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World War II
World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated WWII or WW2), was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilization of over 100...
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Battle of Peleliu
The Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II, was fought between the United States and Japan in the Pacific Theater of World War II, taking place between September and November 1944 on the island of Peleliu. The U.S. Forces, originally...
Duration:
- 2 months (Sep 15, 1944 — Nov 27, 1944)
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 17 July 1942 and 2...
Duration:
- 6 months (Jul 17, 1942 — Feb 2, 1943)
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Nearly 60,000 troops stormed ashore on the initial invasion. The 82...
Duration:
- 3 months (Mar 18, 1945 — Jun 23, 1945)
Continuation War
The Continuation War (Finnish: jatkosota, Swedish: fortsättningskriget, Russian: Война-продолжение) (25 June 1941 – 19 September 1944) was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II.
At the time the name...
Duration:
- 3 years (Jun 25, 1941 — Sep 19, 1944)
First Battle of El Alamein
The First Battle of El Alamein 1–27 July 1942 was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, fought between Axis forces commanded by Erwin Rommel, and Allied forces commanded by Claude Auchinleck. The battle halted the second ...
Duration:
- 26 days (Jul 1, 1942 — Jul 27, 1942)
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km (1,800...
Duration:
- 6 months (Jun 22, 1941 — Jan 7, 1942)
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The battle lasted from 23 October to 5 November 1942. The First Battle of El Alamein had stalled the Axis advance. Thereafter,...
Duration:
- 13 days (Oct 23, 1942 — Nov 5, 1942)
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand....
Duration:
- 6 months (Jun 28, 1919 — Jan 21, 1920)
Battle of the River Plate
The Battle of the River Plate was the first major naval battle in World War II. The German pocket battleship (heavy cruiser) Admiral Graf Spee had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September. It was found and engaged off the...
Duration:
- Dec 13, 1939 — Dec 13, 1939
Battle of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino (also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino) was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.
In the...
Duration:
- 4 months (Jan 17, 1944 — May 19, 1944)
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk refers to German and Soviet operations on the Eastern Front of World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armoured clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka...
Duration:
- 1 months (Jul 4, 1943 — Aug 23, 1943)
Winter War
The Winter War (Finnish: talvisota, Swedish: vinterkriget, Russian: Зимняя война) was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939, three months after the German invasion of Poland...
Duration:
- 3 months (Nov 30, 1939 — Mar 13, 1940)
Battle of Hurtgen Forest
The Battle of Hürtgen Forest (German: Schlacht im Hürtgenwald) is the name given to the series of fierce battles fought between U.S. and German forces during World War II in the Hürtgen Forest, which became the longest battle on German ground during...
Duration:
- -901 years (Sep 19, 1944 — Feb 10, 1045)
Battle of Normandy
The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Allied forces in Normandy, France, during Operation Overlord in World War II. The invasion was the largest amphibious operation in history. This article covers from the initial landings...
Duration:
- 25 days (Jun 6, 1944 — Jul 1944)
Nanking Massacre
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, refers to a six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanking, then capital of the Republic of China, on December 9, 1937. During this period, hundreds of thousands...
Duration:
- Dec 9, 1937 —
Hundred Regiments Offensive
The Hundred Regiments Offensive (Chinese: 百團大戰) (August 20 – December 5, 1940) was a major campaign of the Communist Party of China's Red Army commanded by Peng Dehuai against the Imperial Japanese Army in Central China.
Between 1939 and 1940, the...
Duration:
- 3 months (Aug 20, 1940 — Dec 5, 1940)
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden (September 17–25, 1944) was an Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in World War II. It was the largest airborne operation of all time.
The operation plan's strategic context required the seizure...
Duration:
- 8 days (Sep 17, 1944 — Sep 25, 1944)
Second Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval military campaigns and offensives) running from 1939 through to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, and was at its...
Duration:
- 5 years (Sep 3, 1939 — May 7, 1945)
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England) is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air...
Duration:
- 3 months (Jul 10, 1940 — Oct 31, 1940)
Battle of the Bulge
The Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive (die Ardennenoffensive), launched towards the end of World War II through the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium (and more specifically of Wallonia:...
Duration:
- 1 months (Dec 16, 1944 — Jan 25, 1945)
Guadalcanal campaign
The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal, was fought between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of World War II. Fiercely contested on the ground, at sea, and...
Duration:
- 6 months (Aug 7, 1942 — Feb 9, 1943)
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a battle in which the United States fought for and captured Iwo Jima (lit. Sulfur Island) from Japan. The battle produced some of the fiercest fighting in the...
Duration:
- 1 months (Feb 19, 1945 — Mar 26, 1945)
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor (or Hawaii Operation, Operation Z, as it was called by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters) was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii...
Duration:
- Dec 7, 1941 — Dec 7, 1941
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and seven months after Japan's attack on Pearl...
Duration:
- Jun 4, 1942 —
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought during May 4–8, 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States (U.S.) and Australia. The battle was...
Duration:
- May 4, 1942 —
July 20 Plot
The 20 July plot of 1944 was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, inside his "Wolf's Lair" field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of the German Resistance to...
Duration:
- 1944 —
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945) was a military conflict fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany (until 1938) and the...
Duration:
- 8 years (Jul 7, 1937 — Sep 9, 1945)
Operation Torch
Operation Torch (initially called Operation Gymnast) was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942.
The Soviet Union had pressed the United States and Britain to...
Duration:
- 2 days (Nov 8, 1942 — Nov 10, 1942)
Battle of Dunkirk
The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany. A part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe from 24 May...
Duration:
- 9 days (May 26, 1940 — Jun 4, 1940)
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht (German pronunciation: [kʁɪsˈtalˌnaxt]; literally "Crystal night") or the Night of Broken Glass was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria on 9 to 10 November 1938. It is also known as Novemberpogrome, Reichskristallnacht,...
Duration:
- 1 days (Nov 9, 1938 — Nov 10, 1938)
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945 among the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the...
Duration:
- 7 days (Feb 4, 1945 — Feb 11, 1945)
Battle of Krojanty
The Charge, battle or skirmish of Krojanty was a cavalry charge that occurred during the Invasion of Poland in the Second World War. It took place on the evening of September 1, 1939 near the Pomeranian village of Krojanty. They advanced east along...
Duration:
- Sep 1, 1939 — Sep 1, 1939
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, in World War II. While the Blitz hit many towns and cities across the country, it began with the bombing of London for 57 consecutive nights. By...
Duration:
- 8 months (Sep 7, 1940 — May 10, 1941)
Battle of Crete
The Battle of Crete (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta; Greek: Μάχη της Κρήτης) was a battle during World War II on the Greek island of Crete. The battle began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete...
Duration:
- 12 days (May 20, 1941 — Jun 1, 1941)
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre (Polish: zbrodnia katyńska, 'Katyń crime'), was a mass murder of thousands of Polish military officers, policemen, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war by Soviet NKVD, based on a...
Duration:
- Mar 5, 1940 —
Battle of Leyte
The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the invasion and conquest of Leyte in the Philippines by American and Filipino guerrilla forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, who fought against the Imperial Japanese...
Duration:
- 2 months (Oct 20, 1944 — Dec 31, 1944)
Pacific Theater of Operations
The Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) was the World War II area of military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, a geographic scope that reflected the operational and administrative command structures of the American...
Battle of Milne Bay
The Battle of Milne Bay (Operation RE) was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Japanese marines attacked the Australian base at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea on 25 August 1942, and fighting continued until the Japanese...
Duration:
- 13 days (Aug 25, 1942 — Sep 7, 1942)
Battle of Suomussalmi
The Battle of Suomussalmi [suo.mus.sal(a).mi] was fought between Finnish and Soviet forces in the Winter War. The action took place from around December 7, 1939 to January 8, 1940.
The outcome was a major Finnish victory against vastly superior...
Duration:
- 1 months (Dec 7, 1939 — Jan 8, 1940)
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the "Battles for Leyte Gulf", and formerly known as the "Second Battle of the Philippine Sea", is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and also one of the largest naval battles in...
Duration:
- 3 days (Oct 23, 1944 — Oct 26, 1944)
Battle of Bir Hakeim
Bir Hakeim (sometimes written Bir Hacheim) is a remote oasis in the Libyan desert, and the former site of a Turkish fort. During the Battle of Gazala the First Free French Division of General Marie Pierre Koenig defended the site from 26 May to 11...
Duration:
- 16 days (May 26, 1942 — Jun 11, 1942)
Operation Shingle
Operation Shingle (January 22, 1944), during the Italian Campaign of World War II, was an Allied amphibious landing against Axis forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. The operation was commanded by Major General John P. Lucas and was...
Duration:
- 4 months (Jan 22, 1944 — Jun 5, 1944)
Battle of Cape Matapan
The Battle of Cape Matapan (Greek: Ναυμαχία του Ταίναρου) was a World War II naval battle fought from March 27 to March 29, 1941. The cape is on the southwest coast of Greece's Peloponnesian peninsula. A force of British Royal Navy ships accompanied...
Duration:
- 2 days (Mar 27, 1941 — Mar 29, 1941)
Battle of France
In World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall...
Duration:
- 1 months (May 10, 1940 — Jun 25, 1940)
Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States...
Duration:
- 5 months (Jun 1944 — Nov 1944)
Operation Chastise
Operation Chastise was the official name for the attacks on German dams on 16/17 May 1943 in the Second World War using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis. The attack was carried out by Royal Air Force No....
Duration:
- May 17, 1943 — May 17, 1943
Lapland War
The Lapland War (Finnish: Lapin sota) were the hostilities between Finland and Nazi Germany between September 1944 and April 1945, fought in Finland's northernmost Lapland Province. While the Finns saw this as a separate conflict much like the...
Duration:
- 6 months (Oct 1, 1944 — Apr 25, 1945)
Convoy PQ 17
PQ17 was the code name for an Allied World War II convoy in the Arctic Ocean. In July 1942, the Arctic convoys suffered a significant defeat when Convoy PQ17 lost twenty-one of its thirty-four merchant ships during a series of heavy enemy daylight...
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France, on August 15, 1944, as part of World War II. The invasion took place between Toulon and Cannes.
During the planning stages, the operation was known as Anvil, to complement Operation...
Duration:
- Aug 15, 1944 — Aug 15, 1944
St. Nazaire Raid
The St. Nazaire Raid (also called Operation Chariot) was a successful British seaborne attack on the heavily defended docks of St. Nazaire in occupied France on the night of March 28, 1942 during World War II. The operation was undertaken by Royal...
Duration:
- Mar 28, 1942 — Mar 28, 1942
Allied invasion of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of...
Duration:
- 1 months (Jul 9, 1943 — Aug 17, 1943)
Operation Ladbroke
During World War II, Operation Ladbroke was the British glider landing near Syracuse, Sicily on the night of 9 July 1943 as part of the invasion of Sicily. On the night of 9/10 July 1943 a force of 144 Waco gliders, towed by US C-47, and British...
Duration:
- Jul 9, 1943 — Jul 9, 1943
Operation Fustian
During World War II, Operation Fustian (also referred to inaccurately in several histories as "Operation Marston") was a British airborne assault to seize and hold the Primosole Bridge over the River Simeto, south of Mount Etna on the island of...
Duration:
- 1 days (Jul 13, 1943 — Jul 14, 1943)
Operation Chestnut
During World War II, Operation Chestnut was a failed British raid by 2 Special Air Service, conducted in support of the Allied invasion of Sicily.
Two teams of ten men each, codenamed 'Pink' and 'Brig', parachuted into northern Sicily on the night...
Duration:
- Jul 12, 1943 — Jul 12, 1943
Battle of the Eastern Solomons
The naval Battle of the Eastern Solomons (also known as the Battle of the Stewart Islands and, in Japanese sources, as the Second Battle of the Solomon Sea (第二次ソロモン海戦), took place on August 24, 1942 – August 25, 1942, and was the third carrier...
Duration:
- 1 days (Aug 24, 1942 — Aug 25, 1942)
Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus (Russian: Операция «Уран», romanised: Operatsiya Uran) was the codename of the Soviet strategic operation in World War II which led to the encirclement of the German Sixth Army, the Third and Fourth Romanian armies, and portions of...
Duration:
- 2 months (Nov 17, 1942 — Feb 2, 1943)
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the code name for Nazi Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during World War II and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign. The name comes from the German for Operation Weser-Exercise (Unternehmen Weserübung),...
Duration:
- 2 months (Apr 9, 1940 — Jun 10, 1940)
Battle of the Philippine Sea
The Battle of the Philippine Sea (aka "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot") was a decisive naval battle of World War II, and the largest aircraft carrier battle in history. It was fought between the navies of the United States and the Empire of Japan....
Duration:
- 1 days (Jun 19, 1944 — Jun 20, 1944)
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II and was designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union.
Starting on 16 January 1945, the Red Army breached the German front as a...
Duration:
- 16 days (Apr 16, 1945 — May 2, 1945)
Military history of Albania during World War II
Duration:
- 5 years (1939 — 1944)
