1. China
   Germany
2. Japan

On September 1, 1939, Hitler’s minions savagely invaded Poland and subdued the country within a month. The European theater of the war was underway.

1. He became prime minister of Britain.
   He smoked 15 cigars.
2. He choked on a doughnut.

After the ineffectual hand-wringing of Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill was elevated to prime minister, and it was immediately clear that he had no patience for the likes of Hitler and his antics.

1. last stand
   evacuation
2. assassination

At the end of May 1940, British and French troops were trapped at the beaches of Dunkirk. But using many small civilian boats, hundreds of thousands of troops were evacuated to England, where they would live to fight again.

1. invasion of Poland
   attack on Pearl Harbor
2. Battle of Kursk

On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The war that America tried to avoid was suddenly right there ... in the paradise of Hawaii.

1. children stabbing the Japanese emperor
   flag raising
2. flamethrower battle

At the Battle of Iwo Jima, photographer Joe Rosenthal took an iconic picture of Marines raising an American flag. The photograph rejuvenated U.S. support of the Pacific War.

1. Paris
   Shanghai
2. New York

All of democracy shuddered in fear when German troops took Paris in June 1940. If Paris could land under Nazi control, what might become of the rest of the free world?

1. U.S. Marines
   aircraft
2. child soldiers

Seeing as how Britain is a heavily fortified island, Hitler used bombers and fighters to attack in the Battle of Britain. It was a major air battle​ and a critical one that the Allies had to win.

1. Rome
   Orlando
2. Moscow

By October 1941, Stalin and Hitler were definitely not BFFs anymore. Hitler ordered 1 million troops for the assault on Moscow — he didn’t just want to capture the capital, he wanted to obliterate it.

1. He retreated.
   He retired.
2. He personally killed Emperor Hirohito.

That March day, MacArthur retreated from the Philippines in the face of a blistering Japanese invasion. He swore, though, that someday he’d be back.

1. Italy
   United States
2. Japan

Codebreakers gained valuable insights on Japan’s preparations for the Battle of Midway, and the U.S. sprung a trap. Four Japanese carriers sank into the depths, and suddenly America’s Navy had some breathing room in the Pacific.

1. the interwar period
   a period of inaction on both sides
2. a battle in which troops threw snowballs at each other

After Germany invaded Poland, France and Britain declared war ... and nothing happened. Then in the spring of 1940, Germany started up the war machine again.

1. He divorced ... twice.
   He was diagnosed with leukemia.
2. He died.

The extreme stress of the war (and the Great Depression) took their toll on the president. He died just before the war ended, and Harry Truman replaced him.

1. attempt on Hitler’s life
   invasion of USSR
2. bombing of Tokyo

In June 1941, the Germans embarked on Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. In the end, the offensive would kill millions and millions of troops and civilians.

1. lasers
   B-29 bomber
2. tank

In the summer of 1943, the Germans and Soviets fought at the Battle of Kursk, which featured many thousands of tanks. The Soviet line held, and then began conducting its own major offensives.

1. cleared U.S. soldiers for front line duty
   tested an atomic bomb
2. created Nazi super soldiers

On July 16, 1945, the Trinity test in New Mexico detonated the first nuclear weapon in human history. But it would be far from the last.

1. Stalingrad
   Tokyo
2. Honolulu

In August 1942, the Germans decided to capture Stalingrad. There was just one problem — the Soviets wouldn’t give it up. Millions of people perished in the fighting that lasted until February ... and the Soviets held on.

1. Vietnam
   Japan
2. Italy

On September 3, 1943, nearly four years to the date of the start of WWII, Germany’s ally, Italy, surrendered. Europe no longer seemed like a lost cause for the Allies.

1. 500
   5,000
2. 150,000

In the biggest amphibious assault ever, the Allies used more than 5,000 ships to land at Normandy. There, the men stared down the Atlantic Wall — and won — and began driving the Germans backward​.

1. China
   Britain
2. Norway

As the Germans escalated the Battle of Britain, they used the Blitz to bomb cities and industrial areas all over the country. Tens of thousands of civilians died in the attacks but the English calmly carried on.

1. one
   three
2. all five

Allied feints tricked the Germans, making them think the landings would happen elsewhere. Just one beach, Omaha Beach, became a bloody quagmire for the Allies. There, more than 2,000 men died.

1. It looked like a WWI battle.
   It featured nuclear weapons.
2. It was nothing but pillow fights.

At the 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino, the Germans dug in for a long fight. Both sides pummeled each other with artillery and then flung wave after wave of infantry at the enemy, in scenes reminiscent of WWI.

1. Paris
   Berlin
2. Rome

Paris had been under the spell of the Nazis since the spring of 1940. Finally, in August 1944, the Allies took back this beacon of freedom.

1. Namibia
   Italy
2. Germany

With the Eastern Front lost, Hitler launched a surprise attack on the Western Front in late 1944. It became known as the Battle of the Bulge, and both sides suffered terribly in the miserable cold.

1. Battle of Stalingrad
   Battle of the Bulge
2. Battle of Okinawa

At Stalingrad, the Soviets beat back the Germans and inflicted nearly 800,000 casualties. The defeat forced Nazi leaders to tap into vital reserves from the Western Front.

1. kill Hitler
   develop a nuclear bomb
2. assassinate President Roosevelt

German officer Claus von Stauffenberg was a leader of the July 20 (1944) plot to assassinate Hitler. A briefcase bomb exploded and narrowly missed killing the Nazi despot, and instead, Stauffenberg was executed. Thousands of people were arrested and many were executed as Hitler lashed out in the wake of the plot.

1. USSR
   Australia
2. Japan

On August 6, 1945, the Allies dropped the world’s first atomic bomb used in warfare. Codenamed "Little Boy," it left parts of Hiroshima in ruins.

1. Berlin
   London
2. Warsaw

The Warsaw Uprising in 1944 found Polish operatives trying to take back their occupied city from the Germans. They failed, and after two months of fighting, the Germans leveled much of the city in revenge.

1. Norway
   USSR
2. U.S.

That January day, Soviet troops wandered into the horror show of Auschwitz, liberating the survivors. It was the beginning of the end of the Holocaust.

1. He called Stalin to apologize.
   He killed himself.
2. He ordered a final stand on the Western Front.

With his mad dreams of global domination down the toilet, Hitler poisoned and then shot himself on April 30, 1945. The Third Reich, along with its lunatic leader, was dead.

1. Valentine’s Day, duh
   The day Germany surrendered.
2. You don’t want to know.

On May 8, 1945, Germany finally surrendered. It was Victory in Europe Day, or VE Day, but in the Pacific, ​the Japanese were still fighting to the death.