World War II

, also called the Second World War, the Patriotic War, (PROSE: Oblivion) the Hitler war (TV: The Time Monster) and the Pacific War in the Far East (COMIC: 4-Dimensional Vistas) was a major conflict fought on Earth in the 20th century. It began in Europe in September 1939 after a breakdown of the peace settlement implemented after World War I. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus, AUDIO: Neverland, et al.) War also broke out earlier in Asia in July 1937, following a period of unrest which began in 1911 and escalated in 1931. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang, Log 384) Worldwide hostilities formally ended in September 1945. (COMIC: Sky Jacks, PROSE: Base of Operations) Apart from a handful of neutral countries, it involved the whole of the Earth.

The Doctor stopped several groups from interfering with the war as Earth was distracted by its own chaos, including the War Lords, (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus), the Players, (PROSE: Players), the Cybermen, (PROSE: Illegal Alien) and the Valbrects. (PROSE: Base of Operations) Eileen Younghusband also defended Earth from alien attacks during the conflict. (PROSE: The Last Duty)

In the words of the Seventh Doctor, the war was comprised of many terrible events that could be considered "crimes against the universe itself." Auschwitz, Pearl Harbour, Stalingrad, Dresden, Coventry, Hiroshima and Kwai were all locations which witnessed dreadful suffering during the course of the conflict. (PROSE: Just War)

Foreseeing
In 1903, after receiving a wealth of information from the future, Grigori Rasputin foresaw, among other things, the Second World War, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. (AUDIO: The Wanderer)

Captain Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart encountered the First and Twelfth Doctors after he was displaced in time while fighting in Ypres in December 1914. The Twelfth Doctor accidentally referred to the conflict as "World War One", leaving the Captain contemplating the upsetting implication that there would eventually be another. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)

World War I and the Treaty of Versailles
Between 1914 and 1918, World War I was fought on Earth. Although global in scale, the war was primarily a European matter which saw the United Kingdom, France and Russia of the Allies fight against Germany and Austria-Hungary. (TV: The War Games, PROSE: Human Nature, et al.) While Britain and France emerged victorious, Russia became engulfed by revolution in 1917 which toppled the old Tsarist regime with the Communist dictatorship of the Soviet Union. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin, AUDIO: The Memory Cheats, et al.) Germany and her allies were defeated and the end of the war was marked by Armistice Day on 11 November 1918. (AUDIO: The White Room)

These powers, together with many other countries, would find themselves engaged in another war two decades later, the roots of which could be traced back to the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty, which formally brought World War I to an end, was signed in 1919 at the peace conference at Versailles. George Limb was among the attendees. Chief Inspector Patrick Mullen and the Seventh Doctor later suspected that Limb may have had a hand in sabotaging the treaty in some way, sowing the seeds for another conflict. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) Under the terms of the treaty, Germany lost her empire, her colonies and much of her European territory, resulting in the emergence of newly independent countries like Poland, and was made to accept responsibility for the war. Nazi Colonel Oskar Steinmann later denounced the treaty as a "draconian" measure intended to punish Germany. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) The Allies set war reparations that, in the eyes of many Germans, were obviously meant to be too high for Germany to pay off, crippling her economically and preventing recovery. Kaiser Wilhelm II was deposed, although buildings and organisations such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute retained his name. (AUDIO: The Alchemists)

Europe and the rise of fascism
For Germany, the interwar period was a grim one. Her old foe Russia, now under Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks, continued to establish the new Communist power in the east which posed a threat to Germany. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin) This threat was demonstrated when the Soviets attempted to spark a communist revolution in Germany, at a time when the Versailles reparations had stifled the nation's economic growth and her ability to recover from the war. (AUDIO: The Alchemists) Discontent at the situation actively manifested itself on 9 November 1923, when Adolf Hitler led an unsuccessful coup against the German government, which became known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler was arrested for treason and was sentenced to five years in prison, although he was ultimately released after only six months. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) Despite its failure, the incident brought Hitler to the attention of George Limb, who felt he had potential and was someone the British government ought to take seriously. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) Hitler proved to be highly charismatic which helped him rise to power in later years. (PROSE: Warchild)

Benito Mussolini rose to prominence in the same period, establishing a fascist dictatorship in Italy. (AUDIO: The Rapture) Mussolini, like Hitler, also proved to be a charismatic figure. (PROSE: Warchild)

By August 1928, British Great War veteran Oliver Marks had heard rumours about a new movement in Germany formulating a further atrocity by planning another Great War. At first, he dismissed the rumours. (PROSE: The Glamour Chase)

Barbara Wright once raised the idea of a time traveller assassinating Hitler in 1930, asking what might happen. The First Doctor countered the suggestion by simply pointing out that Hitler wasn't assassinated. His reign was thus a fact of history which time travellers could not change. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Crusaders) The Third Doctor did acknowledge, however, that, as with Napoleon Bonaparte before him, history would have taken a very different course without Hitler. (PROSE: Soldiers from Zolta) Shayde identified the temporal period in which World War II was a part as a "crucial nexus point" in Earth's development. He warned Fey Truscott-Sade that the war could not be interfered with without disrupting the Web of Time. (COMIC: Me and My Shadow)

In 1929, Germany's economy, which was already crippled by the war and the Versailles reparations, collapsed with the onset of the Great Depression. Germans began to feel neglected and abused by the United States of America. Jews received much of the blame for these problems, an attitude in Germany that dated back centuries.

Amidst all the nation's problems, an election was held in Germany in July 1932 which failed to deliver a majority. Another election was held in November of that year. Parties with the initials Z, DVP, KPD, SPD and NSDAP – the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei led by Hitler (PROSE: Just War) – were among those standing in the elections, all attacking the incumbent Chancellor Papen and vowing to fix the economy. Once again, no party achieved a majority, resulting instead in unsuccessful and unpopular coalitions. With no one in charge, authority effectively vanished and there was no way to deal with crime, unrest and unemployment. The thuggish Sturmabteilung, a private army owned by Hitler who claimed the real army was too corrupt and lazy, filled the void left by the unreliable police force and clamped down on unrest and subversive elements such as Bolshevists. The Nazis were aware that their violent methods could drive away potential supporters, so they attempted to remain behind the scenes, away from the public eye, in order to let the results of their actions speak for themselves. Germans began to feel more content with the gradually improving situation, despite the excesses employed to make it happen.

Landing in Berlin in January 1933, the First Doctor told Susan Foreman that the war was "in the wind" at this stage. Notable scientists of the period included Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Max Planck, Eugene Wigner and Fritz Haber. With Hitler on the rise, Einstein left for the United States. Susan and the Doctor became entangled in a plot to kidnap Haber and have him extract gold from sea water. While German underground crime syndicates sought the secret to aid in the nation's economic recovery, Pollitt, a member of the British Secret Intelligence Service sought the secret as well. Susan wrecked Pollitt's chances of discovering the secret and potentially changing the history of the coming war. With history back on track, the Doctor and Susan later lamented that, if Germany had been in a better economic position, Hitler may not have come to power. (AUDIO: The Alchemists)

Hitler finally did come to power on 30 January 1933. The Matrix recorded this event as being a part of the Web of Time. (AUDIO: Neverland) Mels told her history teacher at Leadworth Secondary School that "A significant factor in Hitler's rise to power was the fact that the Doctor didn't stop him." (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)

Fritz Haber fled Germany when Hitler came to power and died in exile in the United States in 1934. As the German Army had done in the previous war, the Nazis later used Haber's process to produce explosives and poisonous gases that could be used to kill hundreds of thousands of people in death camps. (AUDIO: The Alchemists, PROSE: Nothing at the End of the Lane) Germany also had access to the industries located in the Ruhr valley. (PROSE: The Paradise of Death)

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the early 1930s, Ramsay MacDonald, turned a blind eye to the new regime in Germany and instead prioritised domestic economic issues of unemployment rates and political issues concerning the Conservative Party. For this, the Seventh Doctor opined that MacDonald was an idiot. (PROSE: Log 384) Winston Churchill, meanwhile, was one of the first people to recognise the danger posed by Hitler and the Nazis as well as Mussolini in Italy (PROSE: Players) but his warnings largely went unheeded. While serving the government as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Churchill and his own party became increasingly fed up with each other. (WC: Amy's History Hunt) In the words of Edward Grainger, Churchill was a "self-glorifying, arrogant has-been… Spouting all that rubbish about Germany and Nazis." Nevertheless, Churchill attracted sympathisers from within the Security Services. (PROSE: Log 384)

As a young boy, Jocelyn Stevens heard Hitler giving speeches on Nazi radio stations. He remembered Hitler's use of the phrase: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!" (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Green Death) Cecelia Pollard became a member of the League of English Fascists and met Hitler. (AUDIO: A Blind Eye) Her parents, Louisa and Richard Pollard, cut contact with her because of her pro-fascists views (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)

On 29 and 30 June 1934, Hitler struck against his own private army and eradicated the leadership of the SA in the Night of the Long Knives. Two thousand people were executed in one day. (PROSE: Timewyrm Exodus) Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich helped the Doctor chase the Master through Berlin as this was happening. By his fifth incarnation, a part of the Doctor regretted that he could not have killed both men before they carried out the crimes they would eventually commit. (PROSE: The King of Terror)

The Third Reich was in part modelled on the Roman Empire. Superiors were addressed with a click of the heels and the response of "Hiel!", (TV: Let's Kill Hitler) based on the Roman response of "Hail!" The sadistic conduct of the Roman soldiers was also present in the Nazi ranks. Ian Chesterton and Vicki Pallister considered the Romans "quasi-Nazis" who bullied their way across Europe and the Middle East. (PROSE: Byzantium!) The German people were taught of German science and achievements, and that they were not to trust Jews, democracy, Marxists, liberals (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) homosexuals, gypsies, disabled people or any subversives who spoke against the Reich or the Führer. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler) They were indoctrinated with the racist belief that the German people were a strong, beautiful and superior race in a world full of weak and decadent "subhumans". Nazi Germany came to believe that it was her destiny to sweep away the existing political systems and unite Europe and the world under the strength of Fascism, establishing a new and prosperous "Thousand Year Reich", free of weakness, decadence, corruption, slums, crime, and economic destitution. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

Atrocities in Asia
Before Hitler came to power, another storm was brewing in Asia, engendered by the decline of China and the simultaneous rise of Japan. Only recently in her history, Japan had ended Sakoku, the policy of national isolation, first imposed by the Shogun in the 1630s. The policy was born out of a suspicion of Christianity and Westerners, who the Japanese considered "barbarians". Two centuries of Sakoku increased this suspicion, as well as a growing awareness that Japan's development had stagnated and fallen behind the rest of the world. In the mid-19th century, American warships arrived in Edo (later Tokyo) harbour and demanded a trade agreement with Japan. The Shogun chose to accept and ended Japan's seclusion, opening the country up to the rest of the world for the first time in over 200 years. In the years that followed, Japan very quickly modernised. (AUDIO: The Barbarians and the Samurai) Less than a century later, Japan had already founded the Japanese Empire. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

China's period of decline followed the crippling of the Chinese Empire by Britain and France during the Opium Wars prior to the mid-1860s. (PROSE: The Nightmare Fair, The Eleventh Tiger, AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair) In 1911, the remnants of the Empire were swept away by Sun Yat Sen. Sun led an alliance of nationalist warlords in a revolution which succeeded in ousting the boy Emperor Pu Yi. The alliance formed into the Kuomintang which became the governing party of China. Subsequently, the Kuomintang turned its attention towards a growing communist influence fostered by the Soviet Union to the north. It fell to Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat Sen's successor as the leader of the Kuomintang, to combat the communist insurgencies. Chiang was successful in driving the Communists into the mountains of north and central China, bordering Mongolia, but the Nationalists were unable to dislodge the Communists further. Order in China eroded as the two ideologies fought each other into a stalemate.

Amid this confusion, the region of Manchuria in the north-east of China was threatened with trade strangulation by a new Russian railway stretching from Europe to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. Both Chinese and Japanese trade suffered as a result. Japan's expansionist ambitions on the continent were growing and the budding empire drew its attention towards China's natural resources, and the power struggle in the latter country presented an ideal opportunity. According to Major Ryuji Matsu of the Imperial Japanese Army, Japan sought to bring order to a China divided by Nationalists and Communists and attract trade back to the region. In 1931, the Sakura Kai engineered a fight between the Chinese to justify the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, claiming the Chinese had attacked first. By 1932, the Japanese occupation was complete, and the former Chinese emperor Pu Yi was enthroned as the ruler of the new puppet state of Manchukuo. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

The occupying Kwantung Army set the Manchurian peasant population to work constructing Zhong Ma Fortress. The Kwantung Army committed many atrocities against the Chinese which deterred the peasants from attempting to escape. Those that did were shot on sight. Zhong Ma was a prison and research facility where the Japanese conducted experiments intended to forward the development of biological weapons. These projects were headed by the young military scientist Ishii Shiro and sponsored by the Japanese Emperor himself. Prisoners were dissected, blood samples were taken, and subjects were deliberately infected with bubonic plague, so that the Japanese could learn more about the human body and how to weaponise germs. (PROSE: Log 384) Kwantung Army Intelligence set up their headquarters in Hsinking. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang) The occupation was the first step on Japan's road towards her ultimate aim of creating the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)

Shanghai imposed sanctions on Japan, worsening the trade situations of both nations. Japanese troops stationed in the city's International Settlement were deployed onto the streets of Shanghai in 1932 and briefly occupied the city. Some areas were subjected to air raids by aircraft launched from the aircraft carrier Hosho off the coast, and a number of the city's inhabitants were arrested and interrogated. Sung-Chi Li was captured by Ishiguro Takashi and interrogated by Ryuji Matsu, who promised Shanghai would one day fall to the Japanese. With Li becoming disillusioned with the capabilities of his own government to bring back stability, Matsu convinced him of Japan's need to bring order to China via their own rule and the two agreed on a partnership. Intervention by the Western powers, looking to protect their own trading centres, prevented the Shanghai crisis from escalating into full-scale war between China and Japan, at least for a short time. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

When Mai Ling was made a prisoner in Zhong Ma in 1933, the Seventh Doctor sought to save her before the Japanese inadvertently unleashed the ghost warrior within her, bringing untold chaos and changing the course of the war. In order to gain access to the necessary resources and information to infiltrate the fortress, the Doctor warned the British Security Services sympathetic to Churchill of alliance talks being conducted in secret between the Nazis and the Japanese. In response, the Security Services began recruiting operatives to send on a spy mission to Manchuria. It was not sanctioned by the British Government. The Doctor recruited Edward Grainger for his rescue mission. The two were briefly captured by the Japanese and experimented on but escaped and survived along with Mai Ling. Afterwards, the Doctor put forward a recommendation that Grainger be recruited in an unofficial capacity as an operative for the British Government, to be made official once the war began. Major-General Vernon Kell sent such an offer to Grainger, who accepted. (PROSE: Log 384) His granddaughter, Linda Grainger, later recalled that Edward travelled a lot during the war. (PROSE: Childhood Living)

Tensions between Japan and China continued to grow as disputes over Manchuria/Manchukuo persisted. (PROSE: The Year of Intelligent Tigers) In Japan, where the government was run by army generals, (PROSE: Endgame) the Army split into two factions who disagreed on the best course of action, although both sides advocated expansion into other countries. The Kodo Ha, controlled by the Sakura Kai, pushed for further consolidation of Manchukuo and expansion into China to offset strategic advantages enjoyed by the Soviet Union. The Tosei Ha viewed China as Japan's main enemy but felt it better to adhere to the formal rules of engagement and achieve their ambitions while working within the political system. The Kodo Ha controlled the local commanders in Manchukuo and used them to assassinate various government ministers, including prime ministers, between 1933 and 1935. In February 1936, the Sakura Kai engineered a revolt in Tokyo by the Japanese First Infantry Division, supporters of the Kodo Ha. Many government officials and civil servants were killed before the revolt was suppressed by imperial order. The Kodo Ha still held onto the control of the Manchukuo commanders but the Tosei Ha, at least nominally, maintained control of the Army, but made alterations to their policy. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang) By extension, they also maintained control of the government. (PROSE: Endgame)

Fighting between the Chinese and Japanese occurred in 1936. The War Lords and the renegade Time Lord the War Chief kidnapped some of these soldiers to have them participate in the War Games, placing them in the Chinese sector. The survivors were returned home by the Time Lords when the War Lords were defeated. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the War Games) Finally, in July 1937, the Japanese provoked a fight between Chinese soldiers at Marco Polo Bridge, sparking further hostilities which forced the government to move onto a war footing, bringing war to Asia.

The front lines opened up on the Manchurian frontier, almost 400 miles north-east from Shanghai. The Japanese Twelfth Army made efforts to push south into Shangdong province, where they gained control of everything north of Tai'an and the mountain of T'ai Shan. The Imperial Army Air Fleet launched air raids from Manchuria against Shanghai using Mitsubishi Ki-15 single-engined planes, "just to prove that they can," according to the Fourth Doctor. Mitsubishi A5Ms also harassed KMT troop trains transporting Chinese Nationalist troops to the north. However, the initial aim of the Japanese was not to advance but to consolidate Manchuria, meaning the fighting was relatively light for a time. Nationalist China, meanwhile, was disadvantaged by the need to divide forces between the Japanese front lines near Shangdong and the Communist-held regions near Mongolia.

Ishiguro Takashi began seeking revenge for the deaths of his brothers in the 1936 revolt in Tokyo. Hunted by the Sakura Kai, he deserted the Imperial Army and fled from Japan to Hong Kong and then China and began plotting against the "traitors" who controlled Japan's military government. There, under the guise of Woo, the Hong Kong-born owner of Club Do-San in Shanghai, he sought to build a united front against the Kwantung Army before they drove south from Manchuria. Bigger Chinese criminal organisations were already preparing to resist further Japanese invasions. Woo worked as a vigilante, who became known as Yan Cheh, cracking down on crimes committed against others in China. Such acts only served as costly distractions at a time when the resistance to the Japanese military had to be as strong as possible.

In August 1937, Hsien-Ko and the Tong of the Black Scorpion sought to prevent Magnus Greel from travelling to 1872, in order to formally punish him and avenge the death of Hsien-Ko's father, Li H'sen Chang. Affiliating the Tong with the Kuomintang to do so, Hsien-Ko believed her success would, among other things, allow her to change time, preventing the invasion of Manchuria and China's war against Japan altogether. She had many encounters, often fatal, with Japanese forces while travelling in Manchukuo and Shangdong on her mission. Her efforts were ultimately thwarted by Sung-Chi Li who, working for Major Matsu as a double agent, wrecked Hsien-Ko's nuclear reactor and then manipulated the Tong members into fighting each other. Afterwards, the Fourth Doctor and Romana I used the TARDIS to time ram Greel's time cabinet back on course before Hsien-Ko created a temporal paradox.

Eventually, the Japanese Army moved into Shanghai. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

The data gathered from the experiments in Zhong Ma and its successor, Unit 731, led to the creation of biological weapons which the Japanese unleashed to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in China during the war. Germ-ridden packages were dropped on Chinese towns and villages throughout Manchuria. (PROSE: Log 384)

Europe on the brink
Amid the growing tensions back in Europe, the Spanish Civil War occurred, between 1936 and 1939. Fascists fought on the side of the Nationalists. (PROSE: History 101) Spain stayed neutral in the World War. (AUDIO: Resistance)

Mussolini allied himself with Hitler with a vision of returning Italy to greatness. Edward Greyhaven opined that Mussolini was a "fool" to ally himself with a "monster" such as Hitler. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

Hitler defied the Versailles Treaty by reoccupying the Rhineland. Winston Churchill, who opposed the British government's policy of appeasement, began to fear what plans he had for the rest of Europe, more immediately with Czechoslovakia and Poland. (PROSE: Players)

George Limb attended another conference in Munich in 1936. (PROSE: Illegal Alien)

Jason Kane was sent back in time to Germany in 1936 where he ended up sharing a drink with Emil Hartung. Upon finding out Hartung was a member of the Nazi Party, he expressed his disgust for losses his family has suffered in the war, but Hartung thought he was talking about World War I. Before departing, Kane accidentally let slip some information from the future which gave Hartung the idea of inventing a plane that was invisible to radar detection before radar had been invented. (AUDIO: Just War)

Germany began building up her air force, the Luftwaffe. According to Oskar Steinmann, an advanced aircraft took six months to draw up specifications, after which aviation companies competed to consider the cost, requirements, and time of construction, which took a further nine to ten months. The Luftwaffe then contracted the company with the best bid to build the plane. Creating the prototype could take two and a half years. Top Luftwaffe pilots then ran test flights for a period of approximately sixteen months. Under normal circumstances, after these tests were completed satisfactorily, construction and testing could begin on a squadron for another two years. Finally, the Luftwaffe decided how many planes of that specific type they needed, which took another year. Hartung began this process for creating the stealth bombers Hugin and Munin in November 1936. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) A black cruciform acted as the insignia for the Luftwaffe. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)

On 30 November 1936, undercover Nazi agent Professor Kriemhilde Steiner of the Black Science Division unearthed a phoenix egg near the Crystal Palace in London. The Nazis believed the artefact to be the "Eagle of ultima Thule" that would grant the Reich great power. The Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams investigated her dig site and confronted her. When Steiner tried to retrieve the egg, the phoenix hatched, burning her to death and setting the Crystal Palace alight. Winston Churchill later arrived to see the fire and lamented the spectacle as signifying "the end of an era." The Doctor warned Churchill that worse times were on the horizon but assured him that he would be the best man to lead his country through them. (COMIC: The Eagle of the Reich)

The Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald had dinner in Berlin in 1937. The Doctor later reminded Clara that they did not and nor could they decide to kill Hitler afterwards as it was impossible for them to change the future. (TV: Kill the Moon) The Third Doctor claimed Jo Grant meeting with Grigori Rasputin in St Petersburg in 1916 was as reckless as seeking out Hitler in 1930s Berlin, although Jo objected to the comparison of the two. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin)

Also in 1937, a new German submachine gun, the MP 38, was manufactured by Ermawerke in Erfurt. It was issued at first to the Schutzstaffel in 1938, although some had been smuggled to China the previous year to aid Hsien-Ko and the Black Scorpion. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

In 1938, the Nemesis statue passed over Earth, influencing Hitler to annex Austria. De Flores stood next to Hitler as he "ordered the first giant step towards greatness." (TV: Silver Nemesis)

On the day of the annexation, Hitler drove to a museum in Vienna which held the fabled Spear of Destiny, used by the Roman Longinus to stab Jesus Christ on the Cross in Judea in 33 AD and later transported across the Mediterranean to Europe by Odin and the Vikings in the 2nd century. The spear was believed to grant invincibility to the army which possessed it. Hitler thus became eager to obtain it and he had it transported to Berlin and placed in another museum, believing Germany to be invincible. Unbeknownst to Hitler, the spear was one of six Physical Temporal Nexuses, super weapons with the ability to shape reality to the will of those who wielded them. Ultimately, Germany's possession of the spear throughout the coming war did not influence the outcome of the conflict in Hitler's favour. While some scholars theorised that the spear taken from Vienna was a 13th century fake, the Third Doctor hypothesised that it was authentic; it simply made no difference to the war as no one personally wielded it. Had Hitler known the true power of a PTN such as the one he had in his possession, his victory could have been easily achieved. The Doctor, however, subsequently replaced the spear in 141 AD with a fake, to send the genuine PTN to the Time Lords. (PROSE: The Spear of Destiny)

German occupation of Czechoslovakia swiftly followed. Oskar Steinmann claimed that both Austria and Czechoslovakia welcomed German rule due to the Nazis' commitment to unite the world under the strong ideology of Fascism. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

Another conference held in Munich tried to settle the resulting crisis peacefully. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain attended, but George Limb opined that Chamberlain let Hitler walk all over him, highlighting the Allies' lack of resolve. Chamberlain returned to the United Kingdom where he announced, "I have in my hand a piece of paper..." (PROSE: Illegal Alien) which promised "peace in our time." The Fifth Doctor thought Chamberlain made wrong decisions on this occasion but for the right reasons. (PROSE: One Wednesday Afternoon) As time would tell, peace was not what Hitler wanted. He expressed his ambitions for world domination, intending to attack Poland, then Russia, then Persia and then move into Asia. Britain guaranteed aid to Poland in the event she was attacked but Hitler did not expect Britain to honour the guarantee as she had previously backed down from similar promises. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) The Third Doctor recalled Hitler said something along the lines of "Today [one conquest], tomorrow the world!" (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Green Death) A speech by the Master about "ultimate power" and "strong leadership" over humans also reminded the Doctor of either Hitler or Genghis Khan. (TV: The Dæmons) He also belittled Hitler as a "criminal thug" and "gangster conqueror" in the same vein as Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Attila the Hun. (PROSE: Galactic Gangster)

The Teselecta travelled to Berlin in 1938 where its crew executed Nazi officer General Erich Zimmerman on the charge of category three hate crimes. The Teselecta proceeded to Hitler's office to inflict on him the same punishment before realising they were too early in Hitler's time stream. Seconds later, Hitler was saved by the TARDIS crashing through his office window. The Eleventh Doctor told him that saving his life was "an accident" and warned him that "The British are coming!" before Rory Williams locked him in a cupboard. The Doctor, Rory and Amy Pond then left Hitler's office and pursued River Song through the streets of Berlin. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)

In 1939, Italy invaded and conquered Albania with what was mockingly viewed by the Albanians as an "army of toy soldiers." Their defeat at Italy's hand shamed them greatly. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion)

Poland became Germany's next target. Not only did the Nazis view Poland as a product of the hated Versailles Treaty but millions of Germans also lived there prior to her gaining independence. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Before invading, Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. (AUDIO: An Eye For Murder) Although Hitler loathed the Soviets, regarding them as "Bolshevik scum", and fully intended to attack them, the non-aggression pact was intended to keep the Soviets off Germany's back while Poland, and then Western Europe, was dealt with. The pact stipulated that Poland be divided between Germany and Russia. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) George Limb was present in Russia shortly before the deal was struck. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) According to Isabella Zemanova, the pact gave Russians the impression that they would be spared a war with Germany, but her husband, Lev Zemanova, a schoolteacher who became a captain in the Red Army, felt that Hitler could not be trusted. (PROSE: The Beast of Stalingrad)

The war in Europe formally began on 1 September 1939 with the German and Russian invasion of Poland. In response, Britain and France, against Hitler's expectations, declared war on Germany on 3 September, (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) another event which the Matrix recorded as being a part of the Web of Time. (AUDIO: Neverland) In a speech broadcast over the radio from 10 Downing Street on the day of Britain's declaration of war, Chamberlain delivered the announcement to the British public: "This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final Note stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany."

- Neville Chamberlain

Hitler conquers Europe
The invasion of Poland lasted one month before the nation was crushed. SS officer Brigadeführer Kraus earned the reputation during the invasion as the Butcher of Cracow. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) Oskar Steinmann claimed that Poland, like Austria and Czechoslovakia, also welcomed the Germans and their strong Fascist rule. Steinmann also recalled that the Germans were willing to negotiate with the British and French in October, but the Allies refused, leading to the continuation of the war. Nazi propaganda argued that this meant the Allies were the true aggressors responsible for the start of the war and its continuation. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) There were, however, plenty of people in Britain who wanted to make peace with Hitler. (PROSE: Inferno)

A number of skilled scientists fled from mainland Europe to Great Britain at the beginning of the war. (PROSE: Losing the Audience) Some scientists of Axis extraction were deemed too untrustworthy to take part in very sensitive British operations such as those at Bletchley Park. However, they were still recognised as possessing expertise too valuable to ignore and were held at the Aylesbury Grange Detention Centre. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy) Reich scientists, meanwhile, managed to break the sound barrier. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

As in World War I, (TV: The War Games, AUDIO: The Mouthless Dead) Scottish Highland regiments fought in the war as part of the British Army. (AUDIO: Resistance, The Forsaken) Indian soldiers were also part of the British imperial forces, although some hoped their efforts would ultimately help India gain independence from British rule. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) John Benton's father served in the British Army. (HOMEVID: Wartime) as did Arthur Ollis. (PROSE: The Three Doctors) Wilfred Mott fought in the British Army but never killed anyone. (TV: The End of Time) Women, in some capacity, served in the British forces, while in Germany they were kept at home. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

On the outbreak of war, with his warnings about Nazi Germany having been proved to be true, Winston Churchill came back into favour again. (WC: Amy's History Hunt) He served as First Lord of the Admiralty and gained a secretary, Hetty Warner. (AUDIO: The Oncoming Storm)

A very sentimental song from the war concerned nightingales singing on Berkeley Square. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion)

Like the Romans, medieval warlords, knights, barbarians and nomadic tribes before them, the Nazis saw the strategic value of the ancient Schloß of Kriegeskind. Its high and remote location in the western German countryside made it an ideal stronghold from which to fend off an invasion of German territory. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers)

In December 1939, Churchill encountered a mechanical soldier named RATS, and suggested that it could be useful for the war effort. (AUDIO: The Oncoming Storm)

By Christmastime, it became more difficult for people to obtain gifts such as toys and sweets. Joan Wright told her daughter Barbara that Santa Claus didn't have enough sweets for every child as a way to explain any shortages. Nevertheless, on Christmas Day, Barbara awoke to find a stocking filled with an apple, nuts, a peg doll and a large bag of barley sugar in spite of the wartime privations. (PROSE: All I Want for Christmas) Supply shortages led to the growth of black market operations. (AUDIO: Casualties of War)

With Germany now engaged in a war with the Allies, Hitler directed his forces to Western Europe. He launched a "lighting war" against Britain, France, Belgium and Holland. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) The Netherlands fell to the Wehrmacht in just four days. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

The Allied forces faced the Wehrmacht at Dunkirk. The Wehrmacht were able to cut the Allies off and bombers attacked the surrounded soldiers. Evacuation efforts were organised and between 26 May and 4 June, (TV: Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart) the evacuation of Dunkirk was put into action. It was codenamed Operation Dynamo. (AUDIO: The Nemonite Invasion) Boats evacuated 338,000 men across the English Channel back to Britain, 100,000 of which came straight from the beach, although the evacuation generated some controversy. (TV: Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart) Corporal Gibbs, who was among those successfully evacuated along with Captain Clive Freeman, considered Dunkirk "a mess." (AUDIO: The Forsaken). The First Doctor witnessed the events at Dunkirk. (PROSE: Byzantium!)

France lasted less than a month before surrendering in the face of the German onslaught. Oskar Steinmann claimed that even Paris welcomed German rule. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) In Paris, the Nazis began pilfering works of art with which they decorated the lavish hotel rooms in which they took up residence. (PROSE: City of Death) While the French Resistance movement formed to combat the occupation, innocent French civilians faced the threat of being murdered by the Gestapo in reprisals for disruption or harm caused by the Resistance. Executions took place each dawn. (AUDIO: The Scapegoat)

The Germans proceeded to occupy Channel Islands. A force of time traveling Cybermen from the 30th century which arrived in Jersey in 1939, fled to mainland Britain when the Germans arrived. They left behind a sleeper force in the Le Mur Engineering factory, which the Nazis began studying. The fleeing Cybermen set up a new base of operations in the Peddler Electronic Engineering factory in London. Meanwhile, the discovery of the sleeper force led to a power struggle in Berlin. Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess and other leading Nazis all began vying for a position under Hitler that would give them control of the Cybermen. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) Guernsey was taken without a shot being fired. However, the Germans eventually began killing civilians on the pretence that they were spies, and executed others at random as reprisals for acts of resistance. Everyone was forbidden from listening to British radio channels. Standardtenführer Joachim Wolff was the head of the prisoner of war camp on the island and Oberst Oskar Steinmann was in charge of the Luftwaffe there. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

In the words of the Sixth Doctor, the British retreat from the continent left Hitler "the master of Europe." (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure) The Ninth Doctor said of the situation: "the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says no. No. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion."

- The Ninth Doctor

Britain defiant
With Europe under Nazi control by the summer of 1940, the Nazis began planning Operation Sealion, the cross-Channel invasion and conquest of Britain. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) Renewed calls were made for Britain to make peace with Hitler. (PROSE: Inferno) The fear of invasion swept the nation. A distraught Winston Churchill, by now the Prime Minister, was unsure what to do. The Doctor convinced him to fight on, adding it could lead to his "finest hour". The Sixth Doctor later recounted that Churchill, in response, "... brightened up, lit one of his big cigars, gave me a victory sign, and went out and won the war." (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)

People became worried about Nazi spies. (PROSE: The Curse of Fenric) German spies captured by the British were executed. British, French and Dutch spies captured by the Nazis were treated as military prisoners of war. Although Oskar Steinmann conceded that, under Reich policy, the spies were partially spared in order to find out information, he argued that this made the Germans more civilised than the English. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

George Ratcliffe, a London builder's merchant with fascist sympathies, spoke out against Britain's part in the war, believing the country should instead be allied to Nazi German. For this he was imprisoned. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

The Home Guard, made up of civilian volunteers, was established to defend the country from German invasion. Members such as Tom Wintringham also believed it should be used to launch a socialist revolution against the government if any attempt was made to make peace with Germany. (PROSE: Losing the Audience) Hidden bases full of supplies and weapons were established so British resistance groups could go into hiding and continue operating against the Germans in the event of an invasion (PROSE: Made of Steel) Four citadels were build under the surface of London, intended to allow the British government to continue operations if the worst happened. (AUDIO: The Fifth Citadel)

The Luftwaffe under Hermann Goering attempted to gain air superiority in advance of Operation Sealion. However, they were repelled by the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain. Young British Spitfire pilots fought against German Messerschmitts, Junker 88s and Dorniers. (PROSE: /Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet/) Alec Whistler fought for the RAF in the battle. (PROSE: Last of the Gaderene) Rachel Jensen was also involved in some action during this time. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) Hitler never forgave the Luftwaffe for their failure. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) 

The extra-dimensional Shakers approached the desperate British government, offering aid. A pact was agreed upon and Operation Shaker was planned out. The Shakers would conduct a secret war against the Germans; the British offered them India as Lebensraum in return, with no intention of keeping the promise. The men of the South Mendip Auxiliary Unit, who had been trained to fight a guerilla war against the Germans, were also part of the Operation. Scientists, meanwhile, studied ways to defeat the Shakers for when they were no longer needed. Ultimately, the invasion never came and Operation Shaker was never put into full effect. The Shakers were trapped in the fabric of the BBC Broadcasting House by factions of the British Government after the threat of German invasion passed. (PROSE: Losing the Audience)

The Home Army Operational Corps was formed largely in secret to assist the Allies. Enjoying wide executive powers, the Corps could be considered above the law, which Churchill made great use of. (PROSE: The Dogs of War) Edward Travers provided scientific assistance to the Home-Army Fourth Operational Corps (PROSE: One Cold Step) after he was recruited by Tobias Kinsella in 1941. (PROSE: Night of the Intelligence) 

The government seized fences and railings around Britain because of a desperate need of various metals required to make guns, ships and bombs. A number of buildings never had their railing replaced, although some metal gates deemed to be of excellent workmanship were spared. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils)

Churchill became dead set on defeating the Nazis. He once expressed that, "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would give a favourable reference to the Devil." (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

The Blitz
In late 1940, major towns across the UK suffered an aerial bombardment campaign that became known as the Blitz. The attacks occurred nearly every night and necessitated the blotting out of every light to deny the Luftwaffe a target. Much of the urban population spent the night in bomb shelters or underground train stations. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) Woman and children were evacuated from large cities to the safety of the countryside to escape the bombing. (TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe), although not every parent was willing to send their children away. (PROSE: Tell me You Love Me) A number of London children were sent to Wales. (WC: )

Shoreditch was hit particularly badly, (PROSE: Ash) as was Hampshire. Despite the danger of the bombs, the Queen refused to leave London. Some shops such as Henrik's stayed open for business despite bomb damage. (AUDIO: Lost and Found) One woman and her husband resolved to continue working in their shop as normal despite waking up on 14 November 1941 to find the building destroyed. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) After a heavy raid on Coventry, rumours began which claimed Churchill knew the attack was going to happen but kept quiet in order to protect a secret code. (PROSE: This Town Will Never Let Us Go)

Goodge Street Fortress was constructed near Goodge Street tube station during the war as a secret government HQ. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Web of Fear) The government continued to meet and operate in the relative safety of the Cabinet War Rooms. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

The First Doctor and Susan were present in London during an air raid relatively early in their travels. Susan compared it to a Zeppelin raid they had witnessed in the previous war. (AUDIO: The Alchemists)

The Cyber-Leader which led the group of Cybermen away from the Channel Islands was damaged by a bomb and went mad, committing a series of murders around London's East End to sustain itself. The Seventh Doctor used the Blitz to destroy this force of Cybermen by lighting up the Peddler Electronic Engineering factory, making it an easy target for the Luftwaffe. The following day, the Doctor travelled to Jersey to destroy the remaining Cybermen in the Le Mur compound and put an end to the Nazi research. After the Doctor departed, Patrick Mullen and Cody McBride discovered a third, much larger dormant Cyberman army hiding in the sewers beneath London in preparation for a later invasion. (PROSE: Illegal Alien)

Ian Chesterton grew up in Blitzed London. (AUDIO: The Time Museum) Barbara Wright was also a young girl at the time. Her father fought in the war and was killed close to Christmastime of 1940. When travelling with the Doctor and Susan much later in their lives, Ian and Barbara arrived in Blitzed London again on Christmas Eve, 1940, and spent the night in a public shelter in Hazel Street as air raid hit neaby Gable Street. On Christmas Day, they discovered the Bansharai, creatures who fed on love to survive and took the forms of dead or separated loved ones, including Barbara's father, to do so. The Bansharai departed once they reunited as a family. (PROSE: Tell me You Love Me)

For a short time on both sides, the Cardiff rift linked January 1941 and the 21st century, allowing Jack Harkness and Toshiko Sato of Torchwood Three to meet with the original Captain Jack Harkness and to cause suspicions in the members of the institute about Bilis Manger. On the day following their meeting, the original Jack Harkness would inevitably be killed in a firefight. The present-day Jack did not interfere with his final fate to preserve the timeline. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness)

Famous pilot Amy Johnson died flying for the RAF Auxiliary Service in the war. (COMIC: A Wing and a Prayer) Peter Kane's father, Jason Kane's grandfather, was also killed during the war. (AUDIO: Just War)

At 8:47 p.m. on 12 October 1940, the New Regency Theatre, owned and operated by the late Henry Gordon Jago in the 1890s, was destroyed in the Blitz, as was the hotel next to it. (AUDIO: Swan Song)

The Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler landed in London during the Blitz. There, they defeated the Empty Child plague and met Jack Harkness. (TV: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances)

Donna's father, an American, went to England during the war and witnessed the bombing of the cities and the deaths of even young children. (PROSE: Goodwill Toward Men) The President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, made efforts to keep the US out of the war. Cody McBride nevertheless felt that America was capable of dealing with Germany if hostilities began between the two nations. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) In spite of the bleak situation, the Eleventh Doctor assured Churchill that the whole world was watching Britain and her struggle. Her acts of resistance provided "a beacon of hope" to the conquered and vulnerable peoples of the world. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

As London, Britain and the Empire continued to suffer under the German onslaught, Churchill became desperate for something that would give Britain an advantage over Germany. It was in this context that the last Daleks in existence arrived in 1941 and located a remaining Progenitor device. Unable to activate it as they were viewed as genetically impure, the Daleks passed themselves off as robotic war machines called Ironsides invented by Dr. Edwin Bracewell, himself actually an android, who approached the British military with plans for the so-called "Ironside Project". Despite his desperation, Churchill initially had his doubts about the Ironsides, seeing them as "too good to be true." (TV: Victory of the Daleks) He called the Eleventh Doctor for assistance, citing a "potentially very dangerous" situation. (TV: The Beast Below)

However, the Doctor arrived a month late. By then Churchill had become convinced of the Ironsides' effectiveness. They proved excellent at shooting down German aircraft flying over London and even created new technologies which augmented the strength of the RAF by creating devices which went as far as to make their aircraft space-worthy. Churchill hoped to one day use the Ironsides in numbers to take the war to Germany. Ultimately, the Daleks were using themselves as bait to lure the Doctor to 1941 and confirm to the Progenitor, via his testimony, that they were truly Daleks. With this achieved, the active Progenitor produced the first Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm.

Attempting to get the Doctor off their back so they could escape, the new Daleks lit up every light in London, prompting German bombers to set off over the Channel at once to cause as much damage to the city as possible. However, the augmented Spitfires Jubilee, Flintlock and their leader Danny Boy flew into space and engaged the Dalek saucer above the Moon, knocking out the beam and plunging London back under the cover of darkness. The Daleks then set the Oblivion Continuum which powered Bracewell to detonate. With the whole of the Earth threatened with destruction, the Doctor had no choice but to leave the Daleks in order to deactivate the bomb, allowing them to escape the war via time corridor and proceeded to rebuild their race. However, the Doctor and Amy Pond were able to defuse the bomb by helping Bracewell override it with his humanity. All alien technology was subsequently removed by the Doctor to prevent wide-scale tampering with history. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Bracewell continued to work with Churchill and the British. Later that year, he brought a mysterious painting by Vincent van Gogh before Churchill. Regarding the painting, Churchill tried to contact the Doctor but reached River Song in the Stormcage facility instead. He warned her about the painting so she could pass on the message to the Doctor. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) Churchill privately remained concerned about Bracewell, fearing his Dalek programming may reassert itself. He considered sending Bracewell to work to work on codebreaking with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, (PROSE: The Lost Diaries of Winston Spencer Churchill), where Rachel Jensen, (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) Constance Clarke, (AUDIO: Criss-Cross) and Toshiko Sato's grandparents also worked. (TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts)

The Eleventh Doctor later recruited Danny Boy and the augmented Spitfires to fight at Demons Run. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

Emil Hartung headed a German project to develop a stealth bomber on Guernsey. The resulting prototype aircraft, Hugin and Munin, aircraft more advanced than should have been possible in the period, had completed the testing phase on 28 February after over four years of work. Hartung was killed on 1 March after Hugin crashed and exploding owing to a fault with the fuel line. The Tomato Network sought to gain intelligence on the project but were compromised by the Germans who killed the agents. In another attempt to bring the British to the negotiating table, the Germans warned them that they would flatten Southampton and planned to proceed with the bombing raid before the British could prepare the city's defences. The project was thwarted on 6 March after Munin was stolen and blown up, due to the interference of either the Seventh Doctor, Bernice Summerfield, Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej, (PROSE: Just War) or Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane. (AUDIO: Just War)

Leading Nazi Rudolf Hess embarked on a mission in a plane. (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS) He was captured by the British and imprisoned in the Tower of London. (PROSE: The Domino Effect)

In June, a small group of Germans, led by Lieutenant Koenig assisted by Miss Wyckham, entered the south coast of England. They used a piece of Chronosteel found in the Rhineland to block early warning systems, which they hoped would allow the Germans to invade Britain in full force. Clyde Langer and George Woods stopped them, with Clyde returning the Chronosteel to its rightful place with the Shopkeeper and Captain in 2010. (TV: Lost in Time)

The Blitz ended in July 1941 (PROSE: Illegal Alien) as the Germans moved east. (PROSE: Just War, Losing the Audience) In retaliation, the RAF carried out its own systematic bombings of Germany, which resulted in millions of German civilian deaths, far more than the British had lost in the Blitz. (PROSE: The Turing Test) The bombardment of Germany crippled Reverend Wainwright's faith. (TV: The Curse of Fenric) Oskar Steinmann claimed the Luftwaffe only targeted industrial and military installations while the RAF were responsible for many civilian deaths in Germany, and attacked with phosphorus bombs and dumdum bullets, which German forces had banned the use of. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

In the 1960s, certain areas of London were still being rebuilt as a result of the property damage caused by the Blitz. (AUDIO: The Perpetual Bond, Hunters of Earth) One such area was Bermondsey. (AUDIO: Threshold)

Beyond Western Europe
The Germans established concentration camps across occupied Europe where they used prisoners as slave labour. Oskar Steinmann spoke of British and French aggression, using the example of the British Empire moving into neutral countries such as Iceland, Iran and Madagascar, and explained that a German victory would see the British and French Empires wiped away. Germany moved into Romania and Bulgaria. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

In April 1941, the Germans invaded Greece where they clashed with the British. On 19 April, the Germans outflanked the British on the Pindus Mountains, forcing them to withdraw. On 23 April, the British began the evacuation of Greece. (PROSE: Just War)

Fighting also continued in North Africa. British and Australian forces, with French forces under Charles de Gaulle, clashed with the German Afrika Korps, led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Italians and their Tuareg tribesmen allies in the Sahara Desert, Libya. Tanks and aircraft were deployed by both sides during the campaign. (COMIC: The Instruments of War, PROSE: The Dying Days)

With Britain still undefeated, Germany turned her attention east towards the Soviet Union. They sought to capture Russia's countless resources of land, slaves, oil, grain and metals. The Germans thus pushed into Eastern Europe, bringing the Soviets into the war on the side of the Allies in June 1941, (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) and thus relieved Britain from the threat of invasion. (PROSE: Losing the Audience)

The Russians suffered terribly during Operation Barbarossa. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) Almost two thousand Russia planes were destroyed by the Luftwaffe on the first day of the attack. The Baltic States quickly fell to the Germans, and the Army advanced forty miles into Russia with each passing day as they fought towards Moscow. They had problems establishing their supply lines fast enough to keep up. More than two million Red Army soldiers, more men than were in the whole British Army, became German prisoners of war after the Battles of Bialystock, Kiev and Vyazma-Briansk. More Soviet soldiers were captured each day than the Germans could process. The astonishing speed and successes of the campaign were announced on German radio stations. Propagandists were soon told to tone down their reports of victories because Germany citizens were beginning not to believe them. (PROSE: Just War)

Leningrad was surrounded by the Germans. With Panzer divisions just ten miles away, the curator of the Palace Museum prepared to evacuate all the valuables to Siberia so they would not fall into German hands. However, the Amber Room was too fragile to be moved. The curator attempted to hide it by papering it over and covering the floor with sand to make it appear as if it was a normal room, before leaving with the collection to Siberia. However, the Germans discovered the Room within hours after they reached the Palace, stripped it from the Palace and had it transported back to Germany. (PROSE: Cabinets of Curiosities)

Fey Truscott-Sade served as a British spy and special operative in occupied Europe. (COMIC: Me and My Shadow) Professor Alec Palmer also served as a spy. (TV: Hide)

In November 1941, British forces raided the German headquarters in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Rommel. One month later, during a lull in the fighting in Cyrenaica, Libya, the German command was infiltrated by a Rutan spy disguised as German war hero Heinz Bruckner, searching for the Sontarans' lost superweapon, the Warsong. The Twelfth Doctor, Rommel, Kygon Brox's forces of the Eighth Sontaran Battle Fleet and even the Allied forces worked together to prevent the Rutans from using the Warsong to transform Earth into a weapon that could be used in the Sontaran-Rutan War. After its destruction, the fighting in Africa resumed. (COMIC: The Instruments of War)

Sam Bishop's great-grandfather fought with the Eighth Army, serving in North African battlefronts such as Gazala, Tobruk and El Alamein. (AUDIO: Earthfall) Captain Jack Harkness was present at El Alamein, (PROSE: Risk Assessment) as was the Doctor during one of his first five incarnations. (PROSE: The King of Terror) The Eighth Doctor claimed to have driven an ambulance there. (PROSE: Autumn Mist) Major Daker recalled that the British executed "traitors and cowards" at El Alamein. (PROSE: Ghosts of India)

On the Eastern Front, the Germans suffered a major setback. Despite the great start to the campaign, Germany's failure to defeat Britain meant that she found herself fighting a war on two fronts again, as had happened during World War I. The Germans had advanced 1,000 miles into Russia along a 2,000 mile front and came within sight of Moscow. However, the Russian winter then arrived and the snow brought the Wehrmacht grinding to a halt. The Russians, who were far more prepared for winter warfare, counter-attacked and the Germans were pushed back.

The Luftwaffe units called into Russia from Guernsey proved effective at halting Russian tanks, disrupting Russian supply lines, aiding in the fortification of strategic towns and providing supplies for the occupying German forces. However, Germany was forced to end the bombing campaigns against Britain and abandoned Operation Sealion in order to conserve resources. After Moscow, Germany's war became a defensive one. Early signs of panic began to sweep Berlin, with officers and civilians beginning to consider that Germany could lose the war. Anyone caught by the authorities of discussing this possibility were punished and purged for defeatism. (PROSE: Just War)

The Asian and European wars merge
On Sunday, 7 December 1941, Japan entered the wider war on Germany's side and attacked Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. Ray Budnick, a civilian pilot, was the first American to engage the Japanese as their Zero aircraft opened fire on him while he was out on a morning flight over Honolulu. The Fourth Doctor considered Budnick, who escaped, as important a historical character as the US General and post-war President Dwight D. Eisenhower even though history would forget him. The Japanese proceeded to bomb the American naval base in what the Doctor called "the greatest airborne attack" of the 20th century. (PROSE: Only Connect) UNIT's Bill Filer considered Pearl Harbour a big "series of balls-ups." (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune) Nevertheless, the Eighth Doctor noted that the "America woke up from an isolationist slumber" following the attack, bringing them into the war on the side of the Allies. (PROSE: Fear Itself)

Shortly after, the Americans became engaged in the Battle of the Philippines, where Lieutenant Terrence Moody was shot down on 9 December. (PROSE: Happily Ever After Is a High-Risk Strategy)

Rumours spread that Roosevelt knew the attack on Pearl Harbour was coming but kept quiet so he could use it as justification to enter the war. (PROSE: This Town Will Never Let Us Go) With the United States finally in the war, Roosevelt and Churchill allied their countries in a great transatlantic bond. (PROSE: Loving the Alien) America mobilised the massive resources at her disposal to support Britain and the Soviet Union. With Germany beginning to crack under pressure from fighting both European powers, the entry of America into the war proved to be a disaster. In effect, it was no longer Britain but Germany who fought alone on the continent. (PROSE: Just War)

In January 1942, Nazis in France forced Pierre Vedrun to build them a machine to travel to England. His daughter, Monique Vedrun used it to escape, but actually also travelled through time to the 1970s. There, the Third Doctor met the Nazis and her, secretly following them back to 1942. He attempted to stop the Nazis from becoming knowledgeable time travellers, tricking them into going through it again, but this time to a British jail in 1942. (COMIC: Timebenders)

Pearl Harbour opened the Far East Campaign. In the second week of February 1942, the Japanese turned their attention to the British Empire's Asian colonies and invaded Singapore. Outmatched, the British evacuated their soldiers and civilians by sea as the Japanese advanced on Singapore. On the island of Kenga which was away from the main assault, Captain Clive Freeman and his men, including Corporal Gibbs and Privates Lawson and James Jackson were ambushed in the jungle by Japanese scouting parties and harassed by air raids for a week after the invasion began, before they could be evacuated. Freeman was killed in the ambush but his form was taken by the Forsaken which fed on the fear of the other men as they held out. The Second Doctor defeated it by having it feed on its own fear. Afterwards, the boat arrived to complete the evacuation. Churchill called the fall of Singapore "the largest capitulation in British military history." (PROSE: The Forsaken)

Action also took place in the jungles of Burma (PROSE: Just War) where Major-General Scobie served in a number of excursions. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice)

In the Pacific, the US and Japan were separated by a huge number of islands throughout the ocean, each one occupied by fanatical Japanese soldiers who were prepared to die before they surrendered. The Americans had to take these islands one by one on their way to Japan. (PROSE: Endgame) In the US, Japanese-Americans were locked up in camps, regardless of whether they were patriotic Americans. (PROSE: Atom Bomb Blues)

The British conducted a raid into occupied France in 1942, where they very effectively deployed a netting trap. (PROSE: Survival)

The Axis falters
On the Eastern Front, the Nazis attacked and besieged Stalingrad in the snowy winter of 1942. The Drofen began consuming the city's living and dead during the siege until Erimem, failing to negotiate a peaceful solution, instructed the Russian defenders to bomb the Drofen ship. (PROSE: The Beast of Stalingrad) Colonel Katayev was one of the Russians who fought in the battle. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune)

On Christmas Eve 1942, Oskar Steinmann, promoted to the rank of Generalmajor, watched the first test of the V1 flying bomb at Peenemünde. Steinmann tried to convince himself that the weapon would strike fear into Germany's enemies and was the only hope left of defeating Britain. However, a teenage Unteroffizier, who did not argue against being called a defeatist, claimed it was just a psychological weapon. Despite the rocket being a great achievement, it would not help Germany win the war. (PROSE: Just War)

The Battle of Stalingrad continued into 1943. One million Soviets were killed defending the city. (PROSE: Happy Endings) The Sixth Doctor told Hitler that Stalingrad was "key" and the victor would "win the war." The Russians gained valuable experience from Stalingrad which was later put to use against German cities. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

Mike Smith's father, who was part of the Royal Navy, was lost along with his ship in 1943 in the Arctic Sea while running weapons to the Russians. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks)

In 1943, Fenric was working with his Haemovores at Maiden's Point. Russia and Britain, while nominally allies, were plotting against each other in preparation for post-war conflicts. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)

The Germans occupied the south of France in 1943. Although there were members of the French population who joined the French Resistance or stayed sympathetic towards the Allies, others collaborated with the Germans. The Milice, the French Gestapo, was formed, identified by their berets and brown uniforms. People seeking to avoid capture fled south in order to cross the Pyrenees into neutral Spain. Pilot Officer Randolph Wright was shot down over France in February 1944. He was taken prisoner and eventually died in captivity in Germany. A Gestapo agent took his identity in order to infiltrate French Resistance cells and prevent them crossing the Pyrenees. He was exposed by Polly Wright and shot dead by Resistance members. (AUDIO: Resistance)

The Germans launched another aerial bombardment against Britain. Fountain Street in London was among those reduced to rubble by firebombs. (PROSE: Ash)

The Allies invaded Italy in 1943. A landing craft fitted with a powerful amplifier and huge loudpseakers played recordings of gun-battles several miles away from the site of the Allied landings, luring the enemy to the wrong location. Germany occupied the previously Italian-controlled Albania. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion) Mussolini's own people rose up against him and strung him to a lamp post. (PROSE: The Dying Days) A battle took place at Monte Cassino in 1944 which left the monastery in ruins. By that stage, the Allies had conquered much of southern Italy but the Germans remained in control of the north and soon came into confrontation with their former allies.

One month after Monte Cassino, the German Special Service Division working under the instructions of Hermann Goering were plundering Northern Italian villages, stealing thousands of priceless Italian paintings and treasures and transporting them back to Germany "for real appreciation." Goering began building up a private collection, much of which was never found after the war. Italian partisans operated against the Germans but were fearful of retaliation. The Time Lords send the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith to Borosini during the period to rescue a priceless Raphael possessed by Father Antonio and other treasures. The Doctor put into effect Operation Stop Thief. Giovanni's partisans ambushed and derailed the convoy on its way to Berlin and returned the paintings to Borosini. The Doctor and Sarah Jane departed with the treasures in the TARDIS ahead of the arrival of Lieutenant Schuler's armoured column. Upon arrival, the Germans could not find the treasures. (COMIC: Treasure Trail)

Allies on the offensive
In May 1944, the shapeshifting Valbrects led by Reginta sought to invade Earth while the war weakened the planet, gain control of its minerals and ores and enslave the human race. They began by infiltrating a US Army base commanded by General Michael Heyman, with plans to replace the entire US Army and seize control of the planet. The Twelfth Doctor exposed them and Colonel Preston led the defence of the base. The Doctor forced the Valbrects to leave Earth by threatening to blow up their ship with an American bridge-buster bomb. (PROSE: Base of Operations)

The word "debrief" was an Americanism coined towards the end of the war. Britain invented the computer during the war by codebreakers. They were kept a secret. (PROSE: Silhouette)

American troops were sent to Britain in advance of the Normandy landings, (PROSE: Base of Operations) codenamed Operation Overlord. (PROSE: Trace Memory) In response to events on the island of Guernsey, the Germans committed a significant amount of time and resources to fortifying the Channel Islands. Consequently, the French coast was left relatively undefended and was vulnerable to the oncoming Allied attack. The Seventh Doctor hypothesised that had the Germans fortified the French coast instead, it may have been possible for them to repel the invasion. (PROSE: Just War)

In June 1944, the Allied troops launched the invasion of Normandy, gaining a foothold in mainland Europe. (PROSE: The Taint) Kenneth James Valentine, who joined the Royal Dragoon Guards in 1941 at the age of 15, was part of the Twenty Seventh Armoured Brigade which landed at Sword Beach. He was wounded in combat and was sent back to Britain where he spent the rest of the war. (PROSE: Trace Memory)

Paris was liberated from Nazi rule. The Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald visited the city, where they thwarted a plan by the Darapok Empire to brainwash humanity into destroying itself by destroying their transmitter on the Eiffel Tower, and then frightening them off. (COMIC: Trust)

Before fleeing form Paris, the Nazis loaded trains with Parisian artwork to be transported back to Germany. Hermann, as a young German soldier, was on the last of these trains to leave Paris one night ahead of the Americans. The journey was disrupted by resistance fighters, who blew up sections of the railway tracks and attacked the convoys. (PROSE: City of Death)

Ian Gilmore fought in France in 1944. He was haunted by the memory of the remains of two German soldiers having to be scraped off the inside of a pillbox. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks)

In Germany, members of the armed forces came to oppose Hitler and his insanity and organised the Valkyrie. However, their plot to remove Hitler failed. Erwin Rommel was implicated in the plot and was offered a choice between suicide or the death of his family. He chose the former. (COMIC: The Instruments of War)

Germany launched V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets against Britain in 1944. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) Young Barbara Wright was evacuated to the countryside during these attacks after she was burned by V1 wreckage in her street which left a scar on her back. (PROSE: Nothing at the End of the Lane) The flying bombs, also called buzz-bombs or doodlebugs, were robotic planes that destroyed large chunks of London. (PROSE: The Time Monster)

In October, the Seventh Doctor and Ace arrived at Colditz. (AUDIO: Colditz)

The Eleventh Doctor attempted to lead a breakout in a German prisoner of war camp. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)

In November, an Italian soldier, Bruno Trattorio, wrote a short letter to his wife Gigi Trattorio, expressing his hope that the war would not keep them separated for much longer. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film)

In December, the Germans launched their last offensive in Europe, in the Ardennes region in Belgium. (PROSE: Autumn Mist) George Woods fought at Ardennes the age of 16. (TV: Lost in Time) Colonel Herbert Elgar claimed that the offensive was "making everyone in Paris feel jittery," mostly due to the French memory of the previous German invasions. However, there was little chance of the Germans advancing deep into French territory. American Marines confidently claimed it would "all be over in a month or two." (PROSE: The Turing Test)

Endgame
In 1945, an amnesiac Eighth Doctor, Alan Turing and Graham Greene were involved in an unexplained alien conflict and survived the annihilation of Dresden by British and American bombers. (PROSE: The Turing Test) Ian Gilmore witnessed Dresden's destruction during a flight and tried to put it out his mind after. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)

The Allied leaders, Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, gathered at Yalta to discuss the partitioning of Europe. Official photographs showed them smiling but this was staged for propaganda purposes. (PROSE: Byzantium)

The British invaded Germany in 1945. Just as the British forces planned to do if the Nazis invaded Britain in 1940, groups of Nazis went into hiding in secret bases full of supplies and weapons. These resistance groups called themselves Werewolves. (PROSE: Made of Steel) According to Mahalia Nkansah Hernandez, the Russians and Americans were "racing across Germany to begin the Cold War." The Amber Room looted from Leningrad was not recovered, as it had been spirited away but was presumed to have been destroyed in a fire. (PROSE: Cabinets of Curiosities)

As the Soviets continued to advance on Berlin from the east, the city was effectively sealed off. Hitler, Himmler, Goering with his wife and six children, Joseph Goebbels with his wife Magda and their six children, Albert Speer, Martin Bormann, Hermann Fegelein and his wife Gretl, Otto Gunsche, Heinz Linge, Arthur Axmann and a number of other Nazis as well as Hitler's Alsatian Blondi retreated to the safety of the Fuhrerbunker beneath the Reichschancellery. On 15 April, Hitler's girlfriend and Gretl's sister Eva Braun joined them in the Bunker. For many Nazis inside the Bunker, Eva's arrival was a sign that their days were numbered, with many referring to her as "The Angel of Death".

On 20 April, Hitler celebrated his 56th birthday. This was the last day Hitler was known to have spent time outside the Bunker, as he refused suggestions that he flee Berlin to Southern Germany. He looked almost 20 years older than he actually was. Joseph Goebbels ordered that the Führer only be filmed and photographed from certain angles to hide his frailty. Hitler addressed the Hitler Youth Brigade, preparing them to defend Berlin. Despite the inevitability of the Reich's defeat, Hitler continued to order military operations to proceed. Himmler, once Hitler's closest and most trusted ally, saw the insanity in this and left the Bunker during the sombre birthday party, never to return. He entered secret negotiations with the Allies in order to sue for peace. Recognised immediately as the Sergeant-Major of the Gestapo, he was made an Allied prisoner. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

On 22 and 23 April, the Soviets reached the outskirts of Berlin. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass, Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Hitler declared "All is lost," and made clear his intention to commit suicide. He showed signs of both emotional and physical breakdown. Eva Braun expressed her intention to kill herself with him. Hitler tested cyanide pills on Blondi.

On 24 April, Albert Speer left the Bunker and was later brought into Allied captivity.

On 25 April, the Soviets captured the main airport of Berlin and advanced on the inner city where they began hunting for Hitler.

Pressured by his personal secretary Martin Bormann, Hitler incorrectly declared Goebbels a traitor. In fact, Goebbels remained loyal to Hitler. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

On 28 April, Mussolini was executed. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Hitler found out about Himmler's secret surrender negotiations and branded him a traitor. He had Fegelein, one of Himmler's closest aides, executed for attempting to leave the Bunker. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

On 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun. Goebbels was sent out into the streets of Berlin to find an official to conduct the ceremony. Eva signed her name on the marriage certificate as "Eva Hitler". Afterwards, Hitler dictated his last "Will and Political Testament" to a secretary. Denouncing both the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe for their failure, he named the highest ranking Kriegsmarine commander, Admiral Donitz, as his successor, and blamed the start of the war on a Jewish conspiracy. In the afternoon, Joseph and Magda Goebbels held a party for their six children.

In the morning of 30 April, Eva visited the garden of the Reichschancellery for the final time. After lunch, Hitler and Eva made their formal farewells in the main corridor of the Bunker. Heinz Linge and Otto Gunsche were instructed to turn away anyone who tried to see them, although both Magda Goebbels (successfully) and Arthur Axmann (unsuccessfully) sought final words with Hitler. Hitler and Eva were believed to have both killed themselves, either with cyanide or with a gun. However, Eva escaped and have birth a child.

Joseph and Magda Gobbels murdered their own children shortly after. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

On 9 May (Russian time), Field Marshal Keitel met with Marshal Georgi K Zhukov and signed the documents of Germany's unconditional surrender, signalling the complete destruction of the Third Reich. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) The Allies' victory over Germany was marked by VE Day on 8 May 1945. A major celebration took place in Trafalgar Square in London. (PROSE: Magic of the Angels) The Seventh Doctor and his companions Ace and Hex were present in London for the celebrations. Prior to this visit, Hex had never heard of VE Day. (AUDIO: Casualties of War)

Roosevelt died towards the end of the war. Harry S. Truman, Roosevelt's Vice-President, succeeded him as President and oversaw the end of the conflict. He attended the Potsdam Conference with Churchill and Stalin to settle the fate of post-war Europe. (PROSE: Endgame) With the Soviets having failed to find the remains of Hitler or Eva Braun, Stalin told Truman at the conference that he thought Hitler had fled to Spain or Argentina. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

The scientists from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute discovered how to split the atom, paving the way for the creation of nuclear weapons. (AUDIO: The Alchemists) The Americans, with the assistance of the British and scientists from other nations, developed the atomic bomb. These scientists hoped that, following a demonstration on an uninhabited island, the threat of the bomb alone would convince Japan to surrender, but they were opposed to it actually being used. However, the Allies were concerned that this would not be enough and that clearing the Japanese troops from all the Pacific islands could extend the war for another five years and lead to many more deaths. (PROSE: Endgame)

The decision was made to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. With the power of 13,000 tons of TNT, the bomb eradicated the city and burned at least 100,000 men, women, children and babies to death, with many more dying later from radiation poisoning. Four days later, an even more powerful plutonium explosion bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. (PROSE: Endgame, Atom Bomb Blues) A third bomb was intended for Kyoto but the aircraft carrying the bomb, the Sky Jack, fell into a black hole. (COMIC: Sky Jacks) Nevertheless, the two bombs achieved the surrender of the Japanese, who surrendered to the Americans. (PROSE: Endgame, Log 384) 

The war formally ended in September 1945. (PROSE: Base of Operations)

International issues
Between 1945 and 1946, twenty-three senior Nazis were put on trial for war crimes at Nuremberg. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Some of the defendants tried to defend themselves by claiming they were working under orders. (PROSE: Hope) Others were so indoctrinated by the ideology that they expressed that killing Jews was "just common sense." (PROSE: The Turing Test) Heinrich Himmler was among those who committed suicide in captivity before they could be tried. Albert Speer was the only one to plead guilty, (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) attempting to look sorry to avoid a twenty-year prison sentence. (PROSE: Dead Romance) Oskar Steinmann was found guilty at Nuremberg was given a life sentence in prison. He was released in 1969 on medical grounds and died in 1972 at the age of 89 from a form a spine cancer. (PROSE: Just War) Rudolf Hess was sent to Spandau Prison. (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS)

After the Japanese surrendered, they destroyed all of their biological warfare facilities before the American forces arrived and occupied their territory. However, the Americans found out about the experiments. Fearing that the Russians could benefit from this knowledge, and seeing an opportunity to learn from experiments that the US would never conduct themselves, the Americans granted the Ishii Shiro and the other perpetrators immunity for their crimes in exchange for the data. Some of the perpetrators went on to gain high positions in academia or powerful organisations. Unlike the Nazis, the Japanese war criminals were never persecuted and lived out lives of wealth and power. The Americans incorporated the data into their own medical knowledge and even deployed biological weapons against North Korea in the Korean War. (PROSE: Log 384)

This was symptomatic of the onset of the Cold War, brought on by deteriorating post-war relations between the capitalist West and the communist Soviet Union, a conflict which had been foreseen by both sides as early as 1943. (TV: The Curse of Fenric) In 1955, the First Doctor said of the situation: "It is one of the eternal truths of history, that today’s allies become tomorrow’s enemies." (PROSE: Losing the Audience) Britain's four citadels set up in case of a Nazi invasion were maintained due to the threat posed by the Soviet Union. (AUDIO: The Fifth Citadel)

Poland and Czechoslovakia were ruled by communists in the post-war years. (COMIC: The Broken Man, AUDIO: The Curse of the Fugue, Artificial Intelligence) Albania also experienced a Stalinist revolution aided by General Tito, fostering a new, more confident and aggressive identity for the nation to wash away the shame of the Italian and German occupations. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion) Berlin and Vienna were both divided into four zones patrolled by the United Kingdom, France, the United States and the Soviet Union. (AUDIO: The Anachronauts, Quicksilver)

The far reaching consequences of the Pearl Harbour attack saw the United States take a leading role in the post-war world, which, in the words of the Eighth Doctor, left its "isolationist slumber" and "looked to the next danger", that being the Soviet Union. (PROSE: Fear Itself) President Truman, despite being viewed merely as a "caretaker" president after Roosevelt's death, won the election of 1948. He oversaw the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and the Marshall Plan, a massive aid initiative which aimed to help Europe rebuild after the war. (PROSE: Endgame)

A few of the scientists who worked on the atomic bomb were so unhappy about its use that they passed the secrets to the Russians in order to break the US nuclear monopoly. The USSR developed its own nuclear weapons in 1949, resulting in a nuclear stand-off between the two superpowers. (PROSE: Endgame) The nuclear bomb became the new fear during the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union continued to work on their own nuclear bombs. By late 1963, as Barbara Wright calculated, they had enough to annihilate the entire population of Earth thirty times over. (PROSE: Nothing at the End of the Lane) Having started construction during the war, the Soviets also continued to build up the largest navy the world had ever seen, made up mostly of submarines. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils) For much of the latter half of the 20th century, the post-war political climate threatened to ignite World War III, potentially a nuclear war. (TV: The Mind of Evil, Day of the Daleks, Cold War et al.) However, such a disaster was ultimately avoided and the Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)

Despite Hitler's suicide and the collapse of the Nazi regime, Nazism survived as an ideology and neo-Nazis still sought to make Hitler's vision of Earth a reality. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass, Down) The house of Ace's friend, Manisha Purkayastha, was firebomed by neo-Nazis in 1983 (TV: Ghost Light) because she was not white. Ace lamented how these remnant groups could still exist when World War II was supposed to have been the war that put an end to fascism. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) In 1988, Hans de Flores, living in South America, attempted to take control of the Nemesis Statue and establish the Fourth Reich, but he and his men were killed by the Cybermen. (TV: Silver Nemesis) However, Bernice Summerfield claimed that Fascism disappeared as a political force, and that by the 1990s, neo-Nazis were little more than racist, powerless vandals and thugs who were confined to street corners, attacking immigrants, swearing just to shock their parents, and ultimately having little idea of what Nazism actually was. As she put it, Nazism was back where it had started. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

Computers, first invested and used by the British wartime codebreakers and kept a secret, became household items a few decades after the war. (PROSE: Silhouette)

Mines left over from fighting in the Atlantic Ocean continued to pose a threat to sailors. Sean and Jacko reckoned that explained how they became shipwrecked prior to becoming slave workers in an Atlantian mine. (PROSE: The Underwater Menace)

According to Bernice Summerfield, World War II was the last war of its kind for a very long time. (AUDIO: Just War)

Domestic issues
Ration books, passes and general security checks stayed in place in the UK for a few years after the war. Numerous ex-servicemen moved to Blyth, Newcastle and other parts of Tyne which offered good living conditions and work in the shipyards. (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat People)

Churchill was "rejected" by the British people after the war. He turned his attention to writing histories, including A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. (AUDIO: Living History) He did not leave politics behind, however, and returned as Prime Minister around 1953 (TV: The Idiot's Lantern) and still held the post in 1954 (PROSE: The Witch Hunters) at 80 years of age. (PROSE: Childhood Living) Eventually, he retired to his home in Chartwell after his physical health began to deteriorate. There, he committed to writing about his life experiences. For his leadership in both World Wars, he opined that he was not a hero but a man. Recognising his flaws and mistakes, he hoped to one day make up for them. (AUDIO: The Chartwell Metamorphosis)

After departing from Operation Stop Thief in 1944, the Doctor and Sarah Jane were diverted by the Time Lords to Borosini in peacetime, April 1948, where they returned the secured paintings and treasures to Father Antonio and Giovanni. The recovery of the artefacts made the news but Antonio and Giovanni were sworn to keep the role of the time travellers a secret. (COMIC: Treasure Trail)

By 1948, parts of London were yet to be rebuilt following the German bombing. Children, including Ben Jackson and Polly Wright, took to playing among the wreckage. Polly's mother told Polly that it was the bravery of Londoners which helped the city to recover. (AUDIO: Lost and Found) Bombed streets were bulldozed for reconstruction, although this proved a slow process and numerous buildings remained condemned some decades later. (PROSE: Ash) As late as 1966, certain parts of London were still in the process of being rebuilt (AUDIO: The Perpetual Bond) such as Bermondsey. (AUDIO: Threshold) Fortunately for London's inhabitants, they were the last major attacks against the city until the Daleks invaded the Earth in the 22nd century. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) St Paul's Cathedral famously survived the Blitz and other German bombing attacks, as it had the previous war, and as it would would in World War III, World War IV and the Dalek invasion. (AUDIO: Frostfire)

Mr. Gamble made a lot of money during the war, which made him a very influential figure in his home of Lewes during the 1950s. (AUDIO: The Bonfires of the Vanities)

The monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy was fully rebuilt by 1976. (COMIC: Treasure Trail)

Alien activity
During the war, a large number of alien spaceships were shot down, generating a black market of alien artefacts. Norton Folgate and his colleagues at the Torchwood Institute were still dealing with this by 1953. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission)

The Shakers remained trapped in the fabric of the BBC Broadcasting House until the 1950s. The recording sessions of Max and Maxine's radio comedy show, Anyway, As I Say, produced the right conditions for them to escape. Believing they had emerged in an occupied Britain, they continued to follow outdated orders, covertly killing regular audience members whom they believed to be German occupiers or enemy collaborators. In 1955, the First Doctor forced them to reveal themselves. Learning that the promise of Indian Lebensraum had been broken, the Shakers announced they would declare war on the British Empire, but the Doctor destroyed them by making it impossible for them to exist in the same dimension. (PROSE: Losing the Audience)

The house of Joan Calder, her mother, Mrs. Calder and grandfather, Old Mr. Calder was preserved by an unknown force after it was firebombed in 1943. In 1963, the First Doctor and Susan got lost and arrived at the house, discovered something was wrong and that Mr. Calder was somehow involved. Susan smashed a mirror through which the force was maintaining its hold over the house and it disintegrated and vanished as it should have in 1943. The Doctor and Susan never discovered how this could have occurred, although the Doctor guessed Mr. Calder may have discovered something terrible in the mirror while fighting in the trenches during the First World War. (PROSE: Ash)

The dormant Cyberman army discovered in the sewers of London by Patrick Mullen and Cody McBride (PROSE: Illegal Alien) awoke and invaded Earth over three decades after the war, in the late 1970s. (TV: The Invasion)

Their intervention in the war and birth of the New Dalek Paradigm brought the Daleks back from the edge of extinction, allowing them to build themselves up (TV: Victory of the Daleks) after their near-total destruction in the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor, Dalek, The Parting of the Ways, The Stolen Earth/Journey's End et al.)

Memory
Polly Wright visited a séance after the war in order to try and communicate with her late uncle Randolph. (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat People)

By 1963, Coal Hill School had not begun to teach pupils about the war. (PROSE: Tell Me You Love Me) By the beginning of the 21st century, it was being taught as a subject at high school level. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler, Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart)

Sam Bishop's great-grandfather regaled the young Sam Bishop with war stories of his time in North Africa, inspiring Sam to eventually join UNIT. (AUDIO: Earthfall)

The exact details of what happened in the Fuhrerbunker remained unclear to historians, as the Russians kept much of the details to themselves. Evidence released from the Russian archives in the 1990s helped to fill in some missing details. Claire Aldwych wrote and directed the documentary The Last Days of Hitler?, which premiered on the Conspiracy Channel on 12 August 1997. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) Christine Summerfield watched a documentary on BBC2 about the Nuremberg Trials. (PROSE: Dead Romance)

Inspired by his experiences as an evacuee, George Woods entered the field of radar development in which he worked throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In November 2010, at the age of 83, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his contribution to the field. Clyde Langer read an online article about his wartime and post-war life and exploits. (TV: Lost in Time)

When the Monks invaded Earth in the 21st century and brainwashed humanity into believing an alternate history, they attempted to condition everyone into believing that they watched over one of Churchill's wartime speeches. (TV: The Lie of the Land)

In 2040, the British and Germans organised a re-enactment of the Battle of Britain for the 100th anniversary. The show concluded with a tribute to the pilots reading: "WE WILL REMEMBER THEM" in English and "DIE GEFALLENEN BLEIBEN IN ALLE EWIGKEIT IN UNSEREM GEDENKEN" in German. (PROSE: /Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet/)

Later in the 21st century, when the Mnemosyne Cincture around Saturn's ice moon, Mnemosyne, was evacuated after an attack by the Blue Soldiers, the Second Doctor described it as "a veritable Dunkirk." However, no one around him seemed to understand the reference. (PROSE: The Wheel of Ice) Barbara Wright was reminded of the Dunkirk evacuation when she saw the formation of the Hydran flotilla facing the Voord on Hydra. (AUDIO: Domain of the Voord)

By the 30th century, on the human-colonised world of Avalon, the records of their history became scattered and muddled, with some genuine history becoming intertwined with myths, legends and stories. Barbara Wright read an account of how King Arthur defeated the Nazi Armada off the coast of Cornwall with the aid of Merlin’s "Atome Fire", in what was supposedly the "last battle" before people migrated to Avalon. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice)

In the 34th century, Vernon Terrell decorated the Adjudication Lodge on the Darkheart colony with murals he painted relating to the theme of triumph over adversary. Among these paintings was one of the Dunkirk evacuation. (PROSE: The Dark Path)

Jack Harkness told the Tenth Doctor he died in World War II after his time with the Ninth Doctor. (TV: Utopia)

Wilfred Mott fought in the war, though he didn't kill anyone. (TV: The End of Time)

Alternative timelines
While on a fishing trip to an island to the Pacific Ocean on 25 July 1963, the Fifth Doctor discovered that the TARDIS had materialised in an alternative timeline in which World War II had never ended. After being held at gunpoint by an American fighter pilot native to this timeline named Angus "Gus" Goodman, the Doctor offered him the chance to get off the island, which was Japanese territory. Goodman accepted the Doctor's offer and became a short-lived companion. (COMIC: Lunar Lagoon, 4-Dimentional Vistas) However, he was killed by the Moderator, a hitman in the employ of Josiah W. Dogbolter, before he could be returned in the United States in his timeline. (COMIC: The Moderator)

In another alternative timeline accidentally created by the Seventh Doctor and Ace's arrival in Colditz Castle in October 1944, Nazi scientists used the laser technology contained in Ace's Walkman to refine uranium and create nuclear weapons. They subsequently bombed New York City and Moscow, forcing the surrender of the United States and the Soviet Union and winning Germany the war. This timeline was negated by an alternative version of the Eighth Doctor who, while posing as a German scientist named Johann Schmidt, fabricated a "flight log" for the TARDIS and manipulated Elizabeth Klein into travelling back in time to Colditz in October 1944 on the pretext of retrieving the Doctor so that he could teach her to pilot the TARDIS. Her lover Major Jonas Faber saw through Schmidt's trickery but was too late as Klein had already decided to disobey his orders and make the trip into the past. Unfortunately for Klein, her arrival in Colditz alerted the Seventh Doctor to the impending alteration of history and he and Ace were able to prevent it. (AUDIO: Colditz, Klein's Story)

In an alternative timeline in which Hitler did not lose the power of the Timewyrm, Germany had conquered the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe by 1941. After visiting the occupied London in May 1951 in this timeline, the Seventh Doctor and Ace prevented this from coming to pass. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

Parallel universe
In a parallel universe visited by the Third Doctor, the Republic of Great Britain and White Russia were able to crush Nazi Germany by intimidating Adolf Hitler into backing down from his sabre-rattling. Consequently, World War II never took place. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)

Behind the scenes

 * According to the non-narrative book Doctor Who The Official Annual 2011 in an alternative timeline in which the Eleventh Doctor did not discover the Ironsides, they turned the tide of the war and took the fight to Germany. After the war was won, Churchill was pressured by Stalin and Truman into having the Ironsides destroyed by a nuclear bomb.
 * The (1937-1945), the theatre of the war between China and Japan which began earlier than the accepted start date of the war in Europe (1939), has often been overlooked in Western historiography concerning World War II. The conflict has not been named as such in the Doctor Who universe, but the Short Trips: The Centenarian entry, Log 384, treats World War II and the Sino-Japanese War as the same conflict. Its origins are extensively explored in the Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Shadow of Weng-Chiang, the only Doctor Who story to be set during the conflict. Hostilities between China and Japan during the 1930s were first alluded to in the Target novelisation, Doctor Who and the War Games, although not in the original televised version of the story.
 * A number of Target novelisations add references to aspects of World War II that were not in the original televised serials.
 * Jon Pertwee served in the Navy during World War II.