World War II took place from 1939 to 1945 between the Axis powers — Germany, Italy and Japan — and the Allies — mainly France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States.

On May 7, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies in Reims, France, ending World War II and the Third Reich ... to convince the United States, Britain, and France, all of whom ...

World War II began when Britain and France declared ... to reinforce hostility by assigning Germany as the sole instigator of the First World War. The Great Depression and the economic ...

Richard Overy, professor of contemporary history at King's College London, notes that after the war, Hitler's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop listed three main reasons for Germany's defeat ...

The harsh terms it imposed on Germany in particular created great suffering and resentment ... In the build-up to World War II, Germany annexed Austria, which was immediately to its south and ...

World War II is one of the most significant events in human history. It claimed the lives of millions, devastated the economies of multiple countries, and forever changed life as we knew it.

Betty Webb was bored—“terribly bored,” as she later put it. It was the Blitz. Germany was dropping bombs on London, and she was halfway across the country at college learning how to cook and ...

When Winston Churchill christened the clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1940, Britain had spent the previous decade appeasing Nazi Germany ... a veteran of World War I and a ...

French World War II reenactors dressed as ... the war in Europe came to an end with Germany’s surrender to the Allied forces of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and France.