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In Europe, Germany won many battles due to its strategy of bitzkrieg war, which were rapid, successive attacks on the enemy front. The combination of air attacks and land attacks gave the Germans a decisive advantage.
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After the invasion of Poland, German forces occupied Denmark and Norway to the north, and the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France to the west.
In the Battle of Britain, Hitler's strategy was to bomb the major cities in Britain in order to destroy Briish military resources and allow him to invade the country, but the Luftwaffe was defeated by the British air force. -
The Italians attacked the British protectorate of Egypt from Libya. They were helped by the German army, the Afrika Korps, led by Field Marshall Rommel. The Afrika Korps used Panzer tanks and Stuka planes effectively and managed to defeat the British army. Their objective was to gain control of the Suez Canal in order to control te Mediterranean.
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Using blitzkrieg tactics, Hitler ordered the invasion of the USSR. The attack broke the non-agression pact that Germany had signed with the USSR. Hitler's objective was to occupy moscow and to obtain control of the wheat in Ukraine and the oil wells in the Caucasus.
Stalin responded by joining the Allies. The soviet forces adopted a scorched earth policy.The German forces advanced fast and reached Leningrad and the outskirts of Moscow, but the arrival of winter forced them to come to a halt. -
The Germans conquered Greece and Crete, and the Axis was joined by Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria, which allowed them to continue their offensive against the USSR.
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The Japanese invaded the French colonies in Indochina and began their expansion in the pacific. The United States announced an embargo on steel and petroleum exports to Japan in an attempt to stop its expansion. Japan responded with a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, the United States declared war on Japan and joined the war on the side of the Allies.
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German and Italian troops continued to march towards Cairo and the Suez Canal. General Montgomery, who was in charge of the British army, launched a counter attack in November 1942. He managed to force de the enemy troops out of Egypt. This British victory was possible due to the large amount of soldies brought from British colonies in India and Austria and the participation of the American troops.
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The Americans landed in Morocco and Algeria and advanced towards Tunisia where the Germans and Italians were defeated in 1943. The Axis lost its position in Africa and this allowed the Allies to attack southern Italy from there.
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The Germans intensified their naval war with a large-scale use of submarines to stop supplies reaching the Allied forces and isolate Great Britain. Allied aircraft carriers and destroyers put and end to the threat of the German submarines.
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German forces occupied the city but the Soviet army counter-attacked and surrounded the German forces for months, during a very cold winter. The Germans were forced to surrender and began to retreat from the USSR.
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In 1942, the Japanese were defeated and they lost control of some of the Pacific islands. This situation was made worse when American troops landed on the island of Guadalcanal (1942 - 1943) and Allied advances in the Pacific were consolidated.
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During this phase of the war, there was a radical change in the balance of power; the Axis suffered its major defeats.
In this phase, the war in Africa ended due o the millitary collaboration between Great Britainand the United States. -
After 1942, the Axis powers were forcer to retreat on all their remaining fronts until they finally surrended in 1945, and the Allies won the war.
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In Asia and the Pacific, the effectiveness of aircraft carriers and American submarines put an end to the Japanese control of the Pacific islands, which they had occupied since the war began.
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Allied troops landed in Sicily, and they were able to invade most of the italian peninsula. as a result, Mussolini was dismissed in 1943, and then, executed in 1945.
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The representatives of Great Britain, the United States and the USSR agreed to open a new front in France with the aim of liberating Western Europe. The agreement helped to accelerate the end of the war.
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The North Americans destroyed most o the Japanese aicraft carriers and almost all of its naval aircraft.
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The American, British and Canadian troops, under the comand of the American General Eisenhower landed on the coast of Normandy in France. Following a difficult battle against the Germans, they finally managed to force them to retreat as far as Paris. Paris was finally liberated in August 1944
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The Japanese used kamikaze pilots to stop Allied troops reachin japan. However, their sacrifice was not enough to stop the troops and the Americans defeated tem again.
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After France was liberated, the Allies advanced towars Germany from three fronts: France, the USSR and the north of Italy. The Soviets liberated Poland, Hungary and Czechoslocakia. In May 1945, Allied troops entered Berlin; Hitler commited suicide to avoid being captured. On 8 May, Germany surrended.
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To put an end to the conflict, in August 1945, the United States President Harry Truman, athorised the dropping of the atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result, Japan finally surrended on 2 September 1945, and the Second World War ended.
