Curated playlist
Battles of World War II involving Italy
- Battle of Alam el HalfaThe Battle of Alam el Halfa lasted just seven days, from the 30th of August to the 5th of September 1942, and yet it settled the fate of the entire Axis campaign in North Africa. Fought south of El Alamein in the Egyptian desert, it was…
- Battle of GazalaThe Battle of Gazala lasted less than four weeks, from the 26th of May to the 21st of June 1942, yet it handed Erwin Rommel the greatest victory of his career. A port city fell in a single day. An entire garrison of 33,000 men was…
- Operation CrusaderOperation Crusader began on the 18th of November 1941, and its target did not even know it was happening. Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel, commanding the Axis forces in North Africa, was away from the front when the British Eighth Army…
- Operation CompassOperation Compass began on the night of the 9th of December 1940 with a force of about 31,000 soldiers, 120 guns, 275 tanks, and sixty armoured cars advancing through the Egyptian desert toward an Italian army more than twice its size.…
- Second Battle of El AlameinAt 21:40 on the 23rd of October 1942, a thousand guns opened fire simultaneously along a 40-mile front in the Egyptian desert near the railway halt of El Alamein. The Second Battle of El Alamein had begun. Over the next 13 days,…
- Italian invasion of EgyptThe Italian invasion of Egypt began on the 13th of September 1940, when an army of tens of thousands crossed from Libya into British-held territory with one prize in mind: the Suez Canal. The operation had a name, Operazione E, and a…
- Spring 1945 offensive in ItalyOperation Grapeshot opened on the 6th of April 1945, when the 15th Allied Army Group unleashed a rolling artillery barrage against German positions along the Senio river in northern Italy. Within 26 days, every Axis soldier in Italy would…
- Italian invasion of British SomalilandThe Italian invasion of British Somaliland lasted just sixteen days, from the 3rd to the 19th of August 1940, yet it produced one of the war's sharpest arguments about what a defeat should cost. When it was over, the Royal Navy had taken…
- Battle of FranceThe Battle of France began on the 10th of May 1940, and within six weeks an empire that had survived the carnage of the First World War had collapsed. France, the largest army on the continent, with more tanks than Germany and a defensive…
- 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 English: "Come on in and give up. We have you covered." The soldiers of the U.S. 36th…
- First Battle of El AlameinOn the 1st of July 1942, at three in the morning, German infantry advanced east across the Egyptian desert toward a railway station so unremarkable it had no strategic value of its own. That station was El Alamein. But 106 kilometres…
- German invasion of GreeceThe German invasion of Greece began in the early hours of the 28th of October 1940, not with German troops but with an Italian ultimatum delivered by Ambassador Emanuele Grazzi to Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas. The ultimatum demanded free…
- Battle of StalingradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a fight that consumed an entire city and changed the course of the Second World War. By the time it ended on the 2nd of February 1943, the German 6th Army had surrendered - the first of Hitler's field armies to…
- Battle of BritainThe Battle of Britain earned its name before a single aircraft took to the skies in its defense. On the 18th of June 1940, Winston Churchill stood before the House of Commons and declared: "What General Weygand called the 'Battle of…
- Invasion of YugoslaviaThe invasion of Yugoslavia began on the 6th of April 1941. German-led Axis forces attacked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in what became known as the April War, or Operation 25. Adolf Hitler ordered it after a Yugoslav coup d'état overthrew a…
- Greco-Italian WarThe Greco-Italian War began on the 28th of October 1940, when Italy's ambassador in Athens, Emanuele Grazzi, delivered an ultimatum to the Greek prime minister in the small hours of the morning. Mussolini demanded free passage for his…
- Operation AchseOperation Achse began at 19:50 on the 8th of September 1943, when an aide to General Jodl broadcast a single coded word to every German command across the Mediterranean theater: "Achse." That word was the signal for German forces to turn…
- Second Battle of KharkovThe Second Battle of Kharkov began at 6:30 in the morning on the 12th of May 1942, with a concentrated hour-long artillery bombardment crashing into German positions east of the Ukrainian city. What followed was one of the most…