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Amphibious operations of World War II

  • Invasion of the Kuril IslandsThe Invasion of the Kuril Islands was a Soviet military operation against Japan in the last days of the Second World War. It never turned on one great battle. It moved instead from island to island across a long chain, over a span of about…
  • Soviet invasion of South SakhalinSoviet troops kept fighting on Sakhalin for over a week after Japan surrendered.
  • Allied invasion of SicilyA corpse helped Allied forces invade Sicily in 1943. Fake papers on it pointed German forces toward Greece.
  • Normandy landingsThe D-Day invasion hinged on a weather forecast from Ireland's west coast.
  • Dunkirk evacuationThe Dunkirk evacuation aimed to save 45,000 men, but more than 338,000 got home.
  • Battle of OkinawaJapan's army sent 1,780 schoolboys aged 14 to 17 to the front at Okinawa. About half were killed outright.
  • Allied invasion of ItalyA loudspeaker on an Italian beach told landing American soldiers to give up. They landed anyway.
  • Battle of Guam (1941)Guam's 1941 defenders had no artillery on land and no airfield. Japan took the island in about two days.
  • Philippines campaign (1941–1942)Japanese bombers caught nearly every American heavy bomber in the Philippines parked on the ground.
  • Operation TorchOperation Torch landed Allied troops in 1942 without knowing if French defenders would fight.
  • Battle of Iwo JimaPlanners expected Iwo Jima to fall in a week, but it took five weeks. Japanese defenders had dug deep tunnels.
  • Operation DragoonOn August 15, 1944, 1,300 Allied bombers hit Provence to open the invasion of southern France.
  • Guadalcanal campaignTwo Japanese battleships fired 973 shells at Henderson Field, yet planes flew from it the next day.
  • Battle of AnzioThe Anzio landings in January 1944 caught the Germans by surprise, yet Rome did not fall for four and a half months.
  • Battle of MadagascarBritish forces landed on Madagascar on the 5th of May 1942 to stop Japan from getting there first.
  • Battle of Wake IslandAt Wake Island, a small Marine garrison sank two Japanese warships in December 1941.
  • Dutch East Indies campaignJapan attacked Pearl Harbor to clear the way to Dutch East Indies oil. Japan produced under 10% of its oil needs.
  • Operation WeserübungTwo 48-year-old guns sank a German cruiser in Norway's Oslofjord. It bought Norway's king time to flee.
  • Battle of CreteIn the 1941 Battle of Crete, a wrong guess about two lost companies left Maleme Airfield undefended.
  • Operation Sea LionGerman engineers made some tanks float and others walk underwater for Operation Sea Lion.
  • Battle of Rabaul (1942)Before dawn on January 23, 1942, about 5,000 Japanese troops landed at Rabaul. Roughly 1,400 Australians held it.
  • Dieppe RaidThe Dieppe Raid was over within ten hours of the landing. Of 6,086 men who landed, 3,623 were dead, wounded or captured.

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