Military operations in World War II

Theater of war Europe (including Africa)

Land war

1939

Eastern Europe

Attack on Poland ("Fall Weiß")

Occupation of the Jablunka Pass
Battle of the Polish post office in the Free State of Danzig
Battle of Mława
Battle in the Tucheler Heide
- Battle at Krojanty
Battle of Modlin Fortress .
Battle of Radom
Battle for Warsaw
Battle of Brest Fortress (1939) on the Bug River

Battle of the Bzura - German troops defeat Polish units near Kutno.

Battle of the Kampinos Heath

Battle of Wizna - German troops break through Polish defensive position.

Battle of Kock - Last battle of the attack on Poland.

Soviet occupation of eastern Poland

Battle of Szack

Soviet-Finnish Winter War

Battle of Kollaa - Finnish troops hold a defensive position against Soviet attack.
Battle of Salla in Lapland
Battle of Kuhmo
Battle of Suomussalmi - Finnish troops destroy two Soviet divisions.

1940

Western Europe

Invasion of Denmark and Norway ("Enterprise Weser Exercise")

Battle of Narvik - German troops conquer Norwegian port city.
Operation Valentine - The occupation of the Faroe Islands by British forces.

Western campaign (Battle of -, Bataille de France; "Fall Gelb")

Conquest of Fort Eben-Emael (May 10/11, 1940)
Battle of Sedan
Battle of Dunkirk - German troops conquer the area around / the Belgian city of Dunkirk
Evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the port of Dunkirk (“Operation Dynamo”, often literarily referred to as Miracle of Dunkirk / Wunder von D .; British Expeditionary Force - BEF, established since 1938)

Africa

Operation Catapult - attack by the Royal Navy on the French fleet
Italian invasion of Egypt
Operation Compass - Allied counterattack in North Africa

1941

Eastern Europe

Balkan campaign (“Company Marita”)

Battle of Thermopylae (1941)
Airborne battle for Crete - German troops conquer Greek island of Crete ("Operation Merkur")

Russian campaign ("Operation Barbarossa")

Tank battle near Dubno-Lutsk-Rivne - German tanks destroy six Soviet corps.

Kesselschlacht near Białystok and Minsk - German troops conquer the Belarusian capital and inflict heavy losses on the Soviet Union.

Kesselschlacht bei Smolensk - German troops conquer Smolensk and inflict heavy losses on the Soviet Union.

Kesselschlacht bei Uman - German troops inflict heavy losses on the Soviet Union.

Battle of Kiev - German troops conquer the Ukrainian capital.

Double battle near Vyazma and Bryansk - German troops conquer Vyazma and Bryansk.

Battle of Moscow - Soviet troops defend the Soviet capital and push back the Germans.

Battle of Sevastopol - German troops capture Soviet coastal fortress.

Battle of the Sea of Azov

Battle of Rostov - Soviet troops prevent German breakthrough to the Caucasus.

Battle of Odessa - Romanian troops conquer Odessa.

Beowulf company - German troops occupy the Estonian island of Ösel.

Operation Siegfried - German troops occupy the Estonian island of Dagö.

Battle for Tikhvin

First battle on Lake Ladoga

Silberfuchs company - attack by German and Finnish troops to conquer the Soviet port city of Murmansk .

Africa

Africa campaign

Sunflower company - first German troops sent to Libya to support the Italians.
Siege of Tobruk - Several months of unsuccessful siege of the Libyan city of Tobruk by the Axis powers.
Operation Brevity - First and unsuccessful attempt by the Allies to lift the siege of Tobruk.
Operation Battleaxe - Second and failed attempt by the Allies to lift the siege of Tobruk.
Operation Crusader - Third and successful attempt by the Allies to lift the siege of Tobruk.

East Africa:

Battle of Keren - Allied forces breach Italian defenses in Eritrea.
Battle of the Amba Alagi - Allied troops capture the Italian-held Mount Amba Alagi in Ethiopia.
Battle of Gondar - Allied forces end Italian supremacy in East Africa.

Asia

Sonderstab F - German military mission in Iraq.
Syrian-Lebanese Campaign - Allied forces occupy the French colonies of Lebanon and Syria under the control of Vichy France.

1942

Western Europe

Landing near Dieppe (Operation Jubilee) - Allied attempted landing by Canadian troops in northern France (exercise) is repelled.
Company Anton - occupation of Vichy France by German and Italian troops.
Company Lila - self-sinking of the Vichy fleet.
Cerberus company - German warships break through the English Channel.

Eastern Europe

Battle of Demyansk

Battle for Cholm

Battle of Kharkov (1942)

Sinyavinsk operation

Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad operation

Operation Wirbelwind , failed German tank offensive from August 11, 1942 to August 22, 1942 on the central sector of the Eastern Front

German summer offensive in southern Russia ("Fall Blau")

Conquest of the Kerch Peninsula (“Operation Bustard Hunt”)

Kessel battle near Kalatsch

Advance to the Volga ("Enterprise Braunschweig")

Securing the oil reserves around Baku (“Edelweiss Company”)

Conquest of Sevastopol Fortress (“Operation Störfang”)

Special enterprise to incite Caucasian mountain peoples against Soviet rule ("enterprise Schamil")

Battle for Stalingrad

Extensive conquest of Stalingrad by German troops
Operation Uranus - encirclement of the German 6th Army in the Stalingrad area.
Operation Kolzo - the capture of the cauldron by Soviet troops.
Company winter storm

Battle of Velikiye Luki

Operation Mars

Battle of the Middle Don

Battle of the Volkhov

Africa

Operation Theseus - Resumption of the Axis offensive in North Africa and capture of Tobruk.
- Battle of Bir Hakeim
Battle for El Alamein
Allied landing in Morocco and Algeria (“Operation Torch”)
Tunisia campaign

1943

Western Europe

Allied landing in Sicily (“Operation Husky”)
Operation Corkscrew
German occupation of Italy ("Fall Axis" ")
Operation Avalanche
Operation Source
Company course (German withdrawal operation from Sicily)
Dodecanese campaign (1943) - Allied landing attempt on 3 islands of the Greek Dodecanese group in the Aegean Sea.
- German landing on the Greek island of Kos ("Company Eisbär")
- German landing on the Greek island of Leros ("Enterprise Leopard")

Eastern Europe

Africa

1944

Western Europe

Italy:

Battle for Monte Cassino
Landing of the Allies at Anzio (“Operation Shingle”)
Battle of Gemmano

France:

Battle of Normandy (total “Operation Overlord”, former name Operation Hammer; incorrectly colloquial the invasion of France)
- Exercise Tiger , maneuvers in southern England (Devon) with high losses
- Allied deception maneuvers ("Operation Fortitude")
- Allied landing in Normandy (“Operation Neptune”, French Débarquement, beginning on D-Day )
  - Operation Tonga (Paratrooper Part)
- Utah Beach , Omaha Beach , on the. Sectors
- Battle of Caen , the battles in the British-Canadian sector ( Sword - (GB), Juno - (Ca), Gold Beach (GB) or English Battle for Caen ); individual operation names in the addition. thus (June-Aug. 1944) are: Operation Perch (June 9-14); etc. Epsom (June 25-30), Windsor (July 4-5), Charnwood (July 7-9), Jupiter (July 10-11), Goodwood (July 18-20 ), Spring (July 25th to 27th), Bluecoat (July 30th to August 7th), the German company Liège (counterattack, August 6th to 8th), Totalize (August 7th to 10th), Tractable ( August 14th to 15th) and the final fights in the Falaise Pocket, the pocket of Falaise (August 16th to 20th).
- Battle of Saint-Lô
- Battle of Villers-Bocage
- Battle for Carentan
- Battle for Cherbourg
- Company Liège
- Breakout from the bridgehead / Avranches, St. Malo (Operation Cobra)
- Falaise Cauldron (Falaise Pocket)
Battle of Brittany
Operation Dragoon - Allied landing in southern France, also Operation Anvil (= anvil)
Battle for Paris - La Liberation de Paris
Battle for Metz
Battle for Nancy

Benelux and Germany:

Kettle of Mons

Arnhem Bridge (Operation Market Garden)

Battle of the Scheldt estuary

Fight on the Rur Front

Battle of Aachen

Battle of Linnich

Operation Queen

Battle in the Hürtgenwald ("All Souls Battle ")

Ardennes offensive (“Company Wacht am Rhein”)

Battles for Hechtel (Belgium)

Eastern Europe

Battle for the Narva beachhead
Dnepr-Carpathian operation
Leningrad-Novgorod operation
Battle of the Crimea
Destruction of Army Group Center ("Operation Bagration")
- Withdrawal of Army Group North from Estonia (Aster Company)
- Company Doppelkopf
Lviv-Sandomierz operation
- Kamenez-Podolski battle
Operation Jassy-Kishinev
Baltic operation
Company Rösselsprung (1944)
Battle of Belgrade
Company wild cat
Battle for Budapest
Company Tanne Ost (landing company on the Baltic island of Hogland )
Debrecen operation
Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Operation - Soviet troops offensive in East Karelia.
- Battle of Tali-Ihantala - Battle between the Soviet Union and Finland over the Karelian Isthmus.
Lapland War - term for a large number of skirmishes between German and Finnish troops after Finland changed sides.
Slovak national uprising in central Slovakia against the fascist Tiso government and its German support troops.

1945

Western Europe

North Wind Company

Operation Blackcock (January 14-26 , 1945: conquest of the Rur triangle between Roermond, Sittard and Heinsberg)

Battle in the Reichswald (February 7-22)

Operation Lumberjack (from March 1, 1945)

Remagen Bridge (March 7th)

Operation Undertone (March 15–24) - brought the Palatinate, parts of the Rhineland and the areas of northern Alsace and Lorraine, which were temporarily lost during Operation Nordwind, under Allied control.

Operation Plunder (crossing the Rhine between Emmerich and Wesel)

Battle of Crailsheim (April 5-21, 1945)

Battle of Würzburg

Battle for Merkendorf

Ruhrkessel

Panzer raid to Hammelburg (March 26-28, 1945)

Uprising of Georgian Wehrmacht units on Texel (NL)

Battle of Nuremberg (April 16-20)

Battles near Struth (Thuringia)

Eastern Europe

Vistula-Oder operation
West Carpathian Operation
Battle for East Prussia
- Battle of Heiligenbeil
Lower Silesian Operation
- Siege of Wroclaw
Upper Silesian operation
Battle of East Pomerania
- Company solstice
Operation Spring Awakening
Battle for Vienna
- Battle for Alland
Battle for Berlin
- Battle for the Seelow Heights
- Halbe's cauldron
Battle of Bautzen
Skirmish near Kuryłówka Fighting between Soviet NKVD units and Polish militants in May 1945

Sieges

Positions and lines of defense

Atlantic Wall
Friesenwall
Gustav line
Gothic line
Hardenberg position
Kammhuber line
Mareth line
Maginot Line
Mannerheim Line
Molotov Line
Neckar-Enz position
Nibelungen position
East wall
Panther-Wotan Line (in the Soviet Union)
Pomeranian Wall
Sea lion position
Southeast Wall ( Reichsschutzstellung )
Stalin line
Storm ram position
Susanne position
Siegfried ( "Siegfried Line")
Wetterau-Main-Tauber position

Naval warfare

Atlantic

Battle of the Atlantic

Baltic Sea

Company Hannibal
- Walpurgis Night Company (evacuation of German civilians and soldiers from the Öxhöfter Kämpe to Hela)
Beowulf company
Company Siegfried
Company Tanne Ost
Company Aster
Operation of the Polish Navy to repel German sea landings
Operation of the Polish Navy to transfer large surface vessels to Great Britain

Northern sea

Black Sea

Mediterranean Sea

Company sunflower

Indian Ocean

Pacific

Post-war event Operation Deadlight

Southern Ocean

Operation Tabarin

Air war

German Empire

Italy

Air raid on Taranto

France and Benelux

Company floor slab (Allied airfields)

Operations planned but not performed

Invasion of England ("Operation Sea Lion")
- Distraction company for companies Sea Lion ("Company Autumn Journey")
Conquest of Gibraltar ("Operation Felix")
Conquest of Leningrad (“Operation Northern Lights”)
Occupation of Switzerland ("Fir tree company")
Conquest of Malta by airborne troops (“Operation Hercules”)
Occupation of the fishing peninsula in the North Sea ("Company Wiesengrund")
Invasion of Iceland ("Operation Icarus")
Occupation of the Finnish Åland Islands (“Firms West”)

Cartographic representation

In 1945 an atlas was produced for George C. Marshall , the Chief of Staff of the US Army , which reproduced the course of the front from July 1, 1943 to August 15, 1945 every two weeks. Its title was Atlas of the World Battle Fronts in Semimonthly Phases to August 15, 1945

In addition the legend:

* White: Axis territory

* Pink: Allied territory

* Red: Allied territories gained on the previous map

* Black: Territory gains by the Axis powers on the previous map

* Gray: neutrals

Europe - Here are some examples - Asia