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Battles and operations of World War II involving India

  • Battle of YenangyaungAt Yenangyaung in April 1942, a Chinese regiment set out to rescue almost 7,000 encircled British soldiers.
  • Battle of GazalaRommel used a decoy attack at Gazala, then swung his tanks south around the British line by night.
  • Operation CrusaderErwin Rommel was not even in Africa when Operation Crusader began. A deception plan had him expecting December.
  • Operation CompassOperation Compass was planned as a five-day raid in the Egyptian desert. It ended with about 133,000 Italian prisoners.
  • Second Battle of El AlameinA thousand guns opened fire at once at El Alamein on October 23, 1942. A 13-day battle had begun.
  • Italian invasion of EgyptItaly's 1940 invasion of Egypt began with a marshal who thought it could not succeed.
  • Spring 1945 offensive in ItalyItalian partisans liberated Milan on the 25th of April 1945, before Allied troops entered.
  • Arakan campaign (1942–1943)A British brigade commander in Burma ordered his own guns to fire on his captured headquarters.
  • Fall of SingaporeIn February 1942, Britain surrendered Singapore with 85,000 soldiers to a Japanese force about a third that size.
  • First Battle of El AlameinThe First Battle of El Alamein was fought at a railway station with no value of its own.
  • Anglo-Soviet invasion of IranIn 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded neutral Iran. The Shah was gone within a month.
  • North African campaignGerman commanders in North Africa read a US attaché's secret reports.
  • Malayan campaignJapanese troops helped win the Malayan campaign by taking bicycles from civilians.
  • Battle of ImphalJapan's general expected to win the Battle of Imphal in three weeks.
  • Battle of KohimaThe Battle of Kohima came down, at one point, to a tennis court. Enemy trenches sat a grenade throw apart in April 1944.
  • Operation U-GoJapan's Operation U-Go was led by a general who once called the terrain impassable.
  • Battle of Hong KongThe Battle of Hong Kong began just as Japan struck Pearl Harbor. The British colony fell within seventeen days.
  • East African campaign (World War II)On the 13th of June 1940, Italian aircraft raided the RAF base at Wajir in Kenya. That raid opened the East African campaign, also known as the Abyssinian campaign. It was fought across Kenya, Sudan, Somaliland, Eritrea and Ethiopia,…

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