1
Story
The Second World War
Start with the global frame: aggression, blitzkrieg, total mobilisation, genocide and Allied victory.
History Explorer
Premium75 min6 steps
World War II in Depth
Move from the global shape of the war through Britain's stand, the Eastern Front, genocide, liberation and the Pacific.
This curated path is a Premium route.
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Guided Route
Start here
New to the topic? Start with the essentials. Already know the broad story? Follow the route for the turning points, context and consequences that make each step matter.
75 min
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2
Story
The Battle of Britain
See why Britain's survival in 1940 kept the war open and preserved a base for Allied return.
3
Story
Operation Barbarossa
Follow the invasion of the Soviet Union, where ideology, scale and attrition transformed the war.
4
Story
The Holocaust
Confront the genocide at the centre of Nazi rule, occupation and racial war.
5
Story
D-Day and the Liberation of Europe
Trace the western Allies' return to continental Europe and the campaign to defeat Nazi Germany.
6
Story
The Pacific War
End with the war across Asia and the Pacific, from Japanese empire to naval power and surrender.
Featured figures
Start with these figure pages to follow the people, rulers and decision-makers behind the route.
FigureGerman dictator
Adolf Hitler
He transformed a fringe extremist movement into a dictatorship, launched the Second World War in Europe, and drove the Nazi regime's campaign of racial persecution and genocide.
FigureBritish Prime Minister
Sir Winston Churchill
He warned about Nazi Germany when many dismissed him, became prime minister in Britain's gravest crisis, and turned defiance, alliance-building, and language into instruments of survival.
Figure32nd President of the United States
Franklin D. Roosevelt
He was paralysed from the waist down, ran for president four times, won four times, and governed through the Depression and a world war without anyone outside his inner circle fully knowing the extent of his condition.
FigureSoviet dictator
Joseph Stalin
He turned the Soviet Union into an industrial and military superpower through forced collectivisation, terror, famine, purges and wartime command, leaving a legacy inseparable from mass death and dictatorship.
All figures in this path
A compact index for the wider cast connected to these stories.
13 figures
Adolf Hitler
German dictator
1889–1945
Sir Winston Churchill
British Prime Minister
1874–1965
Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd President of the United States
1882–1945
Joseph Stalin
Soviet dictator
1878–1953
Emperor Hirohito
Japanese emperor during World War II
1901–1989
Hermann Goering
Nazi leader and Luftwaffe commander
1893–1946
Hugh Dowding
RAF Fighter Command leader
1882–1970
Heinrich Himmler
Head of the Nazi SS
1900–1945
