1. The Eastern Front
1.1. Axis powers wanted to conquer the Balkan Peninsula and the Soviet Union
1.2. the most casualties
1.3. 1923 - Mein Kampf
1.3.1. Germany must defeat France
1.3.2. Germany must push toward Soviet Union
1.3.3. Hitler wanted to exterminate western Slavs
1.3.4. No communism
1.4. 1939 - Nazi-Soviet Pact
1.4.1. division of Poland, Finland, and Romania
1.4.2. division of Baltic States
1.5. Germany attacked Poland
1.6. Soviet troops attacked eastern Europe
1.7. June 22, 1941 - Operation Barbarossa: Germany invades Soviet Union
1.8. September, 1941 - Red Army sustained 2.5 million casualties
1.9. US and Britain joined Soviet Union
1.10. daily beheadings and mass rapes
1.11. Germans besieged Leningrad - the Blockade
1.12. Battle of Stalingrad
1.12.1. Hitler ordered "males killed, females deported"
1.12.2. snipers
1.12.3. Axis forces suffered 850,000 casualties
1.12.4. Soviet suffered 750,000 casualties
1.13. Germans slaughtered Jews and Slavic peasants
1.14. Red Army began a counteroffensive
1.14.1. end of 1941
1.14.2. after prevented Wehrmacht from taking Moscow
1.14.3. after Soviet prevailed at Stalingrad
1.15. 1944 - Soviet drove Germany away from Normandy
1.16. 1945 - Soviet drove Germany back to Berlin
2. The Western Front
2.1. May–June, 1940 - capitulation of the Low Countries and France
2.1.1. North African Campaign
2.1.1.1. Italy declares war on France and Britain
2.1.1.2. Italy invades Egypt from Lybia
2.1.1.3. Allies capture several Egyptian cities
2.1.1.4. Italians fall back at last
2.1.2. Battle of France
2.1.2.1. collapse of Third French Republic
2.1.2.2. Second Armistice at Compiègne
2.1.2.3. German occupation of Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, and France
2.1.2.4. Italian occupation of southern France
2.1.2.5. major Axes victory - France falls
2.2. July–October, 1940 - air war between Germany and Britain
2.2.1. Battle of Britain
2.2.1.1. bombings
2.2.1.2. British Air Marshal Hugh Dowding
2.2.1.3. Winston Churchill
2.2.1.4. Britain wins
2.3. 1944 to 1945 - ground combat between Germany and Normandy
2.3.1. Operation Market Garden
2.3.1.1. concerted action of American, British an Polish
2.3.1.2. liberation of Nijmegen
2.3.2. Operation Overlord
2.3.2.1. D-Day
2.3.2.2. successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe
2.3.2.3. General Dwight Eisenhower
2.3.2.4. Normandy landings
2.3.2.5. liberation of France
2.3.3. Battle of the Bulge
2.3.3.1. 600,000 American troops
2.3.3.2. Ardennes in Luxembourg and Belgium
2.3.3.3. Germans lost massive amounts of equipment
3. The Pacific Theatre
3.1. Pearl Harbor
3.1.1. Japan vs. US
3.1.2. Japanese gain area from Philippines to Solomons
3.2. Battle of Midway
3.2.1. 1942
3.2.2. Coral Sea
3.2.3. US navy defeated Japan
3.3. Allies launched a counter-offensive
3.3.1. Navy
3.3.1.1. Admiral Nimitz
3.3.1.2. landings in Guadalcanal and islands of Solomons
3.3.1.3. 1943 - took island Tarawa
3.3.1.4. captured a Japanese air base on Engebi
3.3.1.5. captured Truk
3.3.2. Army
3.3.2.1. General MacArthur
3.3.2.2. Australian allies
3.3.2.3. Allies acquire Papua New Guinea's peninsula
3.3.3. campaigns against Aleutians and Rabaul succeeded
3.3.4. 1944 - took Kwajalein