From Pearl Harbor to D-Day to the momentous events you may not know so well, these World War 2 photos bring history's worst cataclysm to life.
American soldiers, injured while storming Omaha Beach on D-Day, recover just after the landings in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944.Wikimedia Commons
American sailors stand amid wrecked planes at the Ford Island seaplane base, watching as the USS Shaw explodes in the center background during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.U.S. Navy via Wikimedia Commons
“Into the Jaws of Death — U.S. Troops wading through water and Nazi gunfire."
A U.S. landing craft approaches Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944.Robert F. Sargent, U.S. Coast Guard/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
A U.S. landing craft approaches Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944.Robert F. Sargent, U.S. Coast Guard/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
On May 17, 1945, a German girl is overcome with emotion as she walks past the exhumed bodies of some of the 800 slave workers murdered by SS guards at Nammering, Germany, and laid here so that townspeople may view the work of their Nazi leaders.Cpl. Edward Belfer, U.S. Army/National Archives and Records Administration
A Sudeten woman from the area that is now the Czech Republic salutes the conquering German forces while crying at the fall of her people to the Nazis, circa 1942-1945.Office of War Information/National Archives and Records Administration
Firefighters put out a blaze caused by a round of German bombings in London, 1941.Paris Bureau of The New York Times/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
Soviet and American airmen pose with the bombs on which they'd written messages for the Nazis at a Russian air base on June 2, 1944.AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Bystanders look on as a boy's burning corpse lies next to the jeep he was in, which was struck by a German V-2 rocket in Antwerp, Belgium on November 27, 1944.National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
A Grumman F6F Hellcat (VF-2) plane crash lands on the deck of the USS Enterprise as Lt. Walter L. Chewning, Jr. climbs up the side of the plane to assist the pilot, Ensign Byron M. Johnson, who escaped without serious injury. The crash landing occurred as the Enterprise was making its way toward Makin Island in the South Pacific on November 10, 1943.Department of Defense/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
A young man sits on an overturned stool next to a burnt body inside the Thekla concentration subcamp outside Leipzig, Germany soon after its liberation by U.S. forces on April 18, 1945.ERIC SCHWAB/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gives instructions to paratroopers in England in preparation for the imminent D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Five U.S. Marines and one sailor raise an American flag over Mount Suribabachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.Joe Rosenthal/The Associated Press/U.S. Navy/National Archives and Records Administration
Māori soldiers from New Zealand perform a traditional war cry known as a haka in Helwan, Egypt, June 1941.Imperial War Museums/National Library of New Zealand via Wikimedia Commons
A dejected German soldier taken prisoner by Soviet forces at the Battle of Kursk -- one of the largest in history, and the one that marked the turning point against the Nazis on the Eastern Front and the war as a whole -- in mid-1943.STF/AFP/GettyImages
An unidentified boy raises his arms as German soldiers capture Polish Jews during the Warsaw ghetto uprising sometime between April 19 and May 16, 1943.United States Holocaust Museum via Wikimedia Commons
Human bones litter the grounds of the Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin, Poland following its liberation by Soviet forces on July 24, 1944.AFP/Getty Images
In celebration of Japan's surrender, a U.S. Navy sailor kisses a women during festivities in New York City on August 14, 1945.Lt. Victor Jorgensen, U.S. Navy/National Archives and Records Administration
Two women stand amid the leveled ruins of the almshouse that was their home before a German bombing raid destroyed it in Newbury, England on February 11, 1943.U.S. Army/National Archives and Records Administration
The atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan by the U.S. on August 9, 1945.Hiromichi Matsuda/Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum via Wikimedia Commons
Burnt bodies lie on the grounds of the Thekla concentration subcamp, outside Leipzig, Germany, April 1945.ERIC SCHWAB/AFP/Getty Images
Roger Godfrin, the only survivor of a massacre during which Nazi troops locked 643 citizens (including 500 women and children) inside a church and set fire to it on June 10, 1944 in Oradour sur Glane, France.AFP/Getty Images
Soviet soldiers charge during the Siege of Leningrad, January 1, 1943.Vsevolod Tarasevich/Russian International News Agency via Wikimedia Commons
French women accused of collaborating with the Nazis have their heads shaved by French Resistance fighters in Paris on June 21, 1944.German Federal Archives via Wikimedia Commons
A young boy greets his father, a soldier allowed to return home for Christmas, 1944.Office of War Information/National Archives and Records Administration
A British plane in Gibraltar prepares for its flight to the United Kingdom as searchlights shine in the background (date unspecified).Royal Air Force/Imperial War Museum via Wikimedia Commons
A young French girl clings to her mother in May 1940 as French civilians flee the German Army offensive in the north of France.-/AFP/Getty Images
Adolf Hitler (standing, center) declares war on the United States at the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany on December 11, 1941.German Federal Archives via Wikimedia Commons
Battered religious figures stand amid the rubble of Nagasaki, Japan on September 24, 1945, six weeks after the U.S. destroyed the city with an atomic bomb.Cpl. Lynn P. Walker, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
Photo taken at the instant that bullets from a French firing squad hit a French man who had collaborated with the Germans in Rennes, France on November 21, 1944.U.S. Army/National Archives and Records Administration
A French man weeps as German soldiers march into Paris on June 14, 1940, after the Allied armies had been driven back across France.Office of War Information/National Archives and Records Administration
U.S. Navy sailors rescue a survivor from the water alongside the sunken battleship USS West Virginia amid the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.Army Signal Corps/U.S. National Archives via Wikimedia Commons
The crematory ovens of the Buchenwald concentration camp, April 1945.ERIC SCHWAB/AFP/Getty Images
Adolf Hitler and his entourage walk near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on June 23, 1940, following the occupation of France by the Nazis.German Federal Archives via Wikimedia Commons
French anti-aircraft fire during a Nazi raid on Algiers, 1943.Lt. W. R. Wilson, U.S. Army/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
An American torpedo boat marksman behind his machine gun off the coast of New Guinea, July 1943.U.S. Navy/National Archives and Records Administration
Canadian soldiers land on Courseulles Beach in Normandy during the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.STF/AFP/Getty Images
Crowds gather on Paris' Champs Elysees as French tanks roll past in celebration of the liberation of France on August 26, 1944.Jack Downey, U.S. Office of War Information/Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons
The devastated remains of Hiroshima, Japan just days after U.S. forces dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing upwards of 140,000, on August 6, 1945.AFP/AFP/Getty Images
A pile of prostheses belonging to the murdered victims of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland following its liberation, January 1945.AFP/Getty Images
British and American forces charge a German soldier surrendering atop his tank during the Battle of El Alamein in Egypt on October 25, 1942.-/AFP/Getty Images
Children of an eastern suburb of London, who have been made homeless by German bombings, sit outside the wreckage of what was their home, September 1940.Paris Bureau of The New York Times/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
Victims of the massive Allied bombing campaign in Dresden, Germany, February 1945.German Federal Archives via Wikimedia Commons
Adolf Hitler joins key advisors Heinrich Himmler (left) and Martin Bormann (right) in surveying a strategic map at an unspecified location, 1939.-/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur wades ashore during the initial landings at Leyte, Philippine Islands in October 1944.Gaetano Faillace, U.S. Army Signal Corps/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
German soldiers arrest a Jewish man in Warsaw, Poland following the ghetto uprising that had recently occurred there, April 1943.AFP/Getty Images
A man holds a noose used for hanging prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp following its liberation by U.S. forces in April 1945.ERIC SCHWAB/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. soldiers wait in a landing craft as it approaches Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944.Wikimedia Commons
A celebration of Germany's surrender takes place on Paris' Champs Elysees, as seen from the top of the Arc de Triomphe ,on May 8, 1945.-/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Air Force bombers fly over Ploiești, Romania, following a raid on August 1, 1943.
Of the 16 cameramen accompanying this mission, the one who took this photo was the only one to survive.Jerry J. Jostwick/U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons
Of the 16 cameramen accompanying this mission, the one who took this photo was the only one to survive.Jerry J. Jostwick/U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons
The entrance to the Nazis' Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland soon after its liberation by Soviet troops, January 1945.AFP/AFP/Getty Images
An 18-year-old Russian prisoner of Dachau concentration camp not long after its liberation by U.S. forces on April 29, 1945.ERIC SCHWAB/AFP/Getty Images
The devastated remains of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Shaw following the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.U.S. Navy/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
British soldiers shake hands from atop their vehicles in Tobruk, Libya, October 1942.AFP/Getty Images
Some of the 60,000 dead bodies found on the grounds of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp following its liberation by British troops on April 15, 1945.-/AFP/Getty Images
Italian soldiers taken prisoner by British forces after the Allied landing in Sicily, July 1943.Wikimedia Commons
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Special Naval Landing Forces, outfitted with gas masks, prepare for an advance amid the rubble of Shanghai, China, August 1937, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, which many historians contend falls under the umbrella of World War II.Wikimedia Commons
From left, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at the historic Tehran Conference in Iran on November 28, 1943.STF/AFP/Getty Images
A U.S. fighter plane spins its propellor on the deck of the USS Yorktown in the Pacific, November 1943.
Drastic changes in air temperature and pressure combine with the motion of the propellor to create the rings encircling the plane.U.S. Navy/National Archives and Records Administration
Drastic changes in air temperature and pressure combine with the motion of the propellor to create the rings encircling the plane.U.S. Navy/National Archives and Records Administration
Allied soldiers come across a herd of cows as they make their way through Normandy, France, June 1944.STF/AFP/Getty Images
California's Manzanar War Relocation Center, one of ten internment camps in which the U.S. government held a combined 110,000 Japanese-Americans during the war (1943).Ansel Adams/Library of Congress
The American ship Robert Rowan explodes after being attacked by a German bomber off the coast of Gela, Sicily on July 11, 1943.Lt. Longini, U.S. Army Signal Corps/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
A tortured prisoner of the Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945.ERIC SCHWAB/AFP/Getty Images
Citizens of Leningrad, Soviet Union vacate their houses, destroyed by German bombing, on December 10, 1942.Boris Kudoyarov/Russian International News Agency via Wikimedia Commons
Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel signs the unconditional surrender of the German army at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, Berlin on May 8, 1945.Lt. Moore, U.S. Army/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Government, on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945 as Lt. Gen. Richard K. Sutherland, U.S. Army, watches from the opposite side of the table.Army Signal Corps via Wikimedia Commons
U.S. infantrymen move through the destroyed town of Waldenburg, Germany on April 16, 1945.2d Lt. Jacob Harris., U.S. Army/National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
Powerful World War 2 Photos That Most People Haven’t Seen
Both during and soon after World War 1, politicians and pundits began referring to the devastating conflict as "the war to end all wars."
One can hardly blame them for such a grandiose name. The West had never seen anything like World War 1 before. Between 1914 and 1918, approximately 17 million soldiers and civilians died while another 20 million lay seriously wounded.
Yet even this was not in fact "the war to end all wars." Just two decades later, most of the same countries waged war on much of the same ground. This time, however, the casualties were more than four times worse.
With combined civilian and military death toll estimates ranging as high as 85 million, World War 2 remains the single deadliest cataclysm in human history.
Between 1939 and 1945, the world endured not only its bloodiest and most far-reaching military campaigns, but also some of its deadliest famines, civilian exterminations, and epidemics. In Nazi concentration camps across Eastern Europe, those years saw the worst genocide ever on record.
Yet, today, the devastation of any one of these facets of World War 2 -- let alone all of them taken together -- is so vast that it becomes unfathomable.
As the famous quote widely misattributed to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, one of World War 2's most important figures, goes: "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."
Perhaps, however, the best way to attempt to drag World War 2's 85 million deaths out of the realm of statistics and back into the realm of tragedy is not with words, but images.
From the battlefields to the faces of the civilians who never set foot on one but whose lives were shattered all the same, the World War 2 photos above bring history's greatest catastrophe to life.
After viewing these World War 2 photos, check out 31 of the most illuminating World War II facts, and 21 of the most surprising World War II myths. Then, read up on the worst war crimes that U.S. forces committed during World War II.
