History & Events
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US forces captured this Marshall Islands atoll in early 1944, using overwhelming firepower to shorten the assault.
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The Allied airborne assault on this Dutch bridge in September 1944 became known as 'a bridge too far.'
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A grueling 1942-43 campaign to retake this New Guinea coastal area was Australia's and America's first Pacific land offensive.
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In 1940, the Luftwaffe fought the RAF for air superiority over the UK, suffering the Nazis' first major defeat.
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The 1942 surrender of US and Filipino forces on this Philippine peninsula was followed by a notorious forced march.
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Rommel's 1942 victory in this North African desert battle led directly to the fall of Tobruk soon after.
GAZALASoviet troops captured this Austrian capital in April 1945 after two weeks of fighting through its historic streets.
VIENNAA brutal 1944-45 siege of this Hungarian capital was so destructive it earned the grim nickname 'Stalingrad of the Waffen-SS.'
BUDAPESTThe iconic flag-raising photo on Mount Suribachi came from this brutal volcanic-island battle of February-March 1945.
IWOJIMAFierce house-to-house fighting in early 1945 devastated this Philippine capital during its liberation from Japanese forces.
MANILAAllied forces recaptured this historic Burmese royal city from Japanese occupation in early 1945.
MANDALAYThe Royal Navy inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italian fleet off this Greek cape in March 1941.
MATAPANAllied troops captured an intact Rhine bridge here in March 1945, allowing a rare quick crossing into Germany.
REMAGENJapan's 1944 invasion of India was decisively repelled at this Indian city near the Burmese border.
IMPHALA grueling Soviet defense of this Black Sea peninsula's naval base held out for over 250 days against Axis siege in 1941-42.
CRIMEAThis Ukrainian city changed hands four separate times in brutal fighting between 1941 and 1943.
KHARKOVOn December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise carrier attack on this Hawaiian naval base: '_ _ _ _ _ Harbor.'
PEARLAllied forces eliminated a stubborn German-held pocket around this Alsatian city in January-February 1945.
COLMARA massive June 1944 Soviet offensive named for a Napoleonic-era general destroyed Germany's Army Group Center in Belarus.
BAGRATIONJapan invaded this British colony on the same day as Pearl Harbor, with the garrison surrendering on Christmas Day 1941.
HONGKONGGerman panzers broke through weak French defenses at this Ardennes town in May 1940, opening the road to Paris.
SEDANOne of the war's bloodiest ratio-of-casualties battles was fought over this small Palau island in late 1944.
PELELIUIn November 1940, British carrier planes crippled the Italian fleet at anchor in this southern Italian naval base.
TARANTOSoviet forces fought a costly delaying action at this city in 1941, buying crucial time to organize Moscow's defense.
SMOLENSKThis strategic Norman city took over a month of brutal fighting for the British and Canadians to secure after D-Day.
CAENUS pilots inflicted such lopsided losses on Japanese aviators over these Pacific islands in June 1944 it was nicknamed the 'Turkey Shoot.'
MARIANASSurrounded US paratroopers famously replied 'Nuts!' to a German surrender demand at this Belgian town in December 1944.
BASTOGNEIn August 1944, Allied forces trapped and destroyed much of two German armies in a pocket near this Norman town.
FALAISEA devastating German bombing raid on this Dutch port city in May 1940 forced the Netherlands to surrender.
ROTTERDAMUS forces suffered their first major defeat against German troops at this Tunisian mountain pass in February 1943.
KASSERINEA costly November 1943 US Marine assault on this fortified Gilbert Islands atoll shocked the American public.
TARAWAA historic hilltop abbey in Italy was destroyed by Allied bombing during months of fighting here in early 1944.
CASSINOCaptured in October 1944, this was the first major German city to fall into Allied hands during the war.
AACHENGerman forces encircled and captured over 600,000 Soviet troops near this Ukrainian capital in September 1941.
KIEVThis nearly 900-day siege of a Soviet city, 1941-44, was one of the longest and deadliest in modern history.
LENINGRADChurchill called Britain's 1942 surrender of this fortified island colony the worst disaster in British military history.
SINGAPOREOperation Husky, the Allied invasion of this Italian island in July 1943, led to Mussolini's fall from power.
SICILYMontgomery's 1942 victory over Rommel at '_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _' turned the tide of the North African campaign.
ELALAMEINFought alongside Imphal in 1944, this battle for a small hill town is often called the 'Stalingrad of the East.'
KOHIMAA grinding Canadian-led 1944 campaign along this Belgian-Dutch estuary was needed to open the vital port of Antwerp.
SCHELDTThe Polish capital held out for nearly three weeks against German bombardment and siege in September 1939.
WARSAWThis Gilbert Islands atoll was taken by US Army troops in November 1943 alongside the much costlier fight at Tarawa.
MAKINSoviet defenders held out for over a week at a fortress citadel on the Bug River during the opening days of Operation Barbarossa in 1941.
BRESTFought in May 1942, this was history's first naval battle in which opposing ships never sighted one another.
CORALSEAHistory's largest naval battle unfolded in this Philippine gulf in October 1944, including the first organized kamikaze attacks.
LEYTEIn May 1941, the Royal Navy hunted down and sank Germany's most powerful battleship after it sank HMS Hood.
BISMARCKAllied forces met fierce German resistance landing on the Italian mainland near this port in September 1943.
SALERNOThe US Navy's decisive June 1942 carrier victory near this Pacific atoll sank four Japanese carriers in one battle.
MIDWAYThe last major battle in Europe raged around this Czech capital in early May 1945, even after Germany's formal surrender.
PRAGUEThe largest amphibious assault of the Pacific War, in spring 1945, featured massed kamikaze attacks against the Allied fleet.
OKINAWAIn spring 1945, Allied forces encircled and trapped an entire German army group in this industrial river valley.
RUHRFought 1942-43 on the Volga River, this battle's namesake city was renamed '_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _' in 1961.
VOLGOGRADThis Libyan port changed hands repeatedly in 1941-42, with its Allied garrison enduring a famous eight-month siege.
TOBRUKAustralian troops halted a Japanese advance on Port Moresby along this rugged New Guinea jungle track in 1942.
KOKODAGermany's costly 1941 airborne invasion of this Greek island convinced Hitler never to attempt a mass paratrooper assault again.
CRETEAllied cruisers suffered a disastrous nighttime defeat near this small island off Guadalcanal in August 1942.
SAVORomanian and German forces besieged this Black Sea port for over two months before Soviet defenders withdrew in October 1941.
ODESSAAllied forces landed across five beaches in this French region on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
NORMANDYOver 300,000 Allied troops were evacuated from this French port's beaches by a makeshift fleet in May-June 1940.
DUNKIRKA small US Marine garrison on this remote Pacific atoll resisted a Japanese invasion for over two weeks in December 1941.
WAKESoviet forces stormed the German capital in April-May 1945, ending the war in Europe within days of its fall.
BERLINA Soviet counteroffensive in December 1941 saved this capital city and dealt Nazi Germany its first major land defeat.
MOSCOWThis remote Aleutian island was the site of the only WWII land battle fought on incorporated US soil besides Hawaii.
ATTUJapanese forces repeatedly attacked this US-held airfield on Guadalcanal in 1942, but it never fell.
HENDERSONMontgomery's Eighth Army broke through a fortified French-built defensive line in Tunisia here in March 1943.
MARETHCapturing this Mariana Island in mid-1944 put mainland Japan within range of American B-29 bombers for the first time.
SAIPANGermany's last major western offensive punched a large dent in Allied lines through the Ardennes in Dec. 1944: the '_ _ _ _ _.'
BULGEThis Norwegian port town saw naval and land battles in 1940 as the Allies briefly held off a German invasion.
NARVIKIn 1942 New Guinea, Australian forces inflicted Japan's first outright land defeat of the war near this bay.
MILNEThe largest tank battle in history was fought here in July 1943, ending Germany's last major eastern offensive.
KURSKUS troops fought the longest single battle in their army's history in this dense German forest from late 1944 into 1945.
HURTGENAllied troops made a risky amphibious landing behind German lines at this Italian coastal town in January 1944.
ANZIOUS forces recaptured this Pacific island, an American territory since 1898, from Japan in the summer of 1944.
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