1. Libya
   Turkey
2. Poland

In September 1939, Nazi forces stormed into Poland on orders from Adolf Hitler, who wanted to restore German power and prestige in Europe … and in the rest of the globe, too.

1. Japan
   United States
2. Korea

Half a world away from Poland, and two years prior to the German invasion of Poland, the Japanese launched a major invasion into China, setting the stage for war in the Far East. Western Allies looked on in horror as the world descended into mayhem and murder.

1. Britain
   Netherlands
2. France

After a winter lull, the Nazi war machine was gaining momentum of the worst kind. In early 1940, the Germans were still making their way west, starting with countries like the Netherlands and to the south, France ... but not Britain.

1. Slovak Republic
   USSR
2. Spain

Both the USSR and Slovak Republic opted to join German forces in their smiting of the Polish people. Spain sat out WWII due to the recent devastation of the Spanish Civil War.

1. Case White
   Operation Pole
2. Pilser Pillage '39

It was called "Fall Weiss," or "Case White," the codename for the German invasion of Poland. Sadly for Poland, the plan went well for Germany's army, the Wehrmacht.

1. Japan
   Brazil
2. France

"Fall Rot," or "Case Red," was a pet project of Hitler -- it referred to the invasion of Germany's perennial enemy, France. The French saw the attack coming years in advance.

1. 4 hours
   46 days
2. Germany retreated.

In just 46 days, the Nazis tore through the French countryside and into Paris, which surrendered rather than face Nazi devastation. Everywhere in the West, panic seized the public consciousness.

1. Italy
   Japan
2. Australia

As Germany took care of business in Europe, Italy wreaked havoc in Africa, pushing into Kenya and Sudan. The war was getting bigger and deadlier by the day.

1. To keep the Nazis at bay
   Iceland's scenic landscape made a nice stopover for its troops.
2. They needed ice.

As the Germans plowed their way west, Britain's leaders decided to capture Iceland first, lest it fall into Nazi hands. There was no resistance to the invasion force of roughly 750 troops.

1. Perhaps 2 million
   Around 5 million
2. Roughly 20 million

No other nation suffered like China during the war. The Japanese went on a murderous rampage that may have killed as many as 20 million men, women, and children.

1. Iran
   Britain
2. Canada

Hitler was hoping that the British would surrender, but when it became clear that Winston Churchill and his people had no intentions of giving up arms, the Nazis planned Operation Sea Lion. But due to British and Allied might, the plan never really had a chance.

1. Achieve air and naval superiority
   Write his memoirs
2. Clean his bedroom

Hitler recognized that before any invasion of Britain, Germany would have to achieve air and naval superiority. Fortunately for the course of world history, that never happened.

1. About 9,000
   About 90,000
2. Roughly 350,000

Try as they might, the French could not withstand the Nazi invasion. More than 350,000 were killed or wounded during the invasion, which ended in a catastrophe for the Allies.

1. Haiti
   Philippines
2. Cuba

After the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese fleet concentrated much of its firepower in the Philippines. They captured the entire area, sending U.S. troops in a miserable and bloody retreat.

1. Britain
   United States
2. France

In the interwar years following WWI, France suspected that the Germans would rise up and attack once more, so they built a long, massive fort called the Maginot Line. The fortress was nearly impregnable, complete with its own underground rail line.

1. The Germans parachuted their armies over the Maginot Line.
   The Germans went around it.
2. The Germans blew it up with atomic bombs.

France did its best to create an invincible barrier called the Maginot Line. But the Germans merely skirted the fortress to the north … and then went wild in the French countryside.

1. Panama
   USSR
2. Yugoslavia

Hitler, exasperated by Britain's unwillingness to surrender, turned his rage east towards the USSR, an early ally in the war. Opening the Eastern Front may have cost Germany the war.

1. Italy
   Japan
2. Germany

In June 1942, Japan sent forces to invade the Aleutian Islands, which were part of the Alaska Territory. Because the area was so remote, it took more than a year for U.S. troops to arrive and finally push the Japanese away from the strategically important area.

1. Greece
   Normandy
2. Spain

The fate of the free world hung in the balance -- on June 6, 1944, the Allies initiated Operation Neptune, better known as "D-Day," the invasion of Normandy. In the bloodied waters of the English Channel, the Allies stormed ashore … and the Nazis flinched.

1. 0
   28
2. All of them

On paper, the D-Day invasion didn't look very successful. The Allies failed to accomplish any of their primary objectives … but they did manage to establish a foothold in Normandy.

1. Australian
   amphibian
2. amphibious

D-Day was a massive undertaking that turned into the largest amphibious assault ever. The Germans did not go quietly, causing more than 10,000 Allied casualties.

1. 20,000
   160,000
2. 2.3 million

More than 160,000 Allied troops crossed the English Channel into harm's way. 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft blasted the Normandy coast in hopes of loosening Germany's grip on the area.

1. Norway
   Greece
2. Belgium

By December 1944, the Germans were at the end of their reign of terror. But they launched an attack through the dense Ardennes region of Belgium, causing a "bulge" in the front lines. The Battle of the Bulge had begun.

1. True
2. False

Roughly 610,000 American troops dug in to stop the German invasion of Belgium. By the end of the month-long ordeal, about 90,000 of them became casualties, by far the most American casualties in a single battle during the war.

1. A stockpile of German hot air balloons
   A huge concentration camp
2. Hitler's grave

In January 1945, the Soviets pushed into Poland and found the Auschwitz concentration camp, a primary tool of the German Holocaust. Gaunt prisoners greeted the Soviets with cheers and tears.

1. Chinese
   American
2. Soviet

In April of 1945, weary U.S. troops began the largest amphibious invasion in the Pacific, the assault on the island of Okinawa. The pitched battle turned into a nightmarish scene of atrocities committed by both sides.

1. "full-speed retreat."
   "sloppy jungle hate."
2. "rain of steel."

By 1945, the war had stripped away the veneer of humanity in the Pacific. Both sides brutalized each other in what the Japanese called the "rain of steel."

1. United States
   USSR
2. Poland

Poland and the USSR, which suffered greatly at the hands of the Nazis for years, were the two primary armies that pushed into Germany, forcing the Nazis to fall back to Berlin.

1. Berlin
   North Africa
2. Australia

In 1942, the Allies launched Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. The weeklong operation was a decisive win for the British and Americans.

1. Manila
   Okinawa
2. Tokyo

For much of the war, the Japanese held the Filipino city of Manila. The Allies invaded with ferocity, and more than 100,000 civilians died as the city was almost completely leveled.