Major Military Engagements of World War II



Rape of Nanking – Dec 1937 - March 1938. Japanese occupiers kill at least 369,366 Chinese civilians and prisoners of war in Nanking

Significance / Impact

Dunkirk. – 27 May - 4 June 1940. As Hitler invades France, 338,226 French and British troops are evacuated across English Channel from beaches at Dunkirk

Significance / Impact

Battle of Britain – 10 July – 31 Oct 1940.German bombers attempt to destroy British air force as prelude to invasion

Significance / Impact

French Resistance 1941 to 1944. Underground movement to oppose German occupation of French.

Significance / Impact

British sink German battleship the Bismark – 27 May 1941

Significance / Impact

Operation Barbarossa – June 1941. 3,000,000-strong German, Romanian, Hungarian, Finnish, Italian army invades Soviet Union

Significance / Impact

Battle of Lenningrad – 10 July, 1941. Lasted three years, as Germans tried unsuccessfully to take the city.

Significance / Impact

Battle of Moscow – Oct 1941 - Jan 1942. Russians hold off German attack

Significance / Impact

Pearl Harbour – 7 December 1941. Japanese bombs Pearl Harbour in Hawaii

Significance / Impact

Hong Kong – 25 December 1941. British, along with Canadian troops, surrender to the Japanese.

Significance / Impact

Battle of Midway – 4 June 1942. Sea battle between Japan and United States in which Japan lost all four of its aircraft carriers

Significance / Impact

Battle of Guadalcanal – 7 August 1942. Major land and sea battle fought in Pacific

Significance / Impact

Battle of Dieppe – 19 August 1942. Raid on French coastal town of Dieppe by a force largely made up of Canadians

Significance / Impact

Battle of Stalingrad – 27 Aug. 1942 – 31 Jan, 1943. Long battle for city ends in German defeat.

Significance / Impact

Battle of El Alamein – Oct 23rd 1942. British forces defeat Germans in North Africa

Significance / Impact

Battle of Kursk – 13 July 1943. Largest tank battle in history as 900 German tanks fight to a draw against 900 Soviet tanks.

Significance / Impact

Invasion of Sicily – July 23rd 1943. American, Canadian and British troops start campaign to take Sicily

Significance / Impact

Battle of Ortona – Dec 1943 – 19-day campaign for Canadians to seize Italian town of Ortona from German defenders

Significance / Impact

D-Day – 6 June 1944. Canadian, American, British troops invade Europe

Significance / Impact

Liberation of Paris – August 25, 1944. Free French and American troops liberate Paris

Significance / Impact

Liberation of Holland – Fall,1944. Canadian troops liberate Holland

Significance / Impact

Warsaw Uprising – 2 Oct 1944. Uprising in Jewish ghetto of Warsaw crushed by Germans

Significance / Impact

Battle of the Bulge – Dec 16th 1944. Germans make a strong counter offensive in Europe. They are forced to withdraw but not before American lost 35, 000

Significance / Impact

Bombing of Dresden – 14 Feb. 1945. Allies carpet bomb city in repeated waves of bombers.

Significance / Impact

Bombing of Tokyo – 10 March 1945. 300 American bombers drop 1,665 tons of napalm-filled bombs on Tokyo creating a firestorm and killing over 83,000 people in one night.

Significance / Impact

Battle of Berlin – 2 May 1945. After a long battle for the city, Berlin and the Third Reich finally fall.

Significance / Impact

Dropping of Atomic Bomb – 6th August 1945. America became the first and only country to use nuclear weapons when it droped the bomb on hiroshima killing Over 200,000 people died then and later as a result of the bombing.

Significance / Impact

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