Over the course of the fighting, the Allies defeated Germany and the Axis powers. They used techniques like dropping dummies out of planes and using dummy tanks to try to get the Axis powers to attack the dummies instead of actual soldiers and tanks. Eventually, there were more than a million Allied soldiers fighting and defeating Germany in Western Europe. Through the Allies stopping their main leader, Hitler, from advancing and gaining more land to build up his Eastern front, Germany suffered significant psychological trauma. The next year, a week after Hitler committed suicide, Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allied powers on May 7, 1945.