World War II: Battles Won and Lost

The battles of the first world war were battles of attrition with opposing armies hardly moving between lines of trenches The battles of the second world war were far more dynamic In this episode we study tank battles blitzkrieg commando raids amphibious landings and mobile warfare in the desert

The second world war was conflict on an unprecedented scale Its battles set new marks for the sheer size of forces deployed and for the power of their weapons In this episode we study the first battle at sea in which enemy ships never sighted each other and the largest army ever to march when Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union

A war that reached every continent and touched every sort of terrain demanded a wide variety of strategies and tactics This episode examines battles fought at sea and in the jungle in city streets invasions from the air and tactical advances and retreats on the land

Battles are almost always about territory and objectives of advancing the front line seizing the port the city the oil field The fate of nations in the second world war rose and fell on battles that took territory Singapore Monte Casino and even more on battles that failed to capture their objectives In the skies over Britain or before the walls of Stalingrad

Every war seized new tactics some inspired some desperate that tried to influence the course of battles Campaigns were waged against non military targets in an attempt to destroy morale Suicide missions were launched when traditional weapons failed And forces withdrew rather than fire on their fellow countrymen These are the battles that rewrote the rules of engagement

A world war is a patchwork of actions Land Sea Air Massive or small scale The stories of these actions are just as varied This episode describes battles of amphibious forces climate geography and the problems of supply

Through history armies marched to face each other on favored ground and clashed to decide a campaign a war an empire With the 20th century that changed The battles of the WWII happened anywhere and everywhere in freezing temperatures arid deserts and mercilessly humid jungles These are battles in which enemy and allied soldiers struggled to adapt

Some words transcend their origins as humble place names They are carved into history as turning points which influenced the course of WWII the fate of nations and the makeup of our world These words are indestructible El Alameine Okinawa and Pearl Harbor