After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese armies celebrate their victory. Four months later, the Battle of the Coral Sea shakes their confidence; in Europe, the German attack against the Soviet Union causes heavy losses.

At the beginning of 1942, war wages on the battlefields in Eastern Europe, North Africa, and Asia Pacific.

From the Indian border in Burma to China, at war with Japan since 1937, the war becomes increasingly fierce; in Europe, despite his fewer resources, Hitler renews his assault on the Soviet Union.

With the power of the Soviet army pushing back the German forces on the lands they occupied, and faced with the devastation of German cities by Allied bombers, Goebbels calls for `total war'.

A Soviet offensive pushes German forces 30 kilometres from the Polish border; the siege of Leningrad is lifted after 900 days; on June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord is launched for the final offensive against Germany.