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Battle of France/Miracle of Dunkirk
-198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been saved
- A call was sent out for as many naval vessels as possible to help the Royal Navy
-The total number of vessels involved, including Royal Navy ships and civilian craft, was 933
-In the retreat to Dunkirk some units had been ordered to “fight to the last man”
- Around 40,000 British troops never made it back across the Channel and became P oWs -
Battle of Britain
- Hitler tried to convince Britain to surrender without a fight
- It was the first battle in history waged almost exclusively in the air
- A British pilot famously rammed a German bomber to prevent the destruction of Buckingham Palace
- Hitler’s decision to bomb London turned the battle in Britain’s favor
- German bombing raids continued long after the battle had ended
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Battle of Leningrad
- Also known as the 900-day siege
- German and Finnish forces besieged Lenin’s namesake city
- Leningrad Death Toll Over 1,000,000
- Since they ran out of food, it lead to cannibalism
- Hitler Wanted The Entire City to Starve
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Battle of Stalingrad
- The continuous bombing of the city killed thousands
- Stalin issued an order for Red Army and the citizens of Stalingrad
- Women also fought in the war
- This battle was especially known for it's snipers
- Cannibalism also happened due to the lack of food
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Operation Torch
- Allowed allies to clear Axis forces form North Africa
- Operation Torch was the first American contact with Germans
- Blocked German expansion and cut off Axis supplies to the Mediterranean
- Over 450 Americans 720 were wonded
- More then 1,300 Axis soldiers died, nearly 2,000 were wounded
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D-Day
- Largest amphibious invasion in history
- The invasion's code name was Operation Overlord
- The "D" stands for Day. D-Day and H-Hour stand for the secret day/time an operation is scheduled to begin
- More than 13,000 aircraft and 5,000 ships supported the operation
- 6,603 Americans, 2,700 British, and 946 Canadians
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Battle of the Bulge
- It's also known as the Battle of the Ardennes
- Named after how Winston Churchill saw a wedge that the Germans drove into the Allied lines
- It marked the first time the U.S. Army desegregated during WWII
- Weather patterns played a major role in the battle’s outcome
- Americans suffered 75,000 casualties
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Battle of Berlin
- The Battle of Berlin took place during the last days of World War II
- About 2.25 million men were in the Russian armies that marched on Berlin
- Around 184,000 people died in the Battle
- Russians had over 6,000 tanks, over 7,000 aircraft, and 95,000 vehicles.
- One of the heaviest bombings of Berlin took place on April 20th
