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The battle of Dunkirk
Over 338,000 allied forces were on the french beaches of dunkirk, trying to evacuate from germany's formidable air force. The evacuation attempt was named Operation Dynamo where the civilians trapped under the bombing of the Luftwaffe, even with the english royal air force helping the german air force was too much for them. So the evacuation began, as the beach was too shallow small vessels had to assist in the evacuation and eventually got everyone off the beach. Around 24,000 total casualties. -
Battle of Moscow
This was the climax of Nazi German's operation Barbarossa, the germans attempted to advance on moscow but poor weather conditions made this very difficult. Over the course of the battle, over 75 soviet divisions arrived with no german reinforcements. Even though many generals thought moscow was unattainable, they had to push through before the harsh winter set in. In the end, German losses were at 250,000-400,000 dead while the red army suffered a heavy 600,000-1.3 million.Soviets had barely won -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl harbor was a U.S. naval base near Honolulu Hawaii, that was the place of a surprise Japanese air force attack at 8am on Sunday. Japanese fighter planes descended onto the ships destroying 20 U.S. naval vessels, killing over 2,400 americans, including civilians and 1,000 more were injured. The day after this assault, FDR asked congress to declare war on Japan, who only suffered 129 casualties and 1 hostage. -
Battle of Midway
This was a naval battle mainly fought in the air between Japan and the U.S. Midway was a group of islands in the pacific that the U.S. had started to make a major air and submarine base on. After the attacks on pearl harbor, two planes attacked one of the islands power plant, and seaplane hangar. Japan set off a massive naval attack in early to attack the islands, the U.S. intercepted the communications and had time to prepare defenses. Japanese suffered 3,000 deaths with the U.S. only 300. -
Battle of Kursk
This was Hitlers final plan to wipe out The Red Army once and for all. Using all of his available military and his blitzkrieg offensive tactic. But this all took him a very long time to prepare so The Red Army was well prepared for this German onslaught. Despite multiple warnings from his peers to not continue with the battle as the soviets were very much fortified and prepared, hitler attacked anyways. The Soviets won the battle but at a great cost of 800,000 soviet lives lost to a mere 200,000 -
Battle of normandy
Also known as D-Day, U.S., Britain, and Canadian troops all invaded the German controlled Norway on June 6 with many naval and aerial forces along with parachutists in the aerial vessels. The troops coming from the sea however, had a harder time. With heavy machine gun fire raining down on not yet landed carrier ships, many casualties were made without a chance of them fighting back. But with heavy forces behind them, the Allies came out victorious, with the axis at 215,000 deaths to 210,000. -
Battle of the bulge
After Normandy, the allies moved across northern France into Belgium where German troops were located. The german counter offense was launched on December 16 which caught the allies heavily off guard. This momentum quickly faded though with fuel shortages and heavy tank usage. This gave the allies an opportunity to go on the offensive and rid the germans of the gap they made in the front lines. While the germans profited from this, they suffered 120,000 deaths to a mere 75,000 allied deaths. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was an island about 800 miles away from tokyo. Japan knew the U.S. wanted this island so they dug a unit of tunnels under the volcanic island to ambush the americans when they got on the island. U.S. marines pressed forwards onto the island under heavy fire while kamikaze pilots attacked the ships they came in on, badly damaging they're support. And in the matter of a week, americans hoisted their flag on the mountains summit. 19,000 japanese died to a mere 7,000 americans. -
The Battle of Berlin
This was one of the last battles of the war that ended with the fall of Berlin to the Soviet army. In early April, Berlin was already being bombarded by bombs from the allied powers while The Soviet army was setting up one of the largest concentrations of military power ever seen. The refugees and citizens of the city were all being protected by a scratch force of volunteer militia and shattered reinforcements, the average age of these people was 14.Germans suffered 100,000 deaths to only 80,000