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Battle of France
The Battle of France marked the end of the so-called Phoney War — that strange, uncertain period of the Second World War which saw neither side commit to serious military action — and witnessed the German forces invade France and the Low Countries. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad, which saw Hitler’s major push for dominance on the Eastern Front, was marked by terrible losses on both sides. The Russians alone had over a million men wounded or killed. -
Second Battle of Kharkov
Kharkov was a strategically important city in the Ukraine that had seen fierce fighting in the autumn of 1941, when the Germans captured it. The following year the Red Army launched a major offensive to retake the prized city. -
Battle of Moscow
Soviet Russia’s successful defense of their capital against the German forces who sought to capture it in 1941 was a major turning point in the war. Hitler believed that if he could capture Moscow, the spirit of the Red Army war machine would be crushed and they would be at the Germans’ mercy. -
Battle of Kursk
A decisive victory for the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, the Battle of Kursk saw the largest series of armored tank clashes of the entire war and the costliest single day of aerial conflict in history. -
Battle of Monte Cassino
Waged between the Allies and the joint German and Italian troops in the early part of 1944, the Battle of Monte Cassino was one of the hardest fought battles of the Second World War. The main objective for the Allied forces fighting their way up from Southern Italy was to break through the Germans’ Gustav Line — a series of military fortifications running across Italy — and gain control of Rome. -
Battle of Narva
The strategically important Estonian county of Narva Isthmus saw ferocious fighting between the German army — bolstered by Estonian conscripts desperate to resist Soviet re-occupation — and Stalin’s Red Army. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge — so-called by the British because of the “bulge” in the map where the German forces broke the Allied line — was the last major German offensive on the Western Front of World War II. -
Battle of Luzon
Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines, was seen as being of great strategic importance to the United States. Despite General MacArthur’s belief in value of the island, American troops would have to wait until 1945 to launch an attack on Luzon, which was taken by the Japanese in 1942. -
Battle of Berlin
The last major offensive of the war in Europe, the Battle of Berlin saw the fall of the German Army, the suicide of Hitler and the beginning of the end of the Second World War. The inexorable push of the Soviet army westwards saw them advance as much as 25 miles a day before stopping just 35 miles east of the German capital.
