eement, they felt that their forces could defeat each of these countries without difficulty. On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and two days later France and England declared war to defend Poland. Less than a month after the invasion began, Germany controlled Poland and began to plan for their next invasion. This next invasion began in May of 1940 when Germany attacked France, while on June 10, Italy joined Germany and attacked France. By June 22, France had surrendered and Germany was left in charge of most of France.3 At this point, Germany and Italy's only opponent was England, who received many losses in defending France. After occupying the French mainland, German leaders began looking for their next strategic move towards world domination. Exactly one year after the French surrender, Hitler sent Germany to attack the Soviet Union. This became known as the biggest mistake of the war made by Hitler's German forces.4
             Less than six months later, an event occurred that would change the face of the war. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Air Force and Navy led by Isoroku Yamamoto bombed the most important port in Hawaii, Pearl Harbor. Nineteen ships and one hundred eighty-eight ships were destroyed and twenty-four hundred men were killed. This action by the Japanese infuriated American leaders to the point of requesting war. The next day, the United States congress officially declared war on Japan and joined the Allies. On December 11 Italy and Germany declared war on the United States in defense of Japan. Joseph Stalin immediately wanted the Allies to start a second front to ease the pressure being put on the Russians by the Nazi attack. The Allies, however, did not feel ready to open up a second front and instead cleared the Nazis out of North Africa and the island of Sicily. After these relatively easy victories, the allies felt that they were finally ready to open up a second front in France. This decisi...