page_title: World War II
section_title: Axis early victories
hierarchical_section_title: World War II / Course of the war / Axis early victories
caption_attribution_description: English: German Nazi officers parading in the deserted Foch avenue, Paris, France (1940). Screenshot taken from the 1943 United States Army propaganda film Divide and Conquer (Why We Fight #3) directed by Frank Capra and partially based on, news archives, animations, restaged scenes and captured propaganda material from both sides. Français&#160;: Officiers allemands paradant sur l'avenue Foch déserte, Paris, France (1940). Photographie tirée du film de propagande de l'Armée américaine de 1943 Divide and Conquer (Why We Fight #3) – en français&#160;: Diviser et Conquérir (Pourquoi nous nous battons (vol.3)&#160;?) – réalisé par Frank Capra et basé en partie sur des archives d'actualités de l'époque, des animations, des reconstitutions et du matériel de propagande récupéré des deux bords. Deutsch: Deutsche Nazi-Offiziere in der verlassenen Avenue Foch, Paris, Frankreich (1940). Bildschirmfoto des 1943 entstandenen US-Armee-Propagandafilms Divide and Conquer/Teile und Beherrsche (Why We Fight #3/Warum wir kämpfen, Kapitel 3), Regie Frank Capra. Der Film verwendet teilweise Nachrichtenarchive, Animationen, nachgestellte Szenen und Propagandamaterial beider Seiten.
context_page_description: World War II, in the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War, and in Japan, the Second Sino-Japanese War, was a global war involving fighting in most of the world and most countries. Most countries fought in the years 1939–1945 but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. World War II was the largest and deadliest conflict in all of history. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history. Between 50 to 85 million people died. The majority were civilians. It included massacres, the deliberate genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
  The two sides were the Allies and the Axis. The war in Asia began when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937. The war began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. France and Britain reacted by declaring war on Germany. By 1941, much of Europe was under German control, including France.
context_section_description: On 10 May, Germany invaded France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg and quickly defeated them by using blitzkrieg tactics. The British were forced to leave mainland Europe at Dunkirk. On June 10, Italy invaded France, declaring war on France and the United Kingdom. Soon after that, France was divided into occupation zones. One was directly controlled by Germany and Italy, and the other was unoccupied Vichy France.
  By June 1940, the Soviet Union moved its soldiers into the Baltic states and took them, followed by Bessarabia in Romania.  Although there had been some collaboration between the Soviet Union and Germany earlier, this event made it serious.  Later, when the two could not agree to work more closely together, relationships between them became worse to the point of war.
  Then Germany began an air battle over Britain to prepare for a landing on the island, but the plan was finally canceled in September.  The German Navy destroyed many British ships transporting goods in the Atlantic.  Italy, by this time, had begun its operation in the Mediterranean. The United States remained neutral but started to help the Allies. By helping to protect British ships in the Atlantic, the United States found itself fighting German ships by October 1941 but this was not officially war.
  In September 1940, Italy began to invade British-held Egypt. In October, Italy invaded Greece, but it only resulted in an Italian retreat to Albania. Again, in early 1941, an Italian army was pushed from Egypt to Libya in Africa. Germany soon helped Italy. Under Rommel's command, by the end of April 1941, the Commonwealth army was pushed back to Egypt again. Other than North Africa, Germany also successfully invaded Greece, Yugoslavia and Crete by May. Despite these victories, Hitler decided to cancel the bombing of Britain after 11 May.
  At the same time, Japan's progress in China was still not much, although the nationalist and communist Chinese began fighting each other again. Japan was planning to take over European colonies in Asia while they were weak, and the Soviet Union could feel a danger from Germany, so a non-aggression pact (which was an agreement that both countries would not attack each other) between the two was signed in April 1941. However, Germany kept preparing an attack on the Soviet Union, moving its soldiers close to the Soviet border.
caption: German troops in Paris after the fall of France.
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