Second World War - Getty Images

Second World War

The Second World War, which started on 1 September 1939, was fought between two groups of countries: on one side were the Axis Powers (primarily Germany, Italy and Japan); and on the other side were the Allies (which included Britain, France, the Soviet Union, China and America, plus Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India). The war broke out when Germany, which was ruled by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, invaded Poland in 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later, on 3 September 1939. It has been estimated that more than 50 million people died in the Second World War, including an estimated six million Jewish people in the Nazi genocide. The conflict ended on 2 September 1945 when Japan formally surrendered to the Allies

Ernest Bevin

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A portrait of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler

Second World War

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WW2 surrender signed, 2 September 1945

Second World War

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Some of the 5,000 Jewish and non-Aryan German child refugees, the 'Kindertransport', arriving in England at Harwich from Germany, 2 December 1938. (Photo by Getty Images)

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Historian Peter Caddick-Adams

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The 11th East Africa Infantry Division fought with the British Fourteenth Army in Burma (Myanmar) during the Burma Campaign, 1944. (Photo by Alamy)

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Victory in the east. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Night view of people jammed into Times Square, New York, celebrating the end of the war in Europe. (Photo by Herbert Gehr/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty

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Hiroshima.

Second World War

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German Chancellor Adolf Hitler reviews storm troopers

Second World War

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A photograph of Rudolph Hoess during his trial in Warsaw in 1947. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

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Rudolf Höss & the men behind the mass murder at Auschwitz. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The original ‘Big Three’ at Livadia Palace in Yalta: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. None of them came away from the summit with everything they had hoped for. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

Second World War

Your guide to...The Yalta and Potsdam conferences, 1945

Left: Hungarian Jews arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau, in German-occupied Poland, in June 1944. Between May and July that year, more than 430,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to the camp complex. Right: Prisoners at Dachau celebrate the liberation of the camp by US soldiers on 29 April 1945. The camp was used again after the war to house SS personnel awaiting trial, and then German refugees. (Photos by Getty Images and Alamy)

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German Heinkel HE-111 bombers fly over Britain during a mission in September 1940

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Tom Hanks in 'Greyhound' (2020)

Second World War

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Winston Churchill gives his famous v-sign. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World WarvideoFrom Winston Churchill to the Bengal famine: are we in denial about our role in WW2?

A group of fighter pilots of No. 32 Squadron relax beside their Hawker Hurricane Mk I fighters at RAF Hawkinge in July 1940

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Adolf Hitler photographed with Nazi war generals

Second World War

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John Nichol is a historian, author and RAF veteran who was captured and paraded on Iraqi television during the Gulf War, before returning to active service. He has since written several works of military history as well as a number of novels, and is a regular commentator on military affairs

Second World War

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This photo dated 1948 shows the devastated city of Hiroshima some three years after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city on 6 August 1945, at the end of World War 2. Around 140,000 people, or more than half of Hiroshima's population at the time, died in the first atomic bombing – with another 70,000 people perishing in the bomb dropped over Nagasaki 9 August 1945. (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

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Simo Häyhä, said to be the deadliest sniper in history

Second World War

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The Lancaster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

American jazz singer Helen Forrest performing with trumpeter Harry James (1916-1983), c1945. (Photo by Metronome/Getty Images)

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Frank Gillard pictured during a 1944 rehearsal for battle reporting

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Two members of the BEF (British Expeditionary Forces)

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The US cutter Spencer attacks U-boat U-175

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Charles Cundall’s painting ‘The Withdrawal From Dunkirk, June 1940’

Second World War

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British ships on convoy duty in the North Atlantic

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