United Kingdom

The United Kingdom had already been fighting the Germans for over two years when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Dominion garrisons in Malaya, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and elsewhere.

The battle raging in Berlin signaled the end of the Third Reich. Soviet Red Army Forces and the western Allies pressed the Wehrmacht so far into Germany that neither Western commands nor Eastern commands had room to maneuver.

The crushing defeats the Allies suffered since 1939 were beginning to take their toll on Allied morale. Even though the Battle of Britain had staved off German victory, little success had happened since then.

As the Battle of France progressed, United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked fighter command for more aircraft to send to the continent. Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, recognizing that nothing could be done for France, refused.

In their failed attempt to invade Greece, the Italians were driven out of Santi Quaranta, which Mussolini had renamed Proto Edda after his oldest daughter. Mussolini, embarrassed, had to ask Hitler to help his forces. In a fast moving campaign, the British were driven out of Greece and the Germans occupied Athens on April 27.

Huge numbers of Allied POWs were captured by the Japanese between December 1941 and May 1942.

Deep racial hatred, led many Allied soldiers to prefer death to capture. But the large numbers of soldiers surrendered by their commanders in the Philippines and Singapore did not have much choice. They entered captivity at the start of the war, and only about half of them would leave the POW camps alive.

The rapid advance of the Japanese stunned even them. Their advance - formed by superior equipment, training, tactics, and in some cases, numbers - left the Allies confused and in disarray.