end of the war
The war ended in the European Theater before it did in the Pacific. Germany was not fighting their “lightning war” of quick, powerful strikes, and their army was instead spread out in the massive Eastern Front against the American-supported Soviets. Coupled with the looming industrial power of the U.S. and their victories from the West, the Germans were basically defeated after the last-gasp effort of the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944. A week after Hitler's suicide, they formally surrendered on May 7, 1945. The fighting in the Pacific Theater, however, would continue on for nearly four more months. It was not until after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan that they finally surrendered. While the surrenders were the end of the fighting of World War II, they certainly did not end the devastation the war caused.
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