Wikijunior:World War II/People Associated with World War II

This chapter is about some of the important people involved in World War II. It tells you about the leaders and soldiers.

Leaders

Click on the links to read more about the leaders:

• Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany until he killed himself near the end of the war.
• Winston Churchill was the leader of Britain from 1940 until the end of the war.
• Franklin Roosevelt was the leader of the United States until he died near the end of the war.
• Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union.
• Benito Mussolini was the leader of Italy until he was executed near the end of the war.
• Charles de Gaulle was the leader of the Free French.
• Hideki Tōjō was the political leader of Japan.

Politicians

Allied

Neville Chamberlin.

Axis

Martin Bormann

Martin Bormann was the head of the Nazi Party Chancellery after Rudolph Hess. He was one of Hitler's most trusted people. He disappeared at the end of the war. People have looked for him ever since to bring him to trial for his war crimes.

Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels was the Propaganda Minister. His job was to make it seem to the people of Germany that the war was going well - even if it meant telling lies. He killed himself in May 1945 during the Battle of Berlin so that the Soviet's wouldn't capture him.

Herman Goering

Herman Goering was commander-in-chief of the German air force (the Luffewaffe). He was sentenced to death by the Allies after the war but killed himself first.

Rudolph Hess

Rudolf Hess was Hitler's deputy in the Nazi party. Just before the war with the Soviet Union, he flew to Scotland and try to agree peace with Britain. He was put in prison and spent the rest of his life there, dying in 1987.

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler was the head of the SS. He was captured by the British at the end of the war but killed himself.

Generals

A general is usually in charge of either a division, a corps (one or more divisions), an army (one or more corps) or an army group (one or more armies). A very senior general can be promoted to "Field Marshall", the highest rank in most armies.

Allied

Montgomery

General McArthur

The Earl Mountbatten of Burma

Chester W. Nimitz

Axis

The German army had two types of soldiers. There was the ordinary army or Wehrmacht and the "SS". They had different ranks.

Field Marshal Fedor von Bock

Field Marshal Von Bock commanded the army group that attacked north Poland in 1939. He then commanded army groups during the invasion of France and later the Soviet Union. He was killed In Hamburg, Germany during an air raid in 1945.

Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch

Field Marshal von Brauchitsch was the commander-in-chief of the German army from the beginning of the war until December 1941. He was captured by the British and died in 1948 in prison.

Colonel-General Heinz Guderian

General Guderian was a brilliant tank commander. He fought in France and commanded an army group in the war with the Soviet Union. He was made head of all armoured warfare and then Chief of the General Staff - the most important job in the army. He was sacked by Hitler in March 1945.

German SS Officers

Sepp Dietrich

Sepp Dietrich was the commander of Hitler's bodyguard and then became an army commander in 1944. He was sent to prison after the war.