Soviet forces encircle Axis armies at Stalingrad

At Midway, U.S. forces destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and checked Japan’s rapid expansion. The battle’s strategic importance is clear, but its familiar carrier-centered narrative can...

Allied troops landed on Guadalcanal, beginning a six-month campaign against Japanese forces. Solomon Islanders served as guides, coastwatchers, laborers, and rescuers, often at great personal risk....

The All-India Congress Committee adopted the Quit India resolution in Bombay on 8 August, demanding an end to British rule; Gandhi urged mass nonviolent struggle. British authorities arrested national...

British-led forces began an offensive near El Alamein in Egypt, stopping Axis plans to reach the Suez Canal. The battle’s logistics depended on colonial and Commonwealth troops, port labor, and...

U.S. and British forces landed in Morocco and Algeria under Operation Torch. The campaign unfolded in territories controlled by Vichy France and under French colonial rule. Moroccan and Algerian...

The Allied declaration of 17 December condemned Nazi Germany’s mass murder of Europe’s Jews and promised punishment. It acknowledged reports of systematic killing but did not produce an immediate...

The last German troops in Stalingrad surrendered after months of siege, street fighting, hunger, and extreme cold. Soviet victory turned the eastern front but came at enormous cost to soldiers and...

Jewish resistance organizations began an armed uprising when German forces entered the Warsaw Ghetto to deport its remaining residents. They resisted for nearly a month despite overwhelming German...

Axis forces in Tunisia surrendered to Allied armies, ending the North African campaign. More than 230,000 Axis troops were captured. The campaign had been fought across colonized North Africa, where...

British, American, and Canadian forces began Operation Husky, invading Sicily. The campaign weakened Mussolini’s government and opened the route to mainland Italy. Sicilians experienced bombing,...