World War 2 was a time of numerous geopolitical events, and keeping world war 2 facts straight can be challenging. The following are highlights of one of the biggest world events in history:
- This war involved super powers from all over the globe, and eventually split into two opposing sides, the axis and the allies. There were a total of 70 countries involved in the war, making world war ii unprecedented.
- On the axis side, were three primary countries with numerous ‘puppet’ states being involved as well. These included: Nazi Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, Iraq, Thailand, San Marino, Yugoslavia, the provisionally ruled India, and many puppet states.
- World war two included the allied powers to which were primarily, France, Poland and the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Union of South Africa and the United States.
- The second world war happened primarily between the years of 1939-1945.
- Another of the world war 2 facts; The causes of the war include leftover tensions between European nations as a result of World War I, social and financial tensions due to the great depression of 1930, and nationalistic tendencies of several countries including Germany, Russia and other parts of Europe as well as Japan towards China.
- Hitler’s intentions to rid the country of all Jews, and the Japanese intent to take over other Asian countries led to the World War 2 also.
- Most of the German soldiers who died in World War Two died on the Eastern front.
- As vile as Nazi acts were, the acts of the Red Army were just as atrocious, systematically raping over 2 million women. They also practiced Genocide – Just another of the gloomy world war 2 facts.
- The Nazis used a fake name to establish a bank account to put money they earned from stolen Jewish jewels, money and valuables.
- The National Socialist Party was originally called the ‘Nasos’ and not the Nazis.
- Only 10,000 of the men who served on the U-boats in ww2 returned though more than 40,000 went.
- The bombing of Hiroshima and defeat of the German army are events that helped to end wwii, though the Hiroshima bombing killed more than 66,000 people in an area populated with around 255,000 people.
- The initial 66,000 who died in the bombing of Hiroshima died on the first day and over the following four months, but even more continued to die, slower deaths, over the next 30 years due to leukemia, cancer and other radiation related deaths. The final death toll resulting from the bombing is almost half the total population of the area. This one of the saddest world war 2 facts.
- At the beginning of Nazi rule, there were around 9 million Jewish people living in Europe, by the time all the damage from concentration camps, German aggression and shootings were totaled, around 6.5 million Jews died. This number does not include injuries and the death of spirit many Jews suffered due to the loss of loved ones, family homes, businesses and being uprooted from the only home they had known for generations.
World war two can easily be repeated if the race for “supremacy” is not put aside, and if overly nationalistic ideas and world war 2 facts are left for the history books.
No related posts.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
The holocaust happened fact! It’s amazing what some people believe.
The article doesn’t say the Holocaust didn’t happen. It most definitely did. I wonder if the Nazis were the first to make opening bank accounts under fake names popular?
I had no idea that so many men who served on the U-boats died. It’s something I never considered. It must have been awful serving on one. The men must have known they were in great danger and that the odds of survival were so low.
The Holocaust was one of the most horrible events in modern history. What we forget is that in many wars there were cases where the victors slaughtered all the inhabitants of the towns they won in battle. In addition, if you were not killed you were probably taken and made to work as a slave for the remainder of your life. Women suffered this fate for centuries. Even in our most recent past, there were cases of the slaughter of entire villages in Iraq and Rwanda. Will human kind ever learn to respect each other?
One of the greatest tragedies of World War II is that the U.S. didn’t get involved in it until Pearl Harbor. Just think how many lives could have been saved if only we had gotten in a few years earlier. What losses Britain and Europe suffered.
We just lost another one of our friends who was a pilot in World War II. These men are dying out, and if we want their stories, we need to make a final push to write down and record their amazing histories. Now is the last chance we have.
No wonder they called it a “world” war. I never realized there were 70 countries involved in the war. I thought it was only because the most powerful nations in the world were all involved.