World War Two, also known as World War II or the Second World War, was a war fought from 1939 to 1945 in Europe and, during much of the 1930s and 1940s, in Asia.
The accepted view is that the war began in earnest on 1939-09-01 with the raid of Poland by Nazi Germany, and concluded on 1945-09-02 with the official surrender of the last Axis force, Japan. However, in Europe, the war had concluded earlier with the unconditional surrender of Germany on 1945-05-08.
Journalistic coverage
One interesting study documents how the strategic bombing of Germany was documented in popular American journals.