World War Two marked the birth of many new weapons and strategies.  Brand new rifles, pistols, bombs, planes, tanks, and vehicles, among other things.  The strategies generals used in this war were also introduced for the first time.  Because of all of this advancement, the soldiers were both more powerful and more vulnerable than ever.
Some of the new weapons include the M1 Garand and the 45mm colt (below). Both of these weapons were state of the art in their day and are still extremely popular with gun collectors around the world. The M1 was the first semi-automatic rifle to be used regularly be the US military.  The colt was used in the army for over 70 years.
	Weapons were an important part of the war, but what really made a difference was the tactics that were used by both the allies and the axis powers.  With these new strategies implemented into the war, generals found it both easier and harder to accomplish their goals.
The main tactic of the German army was blitzkrieg, or lightning war.  As the name suggests, it relied on speed and accurate timing.  As armored divisions charged towards a target, taking them by surprise, lighter divisions would surround the target and Stuka dive bombers would bomb them.  This tactic worked so well that Hitler conquered Europe in a matter of months.
	The Japanese used a strategy called kamikaze.  It has its origins in feudal Japan when it was better to die in honor than live in disgrace.  Bombers, after dropping their loads, would direct their planes at a target and use the plane as a bomb and commit suicide.  This tactic was very effective against the American fleet.
The Americans had a strategy of their own when they were capturing islands in the pacific.  Called a leapfrogging technique, the allies would take only main islands and cut off all of the minor islands from supplies, forcing them to surrender.
	Of course, World War Two will always be remembered as the first and so far only time an atomic bomb was used against an enemy.  Developed by the Americans, a single bomb was more powerful than millions of tons of TNT.  Two cities were completely wiped out by just two bombs.
Another strategy is the mass bombing technique.  They would send out multiple bombers and drop all their bombs on random targets throughout the city.
The combination of both weapons and tactics is what made this war so long, drawn out, and deadly.  When all was over and the dust settled, 57,000,000 had died.  The weapons that had been devised at this time were used for years and years after the war ended.