Curated playlist
Campaigns of World War II
- 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…
- Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaignOn Betio, a tiny coral island, Japan built over 100 machine gun nests and 500 pillboxes.
- Borneo campaignAustralian soldiers paddled handmade folboats toward Tarakan island on the 1st of May 1945.
- Philippines campaign (1941–1942)Japanese bombers caught nearly every American heavy bomber in the Philippines parked on the ground.
- North African campaignGerman commanders in North Africa read a US attaché's secret reports.
- Aleutian Islands campaignThe Aleutian Islands campaign was the only World War II battle fought on North American soil.
- Second Sino-Japanese WarJapan called the Second Sino-Japanese War an incident to dodge American embargoes.
- Burma campaignAllied troops reached Rangoon in 1945 just hours before the monsoon closed the roads.
- Guadalcanal campaignTwo Japanese battleships fired 973 shells at Henderson Field, yet planes flew from it the next day.
- Dutch East Indies campaignJapan attacked Pearl Harbor to clear the way to Dutch East Indies oil. Japan produced under 10% of its oil needs.
- Operation BagrationOperation Bagration began exactly three years after Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
- Crimean campaignThe German siege of Sevastopol in Crimea lasted 250 days before the city surrendered.
- 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,…
- Winter campaign of 1941–1942Soviet troops retook Tikhvin, Klin and Rostov in 1941 but failed to trap German units. The Germans pulled back in order.