Curated playlist
Land battles and operations of World War II involving the United Kingdom
- Operation CrusaderErwin Rommel was not even in Africa when Operation Crusader began. A deception plan had him expecting December.
- Operation CompassOperation Compass was planned as a five-day raid in the Egyptian desert. It ended with about 133,000 Italian prisoners.
- Operation SonnenblumeRommel was sent to Libya only to defend Tripoli, yet he drove the British back to Egypt.
- Siegfried Line campaignAllied armies raced across France so fast in 1944 that they ran out of fuel.
- Fall of SingaporeIn February 1942, Britain surrendered Singapore with 85,000 soldiers to a Japanese force about a third that size.
- Anglo-Soviet invasion of IranIn 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded neutral Iran. The Shah was gone within a month.
- Operation TorchOperation Torch landed Allied troops in 1942 without knowing if French defenders would fight.
- Battle of ImphalJapan's general expected to win the Battle of Imphal in three weeks.
- Battle of KohimaThe Battle of Kohima came down, at one point, to a tennis court. Enemy trenches sat a grenade throw apart in April 1944.
- Operation U-GoJapan's Operation U-Go was led by a general who once called the terrain impassable.
- Battle of MadagascarBritish forces landed on Madagascar on the 5th of May 1942 to stop Japan from getting there first.
- Japanese invasion of BurmaA British general blew up the Sittang Bridge with most of his division still on the enemy side.
- Battle of CreteIn the 1941 Battle of Crete, a wrong guess about two lost companies left Maleme Airfield undefended.