Major battles of World War II — interactive maps

Germany attacked Poland on three axes on 1 September 1939, with air attacks on airfields, railways and cities from the first morning. The Soviet Union invaded from the east on 17 September under the secret protocol of the pact signed in August. Warsaw capitulated on 28 September after a two-week siege and bombardment, and the last regular Polish formation surrendered at Kock on 6 October.

Why it mattered

The campaign is remembered as the model of Blitzkrieg, a term applied afterwards rather than by the planners. What it actually demonstrated was the effect of concentrated air power against a mobilising army, an opponent with no defensible frontier and no prospect of relief, and — decisively — a second invasion from behind.

Losses

Polish military dead are usually estimated near 66,000, with some 400,000 taken prisoner by Germany and a further 200,000 or more by the Soviet Union. German dead are put near 16,000.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — World War II key dates ↗ · Zaloga, S. J. (2002), Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg. Osprey · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 1 September 1939 ↗

The German attack of 10 May 1940 drew the Allied mobile reserve north into Belgium and the Netherlands, then broke through the Ardennes and crossed the Meuse at Sedan on 13–15 May. Armoured columns reached the Channel near Abbeville on 20 May, cutting the Allied armies in two. Italy declared war on 10 June, Paris was entered on 14 June, and France signed an armistice on 22 June.

Why it mattered

Six weeks reversed the strategic verdict of the First World War. Frieser’s study of the campaign argues it was not the inevitable product of a new doctrine but a high-risk operation improvised against orthodox planning, one that came close to failing at the Meuse — which matters, because the myth of German invincibility that followed shaped Allied decisions for years.

Losses

German dead are put between 27,000 and 49,000 depending on the accounting. French military dead are usually estimated near 60,000, with about 1.8 million French soldiers taken prisoner.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Frieser, K.-H. (2005), The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West. Naval Institute Press · National Army Museum — Defeat in the West ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 10 May 1940 ↗

With the Allied armies in the north cut off, Operation Dynamo lifted troops from the harbour and beaches of Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940, using destroyers, ferries, trawlers and several hundred small craft. A German halt order on 24 May, the flooded terrain and a stubborn perimeter defence bought the time the evacuation needed.

Why it mattered

The British Expeditionary Force was extracted as a body of trained men, without almost any of its equipment. That distinction is the whole significance: Britain lost the campaign and kept the army, and the war continued because of it.

Losses

338,226 Allied troops were evacuated, about 198,000 of them British and 140,000 French and Belgian. Some 68,000 British personnel were killed, wounded or captured in the campaign, and the BEF’s vehicles, guns and stores were left behind.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

National Army Museum — Defeat in the West ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press · Beevor, A. (2012), The Second World War. Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 26 May 1940 ↗

From July 1940 the Luftwaffe attacked Channel shipping, then Fighter Command’s airfields and radar stations, and from 7 September switched to London and other cities. Radar, the Dowding control system and the short range of German fighters over England combined to make the attrition unsustainable for the attacker.

Why it mattered

Air superiority over the Channel was the precondition for any invasion of Britain, and it was not achieved. Operation Sea Lion was postponed indefinitely on 17 September 1940. It is also the first campaign in history decided primarily in the air.

Losses

British official figures give Fighter Command about 1,023 aircraft lost and the Luftwaffe about 1,887, with some 544 Fighter Command aircrew killed. Both sides overclaimed heavily at the time, which is why contemporary accounts differ so widely.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

National Army Museum — Second World War ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press · Clodfelter, M. (2017), Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia, 4th ed. McFarland

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 10 July 1940 ↗

Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 with three army groups on a front of roughly 2,900 kilometres. Encirclements at Minsk, Smolensk and Kyiv destroyed successive Soviet armies, and Operation Typhoon carried the advance to within some twenty to thirty kilometres of Moscow by early December.

Why it mattered

The campaign achieved almost every operational objective it set and failed strategically anyway. The Soviet Union kept raising armies; the front widened as it advanced; and the assumption that the Red Army could be destroyed west of the Dnieper turned out to be the entire plan’s single point of failure.

Losses

German records claimed roughly 3.3 million Soviet prisoners in 1941, the majority of whom died in captivity. German casualties by early December are usually put near 800,000, including some 200,000 dead.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Glantz, D. M. & House, J. M. (1995), When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. University Press of Kansas · Australian War Memorial — The Nazi-Soviet war ↗ · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — World War II key dates ↗

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 22 June 1941 ↗

The Soviet counter-offensive began on 5–6 December 1941 with reserves brought from the interior and the Far East, against a German front that had outrun its supply and had no winter equipment. Over five weeks it drove the line back between 100 and 250 kilometres.

Why it mattered

The first strategic defeat of the German army. It ended any possibility of winning the war in the east in one campaign, and it settled the question of whether the Soviet state would collapse under the first shock.

Losses

Soviet losses in the Moscow defensive and offensive operations together ran to well over a million casualties. German losses in the winter fighting were the heaviest they had yet suffered.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Glantz, D. M. & House, J. M. (1995), When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. University Press of Kansas · Krivosheev, G. F. (1997), Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Greenhill Books

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 6 December 1941 ↗

Two waves of about 350 aircraft from six Japanese carriers attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at its moorings on Sunday 7 December 1941, along with the airfields on Oahu. Simultaneous attacks opened against Malaya, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Guam.

Why it mattered

Tactically a success and strategically a miscalculation. The American carriers were at sea and untouched; the fuel storage, submarine base and repair yards were not attacked; and all but two of the battleships sunk or damaged were eventually returned to service. What the attack did achieve was to unify American opinion behind a war.

Losses

2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 wounded. Four battleships were sunk and the rest of those present damaged; about 188 American aircraft were destroyed. Japan lost 29 aircraft and five midget submarines.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Naval History and Heritage Command — Pearl Harbor ↗ · Prange, G. W., Goldstein, D. M. & Dillon, K. V. (1981), At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. McGraw-Hill · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 7 December 1941 ↗

American codebreakers established that Midway was the target of the next Japanese operation, allowing three carriers to be placed northeast of the atoll in ambush. On 4 June 1942 dive bombers caught three Japanese carriers while they were rearming; the fourth was found and sunk that afternoon.

Why it mattered

Japan lost four fleet carriers and a large part of its trained naval aircrew in a single day, and with them the initiative in the Pacific. Parshall and Tully’s reconstruction from Japanese records corrected much of the traditional account, including the story that the carriers were minutes from launching a decisive strike.

Losses

Japan lost the carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu and the heavy cruiser Mikuma, with about 3,000 men killed. The United States lost the carrier Yorktown and the destroyer Hammann, with about 300 killed.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Naval History and Heritage Command — Battle of Midway ↗ · Parshall, J. & Tully, A. (2005), Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. Potomac Books

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 4 June 1942 ↗

American landings on 7 August 1942 seized an airfield under construction on Guadalcanal, and the six-month campaign that followed was fought for the ability to use it. Seven major naval actions were fought in the surrounding waters, and both sides reinforced by night convoy. Japan evacuated its remaining troops in early February 1943.

Why it mattered

The first Allied ground offensive of the Pacific war, and the point at which Japanese expansion was not merely halted but reversed. It also established the pattern of the rest of the theatre: airfields as the objective, and logistics as the decisive arm.

Losses

American deaths across the campaign, on land and at sea, are usually put near 7,100. Japanese deaths are estimated between 19,000 and 25,000, a large share from starvation and disease rather than combat.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

U.S. Army Center of Military History — Asiatic-Pacific theater campaigns ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press · Clodfelter, M. (2017), Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia, 4th ed. McFarland

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 7 August 1942 ↗

German forces reached the Volga north of Stalingrad on 23 August 1942 and spent three months taking the city in close fighting. On 19 November the Red Army attacked the Romanian-held flanks on either side of the city and completed the encirclement of the German Sixth Army within four days. The pocket was reduced through January, and the last of it surrendered on 2 February 1943.

Why it mattered

The turning point of the war in the east in the public memory of every country that fought it, and close to that in substance. An entire field army was destroyed, and the German strategic offensive capability in the south never recovered.

Losses

Roughly 91,000 prisoners were taken from the pocket, of whom only a few thousand ever returned home. Casualties on both sides across the whole campaign are commonly estimated at around two million.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Glantz, D. M. & House, J. M. (1995), When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. University Press of Kansas · Beevor, A. (2012), The Second World War. Weidenfeld & Nicolson · Krivosheev, G. F. (1997), Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Greenhill Books

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 23 August 1942 ↗

The Eighth Army attacked prepared Axis positions west of El Alamein on the night of 23 October 1942, behind a heavy artillery bombardment and with a substantial advantage in men, tanks and supply. Twelve days of attritional fighting broke the line, and the Axis forces withdrew west across Libya.

Why it mattered

The threat to Egypt and the Suez Canal was ended for good. Coming a fortnight before the Torch landings at the other end of North Africa, it began the sequence that cleared the continent by May 1943.

Losses

Eighth Army casualties were about 13,500. Axis losses were far heavier in prisoners, with some 30,000 captured.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

National Army Museum — The Battle of El Alamein ↗ · National Army Museum — Second World War ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 23 October 1942 ↗

Anglo-American forces landed near Casablanca, Oran and Algiers on 8 November 1942, most of them sailing directly from the United States and Britain. Vichy French resistance ended within three days under a local armistice.

Why it mattered

The first large Anglo-American combined operation, and the rehearsal for every later landing. Its immediate consequences were political as much as military: Germany occupied the remainder of France and rushed forces into Tunisia, where the Axis position held until May 1943.

Losses

Allied casualties in the landings themselves were light, on the order of 2,000 killed and wounded, with comparable French losses. The Tunisian campaign that followed cost the Allies some 70,000 casualties.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

National Army Museum — Second World War ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press · Clodfelter, M. (2017), Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia, 4th ed. McFarland

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 8 November 1942 ↗

Operation Citadel attacked the Kursk salient from north and south on 5 July 1943, against defences prepared in depth over three months and known in outline in advance. The northern attack stalled within days; the southern one ground forward to Prokhorovka on 12 July. Hitler broke the offensive off shortly afterwards, with the Allied landings in Sicily also demanding attention.

Why it mattered

The last German strategic offensive in the east. What followed mattered more: Soviet counter-offensives at Orel from 12 July and toward Kharkiv from 3 August, which retook the city on 23 August and kept the initiative for the rest of the war.

Losses

Zetterling and Frankson’s archival study puts German losses substantially below the figures in older accounts, and the tank action at Prokhorovka at a fraction of the scale of its legend. Soviet losses were considerably the heavier on both counts.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Zetterling, N. & Frankson, A. (2000), Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis. Frank Cass · Glantz, D. M. & House, J. M. (1995), When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. University Press of Kansas · Australian War Memorial — The Nazi-Soviet war ↗

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 5 July 1943 ↗

Operation Husky landed British, Canadian and American forces on the southern and eastern coasts of Sicily on 10 July 1943 — the largest amphibious assault yet mounted by frontage. Five weeks of fighting cleared the island, though the Axis withdrew a large part of its force across the Strait of Messina.

Why it mattered

The invasion brought down Mussolini’s government within a fortnight and led to Italy’s armistice with the Allies in September. It also opened the Italian campaign, which would absorb Allied divisions until May 1945.

Losses

Allied casualties were about 22,000. Axis losses were heavier, but roughly 100,000 German and Italian troops were successfully evacuated to the mainland with much of their equipment.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

National Army Museum — Second World War ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press · Clodfelter, M. (2017), Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia, 4th ed. McFarland

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 10 July 1943 ↗

Operation Shingle landed two divisions at Anzio on 22 January 1944, behind the German Gustav Line, to unlock a front stalled south of Rome. The landing was unopposed and was not exploited; German forces sealed the beachhead within a week and contained it for four months.

Why it mattered

A textbook case of an amphibious landing achieving surprise and then achieving nothing, because the force was too small to advance and too large to abandon. The breakout in late May, coordinated with the fourth assault on Monte Cassino, opened the road to Rome, which fell on 4 June 1944.

Losses

Allied casualties in the beachhead and the breakout are usually put near 43,000, with German losses of comparable scale.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

National Army Museum — Second World War ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press · Clodfelter, M. (2017), Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia, 4th ed. McFarland

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 22 January 1944 ↗

The Japanese U-Go offensive crossed into India in March 1944 aiming to take the British supply bases at Imphal and cut the road through Kohima. Both places were besieged and both were held, supplied by air, through months of fighting at very close quarters on the ridges above Kohima.

Why it mattered

The largest defeat Japanese land forces had suffered to that point, and the end of any threat to India. The National Army Museum’s 2013 public vote named Imphal and Kohima Britain’s greatest battle, ahead of Waterloo and D-Day.

Losses

Japanese casualties are usually put near 55,000, including some 13,500 dead — a large proportion from starvation and disease during the retreat. British and Indian casualties were about 17,500.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

National Army Museum — The Far East campaign ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press · Clodfelter, M. (2017), Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia, 4th ed. McFarland

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 8 March 1944 ↗

Three airborne divisions landed behind the flanks of the invasion front before dawn on 6 June 1944, and five seaborne assaults followed between 06:30 and 07:45 on beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Roughly 156,000 Allied troops came ashore or dropped in on the day.

Why it mattered

The largest amphibious operation ever mounted, and the opening of the campaign that liberated western Europe. None of the five beachheads reached its objective line on 6 June, and Caen held out until 9 July — the landings succeeded as a lodgement, not as a breakthrough.

Losses

About 4,400 Allied personnel were killed on 6 June, from a names-based count. Total Allied casualties for the day are generally put near 10,000; German losses that day are far less certain, with estimates between 4,000 and 9,000.

On the map

7 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Imperial War Museums — D-Day 80 overview ↗ · U.S. European Command — Operation Overlord ↗ · Naval History and Heritage Command — D-Day ↗ · National D-Day Memorial Foundation — names-based research into Allied fatalities of 6 June 1944

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 6 June 1944 ↗

The Soviet summer offensive opened on 22 June 1944, the third anniversary of Barbarossa, against German Army Group Centre in Belarus. Four Soviet fronts broke through simultaneously, encircled the defenders at Vitebsk, Bobruisk and Minsk, and advanced some 600 kilometres to the Vistula and the border of East Prussia by late August.

Why it mattered

In purely military terms the most destructive defeat the German army suffered in the war, and one that received a fraction of the attention given to Normandy, which it coincided with. Around 28 divisions were destroyed.

Losses

German losses over the two months are usually put near 400,000 killed, wounded and captured. Soviet casualties were higher in absolute terms, at around 770,000, of which about 180,000 irrecoverable.

On the map

4 dated movements · 4 events in the evidence panel

Sources

U.S. Army — Operation Bagration (Combat Studies Institute report) ↗ · Glantz, D. M. & House, J. M. (1995), When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. University Press of Kansas · Krivosheev, G. F. (1997), Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Greenhill Books

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 22 June 1944 ↗

After seven weeks of close fighting in the Norman hedgerows, Operation Cobra opened on 25 July 1944 with saturation bombing of a narrow sector west of Saint-Lô. American armour broke through into open country, reached Avranches on 30 July, and turned east and south. A German counter-attack at Mortain failed, and the encirclement around Falaise closed on 21 August.

Why it mattered

The breakout, not the landing, is what destroyed the German position in France. Paris was liberated on 25 August, and by mid-September Allied forces were on the German frontier.

Losses

German losses in the Falaise pocket are usually put at about 10,000 killed and 50,000 captured. The whole Normandy campaign cost the Allies over 200,000 casualties and the Germans a comparable number, plus the prisoners.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

National Army Museum — Second World War ↗ · Hastings, M. (1984), Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy. Michael Joseph · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 25 July 1944 ↗

Operation Dragoon landed American and French forces on the coast of Provence on 15 August 1944 against thin defences. Toulon and Marseille were taken by 28 August, and the advance ran north up the Rhône valley to link with the forces from Normandy near Dijon in mid-September.

Why it mattered

Marseille became the most productive Allied port in Europe, which mattered more to the campaign than the fighting did. The southern landings are the least remembered major operation in the west and one of the most efficient.

Losses

Allied casualties in the landings and the advance to Dijon were comparatively light, in the order of 17,000, with roughly 130,000 German prisoners taken.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

National Army Museum — Second World War ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press · Clodfelter, M. (2017), Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia, 4th ed. McFarland

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 15 August 1944 ↗

American forces landed on Leyte in the central Philippines on 20 October 1944. The Japanese fleet committed almost everything it had left to defeat the landing, producing the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 23–26 October — four separate actions across an enormous area of sea.

Why it mattered

The largest naval battle of the war by tonnage engaged, and the end of the Imperial Japanese Navy as an operational force. It also saw the first organised kamikaze attacks, which would define the last year of the Pacific war.

Losses

Japan lost four carriers, three battleships and around ten cruisers in the naval battle. The land campaign on Leyte cost some 80,000 Japanese and about 15,500 American casualties.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

U.S. Army Center of Military History — Asiatic-Pacific theater campaigns ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press · Clodfelter, M. (2017), Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia, 4th ed. McFarland

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 20 October 1944 ↗

Germany attacked through the Ardennes on 16 December 1944 with three armies, aiming to cross the Meuse and take Antwerp and split the Allied front. Bad weather grounded Allied aircraft for a week. The advance reached its furthest point near Dinant on 24 December, roughly 100 kilometres in, and was then squeezed out over the following month.

Why it mattered

The last German offensive in the west, and the costliest single battle the United States Army fought in the war. It delayed the Allied advance by weeks and consumed the armoured reserve that might have defended the Rhine.

Losses

American casualties are officially put at about 89,500, including some 19,000 killed. German casualties are estimated between 80,000 and 100,000.

On the map

3 dated movements · 3 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Cole, H. M. (1965), The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. U.S. Army Center of Military History · Library of Congress — Battle of the Bulge: interactive timeline ↗ · Dear, I. C. B. & Foot, M. R. D. (eds.) (1995), The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 16 December 1944 ↗

The final Soviet offensive opened on 16 April 1945 from the Oder, with the Seelow Heights east of the city taken in four days of heavy fighting. Berlin was encircled by 25 April and cleared street by street. Hitler killed himself on 30 April, and the garrison surrendered on 2 May.

Why it mattered

The end of the war in Europe, and a battle fought at enormous speed and cost for political as much as military reasons. Germany capitulated on 8 May, ratified in Berlin — which was already 9 May in Moscow, which is why Victory Day falls on two different dates.

Losses

Soviet irrecoverable losses in the Berlin operation were about 78,000 killed, with total casualties above 350,000. German military and civilian deaths in the battle have never been reliably established.

On the map

2 dated movements · 2 events in the evidence panel

Sources

Krivosheev, G. F. (1997), Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Greenhill Books · Glantz, D. M. & House, J. M. (1995), When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. University Press of Kansas · Beevor, A. (2012), The Second World War. Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Open on the map ↗ See the whole world on 16 April 1945 ↗