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World War II Military History
This is a list of military engagements of World War II encompassing land, naval, and air engagements as well as campaigns, operations, defensive lines and sieges. Campaigns generally refer to broader strategic operations conducted over a large bit of territory and over a long period. Battles generally refer to short periods of intense combat localised to a specific area and over a specific period. However, use of the terms in naming such events is not consistent. For example, the Battle of the Atlantic was more or less an entire theatre of war, and the so-called battle lasted for the duration of the entire war. Another misnomer is the Battle of Britain, which by all rights should be considered a campaign, not a mere battle. Battles 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Sieges * Siege of Warsaw (1939), Siege of Warsaw * Siege of Leningrad * Battle of Lwów (1939), Siege of Lwów * Siege of Modlin * Siege of Novorossiysk * Battle of Odessa (1941), Siege of Odessa * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Heavy Explosion On Board USS Lexington (CV-2) Blows An Aircraft Over Her Side, 8 May 1942 (80-G-7413)
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk ( Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Pocket Battleship Admiral Graf Spee
''Admiral Graf Spee'' was a "''Panzerschiff''" (armored ship), nicknamed a "pocket battleship" by the British, which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The vessel was named after World War I Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron who fought the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, where he was killed in action. She was laid down at the ''Reichsmarinewerft'' shipyard in Wilhelmshaven in October 1932 and completed by January 1936. The ship was nominally under the limitation on warship size imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, though with a full load displacement of , she significantly exceeded it. Armed with six guns in two triple gun turrets, ''Admiral Graf Spee'' and her sisters were designed to outgun any cruiser fast enough to catch them. Their top speed of left only the few battlecruisers in the Anglo-French navies fast enough and powerful enough to sink them. The ship conducted five non-intervention pat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of The River Plate
The Battle of the River Plate was fought in the South Atlantic on 13 December 1939 as the first naval battle of the Second World War. The Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser , commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff, engaged a Royal Navy squadron, commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood, comprising the light cruisers , (on loan to the New Zealand Division) and the heavy cruiser . ''Graf Spee'' had sailed into the South Atlantic in August 1939, before the war began, and had begun commerce raiding after receiving appropriate authorisation on 26 September 1939. Harwood's squadron was one of several search groups sent in pursuit by the British Admiralty. They sighted ''Graf Spee'' off the estuary of the River Plate near the coasts of Argentina and Uruguay. In the ensuing battle, ''Exeter'' was severely damaged and forced to retire; ''Ajax'' and ''Achilles'' suffered moderate damage. Damage to ''Graf Spee'', although not extensive, was critical because her fuel system was crippled. ''Ajax'' and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1939–40 Winter Offensive
This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to work with Germans. *** The Youth Protection Act was passed on April 30, 1938 and the Working Hours Regulations came into effect. *** The Jews name change decree has gone into effect. ** The rest of the world *** In Spain, it becomes a duty of all young women under 25 to complete compulsory work service for one year. *** First edition of the Vienna New Year's Concert. *** The company of technology and manufacturing scientific instruments Hewlett-Packard, was founded in a garage in Palo Alto, California, by William (Bill) Hewlett and David Packard. This garage is now considered the birthplace of Silicon Valley. *** Sydney, in Australia, records temperature of 45 ˚C, the highest record for the city. *** Philipp Etter took over as Swiss F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Theater of the Second World War. The beginning of the war is conventionally dated to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937, when a dispute between Japanese and Chinese troops in Peking escalated into a full-scale invasion. Some Chinese historians believe that the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 18 September 1931 marks the start of the war. This full-scale war between the Chinese and the Empire of Japan is often regarded as the beginning of World War II in Asia. China fought Japan with aid from Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom and the United States. After the Japanese attacks on Malaya and Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged with other conflicts which are generally categorized under those conflicts of World War II a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. Covering an area of approximately , it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai. Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dyna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Changsha
Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a population of over 10 million, and the third-most populous city in Central China, located in the lower reaches of Xiang River in northeastern Hunan. Changsha is also called Xingcheng (星城, 'Star City') and was once named Linxiang (临湘）, Tanzhou (潭州), Qingyang (青阳) in ancient times. It is also known as Shanshuizhoucheng (山水洲城), with the Xiang River flowing through it, containing Mount Yuelu and Orange Isle. The city forms a part of the Greater Changsha Metropolitan Region along with Zhuzhou and Xiangtan, also known as Changzhutan City Cluster. Greater Changsha was named as one of the 13 emerging mega-cities in China in 2012 by the Economist Intelligence Unit. It is also a National Comprehensive Transportation Hub, and one of the first National Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Changsha (1939)
The First Battle of Changsha (17 September 1939 – 6 October 1939; ) was the first of four attempts by Japan to take the city of Changsha, Hunan, during the second Sino-Japanese War. It was the first major battle of the war to fall within the time frame of what is widely considered World War II. Background and strategy The war had reached a stalemate after two years of fighting. Professor Fu Sinian noted in July 1939 that while the Chinese army had become stronger, the Japanese army had weakened. On 15 August, the 11th Army came up with the general plans for a campaign south of the Yangtze, ranging from the Xinjiang River to the Gan River . In early September, Japanese General Toshizō Nishio of the "Japanese Expeditionary Forces to China" and Lieutenant-General Seishirō Itagaki set out to capture Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan. The Japanese 101st and 106th Divisions were deployed on the western bank of the Gan River in northern Jiangxi, and the 6th, 3rd, 13th, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Suomussalmi
The Battle of Suomussalmi was a battle fought between Finnish and Soviet forces in the Winter War. The action took place from 30 November 1939 to 8 January 1940. The outcome was a Finnish victory against superior forces. This battle is considered the clearest, most important, and most significant Finnish victory in the northern half of Finland. In Finland, the battle is still seen today as a symbol of the entirety of the Winter War itself. Course of battle On 30 November 1939 the Soviet 163rd Rifle Division crossed the border between Finland and the Soviet Union and advanced from the north-east towards the village of Suomussalmi. The Soviet objective was to advance to the city of Oulu, effectively cutting Finland in half. This sector had only one Finnish battalion (Er.P 15), which was placed near Raate, outside Suomussalmi. Suomussalmi was taken with little resistance on 7 December (only two incomplete companies of covering forces led a holding action between the border and Suomu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Tolvajärvi
The Battle of Tolvajärvi ( tol.va.jær.vi fi, Tolvajärven–Ägläjärven taistelu, russian: Битва при Толваярви) was fought on 12 December 1939 between Finland and the Soviet Union. It was the first large offensive victory for the Finns in the Winter War. The battle took place on territory of so-called Ladoga Karelia ( fi, Laatokan Karjala) which today is part of the Republic of Karelia. Location and intent The Finnish plan was to encircle the Soviet division by two pincer-attacks over the frozen lakes Hirvasjärvi and Tolvajärvi. The northern attack over Hirvasjärvi was to begin at 08:00 and the second would start when the first had brought results. This was later changed and both attacks were to begin at 08:00. The Soviet main effort was to make a front assault with two regiments 609th and 364th over the Tolvajärvi lake onto the Finnish positions of the 16th regiment near Tolvajärvi village, while the Soviet 718th regiment was to make a flanking man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winter War
The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финляндская война́ 1939–1940) are often used in Russian historiographybr>В.Н. Барышников. От прохладного мира к Зимней войне. Восточная политика Финляндии в 1930–е годы. Санкт-Петербург, 1997.; О.Д. Дудорова. Неизвестные страницы Зимней войны. In: Военно-исторический журнал. 1991. №9.; Зимняя война 1939–1940. Книга первая. Политическая история. М., 1998. – ; ttp://www.otvaga2004.narod.ru/photo/winterwar/wwar1.htm М. Коломиец. Танки в Зимней войне 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
