pation of the German homeland in MarchApril 1945. Meanwhile, the Soviet forces in 1944 had pushed the Germans completely out of the Soviet Union and had advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania. In early 1945 they occupied the eastern one-third of Germany. At the climax of the German collapse, with Berlin occupied by Soviet troops, Hitler committed suicide on April 30. On May 8 the surrender of all German forces was signed.Japan was left a lone in the War. United States defeated Japan in all Pacific Islands. Japan navy was completely destroyed by the Allied forces. The war in the Pacific came to a sudden and dramatic close after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. Japans formal surrender was signed on September 2.5- LossesThe human cost of the war fell heaviest on the USSR, for which the total of dead, military and civilian, is given as more than 20 million killed. The Allied military and civilian losses were 44 million. The Axis dead sum up to 11 million. The military deaths on both sides in Europe numbered 19 million and in the war against Japan, 6 million. The U.S., which had no significant civilian losses, sustained 292,131 battle deaths and 115,187 deaths from other causes. The highest numbers of deaths, military and civilian, were as follows: USSR more than 13 million military and 7 million civilian, China more than 3 million military and more than 10 million civilian; Germany 3.5 million military and 3.8 million civilian, Poland 120,000 military and 5.3 million civilian, Japan 1.7 million military and 380,000 civilian, Yugoslavia 300,000 military and 1.3 million civilian, Romania 200,000 military and 465,000 civilian, France 250,000 military and 360,000 civilian, British Empire and Commonwealth 452,000 military and 60,000 civilian, Italy 330,000 military and 80,000 civilian, Hungary 120,000 military and 280,000 civilian, and Czechoslovakia 10,000 military and 330,000 civilian. Pe...
