 Germany’s failure to capture England forced Hitler to focus on new fronts

 Italy enters World War II after Germany’s invasion of France  September 1940  Mussolini invades the British controlled Egypt

 Why Egypt?  Contains Suez canal (gateway to Middle East and Asia)  Access to oil Mussolini wanted control of this valuable resource

 British fight back  December 1940  Britain counter-attacks  Disaster for Italians Italy lost 500 miles of land, 130,000 Italian prisoners

 Erwin Rommel  German general sent by Hitler to help Italy  Nicknamed “Desert Fox”  Able to drive Allies and seize city of Tobruk  Huge loss for the Allies

 Operation Barbarossa   Germany’s secret plan to invade the Soviet Union  June 22, 1941 – invasion begins

 Soviet Union unprepared for German invasion  Germany made huge advances  Retreating Soviet troops and civilians used key strategy known as Scorched-Earth Policy-  Destroy everything before retreating so enemy cannot resupply.

 Siege of Leningrad  Hitler’s plan was to starve the city to surrender  1 million Russians died, the city did not surrender

 Battle of Moscow  Germans unprepared for winter fighting Still dressed in summer attire  Stalemate  Germany lost 500,000 soldiers