World War 2, who is with whom. History of the Second World War

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, I suddenly thought: everyone knows when and where the war ended. Where and how did the Second World War begin, of which our Great Patriotic War became a part?

We managed to visit the very place where it began - on the Westerplatte peninsula not far from the Polish city of Gdansk. When Germany began shelling Polish territory in the early morning of September 1, 1939, one of the main attacks fell on Polish military warehouses located on Westerplatte.

You can get to Westerplatte from Gdansk by car along the highway, or you can sail there by river by boat. We chose the boat. I won’t undertake to say whether it is really ancient or simply made to look antique, but it is controlled by a real captain. He is very colorful and, judging by the red, he was once a pioneer.

Our path lies to the Gulf of Gdansk. Gdansk is one of the largest seaports in Europe, so along the coast you can see berths here and there and port cranes rise every now and then.

Who knows - maybe this is how prehistoric dinosaurs once walked here?

The journey from Gdansk to Westerplatte by boat takes about an hour. We managed to get a seat at the bow, so we have the first view of Westerplatte.

Here it is, the very place where World War 2 began. It was here that a salvo from the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein landed on September 1, 1939 at 4:45, marking its beginning. Now Westerplatte is a memorial complex, part of which are the ruins of the Polish naval headquarters. It was destroyed in the first minutes of the war as a result of a direct hit.

Nearby are signs with the names of the fallen defenders of Westerplatte. There are many of them - no one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten. Around them, like drops of blood, roses and wild roses bloom red.

The symbol of Westerplatte is the obelisk on the hill. It seems that it is just a stone's throw from the destroyed headquarters. This was not the case - we still had to walk to the obelisk, and then also climb the mountain.

We were very lucky with the weather, so the photos of the Westerplatte monument turned out bright. And in bad weather, the gray monument is lost against the background of the gray sky.

And here’s what the monument looks like if you climb the mountain and get very close to it:

And here's the view from above. Anyone who speaks Polish well can read the proclamation against the war:

In addition to the famous stele, there is also this monument in the Westerplatte memorial:

If you read the inscription out loud, you can guess that this is a monument to tank crews. Moreover, traces of tank tracks were imprinted on the slabs.

The Poles are terribly proud of the defenders of Westerplatte, but there are also those who are not too scrupulous in matters of memory of the fallen: when we arrived, the monument was covered in melted ice cream.

Visitors to the Westerplatte memorial can buy souvenirs from World War II:

By the way, Westerplatte is a favorite vacation spot for residents of Gdansk, because there is a beach next to the memorial on the coast of the Gdansk Bay. Entry to it is strictly prohibited, but that doesn’t stop anyone:

If you decide to swim here, remember that you are not allowed to stare at vacationers. You can get into trouble (just in case, read more about that and its surroundings). If you came to Westerplatte on your own, you shouldn’t stay here until the evening, because public transport stops running quite early. The last bus to Gdansk leaves at about 20:00 local time, and the boat leaves even earlier.

The instability in Europe caused by the First World War (1914-1918) eventually resulted in another international conflict, the Second World War, which broke out two decades later and became even more destructive.

Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party (Nazi Party) came to power in economically and politically unstable Germany.

He reformed the military and signed strategic agreements with Italy and Japan in his quest for world domination. The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 led to Great Britain and France declaring war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.

Over the next six years, the war would claim more lives and cause destruction across a larger area of the globe than any other war in history.

Among the estimated 45-60 million people who died were 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis in concentration camps as part of Hitler's diabolical "Final Solution" policy, also known as .

On the way to World War II

The devastation caused by the Great War, as World War I was called at the time, destabilized Europe.

In many ways, World War II was born out of unresolved issues from the first global conflict.

In particular, Germany's political and economic instability and long-term resentment over the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles provided fertile ground for the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi) Party.

Back in 1923, in his memoirs and in his propaganda treatise “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle), Adolf Hitler predicted a great European war, the result of which would be “the extermination of the Jewish race on German territory.”

After receiving the position of Reich Chancellor, Hitler quickly consolidated power, appointing himself Führer (Supreme Commander) in 1934.

Obsessed with the idea of the superiority of the “pure” German race, which was called the “Aryan”, Hitler believed that war was the only way to obtain the “Lebensraum” (living space for settlement by the German race).

In the mid-30s, he secretly began rearmament of Germany, circumventing the Versailles Peace Treaty. After signing treaties of alliance with Italy and Japan against the Soviet Union, Hitler sent troops to occupy Austria in 1938 and annex Czechoslovakia the following year.

Hitler's overt aggression went unnoticed, as the United States and Soviet Union were focused on domestic politics, and neither France nor Great Britain (the two countries with the greatest destruction in the First World War) were eager to enter into confrontation.

Beginning of World War II 1939

On August 23, 1939, Hitler and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin signed a non-aggression pact called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which created frantic anxiety in London and Paris.

Hitler had long-term plans to invade Poland, a state that Britain and France guaranteed military support in the event of a German attack. The pact meant that Hitler would not have to fight on two fronts after invading Poland. Moreover, Germany received assistance in conquering Poland and dividing its population.

On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland from the west. Two days later, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany, and World War II began.

On September 17, Soviet troops invaded Poland in the east. Poland quickly capitulated under attack on two fronts, and by 1940 Germany and the Soviet Union shared control of the country, according to a secret clause in the non-aggression pact.

Soviet troops then occupied the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and suppressed Finnish resistance in the Russo-Finnish War. For the next six months after the capture of Poland, neither Germany nor the Allies took active action on the Western Front, and the media began to refer to the war as “background.”

However, at sea, the British and German navies engaged in a fierce battle. Deadly German submarines struck British trade routes, sinking more than 100 ships in the first four months of World War II.

World War II on the Western Front 1940-1941

On April 9, 1940, Germany simultaneously invaded Norway and occupied Denmark, and the war broke out with renewed vigor.

On May 10, German troops swept through Belgium and the Netherlands in a plan later called "blitzkrieg" or lightning warfare. Three days later, Hitler's troops crossed the Meuse River and attacked French troops at Sedan, located on the northern border of the Maginot Line.

The system was considered an insurmountable protective barrier, but in fact, German troops broke through, making it completely useless. The British Expeditionary Force was evacuated by sea from Dunkirk at the end of May, while French forces in the south struggled to put up any resistance. By the beginning of summer, France was on the verge of defeat.

About the Second World War in brief

Vtoraya mirovaya voyna 1939-1945

Beginning of World War II

Stages of the Second World War

Causes of World War II

Results of the Second World War

Preface

In addition, this was the first war during which nuclear weapons were used for the first time. In total, 61 countries on all continents took part in this war, which made it possible to call this war a world war, and the dates of its beginning and end are considered the most significant for the history of all mankind.

It is worth adding that World War I, despite the defeat of Germany, did not allow the situation to finally de-escalate and territorial disputes to be resolved.

Thus, as part of this policy, Austria was given up without firing a shot, thanks to which Germany gained enough strength to challenge the rest of the world.
The states that united against the aggression of Germany and its allies included the Soviet Union, the United States, France, Great Britain and China.

After this, the third stage followed, which became devastating for Nazi Germany - within a year, the advance deep into the territory of the Union republics was stopped, and German troops lost the initiative in the war. This stage is considered to be a turning point. During the fourth stage, which ended on May 9, 1945, Nazi Germany suffered a complete defeat, and Berlin was captured by the troops of the Soviet Union. It is also customary to single out the fifth, final stage, which lasted until September 2, 1945, during which the last centers of resistance of the allies of Nazi Germany were broken, and nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan.

Briefly about the main thing

At the same time, knowing the full extent of the threat, the Soviet authorities, instead of focusing on the defense of their western borders, ordered an attack on Finland. During the bloody capture Mannerheim lines Several tens of thousands of Finnish defenders and more than a hundred thousand Soviet soldiers died, while only a small area north of St. Petersburg was captured.

However repressive policies Stalin in the 30s significantly weakened the army. After the Holodomor of 1933-1934, carried out in most of modern Ukraine, the suppression of national self-awareness among the peoples of the republics and the destruction of most of the officer corps, there was no normal infrastructure on the western borders of the country, and the local population was so intimidated that at first entire detachments appeared, fighting on the side of the Germans. However, when the fascists treated the people even worse, the national liberation movements found themselves caught between two fires and were quickly destroyed.

There is an opinion that the initial success of Nazi Germany in capturing the Soviet Union was planned. For Stalin, this was a great opportunity to destroy peoples hostile to him with the wrong hands. Slowing down the advance of the Nazis, throwing crowds of unarmed recruits to slaughter, full-fledged defensive lines were created near distant cities, where the German offensive got bogged down.

The greatest role during the Great Patriotic War was played by several major battles in which Soviet troops inflicted crushing defeats on the Germans. Thus, in just three months from the beginning of the war, fascist troops managed to reach Moscow, where full-fledged defensive lines had already been prepared. A series of battles that took place near the modern capital of Russia are usually called Battle for Moscow. It lasted from September 30, 1941 to April 20, 1942, and it was here that the Germans suffered their first serious defeat.

Another, even more important event was the siege of Stalingrad and the subsequent Battle of Stalingrad. The siege began on July 17, 1942, and was lifted on February 2, 1943, during a turning point battle. It was this battle that turned the tide of the war and took away the strategic initiative from the Germans. Then, from July 5 to August 23, 1943, the Battle of Kursk took place; to this day there has not been a single battle in which such a large number of tanks took part.

However, we must pay tribute to the allies of the Soviet Union. So, after the bloody Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the US naval forces attacked the Japanese fleet, and in the end independently broke the enemy. However, many still believe that the United States acted extremely cruelly by dropping nuclear bombs on cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After such an impressive show of force, the Japanese capitulated. In addition, the combined forces of the USA and Great Britain, which Hitler, despite the defeats in the Soviet Union, feared more than the Soviet troops, landed in Normandy and recaptured all the countries captured by the Nazis, thus diverting the German forces, which helped the Red Army enter Berlin.

To prevent the terrible events of these six years from happening again, the participating countries created United Nations, which to this day strives to maintain security throughout the world. The use of nuclear weapons also showed the world how destructive these types of weapons are, so all countries signed an agreement to ban their production and use. And to this day, it is the memory of these events that keeps civilized countries from new conflicts that could turn into a destructive and disastrous war.

The first major defeat of the Wehrmacht was the defeat of the fascist German troops in the Battle of Moscow (1941-1942), during which the fascist “blitzkrieg” was finally thwarted and the myth of the invincibility of the Wehrmacht was dispelled.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a war against the United States with the attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 8, the USA, Great Britain and a number of other countries declared war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The entry of the United States and Japan into the war affected the balance of forces and increased the scale of the armed struggle.

In North Africa in November 1941 and in January-June 1942, military operations were carried out with varying success, then until the autumn of 1942 there was a lull. In the Atlantic, German submarines continued to cause great damage to the Allied fleets (by the fall of 1942, the tonnage of sunk ships, mainly in the Atlantic, amounted to over 14 million tons). In the Pacific Ocean, at the beginning of 1942, Japan occupied Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Burma, inflicted a major defeat on the British fleet in the Gulf of Thailand, the Anglo-American-Dutch fleet in the Javanese operation, and established supremacy at sea. The American Navy and Air Force, significantly strengthened by the summer of 1942, defeated the Japanese fleet in naval battles in the Coral Sea (May 7-8) and off Midway Island (June).

Third period of the war (November 19, 1942 - December 31, 1943) began with a counteroffensive by Soviet troops, which ended with the defeat of the 330,000-strong German group during the Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943), which marked the beginning of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War and had a great influence on the further course of the entire Second World War. The mass expulsion of the enemy from the territory of the USSR began. The Battle of Kursk (1943) and the advance to the Dnieper completed a radical turning point in the course of the Great Patriotic War. The Battle of the Dnieper (1943) upset the enemy’s plans for waging a protracted war.

At the end of October 1942, when the Wehrmacht was engaged in fierce fighting on the Soviet-German front, Anglo-American troops intensified military operations in North Africa, conducting the El Alamein operation (1942) and the North African landing operation (1942). In the spring of 1943 they carried out the Tunisian operation. In July-August 1943, Anglo-American troops, taking advantage of the favorable situation (the main forces of the German troops took part in the Battle of Kursk), landed on the island of Sicily and took possession of it.

On July 25, 1943, the fascist regime in Italy collapsed, and on September 3, it concluded a truce with the Allies. Italy's withdrawal from the war marked the beginning of the collapse of the fascist bloc. On October 13, Italy declared war on Germany. Nazi troops occupied its territory. In September, the Allies landed in Italy, but were unable to break the defenses of the German troops and suspended active operations in December. In the Pacific and Asia, Japan sought to retain the territories captured in 1941-1942, without weakening the groups on the borders of the USSR. The Allies, having launched an offensive in the Pacific Ocean in the fall of 1942, captured the island of Guadalcanal (February 1943), landed on New Guinea, and liberated the Aleutian Islands.

Fourth period of the war (January 1, 1944 - May 9, 1945) began with a new offensive of the Red Army. As a result of the crushing blows of the Soviet troops, the Nazi invaders were expelled from the Soviet Union. During the subsequent offensive, the USSR Armed Forces carried out a liberation mission against European countries and, with the support of their peoples, played a decisive role in the liberation of Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria and other states. Anglo-American troops landed on June 6, 1944 in Normandy, opening a second front, and began an offensive in Germany. In February, the Crimean (Yalta) Conference (1945) of the leaders of the USSR, USA, and Great Britain took place, which examined issues of the post-war world order and the participation of the USSR in the war with Japan.

In the winter of 1944-1945, on the Western Front, Nazi troops defeated the Allied forces during the Ardennes Operation. To ease the position of the Allies in the Ardennes, at their request, the Red Army began its winter offensive ahead of schedule. Having restored the situation by the end of January, the Allied forces crossed the Rhine River during the Meuse-Rhine Operation (1945), and in April carried out the Ruhr Operation (1945), which ended in the encirclement and capture of a large enemy group. During the Northern Italian Operation (1945), the Allied forces, slowly moving north, with the help of Italian partisans, completely captured Italy in early May 1945. In the Pacific theater of operations, the Allies carried out operations to defeat the Japanese fleet, liberated a number of islands occupied by Japan, approached Japan directly and cut off its communications with the countries of Southeast Asia.

In April-May 1945, the Soviet Armed Forces defeated the last groupings of Nazi troops in the Berlin Operation (1945) and the Prague Operation (1945) and met with the Allied forces. The war in Europe is over. On May 8, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered. May 9, 1945 became Victory Day over Nazi Germany.

At the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference (1945), the USSR confirmed its agreement to enter the war with Japan. For political purposes, the United States carried out atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. On August 8, the USSR declared war on Japan and began military operations on August 9. During the Soviet-Japanese War (1945), Soviet troops, having defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army, eliminated the source of aggression in the Far East, liberated Northeast China, North Korea, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, thereby accelerating the end of World War II. On September 2, Japan surrendered. The Second World War is over.

The Second World War was the largest military conflict in human history. It lasted 6 years, 110 million people were in the ranks of the Armed Forces. More than 55 million people died in World War II. The Soviet Union suffered the greatest casualties, losing 27 million people. Damage from direct destruction and destruction of material assets on the territory of the USSR amounted to almost 41% of all countries participating in the war.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

1. First period wars (1 September 1939 - 21 June 1941 G.) Start wars "invasion Germanic troops V countries western Europe.

The Second World War began on September 1, 1939 with an attack on Poland. On September 3, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, but did not provide practical assistance to Poland. German armies, between September 1 and October 5, defeated Polish troops and occupied Poland, whose government fled to Romania. The Soviet government sent its troops into Western Ukraine to protect the Belarusian and Ukrainian populations in connection with the collapse of the Polish state and to prevent the further spread of Hitler's aggression.

In September 1939 and until the spring of 1940, the so-called “Phantom War” was waged in Western Europe. The French army and the English expeditionary force that landed in France, on the one hand, and the German army, on the other, sluggishly fired at each other and did not take active actions . The calm was false, because... the Germans simply feared a war “on two fronts.”

Having defeated Poland, Germany released significant forces in the east and dealt a decisive blow in Western Europe. On April 8, 1940, the Germans occupied Denmark almost without losses and landed airborne assaults in Norway to capture its capital and major cities and ports. The small Norwegian army and the English troops that came to the rescue resisted desperately. The battle for the northern Norwegian port of Narvik lasted three months, the city passed from hand to hand. But in June 1940 the allies abandoned Norway.

In May, German troops launched an offensive, capturing Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg and through northern France reached the English Channel. Here, near the port city of Dunkirk, one of the most dramatic battles of the early period of the war took place. The British sought to save the remaining troops on the continent. After bloody battles, 215 thousand British and 123 thousand French and Belgians retreating with them crossed to the English coast.

Now the Germans, having deployed their divisions, were rapidly moving towards Paris. On June 14, the German army entered the city, which most of its inhabitants had abandoned. France officially capitulated. Under the terms of the agreement of June 22, 1940, the country was divided into two parts: the Germans ruled in the north and center, occupation laws were in force; the south was ruled from the town (VICHY) by the Petain government, which was entirely dependent on Hitler. At the same time, the formation of the Fighting France troops began under the command of General De Gaulle, who was in London, who decided to fight for the liberation of their homeland.

Now in Western Europe, Hitler had one serious opponent left - England. Waging war against her was significantly complicated by her island position, the presence of her strongest navy and powerful aviation, as well as numerous sources of raw materials and food in her overseas possessions. Back in 1940, the German command was seriously thinking about conducting a landing operation in England, but preparations for war with the Soviet Union required concentrating forces in the East. Therefore, Germany is betting on waging an air and naval war against England. The first major raid on the British capital - London - was carried out by German bombers on August 23, 1940. Subsequently, the bombing became more fierce, and from 1943 the Germans began to bombard English cities, military and industrial facilities with flying shells from the occupied coast of continental Europe.

In the summer and autumn of 1940, fascist Italy became noticeably more active. At the height of the German offensive in France, Mussolini's government declared war on England and France. On September 1 of the same year, a document was signed in Berlin on the creation of a Triple Military-Political Alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan. A month later, Italian troops, with the support of the Germans, invaded Greece, and in April 1941, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria was forced to join the Triple Alliance. As a result, by the summer of 1941, at the time of the attack on the Soviet Union, most of Western Europe was under German and Italian control; Among the large countries, Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland, and Portugal remained neutral. In 1940, a large-scale war began on the African continent. Hitler's plans included creating a colonial empire there on the basis of Germany's former possessions. The Union of South Africa was supposed to be turned into a pro-fascist dependent state, and the island of Madagascar into a reservoir for Jews expelled from Europe.

Italy hoped to expand its possessions in Africa at the expense of a significant part of Egypt, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, French and British Somalia. Together with the previously captured Libya and Ethiopia, they were supposed to become part of the “great Roman Empire”, the creation of which the Italian fascists dreamed of. On September 1, 1940, January 1941, the Italian offensive, undertaken to capture the port of Alexandria in Egypt and the Suez Canal, failed. Going on a counter-offensive, the British Army of the Nile inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italians in Libya. In January - March 1941 The British regular army and colonial troops defeated the Italians from Somalia. The Italians were completely defeated. This forced the Germans at the beginning of 1941. to transfer to North Africa, to Tripoli, the expeditionary force of Rommel, one of the most capable military commanders in Germany. Rommel, later nicknamed the “Desert Fox” for his skillful actions in Africa, went on the offensive and after 2 weeks reached the Egyptian border. The British lost many strongholds, retaining only the Tobruk fortress, which protected the path inland to the Nile. In January 1942, Rommel went on the offensive and the fortress fell. This was the last success of the Germans. Having coordinated reinforcements and cut off enemy supply routes from the Mediterranean, the British liberated Egyptian territory.

2. The second period of the war (June 22, 1941 - November 18, 1942) the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, the expansion of the scale of the war, the collapse of Hitler’s blitzkrieg doctrine.
On June 22, 1941, Germany treacherously attacked the USSR. Together with Germany, Hungary, Romania, Finland, and Italy opposed the USSR. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union began, which became the most important part of the Second World War. The entry of the USSR into the war led to the consolidation of all progressive forces in the world in the fight against fascism and influenced the policies of the leading world powers. The government, Great Britain and the USA declared support for the USSR on June 22-24, 1941; Subsequently, agreements were concluded on joint actions and military-economic cooperation between the USSR, England and the USA. In August 1941, the USSR and England sent their troops into Iran to prevent the possibility of creating fascist bases in the Middle East. These joint military-political actions marked the beginning of the creation of an anti-Hitler coalition. The Soviet-German front became the main front of the Second World War.

70% of the army personnel of the fascist bloc, 86% of tanks, 100% of motorized formations, and up to 75% of artillery acted against the USSR. Despite short-term initial successes, Germany failed to achieve the strategic goals of the war. Soviet troops in heavy battles exhausted the enemy's forces, stopped his offensive in all the most important directions and prepared the conditions for launching a counteroffensive. The decisive military-political event of the first year of the Great Patriotic War and the first defeat of the Wehrmacht in the Second World War was the defeat of fascist German troops in the Battle of Moscow in 1941-1942, during which the fascist blitzkrieg was finally thwarted and the myth of the invincibility of the Wehrmacht was dispelled. In the fall of 1941, the Nazis prepared an attack on Moscow as the final operation of the entire Russian company. They gave it the name “Typhoon”; it was apparently assumed that no force could withstand the all-destroying fascist hurricane. By this time, the main forces of Hitler's army were concentrated at the front. In total, the Nazis managed to assemble about 15 armies, numbering 1 million 800 thousand soldiers, officers, over 14 thousand guns and mortars, 1,700 aircraft, 1,390 aircraft. The fascist troops were commanded by experienced military leaders of the German army - Kluge, Hoth, Guderian. Our army had the following forces: 1250 thousand people, 990 tanks, 677 aircraft, 7600 guns and mortars. They were united into three fronts: Western - under the command of General I.P. Konev, Bryansky - under the command of General A.I. Eremenko, reserve - under the command of Marshal S.M. Budyonny. Soviet troops entered the battle of Moscow in difficult conditions. The enemy deeply invaded the country; he captured the Baltic states, Belarus, Moldova, a significant part of the territory of Ukraine, blocked Leningrad, and reached the distant approaches to Moscow.

The Soviet command took all measures to repel the upcoming enemy offensive in the western direction. Much attention was paid to the construction of defensive structures and lines, which began in July. In the tenth day of October, an extremely difficult situation developed near Moscow. A significant part of the formations fought surrounded. There was no continuous line of defense.

The Soviet command was faced with extremely difficult and responsible tasks aimed at stopping the enemy on the approaches to Moscow.

At the end of October - beginning of November, at the cost of incredible efforts, Soviet troops managed to stop the Nazis in all directions. Hitler's troops were forced to go on the defensive just 80-120 km away. from Moscow. There was a pause. The Soviet command gained time to further strengthen the approaches to the capital. On December 1, the Nazis made their last attempt to break through to Moscow in the center of the Western Front, but the enemy was defeated and driven back to their original lines. The defensive battle for Moscow was won.

The words “Great Russia, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us,” spread throughout the country.

The defeat of German troops near Moscow is a decisive military-political event in the first year of the Great Patriotic War, the beginning of its radical turn and the first major defeat of the Nazis in the Second World War. Near Moscow, the fascist plan for the rapid defeat of our country was finally thwarted. The defeat of the Wehrmacht on the outskirts of the Soviet capital shook Hitler's military machine to its core and undermined Germany's military prestige in the eyes of world public opinion. The contradictions within the fascist bloc intensified, and the plans of the Hitler clique to enter the war against our country, Japan and Turkey, failed. As a result of the victory of the Red Army near Moscow, the authority of the USSR in the international arena increased. This outstanding military success had a huge impact on the merger of anti-fascist forces and the intensification of the liberation movement in the territories not occupied by the fascists. The battle of Moscow began a radical turn in the course of the war. It was of great importance not only in military and political terms and not only for the Red Army and our people, but also for all the peoples who fought against Nazi Germany. Strong morale, patriotism, and hatred of the enemy helped the Soviet wars to overcome all difficulties and achieve historical success near Moscow. This outstanding feat of theirs was highly appreciated by the grateful Motherland, the valor of 36 thousand soldiers and commanders was awarded military orders and medals, and 110 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Over 1 million defenders of the capital were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Moscow.”

The attack of Hitler's Germany on the USSR changed the military and political situation in the world. The United States made its choice, rapidly moving to the forefront in many sectors of the economy and especially in military-industrial production.

The government of Franklin Roosevelt declared its intention to support the USSR and other countries of the anti-Hitler coalition with all the means at its disposal. On August 14, 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill signed the famous “Atlantic Charter” - a program of goals and specific actions in the fight against German fascism. As the war spread throughout the world, the struggle for sources of raw materials and food, for control over shipping became increasingly acute. in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. From the first days of the war, the Allies, primarily England, managed to control the countries of the Near and Middle East, which supplied them with food, raw materials for the military industry, and replenishment of manpower. Iran, which included British and Soviet troops, Iraq and Saudi Arabia supplied the allies with oil, this “Bread of War”. The British deployed numerous troops from India, Australia, New Zealand and Africa to their defense. In Turkey, Syria and Lebanon the situation was less stable. Having declared its neutrality, Türkiye supplied Germany with strategic raw materials, purchasing them from the British colonies. The center of German intelligence in the Middle East was located in Turkey. Syria and Lebanon after the surrender of France increasingly fell into the sphere of fascist influence.

A threatening situation for the Allies has developed since 1941 in the Far East and vast areas of the Pacific Ocean. Here Japan increasingly loudly declared itself as the sovereign master. Back in the 30s, Japan made territorial claims, acting under the slogan “Asia for Asians.”

England, France and the USA had strategic and economic interests in this vast area, but were preoccupied with the growing threat from Hitler and initially did not have sufficient forces for a war on two fronts. There was no opinion among Japanese politicians and military personnel about where to strike next: not the north, against the USSR, or to the south and southwest, to capture Indochina, Malaysia, and India. But one object of Japanese aggression has been identified since the beginning of the 30s - China. The fate of the war in China, the most populous country in the world, was decided not only on the battlefields, because... here the interests of several great powers collided, incl. USA and USSR. By the end of 1941, the Japanese made their choice. They considered the destruction of Pearl Harbor, the main American naval base in the Pacific, to be the key to success in the struggle for control of the Pacific Ocean.

4 days after Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declared war on America.

On January 1, 1942, Roosevelt, Churchill, USSR Ambassador to America Litvinov and the representative of China signed the Declaration of the United Nations in Washington, which was based on the Atlantic Charter. Later, 22 more states joined it. This most important historical document finally determined the composition and goals of the forces of the anti-Hitler coalition. At the same meeting, a joint command of the Western Allies was created - the “joint Anglo-American headquarters.”

Japan continued to achieve success after success. Singapore, Indonesia, and many islands of the southern seas were captured. There is a real danger for India and Australia.

And yet, the Japanese command, blinded by the first successes, clearly overestimated its capabilities, scattering the forces of the aviation fleet and army over a vast expanse of oceans, on numerous islands, and on the territories of occupied countries.

Having recovered from the first setbacks, the Allies slowly but steadily switched to active defense and then to the offensive. But a less fierce war was going on in the Atlantic. At the beginning of the war, England and France had overwhelming superiority over Germany at sea. The Germans did not have aircraft carriers; battleships were only being built. After the occupation of Norway and France, Germany received well-equipped submarine fleet bases on the Atlantic coast of Europe. A difficult situation for the Allies developed in the North Atlantic, where the routes of sea convoys from America and Canada to Europe passed. The route to the northern Soviet ports along the Norwegian coast was difficult. At the beginning of 1942, on the orders of Hitler, who attached more importance to the northern theater of military operations, the Germans transferred the German fleet there, led by the new super-powerful battleship Tirpitz (named after the founder of the German fleet). It was clear that the outcome of the Battle of the Atlantic could affect the further course of the war. Reliable protection of the coasts of America and Canada and sea caravans was organized. By the spring of 1943, the Allies achieved a turning point in the battle at sea.

Taking advantage of the absence of a second front, in the summer of 1942, Nazi Germany launched a new strategic offensive on the Soviet-German front. Hitler's plan, designed for a simultaneous attack on the Caucasus and in the Stalingrad area, was initially doomed to failure. In the summer of 1942, strategic planning gave priority to economic considerations. The capture of the Caucasus region, rich in raw materials, primarily oil, was supposed to strengthen the international position of the Reich in a war that threatened to drag on. The primary goal, therefore, was the conquest of the Caucasus up to the Caspian Sea and then the Volga region and Stalingrad. In addition, the conquest of the Caucasus should have prompted Turkey to enter the war against the USSR.

The main event of the armed struggle on the Soviet-German front in the second half of 1942 - early 1943. became the Battle of Stalingrad, it began on July 17 in conditions unfavorable for the Soviet troops. The enemy outnumbered them in the Stalingrad direction in personnel: 1.7 times, in artillery and tanks - 1.3 times, in aircraft - 2 times. Many formations of the Stalingrad Front created on July 12 were formed recently. Soviet troops had to hastily create defenses on unprepared lines.

The enemy made several attempts to break through the defenses of the Stalingrad Front, encircle his troops on the right bank of the Don, reach the Volga and immediately capture Stalingrad. Soviet troops heroically repelled the onslaught of the enemy, who had an overwhelming superiority in forces in some areas, and delayed his movement.

When the advance into the Caucasus slowed down, Hitler decided to simultaneously attack in both main directions, although the Wehrmacht's human resources had by this time been significantly reduced. Through defensive battles and successful counterattacks in the first half of August, Soviet troops thwarted the enemy's plan to capture Stalingrad on the move. The fascist German troops were forced to be drawn into protracted bloody battles, and the German command pulled ever new forces towards the city.

Soviet troops operating northwest and southeast of Stalingrad pinned down significant enemy forces, helping the troops fighting directly at the walls of Stalingrad, and then in the city itself. The most difficult trials in the Battle of Stalingrad fell on the 62nd and 64th armies, commanded by generals V.I. Chuikov and M.S. Shumilov. Pilots of the 8th and 16th Air Armies interacted with the ground forces. The sailors of the Volga military flotilla provided great assistance to the defenders of Stalingrad. In fierce four-month battles on the outskirts of the city and in it itself, the enemy group suffered heavy losses. His offensive capabilities were exhausted, and the aggressor's troops were stopped. Having exhausted and bled the enemy, the armed forces of our country created the conditions for a counteroffensive and crushing the enemy at Stalingrad, finally seizing the strategic initiative and making a radical change in the course of the war.

The failure of the Nazi offensive on the Soviet-German front in 1942 and the failures of the Japanese armed forces in the Pacific forced Japan to abandon the planned attack on the USSR and switch to defense in the Pacific at the end of 1942.

3.Third period wars (19 November 1942 - 31 December 1943) root fracture V progress war. Crash offensive strategies fascist block.

The period began with a counter-offensive by Soviet troops, which ended with the encirclement and defeat of the 330-thousand-strong German fascist group during the Battle of Stalingrad, which made a huge contribution to achieving a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War and had a decisive influence on the further course of the entire war.

The victory of the Soviet armed forces at Stalingrad is one of the most important glorious heroic chronicles of the Great Patriotic War, the largest military and political events of the Second World War, the most important of all on the path of the Soviet people, the entire anti-Hitler coalition to the final defeat of the Third Reich.

The defeat of large enemy forces in the Battle of Stalingrad demonstrated the power of our state and its army, the maturity of Soviet military art in conducting both defense and offensive, the highest level of skill, courage and fortitude of Soviet soldiers. The defeat of the fascist troops at Stalingrad shook the building of the fascist bloc and aggravated the internal political situation of Germany itself and its allies. Friction between the bloc members intensified; Japan and Turkey were forced to abandon their intention to enter into a war against our country at an opportune moment.

At Stalingrad, the Far Eastern rifle divisions fought steadfastly and courageously against the enemy, 4 of them received honorary titles of guards. During the battle, the Far Easterner M. Passar accomplished his feat. The sniper squad of Sergeant Maxim Passar provided great assistance to the 117th Infantry Regiment in carrying out combat missions. The Nanai hunter had 234 killed Nazis on his personal account; in one battle, two blocking enemy machine guns fired strong barrage fire at our units. M. Passar, approaching a distance of 100 meters, suppressed these two firing points and thereby ensured the advance of the Soviet troops. In the same battle, M. Passar died a heroic death.

The people sacredly honor the memory of the defenders of the city on the Volga. Recognition of their special merits is the construction on Mamayev Kurgan - the sacred place of the city of the hero - a majestic monument - ensemble, mass graves with an eternal flame in the square of fallen soldiers, a museum - panorama "Battle of Stalingrad", a house of soldier's glory and many other memorials, monuments and historical places . The victory of Soviet weapons on the banks of the Volga contributed to the consolidation of the anti-Hitler coalition, which included the Soviet Union as the leading power. It largely predetermined the success of the operation of the Anglo-American troops in North Africa, allowing the Allies to deliver a decisive blow to Italy. Hitler tried at any cost to prevent Italy from leaving the war. He tried to restore Mussolini's regime. Meanwhile, the anti-Hitler patriotic war was unfolding in Italy. But the liberation of Italy from the Nazis was still far away.

In Germany by 1943, everything was subordinated to meeting military needs. Even in peacetime, Hitler introduced compulsory labor service for everyone. Millions of concentration camp prisoners and residents of conquered countries deported to Germany worked for the war. All of Europe conquered by the Nazis worked for the war.

Hitler promised the Germans that Germany's enemies would never set foot on German soil. And yet the war came to Germany. The raids began back in 1940-41, and from 1943, when the Allies achieved air superiority, massive bombing became regular.

The German leadership considered a new offensive on the Soviet-German front to be the only means of restoring the shaky military position and international prestige. A powerful offensive in 1943 was supposed to change the situation at the front in favor of Germany, raise the morale of the Wehrmacht and the population, and keep the fascist bloc from collapse.

In addition, fascist politicians counted on the inactivity of the anti-Hitler coalition - the USA and England, which continued to violate obligations to open a second front in Europe, which allowed Germany to transfer fresh divisions from the west to the Soviet-German front. The Red Army had to once again fight the main forces of the fascist bloc, and the Kursk region was chosen as the site of the offensive. To carry out the operation, the most combat-ready Nazi formations were brought in - 50 selected divisions, including 16 tank and motorized divisions, concentrated in the Army groups “Center” and “South” north and south of the Kursk salient. Great hopes were placed on the new Tiger and Panther tanks, Ferdinand assault guns, new Focke-Wulf-190 A fighters and Hentel-129 attack aircraft, which arrived at the beginning of the offensive.

The Soviet high command prepared the Red Army for decisive action during the summer and autumn campaign of 1943. A decision was made on a deliberate defense in order to disrupt the enemy’s offensive, bleed him dry and thereby create the preconditions for his complete defeat through a subsequent counter-offensive. Such a bold decision is evidence of the high maturity of the strategic thinking of the Soviet command, the correct assessment of the forces and means of both their own and the enemy, and the military-economic capabilities of the country.

The grandiose Battle of Kursk, which was a complex of defensive and offensive operations of the Soviet troops to disrupt a major enemy offensive and defeat its strategic group, began at dawn on July 5 (map)

The Nazis had no doubt about success, but the Soviet war did not waver. They shot at fascist tanks with artillery fire and destroyed their guns, disabled them with grenades and set them on fire with combustible bottles; rifle units cut off enemy infantry and fighters. On July 12, the largest oncoming tank battle of the Second World War took place in the Prokhorovka area. A total of 1.2 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns met in a small space. In a fierce battle, the Soviet warriors showed unprecedented feat and won. Having exhausted and bled the German fascist attack groups in defensive battles and battles, Soviet troops created favorable opportunities for launching a counteroffensive. The Battle of Kursk lasted 50 days and nights as an outstanding event of the Second World War. During it, the Soviet armed forces inflicted such a defeat on Nazi Germany from which it could not recover until the end of the war.

As a result of the defeat of the Nazi troops near Kursk, Germany's foreign economic situation sharply worsened. Its isolation in the international arena has increased. The fascist bloc, formed on the basis of the aggressive aspirations of its participants, found itself on the verge of collapse. The crushing defeat at Kursk forced the fascist command to transfer large ground and air forces from the west to the Soviet-German front. This circumstance made it easier for the Anglo-American troops to carry out the landing operation in Italy and predetermined the withdrawal of this ally of Germany from the war. The victory of the Red Army in the Battle of Kursk had a profound impact on the entire further course of the Second World War. After it, it became obvious that the USSR was able to win the war alone without the help of its allies, completely clear its territory of occupiers and unite the peoples of Europe who were languishing in Hitler’s captivity. The boundless courage, perseverance and mass patriotism of Soviet soldiers were the most important factors in the victory over a strong enemy in the battles of the Kursk Bulge.

The defeat of the Wehrmacht on the Soviet-German front by the end of 1943 completed a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War, which began with the counter-offensive of Soviet troops at Stalingrad, deepened the crisis of the fascist bloc, gave scope to the anti-fascist movement in the occupied countries and Germany itself, and contributed to the strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition . At the Tehran Conference of 1943, the final decision was made to open a second front in France in May 1944. The war was a fascist German front.

4. Fourth period wars (1 January 1944 - May 9, 1945) Destruction fascist block, exile enemy troops behind limits THE USSR, Creation second front, liberation from occupation countries Europe, full collapse fascist Germany And her unconditional surrender.

In the summer of 1944, an event occurred that decided the outcome of the war in the west: Anglo-American troops landed in France. The so-called Second Front began to operate. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed on this back in November - December 1943 at a meeting in Tehran. They also decided that at the same time Soviet troops would launch a powerful offensive in Belarus. The German command expected the invasion, but could not determine the beginning and location of the operation. For two months, the Allies carried out diversionary maneuvers and on the night of June 5-6, 1944, unexpectedly for the Germans, in cloudy weather, they dropped three airborne divisions on the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy. At the same time, a fleet with Allied troops moved across the English Channel.

In 1944, the Soviet armed forces fought dozens of battles that went down in history as examples of the outstanding military art of Soviet commanders, the courage and heroism of the soldiers of the Red Army and Navy. Having carried out a series of successive operations, in the first half of 1944 our troops defeated the fascist Army Groups “A” and “South”, defeated Army Groups “North” and liberated part of the Leningrad and Kalinin regions, right-bank Ukraine and Crimea. The blockade of Leningrad was finally lifted, and in Ukraine the Red Army reached the state border, in the foothills of the Carpathians and into the territory of Romania.

The Belarusian and Lvov-Sandomierz operations of Soviet troops carried out in the summer of 1944 covered a vast territory. Soviet troops liberated Belarus, the western regions of Ukraine and part of Poland. Our troops reached the Vistula River and together captured important operational bridgeheads.

The defeat of the enemy in Belarus and the successes of our troops in the southern Crimea of the Soviet-German front created favorable conditions for launching attacks in the northern and southern directions. Areas of Norway were liberated. In the south, our troops began liberating the peoples of Europe from fascism. In September - October 1944, the Red Army liberated part of Czechoslovakia, assisted the Slovak National Uprising, Bulgaria and the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia in the liberation of the territories of these states and continued a powerful offensive to liberate Hungary. The Baltic operation, carried out in September November 1944, ended with the liberation of almost all of the Baltic states. 1944 was the year of the end of the directly people's, patriotic war; the battle for survival is over, the people defended their land, their state independence. Soviet troops, entering the territory of Europe, were guided by duty and responsibility to the people of their country, the peoples of enslaved Europe, which consisted in the need for the complete destruction of Hitler's military machine and the conditions that would allow it to be revived. The liberation mission of the Soviet Army complied with the norms and international agreements developed by the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition throughout the war.

Soviet troops unleashed crushing blows on the enemy, as a result of which the German invaders were expelled from Soviet soil. They carried out a liberation mission in relation to European countries, played a decisive role in the liberation of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, as well as Albania and other states. They contributed to the liberation of the peoples of Italy, France and other countries from the fascist yoke.

In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met in Yalta to discuss the future of the world after the war was drawing to a close. It was decided to create a United Nations organization and divide defeated Germany into occupation zones. According to the agreement, two to three months after the end of hostilities in Europe, the USSR was to enter the war with Japan.

In the Pacific theater of operations at this time, the Allied forces carried out operations to defeat the Japanese fleet, liberated a number of islands occupied by Japan, approached Japan directly and cut off its communications with the countries of the southern seas and East Asia. In April - May 1945, the Soviet armed forces defeated the last groupings of Nazi troops in the Berlin and Prague operations and met with the Allied forces.

In the spring of 1945, relations between England and the USA, on the one hand, and the USSR, on the other, became complicated. According to Churchill, the British and Americans feared that after defeating Germany it would be difficult to stop “Russian imperialism on the path to world domination,” and therefore decided that in the last stage of the war the Allied army should advance as far as possible to the East.

On April 12, 1945, US President Franklin Roosevelt died suddenly. His successor was Harry Truman, who took a tougher position towards the Soviet Union. Roosevelt's death gave Hitler and his circle hope for the collapse of the Allied coalition. But the common goal of England, the USA and the USSR - the destruction of Nazism - prevailed over the increasing mutual mistrust and disagreements.

The war was ending. In April, the Soviet and American armies approached the Elbe River. The physical existence of the fascist leaders also ended. On April 28, Italian partisans executed Mussolini, and on April 30, when street fighting was already taking place in the center of Berlin, Hitler committed suicide. On May 8, an act of unconditional surrender of Germany was signed on the outskirts of Berlin. The war in Europe is over. May 9 became Victory Day, a great holiday of our people and all humanity.

5. Fifth period war. (9 May) 1945 - 2 September 1945) Destruction imperialist Japan. Liberation peoples Asia from Japan. Ending Second World war.

The interests of restoring peace throughout the world also required the rapid elimination of the Far Eastern hotbed of war.

At the Potsdam Conference July 17 - August 2, 1945. The USSR confirmed its consent to enter the war with Japan.

On July 26, 1945, the USA, England and China presented Japan with an ultimatum demanding immediate unconditional surrender. He was rejected. On August 6 in Hiroshima, on August 9, atomic bombs were detonated over Nagasaki. As a result, two cities, completely populated, were virtually wiped off the face of the earth. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and moved its divisions into Manchuria, a Japanese-occupied province of China. During the Manchurian operation of 1945, Soviet troops, having defeated one of the strongest groupings of Japanese ground forces - the Kwantung Army, eliminated the source of aggression in the Far East, liberated Northeast China, North Korea, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, thereby accelerating the end of World War II . On August 14, Japan surrendered. The official act of surrender was signed on board the American battleship Missouri on September 2, 1945 by representatives of the USA, England, the USSR and Japan. The Second World War is over.

The defeat of the fascist-militarist bloc was the natural result of a long and bloody war, in which the fate of world civilization and the question of the existence of hundreds of millions of people were decided. In terms of its results, impact on the lives of peoples and their self-awareness, and influence on international processes, the victory over fascism became an event of the greatest historical significance. The countries participating in the Second World War went through a difficult path in their state development. The main lesson they learned from the post-war reality was to prevent the unleashing of new aggression on the part of any state.

The decisive factor in the victory over Nazi Germany and its satellites was the struggle of the Soviet Union, which united the efforts of all peoples and states in the battle against fascism.

Victory in World War II is the common merit and joint capital of all states and peoples who fought against the forces of war and obscurantism.

The anti-Hitler coalition initially included 26, and by the end of the war - over 50 states. The second front in Europe was opened by the Allies only in 1944, and one cannot help but admit that the main burden of the war fell on the shoulders of our country.

The Soviet-German front from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945 remained the decisive front of the Second World War in terms of the number of troops involved, the duration and intensity of the struggle, its scope and its final results.

Most of the operations carried out by the Red Army during the war were included in the golden fund of military art, they were distinguished by determination, maneuverability and high activity, original plans and their creative implementation.

During the war, a galaxy of commanders, naval commanders and military commanders grew up in the Armed Forces, who successfully controlled troops and naval forces in operations. Among them are G.K. Zhukov, A.M. Vasilevsky, A.N. Antonov, L.A. Govorov, I.S. Konev, K.K. Rokossovsky, S.K. Timoshenko and others.

The Great Patriotic War confirmed the fact that the aggressor can be defeated only by uniting the political, economic and military efforts of all states.

In this regard, the fact of the creation and activity of the anti-Hitler coalition - a union of states and peoples who united their efforts against a common enemy - is valuable and instructive. In modern conditions, a war with the use of nuclear weapons threatens civilization itself, so the people of our planet must today recognize themselves as a single human society, overcome differences, prevent the emergence of dictatorial regimes in any country, and with common efforts fight for peace on Earth.