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Conflicts in 1942

  • Battle of Alam el HalfaThe Battle of Alam el Halfa lasted just seven days, from the 30th of August to the 5th of September 1942, and yet it settled the fate of the entire Axis…
  • 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 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…
  • 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 AlameinAt 21:40 on the 23rd of October 1942, a thousand guns opened fire simultaneously along a 40-mile front in the Egyptian desert near the railway halt of El…
  • 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…
  • Fall of SingaporeOn the afternoon of the 15th of February 1942, British Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival walked toward the Ford Motor Factory in Singapore bearing a white…
  • First Battle of El AlameinOn the 1st of July 1942, at three in the morning, German infantry advanced east across the Egyptian desert toward a railway station so unremarkable it had no…
  • 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…
  • 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…
  • 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 Indian Ocean raid, known to the Japanese as Operation C, lasted just eleven days in April 1942, yet it shook the foundations of British imperial power in…
  • 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.
  • Operation PedestalOperation Pedestal began with sealed envelopes, handed to the masters of fourteen merchant ships and marked 'Not to be opened until 08:00 hours August 10.'…
  • Operation UranusOperation Uranus began at 07:20 Moscow time on the 19th of November 1942, when Soviet artillery commanders received a single codeword: "Siren".
  • 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…
  • Case BlueCase Blue, known in German as Fall Blau, was the Wehrmacht's grand plan for the summer of 1942 on the Eastern Front. It ran from the 28th of June to the 24th…
  • 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 4th of July 1942, the last organized defenses of Sevastopol collapsed after 250 days of siege. When German and Romanian forces finally raised their…
  • 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 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 MadagascarThe Battle of Madagascar began on the 5th of May 1942, when British forces landed on a remote island in the Indian Ocean that most people had never given a…
  • 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 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.
  • 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 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 Crimean campaign began on the 26th of September 1941, when German and Romanian forces swept onto the Crimean Peninsula as part of Operation Barbarossa.
  • Second Battle of KharkovThe Second Battle of Kharkov began at 6:30 in the morning on the 12th of May 1942, with a concentrated hour-long artillery bombardment crashing into German…
  • 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…
  • Battle of Rabaul (1942)The Battle of Rabaul began before dawn on the 23rd of January, 1942, when a South Seas Force of around 5,000 Japanese troops entered Simpson Harbour and…
  • 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…
  • 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.
  • 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…