Era VII · 1939 to 1945
World War II
From the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 to the fall of Berlin and the battle for Okinawa in 1945, World War II was fought across Europe, North Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Tanks, aircraft carriers and air power decided its battles, from Stalingrad and Kursk to Midway and Normandy.
81 battles · 16 commanders
Film: B-17 bombers of the Eighth Air Force in formation, from the Memphis Belle outtakes, 1942 to 1943. U.S. Army Air Forces, U.S. National Archives 342-USAF-19510. Public domain.
Where the battles were fought
Every battle of the era with a story in the Field Dispatch. Tap a dot to read it.
Europe in close-up
Not on the map: Battle of Britain.
Basemap: Natural Earth, public domain. Modern coastlines.
The battles in order
- 1939Battle of Kałuszyn
On the night of 11-12 September 1939 Polish forces retook Kałuszyn east of Warsaw in a fierce night attack, a rare clear victory of the September Campaign.
- 1939Battle of Kock
How General Kleeberg's troops fought the last battle of the September Campaign, won in the field and ran out of ammunition.
- 1939Battle of Mokra
On 1 September 1939 the Volhynian Cavalry Brigade held off the German 4th Panzer Division at Mokra, one of the first Polish successes of the campaign.
- 1939Battle of Mława
How the Polish 20th Infantry Division held its fortified line against the German 3rd Army for three days. Map and full story.
- 1939Battle of Tolvajärvi
How a Finnish detachment attacked a Soviet rifle division in Ladoga Karelia and won Finland's first big victory.
- 1939Battle of Westerplatte
Germany took Westerplatte on 7 September 1939, but about 200 Poles told to hold for twelve hours held for seven days. The losses, who commanded, map, FAQ.
- 1939Battle of Wizna
In September 1939 a few hundred Poles held the bunkers at Wizna for three days against Guderian's panzers, a stand remembered as the Polish Thermopylae.
- 1939Battle of the Bzura
In September 1939 the Polish armies Poznań and Pomorze struck the German flank on the Bzura, the largest battle of the September Campaign.
- 1939Defense of Hel
About 3,000 Poles fought off German land, sea and air attack. The map and the battleship duel.
- 1939Gleiwitz incident
SS men posing as Polish insurgents seized the Gleiwitz radio station on 31 August 1939 and shot Franz Honiok to fake a pretext for war. How the lie worked.
- 1939Soviet invasion of Poland
The Red Army invaded Poland on 17 September 1939 under the secret Nazi-Soviet protocol, as Poland still fought Germany. The fighting, prisoners, partition.
- 1940Battle of Britain
In the summer of 1940 the RAF held off the Luftwaffe over southern England, denied Germany the air control it needed to invade, and kept Britain fighting.
- 1940Battle of Cape Spada
The Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and British destroyers sink the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni off Crete.
- 1940Battle of Cape Spartivento
Force H met the Italian fleet off Sardinia on 27 November 1940 in under an hour of gunfire, and the convoy reached Malta. Why both navies claimed the day.
- 1940Battle of Narvik
In May 1940 the Polish Highland Brigade fought beside Norwegian, French and British troops at Narvik, in one of the first Allied land victories of the war.
- 1941Attack on Pearl Harbor
On 7 December 1941 Imperial Japan launched a surprise carrier strike on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, drawing America into World War II.
- 1941Battle of Cape Bon
Four British and Dutch destroyers sank two Italian cruisers carrying fuel off Cape Bon on 13 December 1941. Over 900 Italians died. How the ambush worked.
- 1941Battle of Hong Kong
Japan won the Battle of Hong Kong: its 38th Division attacked on 8 December 1941 and the colony surrendered on Christmas Day. What became of the Canadians.
- 1941Battle of Moscow
The Soviet Union won the Battle of Moscow: the Red Army halted the German drive near the city, then from 5 December 1941 threw it back up to 250 km.
- 1941Battle of Wake Island
In December 1941 Marines, sailors and civilians on Wake beat off a Japanese landing and sank two destroyers before a second assault took the atoll.
- 1941Bombing of Belgrade
Without a declaration of war, the Luftwaffe bombs the Yugoslav capital in revenge for a coup. The death toll is still disputed.
- 1941HMAS Sydney and the Kormoran
How a German raider disguised as a Dutch freighter drew HMAS Sydney close off Western Australia and sank her with all 645 men.
- 1941Second Battle of Changsha
Japan's 11th Army breaks through to Changsha, then falls back to its start line.
- 1941-1944Siege of Leningrad
The 125 g bread ration, the Road of Life, Tanya Savicheva's diary, the Seventh Symphony, the dead.
- 1941Siege of Odessa
The Soviet garrison holds the port for 73 days against Romania's 4th Army, then slips away by sea.
- 1941Siege of Tobruk
How the Polish Carpathian Brigade, the Rats of Tobruk, held the hardest sectors against Rommel until the siege was lifted.
- 1942Barvenkovo-Lozovaya offensive
In January 1942 the Red Army broke the German line near Izyum on a 60-mile front but could not widen the breach. How the bulge set up Second Kharkov.
- 1942Battle of Bataan
From January to April 1942 Filipino and American troops held Bataan against Japan's 14th Army, until hunger and disease forced their surrender.
- 1942Battle of Corregidor
In May 1942 Japanese troops stormed Corregidor, the fortress island at the mouth of Manila Bay, and Wainwright surrendered; Americans retook it in 1945.
- 1942Battle of El Alamein
Britain's Eighth Army won at El Alamein, 23 October to 4 November 1942, breaking Rommel's line. Lightfoot, Supercharge and the end of the beginning.
- 1942Battle of Makassar Strait
Japanese land based bombers caught an Allied cruiser force heading for Borneo, wrecked Marblehead and a Houston turret.
- 1942Battle of Mersa Matruh
Rommel outflanks the British position on the Egyptian coast, and the Eighth Army falls back to El Alamein.
- 1942Battle of Midway
Dive bombers wrecked three Japanese carriers in about five minutes, and all four were lost for one US carrier. With maps.
- 1942-1943Battle of Stalingrad
The five-month fight for a single city on the Volga that broke the German advance in the East and became one of the bloodiest battles in history.
- 1942Battle of the Barents Sea
How British destroyers bluffed off the Hipper and Lützow in the Arctic twilight, and why Hitler turned on his navy.
- 1942Battle of the Coral Sea
From 4 to 8 May 1942 American and Japanese carriers fought the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval battle in which the ships never saw each other.
- 1942Battle of the Java Sea
How Karel Doorman's mixed Allied fleet tried to stop the invasion of Java and lost five warships and its admiral.
- 1942Battle of the Tenaru
On Guadalcanal, US Marines destroy Colonel Ichiki's detachment at the mouth of the Ilu River, near Henderson Field.
- 1942Carlson's Long Patrol
How Carlson's 2nd Raider Battalion hunted retreating Japanese through the jungle for a month, and what it cost.
- 1942Channel Dash
How Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen ran up the English Channel in daylight past a slow British response.
- 1942-1943Guadalcanal Campaign
The Allies won Guadalcanal: from August 1942 to February 1943 US forces held Henderson Field until Japan gave up. The main battles, the losses and a map.
- 1942Operation Torch
On 8 November 1942 American and British troops landed in Vichy French Morocco and Algeria. How Operation Torch was fought, who won and why it mattered.
- 1942Operation Uranus
On 19 November 1942 the Red Army struck the Romanian armies on both flanks of Stalingrad. Four days later Operation Uranus had encircled the German Sixth Army.
- 1942Second Battle of the Java Sea
Japanese ships and aircraft sank HMS Exeter, HMS Encounter and USS Pope as they fled Surabaya.
- 1943Battle of Kursk
How Hitler's 1943 gamble at Kursk met the deepest defenses of the war and the vast armored clash at Prokhorovka, turning the Eastern Front for good.
- 1943Battle of Prokhorovka
Germany won a tactical victory at Prokhorovka on 12 July 1943, losing far fewer tanks, but its drive on Kursk stopped. Was it the largest tank battle?
- 1943Battle of Tarawa
From 20 to 23 November 1943 US Marines took the fortified atoll of Tarawa in a brutal 76-hour fight that taught hard lessons for the Pacific campaign.
- 1943Battle of the Komandorski Islands
On 26 March 1943 a US force half the size of Japan's Fifth Fleet fought it for about 3.5 hours off the Aleutians. No ship sank, and the convoy turned back.
- 1943Battle of the Sutjeska
Over 100,000 Axis troops encircle Tito's partisans in the Bosnian mountains. A third die, but the main force breaks out.
- 1943Donbas offensive, July
The Soviet attacks on the Mius and at Izyum, 17 July to 2 August 1943, failed to break through but drew German panzers from Kursk. Losses and the sequel.
- 1943Operation Kutuzov
The Soviets won Operation Kutuzov: launched on 12 July 1943 at the Orel salient, it freed Orel on 5 August and ended on 18 August. Why Hitler gave it up.
- 1943Operation Ochsenkopf
How von Arnim's Operation Ochsenkopf was held at Sidi Nsir and Hunt's Gap and cost the Axis its scarce Tiger tanks.
- 1943Smolensk operation
Two Soviet fronts grind through Army Group Center's forest defenses and retake Smolensk on 25 September.
- 1944Battle of Anzio
A surprise landing behind the Gustav Line, a week of caution, four months under siege and a race for Rome.
- 1944Battle of Falaise
How Maczek's Polish 1st Armoured Division held Hill 262, the Mace, to close the pocket on the Germans in Normandy. With maps.
- 1944Battle of Hürtgen Forest
Why the US Army fought five months in a German forest, why Germany held it, the fight for Schmidt and what it cost.
- 1944Battle of Imphal
Mostly Indian troops of IV Corps held Imphal from March to July 1944, supplied by air, and broke Japan's offensive. Why Japan lost, the toll and the INA.
- 1944Battle of Kohima
From April to June 1944 British and Indian troops held Kohima in northeast India against the Japanese U-Go offensive, a turning point of the war in Burma.
- 1944Battle of Leyte Gulf
282 ships, nearly 200,000 men. The four actions and a map.
- 1944Battle of Monte Cassino
Over four months in 1944 Allied armies battered the German line at Monte Cassino, until the Polish II Corps stormed the ruins.
- 1944Battle of Peleliu
The US took Peleliu after ten weeks of cave fighting on Bloody Nose Ridge in late 1944, with about 1,600 Americans killed. Was the battle necessary?
- 1944Battle of Saipan
How US Marines and soldiers took the island, why Japan fought to the end, the banzai charge and the civilian dead.
- 1944Battle of the Bulge
In December 1944 Hitler launched a surprise winter offensive through the Ardennes: the largest, costliest battle the US Army fought in the war.
- 1944Battle of the Philippine Sea
Japan’s Operation A-Go, the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, the carriers sunk, Mitscher’s night recovery and losses.
- 1944Battle of the Scheldt
First Canadian Army cleared the Scheldt from 2 October to 8 November 1944 so ships could reach Antwerp, taking 41,043 prisoners. Walcheren and the cost.
- 1944Crimean offensive
The Red Army breaks into the Crimea, storms Sevastopol and traps the last of Germany's 17th Army on the beaches.
- 1944D-Day and the Battle of Normandy
The Allies won in Normandy: on 6 June 1944 about 156,000 troops landed on five beaches, Utah to Sword. The deception, Omaha, the breakout and a map.
- 1944Leningrad-Novgorod offensive
How two Soviet fronts broke the German ring around Leningrad from Oranienbaum and Novgorod and lifted the 872-day siege.
- 1944Operation Market Garden
In September 1944 the Allies launched Market Garden, an airborne gamble to seize a chain of Dutch bridges and end the war. It failed at Arnhem.
- 1944Siege of Budapest
Why Hitler refused to give up the city, how the Red Army took it, the failed breakout and some 38,000 civilian dead.
- 1944Warsaw Uprising
For 63 days in 1944 the Home Army fought the German occupiers in Warsaw; afterwards the Germans systematically destroyed the city.
- 1945Battle for Castle Itter
U.S. tankers, Wehrmacht soldiers and French VIP prisoners hold an Austrian castle against the Waffen-SS days before the war ends.
- 1945Battle of Berlin
How the Red Army stormed Hitler's capital in 1945, from the Seelow Heights to the Reichstag, in the ferocious final battle of the war in Europe.
- 1945Battle of Halbe
About 40,000 died at Halbe in April 1945 as the encircled German Ninth Army broke out west. Some 25,000 got through. The map, the dead, the cemetery.
- 1945Battle of Iwo Jima
Nearly 7,000 Americans died and only 216 of 21,000 Japanese were captured. The flag, the map, was it worth it?
- 1945Battle of Manila
From 3 February to 3 March 1945 US and Filipino forces retook Manila from Iwabuchi's garrison. Intramuros was razed and about 100,000 civilians died.
- 1945Battle of Okinawa
The US took Okinawa from 1 April to late June 1945. Over 12,000 Americans, about 110,000 Japanese troops and at least 100,000 civilians died. With maps.
- 1945Battle of Tarakan
Australia took Tarakan after landing on 1 May 1945, but the airfield it came for opened seven weeks late and 225 Australians died. Was it a wasted effort?
- 1945Battle of the Seelow Heights
Zhukov broke through at the Seelow Heights on 20 April 1945 after four days, with over 35,000 Soviet dead. The searchlight attack, the losses and a map.
- 1945Operation Konrad III
German panzers strike from Lake Balaton and reach the Danube in 27 hours, but the drive to relieve Budapest stalls.
- 1945Ruhr Pocket
Two U.S. armies close at Lippstadt, trap Model's Army Group B and take some 317,000 prisoners, more than at Stalingrad.
Wars and nations
Wars of this era
Each war told in full: its causes, its course and all its battles in the Field Dispatch.
- Invasion of Poland (September Campaign) 1939
- Western Front (World War II) 1939 to 1945
- Mediterranean and Middle East theater (World War II) 1940 to 1945
- North African campaign 1940 to 1943
- Eastern Front (World War II) 1941 to 1945
- Pacific War 1941 to 1945
Nations
Countries and peoples that fought the battles of this era, by number of battles. Each page tells that country's military history across every era.
Guides and lists
- The Greatest Battles of World War II
- The Greatest Battles of the Eastern Front
- The Greatest Battles of the Pacific War
- The Commanders of the Pacific War
- Eisenhower vs Montgomery
- Montgomery vs Rommel
- Patton vs Rommel
- The Dunkirk Evacuation, 1940
- The Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942
- Yugoslavia in World War II
- The Aleutian Islands campaign
- The end of the war in Austria
Film archive
Short clips from the archives, silent, as they were filmed. Every caption follows the archive's own catalog record.
B-17s in formation, seen from a bomber
- Shows
- A view from inside a B-17, past a spinning propeller and engine, with three more B-17s flying in formation against cloud and blue sky. The record covers Eighth Air Force activity built around the bomber Memphis Belle.
- Date
- 1942 to October 1943
- Filmed by
- U.S. Army Air Forces (camera operator not named in the record)
- Archive
- U.S. National Archives, 342-USAF-19510, NAID 65930
- License
- Public domain, work of the U.S. federal government
- Catalog record
- Memphis Belle (outtakes)
Landing craft and a battleship off Iwo Jima, 1945
- Shows
- Lines of amphibious landing craft race through the sea toward the island, then a battleship fires its guns as small craft pass in front. The record describes a documentary of the American invasion of Iwo Jima, with ship bombardment, rocket fire and air bombing.
- Date
- 1945
- Filmed by
- Cameramen of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard (on-screen credit)
- Archive
- U.S. National Archives, 80-MN-5124, NAID 13089
- License
- Public domain, work of the U.S. federal government
- Catalog record
- To the Shores of Iwo Jima
Waves of landing craft head for Iwo Jima, 1945
- Shows
- An aerial view of many waves of landing craft, each trailing a white wake, crossing dark blue water toward the shore of Iwo Jima.
- Date
- 1945
- Filmed by
- Cameramen of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard (on-screen credit)
- Archive
- U.S. National Archives, 80-MN-5124, NAID 13089
- License
- Public domain, work of the U.S. federal government
- Catalog record
- To the Shores of Iwo Jima
Marines on the black sand of Iwo Jima, 1945
- Shows
- Marines crouch in a group against a slope of dark volcanic sand, some climbing over the crest, with smoke and amphibious vehicles behind them.
- Date
- 1945
- Filmed by
- Cameramen of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard (on-screen credit)
- Archive
- U.S. National Archives, 80-MN-5124, NAID 13089
- License
- Public domain, work of the U.S. federal government
- Catalog record
- To the Shores of Iwo Jima
Test yourself
This era in the app
Echoes of Battle tells the battles of this era on the real map, with a quiz, and many of them as story scenes. The app is in closed testing: enlist below and we will send word to your inbox the day it launches.