Warfare

 After destroying Italy and Germany in the North African Campaign (November 8, 1942-May 13, 1943) of World War II (1939-45), the United States and Great Britain, the leading Allied powers, looked ahead to the invasion of occupied Europe and the lead the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The Allies decided to move next against Italy, hoping an Allied invasion would remove that fascist regime from the war, secure the central Mediterranean and divert German divisions from the northwest coast of France where the Allies planned to attack in the near future. The Allies’ Italian Campaign began with the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. After 38 days of fighting, the U.S. and Great Britain successfully drove German and Italian troops from Sicily and prepared to assault the Italian mainland. The Allies Target Italy Picture courtesy wikipedia.org When the Allies won the North African Campaign on May 13, 1943, a quarter-million German and Italian troops surrendered at Tunisia, on the north coast of Af

 In the final push to defeat the Axis powers of Italy and Germany during World War II (1939-45), the U.S. and Great Britain, the leading Allied powers, planned to attack Italy. Beyond their goal of crushing Italian Axis forces, the Allies wanted to draw German troops away from the main Allied advance through Nazi-occupied northern Europe to Berlin, Germany. The Italian Campaign, from July 10, 1943, to May 2, 1945, was a series of Allied beach landings and land battles from Sicily and southern Italy up to the Italian mainland toward Nazi Germany. The campaign seared into history the names of such places as Anzio, Salerno and Monte Cassino, as Allied armies severed the German-Italian Axis in harsh fighting and threatened the southern flank of Germany. The Allied advance through Italy produced some of the most bitter, costly fighting of the war, much of it in treacherous mountain terrain. The Allies Target Italy: 1943 Picture courtesy pinterest.com In Casablanca, Morocco, in January 1943,

 On June 15, 1944, during the Pacific Campaign of World War II (1939-45), U.S. Marines stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan, with a goal of taking control of a crucial air base from which the U.S. could launch its brand new plane long-range B-29 bombers directly at Japan’s home islands. Facing fierce Japanese resistance, Americans poured from their landing crafts to establish a beachhead, battle Japanese soldiers inland and force the Japanese army to retreat north. Fighting became especially brutal and prolonged around Mount Tapotchau, Saipan’s highest peak, and Marines gave battle sites in the area names such as “Death Valley” and “Purple Heart Ridge.” When the U.S. finally trapped the Japanese in the northern part of the island, Japanese soldiers launched a massive but futile banzai charge. On July 9, the U.S. flag was raised in victory over Saipan. U.S. Commanders Focus on Taking Saipan Picture courtesy history.com In the spring of 1944, U.S

Picture courtesy reditt.com World War II’s  was most infamous siege began a little over two months after the launch of “ Operation Barbarossa ,” Adolf Hitler’s surprise invasion of the Soviet Union. On June 22, 1941, in defiance of a nonaggression pact signed two years earlier, some about 3 million German soldiers streamed across the Soviet frontier and commenced a three-pronged attack. While the center and southern elements struck at Moscow and Ukraine, the Wehrmacht’s Army Group North spread through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and moved on Leningrad, a city of over 3 million situated on the Neva River near the Baltic Sea. Hitler had long thought that Leningrad a key objective in the invasion. It served as the home base of Russia’s Baltic Fleet, and its more than 600 factories made it second only to Moscow in industrial output. While Leningrad’s civilians made a frantic attempt to construct trenches and antitank fortifications in the late summer of 1941, the Soviets’ unprepared Red

 The Battle of Kursk originated in July 1943 around the Soviet city of Kursk in western Russia, as Germany launched a brand new mission Operation Citadel, Hitler’s response to his devastating defeat by the Soviet Red Army at the Battle of Stalingrad. The battle was Germany’s final chance to regain dominance on the Eastern Front during World War II and would be their final blitzkrieg offensive assault. In spite a massive planned assault on Soviet troops using heavy tanks, artillery and a very strong air power, postponements by German dictator Adolf Hitler gave the Soviets enough time to prepare for the onslaught. Ultimately, Germany’s plan to wipe out the Red Army once and for all was itself wiped out, but not before both sides experienced heavy casualties. Germany’s Epic Defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad Picture courtesy  noyabrsk-inform.ru By June 1942, Hitler had advanced into the Soviet Union and hoped to easily take control of the most important city of Soviet Union, the city of S

 The Battle of Okinawa extended from April 1, 1945 till June 22, 1945 the battle of Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II, and one of the bloodiest battle. On April 1, 1945—Easter Sunday—the Navy’s Fifth Fleet with more than 180,000 U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps troops attacked on the Pacific island of Okinawa for a final push towards Japan. The invasion in Okinawa island was part of Operation Iceberg, a complex plan to invade and occupy the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa. Though it resulted in an Allied victory, Japanese fighters, rainy weather and fierce fighting on land, sea and air led to a great death toll on both sides. Okinawa Island Picture courtesy    play.howstuffworks.com By the time American troops landed on Okinawa island, the war on the European front was going to end. Allied and Soviet troops had taken control much of Nazi-occupied Europe and were just weeks away from forcing Germany’s unconditional surrender. In the Pacific theater, however, American fo

The Battle of Iwo Jima was an epic military campaign between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Japanese army in early 1945. Iwo Jima is located 750 miles off the coast of Japan, the island of Iwo Jima had three airfields that could serve as a staging facility for a potential invasion of mainland Japan. American forces attacked the island on February 19, 1945, and the ensuing Battle of Iwo Jima lasted for five weeks. In some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II, it’s believed that all about 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7,000 Marines. But once the fighting was over, the strategic value of Iwo Jima was called into question.    Iwo Jima Before the Battle Picture courtesy reditt.com       According to post war analysis, the Imperial Japanese Navy      had   been so much destroyed in the early World War II clashes in the Pacific that it was already unable to protect the empire’s island holdings, including the Marshall archipelago. In add

Picture courtesy 13abc.com The Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium was Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front. Hitler’s aim was to finish off the Allies in their drive toward Germany. The German troops’ failed to divide Britain, France and America with the Ardennes offensive paved the way to victory for the allies. The battle of bulge started from December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945, the attack was also called the Battle of the Ardennes which took place during rigid weather conditions, with some 30 German divisions attacking battle-fatigued American troops across 85 miles of the densely wooded Ardennes Forest. As the Germans drove into the Ardennes, the US army (allied forces) took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle’s name the battle of bulge. The battle proved to be the costliest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army, which suffered over 100,000 casualties. The formerly serene, wooded region of Ardenn