World War II

This is an event that has taken place.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, WWII, or WW2, was a global conflict that lasted from 1938 to 1943. It involved all great powers and saw the collapse of the Axis and the Comintern and the rise of the Trans-Pacific Treaty Organisation and the Pan-European Council. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, with over 80 million military and civilian casualties. It saw much technological innovation, culminating into the development of nuclear weaponry, though the war ended before any could be used until the next big conflict.

Historians place the start date of World War II at different times, but it is generally agreed to have begun on February 26th, 1938, with the Adolf Hitler's declaration of war on Lev Trotsky's Soviet Union following the involvement of both nations in the Chinese Civil War. Large-scale fighting in Europe did not break out for another few months, but grew in intensity in China as roles grew from supporters to belligerents. However, far from home, German troops were severely undersupplied, while the USSR army poured into China through allied Mongolia at first, then later crossing through Emperor Puyi's German-aligned Manchuria and warlord-controlled Xibei. The communist states made rapid progress southwards, capturing Beijing by May. While fighting in Europe had been limited thus far to naval engagement in the Baltic Sea, Germany, desperate to slow the Soviet advance, instructed his troops to cross through Poland and invade Belarus.

The Soviet and Polish armies took enough time to mobilise for the Germans to make a dent in the Polish border, capturing Gdansk, Poznan, and Torun, but their advance was halted before reaching Krakow. The German government, comforted by the successful annexion of Czechoslovakia and Austria, had also not accounted for the French and British declarations of war following the violation of Poland's territory. An offensive in the Benelux allowed all Dutch territory but Holland to fall in German hands along with Luxembourg and Belgian Limburg, but failed to push through the Ardennes and into French territory. Like twenty years prior, the western front devolved into trench warfare. Italy joined the war on the German side, along with, over the course of the year, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The eastern front extended to encompass the Baltic States, unilaterally annexed by the Soviet Union, and Moldavia. The USSR, spread on two wide fronts in Europe and Asia, and Poland, at a numerical and technological disadvantage, failed the contain a slow but steady German advance into Polish territory.

While war raged in the North, Italy failed to pass across the Alps and instead resorted to harassing the French southern coast, even capturing Corsica, until the allied fleets grew too numerous to safely attack, at which point hostilities slowed down in the western Mediterranean. Instead, the Italian government undertook an invasion of Greece, which went poorly: Greek troops rebutted their enemies north into Albania. The Germans intervened by walking through Yugoslavia with the plan of carving it up between itself, Italy, Hungary and newly-allied Bulgaria. However, they were faced with stiff resistance. Although Croatia fell to the Axis, the Yugoslavian army held on to the southern half of the country and occupied Italian Albania along with Greece until British troops came to assist them in November 1938. Three months later, the Spanish civil war came to a close under left-wing leadership, which immediately announced its support for the USSR in the global struggle.