World War II (WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a
global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast
majority of the world's countriesâ€"including all the great
powersâ€"forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the
Axis. In a state of total war, directly involving more than 100
million personnel from more than 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, resulting in 70 to 85 million fatalities, with more civilians
than military personnel killed. Tens of millions of people died due to
genocides (including the Holocaust), premeditated death from
starvation, massacres, and disease. Aircraft played a major role in
the conflict, including in strategic bombing of population centres,
and the only uses of nuclear weapons in war.World War II is generally
considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of
Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by
France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a
series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much
of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and
Japan. Under the Molotovâ€"Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and
the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European
neighbours: Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. Following
the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, and the fall
of France in mid-1940, the war continued primarily between the
European Axis powers and the British Empire, with war in the Balkans,
the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, and the Battle of the
Atlantic. On 22 June 1941, Germany led the European Axis powers in an
invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war
in history and trapping the Axis, crucially the German Wehrmacht, in a
war of attrition. World War II Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter