Research results

My research was a little haphazard. It turns out that the "credible" sites expect you to already know which countries were on which sides, even though Wikipedia will gladly tell you the basics. I got a few short answers to some questions, but for the most part was not able to find what I needed. I didn't know exactly what happened to Hitler at the end of WW2, and while I was fairly sure he died, it was interesting to find out that he had committed suicide. If anyone needs more proof that he was not fit to rule, he was so incapable he couldn't cope with defeat, and would rather end his life than be unsuccessful and dishonored.
One of my other main questions was about whether the battle tactics of WW2 were more humane than the trench warfare of WW1. I was able to get more information on the types of strategies used in WW2, but it is entirely a matter of opinion whether they are humane or not. WW1 was extremely tortuous and horrifying to the individual, whereas WW2 worked more on a larger scale. Bombing was the main tactic of WW2, and many un-militarized, civilian areas were completely obliterated. England and France weren't expecting any change in tactics form WW1, so they tried to fortify the Maginot line and took up defensive positions in Belgium, but Germany had only wanted them to think that and attacked them on their unguarded side.
The final thing I researched was the Enigma machine, which I had heard of before, but didn't know any specifics about. The Enigma machine was a typewriter-like device used by the Germans to both encode and decode messages, though a series of knobs that scrambled the typed message. AS soon as the British found out about it, they went straight to work on cracking it, but because of how complicated the device was it was very difficult. They were able to decode a fair amount of messages, albeit slowly, but had to pretend they didn't have the information, so the Germans would not be alerted to their open secret and change the device. Unfortunately, Germany found out and made the device even more complicated, but the capture of multiple German boats containing Enigma devices helped crack the code.