Events
Battles & operations
The turning points of the war, in order — each with the productions that depict it.
December 1937 – January 1938
The Battle and Massacre of Nanjing
China · Nanjing, Republic of China
After the fall of Shanghai, Japanese forces advanced up the Yangtze and captured the Chinese capital, following it with weeks of mass killing and rape of civilians and disarmed soldiers.
7 productions
1 September – 6 October 1939
Invasion of Poland
Eastern Front · Poland
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, joined by the Soviet Union on 17 September. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days after the invasion began.
9 productions
30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940
The Winter War
Scandinavia · Karelian Isthmus and eastern Finland
The Soviet Union invaded Finland after Finland refused territorial demands. Finnish forces, far smaller and heavily outnumbered, inflicted severe losses before being ground down.
3 productions
26 May – 4 June 1940
The Dunkirk Evacuation — Operation Dynamo
Western Front · Dunkirk, northern France
With the British Expeditionary Force and French units cut off against the Channel, the Royal Navy and hundreds of civilian craft lifted the trapped armies off the beaches and mole at Dunkirk.
10 productions
10 July – 31 October 1940
Battle of Britain
Western Front · Southern England and the Channel
The Luftwaffe attempted to win air superiority over southern England as a precondition for invasion. RAF Fighter Command, supported by the Dowding radar and control system, denied it.
10 productions
22 June – 5 December 1941
Operation Barbarossa
Eastern Front · Soviet Union, from the Baltic to the Black Sea
The largest invasion in military history opened a front that would consume the majority of German ground strength for the rest of the war.
3 productions
7 December 1941
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Pacific · Oahu, Territory of Hawaii
A carrier strike force attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at anchor, bringing America into the war.
5 productions
4–7 June 1942
Battle of Midway
Pacific · Midway Atoll
American codebreaking allowed three carriers to ambush a far larger Japanese force, sinking four fleet carriers in a single day.
2 productions
7 August 1942 – 9 February 1943
Guadalcanal Campaign
Pacific · Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
The first American ground offensive of the Pacific war, fought over a single airfield and the sea lanes that supplied it.
7 productions
23 October – 11 November 1942
Second Battle of El Alamein
North Africa · El Alamein, Egypt
Montgomery's Eighth Army broke the Axis line west of Alexandria and began the pursuit that ended in Tunisia.
10 productions
23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943
Battle of Stalingrad
Eastern Front · Stalingrad, Soviet Union
Urban fighting of unprecedented intensity ended with the encirclement and destruction of the German Sixth Army.
3 productions
5 July – 23 August 1943
Battle of Kursk
Eastern Front · Kursk salient, Soviet Union
Germany's last major offensive in the east broke against defences prepared in depth, and the Red Army held the initiative thereafter.
12 productions
17 January – 18 May 1944
Battle of Monte Cassino
Mediterranean · Cassino, Italy
Four assaults over four months were needed to break the Gustav Line and open the road to Rome.
3 productions
6 June 1944
D-Day and the Normandy Landings
Western Front · Normandy, France
The largest amphibious operation in history put Allied armies ashore on five beaches in Normandy, opening the campaign that would liberate Western Europe.
11 productions
1 August – 2 October 1944
Warsaw Uprising
Eastern Front · Warsaw, Poland
The Polish Home Army rose against the German garrison as the Red Army approached the Vistula, and fought for 63 days with almost no outside relief.
8 productions
17–25 September 1944
Operation Market Garden
Western Front · Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, Netherlands
An airborne carpet was laid to seize a corridor of bridges into the Netherlands; the final bridge at Arnhem proved a bridge too far.
4 productions
16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945
Battle of the Bulge
Western Front · Ardennes, Belgium and Luxembourg
Germany's last great offensive in the west aimed at Antwerp, struck a thinly held front in winter fog, and was halted short of the Meuse.
7 productions
19 February – 26 March 1945
Battle of Iwo Jima
Pacific · Iwo Jima
Marines assaulted an eight-square-mile volcanic island defended from a dense network of tunnels and bunkers.
7 productions
1 April – 22 June 1945
Battle of Okinawa
Pacific · Okinawa, Japan
The largest amphibious assault of the Pacific war, and the bloodiest, fought on Japanese home soil with a large civilian population caught in the middle.
3 productions
16 April – 2 May 1945
Battle of Berlin
Eastern Front · Berlin, Germany
Soviet fronts broke through at the Seelow Heights and fought into the centre of the German capital, ending the war in Europe.
4 productions
6 August – 2 September 1945
Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Japanese Surrender
Pacific · Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo
Two atomic bombings and the Soviet declaration of war led to Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam terms and the end of the Second World War.
4 productions