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World War II or the Second World War was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.
The Government of Vichy France was the collaborationist ruling regime or government in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. Of contested legitimacy, it was finally headquartered in the town of Vichy in occupied France, but it initially took shape in Bordeaux under Marshal Philippe Pétain as the successor to the French Third Republic in June 1940. The government remained in Vichy for four years, but was escorted to Germany in September 1944 after the Allied invasion of France. It then operated as a government-in-exile until April 1945, when the Sigmaringen enclave was taken by so-called Free French forces. Pétain was permitted to travel back to France, by then under control of the technically illegal Provisional French Republic, and subsequently put on trial for treason.