All was well
Until the beginning of 1942, the Axis where winning the war. Hitler was taking over Europe, and Japan was doing the same in Asia. Furthermore, Germany was also facing a major win in North Africa against the British, they were moving forward to conquered Alexandria in Egypt. Also, in the spring of 1942 Germany had control over the Crimea in the Soviet union.
a change of luck
In North Africa, British forces had stopped General Erwin Rommel's troops at El Alamein in the summer of 1942. The Germans then retreated back across the desert. In November 1942, British and American forces invaded French North Africa. They forced the German and Italian troops there to surrender in May 1943. On the Eastern Front, after the capture of the Crimea, Hitler's generals wanted him to concentrate on the Caucasus and its oil fields. Hitler, however, decided that Stalingrad, a major industrial center on the Volga River, should be taken first. In perhaps the most terrible battle of the war, between November 1942 and February 2, 1943, the Soviets launched a counterattack. German troops were stopped and then encircled, and supply lines were cut off, all in frigid winter conditions. The Germans were forced to surrender at Stalingrad. The entire German Sixth Army, considered the best of the German troops, was lost. By February 1943, German forces in Russia were back to their positions of June 1942. By the spring, even Hitler knew that the Germans would not defeat the Soviet Union.
meanwhile in asia
In the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 7 and 8, 1942, American naval forces stopped the Japanese from advancing, and also saved Australia from being invaded by the Japanese. On June 4, at the Battle of Midway Island. U.S. planes destroyed attacking Japanese aircraft carriers,therefore the U.S. beat the Japanese navy thus creating naval control in the Pacific. On the fall of 1942, Allied forces in Asia were gathering for two operations. The first commanded was given by the U.S. general Douglas MacArthur, which was moving into the Philippines through New Guinea and the South Pacific Islands. The other would move across the Pacific with a combination of U.S. Army, Marine, and Navy attacks on Japanese-held islands. From August to November 1942, Japanese domination began to slowly fade away.