World War II Photo Gallery

World War II, or the Second World War WWII or WW2 was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations. This included all of the great power that were divided into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.

Overall, the war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their complete economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources.

The starting date of the war is generally held to be September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by the United Kingdom, France and the British Dominions. However, as a result of other events, many belligerents entered the war before or after this date, during a period which spanned from 1937 to 1941.

Among these main events are the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the start of Operation Barbarossa and the attack on Pearl Harbor and British and Dutch colonies in South East Asia.

The Soviet Union and the United States emerged from the war as the world's leading superpowers. This set the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. The United Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The self determination spawned by the war accelerated decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Western Europe itself began moving toward integration.

World War II Photos

[ World War II Photo Gallery - Hitler accepts the ovation of the Reichstag ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - A Frenchman weeps ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - USS SHAW exploding ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - US signing the Declaration of War against Japan ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - We Can Do It Poster ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Stars over Berlin and Tokyo ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Officer at periscope ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Howard A Wooten ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Back to a Coast Guard assault transport ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Landing on the coast of France ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Nurses of a field hospital ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Cpl. Carlton Chapman machine-gunner ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Flag raising on Iwo Jima ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - white crosses in an American cemetery ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Guarding a lonely Oahu beach ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Pilot of the ENOLA GAY ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Soldier celebrating the surrender of Japan ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Atom Bomb Explosion ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Buy More War Bonds ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Parachutes are Dropped from C-47 Planes ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - St. Paul's Cathedral During London Blitz 1940 ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Protestant Service Aboard a Landing Craft Before the D-Day Invasion ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Formation of Spitfires Over North Africa, circa 1943 ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Airplane on Battleship Deck ] [ World War II Photo Gallery -  Rusty Gun Mount ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Twenty-Seventh Marines Land on Iwo Jima ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Victory Celebration ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - German Machine-Gunner ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Times Square on VJ Day ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Italian Aeroplanes ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - View From St Pauls ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - American Soldier on Easter Sunday ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - V2 Rocket Damage ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - London Bomb Debris ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Ward After Night Air Raid ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - US Reinforcements at Normandy ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - US Tanks Rumble Through Nuremberg ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Corpsman Administers Blood Plasma ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Dresden Devastated ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Bataan Death March ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - German Trenches ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Men and Women Herded Together ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Tank Passes Arc De Triomphe ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Japanese Prisoner of War ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Cathedral of Light ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - French Evacuate Dusseldorf ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Reichstag Destroyed by Fire ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Inferno at Eastcheap London ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Allied Forces Approaching Normandy ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - The Spitfire ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Japan Surrenders ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Captured German Submarine in London ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - End-Of-Terrace Obliterated ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Allotment Workers WWII ] [ World War II Photo Gallery - Eisenhower in Parade ]

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