Nazi Germany, as part of a deliberate program of extermination, systematically killed over 11 million people including 6 million Jews. In addition to Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet gulags (labor camps) led to the deaths of 3.6 million civilians.
Systematic genocide, extermination campaigns, and forced labor, particularly by the Germans, Japanese, and Soviets, led to the deaths of millions. In this regard, Nazi activities alone resulted in 17 million deaths, including six million Jews in what is now known as The Holocaust.
General Buckner was a fighting general and he died in the fighting. His three stars mark the highest ranking military officer to be killed in combat during World War II.
The Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan) were some of the most systematic perpetrators of war crimes in modern history.
Franciszek Honiok (1896 – 31 August 1939) was a Polish man who is famous for having been the first victim of World War II, on the evening of 31 August 1939.
Dorchester native Charles Havlat was the last U.S. soldier to be killed in World War II. He was shot by a sniper just minutes before the ceasefire was to take effect. Photo courtesy of the Dorchester Times. Havlat worked as a farmhand for $1 a day before eventually starting a trucking company with his cousin.
The deadliest and most destructive war in human history claimed between 40 and 50 million lives, displaced tens of millions of people, and cost more than $1 trillion to prosecute. The financial cost to the United States alone was more than $341 billion (approximately $4.8 trillion when adjusted for inflation).
As a highly conformist society, the Japanese military virtually controlled Japan's destiny. Their belief in a master-race convinced many of their divine right to rule and enabled them to carry out massacres without remorse. Regret was a word seldom mentioned within the transcripts of the Japanese war crime tribunals.
The casualties in World War II were much higher. Over 15 million died in battle — nearly double the number from World War I — and 25 million were wounded. Additionally, World War II resulted in over 45 million civilian deaths.
About 4,200,000 Germans died, and about 1,972,000 Japanese died. In all, the scale of human losses during World War II was vast.
Lieutenant General James M. Gavin, pictured here in 1964. Gavin was the youngest major general to command an American division in World War II, being only 37 upon promotion, and the youngest lieutenant general after the war, in March 1955.
A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself, including 2,501 Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded. In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle — and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians.
World War II was a global war that spanned from 1939 to 1945. The war pitted the Allies and the Axis power in the deadliest war in history, and was responsible for the deaths of over 70 million people.
Deaths during World War II
The Soviet Union suffered 8,668,400 dead and another 4,559,000 missing. Germany lost 2,049,872 dead and 1,902,704 missing. China lost 1,324,516 dead and 115,248 missing. Japan lost 1,506,000 dead and 810,000 missing.
Historians estimate that 20,000 (and sometimes up to 80,000) women from as young as seven to the elderly were raped. Witnesses recall Japanese soldiers throwing babies into the air and catching them with their bayonets.
On the whole, Japan is considered to be safe for tourists or other visitors who take a trip there. The country generally has some of the lowest crime rates in the world, especially compared to some other developed countries.
The official English translation of the article is: Article 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China.
The Draft and WWII
This was the first peacetime draft in United States' history. Those who were selected from the draft lottery were required to serve at least one year in the armed forces. Once the U.S. entered WWII, draft terms extended through the duration of the fighting.
The Failure to Attack Germany After It Invaded Poland
One of the worst mistakes of the Second World War occurred right at its outset. When the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, both Britain and France declared war on Germany — and then promptly did nothing.
The people listed below are, or were, the last surviving members of notable groups of World War II veterans, as identified by reliable sources. About 70 million people fought in World War II between 1939 and 1945 and, as of 2022, there are still approximately 167,000 living veterans in the United States alone.
World War I ended precisely on the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month of 1918. At the moment the bells struck and the guns went silent, a body fell in a French village. Henry Gunther was a bank clerk from Baltimore, drafted the year before. He's listed as the last man killed in World War I.
World War II was the largest and most violent military conflict in human history. Official casualty sources estimate battle deaths at nearly 15 million military personnel and civilian deaths at over 38 million.