World War II Battles Newscasts

Battle Name / Date / Important People / Events and Significance
Fall of France/Dunkirk / May-June 1940 / General Lord Gort BEF Commander
Neville Chamberlain, British PM, / First German offensive after the declaration of war; Hitler invaded N. France and pushed the French army back to the city of Dunkirk; British military helped ferry people across to England; called Operation Dynamo; the evacuation at Dunkirk ended the Invasion of France. Hitler controlled this area until 1944.
Operation Barbarosa / Seige of Leningrad / June 1941- / Molotov; Field Marshall Wilhelm von Leeb; Marshal Gerd, / Hitler broke the Russian-German Non-aggression pact by taking over Leningrad and advancing into Russian territory; It was a huge gamble for Germany, very harsh climate; The Russian were unprepared for this attack and could not defend against the Nazi invasion; Stalin told Russia that they had been severely crippled by this attack and demanded that everyone pursue the war effort against germany
Battle of Britain / August 1940 / Hitler, Churchill, / Hitler’s next stop after his defeat of France; Objective was to land 160,000 German soldiers along the coast of England; Nazis were worried about the RAF; Hitler had 2800 planes stationed in France and Belgium; Germany began a massive bombing campaign over London but the RAF was able to hold them off; at the crux of the battle Hitler changed his strategy and the RAF was able to get an upperhand despite bigger losses; In the end, The german Luftwaffe lost 1389 planes while the RAF lost 792; Hitler did not succeed in this battle
Stalingrad / 1941-1942 / Stalin, Hitler, Paulus; / Germany barely had the strength to pursue this offensive but Hitler decided to keep pursuing Russia; The Blitzkrieg worked at first and the Russians crumbled; Hitler split his effort which gave Russia two smaller nazi armies to fight against. At Stalingrad, the Russian resistance intensified; Nazi General Paulus finally surrendered and the battle was over; Stalingrad remained under the control of the Russians
Battle Name / Date / Important People / Events and Significance
Pearl Harbor / Jun 6 1941 / Yamamoto; Nagumo; FDR / This attack brought the US into the war against the Japanese in the Pacific; Japan wanted to take out the US military fleet and expand into the Hawaiian islands; It was an air attack against the US navy; the Americans were caught completely off guard; US suffered 2896 casualties; the Japanese lost 29 planes, one submarine and 5 midget subs, 55 airmen, 9 crewman; FDR formally declared war on Japan the next day
El Alamein / May 1943 / Montgomery, Rommel; Churchill / Fought in the deserts of North Africa; a very pivotal battle for Allied success; it was the Allies last stand, Germans had 110,000 men and 500 tanks but were short on fuel; Montgomery launched Operation Bertram and began to push the Germans; The Allies one a victory and the Germans surrendered in North Africa.
D- Day/ Normandy / June 6 1944 / Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, FDR, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower George Patton / Major turning point in the war; sent the Nazi’s in a slow retreat back to Germany; Stalin demanded that the allies open a second war fornt against Germany relieving Russian forces; largest amphibious invasion in history, 2727 ships and 156,000 soldiers successfully landed on the beaches of Normandy
Battle of the Bulge / Dec. 1944-jan 1945 / Field Marshall Model; Hoss von Menteuffel; Hitler / Largest land battle of WWII in which the US participated; At this point Germany was clearly losing the war; many believe Hitler was unstable and not making good military decisions; Hitler launched an all out attack against the allies who clearly had the advantage; In the end, Hitler ordered his troops to retreat and his offensive had failed; Hitler last attempt to win the war
Midway / April 1942- / Admiral Nimitz; Nagumo; Yamamoto / This was the US retaliation after the Pearl Harbor attacks; It was a naval battle over the island of Midway; US needed this island to launch more attacks against the Japanese navy; US succeeded in gaining control of the island.