The global war

The Second World War of 1939–45 involved almost every part of the world. What was the impact of the conflict in countries such as Japan, Canada, New Zealand, India, America and China?

Napoleon Bonaparte retreats from Moscow, as depicted in a painting from 1851. The French leader is the classic example of a man driven to wage war by a lust for power, says Richard Overy. (Photo by Getty Images)

What drives our addiction to war?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Men of the SAS returning from a three-month trip behind enemy lines during the war in North Africa. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“They changed the way war is run”: Ben Macintyre on the early SAS. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Soldiers standing on the western front during WW2

Second World War

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Second World War

Japanese troops celebrate the capture of a British artillery position, Hong Kong, December 1941 (Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

The lion and the rising sun: Britain and Japan's 400-year relationship. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Marshall Plan and the Cold War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

El Alamein battle in the Libyan desert, c1942. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

El Alamein: the line in the sand. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

China in World War Two. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An Iranian Jewish woman walks past the graves of Polish Jews who died in Iran during and after the Second World War

The LibraryThe incredible tale of the WW2 Poles who fought back. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Postwar occupations and Raleigh bicycles. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Soviet science and feeding Britain at war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Reporting from war zones. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Holocaust landscapes. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten in Burma, March 1944. (Photo by Roger Viollet/Getty Images)

When Britain tamed ‘superman’. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The LibraryThe History Essay: How Europe rose from the dead. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Timeline: the countdown to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A British sergeant measure the chest sizes of Indian men

Books interview with Yasmin Khan: "By the end of the war, few people in the Raj believed it could continue to exist". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

India at war and mining accidents. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Second World War

Kamikaze pilots and Captain John Smith. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Kamikaze pilot scores a direct hit on a US aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean, c1942. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

The reluctant kamikaze of the Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Student radicals and Crete in WWII. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

“Being in a prison camp was better than going to a British boarding school”: child hostage of Japanese in WW2 reflects on his experience. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Worshippers inside the Duke Street Baptist Church in Richmond, Surrey, listening to a service in 1954. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Getty Images)

The LibraryD-Day for God?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Residents of Chongqing on the streets of their bombed-ravaged city in the autumn of 1940. China's temporary wartime capital was subjected to 218 Japanese air raids between May 1938 and August 1941, costing nearly 12,000 lives. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

China’s forgotten Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

LA Times photo from newspaper report 1942

A big day in history: Japanese planes attack Los Angeles. Or do they?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British soldiers on the front of El Alamein. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

El Alamein: The British empire's last hurrah. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.