Battles the U.S> were in

[AviationMan20]

Of all the battles the U.S. were in, what are the one's that are important? Or should I know about all of them? I'm new to WWII.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Well to learn about WW2 you should learn about as many of them as possible.

The most obviously important ones though were D-Day, Operation Market Garden, Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes Offensive), Battle of Monte Cassino, Battle of Huertgen Forest, N. Africa landings, Italy Landings, Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Midway, Coral Sea, Okinawa, Guadalcanal, Battle of the Philippines, and the CBI campaign.

Ofcourse this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more important battles, in fact all the battles were important and worth learning about.

[JeffK]

Add to The Eagles list,
Kasserine, Bizerte, Sicily, Salerno, Cassino, Anzio, Anvil/Dragoon(Sth France), Remagen in Europe/Africa.

From the Pacific, Bataan,Wake Is, Tarawa, Doolittle's Raid, The Submarine war, The Solomons, New Guinea, Bouganville,

A great site to start at is:HyperWar: World War II on the World Wide Web

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Yeap deffinatly forgot to list those in my list.

[timshatz]

All are good battles to know about for WW2. But, for AvMan20 to cover all those battles in any kind of depth, it'll take a couple of years and he can probably write a Master's thesis from an Ivy League U when he's done. Not knocking the list, just the volume.

Suggest a limited list of 5 battles the US was in that were instrumental in the entry, conduct and eventually victory of the US during World War 2. Might make it easier for him to get his head around it. Granted, 5 is a tough number. But maybe it can be 5 in the ETO (European Theatre of Operations) and 5 in the PTO (Pacific...).

Putting my money where my mouth is:
Europe
1. Battle of the Atlantic
2. Air War from Aug 1942 to April 1945 covering All of ETO- Focus on the 8th.
3. D-Day
4. Invasion of Africa and defeat of the Africa Corp
5. Battle of the Bulge

Pacific
1. Pearl Harbor
2. Okinawa
3. Midway
4. Guadalcanal
5. Submarine War

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Originally Posted by timshatz

All are good battles to know about for WW2. But, for AvMan20 to cover all those battles in any kind of depth, it'll take a couple of years and he can probably write a Master's thesis from an Ivy League U when he's done. Not knocking the list, just the volume.

Suggest a limited list of 5 battles the US was in that were instrumental in the entry, conduct and eventually victory of the US during World War 2. Might make it easier for him to get his head around it. Granted, 5 is a tough number. But maybe it can be 5 in the ETO (European Theatre of Operations) and 5 in the PTO (Pacific...).

Putting my money where my mouth is:
Europe
1. Battle of the Atlantic
2. Air War from Aug 1942 to April 1945 covering All of ETO- Focus on the 8th.
3. D-Day
4. Invasion of Africa and defeat of the Africa Corp
5. Battle of the Bulge

Pacific
1. Pearl Harbor
2. Okinawa
3. Midway
4. Guadalcanal
5. Submarine War

Not a bad idea and a good list there.

Only one descrepency though with what you said and you probably did not mean it the way it was written so if not lets laugh about it:

You said:

were instrumental in the entry, conduct and eventually victory of the US during World War 2.

The US did not win WW2. The allies as a whole won WW2. It was a victory that all allied countries contributed greatly to.

[JeffK]

I would take out 4. Invasion of Africa and defeat of the Africa Corp and replace it with Sicily/Italy

And add 3a Iwo Jima

[timshatz]

Originally Posted by DerAdlerIstGelandet

Not a bad idea and a good list there.

Only one descrepency though with what you said and you probably did not mean it the way it was written so if not lets laugh about it:

You said:



The US did not win WW2. The allies as a whole won WW2. It was a victory that all allied countries contributed greatly to.

Granted. The above is a consequence of PUI (posting under the influence). It was late, I have today off, it happens...

The US was a member of an Allied coalition that won the war. I was thinking more along the lines of what the US did and focused the question along those lines. The US did a lot of the producing, but the US did not do most of the fighting. Good point.

[timshatz]

Originally Posted by JeffK

I would take out 4. Invasion of Africa and defeat of the Africa Corp and replace it with Sicily/Italy

And add 3a Iwo Jima

I toyed with Iwo Jima and left it out. But it could easily be on the list. As a battle, it is very signicant to the US. The monument at the gates of Alrington National Cem. proves your point.

But I left it off the list because the of the similarity of that with Okinawa. Not in the way the battle was fought, but in when, what was going on and what the ramifications would be for future battles. Okinawa was a snapshot of how the Invasion of Japan would've gone. Iwo as well. But I felt one would do the trick (only having 5) and picked Okinawa.

Left Italy off because it really didn't go anywhere. It liberated (or knocked out of the war, take you pick) Italy but, other than tie down German Troops, didn't do anything substantial to the war. It became the ETO's side show. At least after June 6. Up to that point, it was the only show in town.

[davparlr]

Don't forget the battle of production. The men and women on the American production line (other countries contributed but we are talking about the US here) did as much or more than any army or weapon to contribute to the victory of the Allies.

[timshatz]

Originally Posted by davparlr

Don't forget the battle of production. The men and women on the American production line (other countries contributed but we are talking about the US here) did as much or more than any army or weapon to contribute to the victory of the Allies.

Definitely a key component of the Allied victory. Huge. But, when you are talking about battles (and the battle of the factory floor is where a good chunk of WW2 was won), it is kinda boring. Mostly about productivity figures, economics, erasing bottlenecks, efficiency of resources....zzzzzzzz. There's a reason economists don't have great parties.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Originally Posted by timshatz

Granted. The above is a consequence of PUI (posting under the influence). It was late, I have today off, it happens...

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i think that for someone jsut getting into WWII it would be a better idea to get a much bigger picture of the entire war, what happened when, get a general idea of who captured what and where, like on documentaries when they show entire advances and things like that, get a big picture before delving into individual battles in detail.......

[evangilder]

I would go with Lanc on this. Better to get the broader picture before focusing on "key" battles. There are a number of big, successful operations that few people ever hear of, like Operation Varsity, the largest, most successful airborne operation in history. What are considered "key" battles are probably going to be pretty varied. The air war 1942 to 1945 with a focus on the 8th does a great disservice to the other bombing groups operating in Europe and to the Brits, who took to the skies at night to keep the bombing going around the clock.

Plus there was this fairly major accomplishment well before the US entered the war called the Battle of Britain...

[Gnomey]

And Barbarossa, Fall Wiess, Fall Gelb etc...