Talk:World War II

Sections

Since the entire article is about an historical event, could the History section be divided into sections "Background", "Pre-War Events", and "Course of the War"? There is no body text under "History" so I wonder if it is redundant. Aspets (talk) 20:55, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

seems reasonable JackTheSecond (talk) 21:34, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

It is also already there, there is text under history, subdivided into sections (such as pre-war events and background). Slatersteven (talk) 13:13, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

The term in foreign tongues

I wonder why no one has added such a topic. So, the Finnish name of that war mean "the war of the sky and the earth", and other tongues have their own meaningful words for both WW. --Tamtam90 (talk) 20:01, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

This article provides a general overview, and is not meant to cover every possible detail. It might be suitable for a separate article, properly done. Mediatech492 (talk) 01:13, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

Raising_a_flag_over_the_Reichstag_600x778.png to Raising_a_flag_over_the_Reichstag_-_Restoration.jpg?

I was going to replace the current low-resolution version of Raising a flag over the Reichstag but the restored image made the collage borders thinner and inconsistent. Would it still be worth it? Salmoonlight (talk) 10:35, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

I've now uploaded a cropped version that would probably be more useful. Salmoonlight (talk) 10:56, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

End date of the war

@Aemilius Adolphin My edits do have to with the end date of the war, the sentence is about the last individual combatants to surrender, if this is not relevant I don't see how the 1990 treaty is. ManU9827 (talk) 06:10, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

The formal termination of a war is a matter of binding agreements (armistices, treaties, diplomatic relations, etc) between the belligerents which are recognised in international law. The date that particular military units or individuals surrender to the victors has nothing to do with it. The 1990 treaty regarding the two Germanys is relevant because of the anomally that Nazi Germany had two successor states recognised in international law. There might be a place somewhere in the article for content on which were formally the last units of each Axis power to surrender, but it would need much better sourcing based on more rigorous scholarship than one book and a Times article. But let's see what other editors think. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 07:03, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Tiny groups of combatants and individuals surrendering well after the end of the war doesn't need to be covered in this article given it's the top level article on the war. The circumstances that delayed these surrenders were all weird and they made no difference whatsoever to the war's outcomes. The bigger story is that many millions of German and Japanese troops stopped fighting when their leaders told them to. Nick-D (talk) 07:27, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

If not a full sentence in the page it atleast warrents a note (perhaps at the end of the "history" section). Japanese holdouts were a well documented phenomenom and recived major news coverage (such as when Hiroo Onoda surrendered) and are therefore a notable event. ManU9827 (talk) 08:01, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

The numbers of Japanese holdouts were tiny, so they are outside the scope of this article. Please don't post multiple times in this tread - it's really confusing, and rude. Nick-D (talk) 08:06, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

I can certainly find other citations from the respective pages for the units, its just a matter of if it should be included. ManU9827 (talk) 07:51, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Read wp:undue. Slatersteven (talk) 10:22, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

European Union to the aftermath of WWII?

I was wondering should EU be mentioned in the aftermath? Of course the first treaty of EU was in the 50s, but the fundamental basis for EU was after WWII to make war between France and Germany economically and materially impossible, and to intertwine the economies to that war would not occur between member states. Now EU is a major political entity. I think there might be merit to mention beginning of EU in the aftermath part? 88.113.71.31 (talk) 22:58, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

A bit of a stretch, I think. There was a lot of socio-economic restructuring directly or indirectly as a result of WWII. The purpose of this article is to give a general overview of the war itself. There are many branch articles dealing with peripheral events. Mediatech492 (talk) 01:28, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

I support this addition.--Jack Upland (talk) 02:52, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

The EU was formed in 1993, which is a long way from being part of the immediate afterwath of WWII. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 01:52, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

We are talking about the predecessors of the EU. Jack Upland (talk) 05:34, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Which ones, precisely? All of them up to 1993? There is a separate article about that. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 06:36, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and European Economic Community (1957, treaty still in force), which were founded with the idea of uniting European countries to prevent another WWII like war. These are the fundamental predecessors with the specific intent of uniting European countries and thus laid the groundwork to European Union of today. 88.113.71.31 (talk) 21:34, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Treaty of Rome, which was signed in 1957, is still one of the treaties making up the fundamental structure of EU. European Coal and Steel Community was founded in 1951 and merged with Treaty of Rome in the 60s. What was changed in 1993 was the name of the entity. It was changed from European Community to European Union. [The Schuman Declaration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuman_Declaration) date from 1950 is still celebrated as the "national day" of EU.88.113.71.31 (talk) 21:30, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

There's a good case to add a sentence or two on this. Could someone please propose draft text with supporting references that make the link to European integration being a legacy of the war? Nick-D (talk) 23:30, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Combatant section in Infobox

I propose that in the section of the Infobox where it lists which countries took part in the war, that rather than just saying "Allies" and "Axis" we insert a close-able list which when opened will show all the countries that took part. What do you think? Zakary2012 (talk) 09:01, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

The current infobox reflects the results of literally dozens of discussions. There has never been much support for what you propose. Nick-D (talk) 10:56, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Date of invasion of Manchuria is wrong

the invasion of Manchuria started on the 18th of September 1931 not September 19th 2603:7080:1B01:723A:BD3D:C812:149D:E3AF (talk) 22:39, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

I suppose that would depend on whether you include the September 18th Mukden Incident as part of the invasion or not. The actual military operation to occupy Manchuria began on the 19th. Mediatech492 (talk) 02:47, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

Request to add other Allied and Axis Leader

My request is to add Karl Doenitz, Hideki Tojo, on behalf of Axis Powers, and Harry Truman, Clement Attlee, and Neville Chamberlain on behalf for the allies. Ryansean071 (talk) 23:56, 07 July 2024 (UTC)

The current material reflects the outcomes of a very large number of previous discussions. 09:26, 8 July 2024 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nick-D (talk • contribs)

Because we can't clutter up the info box with a huge list of names. Slatersteven (talk) 17:20, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Battle of Britain text

I requested this text to replace the paragraph about the Battle of Britain as is more descriptive and the current text plays down the UK's involvement:

The Battle of Britain, fought from July to October 1940, was the first major military campaign conducted entirely by air forces. It started with the Luftwaffe attacking ships and harbours, then they aimed to achieve air superiority over the British RAF by attacking airfields, infrastructure, aircraft production facilities, and eventually civilian targets. Despite initial successes, the Luftwaffe failed to defeat the RAF Fighter Command, leading Hitler to postpone the planned invasion of Britain indefinitely. The conflict evolved into a strategic bombing campaign known as the Blitz, targeting London and other cities at night, but this too failed to significantly disrupt the British war effort and largely ended by May 1941. Germany's failure to destroy Britain's air defences was the first major German defeat and a crucial turning point in the conflict.

The current text also infers that Britain turned down a peace deal, the deal was that Germany could occupy continental Europe and is widely regarded as propaganda which would not be honoured.

All the text is repeated from the Battle of Britain page and is cited. Can we get this approved? 117PXL (talk) 18:57, 22 July 2024 (UTC)

Codebreaking and Enigma

The following text needs improving:

"Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well-known being the German Enigma machine. Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysisenabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes and British Ultra, a pioneering method for decoding Enigma that benefited from information given to the United Kingdom by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war."

Nothing about Bletchley Park, Alan Turing or how the code breaking was a game changer and helped win the Battle of the Atlantic. 117PXL (talk) 19:26, 22 July 2024 (UTC)