World War II (Alternity)

World War II (commonly abbreviated WWII or WW2) was a globe-spanning military conflict fought between the Allies (United States, Great Britain, Russia, Canada, France) and the Axis Powers (Nazi Germany, Italy, Japan) that lasted nearly eight years, from the German invasion of Czechoslovakia on October 30, 1938, to the Japanese surrender on April 20, 1946, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki two weeks prior.

The war saw many advances in military technology; from the largest naval guns ever mounted, namely on the U.S. Monitor and Japanese Heihachirō classes with their massive 20" main batteries; utilization of flight deck cruisers; the world's first jet-fighters, the German Me-262, British Meteor, and US F-86 Sabrejet; intercontinental bombers, the American B-49 'Flying Eagle' and German Ho-18; the first flying-wing 'stealth' jet fighters, the German Ho-229 and American P-79 'Flying Wing'; widespread use of radar; the rise of the aircraft carrier as the primary weapon of navies; and the world's first atomic bombs, by far the most destructive invention of the war. But it was also seen as the dawn of the 'Atomic Age', marking the United States as the world's first and sole nuclear superpower until the USSR and Great Britain joined the nuclear circle with their first tests in 1949 and 1952, respectively.