LIST OF MILITARY ENGAGEMENTS OF WORLD WAR II

This is a 'list of military engagements of World War II' 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 of time. Battles generally refer to short periods of intense combat localised to a specific area and over a specific period of time. 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.

Contents

Major campaigns

Battles

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

Sieges

Naval engagements

Major bombing campaigns

Operations

Raids

Defensive lines

Contemporaneous wars

See also

Major campaigns

===European Theatre===

★ Blitzkrieg- war conducted with great speed or force

★
★ Invasion of Poland (''Operation Fall Weiss'') - see Timeline of the Polish September Campaign

★
★ Phony War

★
★ Norwegian campaign - see also Timeline of the Norwegian Campaign

★
★
★ Invasion of Denmark and Norway (''Operation Weserübung'')

★
★
★ Allied campaign in Norway

★
★ Invasion of Iceland

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★ Battle of France (''Fall Gelb'')

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★ Battle of Britain ( + Operation Sealion, The German plan for invasion of Britain: ''Unternehmen Seelöwe'' )

★
★ Balkans and Greece (''Operation Marita'')

★ Eastern Front

★
★ German invasion of Soviet Union (''Operation Barbarossa'')

★
★ Continuation War - The Russo-Finnish continuation of the Winter War

★
★ Yugoslavian Front

★ Western Front

★
★ Italian Campaign

★
★ Battle of Normandy (''Operation Overlord'', ETO: ''Normandy Campaign'')

★
★ Northern France Campaign

★
★ Southern France Campaign (''Operation Dragoon'')

★
★ Battle of the Siegfried Line (ETO: ''Rhineland Campaign'', ''Ardennes-Alsace Campaign'')
===Asian and Pacific Theatre===

★ Second Sino-Japanese War

★
★ First Invasion of French Indochina

★
★ French-Thai War

★
★ Second Invasion of French Indochina

★ American-British-Dutch-Australian Command

★ Pacific Theater of Operations

★
★ Pacific Ocean Areas

★
★ Solomon Islands Campaign

★
★ South West Pacific Area

★
★
★ Borneo Campaign

★ South-East Asian Theatre

★
★ Burma Campaign

★
★ China Burma India Theatre

★ Soviet Manchurian Campaign 1945 (''Operation August Storm'')
===Middle East Theatre===

★ Middle East Campaign

★
★ Anglo-Iraqi War

★
★ Syria-Lebanon campaign

★
★ Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
===African and Mediterranean Theatre===

★ Battle of the Mediterranean

★ East African Campaign

★ North African campaign ''The Desert War''

★
★ Tunisia Campaign

★
★ Western Desert Campaign ''ETO: Egypt-Libya Campaign''

★ West African campaign

★ Balkans Campaign

★ Yugoslavian Front

★ Italian Campaign

★ Battle of Madagascar

Battles

1939

• Invasion of Poland:: Battle of Bzura:: Battle of Mława :: Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski:: Battle of Kock:: Battle of Warsaw:: Battle of Modlin	Poland invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union.:  :  :  :  :  :
• Saar Offensive	French attack on Saarland.
• Winter War:: Battle of Tolvajärvi:: Battle of Suomussalmi	:  :
• Battle of Changsha (1939)	First Japanese attempt to take Changsha during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
• Battle of the River Plate	The ''Admiral Graf Spee'' chased into Montevideo harbour and later scuttled.

1940

• Battle of the Atlantic	Name given to the conflicts in the Atlantic Ocean between 1940 and 1945.
• Winter War:: Battle of Kollaa:: Battle of Honkaniemi	:  : The only tank battle during the Winter War.
• Battle of Narvik	Minor Allied victory in Norway.
• Battle of Namsos	Failed Allied attempt to halt the Germans in Norway.
• Battle of the Netherlands	Germany defeats the Dutch in Europe during Operation ''Fall Gelb''.
• Battle of Belgium	Germany defeats Belgium during Operation ''Fall Gelb''.
• Battle of France	Germany defeats France and the British Expeditionary Force at the culmination of Operation ''Fall Gelb''.
• Battle of French Indochina (1940)	Japan successfully invades French Indochina.
• Battle of Dunkirk	Successful evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (Operation ''Dynamo'').
• Battle of Britain	The German ''Luftwaffe'' fails to defeat the Royal Air Force as the precondition for the invasion of Britain.
• Greco-Italian War:: Battle of Pindus	Italian forces invading Greece from Albania are repelled.:
• Battle of Taranto	British carrier-based planes destroy the Italian fleet in Taranto Harbor.
• Hundred Regiments Offensive	Major offensive by the Chinese Red Army against the Imperial Japanese Army.

1941

• Battle of Cape Matapan	British fleet defeats Italian fleet.
• Battle of Denmark Strait	The German battleship ''Bismarck'' sinks HMS ''Hood''.
• Invasion of Yugoslavia	Germany and allies invade Yugoslavia.
• Battle of Greece	Germany invades Greece via Bulgaria.
• Battle of Crete	German paratroopers capture Crete, but suffer many casualties.
• Operation ''Barbarossa'':: Battle of Smolensk:: Battle of Kiev:: Battle of Moscow	German invasion of the Soviet Union.: The German advance is halted, albeit temporarily.:  : The German Army Group Centre is driven back from Moscow.
• Attack on Pearl Harbor	Surprise Japanese attack destroys almost all the US Pacific Fleet.
• Battle of Singapore	Japan takes Singapore.
• Battle of Changsha (1941)	Japan's second unsuccessful attempt to take Changsha.
• Japanese Invasion of Thailand	Japan successfully invades Thailand.

1942

• Battle of Makassar Strait	US and Dutch forces attack a Japanese convoy.
• Battle of Dražgoše	First direct engagement between Slovenian partisans and German occupying forces.
• Battle of the Java Sea	Japanese forces wipe out an Allied naval squadron.
• Battle of Badung Strait	Heavily outnumbered Japanese forces defeat an Allied night-time naval attack.
• Indian Ocean raid	Allied naval forces and shipping incur heavy losses during Japan's Fast Carrier Strike Force sortie.
• Battle of Corregidor	Philippines lost to Japan.
• Battle of Nanos	Eight hundred Italian soldiers lay siege to fifty Slovene partisans.
• Battle of the Coral Sea	First aircraft-carrier vs. aircraft-carrier battle. Japan wins tactically, but loses strategically.
• Battle of Bir Hakeim	The First Free French Brigade buys Allied forces enough time to prevent a German breakthrough to the Suez Canal.
• Battle of Midway	Key defeat of Japanese naval forces in the Pacific; the Japanese lose four aircraft-carriers.
• Convoy PQ-17	A convoy of twenty-seven ships leaves Iceland on June 17, bound for Murmansk. Ten 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 designed to cover the Imperial Fleet's intended trap at Midway. Foreign troops are not expelled from US soil until the following year.

★ 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 - Chinese claim victory over Japanese

★ Kokoda Track Campaign - Australians slow down Japanese offensive against Port Moresby, cause Japanese overextension and attrition losses; drive them back.

★ 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. However 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 millions 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 Cape Esperance - near Guadalcanal

★ Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands - near Guadalcanal, USS ''Hornet'' sunk.

★ Operation Torch - Allied landings in North Africa and successful Putsch of French Resistance in Algiers to prevent vichyist 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 Chinese-Japanese War

★ Battle of Milne Bay

★ Battle of Madagascar

1943

★ Battle of Osankarica - Over 200 Germans massacred all 69 men and women of the Pohorje battalion. Germans lost 19 men and had 31 wounded.

★ Battle of Rennell Island - Japanese bombers sink a cruiser.

★ Battle of Guadalcanal - Allies take the island.

★ Third Battle of Kharkov - Germans retake Kharkov.

★ Battle of the Kasserine Pass - Battle between US and German armored forces in Tunisia.

★ Battle of Neretva - Large-scale German anti-partisan offensive in Yugoslavia.

★ Battle of the Komandorski Islands - Naval engagement between US and Japan in the Bering Sea.

★ Battle of Bismarck Sea - US sinks Japanese transports.

★ Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - 5,000 Jews and 2,000 Germans die, Jews confined.

★ Sutjeska offensive - Failed Axis offensive against Yugoslav partisans.

★ Battle of Castle Turjak - Slovene partisans took the castle guarded by the Slovene village sentries.

★ Battle of Kursk - Germans attack Kursk salient at Orel and Belgorod, Russians drive them back. Arguably the largest tank battle ever fought.

★ Allied invasion of Sicily

★ Allied invasion of Italy - Landings at Calabria, Taranto and Salerno

★ Dodecanese Campaign - Allied and German scramble to occupy the Dodecanese Islands.

★
★ Battle of Kos - German amphibious and airborne operation to capture Kos.

★
★ Battle of Leros - German amphibious and airborne operation to capture Leros.

★ Battle of Kiev (1943) - Kiev retaken by Soviets.

★ Raid on Schweinfurt - milestone air battle between the Luftwaffe and the USAAF known as "Black Thursday."

★ Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission - another major daylight air battle, first shuttle mission.

★ Battle of Tarawa

★ Battle of the Bernhardt Line - U.S. 5th Army sustains 16,000 casualties fighting through the Mignano Gap to reach the Cassino defenses.

1944

★ Battle of Cisterna - Part of Operation Shingle, the 1st, 3rd, and 4th US Army Ranger battalions attempted to capture the town of Cisterna.

★ Battle of Monte Cassino - Four battles in Italy Jan - May. Allies finally breakthrough towards Rome.

★ Battle of Normandy - Allies invade northern France (Operation Overlord), hard fighting from Cherbourg to Caen, Germans surrounded and destroyed at Falaise.

★ Battle of Philippine Sea - Major carrier battle; US lose 123 planes and destroy 315 Japanese planes

★ Operation Rösselsprung - German attempt to capture Tito using airborne troops

★ Marianas Campaign - US invasions of Saipan, June 15, Guam July 21, and Tinian July 24

★ Battle of Imphal and Battle of Kohima - attempted Japanese invasion of India fails with heavy losses

★ Operation Bagration - Soviet offensive destroys German Army Group Center on the Eastern Front.

★ Battle of Fontenay

★ Battle of Tali-Ihantala - Finnish stop Soviet offensive

★ Warsaw Uprising - 20.000 armed Poles against 55.000 Wehrmacht and SS. 90% of city destroyed, more than 250.000 casualties.

★ Operation Dragoon (a.k.a. Operation Anvil) - Allied invasion of Southern France

★ Gothic Line offensive - British 8th Army and U.S. 5th Army attempt unsuccessfuly to break into the north Italian plains.

★ Battle of Peleliu - A fight to capture an airstrip on a speck of coral in the western Pacific.

★ Battle of Arnhem - The major battle of Operation Market Garden; Allies reach but fail to cross the Rhine; British First Airborne Division destroyed

★ Battle of the Scheldt - Decisive Canadian victory, solved the logistical problems of the Allies, and opened the port of Antwerp for supplies directly to the front.

★ Battle of Hurtgen Forest - Stubborn German defense, appalling losses to US army

★ Battle of Crucifix Hill - The 18th Infantry, U.S. 1st Infantry Division take Crucifix Hill, a crucial position to help surround Aachen. Cpt. Bobbie E. Brown wins a Medal of Honor for his heroics.

★ Battle of Aachen - Aachen was the first major German city to face invasion during WW II.

★ Battle of Leyte Gulf - The largest air-sea battle in history.

★ Operation Queen

★ Battle of the Bulge - German counterattack in Ardennes; General McAuliffe says "NUTS" at Bastogne

★ Battle of Leyte

★ Battle of Peleliu

★ Battle of Hengyang

1945

★ Operation Elephant - Allied offensive in Netherlands

★ Operation Blackcock - The Battle for the Roer Triangle, January 1945

★ Colmar Pocket - France and the US collapse the German bridgehead over the Rhine in Alsace

★ Operation Spring Awakening - German counterattack in Hungary

★ Battle of Mindanao - US invasion of the Philippines

★ Battle of Vienne

★ Battle of Iwo Jima - After a month, US takes the island

★ Operation Varsity - 134 Allied gliders land troops in Weisel

★ Battle of Seelow Heights

★ Spring 1945 offensive in Italy - The final defeat of German forces in Italy

★ Battle of Berlin - Soviet forces encircle and capture German capital, Hitler commits suicide.

★ Battle of Triest - British army and Yugoslav capture the city

★ Battle of Poljana - Last battle of World War II in Europe

★ Battle of Meiktila / Mandalay - Indian and British forces drive Japanese from Burma

★ Battle of French Indochina (1945) - Japan successfully takes control of Vietnam.

★ Battle of Okinawa - US takes Japanese Island in the Ryukyus; many casualties to both sides.

★ Battle of Manchuria - Soviet forces liberate Manchuria.

Sieges

★ Siege of Warsaw

★ Siege of Leningrad

★ Siege of Lwów

★ Siege of Modlin

★ Siege of Novorossiysk

★ Siege of Odessa

★ Siege of Sevastopol

★ Siege of Tobruk

★ Siege of Moscow

★ Siege of Budapest

★ Siege of Breslau

Naval engagements

'General'

★ Arctic Convoys

★ Second Battle of the Atlantic - the name given to the conflicts in the Atlantic Ocean between 1940 and 1945.

★
★ see also Timeline of the Second Battle of the Atlantic

★ Battle of the Mediterranean

★ Battle of the Indian Ocean
'Specific'

''1939''

★ The Battle of the River Plate
''1940''

★ First Battle of Narvik

★ Second Battle of Narvik
''1941''

★ Battle of Cape Matapan

★ Battle of Pearl Harbor
''1942''

★ Battle of the Coral Sea

★ Battle of Midway

★ Battle of Guadalcanal
''1943''

★ Battle of the Komandorski Islands
''1944''

★ Battle of Leyte Gulf

Major bombing campaigns

''General'

★ Strategic bombing during World War II

★ Strategic bombing survey for the overall impact of the bombing.
''Specific'

★ Baedeker raids

★ Chungking

★ Coventry

★ Dresden

★ Darwin

★ Hamburg

★ Helsinki - February 1944, was mostly ineffective due to air defence and deception.

★ Hiroshima - One nuclear weapon dropped from a B-29, devastating a city.

★ Kassel

★ London - "The Blitz" and the V1 and V2 campaigns

★ Lübeck

★ Nagasaki - One nuclear weapon dropped from a B-29, devastating a city.

★ Narva - March 1944. Evacuated town was destroyed by Soviet ADD.

★ Pearl Harbor

★ Rostock - Heinkel Airplane Construction Plant, Seaport, and City

★ Rotterdam

★ Stalingrad - 23 August 1942

★ Tallinn - February - March 1944. Bombed by Soviet ADD. Large-scale damage.

★ Tokyo bombed several times

★ Warsaw

Operations

Main articles: List of World War II military operations

Raids

Small to medium-sized 'raiding operations' were carried out by both Allied and Axis armies during World War II. The ''modus operandi'' used included guerrilla attacks by partisans in occupied territory and/or combined operations involving the landing and removal of specialised light infantry, such as commandos, by means of small boats.

★ Allied

★
★ Operation Colossus 10 February 1941

★
★ Operation Claymore, March 1941

★
★ Operation Archery, December 1941

★
★ Battle of Timor (from February 1942)

★
★ Operation Chariot, March 1942

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★ Dieppe Raid, August 1942

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★ Operation Jaywick, September 1943

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★ Operation Jedburgh, 1944

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★ Operation Roast, April 1945

★ Axis

★
★ Operation Greif, December 1944
'Raiding units'

★ Allied

★
★ Multinational

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★
★ Chindits

★
★
★ Devil's Brigade

★
★
★ Z Special Unit

★
★
★ Popski's Private Army

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★
★ Gideon Force

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★ Australia

★
★
★ Australian Army Independent Companies

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★ France

★
★
★ Far East French Expeditionary Forces

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★
★ Intervention Light Corps

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★ Greece

★
★
★ Sacred Band

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★ United Kingdom

★
★
★ Long Range Desert Group

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★
★ Special Air Service

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★
★ Royal Marines

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★
★ Special Operations Executive

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★
★ British Army Commandos

★
★
★
★ Layforce

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★
★ British Paratroopers

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★ United States

★
★
★ Marine Raiders

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★
★ US Army Rangers

★
★
★ Alamo Scouts

★
★
★ Merrill's Marauders

★ Axis

★
★ Nazi Germany

★
★
★ Brandenburger Regiment

★
★
★ Waffen-SS (commando force led by Otto Skorzeny).

★
★ Fascist Italy

★
★
★ Decima Flottiglia MAS

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★ Empire of Japan

★
★
★ Special Naval Landing Forces

Defensive lines

★ Atlantic Wall

★ GHQ Line

★ Gustav Line

★ Maginot Line

★ Mannerheim Line

★ Metaxas Line

★ Siegfried Line

★ Taunton Stop Line

Contemporaneous wars

★ Anglo-Iraqi War

★ Chinese Civil War

★ Greek Civil War

★ Second Italo-Abyssinian War

★ Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

★ Soviet-Japanese Border War (1939)

★ Spanish Civil War

★ Winter War (''Russo-Finnish War''), Continuation War, Lapland War

See also

★ World War II

★ Campaigns of World War II

★ Participants in World War II

★ List of operations and projects (military and non-military)

★ List of battles 1901-2000

★ List of World War II topics