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Battle Of Moscow
More than a million German troops were thrown into the attack on Moscow as Hitler ordered that the city should be destroyed to the ground rather than captured. Then they were slowed by the Russian resistance, and an early winter set in, with temperatures dropping well zero Fahrenheit. This battle was so important because The Germans were pushed back by more than 100 miles by January. There were lots of Russian casualties , but the German momentum was broken. -
Battle of Moscow
More than a million German troops were thrown into the attack on Moscow as Hitler ordered that the city should be burned to the ground rather than captured. The German supply chain failed and Russian marshal Zhukov threw his reserve of Siberian divisions into a counterattack. The Germans were pushed back by more than 100 miles by January. Russian casualties were heavy, but the German momentum was broken. -
Battle of Midway
Midway was a catastrophic defeat from which the Imperial Japanese Navy never fully recovered. Much of the credit goes to the codebreakers who revealed the Japanese plan to ambush U.S. forces in time for the Allies to plan a counter-ambush. The Japanese plan to split American forces also failed. The U.S. then launched a major air assault on the Japanese carriers. The TBF Avenger torpedo bombers were intercepted by Japanese Zeroes and decimated. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This was one of the major battles because Russia's defenses were based on thousands of strongpoints, each watched by an infantry squad, in apartments, office buildings, and factories, all with strict orders not allowing retreat. German artillery and airpower virtually demolished the city but failed to force the defenders out of position. Eventually the German force was itself surrounded. The total number of casualties may have been as many as two million including civilians. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This battle was very important because Russia's defenses were based on thousands of strongpoints, each manned by an infantry squad, in apartments, office buildings, and factories, all with strict orders forbidding retreat. German artillery and airpower virtually demolished the city but failed to dislodge the defenders. Eventually the German force was itself surrounded. The total number of casualties may have been as many as two million including civilians. -
Battle of Kursk
At Kursk, the Nazis aimed to repeat their earlier successes by surrounding and destroying Russian forces. Thanks to Allied codebreakers, though, the Russians got advance warning and built up defensive lines of ditches and minefields to absorb the German attack. In the air, Stukas armed with 37mm gun pods faced Russian armored Sturmoviks dropping dozens of anti-tank bombs. As the German offensive stalled, Marshal Zhukov launched his counterattack and drove the Germans back with heavy losses. -
D-Day
The largest ambitious operation in history involved more than 5,000 ships landing Allied troops on a heavily defended 50 mile stretch of Normandy coastline, while thousands more took part in an airborne assault. On the fifth, Omaha Beach, U.S. forces came under heavy fire and 2,000 died as they fought to break out of the beachhead. The Germans failed to organize rapidly to meet the threat. Within a week the Allies had landed more than 300,000 troops in Normandy. -
Battle of Berlin
The Russians had the advantage in tanks, but armored vehicles were vulnerable to new portable anti-tank rockets that destroyed 2,000 of them. Like Stalingrad, the Battle of Berlin was an infantry action fought at close quarters; artillery demolished defensive strongpoints in a city already devastated by heavy bombing. Casualties were heavy, including thousands of civilians. On the 30th of April Hitler killed himself rather than surrender, effectively ending the war in Europe.
