Warfare

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

 The battle of Stalingard was a harsh battle between Russian forces and those of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers during World War II. The battle is famous as one of the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle in modern warfare during World War 2. The battle extended from August 1942 till February 1943.  More than 2 million troops fought in the battle of Stalingard and nearly two million people were killed or injured in the fighting, including tens thousands of Russian civilians. But however, the battle of Stalingard (one of Russia’s important industrial cities) ultimately turned the tide of World War II in favor of the Allied forces. Prelude to the Battle of Stalingrad Picture courtesy elink.io In the middle of World War II – having captured territory in much of present-day Ukraine and Belarus in the spring on 1942 – Germany’s Wehrmacht forces decided to mount an offensive mission on southern Russia in the summer of that year. Under the leadership of ruthless head of state Joseph Stali

The battle of France is a battle between Germany and the poor countries around. This time I am going to discuss about the battle of France and how Germany destroyed the the Allied forces along it using mobile units. Early tactics Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, leading Winston Churchill to remark, shortly afterwards, 'Thank God for the French Army'. To Churchill at that time, France's army seemed a powerful bulwark against possible Nazi aggression towards other European nations. The defeat of this powerful army in a mere six weeks in 1940 stands as one of the most remarkable military campaigns in history. In 1939, as World War Two loomed, the British and French planned to fight an updated version of what happened in 1914-18 during World War One, but with some essential differences. The French had suffered massive casualties in frontal attacks in 1914. This time they were going to remain on the defensive in western Europe, while mobilising their military force

 Battle of Berlin was a army battle fought between the Allied forces and Nazi  (Germany). This time I am going to discuss how Germany was defeated  by the Allied forces and how much  Germany struggle to recover from the damage.  Nearly a year after the beaches of Normandy were stormed, the Allied push across western Europe was nearly complete. American troops had helped to liberate Paris, win the brutal Battle of the Bulge and press the fight into Nazi Germany through a bitter winter. After the Allies had crossed the last major geographic barrier—the Rhine River—in March 1945, the war in Europe was all but over.     The Third Reich was clamped in a rapidly closing vice with the Allies racing from the west and the Soviet Union charging from the east. Gallows humor seized Berlin as residents joked that the optimists among them were learning English, the pessimists Russian. Cloistered in his concrete bunker deep underneath the gardens of the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler retreated from