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Conflicts in 1941

  • Battle of ShanggaoThe Battle of Shanggao began on the 14th of March 1941, when the Japanese 11th Army drove straight at the headquarters of China's 19th Army Group in Jiangxi…
  • 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…
  • New Fourth Army incidentThe New Fourth Army Incident, known in Chinese as the Wannan Incident, erupted in January 1941 and brought the fragile alliance between China's two great…
  • Battle of UmanThe Battle of Uman began on the 15th of July 1941 and lasted just over three weeks, yet in that time the Wehrmacht encircled and destroyed two entire Soviet…
  • Operation SonnenblumeOperation Sonnenblume, which translates to Operation Sunflower, began in February 1941 with a question no British commander had seriously asked: what if the…
  • Battle of Changsha (1941)On the 2nd of December 1940, the US Congress passed a bill to provide a 100-million-dollar loan to China. This financial support arrived as Japan signed the…
  • Continuation WarThe Continuation War placed Finland in one of the strangest positions of the entire Second World War: a small Nordic democracy fighting alongside Nazi…
  • 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 Smolensk (1941)The Battle of Smolensk began on the 10th of July 1941, roughly 400 kilometers west of Moscow, and what unfolded over the next two months would alter the…
  • Attack on Pearl HarborAt 7:48 in the morning on the 7th of December 1941, the air above Pearl Harbor filled with the sound of 353 Japanese aircraft dropping out of the Hawaiian…
  • Anglo-Soviet invasion of IranThe Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran began before dawn on the 25th of August, 1941, when Royal Air Force aircraft crossed into Iranian airspace and dropped…
  • North African campaignThe North African campaign of World War II began on the 11th of June 1940 and did not end until the 13th of May 1943 - nearly three years of brutal fighting…
  • Malayan campaignThe Malayan campaign began at 04:00 on the 8th of December 1941, when seventeen Japanese bombers struck Singapore in the colony's first ever air raid.
  • 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…
  • Battle of Białystok–MinskThe Battle of Białystok-Minsk began on the 22nd of June 1941, the moment Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union.
  • First Battle of KharkovIn the fall of 1941, Kharkov stood as a vital rail and air link connecting Ukraine to Crimea, the Caucasus, the Dnieper region, and the Donbass.
  • Japanese invasion of ThailandThe Japanese invasion of Thailand started on the 8th of December 1941, less than five hours before Thai forces agreed to a ceasefire.
  • Anglo-Iraqi WarThe Anglo-Iraqi War began in earnest at 05:00 on the 2nd of May 1941, when 33 aircraft lifted off from RAF Habbaniya into the pre-dawn dark.
  • Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)On the 4th of July 1942, the last organized defenses of Sevastopol collapsed after 250 days of siege. When German and Romanian forces finally raised their…
  • Syria–Lebanon campaignThe Syria-Lebanon campaign of 1941 was a war fought between Allied and French forces - but the French on the other side of the line were not fighting for…
  • Battle of Kiev (1941)The Battle of Kiev produced what historians have called the largest encirclement in the history of warfare by number of troops.
  • 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…
  • Dutch East Indies campaignJapan lacked native oil sources and could not produce enough to meet even 10% of its needs. The Dutch East Indies stood as the fourth-largest exporter of oil…
  • German bombing of BelgradeOn the 6th of April 1941, the skies above Belgrade turned dark. Not from clouds, but from the engines of hundreds of German aircraft converging on the…
  • 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…
  • Siege of TobrukThe Western Desert Campaign stretched from Mersa Matruh in Egypt to Gazala on the Libyan coast, covering a distance of about 480 kilometers along the Via…
  • Balkans campaign (World War II)On the 28th of October 1940, Italian troops crossed into Greece, setting off a chain of events that would consume the entire Balkan peninsula within seven…
  • Siege of LeningradThe Siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days. From September 1941 to January 1944, the Soviet Union's second largest city was encircled by German and Finnish…
  • World War II in YugoslaviaWorld War II in Yugoslavia was not one war but several, all happening at the same time. On the 6th of April 1941, the German Luftwaffe bombed Belgrade, and…
  • Battle of Cape MatapanThe Battle of Cape Matapan began with a cryptic message intercepted at Bletchley Park: "Today's the day minus three." A cryptanalyst named Mavis Batey had…
  • Battle of CreteThe Battle of Crete began at 08:00 on the 20th of May 1941, when dozens of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft disgorged German paratroopers into the skies above Maleme…
  • Crimean campaignThe Crimean campaign began on the 26th of September 1941, when German and Romanian forces swept onto the Crimean Peninsula as part of Operation Barbarossa.
  • East African campaign (World War II)On the 9th of May 1936, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaimed the formation of Italian East Africa from Ethiopia after the Second Italo-Abyssinian…
  • 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…
  • World War IIWorld War II killed between 60 and 75 million people, making it the deadliest conflict in history. Tanks and aircraft reshaped the battlefield, and aircraft…
  • Siege of Malta (World War II)The Siege of Malta was a military campaign that ran from June 1940 to November 1942, pitting the air and naval forces of Italy and Nazi Germany against the…
  • Bombing of ChongqingThe Bombing of Chongqing began on the 18th of February 1938 and did not end until the 19th of December 1944. For nearly seven years, the wartime capital of…
  • Winter campaign of 1941–1942The winter campaign of 1941-1942 began on the 5th of December 1941, and the Soviet Union was fighting for its life. Nazi Germany had launched Operation…