The Largest War There Ever Was - 1939 - 1942

   September 1, 1939. Hitler has been demanding Danzig for several months, but the Poles have not budged. Over the past few days, Germany has been mobilizing its forces, moving them to the Polish border. The German battleship Schleswig-Holstein is docked in Danzig harbor, under the pretext of a diplomatic visit. But the morning of September 1 would not bring diplomatic meetings - instead, it would bring gunfire. At around 4:30 AM local time, the Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on Danzig with her 8 inch guns, wreaking havoc. A squadron of marines proceeded to land at Danzig, and after a week of stiff Polish resistance, Danzig would fall. Elsewhere, tens of German divisions - the bulk of the German army - swept into Poland. The Luftwaffe (Germany's air force) rapidly gained air superiority over the hapless Polish forces, and Polish communication lines were destroyed. The Poles, not expecting such a swift attack, failed to mobilize in time. This marked the first use of Blitzkrieg (lightning war), defined by its use of tanks as an independent spearhead and the heavy use of aerial bombardment. Blitzkrieg was marked by its speed and cooperation - it involved dense, rapidly moving formations, perfectly coordinated with the Luftwaffe - and it was a huge success.
   On September 3, both the British and French declared war on Germany, and were henceforth known as the "Allied" forces, along with their various colonies. Hitler was shocked - after years of appeasement, he did not expect any significant reaction from the Allies. Hitler's border with France had been left wide open - only 15% of the German army remained in Germany - and if France were to strike at this time, Hitler would have most likely lost the war. Instead, France launched the downright pathetic Saar Offensive, whereupon 2000 French troops ventured five miles into German territory, before retreating back to their starting positions. This would mark a colossal missed opportunity - one which would have huge consequences in the near future.
    By September 8th, the Wehrmacht (German army) had reached Warsaw, and would proceed to besiege it until it finally fell on September 28th. September 17th would mark the final nail in the coffin for the Poles - the Soviets, in accordance with the provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, invaded Poland from the East, causing the rapidly-collapsing Polish state to essentially disintegrate. Notably, France and Britain were silent in their response. Neither state wanted to bring the Soviet Union into the war, and it was widely acknowledged that the Germans and Soviets would end up betraying each other at some point. In late September, the Polish government fled the country, and by October 6th, the last organized Polish resistance had been defeated. For the next 50 years, Poland would exist as an occupied nation, either under the rule of the Nazis, or under the iron fist of the Soviets. While the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland would be relatively brief (during WW2), the German occupation would be brutal - Polish Jews were initially placed in filthy, overcrowded ghettos, but by 1942, would be rounded up and killed in concentration camps.
    The next several months would mark a period known as the "Phoney War". No major battles would take place between the Allies and German forces - completely contrary to World War I, where German armies were locked in brutal battle with the Allied forces from the early onset of the war. However, military action did occur. In late November, the Soviets invaded Finland in what should have been an easy victory. The Soviets outnumbered the Finnish in every possible aspect, including a roughly 3000 to 32 advantage in tanks. The Soviet rationale behind the war was reasonable - Finland was drawing too close to the West, and Finland sat only a few miles away from Leningrad, a critically important Soviet city. But the Soviets were not prepared for the ferocity of Finnish resistance - makeshift bombs, freezing temperatures, and rag-tag partisan groups all dramatically slowed the Soviet advance. The Finns were also able to outmaneuver the Soviets, often dividing Soviet divisions into small, scattered pockets before wiping them out. Nevertheless, it was not enough - the Red Army was simply too large, and the Soviets were merciless. On March 12th, 1940, after 105 days of gritty fighting, the Finns signed the Moscow Peace Treaty, conceding roughly 10% of their territory to the Soviet Union.
   During this time, Allied forces sought to gain an advantage over Germany without further escalating the war. Swedish exports of iron ore were a fairly large component of the German war effort, and these exports were being shipped through Norway. Thus, the allies planned to invade Norway and parts of Sweden, in order to stop the ore shipments. However, Germany struck first, invading both Norway and Denmark on April 9, 1940, in order to secure Northern Europe and her iron supply. Denmark surrendered after a few hours in order to avoid total annihilation. In Norway, the Germans, aided by the treachery of Vidkun Quisling (whose name is now synonymous with traitor), fought a brief but bloody campaign against both Norwegian loyalists and Allied forces. The Germans managed to quickly take Oslo, but they lost 10 destroyers while securing Narvik, a bright spot for the allies in what was otherwise a disastrous campaign.
   May 10, 1940, would be the next pivotal day during the course of the war. After eight months of buildup, the Wehrmacht struck at France and the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg). The French had been preparing for this day for years, and their main defensive strategy involved holding off German forces in Belgium. To the south, along the French-German border, was the Maginot line, a massive and costly series of fortifications intended to hold back any potential German assault. Crucially, however, the French had neglected the Ardennes forest, which was presumed to be impenetrable due to its rugged terrain. But after a northwards feint into Belgium, the main German force came rushing through the Ardennes forest. Now, only a few hundred miles away from the English channel, it was entirely possible that the Germans could cut off and encircle huge numbers of allied troops. That same day, Neville Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Churchill was the polar opposite of Chamberlain, as the Germans would quickly realize.
   Realizing what had happened in the Ardennes, the Allies attempted to organize a hasty defense at Sedan in order to protect their flank. Only the Meuse river stood between the German forces and the English channel - if Sedan fell, the Germans would have a clear path towards victory - and thus the need to hold Sedan was paramount to the allies. Nevertheless, Sedan fell after three days of fighting. The French forces were armed with obsolete equipment and were ill-prepared to the psychological horrors wrought by constant Luftwaffe air strikes. 70 years earlier, in 1870, the Battle of Sedan was the decisive victory won by the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian war, which paved the way for the unification of Germany, along with the humiliation of France. Now, in 1940, France would suffer the same fate, due to a German victory at the same location.  By May 20th, 1940, the German forces had reached the English channel, trapping hundreds of thousands allied troops. In contrast to the four years of stalemate between France and Germany in World War I, Germany had secured a victory in merely ten days in World War II.
   Now desperate to save the British Expeditionary Force in France, the British government decided to attempt to mount an evacuation at Dunkirk. Around 400,000 Allied troops were trapped by German forces, who had cut off any chance at a tactical retreat and were now rapidly converging on the Allied position. A flotilla of ships were organized to aid in the retreat, while French troops desperately fought the German onslaught in order to bide time for the evacuation. It was at this point where a controversial misconception arises - among many, there is an idea that Hitler ordered his armies to halt on the outskirts of Dunkirk, much to the chagrin of his commanders. However, this is false. Hitler temporarily halted his armies at the request of his generals, who had advanced hundreds of miles in a matter of weeks, and needed to give their troops rest and repair their panzers (tanks). The idea that a massive land evacuation could be staged at Dunkirk was rightfully considered absurd, and Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering promised Hitler that the Luftwaffe could pound the Allied forces into submission. Nevertheless, the British attempted their unprecedented evacuation, beginning May 26. The British Air Force fought ferocious aerial duels with the Luftwaffe over the skies of Dunkirk, while British ships - both military and civilian - made several trips between Dunkirk and Britain. After a week, around 340,000 allied troops were successfully evacuated. On June 4th, Churchill proclaimed that "We [Britain] shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender" - a massive change in tone from Neville Chamberlain's weak attempts at appeasement. Yet, on June 14th, Paris would fall, and France would surrender. Britain, along with her massive empire, stood alone. Against her would be both the German war machine, as well as Italy, who had entered the war on the side of Germany on June 10th.
    Hitler was personally conflicted about continuing the war with England. Hitler's admiration for the British is clearly on display in Mein Kampf, and as part of the Germanic family, the English were regarded highly in Hitler's perverted racial world view. But, unlike his predecessor, Churchill would refuse to back down and sue for peace. This left Hitler no choice - England had to be beaten. The German High Command planned for an amphibious assault on England to occur in late September - but this plan, known as Operation Sea Lion, required aerial superiority over the English channel in order to succeed. On August 13th, the Battle of Britain began with Eagle Day, which was intended to be Goering's masterstroke in order to annihilate the British air force (also known as the RAF). Eagle Day was to knock out British air fields, making it impossible for the RAF to defend their skies. Unfortunately for the Germans, an early miscommunication, combined with the British use of radar in a comprehensive aerial-defense network (known as the Dowding system) resulted in the Luftwaffe raids being largely ineffective. The Germans and the British both ended up losing around 60 aircraft that day, and the rest of the Battle of Britain would largely be no exception - the Germans and British would trade planes at a fairly even rate. Over the next few weeks, the Luftwaffe continued their attempts to pound at British airfields, but they were unsuccessful.
    Realizing that it would be impossible to defeat the British Air Force, Hitler decided to change his tactics - instead of winning a decisive military victory over the British, he would break the will of the British people. On September 7, 1940, Hitler bombed London, killing hundreds. British air defenses were largely concentrated around military targets - air fields, hangars, and military factories - and thus it was relatively easy for Luftwaffe bombers to attack civilian targets. German bombers also destroyed British dockyards and communications. But, the bombings did not break British morale - they strengthened it. Resilient in the face of Nazi attacks, the British people resolved to do everything in their power to fend of the German bombers. Civil defense services saw their ranks swell, and while London took the brunt of the impact, major cities such as Birmingham and Liverpool also saw frequent raids - further uniting the British people in their struggle. German night raids, while successful in destroying industrial targets and warehouses, failed to break the British fighting spirit. By the beginning of 1941, Operation Sea Lion had been indefinitely postponed, and the British had developed sound strategies towards countering the German raids. Japan would also join the Axis on September 27, 1940, though they would not make any significant contribution to the war until December of 1941.
    While battles raged in the skies over Britain, another battle was unfolding in the Atlantic Ocean. Britain, as an island nation, was extremely dependent on commercial shipping in order to feed and fuel her population. Both British-controlled India and the United States were critically important towards the British war effort - and if the Germans could cut off shipping from these areas, they could starve Britain. With the fall of France, German U-boats (submarines) had an extremely convenient base of operations, from which they could hunt in the North Atlantic. The time period from July 1940 until October 1940 was known as the "First Happy Time" by German U-boat commanders. British naval radar was insufficient in its capability to detect U-boats, and hundreds of thousands of tons of merchant shipping were sunk. Shocked by the huge losses, the British navy began to escort their ships with old cruisers and destroyers. Merchant ships were also grouped into convoys, in order to facilitate a more effective usage of naval escorts. The Germans countered this by using surface raiders - heavy cruisers and smaller battleships known as "pocket battleships" which were able to outgun the smaller and weaker convoy escorts. In November of 1940, the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer attacked convoy HX 84, destroying five merchant ships and a destroyer escort. The British would continue to suffer heavy merchant losses until around 1943, when the war began to finally turn in the favor of the Allies.
    Italy did not want to sit idly while her northern neighbor fought successful wars of conquest. In early September, Italian forces invaded Egypt from their colonial bases in Libya, kicking off the North African war. But the Italian effort, hastily planned and executed, evolved into a complete disaster. The Italian offensive bogged down in Western Egypt, and the British forces launched Operation Compass. This British offensive resulted in the destruction of the Italian 10th army, and was a great morale booster - it represented an Allied victory over an Axis force. Mussolini, undeterred, requested help from Hitler - who dispatched the Afrika Korps, led by Erwin Rommel, to assist Mussolini. The Afrika Korps were led by Erwin Rommel - a brilliant tactician who would go on to earn the nickname of "the Desert Fox". Rommel was at an advantage - he was close to his supply bases in Libya, whereas the British were hundreds of miles away from their main bases in Egypt. Rommel struck with ferocity in early 1941, pushing the British out of Libya (with the exception of Tobruk, which was held under siege).
    October of 1940 saw the Italian invasion of Greece - but the mountainous terrain made offensive operations effectively impossible. The Greeks fought fiercely, and eventually pushed the Italians a few miles back into Albania. The front stabilized at this point, and Mussolini planned to simply wear the Greeks down - they were running low on ammunition and manpower, and would not be able to hold out against a continued Allied offensive. But, by April of 1941, the British began to deploy troops into Greece, and Hitler was afraid of an invasion from the south. The Germans proceeded to (along with Italy and Hungary) invade Yugoslavia. German bombing quickly destroyed Yugoslav communications, while many ethnic minorities within Yugoslavia did not offer much resistance - the Yugoslav government was dominated by ethnic Serbs, and Yugoslavia was viewed by many as a "Greater Serbia" rather than a united southern-slavic state. As a result, the Yugoslav government fled, and on April 18th, the remaining leadership in Yugoslavia surrendered to the Axis forces.
    March of 1941 would mark the beginning of major, albeit indirect, American support for Allied forces. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the President to ship arms to "the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States". At first, US arms went to Britain and China, but eventually the Soviet Union would also receive American aid. In total, around 700 billion dollars (in modern currency) worth of arms would be shipped to various nations - a true demonstration of the raw industrial might of the United States.
    In April, Germany began its invasion of Greece, as Bulgaria had joined the Axis a month earlier and thus could be used as a staging ground for the invasion. The Greek forces, already pushed to the breaking point trying to hold back Italy, could not stand up to the mighty German onslaught. On April 9th, the Germans won a decisive victory at the Metaxes line, a series of forts on the Greek-Bulgarian border. This resulted in a German breakthrough, and by April 27th, German forces had reached Athens. Mainland Greece had fallen, but many British and Greek soldiers had managed to evacuate to Crete. The Germans, wanting to avenge their failure over the British skies a few months earlier, launched an airborne attack on Crete, on the morning of May 20. The first day of the German assault was a disaster for the Germans - German paratroopers were shot out of the sky, and miscommunications resulted in German troops landing far off course from their intended destinations. However, the British blundered on the second day, and the Germans were able to capture the vital airfield of Maleme, enabling them to safely deploy more soldiers to Crete. After 13 days of heavy fighting, Crete fell to the Germans - but the casualties were horrendous - a sign of things to come for the German army.
    During both the Balkan and North African campaigns, Hitler's main effort had been focused on the planning of his ultimate dream - the conquest of the Soviet Union. Hitler had been building up forces along the Soviet border for months - telling the Soviets that his troops were merely preparing for Operation Sea Lion. Hitler and his generals believed that, despite the numerical advantage that the Soviets had, one "only had to kick in the door, and the whole rotting structure would come crashing down". This is quite a reasonable assumption, given the atrocious Soviet performance in Finland just a few months earlier. Germany had also conscripted Romania as an ally, as the Romanians wished to recapture modern-day Moldova from the Soviet Union. Finland would also join the war, wishing to gain her territory back from the Soviet Union. Stalin, meanwhile, was receiving dozens of reports indicating that a German attack was imminent - German spies were being captured, and even the British were warning Stalin of an impending attack. Yet, Stalin ignored these warnings. He did not want to do anything to provoke a German attack, and dismissed the British reports as an attempt to provoke a war between Germany and the USSR (which would have been greatly beneficial to Britain). Regardless, Soviet forces were unprepared for a war with Germany - though the Soviets had thousands of tanks, many were obsolete, and Stalin's purges had virtually destroyed competent leadership within the Red Army. Soviet divisions were badly organized, and were too cumbersome in the age of mobile warfare. Soviet defensive lines were either abandoned or incomplete. and Soviet troops were nowhere near as well trained as their German counterparts.
     June 22nd, 1941, would mark a defining moment of the 20th century. On this day, three million German troops, along with hundreds of thousands of Romanians, surged into Eastern Poland (Army Group Center), the Baltic States (Army Group North) and Ukraine (Army Group South). This invasion, known as Operation Barbarossa, would mark the largest invasion in human history, and it would be fought as such. The opening shots of the invasion were fired at around 3 in the morning, as German heavy artillery pounded Soviet positions across the entirety of Eastern Europe. Amid the chaos, German paratroopers slashed communication lines, exacerbating the disaster which awaited the Red Army. Luftwaffe planes swiftly followed, and while around 60 German planes were shot down, thousands of Soviet planes were destroyed as they sat helplessly on runways and tarmacs. A few hours later, German tanks rumbled across the border, ready to meet a now dazed Soviet force.
    Army Group Center's thrust into Minsk was essentially a gigantic encirclement. The powerful and well-equipped 2nd Panzer Army smashed through the Soviet 4th army and rapidly headed across the Bug River. To the North, the 9th army and the 3rd Panzer Army were already advancing towards Minsk, and though the Soviets fought desperately, their counter-attacks were uncoordinated. A few days later, hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops were encircled by the Wehrmacht, though 250,000 Soviet troops managed to flee eastwards. Minsk fell in early July, while German tanks were forced to halt their advance, in order for supply lines and infantry units to catch up. Meanwhile, Army Group South would end up fighting one of the largest tank battles in history. At Dubna, around a thousand German tanks squared off against 3500 thousand Soviet tanks. Notably, the Soviets sported hundreds of modern T34 and KV tanks, which were well armored and reasonably well armed. However, the Soviets were dealing with a logistical nightmare - the Luftwaffe had pounded Soviet supply lines, and communications had been essentially destroyed. The Soviets made a few chaotic counter-attacks, some of which were successful, but ended up losing around a thousand tanks, compared to the German loss of 250. In Moldova, Romanian forces would eventually emerge victorious after a month of heavy fighting, as the Soviets were more concerned about the main German thrusts elsewhere. In the North, the Soviets attempted a heavy counterattack on the first day, but were defeated due to the incredibly chaotic situation. Wisely, the Soviets staged a fighting retreat back to Leningrad, thus preserving the majority of their forces and avoiding an encirclement. Furthermore, the Soviets began to rapidly move their military factories eastwards, past the Ural mountains. This meant that the Soviets could lose large industrial areas - such as Leningrad or even Moscow - and still maintain their high rate of arms production.
    Germany's relentless advance continued throughout the summer and fall of 1941. The Soviet High Command (Stavka) in an attempt to halt the German push towards Moscow, ordered a counterattack to be mounted at Smolensk, a large city 400 kilometers away from Moscow. The counterattack was a disaster, as the 2nd and 3rd Panzer groups managed to catch three Soviet armies in an encirclement. 200,000 Soviet troops were killed, and another 300,000 were captured - yet despite the casualties, the Soviets still had abundant amounts of manpower. The strategic depth of Russia, along with their massive numerical advantage, made it extremely clear to the German High Command that if Russia were to be defeated, it would need to be a rapid victory, much like the French campaign of 1940. Hitler believed that this victory would be achieved by seizing Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus mountains, along with the capture of Soviet industrial and agricultural areas in Ukraine. He diverted the 2nd Panzer group southwards, detaching it from Army Group Center's push towards Moscow, and encircled Soviet forces defending Kiev, leading to 616,000 Soviet troops being captured or killed. This was a calamity for the Soviets, but the diversion of the 2nd Panzer group diverted pressure on Moscow, and bought vital time for the Soviets to organize the defense of their capital city. In the North, German soldiers had linked up with Finnish soldiers outside of Leningrad, but the large city (along with its contingent of defenders) meant that the city would be impossible to take. Instead, the Germans besieged the city, cutting off its food supply in what would be known as the Siege of Leningrad.  This siege was horrific in every possible regard, and around a million citizens would end up starving to death. But Leningrad would not fall - instead, after 872 long and grueling days, Leningrad would eventually be relieved.
    October through December of 1941 would mark the most important months of the war, for a variety of reasons. In early October, Army Group Center resumed its push towards Moscow, launching Operation Typhoon. At Vyazma and Bryansk, a German offensive managed to split a massive Soviet defensive force in half, leading to a double encirclement - a textbook example of Blitzkrieg. Another 670,000 Soviet troops were captured or killed, but the Germans now had good reasons to be worried. Firstly, heavy rains had begun to fall, which made it difficult for the Germans to launch large, quick offensives due to the soggy terrain. Secondly, the Soviet T-34 tanks, with their sloped armor and 75 millimeter guns, were beginning to make a difference. An entire tank brigade was destroyed when it was ambushed by T-34s, as it was extremely difficult for the German guns to penetrate the armor of the T-34.
     November marked the last chance for a German offensive - it was cold enough that the mud had frozen into permissible terrain, but the temperature had not yet reached the brutal cold of the Russian winter. The Germans attacked at Tula, attempting to rip open Moscow's southern flank and pave the way for a huge encirclement. The Second Panzer Army - the same army responsible for the Soviet disasters at Kiev and Minsk - led the attack, but the Soviets had concentrated their anti-aircraft guns at Tula, meaning that the Luftwaffe would not enjoy the dominance that they once had. Soviet forces dug in, harassing the Germans with their T-34s, while the weather grew colder and colder. Morale plummeted among the German forces, as it was incredibly difficult for the Germans to capture the heavily-fortified city. In early December, the Germans pulled back, and the attack on Moscow was cancelled. In spite of the fact that German forces had reached the suburbs of the city - with anecdotes suggesting that German scouts were able to see the spires of the Kremlin - Moscow would not fall. It was far too cold for the Germans to resume their attack, and German forces were too exhausted to continue.
    On the other side of the planet, early December would mark another massive development in the war. Japan's offensive had bogged down in China, and the United States had ceased exports of oil to Japan. Japan faced a dilemma - either withdraw from China, or attack Allied holdings in southeast Asia. The latter option seemed better, but there was the major threat of American intervention to protect southeast Asia - America had a huge navy and gargantuan industrial capabilities. The Japanese decided that the only option would be two simultaneous attacks - first, an attack on the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya in order to capture oil reserves - and second, an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, in order to neutralize the American threat.
    On December 7, 1941, 400 Japanese aircraft took off from 6 carriers. Their target was Pearl Harbor - the home of the US Pacific fleet. American sailors were caught totally off-guard, and the resulting raid was a disaster for the United States. The United States Navy lost four battleships, 2335 sailors, and 188 aircraft. 13 other ships were damaged, in what President Roosevelt would declare to be "a date which will live in infamy". Yet, the Japanese did not manage to obliterate American capabilities in the Pacific. America's three aircraft carriers were elsewhere at the time of the attack, and American fuel depots and repair facilities remained intact. The Japanese had done nothing to impact America's industrial capability - instead, they had just awakened a sleeping giant.
      Almost simultaneously, thousands of miles away, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines (which were essentially an American colony), Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies. The British garrison at Hong Kong was overrun in two weeks, as the 14,000 British defenders could not stand up to the 30,000 Japanese attackers. The case of Thailand was a strange one - a few hours after Japanese forces invaded, Thailand decided to align itself with the Axis, allowing Japanese forces to use Thailand as a staging ground for future operations. This included the Japanese invasion of Malaya - a grueling, month and a half long campaign which ended in total disaster for Allied forces. The Japanese had complete air superiority, and the Japanese were battle-hardened and experienced, having already fought a reasonably successful war of conquest in China. The Allies retreated to the heavily fortified city of Singapore, which was expected to hold. The Allies outnumbered the Japanese 2 to 1 (largely thanks to Indian troops stationed in Singapore), and were confident in their chances of victory. However, after a heavy artillery bombardment, the Japanese managed to exploit gaps in Allied defensive lines, while Japanese bombers managed to cripple a key airfield. After a few days, the Japanese broke through, and on February 15, 1942, Singapore fell. Japan's invasion of the Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia) was also brutal. The Japanese quickly gained air superiority, and had overwhelmed local troops, who were rather unwilling to fight for their colonial overlords. The Japanese invasion of the Philippines was another allied catastrophe. The Americans were inexperienced, and by late January of 1942, they had been forced to retreat to southern Luzon - specifically, the Bataan peninsula. They held out for four more months, but were eventually forced to surrender. The Philippines had fallen.
      December 11 and 12 of 1941 saw Adolf Hitler make two crucial decisions. On December 11, he declared war on the United States, for reasons that still are not clear today. He was not obliged to do so by any treaty, and had nothing to gain by linking the European and Pacific wars together. A common theory is that he expected the Japanese to reciprocate by declaring war on the Soviet Union - but this did not happen, as the Japanese were bogged down in China and would have their hands full with the United States. On December 12, Hitler authorized the "final solution" to the Jewish question. Previously, most Jews had been rounded up into ghettos, or simply shot on site. Now, the Nazis would kill on an industrial scale - rounding Jews up, packing them into trains, and shipping them to horrific concentration camps for them to be gassed or worked to death. Roma (gypsies) would also eventually end up as victims of the Nazi terror.
      At the beginning of 1942, the situation was dire for the allies. Mainland Europe had been crushed under the Nazi boot. The Soviet Union had been pushed back to the gates of Moscow. Several allied holdings in Asia had fallen, and a decent chunk of the American Pacific fleet was underwater. Yet, the Axis were not unstoppable. Their advance had been halted in Russia, and Germany had failed to defeat England. Japan was over-stretched and was not able to strike a fatal blow to the American navy. The war truly hung in a balance - and the massive battles of 1942 and 1943 would determine the victor.

Note: Though I sorely wish I could, World War II is too big of a subject to cover in deep detail. The above is my attempt at writing something that is both detailed, while simultaneously being manageable to read.