1942

During 1942, the British and Americans fought the Germans and Italians in North Africa, while the Soviets fought to repel a German invasion. In the Pacific, the Allies stopped the Japanese advance.

1943

By late spring the Allies had taken Tunisia in North Africa, from which they launched an invasion of Italy. The USSR turned back the German tide in the east. The U.S. and allies recaptured the first of the Pacific islands taken by the Japanese.

1944

By 1944 the tide had turned decisively in the Allies’ favor. Allied troops captured Rome, invaded France on two fronts, and by year’s end had taken most of France and Italy. The Soviets drove the German armies out of the USSR and began an invasion of Eastern Europe. Allied navies in the Pacific continued recapturing islands from Japan and began attacks on the Japanese homeland.

1945

The Allies now invaded Germany itself, and spring of 1945 saw the final collapse of Hitler’s regime. Germany surrendered in May, and the Allies carved up the nation into occupation zones. With the capture of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Allied forces in the Pacific could prepare an invasion of Japan. But the use of atomic weapons brought about a Japanese surrender, and the war’s end, in August.