5 Battles (1 Viewer)

[YamiB.]

What do you think were the five most important battles of WWII?

I'd say ...

5) Normandy
-Stopped the USSR from expanding into the rest of Europe.

4) Kursk
-Nail in the coffin for the massively important eastern front.

3) Midway
-Turning point for the Pacific.

2) Britian
-Used up German rescources that could have helped the eastern front.

1) Stalingrad
-Turning point for the eastern front.

 

[superskippy]

If you could add a 6th I'd say Battle of the Bulge, the German Offensive could very well have succeded in reaching Antwerp and resupplying the German Advance. History could have gone very differently if they had the power to push those extra miles.

 

[cnredd]

depends what you mean by "battle"...

A-Bombs prevented what could've been the #1 battle...

 

[The Truth-Bringer]

I would say...
(Note: I dont know much about the Japanese Front, I mostly am educated in Eastern Europe 20th Century Studies)

1.)Battle of Stalingrad : Completely Reversed the Tide of the War
2.)Battle of Leningrad: Wasted time and Energy and Destroyed the Prestige of The 3rd Reich.
3.)Battle of Berlin: Hitler's Death, Capture of the City
4.) Battle of the Bulge: Diverted Vital German Effort from the East Front to be wasted on the West Front
5.)Battle of Moscow: Prevented Stalin's Capture and Execution, and hereby destruction of the allies due to Hitler being able to move from the East Front.

 

[Inuyasha]

I say that in the Pacific the battle for Guadalcanal was the first moral boster for the US. That gace quite a push to the American resolve.

 

[t125eagle]

also in the pacific was leyte gulf.

 

[Vilandil Tasardur]

Well, I'll be honest with you, I don't really know enough about all the european battles to judge. However, the battles in the pacific were all of equal importance. Starting with I believe Hirojima and moving on to Okinawa and all of the other islands is how the United States reached Japan. An assult on Japan during that time was just not possible, Japan was to far away. There were however, a number of islands in the Pacific that made almost a connect the dots to Japan. Thus, all of these battles in the pacific were cruical. Had the United States lost any one of these, the road to the Japanese mainland would have been extremley difficult. Each island that was captured brought the Americans one step closer to mainland Japan. A single loss, at any of the several battles, could have proved dissasterous. But once again, that is just the pacific, as I said before, my knowledge of the European battles is not quite as extensive. Although I do believe that the battle of Britain is one of the most important. It kept Germans out of Britain. Had the British not won this fight, with France having already surrendered, there would have been no more democracies existing in Europe. And although the United States had not yet entered the war, they would have, and without British help Hitler would have slaughtered the Americans.

 

[MiamiFlorida]

What do you think were the five most important battles of WWII?

I'd say ...

5) Normandy
-Stopped the USSR from expanding into the rest of Europe.

4) Kursk
-Nail in the coffin for the massively important eastern front.

3) Midway
-Turning point for the Pacific.

2) Britian
-Used up German rescources that could have helped the eastern front.

1) Stalingrad
-Turning point for the eastern front.

Stalingrad and Normandy are in there

 

[TimmyBoy]

I would say Normandy or Hitler's decision to invade the Soviet Union were important battles or decisions of World War II. Hitler's decision to invade the Soviet Union was important because it threw a monkey wrench into Stalin's previous plans to conquor Europe and make it all communist and with invasion of Normandy and the development of the atomic bomb, it first prevented Stalin from taking the rest of Europe and then deturred Stalin from attacking the Western Allies after World War II. If their was no A-bomb, I am sure, Stalin would have attacked Western Europe and finished with his plans to make all of Europe communist.

 

[Canuck]

the most decisive was the one waged to allow the us to enter ww II
through a back door

 

[Mark O'Neill]

Battle of Britain should be in there - maybe in a Top Ten at least. If the Battle had been lost - and it was damn close - the USA had no launching point for an invasion, because Britain would undoubtedly have fallen. More troops would have been able to participate in Russia, and at the very least, I think Moscow wuould have fallen. It wouldn't have made much difference, but maybe Hitler could have sued for peace (unlikely, but possible).

 

[ashurbanipal]

My votes would be (in order):

1) Stalingrad--that's where Hitler's army began to be broken. Also prevented his access to the Baku oil fields, which were critical to the success of his strategy.
2) Normandy--without the American, British, and Canadian invasion, Hitler might well have been able to hold Western Europe.
3) Guadalcanal--turned the tide in the pacific. After this battle, allied victory in the Pacific was more or less assurred, and both sides knew it.
4) The Battle of the Hurtgen Forrest--a more or less forgotten battle in the European theater, but the allies gained significant operational advantages as a result, while the Germans' options were rather limited thereafter.
5) Phillipines II--there was no way the Japanese could have maintained any of their territorial gains after this.

If I could have one more, I'd say the battle of the Rhine. Another "forgotten" battle in the European Theater, it was the Germans' best chance at halting the Allied advance in the west. Germany had lost by this point, but they might have been able to hold some of their territorial gains and finish their genocide if they'd have held the Allies at the Rhine. They could have diverted enough resources to the east to possibly hang onto parts of Poland and other smatterings of Eastern Europe.

 

[HighSpeed]

There are "smaller" battles that led to the main bigger battles, so you can't really exclude the lesser known battles.

 

[t125eagle]

I say that in the Pacific the battle for Guadalcanal was the first moral boster for the US. That gace quite a push to the American resolve.

not to disagree much, but i would think that midway would have been the first.

 

[nkgupta80]

not to disagree much, but i would think that midway would have been the first.

i think it was one of the 2 where the japanese made a grave tactical error that literally assured US victory. is it Midway, Guadalcanal, or some other.

 

[Mark O'Neill]

If it is the battle that assured Allied victory, then it would have to be Pearl Harbour. I don't think America would have been involved in the war without this attack, at least not for a few more years. Even if America did enter the war later, there is a high possibility that Britain might have been taken by then, thus denying America a launching pad for European invasion.

 

[XShipRider]

Well, I'll be honest with you, I don't really know enough about all the european battles to judge. However, the battles in the pacific were all of equal importance. Starting with I believe Hirojima and moving on to Okinawa and all of the other islands is how the United States reached Japan. An assult on Japan during that time was just not possible, Japan was to far away. There were however, a number of islands in the Pacific that made almost a connect the dots to Japan. Thus, all of these battles in the pacific were cruical. Had the United States lost any one of these, the road to the Japanese mainland would have been extremley difficult. Each island that was captured brought the Americans one step closer to mainland Japan. A single loss, at any of the several battles, could have proved dissasterous. But once again, that is just the pacific, as I said before, my knowledge of the European battles is not quite as extensive. Although I do believe that the battle of Britain is one of the most important. It kept Germans out of Britain. Had the British not won this fight, with France having already surrendered, there would have been no more democracies existing in Europe. And although the United States had not yet entered the war, they would have, and without British help Hitler would have slaughtered the Americans.

Once the Battle of Midway was fought the Japanese were essentially
contained beyond the 180th meridian. It was only a matter of time before
the US defeated Japan. Their resources were cutoff as opposed to the
vast resources, many of them untapped, of the US and the Americas.

Yamamoto knew right from the start that defeating the US had to be
a surprise, one massive punch fight. Yes, it's in the movies but it's
also in most older history books. He realized the US was one gigantic
resource rich nation that would be near impossible to defeat in a
protracted war.

Your connect to dots in the Pacific theory has merit but I don't think
(purely personal opinion) Japan could have turned the tide of war
back to their favor once Midway was lost. The submarine war was
diminishing their shipping resources thus making it only a matter of
time. For an island nation this is death through economic strangulation.
Britian was in the same boat, so to speak, with Germany trying to strangle
their re-supply convoys from the Western nations.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[BodiSatva]

5. German occupation of the Channel Islands July 1st, 1940

4. Nomonhan: Japanese Soviet Tactical Combat, 1939

3. The Battle of Kelja December 25 - 27, 1939

2. Attack on Dutch Harbor, Alaska June 3, 1942

1. Gallipoli April 25, 1915

Intense research and worldwide collaboration shows that beyond any doubt, these were the five most important battles of WWII. Shrouded with secrecy intended to deceive the casual researcher, these battles now unveiled, indicate that Allied victory was dependent on these five battles, without them, we would now all be speaking whatever language those crazy Ottomans spoke.

 

[XShipRider]

5. German occupation of the Channel Islands July 1st, 1940

4. Nomonhan: Japanese Soviet Tactical Combat, 1939

3. The Battle of Kelja December 25 - 27, 1939

2. Attack on Dutch Harbor, Alaska June 3, 1942

1. Gallipoli April 25, 1915

Intense research and worldwide collaboration shows that beyond any doubt, these were the five most important battles of WWII. Shrouded with secrecy intended to deceive the casual researcher, these battles now unveiled, indicate that Allied victory was dependent on these five battles, without them, we would now all be speaking whatever language those crazy Ottomans spoke.

Uhhhh... 1915 would have been WWI. If you're looking at it in the context
that WWI caused WWII then okay... I guess you can make a couple
of decade leap in logic.

 

[BodiSatva]

That whole post is considered HUMOR!

Haha, look at that list again from that perspective...

 

[LeftyHenry]

not to disagree much, but i would think that midway would have been the first.

yeah I agree Midway has to make the top 5.

The 5 turning points and impostant battles were as following:

(In order of importance)

1) Operation Overlord: D-Day
US, English, and Candian forces secured beaches in france which started the begining of the end for Hitler.

2) Stalingrad-Leningrad
First Nazi defeat and start of Red Army's long road to Berlin

3) Operation Torch
US forces land in N. Africa and start the decline of Rommel eventually leading to the invasion of Sicily and the liberation of Rome, the first capital to fall out of Nazi control

4.) Iwo Jima
US forces land on major Japanese island. Casualties of 100,000 convince Truman that mainland invasion which could have casualties of around 1,000,000 is not an option

5.) Midway
First turning point in war. American divebombers sink 4 of 10 Japanese aircraft carriers crippling a Japanese offensive on American homeland