If you go back and read actual news stories around the world from the time of WWII they read just like the same stories from any other war.

Germany was kicking England's ass economically. Some people will tell you that WWII was about ending subsistance and ushering in the consumer age. And about who was to prosper from the consumer age.

I read a story about how Mussolini stomped out organized crime in Italy before WWII. Pretty impressive. That is not a widely told story.