Battles of WWII
My father never made it back from Normandy during WWII, but his memoirs allowed me to get an idea of what it was like. The 3 most major battles in my opinion (and my father’s) were Stalingrad, Operation Torch, and D-Day.
Stalingrad was, by our standards, the largest and bloodiest battle in all of history. It was a giant battle between German and Soviet forces over the city of Stalingrad, lasting 5 months. It started out well for the Germans, with an offensive attack pushing Soviet forces back in the first 3 months, but quickly turned around. Germany suffered heavy losses, and Soviet forces came out in a victory. This was considered to be the turning point in the war for Europe, as it ended German Eastern advancements and took a good amount of their resources in the war effort.
Operation Torch was started by British Winston Churchill, and supported by American Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Operation targeted North Africa, with various locations to take over along the Mediterranean Coast for military operations. Once these bases were established, it would allow entrance to Europe through the “soft underbelly” of Italy. The goal was to have mainland European invasions on Germany from all sides: French from the West, Soviets from the East, and now Americans from the South.
The battles that took place on the beaches of Normandy, France are referred to as D-Day. The goal was to reclaim Allied territory on mainland Europe with British and American forces. A distraction was made to lessen German forces, but it was still largely a suicide mission. American and British forces had to land on the beaches of Normandy and charge uphill straight at German forces in pillboxes with heavy firepower. The Allies knew that the first few waves of soldiers would die, but it was a necessary sacrifice to stop German expansion. My father was in the first wave to storm the beaches, and thought he never returned, it is him we have to thank for the world we have now. Without D-Day, Germany never would’ve been stopped.
