World War II, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, though related conflicts began earlier.It involved the vast majority of the world's nations-including all the great power's.It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people, from more than 30 different countries. In a state of " total war", the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. marked mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust. WW II had the first use of nuclear in combat, it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. This made World War II the deadliest conflict in history. The Empire of japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937. With the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany formed the Axis with Italy, conquering or subduing much of Europe. following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned between themselves and annexed territories of their European neighbors, including Poland, Finland and the Baltic states.The United Kingdom and the other members of the British Commonwealth were the only major Allied forces continuing the fight against the Axis, with battles taking place in North Africa and the Horn of Africa as well as the long running Battle of the Atlantic. On June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet union, giving a start to the largest land theater of war in history, which tied down the major part of the Axis military forces for the rest of the war. In December 1941, Japan joined the Axis, and attacked the United States and European territories in the Pacific Ocean and quickly conquered much of the Western pacific.the Axis advance was stopped in 1942 when Japan lost a critical Battle of Midway, near Wawaii, and germany was defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. In 1943, with a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasion of Italy which brought about that nation's surrender. and Allied victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded France, while the Soviet Union regained all of it's territorial losses and invaded Germany and it's allies, During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese began suffering major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies defeated the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands. The war in Europe ended with the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet union culminating in the capture of Berlin by the Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German surrender on May 8, 1945. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on July 26, 1945 the United States dropped the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th  and August 9th. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.Thus ending the war.

    WW II U.S. Casualties
         Killed or Missing


Army/Army Air Force 318,274
Navy 62,614
Marine Corps. 24,511
Coast Guard 1,917
U.S. Merchant Marines 9,521

Total 407,316

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Number of Veterans that Served during WW II

U.S. Army/Air Force 11,260,000
U.S. Navy 4,183,446
U.S. Marine Corps. 669,100
U.S. Coast Guard 241,093

Total Served 16,353,639

U.S. Soldiers Wounded

U.S. Army/Air Force 565,861
U.S. Navy 37,778
U.S. Marine Corps 68,207

Total 671,846