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The Miracle of Dunkirk
-Codenamed Operation Dynamo.
- The Miracle of Dunkirk was the evacuation of the allies from the city of Dunkirk, France.
- The evacuation of the allies took ~8 days, from May 26, 1940, to April 6, 1940.
-The allies evacuated 338,226 British Expeditionary Force and other Allied troops.
- Many British citizens arrived at Dunkirk to evacuate the soldiers. One boat was only 14 meters wide! -
Battle of Britain
- Codenamed Operation Sea Lion by the Germans.
- It was a military campaign to weaken Britain through constant air attacks between German and Britain.
- Persisted of many attacks by the German Luftwaffe, and fights between the RAF and German Luftwaffe.
- ~1,000 British planes were destroyed, while ~1,800 were destroyed in the attacks.
- Lasted from July 10, 1940, and Oct 31, 1940
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Battle of Leningrad
- Also called the siege of Leningrad which persisted from September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944 -The death toll of the siege of Leningrad lingers around 1.5 million which makes it deadlier -At the end of the siege, only about 700 thousand of the originally 3 million citizens of Leningrad remain, the rest were evacuated or died.
- Historians estimate that around 1.4 million citizens were evacuated from Leningrad. -The siege was lifted by Soviet forces, with a Soviet victory.
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Battle of Stalingrad
-Known to many Historians as the turning point in WW2.
- The battle is most commonly said to have persisted from July 17, 1942, to February 2, 1943
-The German 6th Army was said to have lost 250 thousand, while the Axis power lost almost 800 thousand.
- Ended with a Soviet victory, defending the city from the Germans.
- The soviet victory blocked the Gemran Advance into the Soviet Union. -
Operation Torch
-Operation Torch was an Anglo-American invasion of North African French colonies.
- Was originally called Operation Gymnast by the Allies.
- The campaign was to capture critical points in Morocco, and Algeria in November 1942.
- The amphibious landing sites were are Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers.
- General Patton took Casablanca 2 days later on November 10, 1942. -
D-Day
-The beaches the Allies landed on were called, Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah, and Sword.
- 12 countries participated in the attack. (Australia, Canada, Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the UK, and the United States)
- Codenamed Operation Overlord.
-The allies actually captured Normandy on April 30th, 1944.
-Was planned to happen on 05/06/1994 but was delayed due to bad weather -
Battle of the Bulge
-Called the Battle of the bulge because of the bulge that Germans made in the Allied lines.
- The last major offensive for the Nazi's in World War 2.
- Also known as the Ardennes Offensive as it took place in the Ardennes region in Wallonia.
- Was the largest battle on the Western front during WW2/
-250 thousand troops were sent to fight on the German side in this offensvie. -
The Battle of Berlin
-The Battle of Berlin marks the end of Hitler's Third Reich
-The Red Army had at least 2.5 million soldiers.
-An infantry soldier, Sergeant Shcherbina, was credited with raising the Red Flag on the top of the Reichstag or Parliment.
-Joseph Stalin challenged two Red Army Marshals to race their armies to capture Berlin which was later called the Race to Berlin.
-The Belorussians started shelling the city on Hitler's 56th birthday. April 20, 1945.
