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The axis controlled a large amount of Europe and North Africa in the beginning of 1942.Great tried to save itself but the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union by using Blitzkrieg tactics to overcome Soviet troops massed at the border. Oil played a large part in the axis strategy and Hitler wanted more oil to keep his war machine running. In order to follow through with this he needed to secure North Africa by pushing the British out Egypt, so in 1941 he sent Afrika Korps to bolster the Italian army struggling against the British in North Africa. In 1942 his force took a large amount of the region and drove deep into Egypt.

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In November 1942, Allied forces made sea landings in Morocco and Algeria. The Germans quickly sent reinforcements across the Mediterranean, but meanwhile, British forces stopped Rommel and forced him out of Egypt. His Africa Korps decided to retreat toward Tunisia. American soldiers did their first fighting of the war in a series of battles during the winter in 1942-1943 in Tunisia. American soldiers also helped the combined Allied  armies launch a final offensive in May 1943. The Allies used North Africa as a staging area and they crossed the Mediterranean into Sicily.  The fascist grand council met in July 24 and voted to restore the king and parliament to power. Many things happened after they did this such as Mussolini resigning the next day and Italy soon surrendered to the Allies and they soon declared war on Germany. By October, the Allied army had taken about a third of the Italian peninsula, but however the next year they didn't get much further. The reason was that a solid German defensive line that completely stopped the allies pretty much 60 miles south of Rome.

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In 1942, Axis troops began to push farther into Soviet territory. Because of this, Hitler split his forces so they could seize the rest of the Caucasus and also take Stalingrad. While in Stalingrad,German firebombs set most of the city on fire, but Stalin ordered his soldiers to not retreat. In November, the Soviet Red army began a counterattack by sending its troops forward against the Nazi assault. Hitler insisted that his soldiers fight to the death and it turns out that a lot of them did. In January 1943, the remains of Hitler's army, starving and frozen in the bitter Russian winter, surrendered. The battle that took place in Stalingrad costed Germany more than 200,000 troops while more than a million soviet soldiers died.

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Allied focused most of their resources in 1944 on an invasion of France. To prepare for the invasion General Eisenhower, gathered more than 1.5 million troops in southern England, 1,200 warships, 800 troops transport ships, 4,000 landing craft, 10,000 airplanes and hundreds of tanks. D-DAY, was the day the invasion began and it happened on June 6, 1944. Allied planes overhead and warships offshore provided covering fire, while landing craft delivered some 50,000 soldiers and 1,500 tanks to 5 Normandy beaches. By the end of the day about 150,000 allied troops had come ashore and controlled a 59-mile section of the Normandy coast. In August,the allies liberated Paris and in September, the 1st American troops crossed the French border in Germany.

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When the Allies crossed from France into Germany, they met fierce resistance and by December 1944, their offensive had stalled. Hitler launched his counteroffensive on December 16 and 8 German divisions smashed into the surprised Americans by creating a huge bulge in the American line. The battle of the bulge was the last German offensive on the western front, By April 1945, the red army had fought its way through Poland as well into Germany and to the outskirts of Berlin. On April 30, with advancing Soviet soldiers just half a mile from his Berlin bunker, he decided to KILL HIMSELF. Finally on May 8, victory in Europe Day, the war in Europe officially ended.

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When Roosevelt and Churchill met in Washington in December 1941, they had only a vague understanding of the extent of Hitler's extermination policies.
Invading occupied France was a possibility, because the French people would support such an invasion. Also, nearby Britain could serve as a staging area for the massing of troops and resources before the assault. The Italian army was fairly weak, and Italy would provide a good base for securing the rest of the Europe. Others wanted to launch the Allied offensive in North Africa, which was not as well defended and could serve as a gateway to Europe. Great Britain made a very clear choice of strategy because with the battle for North Africa was caught up, Churchill wanted the allies to strike there first. The USSR, now one of the allies, greatly needed help because Roosevelt eventually was convinced to support the British plan. In June 1942, he made the decision to invade North Africa in the fall.