Hitler was in control of most of Europe. Hitler was in his fight against Russia, and would have most of their support if he didn't egg on his "superior race" thing. Hitler was a conceited man who believed he would be the next conqueror of Europe. He had good reason to be conceited. His infantry had a little under 10,000,000 troops, 6 battleships, two carriers, about 30 destroyers, and 125-175 submarines. Five thousand planes was in the arsenal of the German Luftwaffe.
Germany also had a lot of supplies and labor flowing in. France, Belgium, and most other occupied countries would do Hitler's dirty work. Slave labor set up the Atlantic Wall, which was supposedly impregnable. Valuable food supplies came from Demmark, and Rumania gave the Germans coal and grain. Many of the European citizens watched as their supplies went to another cause. In that time of German greatness, Hitler managed to seize himself a lump sum of money: $36,000,000,000.
Hitler had already almost taken the Caucasus oil fields, and had already conquered the Maikop oil fields. Hitler failed to take Leningrad, but Hitler knew that he would take Stalingrad and capture Moscow. He would then meet with Japan... or that was the plan. But Hitler had his drawbacks.
In Czechoslovakia the German Gestapo was in effect. Hitler made Reinhard Heydrich the protector of Bohemia and Moravia in 1941. On May 27, 1942, Czech patriots tried to assassinate Heydrich. He died on June 4 and Hitler blamed Lidice for harboring the killers. Hitler ordered his forces to whipe out the entire village, and they did. All the males were killed and the women and children were sent to camps.
Hitler also hated the Poles, which was one of the major drawbacks of his career. He believed that native Poland residents were inferior and were the "scum of the Earth." Hitler ordered the slaughtering of Poland's leaders and citizens. Also, the Polish and other countries captives were to make uniforms, munitions, mine coal, farm, and construct the "impregnable" Atlantic Wall.
Hitler hated the Jews, and it showed in his warfare. More than 400,000 Jews were slaughtered around and inside Warsaw when the Germans took it over. Most of the Polish Jews were tortured with no food, poor housing, and poor conditions, and then sent to camps to be exterminated. This systematic killing was called Genocide, and is called the Holocaust. The Holocaust wouldn't be well known until after the war, but throughout the world, they had some kind of idea that this was going on.
Hitler thought that once he occupied European countries, that they would be done with. Do you think that of all the countries that Hitler took over, that there wouldn't be any resistance? There was tons of resistance in Europe against Hitler. Althought they had very little impact on the turnout of the war, it slowed down the Germans, and put a splinter on Hitler's war effort.
Pockets of resistance sprung up all over occupied countries. Yugoslavia, France, Poland and Greece all had organizations that made life hell for Hitler's army. In Yugoslavia the Chetnicks were the resistance, in Greece the Andartes, in France the Maquis, and in Poland were the guerrillas. Railroad cars were derailed, ammunition trucks were blown up at night, bridges were dynamited... anything that would be a pain in the Axis powers side was done. Food was poisoned, soldiers were killed in the darkness, and sabotage was repeatedly being done. Throughout the war, organized resistance continued to grow and grow... it was a problem.
The resistance supplied the Allies with secrets, and through the British radio, the organized resistance knew where enemies were heading or what they were trying to conquer. Operations were conducted with the patches of resistance with real militarized troops. The organized groups were known as scouts and patriots that would help Allied soldiers find the enemies weak spot.
Hitler would not tolerate this resistance. If Nazi's came across resistance and captured them, they would be immediately executed. This didn't stop the resistance. Nothing would. As long as there was war, there would be resistance. Even with the murder of thousands, replacements would gladly fill the places of the dead comrades.
Norway and Denmark had uncalculated resistance. They would storm trains filled with Jews and liberate them. The Germans responded by executing faster. The Norweigians and the Danes paid with their lives, but for their country, they believed it was worth it. The resistance would flow throughout the war against the Axis.... the resistance didn't play a major role in the war, but it was a headache for the Axis.
Switzerland was one of the few countries that stayed out of World War 1 as well as World War II. Switzerland kept an army mobilized just in case, but it never had to be used. They mined every entrance to the country and weapons were made. This was all just in case, but the Swiss never experienced the brutal warfare.
Ireland was also a neutral in Europe. The Allies believed that Ireland was helping out the Germans by giving Luftwaffe pilots a place to check in before they bombed London. Sweden was also one of the lucky neutrals who helped out both sides equally. Sweden also sent food to countries that were taking over, including Norway, Denmark and Poland. Portugal was also a neutral. Portugal sold supplies to both sides of the war effort.
Many countries were forced into the war, such as the United States, Turkey, Russia and many others. Most of the Allies wanted to stay neutral, but The Axis wouldn't let them. The neutrals were lucky in my mind.
Hitler had control of most of Europe. The only major threats came from the U.S., Great Britain and Russia. Hitler believed he could easily beat Great Britain, and with a few key points, Russia would be conquered. The Italians tried to control Africa, but failed. Hitler then went into Africa and conquered the northern part of it. Greece was also attempted by the Italians, but Germany was the one who overtook it. Germany was prooving it's importance in the Axis and so was Japan.
Japan had acquired 3,000,000 square miles since Pearl Harbor. Almost all rubber and tin supplies were theirs, and they acquired the Dutch East Indies, which were rich in oil. The Axis were getting things done. What would happen next?
