Major Battles of WW2 Flashcards
Battle of the Atlantic
Date: September 3, 1939 - May 8, 1945
Location: Atlantic Ocean
Who: Allies vs. German Forces
Why: The Germans wanted to take over Atlantic supply lines to disrupt Allied shipping, while the Allies had to defend the ocean and their ship lines from the Germans.
What:
The Germans used unrestricted submarine warfare, and had U-boats, wolf-packs, and surface raiders.
The British used sonar/ ASDIC and depth charges in defense.
Allied victory. May 8, 1945 is also known as VE (Victory in Europe) Day!
Battle of Britain
Date: July 10 - October 31, 1940
Location: English Channel
Who: Great Britain (RAF) vs. Germans (Luftwaffe)
Why: The Germans wanted to invade Britain and keep them out of the war, but they needed to gain air superiority and defeat the RAF first before invading them.
What:
Operation Sea Lion - Germans first launched their attacks on convoys, ports, and shipping locations using Messerschmidt 109 and 110. When that didn’t work, they committed ‘The Blitz’, which is the terror bombing of civilians.
Britain used Spitfire and Hurricane. They had the advantages of Germans not targeting their radar stations, fighting on home turf and being able to refuel and switch planes easily if necessary.
Allied victory. First major Germany loss.
Pearl Harbour
Date: December 7, 1941
Location: Pearl Harbour, Hawaii
Who: Japanese forces vs. USA
Why: USA cut off trade supplies of oil and other resources to Japan and froze their bank accounts
What: Japan bombed the ports of Pearl Harbour, damaging a lot of ships. Luckily all 3 of USA’s important planes weren’t docked at the time so USA was able to attack back quickly, but they were still caught off guard and weren’t prepared. This directly caused the USA to enter the war right after.
Dieppe
Date: August 19, 1942
Location: Dieppe, France
Who: German forces vs. Allied forces
Why: The Soviet Union pressured the Allies to expand the Western Front, so they chose Dieppe due to its proximity to Allied air forces.
What: “Operation Jubilee”
They set off 4 flank attacks along with the main attack. They were relying on the element of surprise, but…
Orange Beach - No 4. British Commando was the only successful attack as they destroyed many 15 cm guns.
Yellow Beach - They were confronted by a German naval convoy before reaching their part of the beach, and their gunfire and fighting alerted the Germans of the attack.
Green Beach - Regiments ended up on the West side of River Scie instead of East side, causing them to have to take a detour and cross the only bridge available to the other side, but were unable to capture it.
Blue Beach - Royal Regiment of Canada forces arrived late and the seawall provided no cover from enemy fire.
MAIN ATTACK (Capture Dieppe) Red/White Beach - The tanks arrived late, so the forces were left with no artillery support. Even when arriving, the tanks either drowned, got stuck on the cobblestone beach, or were shot down/captured immediately.
German victory. This led the Allies to change their strategies, which led to the D-Day success.
Ortona
Date: December 20 - 28, 1943
Location: Ortona, Italy
Who: German forces vs Canadian forces
Why: Canada wanted to invade Ortona to use it as a supply port and disrupt German supply port, and also to push the Germans back
What:
When Canadians arrived, they found that the Germans had intentionally destroyed buildings to make rubble cover the roads so they could hide in the buildings and snipe them. Since Ortona was built with tightly-packed buildings and narrow streets, the Canadians didn’t have many options to move, so they did a method called ‘mouse-holing’ where they blew holes in walls and travelled through buildings to fight the Germans.
This battle was characterized by close-quarters combat and guerilla style-tactics. Allied victory, with German troops retreating from Ortona.
D-Day
Date: June 6, 1944
Location: Normandy, France
Who: German forces vs. Allied forces
Why: Allies wanted to stop Germany from expanding, so they wanted to push them out of France and liberate them from Nazi Germany.
What:
Operation Fortitude was first created a few months prior, to decieve the Germans into thinking they’d attack at Pas de Calais instead of Normandy.
Operation Overlord was the actual mission, where U.S. attacked the Utah and Omaha parts of the beach, Britain attacked the Gold and Sword, and Canadians attacked the Juno part.
Canadians successfully went through 10ft iron gates with mines on top of them, hedgehogs (metal rails welded to rip the bottom out of landing crafts), and the Atlantic Wall.
They also used mulberries (man-made ships to carry troops/supplies), LST (large ships that carry tanks), and Higgins boats (box-shaped boat that can discharge men and tanks in seconds. The most distinctive feature of D-Day)
Allied victory, with German forces retreating from Normandy. Beginning of Germany’s downfall.
