By mid-1940, the Nazis held almost all of Western Europe. When France surrendered to the Germans in June 1940, the Nazis seemed unstoppable.
All that stood between the Germans and the island nation of Britain was the narrow English Channel.
Hitler’s successes encouraged Japanese forces to move from China into Southeast Asia. The U.S. protested but took no military action.
Most people in the U.S. favored the Allied cause, but they didn’t want to go to war. They saw it as an issue among European nations. And they felt protected by the oceans that separate the U.S. from Europe and Asia. President Roosevelt gave economic aid to the Allies, but he couldn’t do much more. Britain now was the free world’s leader against the Axis threat.
