The Second World War as a Total War

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Second World War was a horrifying event, which left an even deeper scarf in people’s lives than the First World War. It brought far more damage and deaths than the previous war. However in order to answer whether the Second World War was a Total War, we first have to define what is Total War. Total War is the war that affects all of society- not just the armed forces, and that uses all the resources available to be able to win it. It’s “the mobilization of the entire society and its resources for the war effort”. In this essay several aspects will be investigated, which would help us answer the question. [IMAGE] The first thing that comes to mind is the scale of war. It was tremendous. Almost every country participated in the Second World War. There were Europe, USA, USSR, Scandinavia, North Africa, Japan, China and Australia involved. And definitely there wasn’t even one country in the whole world that didn’t suffer from its effects. The war was fought on several fronts simultaneously, and thus the armies needed as many soldiers as possible. Volunteering was cancelled and conscription was introduced. From the start of the war, all men aged 18-41 had to register for war work- either to fight or to work. However, even despite the big number of people in the army, it wasn’t the soldiers who suffered the most. It was the civilians. In this war more civilians died than soldiers, they were “in the front line of attack”. Civilians were bombed, imprisoned, massacred, taken as slaves and starved to death. The most horrifying weapon of World War Two was the atomic bomb; it became typical at that time and brought horrific civilian casualties. The other factor that shows us the totality of war is the scientific developments, this also includes new technology and war tactics. A complete new style of fighting was
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