The
Battle of Leyte Gulf was a
naval battle of the
Pacific campaign of
World War II, fought in the seas around the island of
Leyte in the
Philippines from
October 23 to
October 26,
1944. The Japanese intended to repel or destroy the Allied invasion of Leyte. Instead, the Allied navies inflicted a major defeat on the outnumbered
Imperial Japanese Navy which finished it as a strategic force in the
Pacific War. The battle is often considered to be the
largest naval battle in history. Leyte Gulf was also the scene of the first use of
kamikaze aircraft by the Japanese. The
Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Australia was hit on
21 October, and organized suicide attacks by the "Special Attack Force" began on
25 October.
The
Battle of Normandy in
1944,
codenamed Operation Overlord, was the
invasion of
Nazi-
occupied Western Europe by the
Allies. The Normandy invasion began with overnight
paratrooper and
glider landings, massive air and naval bombardments, and an early-morning
amphibious assault. It continued over more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied
beachheads. It concluded with the surrender of
Paris and the fall of the
Chambois pocket. Normandy is, to this day, one of the best-known battles of
World War II. In common language, the expression
"D-Day" is still used to refer to
June 6, the starting date of the invasion and the opening day of the battle.
The
Polish September Campaign was the conquest of
Poland by the armies of
Nazi Germany, the
Soviet Union, and a small contingent of
Slovakian forces during the
Second World War. The campaign began on
1 September 1939 following a
German-staged attack. This
military operation, which saw the first use of
Blitzkrieg tactics, marked the start of the
Second World War in Europe as the invasion led Poland's allies, the
United Kingdom and
France, to
declare war on Germany on
September 3. On
September 17,
1939, the
Soviet Red Army invaded the
eastern regions of Poland. The Soviets were acting in co-operation with
Nazi Germany, carrying out their part of the secret appendix of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (the division of Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence). The campaign ended on
6 October 1939, with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying the entirety of Poland.
The
Battle of the Bulge was the last major
German offensive on the
Western Front in
World War II. It was intended that the German army would split the
Allied line in half, capture
Antwerp, sweep north and encircle and destroy four Allied armies, thus forcing them to negotiate for peace. Although unsuccessful, it nevertheless tied down huge amounts of Allied resources, and a slow response to the resulting gap in their lines erased months from their timetable. An alternative analysis is that the offensive allowed the Allies to severely deplete the cream of German army outside the defenses of the
West Wall and in poor supply state, greatly easing the assault on Germany afterward. In numerical terms, it is the largest battle the
United States Army has ever fought
Richard O'Connor was a
British Army general who commanded the
Western Desert Force (WDF) in the early years of
World War II. O'Connor was the field commander for
Operation Compass, in which he and the WDF completely destroyed a much larger
Italian army. This victory nearly drove the
Axis from
Africa entirely, and led
Adolf Hitler to send the
Deutsches Afrikakorps under
Erwin Rommel, to try and reverse the situation. O'Connor was later captured and spent over two years in an Italian
prisoner of war camp for senior officers. He made a number of escape attempts with General
Sir Philip Neame and
Lieutenant General Sir
Adrian Carton De Wiart, and was eventually successful. O'Connor commanded
VIII Corps in
Normandy in
1944 and later during
Operation Market Garden. In
1945 he was general officer in command, Eastern Command in
India, and then headed the North West Army in the closing days of
British rule in the subcontinent. He held the highest level of
knighthood in four different
orders of chivalry.
The German
S-mine (
Schrapnellmine) is the best-known version of a class of mines known as
bounding mines, which when triggered launch into the air to about waist height and then explode, propelling
shrapnel horizontally at lethal speeds. The S-mine was an
anti-personnel landmine developed by
Nazi Germany in the
1930s and used extensively by German forces during
World War II. It was designed to be used in open areas and to attack unshielded
infantry. Two versions were produced, designated by the year of their first production: the SMi-35 and SMi-44. There are only minor differences between the two models (TM-E 30-451, 1945). The S-mine entered production in
1935 and served as a key part of the defensive strategy of the
Third Reich. Until production ceased with the defeat of Germany in
1945, Germany produced over 1.93 million S-mines. These mines were responsible for inflicting heavy casualties and slowing, or even repelling, drives into German-held territory throughout the war. The design was lethal, successful and much imitated, and remains one of the definitive weapons of World War II.
On the morning of
December 7,
1941, the
Imperial Japanese Navy launched the
Attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a surprise assault on the
United States Navy base and Army air fields at
Oahu,
Hawaii Territory. The
Japanese planes bombed all the U.S. military air bases on the island and the ships anchored at Pearl, including "Battleship Row". The next day, the
U.S. Congress declared war on Japan with only
Jeannette Rankin dissenting.
Operation Downfall was the overall
Allied plan for the invasion of
Japan at the end of
World War II, but was ultimately never used. It was scheduled to occur in two parts — Operation Olympic, the invasion of
Kyushu, set to begin in November, 1945; and later Operation Coronet, the invasion of
Honshū near
Tokyo, scheduled for the spring of 1946. Kyushu was to be invaded at three points — Miyazaki beach, Ariake beach, and Kushikino beach. Southern Kyushu would become a staging ground for operation Coronet, and would give the Allies a valuable airbase from which to operate. Following the
atomic bombing of
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, and the
Soviet declaration of war against Japan, the Japanese surrendered and the operation was cancelled.
Karl Dönitz was a
naval leader in
Nazi Germany during
World War II. Despite never joining the
Nazi Party, Dönitz attained the high rank of
Grand Admiral and served as Commander in Chief of Submarines, and later Commander in Chief of the
German War Navy. Under his command, the
U-boat fleet fought the
Battle of the Atlantic, attempting to starve the
United Kingdom of vital supply shipments. He also briefly served as
President of Germany following the death of
Adolf Hitler. Following the war, Dönitz went on trial as a war criminal in the
Nuremberg Trials, charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace and planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression. Dönitz produced an affidavit from
Admiral Chester Nimitz who testified that the United States had used unrestricted warfare as a tactic in the
Pacific and that American submarines did not rescue survivors in situations where their own safety was in question. Ultimately, the tribunal found Dönitz guilty of both charges. He served ten years in
Spandau Prison,
West Berlin. Later, numerous Allied officers sent letters to Dönitz expressing their dismay over the verdict of his trial.
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is an iconic photograph taken on
February 23,
1945 by
Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five
United States Marines and a
U.S. Navy corpsman raising the
Flag of the United States atop
Mount Suribachi during the
Battle of Iwo Jima in
World War II. The photograph was instantly popular, being reprinted in hundreds of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the
Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images in history, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time. Of the six men depicted in the picture, three (
Franklin Sousley,
Harlon Block, and
Michael Strank) did not survive the battle; the three survivors (
John Bradley,
Rene Gagnon, and
Ira Hayes) became suddenly famous. The photograph was later used by
Felix de Weldon to sculpt the
USMC War Memorial, located just outside
Washington, D.C..
