Origins And Objectives Of The Crusades The Crusades were a series of military campaigns initiated between 1095 and 1291, primarily aimed at capturing or defending territories i...
8 August 1918 — Allied armies attack near Amiens and begin the sustained offensive sequence known as the Hundred Days. Improved coordination of artillery, infantry, tanks, aircraft and lo...
21 March 1918 — Germany launches Operation Michael, the first of several major offensives designed to win the war in the west before American manpower becomes overwhelming. Specialized as...
1915–1918 — Consumption of artillery shells and other matériel massively exceeds prewar assumptions. Governments intervene increasingly in factories, labor, transport and strategic materi...
6 September 1914 — French and British forces begin the counteroffensive known as the First Battle of the Marne. The German advance toward Paris is halted and German armies withdraw toward...
September–November 1914 — After the Marne, both sides repeatedly attempt to turn the other's flank. The maneuvering eventually reaches the North Sea and creates a largely continuous forti...
28 July–4 August 1914 — European armies activate enormous prearranged railway timetables to mobilize millions of soldiers. Military planners argue that delaying mobilization could allow a...
c. 2600–2500 BCE — Archaeology points toward organized Egyptian labor forces rather than armies of foreign slaves. Workers lived in settlements near Giza, received food and supplies and w...
10 July 1943 — Allied armies land on Sicily in Operation Husky after victory in North Africa. The invasion places direct military pressure on Fascist Italy and demonstrates that the Axis ...
23 August 1942 — German forces begin the major assault phase against Stalingrad while the wider German campaign pushes toward oil resources in the Caucasus. Fighting inside the city becom...
16 December 1944 — Germany launches a surprise offensive through the Ardennes in an attempt to split Allied armies and seize Antwerp. Initial German advances create a deep bulge in Allied...
24 August 1943 — Soviet armies begin a massive offensive toward the Dnieper River. German forces withdraw while attempting to create defensive positions along the river. Soviet troops est...
3 September 1939 — Britain and France declare war on Germany after Hitler refuses demands to withdraw from Poland. Governments that spent much of the 1930s attempting to prevent another c...
28 June 1942 — Germany launches its major summer offensive toward southern Russia and the Caucasus. Hitler seeks the oil resources of the Caucasus and control of the Volga region. German ...
8 May 1945 — Soviet armies finish the war occupying Poland, eastern Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and much of Central and Eastern Europe. Investigate whether the emerging Soviet sph...
1942–1945 senior Allied command — Eisenhower rises rapidly to become the principal American commander responsible for coalition operations in North Africa, the Mediterranean and ultimatel...
13 January 1945 — Soviet armies launch major operations into East Prussia. German civilians flee westward amid combat, fear of Soviet forces and collapsing evacuation systems. Fighting is...
22 June 1941 — SS and police killing units move behind German armies. Their operations rapidly expand from targeting Soviet officials toward systematic mass murder of Jewish communities. ...
March–November 1918 as Allied supreme commander — French General Ferdinand Foch receives increasingly broad authority to coordinate Allied armies during Germany's final offensives. He hel...
13 May 1940 — German forces cross the Meuse near Sedan after concentrated air attacks and rapid engineering operations. Armored formations then move west toward the Channel rather than di...
1 October 1941 — German supply systems struggle to sustain armies advancing hundreds of kilometers into Soviet territory. Roads deteriorate in autumn mud, rail gauges differ from German s...
1 July 1944 — As German armies retreat through Belarus and Poland, infrastructure, villages and transport networks are frequently destroyed. Nazi occupation has already inflicted enormous...
2 February 1943 — The last major German formations inside Stalingrad surrender. Approximately one of Germany's most powerful field armies has been destroyed or captured. The defeat has en...
10 May 1940 — Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Allied armies move north into Belgium expecting the principal German attack there. Instead, the decisive Ger...
28 June 1941 — German armored formations converge around Minsk and trap large Soviet forces. The rapid collapse of Soviet frontier armies demonstrates the effectiveness of German operatio...
19 November 1942 — Soviet armies attack Romanian and other Axis forces protecting the German flanks at Stalingrad. The offensive rapidly breaks through and Soviet spearheads meet west of ...
19 November 1942 — Soviet forces attack Axis armies guarding the flanks of the German position at Stalingrad. The offensive breaks through Romanian sectors and rapidly converges west of t...
23 August 1944 — King Michael leads a coup that removes Ion Antonescu and ends Romania's alliance with Germany. Romania soon joins the war against the Axis. Germany loses access to a key ...
5 December 1941 — Soviet forces launch a major counteroffensive against exhausted German armies near Moscow. Fresh formations, including troops transferred from eastern regions, push Germ...
24 June 1941 — Soviet authorities establish evacuation mechanisms to move factories, machinery and workers away from the advancing German armies. Thousands of industrial facilities are ev...
9 August 1945 — Soviet forces launch a massive offensive against the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria. The attack follows Soviet commitments made to the Western Allies and destroys Jap...
8 May 1945 — By the end of the war Soviet armies occupy large parts of Eastern and Central Europe. Stalin interprets political influence in this region as essential protection against fut...
19 February 1943 — German forces under Erich von Manstein begin a counteroffensive that retakes Kharkov after Soviet armies overextend following Stalingrad. The operation demonstrates tha...
Untitled22 June 1941 — Special SS and police formations move behind German armies entering the Soviet Union. Their mission quickly expands into mass shootings of Jewish communities, commu...
8 May 1945 — Germany's unconditional military surrender takes effect, ending the major European fighting. Much of the continent lies physically devastated and millions of people are displ...
12 January 1945 — Soviet armies launch a huge offensive from bridgeheads in Poland. German defenses collapse across much of the front. Soviet forces advance hundreds of kilometers in a ma...