Wikijunior:World War II/Overview of World War II
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
[edit] What is World War II?
"World War II." I bet you can guess something about this war just by its name: the whole world seemed to be fighting, and it wasn't the first time. Maybe you've heard of World War II before, or maybe you haven't. It was a very, very sad war. Your grandparents or your great-grandparents might have experienced it. Now, you'll get to travel through time and see it for yourself. You'll watch the blitz fill the skies, you'll fight with the soldiers on D-Day, and you'll fly in the Battle of the Coral Sea. It'll be a great adventure!
First, you might want to know a little about the war. World War II was almost exactly six years long: it started on September 1 in 1939, and it ended on September 2, 1945. Over 60 million people died as a result, making it the worst conflict in human history. Many countries fought in this war. Germany, Italy, and Japan formed the evil "Axis" side, and they wanted to take land that belonged to other countries. England, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States formed the "Allies" (goodies) team, and they wanted to stop the Axis. Italy started out on the Axis team, but switched sides halfway through the war.
Are you ready to enter World War II? Then let's go!
