WWII: Battles Won and Lost

A look at how mechanised warfare aided Germany's advance into France; the way commando raids, blitzkrieg, mobile desert warfare, and amphibious landings changed warfare.

The battles of World War II increase in sheer size of the forces involved as well as the power of their weapons; a look inside Germany's strategies for Operation Barbarossa, as they attempt to invade the Soviet Union.

A wide variety of strategies are needed during World War II, as battles are fought in every continent in many different landscapes; the English are cut-off at Dunkirk following unstoppable Nazis tearing through Western Europe.

Battles are almost always about gaining territory, and advancing the frontline to seize the port, the city, the oil field, or another objective. In the bombed remains of Stalingrad, German soldiers are sentenced to death or held captive.

New tactics are born in every war, to try to influence the course of battles. Campaigns are waged against non-military targets to ruin morale. Long battles rage throughout the war, from Guadalcanal in the Pacific, to the brutal siege at Leningrad.

World war involves many actions, large and small. Forces, climate, geography, and problems of supply must all be managed; Japan gathers naval strength for an attack on Midway Island as they attempt to lure the United States into a trap.