Starting in Europe This map shows how Hitler explodes outward from his base in Germany. He starts with the invasion of Poland (right-most GREEN OVAL), and withing a year has added all the countries shown in BRIGHT GREEN, with Nazi flags. Europe is not prepared for Hitler's combination of fast-moving tanks and coordinated bombing. France lasts just six weeks. By the end of 1940, only Britain remains free of Hitler's grasp. Meanwhile, America remains in self-absorbed neutrality, generally ignoring the growing catastrophe.

	Hitler's Preparations The map above shows how Hitler maintains his deception until 1939.  The WHITE numbers above indicate the sequence of increasingly provocative steps Hitler takes before committing to outright conquest. Step #1 is re-militarization of Germany's all-important industrial region, called the Rhineland. This is German territory, after all, so no one complains. He then annexes German-speaking Austria (#2), again without significant blow-back. Steps #3 and #4 involve seizing land from neighboring Czechoslovakia, on the pretext of protecting German-speaking minorities. Hitler next seizes the independent, but German-speaking port city of Danzig (#5).  Step #6 is a fake non-aggression pact with the Soviets, secretly dividing Poland between them.
	Coordinated Aggression This map illustrates how separate expansionist ambitions across the globe slowly morph into the Second World War (WW2). The process actually begins far to the east, with a Japanese thrust up into Manchuria, which turns down into China with brutal savagery (#1). Next comes Italy's unlikely attack on defenseless Ethiopia, launched from its existing African colonies (#2). After repeated German provocations, World War II finally arrives big-time in 1939, with the invasion of Poland from both sides, German and Soviet. This full-scale invasion is too much for Britain and France, who reluctantly declare war on Germany (but not Russia). Hitler is the obvious big threat. The invasion spreads across all of Europe during 1940 (#3).
	Pushed Into the Sea The beginning of World War II is disastrous for Britain and France, now called the 'Allies.' They know that the Germans are likely to attack down the coast into France, as they did in the First World War (1914) and the Franco-Prussian War (1871). The French have built strong fortifications ('Maginot Line,' on map) to prevent Germany from attacking further south. The adjoining 'Ardennes' is a difficult, forested region that the French commander considers an unlikely attack route. But the Germans do, indeed, take this route, with a lightning Panzer tank thrust right up to the English Channel. This traps a large portion of the British and French forces. They have to be evacuated by sea, using vessels of all types and sizes, in a desperate and dramatic rescue.
	Gaining Momentum As Hitler storms across Europe, the handwriting is on the wall. The future is Fascism. Eager to get in on the winning side, both Italy and Japan formally join with Germany in the war against Britain and France. Italy hopes to gain portions of southern France, while Japanese expansion is already approaching British and French colonies in Southeast Asia. It's a simple case of self-interest. Despite these ominous new events, America continues to cling to its isolationist stance. Unemployment is still worryingly high, and federal spending is still way above historic ranges. Britain's Winston Churchill begs for help in resisting German pressure, but Roosevelt feels constrained by overwhelmingly anti-war sentiment in America.
	London is Next Christmas in 1940 is bleak indeed for Britain. The rest of Europe has already surrendered, while the Americans continue to dither over supplying aid. Hitler is launching nightly bombing raids on London, forcing civilians to take refuge in subway tunnels, while British pilots fight back with astonishing tenacity. The 'Battle of Britain' is waged solely by air, and lasts three months, with the fate of Britain and democracy at stake. Hitler finally gives it up, his air force in ruin. This is largely because the British have deployed an extensive radar system to track the path of incoming aircraft, which British pilots are able to pick off.  As Churchill famously puts it in his historic radio broadcast, 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.'