It declared war against Japan after Japanese planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A few days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States.
美国是在日本空袭夏威夷珍珠港的美国海军基地后对日宣战的。几天后，德国和意大利对美国宣战。
President Franklin Roosevelt quickly decided that America could not fight major campaigns in the Pacific and in Europe at the same time. He and his advisers decided to fight first against the Germans and Italians. Then, when victory in Europe seemed sure, the United States could turn to fight the Japanese in Asia.
富兰克林.罗斯福总统很快作出决策，美国不能同时在太平洋战场和欧洲战场展开大规模的战役。他和顾问们决定，首先对付德国和意大利，在欧洲战场取得明显胜利时，再对付亚洲战场上的日本。
This left the Japanese free to extend their power throughout Asia and the western Pacific. Soon after the attack at Hawaii, Japanese forces invaded Hong Kong, Malaya and the Philippines. American forces in the Philippines suffered heavy losses. And Manila fell to Japanese troops. In February nineteen forty-two, Japan's forces won a great victory against the British in Singapore.
日本因此得以喘息，继续在亚洲和西太平洋上扩张势力。偷袭夏威夷后，日军又侵入香港、马尼拉和菲律宾。驻菲律宾的美军死伤惨重，马尼拉也在日军铁蹄下沦陷。1942年2月，日军在新加坡同英军作战，并取得重大胜利。
Japanese forces marched into Burma. They attacked Ceylon -- now Sri Lanka -- and captured the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. The Japanese military forces seemed too strong to stop.
随后日军进入缅甸，向锡兰--即今天的斯里兰卡发起进攻，并占领了孟加拉湾的安达曼岛。日军似乎所向披靡。
President Roosevelt sent some forces to the Pacific. And he began to rebuild the American naval forces destroyed at Pearl Harbor. But he sent most of America's military strength to Europe. The United States rushed troops and war equipment to help Britain survive against Adolf Hitler's Germany.
罗斯福总统向太平洋战场派遣了部分军队，并开始重建在珍珠港受到重创的美国海军。但是，他将大部分美军力量放在了欧洲。美军部队和物资赶赴欧洲，帮助英国抵抗希特勒指挥的德军。
American military leaders wanted to fight Germany quickly by launching an attack across the English Channel. But British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opposed this. He and others feared such an invasion might fail.
美军将领想通过英吉利海峡进攻德国，希望速战速决，打败德国，但英国首相丘吉尔反对这样做，他和其他一些人担心这样做可能会失败。
So, British and American forces attacked Italian and German occupation troops in North Africa. They defeated them, and then crossed the Mediterranean Sea to attack enemy forces in Sicily. Within weeks, they pushed the Germans out of Sicily to the Italian mainland. The Allied invasion of Italy followed.
所以，英军和美军向在北非的德国和意大利军队发动进攻，并取得了胜利。随后，英美联军通过地中海，向意大利西西里岛上的敌军发动进攻。几个星期之后，英美联军将德国军队从西西里岛赶回了意大利本土。联军随后攻入意大利。
Hitler could not strengthen his forces in North Africa and Italy, because Germany also was fighting hard in the Soviet Union.
希特勒不能加强在北非和意大利的军力，因为德国当时正在与苏联进行艰苦作战。
Hitler's decision early in the war to attack the Soviet Union was a serious mistake. It divided his men and materials. His plan was to defeat Soviet forces quickly with one strong attack. But he failed. And his failure cost him valuable troops and supplies that might have helped him win the battles for North Africa and Italy.
希特勒在二战初期作出的进攻苏联的决定是一个严重的错误，因为这样一来，德军的人员和物资就被分散了。希特勒原想通过一次大规模进攻迅速拿下苏联，但是，他失败了，而这一失败，使他损失了本可以在北非和意大利战役中取得胜利的宝贵的军力和物资。
Germany's attack on the Soviet Union began with great success.
德国对苏联的进攻起初曾取得巨大成功。
In the middle of nineteen forty-one, a German force of more than three million men invaded the Soviet Union. It captured the Ukraine, took control of Kiev, and marched deep into Russia.
1941年中期，三百多万德军进攻苏联，占领了乌克兰，控制了基辅，并向苏联腹地深入。
The situation changed the following year. Soviet forces under Marshal Georgy Zhukov won a fierce battle for the city of Stalingrad -- now Volgograd. A great many German soldiers died from cold and hunger during the bitter winter months that followed.
然而，第二年形势发生了变化。苏联军队在朱可夫元帅的领导下，在斯大林格勒(也就是现在的伏尔加格勒)进行了艰苦的抵抗，并取得胜利。在此后的几个寒冷的冬月里，大量德国士兵被饿死或冻死。
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Zhukov's forces attacked the German troops and pushed back the invaders. Other Soviet troops forced the Germans away from the city of Leningrad -- now St. Petersburg.
朱可夫将军率领军队发动进攻击退了德军，苏联的其它军队则打退了德军对列宁格勒(也就是现在的圣彼得堡)的进攻。
By the middle of nineteen forty-four, German forces throughout the Soviet Union were retreating. And Soviet forces were preparing to push them over the border and invade Germany themselves. The fighting came at a terrible cost. Huge numbers of soldiers and civilians were killed.
到1944年年中，苏联境内的德军已经开始全线撤退。而苏军则准备将他们赶出苏联，然后反过来攻入德国。苏德战争十分惨烈，大量的士兵和平民在战争中丧生。
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The fighting in World War Two was not limited to land. Battles were also being fought on the sea. The main goal of the German navy during the war was to prevent the United States from sending ships to Britain with war materials, food and troops. At first, the Germans were very successful. There was hunger in Britain in nineteen forty-one because so few ships could cross the North Atlantic with food.
第二次世界大战并不局限于陆地，在海洋上同样战斗激烈。德国海军在二战期间的主要目标是要阻止美国向英国运送战争物资、食品和援军。起初，德国海军取得了很大的成功，由于没有多少美国船只能突破德军封锁，通过北大西洋运食品到英国，英国1941年饱受饥饿的折磨。
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German submarines were the greatest danger to ships crossing the Atlantic. These U-boats, as the Germans called them, could hide below the surface and attack without warning.
德国潜艇是对在大西洋航行船只的最大威胁，这些潜艇可以藏在水面以下，在对方没有丝毫察觉的时候发动袭击。
The threat from German submarines did not ease until new technology was developed in nineteen forty-three. Allied scientists improved sonar and radar systems that helped find submarines on the surface and underwater. More of the enemy submarines were found and destroyed. The Allies slowly gained control of the Atlantic.
德国潜艇的这种威胁一直没人能对付，直到1943年新技术的出现。盟国科学家改善了声纳和雷达技术，使船只能够探测到水上和水下的德国潜艇，这样，越来越多的德国潜艇被发现并被摧毁，盟军慢慢获得了大西洋的控制权。
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Allied and German warships fought a number of traditional naval battles. But airplanes came to play an increasingly important part in the fighting at sea. British ships, with the help of planes launched from an aircraft carrier, destroyed a powerful German battleship, the Bismarck on May 27, 1941.
在二战中，盟军与德国打了许多传统的海战，但飞机也开始在海战中发挥越来越重要的作用。1941年5月27日，在从航空母舰起飞的飞机的帮助下，英国战舰击沉了德国威力巨大的俾斯麦号战舰。
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The most famous air battle of the war in Europe took place during the summer and autumn of the previous year. It was known as the Battle of Britain. It got its name from a speech to Parliament by Prime Minister Churchill following the evacuation of British and French forces from Dunkirk.
二战期间欧洲最著名的空战发生在1940年的夏秋两季，那就是著名的不列颠空战。这一名称来自于英法军队从敦克尔克大撤退后英国首相丘吉尔向国会发表的演说。
BBC: "This is the BBC Home Service. Here is the news. In the House of Commons this afternoon, the prime minister, Mr. Churchill, said: 'What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin.'"
当时的广播说：“这是BBC国内新闻报导，今天下午，丘吉尔首相在下议院发表演说，他说 ‘正如魏刚将军所说的，法国战役已经结束，不列颠的战斗即将开始’。”
STEVE EMBER: It was the most extensive aerial bombing yet in the war. It was also the first battle to be fought entirely in the air.
这次空战是二战开始以来空投炸弹最多的一次，也是历史上第一次完全意义上的空战。
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German Stuka dive-bombers attacked shipping centers, areas of political importance, airfields, and airplane factories.
德国斯图卡式俯冲轰炸机向英国的造船基地、政治要地、机场和飞机制造厂进行猛烈轰炸。
Luftwaffe pilots in their Messerschmidts battled the Hurricanes and Spitfires of the Royal Air Force. While the flying skills of the German and British pilots were well matched, it was ultimately the greater maneuverability of the British Spitfire that won the long months of battle over the English Channel.
德军飞行员驾驶着梅塞施米特式战斗机与英国皇家空军的飓风式和喷火式飞机激烈战斗。虽然双方飞行员的驾驶技术不相上下，但英国喷火式战斗机更具空中机动能力，帮助英国赢得了这场在英吉利海峡上空持续数月的战役。
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The British victory in the air helped prevent "Operation Sea Lion," a planned German invasion of Britain.
英国空军的胜利有效阻止了德国试图向英国本土发起的“海狮计划”。
In May of nineteen forty-two, Britain's Royal Air Force carried out an attack on Germany with one thousand bombers. It was just the first of many bombing runs over Germany and German-occupied areas by the air forces of Britain and the United States.
1942年5月，英国皇家空军向德国扔下了一千枚炸弹。此后，美英空军又数次向德国本土和德国占领区进行炸弹空袭。
The planes bombed German military and industrial centers. They also bombed civilian targets in an effort to demonstrate to the German people the price of Germany's aggression. The German cities of Cologne, Dresden and Hamburg suffered widespread destruction. The Allied bombing attacks continued until the war's end in nineteen forty-five.
美英空军轰炸了德国军事和工业中心，也轰炸了平民目标，以告诫德国人侵略政策带来的恶果。德国的科隆、德累斯顿和汉堡等大城市受到大面积破坏。盟军对德国的轰炸一直到1945年二战结束才停止。
Hitler's victories in the early months of the war had struck fear in the hearts of people throughout the world.
二战开始的头几个月里，希特勒的胜利让全世界感到恐惧。
Hitler and his Axis allies had won battle after battle. They had captured most of western Europe, except for Britain, and invaded the Soviet Union. They had seized North Africa. And their submarines controlled the Atlantic.
希特勒和他的轴心国盟友取得了一个又一个战役的胜利，他们占领了西欧的大部分地区，侵入苏联，控制了北非，他们的潜艇还控制着大西洋。