Curated category
Conflicts in 1942
- Battle of Alam el HalfaThe Axis supply position was precarious because the main supply ports of Benghazi and Tobruk were 1,000 miles and 650 miles from the front respectively.
- Battle of YenangyaungThe Japanese 55th Division invaded Burma on the 22nd of December 1941. This aggressive move set the stage for a desperate struggle over oil resources in…
- Battle of GazalaIn January 1942, the Axis forces in Libya received a steady stream of supplies and reinforcements that continued until May.
- Operation MoThe Japanese Navy General Staff first considered Operation Mo in 1938. This early planning phase focused on consolidating control over Southern Seas areas…
- Second Battle of El AlameinOn the 23rd of October 1942, a calm and clear evening under the bright sky of a full moon marked the start of a thirteen-day battle near the Egyptian railway…
- Continuation WarOn the 13th of March 1940, the Moscow Peace Treaty ended a ten-week conflict that left Finland with significant territorial losses.
- Fall of SingaporeIn the interwar years, Britain established a naval base in Singapore after the Anglo-Japanese alliance lapsed in 1923. This base formed a key part of British…
- First Battle of El AlameinIn June 1942, the British Eighth Army collapsed after their defeat at the Battle of Gazala in Eastern Libya. Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie ordered a…
- North African campaignOn the 11th of June 1940, British forces launched raids against Italian positions in Libya. This action followed Italy's declaration of war on France and the…
- Operation TorchThe United States entered the Second World War in December 1941. British and American leaders met at the Arcadia Conference in Washington D.C.
- Doolittle RaidThe Doolittle Raid on the 18th of April 1942 sent 16 Army bombers off the deck of a Navy aircraft carrier to strike the Japanese capital of Tokyo and other…
- Indian Ocean raidThe island of Ceylon commanded the Indian Ocean in early 1942. It controlled access to India and vital Allied shipping routes to the Middle East.
- Malayan campaignIn 1941, the Japanese military found itself trapped by its own expansion. Four years of fighting in China had drained resources, and oil imports from the…
- Operation PedestalBy late July 1942, the island of Malta faced a desperate shortage of fuel. Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park warned that only a few weeks of aviation fuel remained…
- Operation UranusOn the 28th of June 1942, the Wehrmacht began its offensive against Soviet forces opposite of Army Group South. This campaign, codenamed Case Blue, aimed to…
- Battle of Buna–GonaJapan's entry into World War II began with the attack on Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941. This coordinated assault included simultaneous strikes on…
- Case BlueAdolf Hitler stared at a map of the Caucasus in early 1942 and saw only one path to victory. The German war machine was choking on fuel shortages that…
- Operation MarsSoviet forces launched Operation Mars in the early hours of the 25th of November 1942. The goal was to encircle and destroy the German Ninth Army within the…
- Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)On the 22nd of June 1941, the Axis powers invaded the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. Their land forces reached the Crimean peninsula in the autumn…
- Guadalcanal campaignOn the 7th of December 1941, Japanese forces attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack killed almost 2,500 people and…
- Battle of Changsha (1941–1942)The Third Battle of Changsha began on the 24th of December 1941, just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This timing was no accident for Imperial…
- Battle of MadagascarDiego-Suarez is a large bay with a fine harbour near the northern tip of Madagascar. It has an opening to the east through a narrow channel called Oronjia…
- Battle of the Coral SeaOn the 4th of May 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy began Operation MO with a clear goal: seize Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
- 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…
- Kokoda Track campaignIn early 1942, the Australian government and many citizens feared a Japanese invasion of their mainland. The entire 8th Division had been lost or rendered…
- Siege of LeningradAdolf Hitler declared that Leningrad must die of starvation in a speech at Munich on the 8th of November 1941. The German High Command viewed the capture of…
- 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 the Kerch PeninsulaOn the evening of the 25th of December 1941, Soviet forces packed into small fishing trawlers and began crossing the Kerch Strait from the Taman Peninsula.
- Crimean campaignThe German 11th Army and the Romanian Third Army began their assault on the 26th of September 1941. This offensive marked the start of a brutal campaign…
- Second Battle of KharkovOn the 7th of November 1941, Joseph Stalin declared that German forces would collapse by spring or summer. This speech set a dangerous tone for Soviet…
- Siege of Malta (World War II)In June 1940, the British Crown Colony of Malta held a population of around 250,000 people. Most lived within two miles of Grand Harbour, where density…
- Battle of Rabaul (1942)Rabaul lies on the eastern end of New Britain, an Australian Territory in 1942. The town served as capital for the region since Germany lost control there in…
- Bombing of ChongqingThe first Japanese air raid on Chongqing struck the city on the 18th of February 1938, marking the start of a campaign that would last until December 1944.
- Dieppe RaidOn the 19th of August 1942, the Allied amphibious attack on Dieppe began as a desperate gamble to satisfy Soviet demands for a second front.
- Winter campaign of 1941–1942Soviet military command declared the period from the 5th of December 1941 to the 7th of May 1942 as a specific winter campaign.