Talk:World War II

Phoney war?

It is surprising that this article makes no mention whatsoever about the Phoney War. This is one of the particularly unusual features of WW2, summed up rather well at the time by the Italian ambassador in Paris saying that he had seen ‘several wars waged without being declared’ but this was the first time he had seen one ‘declared without being waged’. (Bouverie, Tim. Appeasing Hitler (p. 382). Random House). The term "phoney war" was coined by American journalists.

The phoney war occupied 10 or 11% or the duration of the entire war (depending on exactly when you think it was replaced by British and/or French military activity). It's existence demonstrated (a) the hope that peace could still be achieved in some way and (b) the lack of military preparedness of both Britain and France.

I appreciate that this is only a high level article for which there is always competition for some particular aspect to be covered herein. However, the proper historiography of war is not exclusively about the actual fighting. A lengthy period of relative inactivity by the two countries who declared war has to be worthy of at least a mention. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 19:22, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

It's a piped link called "no direct military support", which seems a poor choice. (Hohum ^@) 19:29, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

I have de-obfuscated the link (Hohum ^@) 19:33, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

OK, edit to article noted with thanks, but the Phoney war went on for a further 216 days (caveats on arithmetic as above), which is much longer than the 35 days from the British and French declaration to the cessation of serious fighting in Poland. I think the structure of the article would need a little surgery to properly address this. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 19:39, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

I really think we should at a strength tab to this article, the casualties aren’t enough Tise exists (cool) (talk) 05:07, 23 July 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 August 2022

To add Canada, new Zealand, Australia, Greece, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, to main allied and axis leaders 2001:56A:7B14:9400:F0B4:679A:AEBF:3AAE (talk) 22:07, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

 Not done: Unclear what you want added. If you are referring to the infobox "Main Leaders" section, addition of Leaders of the listed nations is unlikely, as listing the leaders of all involved nations would generate an excessively long list. WelpThatWorked (talk) 17:53, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Operation Market Garden

I noticed the section for the failed Operations Market and Garden was removed. Any reasons why? TwoNyce (talk) 06:50, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Seeking consensus to implement change in lead sentence

I am trying to modify the lead sentence. Given the notice appearing to seek consensus, I present my proposal hereby.

The lead sentence currently reads,

World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945.

My proposal is to change it to,

World War II (WWII, WW2, or the Second World War; 1939–1945) was a global conflict and the deadliest in human history, with tens of millions people killed.

Also, a connected edit later in the paragraph to avoid redundancy. This part currently reads,

World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and disease.

The new edit for said later part of the paragraph would be,

It resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and disease.

Edit summary explaining the change: edit summary: moved alternate names to parenthesis for conciseness per MOS:FIRST, "global war" >> "global conflict" per MOS:REDUNDANCY, added a top notability (the deadliest in human history), copyedited relevant part later in first paragraph to avoid redundancy with first sentence. --Thinker78 (talk) 00:33, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

I like your first half of the sentance, but the rest could be fixed

"with tens of millions people killed"

Poor grammer, and very poor word choice

A better sentance would be

"World War II (WWII, WW2, or the Second World War; 1939-1945_ was a global conflict and the most destructive in history.

Better, more to the point, and quicker for the intro. It also flows better. Panda0317 (talk) 13:26, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 November 2022

Adolf Hitler killed himself 216.48.247.162 (talk) 14:07, 1 November 2022 (UTC)