Characteristics

1. German U-boats began traveling in ‘wolf packs’ to reduce the effectiveness of convoys protected by aircraft and destroyers
2. In April 1940, Germany launched a full scale invasion of western Europe, especially against Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, with the blitzkrieg tactics
3. During the occupation of Poland by the Soviet Union, approximately 10,000 Polish officers were captured and brutally murdered. In addition to this, many other wartime crimes, such as systematic genocide, were committed.
4. Germans conquered France, prompting the Italians to join the war on the Germans’ side
5. Germany tried to conquer Britain solely through air attacks, which was called ‘the Blitz’
-- However, the Royal Air Force was able to stave off defeats
6. In Germany, Hitler targeted Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, communists, and others targeted as undesirables
-- Hitler thought of the ‘final solution’ that would create a perfect race and eliminate these undesirables from Europe
-- Use of concentration camps such as Auschwitz was notable
7. The last major effort of the Germans was at the Battle of Bulge, which was the most brutal for the Americans as they encountered 80,000 casualties.
8. The widespread Ethnic Cleansing (purging) of millions of “non-perfect" humans, such as the Jews, by Hitler and his regime through concentration camps and systematic genocide, led to a major decrease in the populations of various ethnicities.
9. WWII resulted in an estimated 55 million deaths worldwide and it was the deadliest conflict in history.
10. The USSR suffered the most casualties of all participating nations in WWII, with an estimated 29 million deaths.