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Curated playlist

Conflicts in 1941

  • Battle of ShanggaoA Chinese air strike in March 1941 destroyed Japanese food and ammunition supplies at Shanggao.
  • Operation CrusaderErwin Rommel was not even in Africa when Operation Crusader began. A deception plan had him expecting December.
  • New Fourth Army incidentChiang Kai-shek ordered the New Fourth Army disbanded, yet the Communists ended up with a bigger force.
  • Battle of UmanIn just over three weeks in 1941, German forces destroyed two entire Soviet armies near Uman.
  • Operation SonnenblumeRommel was sent to Libya only to defend Tripoli, yet he drove the British back to Egypt.
  • Battle of Changsha (1941)Japan seized Changsha in 1941 and then walked away on purpose. It only wanted to punish the Chinese army there.
  • Continuation WarFinland fought beside Nazi Germany but insisted it was not an ally. Its leaders said "co-belligerent" instead.
  • Battle of Guam (1941)Guam's 1941 defenders had no artillery on land and no airfield. Japan took the island in about two days.
  • Battle of Smolensk (1941)Germany largely won the Battle of Smolensk in 1941 but lost time it needed to reach Moscow.
  • Attack on Pearl HarborJapan's attack fleet left port for Pearl Harbor before the American Hull note even arrived.
  • 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.
  • German invasion of GreeceHitler invaded Greece partly to protect Romanian oil from British bombers.
  • Battle of Białystok–MinskAfter the Western Front collapsed in 1941, the NKVD executed its commander, General Pavlov.
  • First Battle of KharkovThe First Battle of Kharkov was settled within a single week, from the 20th to the 24th of October 1941. Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, the famous Soviet writer, later described what the city had become: "I saw Kharkiv. As if it were Rome…
  • Japanese invasion of ThailandWhen Japanese troops landed in Thailand, its prime minister could not be found.
  • Anglo-Iraqi WarIn May 1941, a British flying school struck first against a besieging Iraqi army.
  • Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)By July 1942, only eleven buildings were undamaged in Sevastopol. The siege lasted 250 days.
  • Syria–Lebanon campaignIn 1941, Australian soldiers fought French troops in the mountains of Lebanon. They fought for Vichy France.
  • Battle of Kiev (1941)The 1941 Battle of Kiev played only a small role for the city itself. It trapped 452,700 Soviet soldiers.
  • Battle of Wake IslandAt Wake Island, a small Marine garrison sank two Japanese warships in December 1941.
  • Dutch East Indies campaignJapan attacked Pearl Harbor to clear the way to Dutch East Indies oil. Japan produced under 10% of its oil needs.
  • German bombing of BelgradeA Yugoslav pilot flew to Graz and handed the Germans Belgrade's air-raid shelter locations.
  • Invasion of YugoslaviaHitler attacked Yugoslavia in April 1941 after a coup toppled a government that had just allied with him.
  • 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…
  • Balkans campaign (World War II)Italy invaded Greece on the 28th of October 1940, and the failure pulled Hitler into the Balkans.
  • Siege of LeningradBesieged Leningrad played a symphony on the day Hitler had picked for a victory banquet. It was aimed at enemy lines.
  • World War II in YugoslaviaYugoslavia's army surrendered in eleven days in April 1941. The war that followed lasted four more years.
  • Battle of Cape MatapanMavis Batey's reading of Italian naval Enigma set up the Battle of Cape Matapan. Nobody had read it before.
  • Battle of CreteIn the 1941 Battle of Crete, a wrong guess about two lost companies left Maleme Airfield undefended.
  • 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,…
  • Greco-Italian WarIn 1940 Italy invaded small Greece, and within weeks the Greeks were advancing.
  • World War IIHistorians still disagree about the day World War II began. Most choose 1 September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
  • 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.
  • Bombing of ChongqingChina's wartime capital, Chongqing, endured 268 air raids over nearly seven years.
  • 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.

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