French
DeutschList of World War II battles
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This is a list of World War II battles encompassing land, naval, and air engagements as well as campaigns, operations, defensive lines and sieges. Campaigns generally refer to broader strategic operations conducted over a large bit of territory and over a long period. Battles generally refer to short periods of intense combat localised to a specific area and over a specific period. However, use of the terms in naming such events is not consistent. For example, the Battle of the Atlantic was more or less an entire theatre of war, and the so-called battle lasted for the duration of the entire war. Another misnomer is the Battle of Britain, which by all rights should be considered a campaign, not a mere battle.
Battles from 1941[edit]
1941[edit]
| • Thailand during French-Thai War. | |
| • Battle of the Litani River | Australian forces cross the Litani River to begin the Syria-Lebanon Campaign against Vichy French forces. |
| • Battle of Damascus | Commonwealth and Allied forces take Damascus from the Vichy French. |
| • Battle of Beirut | Commonwealth and Allied forces take Beirut and the Vichy French surrender all forces in Syria and Lebanon. |
| • Battle of Keren | Commonwealth and Allied forces defeat Italian forces at Keren of the East African Campaign. |
| • Battle of Cape Matapan | British fleet defeats Italian fleet. |
| • Battle of Denmark Strait | The German battleship Bismarck sinks HMS Hood. |
| • Last battle of the battleship Bismarck | The German battleship Bismarck is sunk by the Royal Navy after the sinking of HMS Hood. |
| • Invasion of Yugoslavia | Germany and Axis allies invade Yugoslavia via Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Albania. |
| • German Invasion of Greece | |
| • Battle of Crete | German paratroopers capture Crete but suffer many casualties. |
| • Operation Barbarossa | German invasion of the Soviet Union.
|
| • Battle of Gondar | The final defeat of organized Italian resistance in Italian East Africa by Commonwealth and Allied forces. |
| • Attack on Pearl Harbor | Surprise Japanese attack destroys almost all the US Pacific Fleet. |
| • Second Battle of Changsha | Failure of Japan's second attempt to take Changsha in China. |
| • Battle of Shanggao | Japanese 11th Army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th Army |
| • Battle of Thailand | Japan invades and occupies Thailand. |
| • Battle of Hong Kong | Japan captures the British colony of Hong Kong. |
| • Battle of Guam (1941) | Japan captures the American territory of Guam. |
| • Battle of Wake Island | Japan captures the atoll of Wake Island. |
| • Malayan Campaign | |
| • Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse | Japanese defeat British naval forces. |
1942[edit]
| • Battle of Bataan | |
| • Battle of Dražgoše | First direct engagement between Slovenian partisans and German occupying forces. |
| • Battle of Makassar Strait | Japanese aircraft raid an American and Dutch convoy. |
| • Battle of Singapore | |
| • Battle of the Java Sea | Japanese forces destroy an Allied naval squadron. |
| • Battle of Badung Strait | Outnumbered Japanese forces defeat an Allied night-time naval attack. |
| • Battle of Java | Japanese forces invade the island of Java |
| • Indian Ocean raid | Allied naval forces and shipping suffer many losses during Japan's Fast Carrier Strike Force sortie. |
| • Battle of Christmas Island | The Japanese occupy Christmas Island unopposed. |
| • Battle of Corregidor | Philippines lost to Japan. |
| • Japanese capture of Burma | Burma lost to Japan. |
| • Battle of Nanos | Eight hundred Italian soldiers lay siege to fifty Slovene partisans. |
| • Doolittle Raid | First air raid on Tokyo. |
| • Battle of the Coral Sea | First aircraft-carrier vs. aircraft-carrier battle |
| • Battle of Gazala | German offensive in the desert south of Tobruk anticipated and nearly defeated but ends with many losses to British armour, forcing a withdrawal. In a surprise strike, Tobruk was taken in a day. Rommel exploited the success by pursuing the British into Egypt, denying them time to recover from the defeat but was checked at El Alamein. |
| • Battle of Midway | Defeat of Japanese naval forces in the Pacific; the Japanese lose four aircraft-carriers. |
| • Convoy PQ 17 | A convoy of thirty-five ships leaves Iceland on June 17, bound for Murmansk. Eleven arrive on July 5. |
| • Battle of the Aleutian Islands | Japanese invade and occupy two islands of Alaska's Aleutian archipelago as part of a feint to cover the Imperial Fleet's intended trap at Midway |
| • Attack on Sydney Harbour | Japanese midget submarines attack Sydney harbour. |
| • First Battle of El Alamein | British Eighth Army stops Rommel's Axis forces invading Egypt. |
| • Second Battle of El Alamein | Montgomery's Eighth Army forces Rommel out of Egypt. |
| • Battle of Sevastopol | Captured by Germans after eight-month siege. |
| • Battle of Changsha (1942) | Chinese claim victory over Japanese. |
| • Kokoda Track Campaign | Australians and U.S. for the first time in World War II stop a Japanese offensive (against Port Moresby) |
| • Battle of Guadalcanal | Beginning of Allied action in Solomon Islands. |
| • Battle of Savo Island | Japanese sink four US cruisers. |
| • Battle of Dieppe | Operation Jubilee was an Allied amphibious raid on the German-occupied port of Dieppe in France. A tactical disaster for the Allies. Lessons learned applied to later amphibious operations including D-Day. |
| • Battle of Stalingrad | City besieged by Paulus' German Sixth Army; from November 23 the Sixth Army is surrounded and destroyed by Soviets; bloodiest battle in history, 1.8 million dead approx. |
| • Battle of the Eastern Solomons | Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō sunk. |
| • Battle of Milne Bay | First time Japanese landing force had been driven back into sea. |
| • Battle of Buna-Gona | Australians and U.S. defeat Japanese on north coast of New Guinea. |
| • Battle of Cape Esperance | near Guadalcanal |
| • Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands | near Guadalcanal, USS Hornet (CV-8) sunk. |
| • Operation Torch | Allied landings in North Africa and putsch by French Resistance in Algiers to prevent Vichy forces opposition. |
| • Naval Battle of Guadalcanal | US defeats Japan, a turning point. |
| • Battle of Tassafaronga | off Guadalcanal |
| • Second Battle of Kharkov | Failed Soviet attempt to retake Kharkov. |
| • Battle of Changsha (1942) | Second Sino-J |