1945

Victory: first Germany, then Japan

Story 6 of 10

In the Second World War, the Allies completely defeated Germany in May 1945. The war against Japan went on until August 1945, when the United States dropped its new atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Japan then surrendered, and the war was over.

British scientists had a part in the story of the atomic bomb. A team led by the New Zealand-born physicist Ernest Rutherford, working first at the University of Manchester and later at the University of Cambridge, were the first to "split the atom". Later, a number of British scientists joined the Manhattan Project, the American programme that built the atomic bomb.

Black-and-white photo: Churchill on a balcony in Whitehall, London, making a V sign to a huge crowd in the street below — VE Day, 8 May 1945: from the balcony of the Ministry of Health in Whitehall, London, Churchill makes the V for victory sign to the crowds. That evening 19-year-old Princess Elizabeth (later Queen **Elizabeth II**) and her sister, Princess Margaret, were allowed by their father, **George VI**, to slip out of Buckingham Palace with a group of officers and join the crowds. Nobody recognised them, and many years later the Queen remembered it as one of the most memorable nights of her life. Photo: Major W. G. Horton, War Office official photographer, Imperial War Museums H 41849, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Key facts

In Asia, Japan defeated the British at Singapore and occupied Burma, threatening India.
In December 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the USA entered the war. In the same year Hitler invaded the Soviet Union; both sides suffered huge losses, and the Germans were eventually driven back.
The Allies won victories in North Africa and Italy.
On 6 June 1944 the Allies landed in Normandy (D-Day), then pushed on through France and into Germany.
Germany was defeated in May 1945. In August 1945 the USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the war with Japan ended.
Scientists led by Ernest Rutherford, who was born in New Zealand, were the first to split the atom, working at Manchester and then Cambridge. Later, some British scientists joined the American Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb.

Quiz

Which of the following statements is correct?

Era contents: 1930 – 1950