Talk:World War II

Aftermath

Shouldn’t there be an aftermath point underneath as “see aftermath of World War II" allied victory in the infobox, like there is with WW1? I put it in before but was reverted because “the other was better”, which doesn’t really make sense. MarioProtIV (^talk/_contribs) 08:04, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

@MarioProtIVHave a look at my change to the info box for WWI. Is that what you are trying to do with the casualty figures? It is the formatting that is the problem. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 08:14, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I think this works. We will see what others think. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 08:30, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Yeah that looks better for the most part. MarioProtIV (^talk/_contribs) 13:08, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Bolding allies/axis and main leaders header in infobox

I am aware of MOS:BOLD, but I feel the policy has enough wiggle room to allow for this. With how much leaders were involved, the latter should at least be bolded since its a descriptive term, and not bolding it kind of blends it in with the leaders which IMO doesn't look as good. MarioProtIV (^talk/_contribs) 18:46, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

It looks fine as it is. But let's see what others think. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 22:44, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

@Aemilius Adolphin: At the very least “main allied/axis powers” should remain bolded. Looking at other pages like War on terror or World War I have the term “main countries” or “Central Powers” because it’s a short list. I do not see why suddenly this article is an exception. And it doesn’t look as good unbolded because the text there practically becomes/looks like a sort of sea of blue unless something is highlighted to make it clearer to the reader. MarioProtIV (^talk/_contribs) 23:26, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Sea of Blue issues are caused by excessive linking, not by lack of bolding. I have removed the link to the "Belligerents" header which is unnecessary. it looks better already. Also please note that this is a GA rated article so we should err on the side of following policy on bolding. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 01:04, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

Should this article mention the environmental impacts of World War II?

World War II had numerous environmental impacts which are not mentioned in this article. Should they be summarized in the lead section or in this section about the war's aftermath? Jarble (talk) 02:02, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 May 2026

Please revert this edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_War_II&diff=prev&oldid=1353344857 Per the discussion at User_talk:Princess_Micky#“Link_is_working”, the tag removal was erroneous. ~2026-28259-76 (talk) 10:36, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

 Done, thanks. I imagine that info should be easy enough to find a reliable source for. I'll do some looking in a bit. DrOrinScrivello (talk) 13:35, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

And  Done DrOrinScrivello (talk) 14:10, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks and thanks! ~2026-28744-62 (talk) 00:01, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

Press mention

For Template:Press:

• https://www.popsci.com/technology/most-popular-wikipedia-entries/

--Another Believer _(Talk) 23:23, 24 May 2026 (UTC)

FA maybe?

I wonder if this article qualifies for Featured Article status. I'm not going to nominate it because I have no history of contributing to it, but I do think it is expansive and well-written. Lucevium (talk) 19:36, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

might be worth starting a peer review. -- Aunva6^{talk - contribs} 20:00, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

Hello there, for some time I have been intending to go through this article thoroughly and review, update all the citations. In fact I intended to start this weekend. I think that any request for FA status should come after this and after any issues I find have been discussed on Talk. I would be happy to work with both or either of you on this, Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 22:31, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

I would like to work on that. Which parts of the article's citations are you thinking need to be updated? Do you think we need to go through the entire article? Lucevium (talk) 22:34, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for volunteering to help! Unfortunately, yes I do think we need to go through the entire article. Although it's good a good article, it's also old and some of the citations are to old websites and old academic texts that in some cases have been superseded. If we want this to go up to FA status we will need to review these and include a bit more recent scholarship. If it suits you, I will go through it on the weekend and then we can get together and agree which parts we each want to do. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 22:39, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I will be very busy starting next Monday. I can try to do some of the work in between my other tasks, but I won't be able to do much. Maybe I can join you in the initial review or you can get someone else to help instead. Lucevium (talk) 22:46, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

Peer review

List of sources written before 1990

A dot indicates a source written before 1970. Hopefully this helps in the process of updating the citations.

Anderson, Irvine H. Jr. (1975). "The 1941 De Facto Embargo on Oil to Japan: A Bureaucratic Reflex". The Pacific Historical Review. 44 (2): 201–231. doi:10.2307/3638003. JSTOR 3638003.

Badsey, Stephen (1990). Normandy 1944: Allied Landings and Breakout. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85045-921-0.

• Balabkins, Nicholas (1964). Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945–1948. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Barker, A. J. (1971). The Rape of Ethiopia 1936. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-02462-6.

Bernstein, Gail Lee (1991). Recreating Japanese Women, 1600–1945. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07017-2.

• Cantril, Hadley (1940). "America Faces the War: A Study in Public Opinion". Public Opinion Quarterly. 4 (3): 387–407. doi:10.1086/265420. JSTOR 2745078.

Dower, John W. (1986). War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-394-50030-0.

de Grazia, Victoria; Paggi, Leonardo (Autumn 1991). "Story of an Ordinary Massacre: Civitella della Chiana, 29 June, 1944". Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature. 3 (2): 153–169. doi:10.1525/lal.1991.3.2.02a00030. JSTOR 743479.

Eastman, Lloyd E. (1986). "Nationalist China during the Sino-Japanese War 1937–1945". In John K. Fairbank; Denis Twitchett (eds.). The Cambridge History of China – Republican China 1912–1949, Part 2. Vol. 13. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-24338-4.

Garver, John W. (1988). Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937–1945: The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-505432-3.

Gilbert, Martin (1989). Second World War. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-79616-9.

Glantz, David M. (1986). "Soviet Defensive Tactics at Kursk, July 1943". Combined Arms Research Library. CSI Report No. 11. Command and General Staff College. OCLC 278029256. Archived from the original on 6 March 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2013.

——— (1989). Soviet Military Deception in the Second World War. Abingdon & New York: Frank Cass. ISBN 978-0-7146-3347-3.

Hauner, Milan (1978). "Did Hitler Want a World Dominion?". Journal of Contemporary History. 13 (1): 15–32. doi:10.1177/002200947801300102. JSTOR 260090. S2CID 154865385.

Hsu, Long-hsuen; Chang, Ming-kai (1971). History of The Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) (2nd ed.). Chung Wu Publishers. ASIN B00005W210. OCLC 12828898.

Iriye, Akira (1981). Power and Culture: The Japanese-American War, 1941–1945. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-69580-1.

Kleinfeld, Gerald R. (1983). "Hitler's Strike for Tikhvin". Military Affairs. 47 (3): 122–128. doi:10.2307/1988082. JSTOR 1988082.

Koch, H. W. (1983). "Hitler's 'Programme' and the Genesis of Operation 'Barbarossa'". The Historical Journal. 26 (4): 891–920. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00012747. JSTOR 2639289. S2CID 159671713.

Kolko, Gabriel (1990) [1968]. The Politics of War: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1943–1945. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-72757-6.

• Lewis, Morton (1953). "Japanese Plans and American Defenses". In Greenfield, Kent Roberts (ed.). The Fall of the Philippines. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office. LCCN 53-63678. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2009.

Liddell Hart, Basil (1977). History of the Second World War (4th ed.). London: Pan. ISBN 978-0-330-23770-3.

Mandelbaum, Michael (1988). The Fate of Nations: The Search for National Security in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Cambridge University Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-521-35790-6.

Masaya, Shiraishi (1990). Japanese Relations with Vietnam, 1951–1987. Ithaca, New York: SEAP Publications. ISBN 978-0-87727-122-2.

• May, Ernest R. (1955). "The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Far Eastern War, 1941–1945". Pacific Historical Review. 24 (2): 153–174. doi:10.2307/3634575. JSTOR 3634575.

Milner, Marc (1990). "The Battle of the Atlantic". In Gooch, John (ed.). Decisive Campaigns of the Second World War. Abingdon: Frank Cass. pp. 45–66. ISBN 978-0-7146-3369-5.

• Milward, A. S. (1964). "The End of the Blitzkrieg". The Economic History Review. 16 (3): 499–518. JSTOR 2592851.

Murray, Williamson (1983). Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe, 1933–1945. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press. ISBN 978-1-4294-9235-5. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.

Myers, Ramon; Peattie, Mark (1987). The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-10222-1.

• Petrov, Vladimir (1967). Money and Conquest: Allied Occupation Currencies in World War II. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-0530-1.

• Roskill, S. W. (1954). The War at Sea 1939–1945, Volume 1: The Defensive. History of the Second World War. United Kingdom Military Series. London: HMSO. Archived from the original on 4 January 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.

Rotundo, Louis (1986). "The Creation of Soviet Reserves and the 1941 Campaign". Military Affairs. 50 (1): 21–28. doi:10.2307/1988530. JSTOR 1988530.

Sella, Amnon (1978). ""Barbarossa": Surprise Attack and Communication". Journal of Contemporary History. 13 (3): 555–583. doi:10.1177/002200947801300308. JSTOR 260209. S2CID 220880174.

——— (1983). "Khalkhin-Gol: The Forgotten War". Journal of Contemporary History. 18 (4): 651–687. doi:10.1177/002200948301800406. JSTOR 260307.

• Slim, William (1956). Defeat into Victory. London: Cassell.

Spring, D. W. (1986). "The Soviet Decision for War against Finland, 30 November 1939". Soviet Studies. 38 (2): 207–226. doi:10.1080/09668138608411636. JSTOR 151203. S2CID 154270850.

Steury, Donald P. (1987). "Naval Intelligence, the Atlantic Campaign and the Sinking of the Bismarck: A Study in the Integration of Intelligence into the Conduct of Naval Warfare". Journal of Contemporary History. 22 (2): 209–233. doi:10.1177/002200948702200202. JSTOR 260931. S2CID 159943895.

• Taylor, A. J. P. (1961). The Origins of the Second World War. London: Hamish Hamilton.

——— (1979). How Wars Begin. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-241-10017-2.

United States Army (1986) [1953]. The German Campaigns in the Balkans (Spring 1941). Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army. Archived from the original on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.

Wilt, Alan F. (1981). "Hitler's Late Summer Pause in 1941". Military Affairs. 45 (4): 187–191. doi:10.2307/1987464. JSTOR 1987464.

• Wohlstetter, Roberta (1962). Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision. Palo Alto, California: Stanford University Press.

Zalampas, Michael (1989). Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich in American magazines, 1923–1939. Bowling Green University Popular Press. ISBN 978-0-87972-462-7. Lucevium (talk) 23:29, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

Challenge: "Name" section needed

Looked at the article expecting to find some sort of history of the usage of the term "World War II" itself. There is, after all, a corresponding section for World War I. I'm pretty well educated when it comes to World War II, but I'm not a scholar or anything. I was genuinely interested to learn when it actually started being called "World War II"--and genuinely disappointed to find no relevant information whatsoever on Wikipedia. That sort of omission strikes me as quite uncommon for a topic as large and notable as World War II. Is there anyone who can create a sourced history of the usage of the name?

And how about including information about alternate names as well? Many of the alternate names (Pacific War, Great Patriotic War, etc.) technically refer to smaller parts/theaters, but those terms hardly appear anywhere in the article (if they appear at all) and I think they would be appropriate for inclusion in a section such as this.

Thoughts, anyone? Jdaloner (talk) 07:06, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

Good idea to add such a section. But aren't you up to your own challenge yourself? Lova Falk (talk) 10:13, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

Ernest King

The article on Ernest J. King is up for review at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Ernest J. King/archive1. King was one of the leading figures in World War II as the commander of the US Fleet and the second highest ranking US Navy officer. As a member of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, he was instrumental in formulating grand strategy. Anyone with an interest in World War II is encouraged to drop by with a comment or two. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:35, 10 June 2026 (UTC)