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Curated playlist

Battles of World War II involving Australia

  • Western New Guinea campaignThe Western New Guinea campaign brought soldiers from three different armies onto the same stretch of tropical coastline in 1944 and 1945. Forces of the Dutch East Indies army, known as the KNIL, fought alongside American and Australian…
  • 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.
  • Operation SonnenblumeRommel was sent to Libya only to defend Tripoli, yet he drove the British back to Egypt.
  • Italian invasion of British SomalilandChurchill's fury over losing British Somaliland helped end General Wavell's career.
  • Battle of OkinawaJapan's army sent 1,780 schoolboys aged 14 to 17 to the front at Okinawa. About half were killed outright.
  • 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.
  • Malayan campaignJapanese troops helped win the Malayan campaign by taking bicycles from civilians.
  • German invasion of GreeceHitler invaded Greece partly to protect Romanian oil from British bombers.
  • Battle of Buna–GonaThe Battle of Buna–Gona ended with evidence that starving Japanese defenders had eaten their own dead.
  • Invasion of Lingayen GulfKamikaze attacks at Lingayen Gulf on January 6, 1945 hit at a rate approaching 50 percent.
  • Guadalcanal campaignTwo Japanese battleships fired 973 shells at Henderson Field, yet planes flew from it the next day.
  • Siege of TobrukThe siege of Tobruk lasted 231 days in 1941, and the garrison that endured it became known as the Rats of Tobruk. Most of the defenders belonged to the 9th Australian Division, commanded by Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead. They were…
  • Kokoda Track campaignAt one point in 1942, Japanese forces stood within 32 km of Port Moresby on the Kokoda Track.
  • Battle of CreteIn the 1941 Battle of Crete, a wrong guess about two lost companies left Maleme Airfield undefended.
  • Operation CartwheelAllied forces made Japan's Rabaul base harmless without ever storming it. Operation Cartwheel bypassed it instead.
  • Siege of Malta (World War II)Malta began World War II with six obsolete biplane fighters. It still survived more than two years of siege.
  • Battle of Rabaul (1942)Before dawn on January 23, 1942, about 5,000 Japanese troops landed at Rabaul. Roughly 1,400 Australians held it.

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