Skip to content
Curated category

Amphibious operations of World War II

  • Invasion of the Kuril IslandsThe decision to invade the Kuril Islands emerged from a sudden shift in Soviet military strategy during August 1945. Planners initially targeted Hokkaido…
  • Soviet invasion of South SakhalinThe Soviet invasion of South Sakhalin kept troops fighting for more than a week after Japan had already surrendered. It struck the southern half of Sakhalin…
  • Allied invasion of SicilyThe Allied invasion of Sicily, known formally as Operation Husky, began on the night of the 9th and the 10th of July 1943 with one of the largest amphibious…
  • Normandy landingsOn the 6th of June 1944, roughly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel in a single day. They came ashore along a 50-mile stretch of French coastline…
  • Dunkirk evacuationThe Dunkirk evacuation began on the 26th of May 1940 with a single, sober target: save 45,000 men within two days, then accept that Germany would close the…
  • Battle of OkinawaThe Battle of Okinawa began on the 1st of April 1945, when American forces launched the largest amphibious assault ever attempted in the Pacific Theater of…
  • Allied invasion of ItalyThe Allied invasion of Italy began at half past three in the morning on the 9th of September 1943. A loudspeaker on the beach at Paestum called out in…
  • Battle of Guam (1941)The Battle of Guam began at 04:44 on the 8th of December 1941, when Captain George McMillin received word of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
  • Philippines campaign (1941–1942)The Philippines campaign of 1941-1942 opened in the pre-dawn hours of the 8th of December 1941, just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japanese…
  • Operation TorchOperation Torch began at dawn on the 8th of November 1942, when Allied forces waded ashore on three separate coastlines across French North Africa at the…
  • Battle of Iwo JimaThe Battle of Iwo Jima began on the 19th of February 1945, when the first wave of Marines landed on the southeastern beaches of a small volcanic island eight…
  • Operation DragoonOperation Dragoon began in the predawn hours of the 15th of August 1944, when 1,300 Allied bombers from Italy, Sardinia, and Corsica roared toward the…
  • Guadalcanal campaignThe Guadalcanal campaign began on the 7th of August 1942 with 11,000 U.S. Marines wading ashore between Koli Point and Lunga Point on a remote jungle island…
  • Battle of AnzioThe Battle of Anzio began on the 22nd of January 1944, when Allied forces waded ashore at a strip of reclaimed marshland on the Italian coast, hoping to…
  • Battle of MadagascarThe Battle of Madagascar began on the 5th of May 1942, when British forces landed on a remote island in the Indian Ocean that most people had never given a…
  • Battle of Wake IslandThe Battle of Wake Island began within hours of Pearl Harbor, on the 8th of December 1941, when 36 Japanese bombers swept in from bases in the Marshall…
  • Dutch East Indies campaignJapan lacked native oil sources and could not produce enough to meet even 10% of its needs. The Dutch East Indies stood as the fourth-largest exporter of oil…
  • Operation WeserübungOperation Weserübung began at 05:15 on the morning of the 9th of April 1940, when German forces struck Denmark and Norway in one of the most daring and…
  • Battle of CreteThe Battle of Crete began at 08:00 on the 20th of May 1941, when dozens of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft disgorged German paratroopers into the skies above Maleme…
  • Operation Sea LionOperation Sea Lion was Nazi Germany's plan to invade the United Kingdom, code-named Unternehmen Seelöwe in German. It was conceived just nine months into the…
  • Battle of Rabaul (1942)The Battle of Rabaul began before dawn on the 23rd of January, 1942, when a South Seas Force of around 5,000 Japanese troops entered Simpson Harbour and…
  • Dieppe RaidThe Dieppe Raid took place on the 19th of August 1942, and within ten hours it was over. More than 6,000 men had crossed the English Channel in the night.