World War II
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World War II 
 warden in Chelsea, London, in 1939. In 1938, when war with Germany was imminent, the British government set up defence procedures to protect the civilian population against air attacks. At the height of the Blitz, London suffered 57 consecutive nights of bombing from German planes.', copy:'(Image © Billie Love)'});)
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 and Nagasaki (9 August), and the invasion of Manchuria by the Russian army, the Japanese government accepted the Allied terms for unconditional surrender on 14 August. The instrument of surrender was signed on board the US battleship <i>Missouri</i> in Tokyo on 2 September 1945, signalling the end of World War II.', copy:'(Image © The Art Archive)'});)
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 parade drives through New York City, New York, on 8 May 1945. Celebrations were held in Europe and the USA, even though it was to be nearly another six months before the fighting was to end in the Far East.', copy:'(Image © Archive Holdings Inc/Getty Images)'});)
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War between Germany, Italy, and Japan (the Axis powers) on one side, and Britain, the Commonwealth, France, the USA, the USSR, and China (the Allies) on the other. An estimated 55 million lives were lost (20 million of them citizens of the USSR), and 60 million people in Europe were displaced because of bombing raids. The war was fought in the Atlantic theatre (Europe, North Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean) and the Pacific theatre (Far East and the Pacific).
It is estimated that, during the course of the war, for every tonne of bombs dropped on the UK, 315 tonnes fell on Germany.
In 1945 Germany surrendered (May), but Japan fought on until the USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August).
© RM 2009. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.
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