Descriptions of the major battles and campaigns of World War II
When September 17–25, 1944 Where The Netherlands, near the town of Arnhem, on the Lower Rhine River, and Germany. Operation Market Garden is identified by blue arrow. Who Allied paratroops and glider-borne infantry: The First Allied Airborne Army under the tactical command of Lt. Gen. Frederick Browning (1896–1965), made up of the British 1st Airborne…
When August 15 to end of September 1944 Where Southern France, part of former Vichy France Who Anglo-American airborne unit, the 1st Airborne Task Force, and amphibious elements and a fully mobilized unit of the Allied tanks, tank destroyers, and mechanized infantry of the U.S. Seventh Army, under the command of Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch (1889–1945),…
When October 23–26, 1944 Where Leyte Gulf, a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Central Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean Who American naval forces under Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, Jr. (1882–1959), commanding the U.S. Third Fleet, and Vice Admiral Thomas Kinkaid (1888–1972), commanding the U.S….
When August 1 to October 2, 1944 Where Warsaw, capital of German-occupied Poland Who More than 40,000 Polish irregulars in the pro-Western Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) under Gen. Antoni Chrusciel (1895–1960) versus (initially) 11,000 German troops under the overall command of Lt. Gen. Reiner Stahel (1892–1955). Also, more than 5,000 SS personnel, including Waffen-SS,…
When Beginning the night of July 24 and continuing through August 3, 1943 Where Hamburg, Germany Who Air Chief Marshal Arthur “Bomber” Harris, Royal Air Force Bomber Command, and Maj. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, U.S. Army Air Forces Eighth Air Force Why One of the Third Reich’s largest cities, Hamburg was a major port and…
When June 4–7, 1942 Where West of Midway Atoll—two small islands—in the Central Pacific, as well as the Northern Pacific near the Aleutians (diversionary) Who Japanese naval forces under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto (1884–1943), Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and Chuichi Nagumo (1887–1944), in command of 1st Carrier Striking Force, versus the U.S. Pacific Fleet under…
When March 27 to August 1945 Where The east coast of Japan; the Inland Sea lying between the main island of Honshu, Kyushu to the south, and Shikoku to the east of Honshu (see map); and Korea Who Conceived by Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and also commander of Allied forces…
When June 22 to December 5, 1941 Where The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, plus present-day Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and Western Russia. By July 1941, after Finland had joined the German onslaught to the north of Leningrad, the Eastern Front would eventually stretch from the Baltic Sea in the north to the…
When September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944 (872 days) Where Leningrad (today’s St. Petersburg), Russia Who German Army Group North (on map, Herresgruppe Nord) initially under Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb (1876–1956) with token support to the north and east of Leningrad from German-allied Finnish units under Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim (1867–1951). In…
When July 9/10 to August 17, 1943 Where The Italian island of Sicily