The Inter-war Years
Hopes for a lasting peace after the First World War were short-lived. The next two decades witnessed a series of wars and diplomatic crises that pointed the way to a new global conflict.

The Phoney War
Having failed to prevent the defeat of Poland, Britain braced itself for an all-out German attack and civil defence plans were put into effect. Although there was some action at sea, there was little activity on land or in the air. The war developed a sense of unreality which earned it the title of the 'Phoney War'.

Blitzkrieg
In the spring of 1940 Germany launched Blitzkrieg (lightning war) attacks in Scandinavia and Western Europe. German tanks and assault troops with close air support broke through the lightly defended Ardennes. They drove north, splitting the Allied armies in two. The British Expeditionary Force and the French First Army were cornered at Dunkirk but 338,000 managed to escape across the English Channel. 

The Battle of Britain
After the collapse of France, Britain stood alone. In July 1940 Hitler directed that plans be drawn up for an invasion of the British mainland, codenamed Operation 'Sealion'. The Luftwaffe began its main offensive on 13 August 1940, attacking airfields, radar stations, ports and aircraft factories in a bid to win command of the skies over southern England. Fighter Command was down to its last reserves when, on 7 September 1940, the assault was unexpectedly switched to London. The Luftwaffe's efforts intensified but so did its losses. On 17 September Hitler postponed Operation 'Sealion' indefinitely.

The Home Front

Unable to launch an invasion, Germany tried instead to bomb Britain into submission. The Blitz, the period of most sustained bombing, lasted from September 1940 until the late spring of 1941. Life in Britain was hard and drab. Every kind of resource was mobilised for the war effort. The conscription of men and women into civil as well as military occupations was introduced, there was severe rationing and there was an influx of thousands of refugees and foreign servicemen, especially Americans, once preparations began for an Allied invasion of Europe.

The Blitz Experience
The Blitz Experience is a carefully researched reconstruction of an air raid shelter and a blitzed street in 1940.  Appropriate sights, sounds and smells evoke for visitors a sensation of being caught in the bombing of London during the Second World War.

The War at Sea against Germany and Italy

For Britain, dependent upon imports, command of the sea was vital. The German surface fleet represented a constant menace to Allied merchant shipping; in the event, it did relatively little damage. German submarines posed the biggest threat to the supply routes crossing the Atlantic. The U-boats inflicted losses averaging 96 ships a month in 1942, but by the end of 1943 the Battle of the Atlantic had swung in favour of the Allies. Shipping in the Mediterranean and the Arctic convoys were also at great risk. Out of 40 Arctic convoys, 89 merchant ships and 18 warships were sunk.

The Mediterranean and the Middle East
As Germany completed the domination of Western Europe, fighting began in the Mediterranean theatre. German forces swept through Greece in the spring of 1941 and an airborne invasion of Crete forced British troops to evacuate the island. In Egypt, the German Afrika Corps posed a new threat in the Western Desert under the aggressive leadership of General Rommel. In June 1942, Rommel captured the important port of Tobruk. Two months later, Lieutenant-General Montgomery took command of the British Eighth Army and ended its series of defeats with the victory at El Alamein. Operation 'Torch', the landing of three British and American armies under the control of General Eisenhower, led in May to the surrender of the Axis forces in North Africa, the capture of Sicily and the subsequent invasion of Italy.

Eastern Front

The German offensive, Operation 'Barbarossa', began on 22 June 1941, taking the Soviet forces by surprise. Employing well-tried Blitzkreig tactics, the 3 million strong force struck deep into the Soviet heartland, capturing whole Russian armies before coming to a halt on the outskirts of Leningrad and Moscow. In December 1941 the Soviet Union surprised the Germans by mounting a counter-offensive, easing the pressure on Moscow. Hitler's armies were comprehensively defeated at Stalingrad early in 1943. The Germans, fighting doggedly, were steadily driven from Soviet territory.

Europe under the Nazis

In the wake of German victory came Nazi exploitation of the conquered territories. Occupied Europe's agricultural and industrial output was channelled to meet Germany's needs, regardless of the deprivation this caused to home markets. Where circumstances permitted, the resistance movement carried out a guerilla war against the German and collaborationist forces. However, effective armed resistance was largely dependent on support from on of the Allies' own clandestine organisations.

Concentration Camps

Concentration camps were established in Germany shortly after Hitler's assumption of power in 1933. Many of the Nazis' political opponents were arrested; Socialists, communists, Jews, gipsies, homosexuals, pacifists, Freemasons, trade unionists and Jehovah's Witnesses were amongst those imprisoned.  

After the outbreak of war, new concentration camps were set up throughout Occupied Europe. Extermination camps were established to implement the 'Final Solution', the systematic killing of more than six million Jews.

The Bomber Offensive

From February 1942 Air Marshal Harris adopted the 'area' bombing of German cities in an attempt to disrupt industrial production and morale. On 31 May 1942 the first 'thousand bomber raid' was launched against Cologne. In August 1942 the American Eighth Air Force joined the offensive and began precision daylight bombing against key targets. The controversial area bombing policy culminated in the destruction of Dresden in February 1945, causing thousands of civilian deaths. The bomber offensive was extremely costly, with Bomber Command losing 55,573 aircrew and 1,570 ground staff.

North-West Europe

In 1944 the Eastern Front turned increasingly in Russia's favour and in June the Allied invasion of Normandy opened the campaign for the liberation of Western Europe. On 6 June 1944 (D-Day), Operation 'Overlord' began. The assault forces, under the command of General Montgomery, came ashore from some 4,000 landing craft, escorted by 600 warships and with air support from more than 10,000 Allied aircraft. Over 156,000 British, Canadian and American troops were landed on that first day, making this the largest combined operation in history. The assault pushed through North-West Europe, and in March 1945 Allied troops crossed the Rhine. Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker on 30 April, and on 4 May the German forces surrendered to the Commander-in-Chief of 21st Army Group, Field Marshal Montgomery.

War in the Far East

By 1941 Japanese ambitions in Asia and the Pacific had led to a serious deterioration in relations with the United States. On 7 December 1941, without a declaration of war, Japanese carrier-borne aircraft attacked the US Pacific Fleet at its base at Pearl Harbour. Congress declared war on Japan the next day. By the summer of 1942, Japan had overrun the Philippines, Malaya, Burma and the Dutch East Indies. Japan's early successes resulted in the capture of hundreds of thousands of Allied military and civilian personnel, who had to endure malnutrition, disease, forced labour and apalling living conditions. Over a quarter of them died. 

The Japanese suffered their first major defeat of the war at Midway in 1942, and soon they were being pushed back throughout their Pacific empire. By the spring of 1945 the Americans were preparing to invade Japan. President Truman decided to use the newly developed atomic bomb to end the war. Two bombs were dropped - on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki three days later. The Japanese surrendered unconditionally on 14 August 1945.