service_entry 24 cm kanone 3
Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from ___MASK42___ to ___MASK20___ , when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party ( NSDAP ). Under Hitler ' s rule , Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over nearly all aspects of life . The official name of the state was " Deutsches Reich " from ___MASK42___ to 1943 and " Großdeutsches Reich " (" Greater German Reich ") from 1943 to ___MASK20___ . The period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period ( abbreviated as " NS - Zeit "). The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May ___MASK20___ , ending World War II in Europe . The 24 cm Kanone 3 ( 24 cm K 3 ) was a German heavy siege gun used in the Second World War by the first battalion of Artillerie - Regiment 84 . Four were in service when Germany invaded Poland , assigned to the first two batteries of I . / AR 84 . In the Battle of France the battalion still only had four guns . By Operation Barbarossa all three batteries were equipped with two guns apiece . This situation did not change for the next two years . Ukraine ( tr . ) is a sovereign state in Eastern Europe , bordered by Russia to the east and northeast , Belarus to the northwest , Poland and Slovakia to the west , Hungary , Romania , and Moldova to the southwest , and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast , respectively . Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in ___MASK5___ but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian . Including Crimea , Ukraine has an area of , making it the largest country entirely within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world . It has a population of about 44 . 5 million , making it the 32nd most populous country in the world . World War II ( often abbreviated to WWII or WW2 ), also known as the Second World War , was a global war that lasted from ___MASK60___ to 1945 , although related conflicts began earlier . It involved the vast majority of the world ' s nations  including all of the great powers  eventually forming two opposing military alliances : the Allies and the Axis . It was the most widespread war in history , and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries . In a state of " total war ", the major participants threw their entire economic , industrial , and scientific capabilities behind the war effort , erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources . Marked by mass deaths of civilians , including the Holocaust ( in which approximately 11 million people were killed ) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres ( in which approximately one million were killed , and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities . These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history . The Battle of France , also known as the Fall of France , was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in ___MASK90___ during the Second World War . In six weeks from 10 May ___MASK90___ , German forces defeated Allied forces by mobile operations and conquered France , Belgium , Luxembourg and the Netherlands , bringing land operations on the Western Front to an end until ___MASK64___ June 1944 . Italy entered the war on 10 June ___MASK90___ and attempted an invasion of France . Operation Barbarossa ( German : " Unternehmen Barbarossa ") was the code name for Nazi Germany ' s invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II , which was launched on Sunday 22 June ___MASK97___ . The operation was driven by an ideological desire to conquer the Western Soviet Union so that it could be repopulated by Germans , to use Slav labour for the war effort , to seize the oil resources in the Caucasus and to seize the grain supply in the Ukraine . The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR " ) was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from ___MASK57___ to ___MASK88___ . A union of multiple subnational republics , its government and economy were highly centralized . The Soviet Union was a one - party federation , governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital . France , officially the French Republic , is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories . The European , or metropolitan , area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea , and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean . Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic , Pacific and Indian oceans . France spans and had a total population of almost 67 million people as of January ___MASK83___ . It is a unitary semi - presidential republic with the capital in Paris , the country ' s largest city and main cultural and commercial centre . Other major urban centres include Marseille , Lyon , Lille , Nice , Toulouse and Bordeaux .