World War II: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:world_war_two_170.jpg|frame|Humanity's best and worst were displayed for all the world to see.]]

{{quote|''"I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?"''|'''Joseph Goebbels''', 1943 <ref> The guy was a [[Complete Monster]], but his words ''here'' sum up the general feel of the war.</ref>}}

The roots of humanity's greatest conflict go back centuries, but the immediate causes of the war lay in the resolution of the [[World War I|First World War]] and the Great Depression.

November 1918: ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'' and everyone breathes a sigh of relief that [[World War I|The Great War]] has ended. The sigh of relief is justified: more than ten million soldiers were killed over the course of the four-year war (more soldiers died than quite a few countries had ''people''), in addition to more-than-seven million civilian deaths and uncounted numbers of civilian and military wounded. These catastrophic death tolls resulted from military [[More Dakka|technology]] outstripping military [[Modern Major-General|thinking]], and the application of 19th-century tactics to 20th-century weapons resulted in trench warfare and battles on the Western front which were long, indecisive, and [[We Have Reserves|horrendously inefficient]]. The Eastern front was rather different.

Political elites proved willing to compromise with these new movements or institute their own dictatorial regimes to stave off the advances of 'The Red Hydra'. This political environment allowed the Partito Nazionale Fascista to come to power in Italy in the early twenties, setting a precedent for the rest of Europe. It was over a decade later that one of history's ([[Acceptable Targets|least]]) favourite and most exclusive parties, the [[Overly Long Name|Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei]] (The Nazi Party or NSDAP, for short), came to power by similar means. Under the leadership of the charismatic demagogue (and frontrunner for the title of "[[Overly Narrow Superlative|Most Evil Painter Ever]]") [[Adolf Hitler]], the [[Weimar Republic]] was reformed out of existence, and Germany set up violating every remaining provision of the Versailles Treaty, rearming its military and (after five years of testing the international waters) joining with Austria to create a unified German state in 1938.

As it was Generalissimo Jiang quickly committed his best forces to destroying the Japanese concession in Shanghai, part of his strategy for defending the lower Yangtze delta - the economic heartland of the territory under the control of his Nationalist Party, which dominated the government of the Republic by virtue of the strength his armed forces. This led to a curious spectacle wherein the Japanese government continued to insist that this latest 'China Incident' was [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|not a war]], [[Blatant Lies|even as they committed half a million men, supported by tanks and aeroplanes and warships, to fight a highly-visible battle which dragged on for three-months.]] The street-to-street, house-to-house fighting at Shanghai is yet another of the many origin stories for what later became known as the 'Molotov cocktail'. Jiang's men resort to using them against armoured cars and tanks because they don't have enough anti-tank weapons, [[Right Hand Versus Left Hand|and the ones they do have usually aren't where they're needed.]] The Empire's usual spiel about pan-asian co-operation, with Japan as the leader of Asia, rang rather hollow as the battle resulted in some 300 000 military dead and the advancing Japanese army broke discipline for a spot of unpleasantness in the comparatively-lightly defended (now former-)National Capital at Nanjing. The few foreigners remaining in the city tell of events which newspapers in the Occident eye-catchingly call 'the Rape of Nanjing' or 'the Nanjing Massacre'.

[[Here We Go Again|Well, we all know what happened next.]]

World War II officially begins on Sept. 1, 1939, with the Nazi invasion of Poland. Britain and France declare war on Germany, but they don't actually do anything to help. Poland tries to fight, but is simultaneously invaded by the Soviet Union from the east, and [[Curb Stomp Battle|collapses in a couple of weeks]]. Next comes a weird eight-month pause variously nicknamed the Phony War, the Sitzkrieg (Sitting War), or the Bore War (a pun on the Boer War), in which the British and French sit quietly and do nothing while Germany does much the same, with a brief spurts of vigor allowing them to conquer Denmark and Norway. When the Germans finally do attack in the West on May 10, 1940, they catch the Allies completely by surprise, punching through the middle of the French line in the Ardennes Forest with tanks (which the French didn't think was possible, and it ''was'' admittedly difficult), wheeling around all the way to the English Channel, and cutting off the Allied forces in the north, which includes almost all of the British Expeditionary Force. Hitler orders his panzers to stop short of totally destroying the BEF, believing he can cut a deal with Britian, allowing the BEF to evacuate and avoid capture (the "miracle of Dunkirk"), but the triumphant German army then turns south and attacks the now badly-outnumbered French, who surrender. [[Curb Stomp Battle|The whole campaign takes about six weeks]]. As France collapses, [[Benito Mussolini]] decides to imitate his buddy Hitler and attack France too, and the Italian army does ''badly'', despite ''greatly'' outnumbering the French. [[Stop Helping Me!|It's a sign of things to come for Germany's worse-than-useless ally.]] After the dust settles, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France have all fallen to the Axis Powers.

On February 14, 1941, the newly promoted Major General [[Erwin Rommel]] (formerly commander of the 7th Panzer Division, notable for its stunning maneuvers in the Battle of France, which earned it the nickname "The Ghost Division".) arrives in Tripoli to begin supervising the offloading of his new command. Leading what is dubbed the "Deutsches Afrikakorps", Rommel finds himself both undermanned and under-equipped. But does that stop him? Nope. He orders his troops to begin moving as quickly as possible, plowing through British positions in Egypt. Only a desperate counterattack drives Rommel back, showcasing how the war in Africa will be fought for the next year. Nevertheless, the African Front will come to be known as the most humane and romanticized combat zone of the war, where Rommel becomes a well-respected commander ([[Worthy Opponent|earning praise from Winston Churchill himself]]). However, the war in Africa is only seen as a sideshow for the true campaign, where the bulk of German troops and equipment will be used (depriving Rommel of much-needed reinforcement for his offensives).

After failing to bring Britain down, Hitler looks east to his old enemy -- the [[Soviet Union]]. Until then, the Soviets weren't ''officially'' Hitler's enemy. In 1939, [[Strange Bedfellows|the Germans and Soviets had entered into the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]], in which they agreed not to fight each other, secretly agreed to divide up Poland between them, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Germany licensed the Soviets to build their copy of a BMW motorcycle.]] This alliance of convenience was useful to both sides, but neither expected it to last, and Hitler's life dream had always been to destroy the "Jewish Communists" in the Soviet Union. [[Josef Stalin]] agreed to the pact to buy time to rebuild his army, which was totally disorganized after the political purges of the 1930's and the disaster of an attempted invasion of Finland. Finally on June 22, 1941, exactly one year after the fall of France, Hitler launches Operation Barbarossa. It is the greatest offensive in the history of warfare ever, in which nearly four million men storm across the border into Russia: three German Army Groups of about a million men each, supplemented with Italians, Croats, Romanians and Hungarians and other fascist allies. The battle line stretched from the Arctic Ocean down to the Black Sea.

By September, the Germans are in control of much of Western Russia, from Novgorod to Kiev. Hitler is initially satisfied with the results and plans only limited mop-up operations the following year. However, his generals convince him that Moscow is an easy target and he approves of Operation Typhoon. Winter comes to aid the Soviet defenses: bad weather, hailstorms and snow, culminating in a mind-numbing cold that the German Army is unable to cope with, particularly since Hitler lacked the foresight to outfit his troops with winter uniforms and machinery wasn't suited to cold weather and failed to even start. These devastating natural conditions reinforce the sheer determination of the Red Army, and the Germans are halted literally within sight of Moscow. Finally, the Soviets launch a surprise counterattack that forces the Germans back. Stalin and the Soviets have avoided defeat, but the Germans remain in possession of the western part of the USSR. In addition, this defeat begins Hitler's distrust of his generals and from this point on, he begins taking more control over military operations.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the third Axis power, [[Imperial Japan]], is going nowhere fast. On paper, the Empire and its puppets control a third of China, half her population and almost all her industry. In reality occupied China teems with bandits and guerrillas, and one only has to travel twenty miles from a railroad or river to find territory beyond Imperial control. On paper, the Republic's troops outnumber those of the Empire and her allies by three-to-one; in reality, only half these troops answer to the central government led by the Guomindang, the Chinese Nationalists under Generalissimo Jiang Jieshi we mentioned earlier. The superiority of Japanese equipment, training, unit organisation and command structure - [[Death From Above|not to mention air-power]], which is being used to level Chinese towns and cities more or less with impunity (typically by [[Kill It with Fire|fire-bombing]] them) - has counted for nothing in the face of the vast size of China and her massive population. For instance, the Chinese have virtually no anti-tank weapons; but the Japanese have virtually no tanks in working order they can bring to where they are needed except in the on-and-off meat-grinder battles which rage through the hills of southern and central China. The attrition rate for the Guomindang's core armies over the past four years has been at least half. In a relatively unmolested, mountainous province of north-central China, a young Communist official is slowly offing his rivals to become the leader of the socialist commune there, the largest in the country. His name is [[Mao Zedong]].

However, it isn't immediately apparent that the Japanese are bound to lose, [[Curb Stomp Battle|since they promptly sweep the Americans and British nearly out of the Pacific.]] The Philippines, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, Guam and Wake Island all fall to the Japanese. Six months of uninterrupted victories leave Japan the master of the western Pacific. In return the US loads 24 land-based medium bombers on a carrier to launch a symbolic strike of their own on Japan itself, the Doolittle Raid. Although the results of the bombing itself were negligible, the Japanese people were spooked that the Americans could hit them at the height of their power. This prompts the China Expeditionary force to go on an offensive in hills of south-central China with the aim of capturing or destroying all the airbases within range of Japan, to pre-empt this kind of thing happening again. The operation is a success insofar as the airbases are all destroyed, but as usual the Japanese overstretch their supply lines and are forced to withdraw again. For their part, the Imperial Navy decides to seek a decisive battle in which they hope to destroy the US Pacific Fleet, in the hope that this will buy them a year or two of breathing space (or even, the more optimistic among the Imperial Cabinet hope, a negotiated peace).

Meanwhile, Soviet command has already decided that army should launch an offensive in the Ukraine, expecting a renewal of the German assault on Moscow. However, the Germans have already persuaded Hitler to launch an offensive in the Ukraine as well, having convinced him that the bulk of Russian defenses will be concentrated around Moscow. Consequently, the two forces trip over one another; the Soviet one is encircled and almost totally wiped out, having delayed the German offensive for about two days at the most and leaving the entire front significantly weaker as a result. Advancing towards the southern reaches of the Volga River and into the Caucasus with its rich oil reserves, the panzers are on the move again. Hitler takes a lot of territory, but the Soviet armies in the sector fight a retreat all the way to an industrial city called Stalingrad on the banks of the Volga (its original name is Tsaritsyn and its current name is Volgograd, but it had been renamed Stalingrad because Stalin was the commander of Red troops there during the Russian Civil War). Hitler becomes increasingly convinced that taking the city directly by brute force will win the war - in all fairness, the city ''is'' a major transport hub through which the products of Soviet industry and Allied lend-lease material make their way to Moscow - and so the Germans and Soviets fight a bloody, titanic battle in the streets and in buildings of the city. As the Spring grinds on, it becomes clear that Germany doesn't quite have the strength to take both Stalingrad ''and'' the Caucasus oil, and may end up with neither as a consequence of trying for both.

In November of 1942, the Soviets launch another massive offensive in an attempt to push the German Armies from Moscow. It fails, miserably, and Operation Mars is subsequently swept under the historical carpet along with the Ukrainian offensive of the previous summer, never to be mentioned in Soviet or Russian school textbooks. However, a secondary encirclement offensive meets with success. Striking behind the elite German units in the area around Stalingrad itself, the mechanised units of Operation Uranus break through the virtually-anti-tank-weapon-less Romanian forces guarding the flanks of the Sixth Army - trapping the bulk of it in Stalingrad just as the Russian Winter falls in earnest. Despite repeated requests, Hitler refuses to allow the troops to withdraw. He instead demands they fight to the last man and martyr themselves rather than shame him and his visions of Aryan superiority by retreating and promote commanding officer, Friedrich Paulus, to Field Marshal (with a remainder that no German Field Marshal ever surrendered). Futile efforts to resupply the trapped army by air or punch through the Soviet lines predictably fail and the starving remnants of the Sixth Army surrender on February 2, 1943. It's the largest and costliest defeat the Germans have suffered to that point, the rest of Hitler's troops in southern Russia hastily retreat. From there, the Soviets take the initiative, and the war there becomes a long, slow battle of attrition as the USSR gradually grinds the German army into dust. At the same time, the battles between the Axis and the Allies in North Africa, while much smaller in scale than the titanic conflict in the East, end with more decisive Allied victories. At Kharkov, the Germans win a victory that finally halts the Soviet advance, but the tide in Europe has turned.

The tide of battle has turned in the Pacific as well at the end of Japan's six month window of strategic advantage as Admiral Yamamoto warned would happen. In the mid-Pacific, a Japanese attempt to destroy the American fleet and capture the island of Midway leads to disaster. American code-breakers have managed to crack Japan's primary naval encryption and know the fleet's every move. Even better, American dive bombers just happen to catch the Imperial Japanese Navy at a moment when all its planes are being reloaded for an another attack--meaning the hangars of each ship are covered with [[Made of Explodium|fuel, munitions and aircraft]]. [[Curb Stomp Battle|The US Navy sinks three Japanese carriers in the span of five minutes, and a fourth a few hours later, at the loss of only one of its own]]. The IJN is broken as an offensive threat and the balance of power in the Pacific permanently shifts to the United States--though it would be months before this became apparent.

The Imperial Army's advances into Burma cut off the 'Burma Road', China's sole remaining transport link to the Allied world, which forces the Americans to fly everything from bazookas to bandages over 'the Hump' of the Himalayas. As Nationalist-aligned warlord troops and the Sepoys of the British Indian Army bring the offensive to a halt in the Himalayan foothills, Gandhi and the Indian National Congress declare the Quit India movement [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|which advocates Britain's immediate withdrawal from India.]] Gandhi and the Congress are imprisoned for the duration of the war, and acts of open rebellion and sabotage are quite brutally suppressed. However, Jinna and the Indian Muslim League declare their loyalty to the British Raj - their proposal of an independent or autonomous Indian Muslim state being taken more seriously as a consequence. US forces hop from strategically-important island to island, avoiding fighting non-essential battles and winning each one. But this comes at what the Americans consider frightful costs in the face of garrisons of China-veteran marines who fight almost literally to the last man rather than surrender. The War in the East as a whole is a particularly vicious one, the mutual (racial) hatred and animosity on all sides meaning that [[Leave No Survivors|quarter is rarely asked or given]].

In 1943, the German forces on the Eastern Front are relentlessly pushed back. The last German offensive at Kursk leads to the biggest tank battle in history and a crushing defeat for Hitler (strategically; the Soviet casualties were... extreme, to say the least, [[We Have Reserves|but with more and more and more men and machines coming to the front, Stalin had no reason to worry that much about things like losing three hundred thousand men and six thousand tanks]]). Stalin sees the success of the operation as a vindication of his growing trust in his Generals and their Staffs, stepping back to let them organise military operations themselves. Hitler [[Surrounded by Idiots|sees the outcome as proof of his own Generals' incompetence]] - [[Never My Fault|though the offensive was his idea]] - and [[What an Idiot!|moves to micromanage the entire German war effort in ever-greater detail]]. With morale skyrocketing because they just defeated the Germans in the summer, the Soviets spend the rest of the year inexorably pushing the Germans further and further back, bleeding them dry and wearing down their ability to resist.

Trough 5 millions of Soviet POWs were taken, only less than 2 millions were liberated come the end of the war: German treatment of Russians in captivity was diabolical. The Red Army's attitude to repatriated POWs, wasn't good either: ex-prisoners were sent into filtration camps, that was effectively high-secure prisons. After that most was sent back into the Red Army, with officers stripped of rank and sent into penal regiments for the crime of having surrendered. Penal regiments got the hard, dangerous, dirty jobs and the death rate for men condemned to them was far heavier. Policy of reconscripting men, brutalised by German imprisonment, arming them and sending them straight into a battle that more and more was being fought on German soil, was not good for German civilians unfortunate enough to be in the way of angry men with a desire for revenge. Contrary to public belief, many regular Red Army units did not rape and loot their way into Germany and behaved decently, it was released and re-armed POWs who ran amok in this infamous fashion.

In Europe, Germany's situation goes from bad to worse when the Western Allies -- principally the Americans, British and Canadians -- land in northern France (Normandy) on [[The Longest Day|the 6th of June, 1944]]; Hitler is now fighting a two-front war against larger and arguably better-equipped armies with better air support. Two weeks after the Allies land in France, the Soviets launch their biggest attack of the war: Operation Bagration, which finally completes one of oldest Soviet strategic goals - annihilates Army Group Centre. The Red Army leaps forward some two hundred miles, clearing almost all of the USSR of Germans and advancing to the gates of Warsaw. Stalin has broken the back of the Wehrmacht. Western Allies initially disbelieved that Soviets were able to do so, which lead to huge "POWs march", where 57 thousands German POWs walked on Moscow streets. In the meantime, while the Soviets are busy wiping out enormous concentrations of German troops, the Western Allies break out of their beachhead in Normandy after two months of savage combat. Increasingly-frequent Allied bombing raids like the one described in [[Slaughterhouse-Five]] do enormous damage to the German war effort and citizenry. The bombing grows steadily more intense through the end of the war, leaving almost every major city in Hitler's Reich in ruins. With the Luftwaffe's bombing capabilities rendered as good as ineffective, having lost their airfields sufficiently close to the Channel, Hitler turns to using the newly-developed Vergeltungswaffen (retaliation weapons), the V-1 'Buzz Bomb' and later the V-2 ballistic missile to try and exact some revenge on the British, who by and large consider this nuisance not worth getting worked up about.

Saipan (and nearby Tinian, captured soon after) are close enough to allow US bombers to strike the Japanese Home Islands. This is initially of limited effectiveness,as strong winds over Japan make precision bombing impossible. Once someone suggests using [[Kill It with Fire|fire-bombs]] (sound familiar?) to set the cities ablaze, the bombing becomes much more effective and the war has finally come full circle as the very nation that started out decrying Japanese "terror bombing" in China is now deliberately targeting civilians themselves. Like many contemporary Chinese buildings, most Japanese buildings of the time used a lot of flammable materials ----wood, bamboo, rattan, rice paper--in their construction. The fire-bombing campaign is ''super'' effective, razing entire towns practically overnight and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. What's left of the Imperial Navy sallies forth for one last battle against the Americans and despite one portion of the fleet coming very near to its objective, is promptly annihilated in history's largest naval engagement, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. American [[Yanks With Tanks|soldiers]] make landfall in the Philippines in late 1944 and after several brutal months of combat, they wrest control of most of their former colony from the Japanese. By now, it is apparent even to the Japanese themselves that Japan's defeat is inevitable.

In Europe, despite Allied control of the air, the loss of their most experienced forces, and destruction of their factories, the Germans have one advantage left: they are no longer trying to defend all of Western Europe and the Allied supply problems are at critical levels. Hitler takes a leaf out of his Eastern Ally's book and gathers what offensive strength he has left to hurl it at the Western Allies in a surprise attack. In December 1944, his legions attack through the Ardennes - the same route by which they snuck into France four and a half years before - in a desperate and ill-advised attempt to cut a wedge between the American and British forces. However, there is a huge difference between the Ardennes of 1939 -- when forests were picketed by only a few detached cavalry vedettes -- and 1944, when the lines are manned by three full (but green) US Army Divisions, backed by Allied tactical airpower and the world's best artillery.

The "Battle of the Bulge" results in German gains for a few days under the cover of bad weather, then an inevitable defeat as Hitler's tanks run out of fuel and are left behind as his troops are pushed back by Allied counter-attacks, especially when the streak of cloudy days runs out and the Allies' air forces can resume operations. This defeat essentially breaks the back of Germany's power to resist in the West. Germany is now a country void of teen- and middle-aged males, who have virtually all been drafted into citizen militias to defend the Fatherland to the last. Meanwhile, the Soviets clear Poland of German forces and push all the way to the Oder river, 56 miles from Berlin, and taking the time to advance through the Balkans, Hungary, and Romania before advancing into Germany proper - so that they will be negotiating the post-war world order from a position of strength. In April of 1945, Soviet and American troops meet at a German village called Torgau. The job of taking Berlin is left to the Soviets, who is ten times closer at the moment, who do so in the latter part of April and at 1st May Red Flag vaves above the Reichstag in an operation, that even Allied generals was forced to remark as highly successful. Hitler [[Better to Die Than Be Killed|kills himself]] in his underground bunker on April 30, 1945. On May 8, the Germans officially surrender and the war in Europe is over.

But to everyone's increasing exasperation, Japan fights on. The Americans continue to island-hop closer to their Home Islands, capturing the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa to aid the strategic bombing campaign and planned invasion. The fighting is savage and horrific, bloody and slow, which includes the terrifying kamikaze suicide attacks which amaze the Allies at just how far Japan will go to strike any kind of blow. The sinking of food-importing Japan's almost-entire merchant fleet and the impact of air-raids on agriculture - it's hard to plough a rice paddy when it's full of shrapnel - is [[It Got Worse|compounded by domestic crop failures]], which see his majesty's subjects try to survive on 1200 calories a day. [[Sarcasm Mode|It's not all bad, though]], as the government publishes a helpful series of articles on how to stave off hunger by padding out one's diet with sawdust, insects and mice. By early 1945 Allied air and naval forces roam Japanese shores and skies virtually at will, shooting up or sinking just about everything that dares to move in daylight. But the Japanese still refuse to give up.

A new weapon, a bomb of immense explosive force, has been developed to support the landings. After witnessing the destructive power of the prototype, some dare to hope that the threat of its use may be enough to force Japanese surrender. In the American state of New Mexico, a multinational team of scientists headed by Robert Oppenheimer have test-detonated the [[Atomic Hate|first nuclear bomb]]. The Allies ask Japan to surrender unconditionally; unsurprisingly, they refuse. A nuclear bomb is dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and 70,000-80,000 people die almost instantly, at least as many again will succumb to radiation over the months and years that follow; another dropped on the city of Nagasaki on August 9 has much the same effect. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union honours its promises to the Allies and declares war on Japan in violation of their Non-Aggression Pact of 1941, the mechanised columns of the Red Army making short work of Japan's North China Army. The Allies bargain for the half of Korea south of the 38th parallel north as they tell the Emperor Showa that there are more such atom bombs to come, as if the imminent threat of invasion weren't enough. Facing a looming unstoppable invasion from the sea on two fronts, an unassailable naval blockade that no "Divine Wind" would ever remove and total nuclear destruction from the air, the Emperor himself calls it quits and sues for peace on August 14, effectively commanding his subjects to accept his decision in his first-ever radio broadcast to the whole Empire. A formal surrender is signed on September 2.

World War II is over. The Americans and Soviets try to get the Chinese Nationalists and Communists to form a government together; unsurprisingly they fail, and after a further three years of civil war the Communists proclaim the [[People's Republic of Tyranny|Peoples' Republic of China]] in 1949. As the tide of the war turns against the Nationalists, Churchill makes his 'Iron Curtain' speech and the Americans begin to see Communism as a real threat. After years of dithering, America speedily moves to invest in rebuilding the economies and militaries of Germany and Japan, changing the earlier program of peaceful 'nation-building' to create strong Allies.

Anyone looking to relive the war in real-time can check the Twitter feed of [http://twitter.com/realtimewwii Alwyn Collinson] who has been tweeting the war from all angles since around [[wikipedia:Invasion of Poland|September 1st]](Where 2011=1939) and plans to continue for the duration of the war (an astounding [[Long Runners|six years of daily tweeting]]). He is taking volunteers for help translating to different languages and sharing the workload if you email him or contact him on Facebook.

{{tropelist|Popular tropes for this time period}}

* [[Adventurer Archaeologist]]: Ralph Bagnold among others. Several of these bear a surprising resemblance to Indiana Jones.

** The article is somewhat [[Did Not Do the Research]], as Nazi=white supremacist is a long sought after and misleading understanding. Lots of high ranking Nazis express interest and respect for the Orient, their racism ranges specifically for Jewish, Roma, Slav and all the rest that you already know. In general, East Asians got better off than the rest in Germany, who was supporting the Nationalist China with weapon and advisers, and only drew their support after the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] broke out, [[Chiang Kai Shek]] 's second son was in German military as an exchange student and actually took part in the invasion of Poland, and only came back after the Nazi-Japanese Alliance was made.

{{examples|Works set in this time period include:}}

* ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]],'' obviously, although it spans from the Roman Empire to the present day.

* ''[[Barefoot Gen]]'' - about the Hiroshima bombing

* ''[[Zipang]]''

* [[Captain America]] punched Hitler in his very first issue. Most [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] superheroes, since they were published during the war, fought Nazis at some point.

* This was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]''. In an [[Easter Egg]] during the course of the novel we learn that The Comedian saw action in his masked identity against the Japanese in the South Pacific in 1942.

* Biggles appeared in a number of comics set in [[WW 2]]

A complete list can be found [http://www.wwii-movies.com/index.php?content=list&sortby=movieyear&sortorder=asc here]. A number of the works below cover multiple categories and are grouped according to their main setting. Quite a few of these film titles were shoehorned into the above paragraphs.

In an era where the only major forms of mass entertainment were radio, theatre and cinema (British television went off for the duration), it is not surprising that a very large number of movies were made during the war. Most of them were patriotic flag-wavers of some form or another, but some of these films (including said flag-wavers) have stood the test of time, such as ''[[Casablanca]]'', ''In Which We Serve'' and ''Went The Day Well?''.

Most of the works here focus on the American and Japanese part in the Far East, although Commonwealth forces also played a major role (primarily the ANZAC forces, for obvious reasons). Only recently have films dealing with the China Incident started to appear, unsurprisingly given the delicate politics of the matter.

* ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo''

The bloodiest theatre of the war (the number of deaths there alone- over 25 million- would make the Eastern Front the worst war in history in its own right). Has been covered in film quite a bit (the Soviet film industry apparently made scores of them), but most of the examples aren't that well known outside of Eastern Europe. In most of the former USSR focus is not one WWII in general, but on "The [[Great Patriotic War]]" of 1941-45 - Soviet-German war.

* ''At war like at war''

A special case of the above, covering the struggles of the Winter War of 1939-40 and the Continuation war of 1941-44. Has been depicted several times on film, but these films are little known outside Finland. [[Christopher Lee]] volunteered to fight here, but never actually saw any combat on it.

* ''Talvisota'', a Finnish film set in the Winter War

The fighting around northern and western Europe, where the Americans play a large role. The British, Canadians and Free French (as well as a considerable number of other nationalities) were involved, but [[America Wins the War|they tend to be forgotten in US films]]. The early part of the war, from the invasion of Poland to the fall of France, is rarely depicted.

* ''[[When Trumpets Fade]]'', set in the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest.

Initially, just between the Commonwealth, Italy, and other independent nations. Later, the Germans (led by Erwin Rommel) and the Americans also take part.

* ''[[The Rat Patrol]]''

Greece and Yugoslavia.

* ''[[The Guns of Navarone]]''

In which the two sides of the war try to bomb each other into submission. A fair chunk of these are British and a number are based on true stories.

* ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo''

In which the German U-boats try to starve Britain into submission and stop equipment from getting to the Allies. The subs (on both sides) are hot, cramped and nasty. In fact, calling them submarines is slightly inaccurate, considering that most of their time was spent on the surface.

* ''The Sea Chase''

Most people tend to focus on the French Resistance, but the Greeks and Poles did a very good job too. The Yugoslav partisans were actually so good at their job, they effectively liberated their country themselves before the Red Army could get there.

* ''Army of Shadows''

The Germans ''generally'' kept the Geneva Conventions with regards to US, UK and French prisoners, although by the end of the war, they were seriously considering throwing the Conventions out of the window, with the Allied bombing raids as the excuse. Geneva had never so much as been in the building when it came to the Slavic peoples - captured Red Army personnel ended up in the death camps.

* ''[[Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence]]''

* ''[[Schindler's List]]''

* ''[[Bent]]''

* ''Hope and Glory'', a rather sunny movie set in London during the Blitzkrieg

* ''[[The King's Speech]]''

* ''[[Since You Went Away]]''

* ''[[1941]]'', though this one is a comedy.

Things that don't really fit elsewhere:

* ''Shield and Sword'', another series about soviet spy.

* ''[[Narnia|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]]'': [[The Film of the Book]] turns a single sentence mentioning the Pevensie kids being sent to live in the country "because of the air raids" into a dangerous scene that takes place right in the middle of the London Blitz.

** Something of a reality to that- there was a second evacuation of vulnerable Londoners during the Blitz as many had returned after the initial feared raids hadn't materialised.

* [[Robert Westall]] set several of his books and short stories during World War II, most famously ''The Machine Gunners'' but also, ''Blitzcat,'' ''[[Captain Obvious|The Blitz]],'' and ''Blackham's Wimpey'' from the anthology ''[[Break of Dark]].''

* ''[['Allo 'Allo!|Allo Allo]]''

* ''[[Band of Brothers]]''

* ''[[Danger 5]]'' is set in [[Anachronism Stew|WWII in the 60s with dinosaurs and Japanese robot soldiers]]. It follows the Danger 5 [[Multinational Team|team]] trying to kill [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|Hitler]].

* ''[[The Adventures of Superman (radio)|The Adventures of Superman]]'' featured many war-related storylines before and during the U.S.A.'s involvement.

* Europe Engulfed

** Pacific Engulfed

* In the 1960s through the 1980s, Avalon Hill and SPI thrived on tabletop games about WWII: ''Third Reich, Afrika Korps, Patton's War, Midway, Battle of the Bulge'', and a zillion others

* ''Imagine This''- a musical set in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942.

* ''Mister Roberts'' takes place in the Pacific but far from combat. V-E Day happens during the course of the play's action.

* ''[[The Long And The Short And The Tall]]'' is a play about a section of Britsh infantrymen trapped behind enemy lines in Burma.

* ''[[Battlefield (series)|Battlefield 1942 and 1943]]''

* ''[[Blood Rayne]]''

* ''[[World of Tanks]]'' -- the heart of the game is here, although available tanks stretch from 1928 to 1955.

* ''[[Exo Squad]]'' is [[World War II]] [[Recycled in Space]]. Of course, it's not a complete rip-off but the entire premise just screams [[WW 2]]. And according to [[That Other Wiki]], the [[Word of God]] admits it.

* [[Wartime Cartoon|Many theatrical cartoons made in the early half of the 1940s]] had popular characters like [[Donald Duck]], [[Looney Tunes|Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck]], and [[Popeye]] doing their part in the war effort.

* Like ''Justice League'', ''[[Gargoyles]]'' had a WWII time travel episode. Goliath fights in the Battle of Britain.

* ''[[The Cobra Days]]'', a fan webcomic prequel to the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series. It chronicles the adventures of a ''very'' quirky Allied Special Forces [[Multinational Team]], with plenty of [[Magic Realism]] and other weirdness that didn't quite make it into the history books.

* ''[[The Specialists]]'' is an [[Alternate History]] [http://thespecialistscomic.com webcomic] in which the Nazis use occult artifacts and eugenics to produce super-powered ''Übermenschen'' and America responds with its own super-soldier program.