By Aiyana Sood – 4CH
WWII was a war between the Axis powers and the Allies and it was the most destructive war in history.
It started when Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France then declared war on Germany after Hitler refused to end his invasion of Poland. 
It was fought in in Europe, Russia, North Africa and Asia and went from 1939 to 1945 when it was finally won by the Allies.
It ended when Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.
Other reasons for the war were that Germans were also unhappy over the way they were treated after they lost WWI. Hitler became the leader and was very aggressive and the world did not do enough to stop him even though people said he was dangerous.
There were two groups of countries that fought. On one side were the Axis Powers including Germany, Italy and Japan. On the other side were the Allies which included Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, China, the Soviet Union and the USA.
WWII was the most destructive conflict in history because it cost more money, damaged more property, killed more people and caused more far reaching changes than any other war in history, according to the WWII Facts website.
WWII claimed a lot of lives. About 60 million people died and about 40 million of those were civilians – children as well as adults.
Russia suffered most of the deaths (21 million people) – 80% of males born in Russia in 1923 did not survive the war, according to WWII history websites.
It is estimated that 1.5 million children died during the Holocaust. Approximately 1.2 million of them were Jewish and tens of thousands were Gypsies.
There were many battles like The Battle of Britain which started on July 10th, 1940 and it went on for many months because Germany wanted to destroy the British Air Force.
There was also the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 when Japanese aeroplanes attacked the US Navy in Pearl Harbor. The Japanese destroyed ships and killed soldiers and the attack forced the United States to join the fight in WWII.
Another famous battle was D-Day which was the invasion of Normandy which happened on June 6th, 1944.
At Normandy the Allied Forces landed with 150,000 soldiers attacked the Germans on the coast of France. The victory was a turning point for the war, according to historians.
There were many famous leaders in the war.
The chief leaders of the Axis Powers were Adolf Hitler from Germany, Benito Mussolini from Italy and Emperor Hirohito of Japan.
The leaders of the Allies were Winston Churchill from England, Franklin D.Roosevelt from America and Joseph Stalin from Russia.
There were also some famous Commanders leading the armies such as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery from England, General George S. Patton from the USA and Field Marshal Erwin Rommel from Germany who was known as The Desert Fox.
According to the WWII Facts website, between 1939 and 1945 the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs on their enemies.
Many historians believe that the Battle at Stalingrad 1942-1943 is not only arguably the bloodiest battle in history because 800,000-1,600,000 died but they say it was also the turning point of WWII in Europe.
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