Most Interesting WW2 Battle

You make a very good point T.W, and for me most intresting would be Arnhem, Cassino, Imphal, Kohima, Iwo Jima, and Kokoda. There are some more but these come to mind at present

 

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the title, and I completely agree.

However in the spirit of the "Best" and "favourite" threads I would say any commando raid throughout the war, the sheer bravery to go behind enemy lines, then hoping to get home again.

 

I have to say the battle of Guadalcanal. Turning point in the Pacific.

 

Thread name changed to "Most Interesting WW2 Battle" due to "favourite" being distasteful and disrespectful to those who fought regardless of country, creed, colour or religion.

 

Well, they were certainly hero's to their army and their men. They were mostly just soldiers doing their duty for each other in battle trying to survive. Like in all armies..

 

There's really something I'd like to say about this little post, but doing so will probably get me banned or worse P_minigun:

 

I believe you have it confused with Midway?...

 

No, I'm not confused. It gave us a strong foothold in the south pacific and secured the lifeline to Australia. Japans first expulsion from a conqured territory. The turning point, IMO.

 

CEvans,

A good Texan representing his state!!

Good to see you mentioned San Pietro and The Rapido River. The proud 36th fought some terrible battles under a terrible army commander.... Clark.

Germans had a defensive hold and it seems these guys fought uphill all the time. The attached Goumiers, helped alot.

Read an account a while back in The 36th Newsletter, a new replacment reported to his new outfit at the height of the San Pietro battle. He said so much around the clock artillery fire, you could read at night.

Hope you had a good visit with Mrs. Willey and all is well.

Best Regards To All

 

Hi Steve, more than glad to have mentioned those Battles involving the 36th I.D and Greg Wiley ;-)) I thought they got the "short end of the stick (by that ) prickley pear of an Army commander. I never liked Mark Clark. That guy was throwing away lives needlessly to say the least.

I did have a great visit with Mrs. Wiley. We didn't have a lot of time we could spare to spend with her but, I was was pleased to see that she had a few choice photos of Greg on the wall of her Livingroom ;-)) I didn't get to ask her but had intended on doing so-to see if she would be willing to have a few copies of some of Gregs WWII pics made. Millie is now living in a pretty nice retirement home in San Antonio, but it was great to hear that she stays very active and also visits her Daughter often ;-)) Thanks to mille, I also for the first time, got to taste some "real" Italian Ice Cream. Oh and it was so good to say the least ;-))

Speaking of Infantry Divisions, I was a bit taken aback when we drove down a section of the highway that had signs that said "X" amount of miles of this highway, was dedicated to the 90th Infantry Division. I had forgotten that that Division was mostly made up of men from here in Texas as well as from Oklahoma-which means that a lot of them were either full-blooded or had some amount of Cherokee Indian blood, running through their veins ;-)) I mention this because im also part Cherokee ;-))

 

Hi Carl,

Good to hear about your visit. I have her daughters e mail if you want it.

I'll bet we saw the same collection of photos and letters. Patti had it with her when we met a while back.

A note about he 90th ID. Studied the battles of the brave members of our small church KIA during WW 2. There were 4 men KIA one being my uncle. The only one brought back to the States for burial was from the 90 ID, 357th Regiment. Killed in a Causeway on June 12, 1944 just up from Utah Beach. Above our altar is a huge, detailed cross dedicated to him in 1945.

Best Regards

 

Now that the thread title has been altered, I'm OK with contributing to it....

To me, Arnhem/Oosterbeek due mainly to the enormous number of personal accounts available, enabling the reader to follow the entire battle almost step-by-step.

And the fighting in the Falaise Pocket - endlessly fascinating, for some reason.

Not really a battle, as such - but I also have to include the Dam Busters raid.....

 

Kursk is particularly noteworthy as it was the largest armored battle ever fought. It began on July 4, 1943, and was as one German General put it, "independence day for America, and the beginning of the end for Germany."

Kursk area at his time was a large pocket/salient behind the German lines (to the West). For the Germans this was of course a very bad thing since attacks coming out of it threatened the entire German eastern front with collapse, due to the necessity of defending the German flanks and rear. Manstein had a good plan ready in the springtime 1943 to cut off the pocket, destroy it, and in so doing shorten the German front line to where it was supposed to be. If Mansteins's plan had been immediately carried out that spring it would probably have succeeded, but Hitler dilly-dallied away the time window.

The Russians realized the value of the Kursk pocket and continued to feed men and tanks into it all through the spring and early summer, while at the same time building up its defensive lines. By summer there were 9 rows of defenses - anti tank ditches, mine fields, hidden guns, and so on - and the defensive lines were spaced miles apart. Manstein again had a good plan ready but again Hitler vacillated on the decision to attack, giving the Russians even more time to strengthen the Russian forces at Kursk (the Russians knew every move the German OKH and OKW made or planned to make - because they were being fed decrypted Ultra/Enigma messages, courtesy of the British.)

By June, German reconnaissance of Kursk's defenses had revealed things so ominous that most of Hitler's Generals urged him to simply drop the Kursk offensive and attack elsewhere, or not at all. But Hitler thought that there was a chance the new German weapons such as the Panther tank and Elephant self propelled gun might be battle-winners - so he waited for them to be ready until ordering the attack to begin. For this battle the Russians had 1.3 million men, 3,600 tanks and 3,000 aircraft; Germany had 900,000 men, 3,000 tanks and 2,100 aircraft. On July 4 the German assault started and made some very slow progress in certain sectors. Losses on both sides were huge as the Germans tried mightily to pinch closed the Kursk salient in this last and greatest of all Kesselschlacht (cauldron battles).


Ultimately Hitler was forced to call off the attack due to two factors, the allies landed American and British forces in Sicily (Hitler immediately had to transfer several division there from the Ostfront, ultimately to no effect at all) and the Soviets launched a powerful counteroffensive to the south of the southern German pincer force, that German forces were now insufficiently strong to resist.

 

for me it's
1.stalingrad
2.tobruk
3.el alamein
4.kursk
5.normandy
6.monte cassino
7.iwo jima
8.kohima
9.guadalcanal
10.midway

 

Operation Tidal Wave, 1 Aug 1943 low level (tree top really) long range B-24 raid on Ploesti oil refineries.

Battle of the Bismark Sea.

Kokoka Track, 1942.

Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Chindit operations in Burma.

 

Invasion of the Alaskan islands... Eskimos shooting at Jap submarines makes a great story.

But seriously, Guadalcanal and Tarawa cause my grandpa was there. Pelilui, Saipan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa.

St. Lo, Crete, Anzio,

Struggle for Moskau... the Germans were sooo close.

 

Still dunkirk/battle of france, same reasons as martin but also the politicking at all levels.

 

My favorite Battle Was the Battle for Stalingrad, the Germans were plowing though everbody then the soldiers or Stalingrad held off the 3rd reich like no other. Using what little they advantages they had. If you like war movies I suggest seeing Enemy At The Gates very good movie, even though there was no left handed Mosin Nagant as on the cover.

 

Kursk

 

Battle of France. The overwhelming odds and skill, strategy, and speed of the Wehrmacht advance was just absolutely incredible. France, at the time, was considered to have one of the most formidable armies in the world. Many Wehrmacht officers thought the idea of an invansion of France was utterly impossible. Instead, the result of low French morale, dis-organization in leadership, the idea that tanks should play a supporting role to infantry, and overall poor coordination led to France's demise. Then, as an act of humiliation, Hitler has the same railcar brought to the same location where the 1918 German surrender took place.

What's also interesting is the same amazing victory that Germany had achieved would ultimate lead to their downfall, by the Dunkirk incident and Hitler's obsession with controlling his Generals and not permitting them to finish the BEF & Allies off. These same evacuated troops would take place in the Allied invasion of Germany, thus opening up a the long-awaited "2nd Front" in the west.

You couldn't write fiction this good...