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Battles of World War II involving the United States

  • Battle of Northern Burma and Western YunnanIn the spring of 1942, Japanese forces captured Burma and immediately prepared to attack west Yunnan. They aimed to fight along the Burma Road, conquer…
  • Western New Guinea campaignThe Allied command set a clear goal for early 1944. They needed to bypass heavily fortified Japanese positions in the Pacific theater.
  • 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…
  • Siege of MyitkyinaThe siege of Myitkyina began with a boast. General Joseph Stilwell predicted the coming battle for this town in Burma would be a feat which will live in…
  • 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…
  • Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaignThe Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign was a series of engagements fought from August 1942 to February 1944, in the Pacific theatre of World War II…
  • Battle of Nuremberg (1945)The Battle of Nuremberg lasted five days in April 1945, and it cost the United States four of those days just to capture a city center that was already…
  • Operation QueenOperation Queen began on the 16th of November 1944 with one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombing raids of the entire war.
  • Mariana and Palau Islands campaignThe Mariana and Palau Islands campaign was one of the most consequential offensives the United States launched in the Pacific during World War II, and its…
  • Omaha BeachOmaha Beach was one of five Allied beach landing sectors during the amphibious assault component of Operation Overlord on the 6th of June 1944.
  • 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…
  • 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…
  • Operation Market GardenOperation Market Garden launched on the 17th of September 1944, and for two days it looked like it might actually work. Around 35,000 to 40,000 airborne…
  • Ruhr pocketThe Ruhr pocket ended with a field marshal shooting himself in a forest rather than face Allied captivity. In April 1945, some 317,000 German soldiers were…
  • Siegfried Line campaignThe Siegfried Line campaign, a phase of the Western European war, began in the shadow of one of history's most dramatic reversals.
  • 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.
  • Battle of LuzonThe Battle of Luzon was the largest land battle of the Pacific Theater in World War II, pitting Allied forces from the United States, the Philippines…
  • Borneo campaignOn the 1st of May 1945, Australian soldiers paddled toward a small island off the north-east coast of Borneo in handmade folboats, slipping past…
  • 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…
  • Philippines campaign (1944–1945)On the 13th of April 1945, a team of American soldiers rowed out to Fort Drum, a concrete fortress squatting in Manila Bay.
  • Battle of the BulgeThe Battle of the Bulge began at 05:30 on the 16th of December 1944, when 1,600 German artillery pieces opened fire along an 80-mile front in the forested…
  • 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 LeyteThe Battle of Leyte began not with a single shot but with a promise. General Douglas MacArthur had vowed to return to the Philippines after President…
  • Battle of Mount SongThe Battle of Mount Song in 1944 decided whether a vital supply road connecting Burma to China would reopen. The mountain sat immediately behind the Salween…
  • Falaise pocketOn the 25th of July 1944, American forces launched Operation Cobra near Saint-Lô. This offensive shattered German defenses and pushed troops south into open…
  • Operation PlunderOperation Plunder sent three Allied armies across the Rhine on the night of the 23rd of March 1945. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery commanded the 21st Army…
  • 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…
  • Aleutian Islands campaignThe Aleutian Islands campaign holds a distinction that no other battle in World War II can claim: it was fought on North American soil.
  • Battle of Manila (1945)The Battle of Manila began on the 3rd of February 1945, and within a month it had killed at least 100,000 civilians and reduced one of Asia's most celebrated…
  • Battle of MindanaoThe Battle of Mindanao was fought on the second largest island in the Philippines, and it presented the Allied forces with their greatest challenge in the…
  • Battle of West HunanThe Battle of West Hunan began on the 6th of April 1945, just weeks before Germany's surrender in Europe, but on the other side of the world the Second…
  • 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…
  • Operation Northwind (1944)Adolf Hitler spoke to division commanders at his Adlerhorst command complex on the 28th of December 1944. He declared that this attack had a very clear…
  • Battle of MidwayOn the morning of the 4th of June 1942, the Japanese carrier force known as the Kido Butai launched 108 aircraft toward a tiny atoll 1,300 miles northwest of…
  • Western Allied invasion of GermanyThe Western Allied invasion of Germany reached its decisive turning point on the 22nd of March 1945, when American troops crossed the Rhine under a bright…
  • Battle of Buna–GonaThe Battle of Buna-Gona lasted from the 16th of November 1942 to the 22nd of January 1943. It ended with evidence that starving Japanese defenders had…
  • Invasion of Lingayen GulfThe Invasion of Lingayen Gulf began on the 3rd of January 1945, and what followed over the next ten days would claim the lives of around 738 ship-based…
  • 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 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…
  • Liberation of ParisOn the night of the 24th of August 1944, a half-track named "Ebro" rolled into the square in front of the Hôtel de Ville and opened fire on a group of German…
  • Kokoda Track campaignThe Kokoda Track campaign was fought between July and November 1942 in the Australian Territory of Papua, and it nearly cost Australia the war in the Pacific.
  • Operation KeOperation Ke was the largely successful withdrawal of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal, concluding a six-month struggle that had defined the Pacific War's…
  • Operation CartwheelIn February 1942, Japanese forces captured Rabaul on the island of New Britain from Australian troops. This location became a major forward base for Japanese…
  • 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.