This "Second Great War" had two opposing forces - the Allies and the Axis. The Allies fought the Germans and Italians in the European Theater, and the Japanese in the Pacific Theater.

The European Theater can be broken down into three major areas: (1) the Eastern Front, (2) the Western Front and (3) the Mediterranean Theater. The Pacific Theater covered Asia, Japan, the Pacific Islands and Hawaii.

In this subsections above, content for two of the theaters including the balance of powers throughout the war are presented, complete with detailed maps. One of the maps is animated to indicate changes from 1939 through 1945.