World War II

Global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, also known as the Second World War (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2). The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.Sy Scholfield found data in several history books, including International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond by Antony Best et al (Routledge, 2014), p. 199: "Hitler's war began on 1 September 1939. At 4.45 am the old German battleship Schleswig-Holstein shelled a small Polish army installation at Danzig known as the Westerplatte."