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?

circa 1942: Men of the 7th British Armoured Division, known as the Desert Rats, sitting on a field gun before the fall of Tobruk in the North African Campaign. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

Tobruk: 8 facts about the WW2 confrontation in North Africa

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)

Second World War

In pictures: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Ministry Of Home Defence (Scientific Advisers' Branch), A view of the devastation caused by the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in Japan on 6 August 1945. (Photo by IWM via Getty Images)

Second World War

The science behind the bombing of Hiroshima

Atomic bomb damage in the city of Hiroshima, 1945. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 “razed and burnt around 70 per cent of all buildings”, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

Was the US justified in dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War?

The destroyer USS Shaw explodes in a massive fireball at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. The attack led almost immediately to Germany declaring war on America, and so brought Stalin an unexpected ally of colossal potential power, says Laurence Rees. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Second World War

Why December 1941 was the most important month of the Second World War

The battleship USS California following the attack at Pearl Harbor

Second World War

12 things you (probably) didn’t know about Pearl Harbor

A mushroom cloud over Nagasaki, Japan

Second World War

WW2 10 of the most important Second World War dates

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

The Marshall Plan and the Cold War podcast

The Marshall Plan and the Cold War

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Second World War

The Last Kamikazes

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

Second World War

El Alamein: the line in the sand

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Second World War

China in World War Two

A member of a Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) patrol

Second World War

Desert raiders: the Long Range Desert Group in the Second World War

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

Second World War

The Library The incredible tale of the WW2 Poles who fought back