated countries, claiming that all the defendants were innocent, "many Japanese people still" admire "Judge Barr's courage." At the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, in order to "commend" Radabinold Barr for his "merit" of Japanese war criminals, right-wing organizations also specially set up a "merit monument" for him.
[154]
August 15, 2020, Japan
Emperor Naruhito
At the national Memorial Ceremony for the war dead, he said, "Looking back on the past, on the basis of deep reflection, I deeply pray that the disaster of war will not be repeated."
Emperor Akihito
The phrase "deep remorse" was added to the speech at the "National Memorial Ceremony for war Dead" on the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in 2015, and has been used ever since.
[70]
Former Prime Minister of Japan since 1993
Morihiro Hosokawa
Since then, successive Japanese prime ministers have clearly expressed "deep remorse" and "condolence" at the "National Memorial Ceremony for the war dead" and explicitly mentioned the responsibility for the war damages of Asian countries. However, Abe has remained aloof for three consecutive years. In addition, Abe did not mention the pledge of "no more war," but said, "On the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, we will never repeat the tragedy of war, and here we make a pledge."
[116]
There are also leftists and peacemakers in Japan who reflect on Japan's responsibility in World War II.
[72]
Prime Minister of Japan, 15 August 1995
Tomiichi Murayama
The "Murayama Statement" was a formal statement made by the Japanese government on historical issues after the war. Murayama said that in the process of the introduction of the talk, he asked the writers to make clear the historical fact that Japan's colonial rule and aggression brought unbearable disasters and sufferings to the Asian people, expressed apologies, and resolved not to launch aggression and colonial rule again.
[73]
"
Talisman Murayama
He pointed out that in the past period of time, Japan has made mistakes in its national policy and embarked on the road of war, which has plunged its people into a crisis of survival, and colonial rule and aggression have brought enormous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, especially Asian countries. On the 50th anniversary of its world War II defeat, Japan should reflect deeply on its past, eliminate self-righteous nationalism, and promote international harmony and peace and democracy as a responsible member of the international community.
[72]
There are many people of conscience and vision in Japan who have always insisted on reflecting on the history of aggression. Prime Minister of Japan since 1996
Ryutaro Hashimoto
Successive cabinets have said they will inherit the Murayama Statement. The Murayama Dialogue on Succession and Development was jointly established in November 2013 by prominent figures from the academic, cultural and legal circles in Japan. The organization aims to insist on reflecting on Japan's aggression and colonial behavior during World War II, and promote Japan to continue to follow the path of peace and non-war, and has held various seminars and international exchange activities. At the same time, Asian countries, as well as the US and European countries, also firmly oppose such erroneous historical perceptions as "the war launched by Japan was not aggression," "the war launched by Japan was a just war," and "that war was a war of colonial liberation."
[72]
-
America
He was president of the United States on June 6, 1984
Regan
In his Speech on the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day landings, he pointed out that during the four years between the annexation of Western Europe by Nazi Germany in World War II and the D-Day landings, "a terrible shadow fell over much of Europe." Free countries were falling, Jews were crying in concentration camps, and countless Europeans longed for liberation. Europe is enslaved, and the world prays for its recovery."
[85]
in
Battle of Normandy
"The Allies stood up to tyranny and did something unprecedented in human history."
[85]
Reagan said it was "faith and conviction, loyalty and love" that kept soldiers here; It was they who forged the alliance's unity, "the same loyalties, traditions and beliefs that held the Allies together 40 years ago." Noting that "their courage gives us strength and their values inspire us," he called on people to "inherit the ideals for which they lived and died."
[85]
On June 6, 2014, then-President of the United States
Obama
In a speech marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day, he noted that the D-Day landings had made "a corner of Europe liberated and free once more." Hitler's iron wall collapsed, allowing Patton's army to advance into France. In one week, the bloodiest beach in the world became the busiest port in the world." In all its vast history, the world has never seen anything like the D-Day landings. "When World War II was won, we didn't ask for any spoils - we helped rebuild Europe. We have never asked for anything other than the land we have buried those who gave their lives under our flag, and the land we have placed on those who still serve it. And America's promise of equality, liberty, and fraternity is immortalized in the blood of those beaches, and will endure forever."
[87]
"Omaha is the beachhead of democracy. Our victory in World War II not only determined the course of a century, but also ensured the security of all generations to come. We've lined up old teammates in the new league. We have created new wealth, and we have stood with the people of Europe in a dark struggle to tear down the last of these walls. From Western to Eastern Europe, from South America to South Asia - seven decades of democracy spread. All nations that once lived in blind fear are beginning to taste the blessings of freedom."
[87]
On May 8, 2020, the President of the United States
Trump
In a speech marking the 75th anniversary of victory in Europe, he said: "The unconditional surrender of the remnants of the Nazi regime to the Allies marked the end of the Second World War in Europe. The movement to end fascism in the European theatre is a bleak reminder of the price of freedom. The United States suffered incredible losses in the war. Of the more than 2 million Americans who have deployed to Europe and the Mediterranean or patrolled the Atlantic, more than 186,000 have paid the ultimate sacrifice, and more than twice as many have been wounded. Most of these selfless and brave men and women have never known life in a prosperous America. But they answered the duty of our country because they believed in the principles upon which our country was founded. They came from the plains of the Midwest, from industrial and manufacturing towns, from the vast farmlands of rural America, and from our nation's boomtowns. Many had never traveled to their home countries, but they would trek thousands of miles to meet tyrannical enemies on the beaches of France, the forests of Belgium, the hills of Italy, and hundreds of other battlefields." He paid tribute to "the heroic service and sacrifice of brave men and women in the Second World War" and said "their generation will never be forgotten".
[82]
Trump is here
North Carolina
The city of Wilmington also said in a speech, "On September 2, 1945, the great United States General
Douglas MacArthur
The USS Missouri accepted the unconditional surrender of Japan. The day of victory over Japan marked the end of the deadliest conflict in human history and the ultimate triumph of American freedom." Mr Trump added: "This is a great day, a great victory for a great country." Here comes Trump
The city of Wilmington
In order to give the city the title of "America's first World War II Heritage city". Trump said, "The people of this city and this state have made extraordinary contributions to winning this war. Nearly 2 million U.S. soldiers have received combat training in North Carolina, more than any other state. More than 360,000 soldiers from this state fought in World War II." On behalf of the United States government, he formally recognized the city's special contribution to the victory in World War II.
[83]
-
Britain
British prime minister
Churchill
He believes that World War II was completely avoidable and that it was an "unnecessary war". One of the main reasons why World War II happened was the stupidity of the public and the weakness of the politicians in democratic countries. In...
Memoirs of World War II
Churchill believes that one of the greatest follies of the victors of World War I was in"
The Treaty of Versailles
It demanded that Germany pay huge war reparations, "with a degree of harshness and stupidity that is manifestly impossible to achieve." Churchill said, "This simplest economic fact remains unknown to the masses, and the leaders, who are eager to win votes, dare not make it clear to them." Newspapers, like leaders, reflect and emphasize popular opinion. No one in power is above or beyond the ignorance of the public to declare this basic, unforgiving truth to the electorate. Even if they did, I'm afraid no one would believe them." The final result was absurd: Germany did not actually enforce the one billion pound war reparations, but the United States and Britain issued a loan to Germany of one and a half billion yuan. Germany was rapidly heading for revival. But the great humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles fostered strong national hatred in Germany. The representative of this national hatred is the fanatical and evil ancestor of the modern violent youth, the Austrian Corporal Hitler. Hitler dragged the whole world into war.
[75]
May 8, 2020, the Queen of England
Queen Elizabeth II
In a televised address, he compared the British public's fight against COVID-19 to the efforts of British soldiers during World War II. "When I look at our country today and see our efforts to protect and support each other, I am proud to say that we are still the same country that was recognized and admired by the brave soldiers, sailors and airmen of that time."
[86]
Recalling her experiences at the end of the Second World War, the Queen praised the "strength and courage" of British and Allied forces. She said World War II was "a total war, it affected everyone, no one was immune." Whether it's soldiers being called to service, families being separated, or people being asked to take up new careers and learn new skills to support the war effort, everyone has a role to play. At first, the outlook seems bleak, the end is distant, and the final outcome hangs in the balance. But we believed we were fighting for what was right, and as my father said on the radio, that belief kept us going, 'Never give up, never despair.' That's the message of Victory Day."
[86]
"I vividly remember watching the jubilation on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with my sister, our parents and Winston Churchill," the Queen said.
-
China
On May 9, 1995, he was the president of China
Jiang Zemin
In Moscow, attending the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the victory of the anti-Fascist war, he said: The Soviet people have made indelible achievements in the fight against the fascist war. In the East, the Chinese people waged the eight-year-long Anti-Japanese War and were the main force of resistance against the Japanese fascists. The two countries and peoples of China and the Soviet Union made tremendous national sacrifices and historical contributions to the victory of the Second World War. The two peoples supported each other and fought side by side in the war, and there are many touching stories that can be sung and touched. The history of World War II shows that a country and a people, no matter how big or small, are invincible. This is especially true of great nations such as China and Russia.
[79]
China's persistent resistance, especially the resistance behind enemy lines led by the Communist Party of China, defeated and contained two-thirds of the total strength of the Japanese army, forced the Japanese army to abandon the plan to advance north, weakened the strength of the Japanese Army to advance south, and supported the operations of the American and British Allies in the Pacific Theater. In the life-and-death struggle against the Japanese fascists, the Chinese people wiped out a total of more than 1.5 million Japanese troops, accounting for about 70% of the casualties of the Japanese army in World War II, and played a decisive role in its total defeat. The Chinese nation has made enormous national sacrifices for the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and made historic contributions to the cause of human civilization and progress. China's War of resistance against Japanese aggression was supported by the people of the world. I would like to make special mention of the human and material support given by the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and other anti-fascist Allies to China's war of resistance. The Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War dealt a devastating blow to the German fascists and won the victory of the anti-fascist war in Europe together with the Allied forces. The American and British Allies counteroffensive in the Pacific Theater and the Soviet Red Army sent troops to the northeast; The struggle of the peoples of Southeast Asia against Japanese aggression; Voluntary aid to China by anti-fascist fighters from Korea, Vietnam, the United States, Canada, India, Japan and other countries is a huge support and valuable assistance to China's war of Resistance against Japanese aggression. On the monument of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War are carved the outstanding contributions of the Chinese people. On the red flag of the victory of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the blood of friends from all over the world is congealed.
[246]
The Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese aggression was the first war of national liberation in which China achieved complete victory against foreign invasion in modern times. The victory of the Chinese people's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War was a major event in human history in the 20th century and was of great and far-reaching significance to the development of the Chinese nation and the progress of world civilization.
[245]
On May 8, 2010, he was President of China
Hu Jintao
At an interview
Prime Ministers of Russia
Putin pointed out that China and Russia have made major historical contributions to the victory of the World anti-Fascist War. On the historical issue of the Second World War, China and Russia hold the same position. The two sides should strengthen communication and coordination and resolutely safeguard the authenticity and seriousness of history.
[80]
More than 60 countries, including the Soviet Union and China, and nearly 2 billion people were involved in the war. In that life-and-death battle between justice and evil, peace-loving countries and people all over the world united and fought bravely, defending the dignity of mankind with their blood and lives, and winning world peace. In that war, the Soviet army and people, with their iron-willed and fearless spirit, fought bloody battles and made huge national sacrifices, establishing an indelible historical contribution to the victory of the world anti-Fascist War. In that war, the Chinese people fought a long and arduous struggle and defeated the murderous Japanese militarist aggressors with indomitable spirit and united strength, making a major contribution to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War.
[81]
This great victory completely shattered the Japanese militarism's scheme to colonize and enslave China, and wiped away the national shame of China's repeated defeats in fighting against foreign aggression in modern times. This great victory has re-established China's status as a major country in the world and won the Chinese people the respect of peace-loving people around the world. This great victory opens up bright prospects for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and opens a new journey for the ancient China to rise from the ashes."
[244]
September 3, 2020, President of China
Xi Jinping
In a congratulatory message to Putin, he said: "75 years ago today, the victory of the Chinese people's War of Resistance against Japanese aggression and the Soviet Union's war against Japan declared the final victory of the world Anti-Fascist War. In that war, which spread across Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania, the military and civilian casualties of various countries exceeded 100 million, paying the heaviest price in human history. As the main battlefields in Asia and Europe respectively, China and Russia have endured enormous national sacrifices and made indelible historical contributions to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. The two peoples have fought side by side and forged an unbreakable great friendship with blood, laying a solid foundation for the high-level development of bilateral relations."
[76]
"
People's Daily
A front-page editorial on September 3 stated that the War of resistance against Japan was "an arduous war against aggression." Under the banner of the anti-Japanese national united front advocated by the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people "fought together against the enemy and went to the disaster together. With blood and blood, they built the Great Wall of steel to save the nation from danger and defend national dignity, and wrote a great chapter in the history of the Chinese nation to resist foreign aggression." The Chinese people "supported the main Eastern battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War with great national sacrifice. After 14 years of indomitable and heroic struggle, the Chinese people defeated the heinous Japanese militarist aggressors and won the first complete victory in China's struggle against foreign invasion in modern times."
[78]
Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
On November 10, 2020, it issued a statement on the 75th anniversary of the victory of World War II, calling it "a great tragedy that involved countless people and caused untold suffering." The war, fuelled by the ambitions of arbitrary actors, reveals the dangers of condoning national, racial and interreligious hatred, intolerance and discrimination." He attributed victory in World War II to "the ability of peace-loving peoples to unite and rise up in the face of the bloodshed, brutality and cruelty of Nazis, fascists and militarists and their supporters and supporters." It also called on the international community to "take history as a mirror, cherish the historical memory of the joint fight against Nazism, fascism and militarism, and resist attempts to distort the outcome of World War II from a moral and legal perspective and forget this painful lesson of mankind." Firmly condemns "any attempt to glorify
Nazism
,
fascism
and
militarism
And to help it resume." "The results of the victory of World War II, the Nuremberg trials and the Tokyo trials must never be tampered with, and radical, anti-human and extremist ideas must never be allowed to revive and once again lead the world to disaster," it said. Also support
United Nations General Assembly
The resolution on Combating the Glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and Other Acts that promote racist, racial Discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance is adopted every year.
-
Soviet Union and Russia
President of Russia
Medvedev
On May 8, 2010, he stated: "We will never forget that our country, the Soviet Union, made a decisive contribution to the outcome of the Second World War. It was our people who destroyed the Nazis and decided the fate of the world, and at the same time paid a great price."
[247]
President of Russia
Putin
The Soviet Union and China were the main battlefields in the fight against fascism and militarism and made huge national sacrifices for the complete victory over the aggressors.
[76]
He also did not deny the contribution of the Soviet Allies in defeating the German Fascists, but if we want to see the size of their contribution to the victory of the war as a whole, we should compare it in terms of their sacrifices, efforts and important roles in the war. Therefore, the Soviet Union should have contributed the most to the victory in World War II
. (According to Soviet history books: from June 22, 1941 to January 1944, the German Army had a total of 153-201 divisions on the Soviet-German front, accounting for about two-thirds of the total German force; During the same period, the Germans deployed only 2-19.5 divisions on other fronts. The Soviet army and civilians destroyed more than 73% of the German soldiers, 75% of the aircraft, 75% of the tanks and artillery, which accounted for three-quarters of the total number of men, aircraft, artillery and tanks lost by the German army in World War II.
Putin said the contribution to the war can also be compared with the number of people who have died for the war. In World War II, the British lost about 350,000 lives, while the Americans lost about 500,000. Despite the tragic cost of losing so many people, it does not compare to the 27 million people the Soviet Union lost to win the war. He has repeatedly spoken of the contribution of the leaders of the Soviet Party and State at that time, especially Stalin, to the victory of the Great Patriotic War. He once said: "The victory of the Great Patriotic War is to a large extent linked to the name of Stalin. It was under Stalin's leadership that the Soviet Union won the Great Patriotic War... We have won the Great Patriotic War, and no matter what anyone says, we have won in the end. No one can now blame those who organized and led the victorious war, even if we suffered great losses, because if we had lost the war, the consequences for our country would have been far more tragic."
In his speech at the military parade in Red Square on May 9, 2015, President Vladimir Putin said: "We should not forget that racial superiority and exclusivity are the main culprits of this bloody war. We should never forget the tens of millions of lives lost in the anti-fascist war, including countless martyrs, innocent victims, veterans of the Second World War and survivors of Nazi concentration camps. We should not forget the glorious history of people of all countries fighting side by side during World War II and the profound friendship forged in the anti-fascist war." "This great victory will forever remain a heroic monument in the history of our country," Putin added.
[126]
Putin also said in a television documentary that some countries are trying to solve domestic political problems by "falsifying history" and that "we cannot forgive those who try to falsify history." Russian ambassador to the United States
Antonov
Russia will not allow anyone to ignore the Soviet Union's role in defeating the Nazis. Fyodor Lukyanov, a well-known Russian expert on international relations and foreign policy and editor-in-chief of the bimonthly Russia in Global Politics, pointed out that since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been consciously denying the Soviet Union's role in historical events, including World War II. Some analysts also pointed out that the US is trying to push its geopolitical agenda in Europe by denying the Soviet Union's contribution to World War II.
[74]
-
Poland
On October 28, 2022 local time, the Polish Foreign Ministry published a statement on its official website, announcing the specific contents of a diplomatic note previously sent to Germany over World War II claims. Among them, the compensation proposed by the Polish side to the German side is 622.609 billion zlotys (about 9,532.506 billion yuan).
[266]
In World War II, the anti-fascist alliance, the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, France and China met through the Atlantic Ocean,
Cairo Conference
,
Tehran Conference
,
The Yalta Conference
and
The Potsdam Conference
,
Dumbarton Oaks Conference
A series of international conferences have reached a series of agreements and understandings on maintaining post-war world peace and promoting world economic development, and established an international system for maintaining post-war world order.
[12]
The Second World War also completely broke the old international order structure dominated by Europe and represented by the League of Nations, and replaced it with a new international order structure dominated by five major powers, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, China and France, with extensive participation of all countries in the world.
[250]
On the basis of
The Yalta Conference
On October 24, 1945, the United Nations was established, and China, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France became the Security Council
Permanent member
.
[13]
The founding fathers of the United Nations took the maintenance of world peace, respect for fundamental human rights and the principle of self-determination, the strengthening of international friendship and cooperation, and the promotion of global economic, social, cultural and welfare development as their fundamental purposes and wrote them into the UN.
United Nations charter
". For the first time, the Charter of the United Nations closely links the maintenance of peace with the settlement of economic and social development issues, which is the profound strategic thinking of the founders of the United Nations.
[250]
Since 1948, the Security Council has authorized more than 60 peacekeeping operations. The United Nations has organized hundreds of international treaties, from the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons to the peaceful use of outer space.
[14, 15]
It was built in the early postwar period
The International Monetary Fund
,
World Bank
International economic organizations, such as tariff and trade organizations, have become the dominant international economic organizations in the post-war international system.
[12]
[15]
The Second World War had a profound impact on the development of modern international law. In accordance with the London Agreement "on the Prosecution and Punishment of the Principal War criminals of the Axis Countries of Europe" and the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for Europe, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg began to conduct international trials of the principal war criminals of Fascist Germany in 1945. According to the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, composed of representatives from 11 countries including China, the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom, began to try Japanese fascist war criminals in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946. "
Charter of the International Military Tribunal for Europe
"And"
Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
And its judicial practice had a significant impact on the development of the law of war. The progress of the international judicial system after the Second World War is mainly reflected in
International Court of Justice
The establishment and operation of. The International Court of Justice is the main judicial organ of the United Nations, which succeeded the Permanent International Court of Justice in the era of the League of Nations after the Second World War. It was established in 1946 in The Hague. In the contemporary international community, it is a permanent court that can make legally authoritative determinations, whether in litigation cases or advisory cases.
[16]
International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
This post-war international order, which was mainly established by the victors, is still marked by great power politics, but it has great historical progress. First of all, it for the first time formally incorporated the principle of peaceful coexistence between the Soviet Union and countries with different social systems, the United States and Britain, into international relations and became an integral part of the post-war international order, which generally restricted the way the United States and the Soviet Union behaved when any dispute arose, that is, the two sides could not use war means, but should use peaceful means to negotiate and negotiate. Therefore, in the case of the tense confrontation between the East and the West and the constant local wars after World War II, there was never a direct military conflict between the two main actors in the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union, which formed the most basic feature of the Cold War: it was both war and peace, thus maintaining the overall peace of the world and conducive to the development of the socialist cause. Secondly, the principles of peace, democracy and independence that it advocated played a great role in the development of the post-war world, and in a certain sense, it determined the main trend of peace and development in the post-war world.
[249]
Inspired by the victory of the Second World War, the struggle for national liberation in Asia, Africa and Latin America came to a climax. First, in the eastern part of Asia, the victories of the revolutions in China, Vietnam and Korea gave impetus to the development of the national liberation movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the mid-1950s, the national liberation movement spread to the Middle East and North Africa. From the mid-1950s to the 1960s, the centre of the national liberation movement was in Africa, and by the early 1980s almost all African countries had achieved independence, with the exception of the racist regime in South Africa. Post-war national movements in Latin America were also developing in depth, including the 1959 uprising
Cuban revolution
Victory, impact is especially important. Since the 1960s, there have been 104 ethnically independent states in Asia, Africa and Latin America, 69 of which are newly independent. The victory of these struggles destroyed the imperialist colonial system, put an end to hundreds of years of colonial rule, profoundly changed the face of the world, and ushered in a new period of world history. The widespread emergence of national independent states laid the foundation for developing countries to enter the world stage.
[17]
The African National Independence Movement after the war
The African National Independence Movement after the war
A major change in post-war world politics is the rise and development of the national independence movement, and the rise of the third world is the concentrated expression of the rise and development of the national independence movement. The year 1955
Asian-african conference
It was held in 1961
Non-aligned movement
The birth of the United States and the subsequent formation of the Group of 77 are the three symbols of the rise of the Third World. Among them, the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the struggle of the people of the three Indochina countries against the United States to save their country in the 1960s, the struggle of Latin American countries to win 200 nautical miles of maritime rights in the 1970s, and the struggle of developing countries at the United Nations to establish a new international economic order shook the world at that time, greatly impacted the bipolar pattern, and promoted the development of the trend of multipolarization.
[18]
World War II dramatically changed the balance of power around the world, and Western Europe was in general decline, both for the victorious and the defeated. The Second World War completely destroyed the centuries-old Eurocentric international political structure. It led to the gradual transition of world history from an era dominated by European powers to an era of bipolar pattern.
[29]
After the war, based on the Yalta system, the world political pattern from the confrontation between the two camps to the bipolar confrontation was formed with the United States and the Soviet Union as the head. This situation lasted until the early 1990s.
[31]
Warsaw Pact NATO confrontation situation map
Warsaw Pact NATO confrontation situation map
1947 U.S. President Harry Truman announced $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey and the dispatch of U.S. military personnel. It marked the beginning of the "Cold War" policy implemented by the United States and other western countries after the war and the Cold War between the East and the West, especially between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1949, the Western countries led by the United States were established
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
. 1955 The Soviet Union and the socialist states of Eastern Europe are established
Warsaw Pact
. Since then, direct confrontation between the Warsaw Pact and NATO, two major military alliances, has been formed in Europe and on a global scale
Socialist camp
and
Capitalist camp
A situation of total confrontation. The world political pattern of bipolar confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union was finally established. With the formation of two military blocs and two camps in the East and the West, the post-war world political pattern characterized by bipolar confrontation was established. The United States and the Soviet Union engaged in sharp and fierce confrontation and struggle in various fields such as politics, economy, military and ideology.
[30]
After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union took the special position of "world gendarmerie" and "world revolutionary center" respectively, which made a large number of countries in an unequal dependent position. Later, the situation of the controlled "Allies" and "brother countries" changed greatly. But it is not entirely free from the situation of oppression.
[18]
The Second World War objectively promoted the rapid development of science and technology. During the war, in order to meet the needs of the war, countries invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources and developed corresponding science and technology to manufacture new weapons. After the Second World War, these science and technology used to manufacture combat weapons served the cause of peace and promoted the progress of human history and civilization.
[19]
New technology in World War II
The Second World War, as a typical war form unique to the mechanized era, its military success and failure and the course of the war, to a large extent depend on
Internal combustion engine
The degree of integration of science and technology group with operational theory and tactics as the core of technology. Before the Second World War, the quiet development of two new technologies determined the advent of mechanized warfare. One is aircraft, tanks, large ship manufacturing technology, the other is electronic communication technology. The extensive and intensive use of tanks and aircraft enabled the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union to adopt new operational theories and tactics, and the United States and Britain began to form the campaign theory and tactics of air fire support to the ground and intensive use of mobile weapons, while the Soviet Army resumed the great depth operation theory.
[22]
At the same time that the war began to transform in favor of the anti-fascist alliance, the development of three new technologies promoted and guaranteed the victory of the anti-fascist war to a certain extent. The development of electronic technology cluster. The improvement and application of radar, sonar and other electronic communication equipment, the emergence of missile technology groups, the development of rocket propulsion technology, and the birth of nuclear technology.
[20-21]
The traditional view is that World War II began when Germany attacked Poland. However, the research and discussion on the starting point began very early in our country, and there are many different views, in addition to the "1939 theory", the main proposition is "1931 theory", which considers the "September 18 Incident" as the starting point; The "1937 theory" takes the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan as the starting point; There are also scholars who advocate the "process theory," who advocate the Pacific War as a starting point, and who advocate different starting points for East and West. Among these views, the "1937 theory" and "1939 theory" account for the majority, and so far, there is still no complete certainty.
[279]
Starting from 1934, in order to prepare for the war against the Soviet Union, the Japanese Kwantung Army commandeered a large number of Chinese laborers and spent a huge amount of money to build a huge military fortress group on the Sino-Soviet border, known as the "Maginot Line in the East". By 1944, 14 fortress-Hutou, Dongning, Lumingtai, Suifenhe, Guanyuetai, Banjiehe, Miaoling, Fengxiang, Aihui, Heihe, Hailar, Farabi, Holmojin, Hunchun and other forts had been established successively, and were guarded by 14 border garrison units. Most of these fortress-were distributed in Heilongjiang Province or historically under the jurisdiction of Heilongjiang Province. Since 1990, the local governments of Hulin, Dongning, Suifenhe, Heihe and Sunwu have listed the site of the fortress of the Kwantung Army as a cultural relic protection unit, and have successively developed, collated, utilized and opened it. Among them, the ruins of the fortress of the Kwantung Army in Hulin and Dongning respectively have two steles with the inscriptions of "the end of the Second World War" and "the last battlefield of the Second World War". Some scholars have also made a decision on this
[253]
This recognition has almost become the consensus of all walks of life, including the media.
[252]
Wang Xiliang
In the "Investigation and reflection on the problem of the" end place "of the Second World War", he pointed out: Heilongjiang Province
Hulin
,
Dongning
The inscriptions of the monuments in both places contradict each other and do not accord with historical facts. After the Japanese surrender, the battle against the Japanese in the Northeast Field continued until early 1946; Fighting against Japanese forces in other parts of the Chinese Theater continued until late September 1945; Fighting against Japanese forces in the Asian theater outside of China continued until early September 1945. Although the time of the end of the war in the two major battlefields of World War II is different, the Hulin and Dongning, which ended the war against Japan in late August 1945, cannot be regarded as the "end" and "final battlefield" of World War II.
[252]
As for the end time of the Second World War, because of the different conditions of the two major battlefields, there has been a difference in the expression.
[252]
1. European Battlefields:
In April 1945, the Soviet Red Army launched a full-scale offensive against the German Fascists. On 2 May, the Red Army occupied Berlin. On May 8, German Field Marshal Keitel, on behalf of the German government, surrendered unconditionally to the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France, and signed the instrument of surrender, which brought the curtain down on the European battlefield of World War II. Therefore, the Western Allies such as the Soviet Union, Britain and France designated May 8 as the anti-fascist victory Day.
[252]
2. Asia Pacific Theater:
On the morning of August 14, 1945, the Japanese Imperial Council decided to accept the agreement.
The Potsdam Proclamation
". At 23:00 on the same day, the Japanese government, through its minister in Switzerland, sent urgent telegrams to the United States, the Soviet Union, China and the United Kingdom, saying, "His Majesty the Emperor has issued an imperial bull on the acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Proclamation" and "His Majesty is prepared to order all troops under the command of all Japanese army and naval officers to cease fighting and surrender their weapons." Be prepared to issue such orders as may be required by the Supreme Commander of the Allies for the implementation of the above-mentioned articles."
[257]
On August 15, Emperor Showa's"
Bull of armistice
It was broadcast throughout Japan. On August 16, MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, informed the Japanese government to order the Japanese headquarters to quickly send emissaries with authority to Manila to negotiate surrender. On August 19, the Japanese staff officer Jijishiro Nagasaki led a group of people to Manila. On August 20, Riverside, on behalf of the Japanese government and the military, accepted MacArthur's Order No. 1, which included accepting the stationing of American troops in Japan and signing the surrender document. On August 28, the first U.S. troops landed at Atsugi Airfield. On August 30, MacArthur arrived at Atsugi Airfield and began the occupation of Japan. On September 2, aboard the USS Missouri, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay, representatives of nine countries, the United States, China, Britain, the Soviet Union, France, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Australia, accepted the Japanese surrender. Therefore, the National government set September 3 as
Victory Day of the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
. North and South Korea mark August 15 as Independence Day. In 1963, the Ikeda Cabinet designated August 15 as the Day of Remembrance for the War Dead. In 1982, the Suzuki Cabinet renamed it the Day of Prayer for Peace for Those Who died in the War.
[252]
3. Battlefields in Northeast China:
On the night of August 14, 1945, the Kwantung Army headquarters received a telegram from the Japanese base camp, which said "tomorrow.
(15th)
There is an important broadcast in the morning, so listen carefully." On the night of August 15, after learning of the Emperor's "Armistice edict", the headquarters of the Kwantung Army held a secret meeting to decide whether to advance or retreat. Second, a conditional truce; The third is an immediate truce, and various opinions are debated. Finally, the Chief of the General Staff of the Kwantung Army, Qin Yanzaburo, said, "Our soldiers have no other choice but to obey your Majesty's orders, and if they do not obey, they will be permanent criminals." Kwantung Army commander Yamada Yizan also said, "wear the imperial decree."
[254]
On the night of August 16, the Kwantung Army headquarters issued an armistice order to its subordinate units.
[255]
On August 17, Prince Takeda Miyazetsu of the Japanese imperial family
(Former Kwantung Army staff officer, commander)
Flew to northeast China to deliver the emperor's armistice decree. On the afternoon of the same day, the Chief of the General staff of the Kwantung Army Qin Yanzaburo flew from Changchun to Harbin and contacted the Soviet Army through Yuo Miyagawa, the Consul General of Japan in Kazakhstan. On the same day, the General Command of the Soviet Far East Army demanded that the Kwantung Army must stop all military operations before 12 o 'clock on August 20, lay down their arms and surrender.
[256]
On 19 August, Zaburo Qin and his staff and Consul General Yuo Miyagawa arrived by Soviet aircraft at the headquarters of the First Front Army of the Soviet Far East Army in Galikvo, west of Lake Khinkai, with the Commander in chief of the Soviet Far East Army
Wasilevsky
Meeting to discuss the timing of Japanese disarmament, surrender procedures and other matters. On August 20, the Soviet Red Army entered Changchun, and on August 21, ordered the headquarters of the Kwantung Army and all troops near Changchun to assemble and disarm at Gongzhuling. On August 22, the headquarters of the Kwantung Army in Changchun was occupied by the Soviet Army, and the Japanese military and political personnel moved to the naval attache's residence and other places. Immediately, the Soviet Red Army quickly occupied the entire northeast and north Korea, disarming the Japanese forces in various places. To sum up, after Japan announced its surrender, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and other countries declared that the war had not ended. In theory, the Second World War is over
(August 15, 1945)
But the sporadic fighting that followed should also be included in the study of World War II history.
[252]
-
Japan
"National Memorial Ceremony for War Dead"
On August 15, 2013, the 68th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender, the "National Memorial Ceremony for war Dead" hosted by the Japanese government was held at the Nippon Budokan in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended and delivered a speech. In addition to the 4,700 family members of the war dead, the Japanese emperor, the empress, and the speakers of both houses of Parliament also attended the memorial ceremony.
[214]
On August 15, 2014, to commemorate the 69th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender, the Japanese government held a "national memorial ceremony for war dead" at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. Prime Minister of Japan
Shinzo Abe
Attend and bow in silence.
[213]
At noon on August 15, 2015, the "National War Dead Memorial Ceremony" organized by the Japanese government was held at the Budokan Hall in Japan to mourn the approximately 3.1 million people who died in World War II. It is reported that about 5,500 people from all over Japan attended the memorial ceremony.
[116]
On August 15, 2019, the 74th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender, the Japanese government held a "National Memorial Ceremony for War Dead" at the Japan Budokan in Chiyoda, Tokyo, where the bereaved families and other members of the bereaved families paid tribute to the approximately 3.1 million people who died in World War II and renewed their vow of no war. This is the first memorial service since the Reyeongwa era. About 2.3 million people, including military and civilian personnel, died in the war, and about 800,000 civilians, including those who died in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
[215]
On August 15, 2020, on the 75th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender, a "National Memorial Ceremony for the Fallen" hosted by the Japanese government was held at the Nippon Budokan in Chiyoda, Tokyo.
Emperor Naruhito
,
Masako
About 500 people, including the Empress, government officials and bereaved families, attended the event to mourn the estimated 3.1 million Japanese who died in World War II. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went to Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward before attending the ceremony
Chiguobuchi Cemetery
Lay flowers and mourn.
[77]
-
Germany
Holocaust Monuments
Merkel and Putin at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on May 10, 2015
The German President Joachim Gauck laid a wreath to those who died during Hitler's rule
On September 10, 2014, the German Parliament held a special ceremony to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski.
[207]
On 8 May 2015, the Reichstag held a memorial to mark "Liberation Day". The President of the German parliament, Lamet, paid tribute to the dead soldiers of the Western Allies and the Red Army, and the historian Heinrich August Winkler gave a speech. President of Germany
Joachim Gauck
On the same day, he visited the war memorial site in Lubs, a city on the border between Brandenburg and Poland, and laid a wreath at the cemetery of the Red Army soldiers who died that year.
[211]
On May 10, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow to commemorate the victims of World War II.
[212]
On May 8, 2016, ceremonies were held in many places in Germany to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. On the same day, politicians from German states and German servicemen laid flower baskets at the Polish Soldiers' Memorial in Berlin's Friedrichshain People's Park. The monument is dedicated to the memory of the Polish underground regime and resistance soldiers who died fighting fascism during World War II.
[129]
On the same day, the German-Russian Museum in Berlin and the monument to the liberation of Berlin by the Soviet Red Army were also held to commemorate the ceremony.
Red Army
Passers-by lay wreaths and bouquets of flowers in front of the Liberation of Berlin Monument in memory of the Soviet soldiers who died in the liberation of Berlin. Brandenburg held an opening ceremony in the state Assembly Hall, inviting survivors of concentration camps to recount their experiences in person, so that the public can face the dark horrors of the fascist past. The keynote speaker, Leon Schwarzbaum, 95, is one of the survivors of Auschwitz, where 35 members of his family, including his parents, were murdered. Brandenburg's parliament made May 8 a state holiday last year.
[206]
At noon on May 8, 2020, the President of Germany
Steinmeier
, Prime Minister
Merkel
The presidents of the lower and upper houses of the Bundestag and the president of the Federal Constitutional Court laid wreaths at the New guard post in Berlin, which commemorates the victims of war and tyranny. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was the only one to deliver a speech in front of the square with no spectators, compared to the grand event that was scheduled to be held in front of the Reichstag building with 1,000 spectators and 500 young people from all over the world.
[127]
On May 8, 1945, the British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill
It was announced to Britain that Nazi Germany had "signed the Act of unconditional surrender." Since then, the United States, Britain, France and other countries have designated May 8 as"
Victory in Europe Day
".
-
Soviet Union and Russia
Russian Victory Day, or "Victory Day", yes
Former Soviet Union
A commemorative holiday set up to commemorate the victory over German Fascism. May 9 is the date of victory in the Great Patriotic War of the former Soviet Union and the day when the German instrument of surrender took effect. After Russia became independent, it was retained and renamed Victory Day.
[124]
Putin was in Moscow to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at the military parade
On June 24, 2020, Russia held a military parade in Moscow's Red Square to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Great Patriotic War, with more than 14,000 soldiers, 234 pieces of equipment and 75 aircraft taking part in the parade.
Honor guard of the Army, Navy and Air Force of the People's Liberation Army
A total of 105 military personnel also took part in the Red Square parade.
[122]
On May 9, 2021, the Russian capital Moscow held a Red Square military parade to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the victory of the Great Patriotic War. On the same day, 12,000 Russian soldiers, 191 ground weapons and equipment and 76 aircraft in the air formation appeared in Red Square.
[121]
On May 8, 2022 local time,
The Kremlin
On the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the victory of the Great Patriotic War, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Belarus, Armenia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and other countries, and congratulated the people of these countries as well as the people of Georgia and Ukraine.
[262]
-
America
The United States commemorates World War II in various forms, the most important commemorative activities are concentrated in the World War II Memorial Park in Washington, D.C., and the battleship Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
[119]
World War II Memorial in Washington
Every memorial Day, the president of the United States and government officials will come here or Arlington National Cemetery, lay wreaths and deliver commemorative speeches. Active military personnel and veterans from all over the United States also hold various commemorative activities here.
[119]
Arizona Battleship Memorial
On December 7, 2011, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an event was held on the waterfront lawn of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Visitor Center.
[120]
About 3,000 World War II veterans attended the event. At 7:55 a.m., veterans observed a moment of silence at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and senior Navy officials and World War II veterans attending the commemoration spoke to pay tribute to those who died in the service of their country and threw flowers and wreaths into the sea.
[119]
U.S. President Barack Obama declared December 7 as Pearl Harbor Memorial Day in the United States.
[120]
On December 7, 2019, hundreds of Chinese and American friends held the "Pearl Harbor Incident and World War II Flying Tigers Memorial" at Livermore Municipal Airport in California. Mayor Haubert of Dublin, California, wears "Dublin City pins" for two veterans of the "Flying Tigers" in China - Harry Moyer and Melvin McMullin.
[118]
President Obama has attended a ceremony in Normandy marking the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy
Commemorating World War II with the World Anti-Fascist Camp is another important form of official U.S. commemoration of World War II. 6, 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama traveled to France to attend ceremonies in Normandy commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy. Seventy years ago, the US-led invasion of Normandy marked a major turning point in World War II. To mark the day, the French president invited more than 20 heads of state or government to attend the ceremony. Speaking at a US military cemetery, Mr Obama thanked the French people for taking care of the 9,378 American soldiers who have died, and said the Normandy landings had shown Europe the bravery of paratroopers. There was long applause when Obama mentioned World War II veterans in his speech.
[119]
-
Britain
Women's World War II Memorial
On July 9, 2005, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II unveiled the Women's Memorial to World War II in London. The work is dedicated to the British women who "managed to cope with so much adversity".
[221]
Some World War II veterans take part in a parade in London May 8, 2015 [220]
Queen Elizabeth II gave a televised speech to mark victory in World War II
-
Poland
On September 1, 2015, Poland held a ceremony in the Westerplatt Peninsula to mark the 76th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.
[114]
On September 1, 2019, Poland marked the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. The largest commemoration was held in Pilsudski Square in the center of the Polish capital Warsaw. Presidents of Poland
Andrzej Duda
The Polish army guard of honor was reviewed, and the representatives of various countries attending the event rang a commemorative bell inscribed with the words "Memory and warning" in turn. Then the Polish army honor guard soldiers laid wreaths on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and saluted guns. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe were among those attending the event in Warsaw.
[113]
-
France
On May 3, 2005, the French government held a memorial ceremony at the cemetery of the Priest Lachaise in Paris for 35,000 Soviet soldiers who fought against German forces in France during World War II. Many World War II veterans from Russia and France took part in the commemoration. Representatives of the Russian and French governments also jointly unveiled a bronze statue of a soldier to pay tribute to Soviet soldiers who fought against German forces in France.
[236]
May 8, 2005 French military parade marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II
French President Jacques Chirac salutes the statue of Charles de Gaulle on May 8, 2005
On August 15, 2014, French President Francois Hollande presided over a ceremony on the aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle" anchored near the military port of Toulon, southern France, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in Provence. The ceremony was attended by the heads of state or government of 12 African countries, including Tunisian President Marzouki, Cameroon President Biya, Burkina Faso President Compaore and Algerian Prime Minister Salal, as well as leaders or representatives of 28 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. More than 100 veterans who took part in the Provence landing attended the ceremony as special guests. An air and naval review followed.
[237]
A picture depicting World War II is projected on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris August 25, 2014
Macron commemorates the 75th anniversary of victory in World War II at the Arc de Triomphe on May 8, 2020 [233]
On May 8, 2022 local time, France held activities to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the victory of World War II. As the coronavirus situation in France eases, the official commemoration of the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II in Paris has expanded compared to the previous two years. The viewing platform was re-set in front of the Arc de Triomphe; Traditional procedures, such as the president's inspection of troops, will also be resumed during the commemoration on August 8. A large French flag hung above the arch of the Arc de Triomphe, and European Union flags were placed around the arch. French President Macron, French National Assembly President Ferrand, Senate President Larche, former President Hollande, Prime Minister Castey, Foreign Minister Le Drian, Defense Minister Parly, Paris Mayor Hidalgo and other dignitaries, military and political officials, diplomats and other hundreds of people attended the commemoration at the Arc de Triomphe.
[261]
-
China
unit
Memorial Hall of the Victorious Surrender of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders
Memorial Hall of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
Anniversaries and celebrations
Ceremony to commemorate the 84th anniversary of the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War
On the morning of July 7, 2021, the ceremony to commemorate the 84th anniversary of the outbreak of the National War of Resistance was held
Memorial Hall of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
Hold, encourage people to remember history, cherish peace, do not forget the national humiliation, and realize the dream of China. More than 400 representatives from all walks of life, including Beijing municipal leaders, veteran soldiers who participated in the Anti-Japanese War in Beijing, relatives of Anti-Japanese War generals and martyrs, soldiers and soldiers, students in the capital, cadres and the masses, participated.
[223]
Martyrs' Day
(September 30) :
On August 31, 2014, the 10th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress voted to establish September 30 as the Martyrs' Day in the form of law, and stipulated that the country will hold activities to commemorate martyrs on September 30 every year. The State Council has also published the first batch of 80 and the second batch of 100 national Anti-Japanese War memorial facilities, sites list, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has also published the first batch of 300 and the second batch of 600 anti-Japanese heroes and hero groups list.
[251]
September 3 Anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
(3 September each year)
:
Victory in the Anti-Japanese War
Every year, September 3 is designated as the Victory Day of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Later, in order to unify the various military festivals, the Taiwan authorities began to take the Victory Day as the Army, navy and air Force's military Day in 1955. On February 27, 2014, the seventh session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress decided to designate September 3 as the Victory Day of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
[222]
习近平在天安门广场前阅兵
习近平向烈士敬献花篮
Memorial Hall of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
More than 80 related memorials and museums in 23 provinces including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Jiangsu and Hubei and countries such as Canada, Belarus and Ukraine were organized to jointly carry out themed commemorative activities in various forms.
[92]
Xingtai, Hebei
Chinese People's anti-Japanese Military and Political University exhibition hall
Theme activities were held at the same time with more than 20 Anti-Japanese War memorials across the country. Exhibition hall docents went to the old site of the Anti-Japanese War village to preach the history of the Anti-Japanese War and distribute publicity folding pages.
[104]
Shenyang, Liaoning Province
"918" History Museum
The theme activity of "Remembering the history, Creating the Future and Keeping Watch for Peace" was held. Student representatives performed the Anti-Japanese War melodramas "My mother Zhao Yiman" and "National hero Yang Jingyu".
[108]
Shanghai Songhu Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall Victory Square held a series of activities to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War
"Retrace the East Longitudinal road of Anti-Japanese War" activities
The Hong Kong SAR government held a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression
The Hong Kong SAR government held a ceremony on Wednesday to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. The memorial ceremony was held that morning
Hong Kong City Hall
Memorial garden held.
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On the 3rd, the exhibition commemorating the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War was held
Macau Tower Stone Art Museum
Unveil. The exhibition displays more than 70 precious historical pictures, supplemented by concise historical stories and picture descriptions, aiming to popularize the history of the Anti-Japanese War and strengthen patriotic education.
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Macao students view the exhibition commemorating the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. The exhibition aims to popularize the history of the Anti-Japanese War and strengthen patriotic education.
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On May 8, 2022, events and rallies commemorating the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II were held at various locations in Berlin, Germany.
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Serbia
Serbia has marked Victory Day by laying wreaths [264]
