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Total Costs and End of World War II
1) Yalta Conference
In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin had met at a Soviet resort
called Yalta, on the Black Sea. They knew the war was close to end. Stalin insisted
the Soviet Union needed to maintain control of Eastern Europe to be able to
protect itself from future aggression. Churchill and Roosevelt favored selfdetermination for Eastern Europe, which would give people the right to choose
their own form of government. However, Churchill and Roosevelt needed Stalin’s
help to win the war.
The three leaders decided with the end of the war they would divide Germany
temporarily. British, French, American, and Soviet forces would control a zone of
Germany. It was agreed that Stalin would oversee the creation of new governments
in Eastern Europe. However, as you will learn later growing mistrust would later
cause a split between the allies.
Total Costs and End of World War II
2) V-E Day
Hitler decided to await the end in Berlin, where he could still manipulate what was
left of the command apparatus. Most of his political and military associates chose
to leave the capital for places in north and south Germany likely to be out of the
Soviet reach. On the afternoon of April 30 Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin
bunker. As his last significant official act, he named Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz
to succeed him as chief of state.
Doenitz, who had been loyal to Hitler, had no course open to him other than
surrender. His representative, General Alfred Jodl, signed an unconditional
surrender of all German armed forces at Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims early
on May 7. By then the German forces in Italy had already surrendered (on May 2),
as had those in Holland, north Germany, and Denmark (May 4). The U.S. and
British governments declared May 8, 1945 V-E (Victory in Europe) Day with
Germany’s full unconditional surrender.
Total Costs and End of World War II
3) Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Having won the war in Europe, the Allies poured resources into defeating Japan.
By mid-1945, most of the Japanese navy and air force had been destroyed. Japan’s
army was still strong, however. On August 6, 1945, an American plane dropped
the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb flattened 4 square
miles of the city and killed 70,000 people.
A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 40,000 people. In the following
months many more people would die from radiation sickness, a deadly exposure to
radioactive materials. Although some militants wanted to hold out, on August 10,
Japanese Emperor Hirohito forced his government to surrender. On September 2,
1945, a peace treaty was signed with Japan.
Total Costs and End of World War II
4) General Costs of World War II
World War II's basic statistics qualify it as by far the greatest war in history in
terms of human and material resources expended. In all, 61 countries with 1.7
billion people, three-fourths of the world's population, took part. In terms of
money spent, it has been put at more than $1 trillion, which makes it more
expensive than all other wars combined.
The human cost, not including 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust who were
indirect victims of the war, is estimated to have been 55 million dead—25 million
of those military and 30 million civilian. The Allied military and civilian losses
were 44 million; those of the Axis, 11 million.
Perhaps the most significant casualty over the long term was the world balance of
power. Britain, France, Germany, and Japan ceased to be great powers in the
traditional military sense, leaving only two superpowers, the United States and the
Soviet Union.