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Battle of France
The rapid and unexpected conquest of the Low Countries and northern France in four weeks was the supreme example of German mastery of mobile warfare. It was also the war’s most significant battle. The back of the French army was broken. Hitler would gain control over western Europe (and Fascist Italy entered the war). Everything else in 1940–45 was a consequence of this victory. -
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Battle of Britain
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/histories/battle_of_britain
The Luftwaffe mounted mass daytime raids against RAF bases and later London, hoping to gain air superiority and force Britain to make peace – preparations for invasion began. Britain possessed a radar-controlled air defense system and a powerful Royal Navy. Public morale did not crack, high German losses forced a change in mid-September to less effective night bombing, and the arrival of autumn weather made invasion impractical. -
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Operation ‘Barbarossa’
Hitler’s surprise attack on the USSR was the most devastating victory of the whole war; as a battle it covered the largest area. The Wehrmacht’s first objective was achieved: the rapid destruction the Red Army in western Russia. ‘Barbarossa’ did not achieve the larger goal of overthrowing the Soviet system and occupying all European Russia. Nevertheless, the catastrophe eventually forced the defenders to fall back 600 miles, to the outskirts of Leningrad and Moscow. -
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Moscow, December 1941
The successful Red Army surprise counter-offensive in front of Moscow was the second most significant battle of the entire war. The setback at Moscow meant that the Blitzkrieg strategy of Hitler and his generals had failed; the USSR would not be knocked out of the war in just a few months. The northern and central parts of the Soviet front now held firm. And the Third Reich could not win a war of attrition. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The fighting lasted only 90 minutes and was very one-sided– six aircraft carriers with more than 400 planes attacked the main American naval base. Crippling the enemy battleship fleet allowed Japan to overrun south-east Asia without interference. But the ‘Day of Infamy’ threw a hitherto cautious American public whole-heartedly behind war with Japan and Germany – although early preoccupation with Pacific defense delayed the sending of American forces to Europe. -
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Battle of Midway
The Japanese Fleet put to sea to threaten Midway Island (northwest of Hawaii), hoping to lure the Americans to destruction. In reality it was the Japanese who were ambushed, losing four of their best carriers. The Midway victory allowed the Americans to take the strategic initiative in the South Pacific. It would be a year and a half before an American offensive directly across the Central Pacific began, but the Japanese had not had time to fortify their island defense line. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
This battle is often seen to be the war’s turning point. After Stalingrad the Wehrmacht would make no further advances in the USSR. The mid-November 1942 mobile operation to cut off the city demonstrated for the first time the skill of the rebuilt Red Army. The capitulation of the Sixth Army in the Stalingrad pocket on 31 January was the first major German surrender. Both the German leadership and the population of occupied Europe realized the Third Reich was now on the defensive. -
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Operation ‘Torch’, November 1942
The Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria were an easy battle: Vichy French troops were the original opponent, and they quickly changed sides. But ‘Torch’ was the first successful strategic offensive, and American troops crossed the Atlantic for the first time. Victory in Tunisia, the invasion of Sicily and the Italian surrender followed. ‘Torch’ and the Mediterranean strategy, urged by the British and accepted by Roosevelt, meant ultimately that there would be no cross-Channel landing in 1943. -
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Briansk-Orel/Belgorod-Kharkov, July-August 1943
The Battle of Kursk is commonly regarded as one of the three great Soviet victories, and the first achieved in the summer. Hitler’s offensive against the Kursk salient (Operation ‘Citadel’) was indeed halted, but it had had only limited objectives, and the Soviets suffered higher losses. More significant were the counter-offensives that followed ‘Citadel’: north of Kursk (Briansk/Orel – Operation ‘Kutuzov’) and south of it (Belgorod/Kharkov – Operation ‘Polkovodets Rumiantsev’). -
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Invasion of Normandy, June–July 1944
D-Day and the following six weeks of fighting in Normandy allowed the liberation of western Europe. The complexities of putting huge, largely untried armies across the Channel and supplying them there were very great. The Germans thought they had a good chance to repel any invasion. After D-Day Hitler chose to mount a stubborn defense of the Normandy region. When the main American breakout came, in late July, the burned-out defending forces had no option but to retreat to the German border. -
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Operation ‘Bagration’
The Germans were surprised by Soviet offensive in Belorussia and were then overwhelmed by the pace and uninterrupted nature of the advance – within six weeks an entire army group had been destroyed, most of Soviet territory had been liberated, and spearhead units had advanced as far as central Poland. The pressure of ‘Bagration’ aided the British-American advance from Normandy. The greater significance of the offensive was that the Red Army would end the war in control of all Eastern Europe.
