The Battle of the Atlantic was critical for the Allied cause. The UK, being an island nation, was heavily dependent on provisions from the United States. Germany, using submarines (“Unterseeboot”, “U-boats”) hoped to defeat Britain by weakening their economy and interrupting its war supplies. (For a graphic portrayal of World War II in the Atlantic, see videos of “Victory at…

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The London Blitz occurred from September 1940 through May 1941 when massive amounts of German bombers attacked the London area. The Blitz started in earnest on the afternoon of September 7, 1940 when the German Luftwaffe conducted the first major daytime raid on London. Nearly 350 German bombers, with 600 fighter escorts, dropped explosives on East London, targeting the docks…

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English Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery has said: “One of the great laws of war is never invade Russia.” Nevertheless, on June 22, 1941, Hitler unleashed his long-planned attack on the USSR, which was called “Operation Barbarossa”. It was a surprise attack, directed toward Leningrad and Moscow. The German Army assigned 148 divisions, including 19 panzer divisions, to the invasion. Total…

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After the winter hiatus, Hitler’s generals wanted to focus their attack on Moscow again; however, Hitler decided that his forces would launch a full-scale offensive only in the south, toward the Don River, Stalingrad (now Volgograd), and the Caucasus oilfields. Hitler’s plan was to concentrate all available forces in the southern flank of the long front, destroy the front line…

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Stalingrad was an urban stretch along the west bank of the Volga River. It was a strategic location because it was a gateway to the Crimea and the rich oil fields of the Caucasus. The German attack began on June 28, 1942. On August 23, 1942, the German 6th army reached the Volga just north of Stalingrad. The Russian army…

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To alleviate the stresses on his forces in the east, Stalin had been pressing the Americans and the British to open a second front against the Axis forces. Believing that an invasion of France was impractical at that time, Churchill and Roosevelt decided to do this in North Africa, with the goal of invading Italy from North Africa. The Brits…

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On June 6, 1944, “D-Day”, the Allied forces made their long-awaited invasion of Europe, under the command of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied commander in Europe. The invasion took place on beaches in Normandy, France. It was called “Operation Overlord.” http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/dday/overlord.aspx; https://www.britannica.com/event/Normandy-Invasion) The location was a big surprise to the Germans, who were expecting the invasion to take place north of…

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The Allies had greatly weakened the Luftwaffe and dominated the skies over Europe in the later part of 1944 and 1945. Hitler decided to make one last-ditch offensive effort to reverse the Allied momentum. Shortly before Christmas 1944, the Germans massed 250,000 men at the Allied lines in the Belgian forest of the Ardennes. They hoped to split the allied…

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The Nazis did not wait until the war to start their program of persecution of hated groups; nor did they limit that persecution to the Jewish people. Beginning in 1933 and until 1941, Hitler ordered the jailing and later systematic extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, other “inferior races,” homosexuals, mentally retarded, and anyone who was deemed an enemy of the…

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In late 1945 and 1946 (and through 1949), post-war justice was in the news due to the Nuremberg Trials, a series of two sets of trials of Nazis involved in the Holocaust and World War II. The first, and most famous, which tried the 21 most significant leaders of Nazi Germany, began on November 20, 1945. It was entitled the…

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