World War II in Europe

Abstract

The immediate cause of World War II in Europe was the Nazi invasion of Poland on 1 September, 1939. The driving force was Adolf Hitler who wanted war and racial domination. The war was fought on three main fronts : East, West and Italian. The turning point of the war was in 1944 when the Anglo-American landing took place in Normandy on 6 June 1944. It was a total war covering the entire globe and ended in 1945. The war in Europe ended on 8 May 1945 and the war in Asia ended on 15 August 1945 when Japan agreed to surrender. The war ended with the development of two new tecnologies that greatly influenced the course of the postwar world - atomic power and the ballistic missile.