World War 2 Events

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 Sixt...

Operation Mars was the operation codename for the Rzhev offensive operation part of the Rzhev-Vyazma strategic offensive operation (08.01-20.04.42) launched by Soviet forces against Germa...

Operation Winter Storm (German: Unternehmen Wintergewitter) was a German offensive in World War II undertaken between 12–23 December 1942, in which the German Fourth Panzer Army attempted...

The first stage — an attempt to cut off the German Army Group A in the Caucasus — had to be rapidly revised when General Erich von Manstein launched Operation Winter Storm on 12 December ...

In 1942, Geisel turned his energies to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Then, in 1943, he ...

Operation Iskra (Russian: Операция Искра, Operatsia Iskra; English translation - Operation Spark) was a Soviet military operation conducted by the Red Army's Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts,...

The Germans inside the pocket retreated from the suburbs of Stalingrad to the city itself. The loss of the two airfields, at Pitomnik on 16 January 1943 and Gumrak on either 25 January, o...

By the end of 1942, the chances of the Allies re-taking Timor were remote, as there were now 12,000 Japanese troops on the island and the commandos were coming into increasing contact wit...

"Except for Hitler's most successful public meetings, I had never seen an audience so effectively roused to fanaticism. Back in his home, Goebbels astonished me by analyzing what had seeme..." —Albert Speer

The Third Battle of Kharkov was a series of offensive operations on the Eastern Front of World War II, undertaken by the German Army Group South against the Red Army, around the city of K...

On March 15, 1943, the Germans began deporting the Jews from Thessaloniki. Every three days, freightcars crammed with an average of 2,000 Thessaloniki Jews headed toward Auschwitz-Birken...

Operation Strangle was a series of air operations during the Italian Campaign of World War II by the United States Fifteenth and Twelfth Air Forces to interdict German supply routes in It...

When dawn broke on the morning of March 26, the American task force was east of the International Date Line, (so it was actually March 27) 180 miles west of Attu and a hundred miles sout...

The Battle of Attu took place May 11, 1943 – May 30, 1943 on Attu Island off of Alaska as part of the Aleutian Islands Campaign during the Pacific War of World War II. Fought entirely bet...

On Tuesday 8 June 1943 the Mutsu was moored at the Battleship Division 2 flagship buoy No.2 in the Hashirajima fleet anchorage approximately 3 km south-west of the island of Hashirajima a...

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 s...

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 a...

The strong wind also made matters difficult for the amphibious landings but also ensured the element of surprise as many of the defenders had assumed that no-one would attempt a landing i...

Italy's position became more and more untenable. After the defeat at El Alamein in 1942 the Axis troops had to retreat to Tunisia where they were finally defeated in the Tunisia Campaign....

On 25 July 1943, a few weeks after the allied invasion of Sicily and bombing of Rome, the Italian Grand Council of Fascism voted to depose Mussolini and replace him with Marshal Pietro Ba...

Conflicting statements have been made as to whether the destroyer captain had spotted and steered towards the boat; author Donovan, who interviewed members of the destroyer crew, believed...

The massacre in Szczurowa was the murder of 93 Romani people (also known as Gypsies), including children, women and the elderly, by German Nazi occupiers in the Polish village of Szczurow...

After a day of probing, the goal of which was to determine whether German troops would choose to withdraw or not from the first set of trenches, the offensive started on 7 August 1943 at ...

Operation Cottage was a tactical maneuver during the Aleutian Islands campaign. In the operation, which took place on August 15, 1943, Allied military forces landed unopposed on Kiska Isl...

The conference also established a new theatre of war in South East Asia, with Lord Mountbatten as commander, and reached an agreement to dissuade Spain from supplying tungsten to Germany ...

By mid-August, the situation on the Eastern Front had changed as the Red Army started a general offensive, beginning with the Belgorod-Kharkov offensive operation (Белгородско-Харьковская...

The Lower Dnieper Offensive (also known as the "Battle of the Lower Dnieper") of took place in 1943 during the Second World War. It was one of the largest Second World War operations, inv...

In the week from 7 September to 14 September, Soviet troops were once again reinforced and were preparing for another offensive. The next objectives set by the Stavka were the major citie...

"Today, it is announced that an armistice with Italy has been concluded. This was a great victory for the United Nations -- but it was also a great victory for the Italian people. After..." —FDR

On 25 July 1943, a few weeks after the allied invasion of Sicily and bombing of Rome, the Italian Grand Council of Fascism voted to depose Mussolini and replace him with Marshal Pietro Ba...

The massacre started on 21 September, and lasted for one week. After the Italian surrender, Hitler had issued an order allowing the Germans to summarily execute any Italian officer who re...

Upon Mussolini's rescue from Italian arrest, Adolf Hitler ordered Mussolini to form a new fascist state or else he would destroy Milan, Genoa and Turin. Knowing the alternative would be u...

The German forces assembling for Unternehmen Leopard ("Operation Leopard") under the command of Generalleutnant Müller, comprised III./Infanterie-Regiment 440, II./IR 16 and II./IR 65 of ...

On September 27, after a large haul of Germans seized in various parts of the city about 8,000 men, 400, perhaps 500 armed men opened the fighting. One of the first sparks of the fight br...

On September 28, going to increase over time the number of citizens who joined Napolitain the first fighters, the fighting intensified, in the district Materdei a German patrol, rifugiata...

On the third day of fierce clashes in the streets of Naples, the organization dell'insurrezione was still left to individual capipopolo neighborhood, in the absence of all contacts with t...

While the German troops had already begun the evacuation of the city for the arrival of Anglo-American forces from Nocera Inferiore, in the city is self Tarsia professor at the School San...

On October 1 at 9:30 of the first Allied tanks entered the city, while at the end of the day, the German command in Italy, to the mouth of Marshal Albert Kesselring, considered the retrea...

The main prize, the island of Rhodes, fell to a swift attack by a German armoured brigade. Nevertheless, British forces landed on several islands, most notably Kos and Leros, and together...

The Battle of Changde (simplified Chinese: 常德会战; traditional Chinese: 常德會戰; pinyin: Chángdé Huìzhàn) was a major engagement in the Second Sino-Japanese War. On November 2, 1943 the Imperi...

On the morning of 16 November it became apparent to the British commander, Brigadier Tilney, that their situation was untenable and he surrendered. 3200 British and 5350 Italian soldiers ...

The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, largely fought from November 20 to November 23, 1943. It was the second time the United States was on the offensi...

In November and December of 1943, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ...

The first of only two wartime meetings between the three leaders, the Tehran Conference opened with Stalin brimming with confidence after several major victories on the Eastern Front. Ope...

The Air Raid on Bari was an air attack on Allied forces and shipping in Bari, Italy by Nazi German bombers on December 2, 1943. In the attack, 105 German Junkers Ju 88 bombers of Luftflot...

The task of taking Villa Rogatti, the westernmost crossing point, was given to Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI). Having conducted reconnaissance on their objective duri...

The direct attack on the German positions in and around San Pietro began on December 8 by II Corps of the Fifth Army. The positions were defended by the second and third battalions of the...

By the morning of 9 December, the RCE had completed the bridge across the Moro River, enabling the tanks of the King's Own Calgary Regiment (Calgary Tanks) to transport two companies of S...

The Holocaust of Kalavryta (Greek: Ολοκαύτωμα των Καλαβρύτων), or the Massacre of Kalavryta (Σφαγή των Καλαβρύτων), refers to the extermination of the male population and the subsequent t...

On 18 December, Vokes planned what would be the largest assault on The Gully during the campaign. Beginning at 0800, Canadian artillery would bombard a 900-metre (3,000 ft) front, to a de...