List of battles 1901-forward
List of battles - List of battles before AD 601 - List of battles 601-1400 - List of battles 1401-1800 - List of battles 1801-1900 - List of battles 1901-2000 - List of battles 2001-2100
Major Battles of the Twentieth Century
Before 1914
1914-1919 - WWI
- 1914 Liège August 4 - 17 - Germans invade Belgium;
start of World War I
- 1914 Battle of the Frontiers August 7 - September 4 - Germans invade France:
- 1914 Battle of
Stalluponen August 17 - First battle on the Eastern Front in World War I
- 1914 Battle of Gumbinnen August 19 - 20 - Russians defeat German Eighth Army, advance to river Vistula
- 1914 Tannenberg August 26 - Samsonov's Russian Second Army encircled and destroyed by the German
Eighth Army
- 1914 Battle of Heligoland Bight August 28 - First
major naval engagement of World War I - heavy German losses
- 1914 First
Battle of the Marne September 5 - 9 - German invasion of France halted by Allies
- 1914 First Battle of the Masurian Lakes September 9 - 14 - German Eighth Army defeats Rennenkampf's Russian First Army
- 1914 Battle of Antwerp September 28
- 1914 First
Ypres October 31 - November
22 - Early trench warfare; "Kindermord bei Ypern"
- 1914 Battle of Coronel
November 1 - Admiral Graf Spee defeats Admiral Cradock
- 1914 Battle of Tanga
November 3 - November 5,
Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck defeats General
Arthur Aitken in German East Africa
- 1914 Battle of Lodz November 11 - Russians take city, lose it on December 6
- 1914 Battle of Cracow November 16 - heavy casualties to
Austria and Russia
- 1914 Battle of Lowicz November 30 - December 17 - Russians take city
- 1914 Battle of Kolubara December 3 - 6 - Serbians drive out Austrians
- 1914 Battle of Falkland Islands December 8 -
British defeat Admiral Graf Spee
- 1915 Battle of
Dogger Bank January 24 - Admiral Beatty drives off Vice-Admiral Hipper's raiding
force, sinks Blucher
- 1915 Battle of
Gallipoli February 19 to January 8, 1916 The Allied powers attempt a failed frontal assault on the
Ottoman Empire
- 1915 Second
Ypres April 22 - May 25 Germans use
poison gas
- 1915 Battle of Loos September 25 - 28
- 1916 Battle of Verdun
February 21 - December Five-month battle kills 700,000
- 1916 Battle of Jutland
May 31 - last engagement of the German High Seas Fleet
- 1916 Brusilov
offensive June - Russia nearly collapses Austria but losses are staggering
- 1916 Battle of
Mouquet Farm
- 1916 Battle of the Somme July - Four month battle, bloodiest in the first World War
- 1916 Battle of Romani
August 3 - Turkish advance on Suez Canal defeated
- 1916 Battle of
Magdhaba December 23 - Capture of Turkish garrison in the Sinai
- 1917 Battle of Rafa January 9 - Capture of Turkish garrison in the Sinai
- 1917 First Battle of
Gaza March 26 - British fail to advance into Palestine
- 1917 Vimy Ridge April 9 - Canada's finest hour
- 1917 Second Battle
of Gaza April 19 - Turkey repels British assault on Gaza-Beersheba line
- 1917 Passchendaele July 31 - also known as Third Battle of Ypres. Three-month battle costs Britain 400,000
- 1917 Battle of
Caporetto October 24 - Also known as the Twelfth Battle
of the Isonzo - Italians defeated by Central Powers, driven back to Venice
- 1917 Third Battle of
Gaza October 31 - British break Turkish defensive line in southern
Palestine
- 1917 Battle of Cambrai
November 20 - December 7 -
First successful use of tanks
- 1918 Battle of Tampere March 8 - April 6 in Finnish Civil War
- 1918 Battle of Cantigny May 28 - US First Division wins in first
independent action
- 1918 Battle of
Belleau Wood June 25 - US Second Division Marines capture woods
- 1918 Battle of Hamel
July 4 - Australian success with departure from massed frontal assaults
- 1918 Second Battle of the Marne July 15 - 18 - Allies halt four month German drive
- 1918 Battle of Chateau Thierry July 18
- 1918 Battle of Amiens
August - British force Germans to Hindenburg line
- 1918 Megiddo September 19 - Allenby's British
crush Ottoman army
- 1918 Battle of
Meuse Argonne Forest, September 26-November 11 - Largest AEF action of war; Allied victory. (In it, October 8, Cpl. Alvin York, outnumbered 19:1, leads capture of
German machine-gun nest)
- 1918 Battle of the
Sambre November 4
- 1918 Battle of Vittoria Veneto
- 1919 Defence of Lwów - city besieged by the Ukrainian forces
1920-1938
1939-1945
Second World War
- 1939 Battle of Halhin
Gol
- 1939 Poland September 1 - October 6 - Start of World War II
in Europe (see: Polish September Campaign for
details)
- 1939 Battle
of the River Plate December 13 - Admiral Graf Spee chased into Montevideo harbour and scuttled
- 1939 Battle of
Suomussalmi December 8 - January 7, 1940 - Winter
War
- 1939 Battle of
Tolvajärvi December 12 - Winter War
- 1940 - 1945 Battle of the Atlantic- the name given to the
conflicts in the Atlantic Ocean throughout World War II.
- 1940 Battle of
Honkaniemi February 26 - Only tank action of the Winter War.
- 1940 Battle of Narvik
April 9 - June 10 - A minor Allied
victory in the arctic.
- 1940 Battle at the Afsluitdijk May 10 - May 14
- 1940 Battle of France
May 9 - May 15 - Germany take France,
Expeditionary Force and French Army Defeated
- 1940 Battle of Dunkirk
May 27 - June 5 - Escape of defeated British
Expeditonary Force
- 1940 Battle of Britain
July 9 - October 31 Germans try to
bomb Britain into submission - RAF answers with fighters
- 1940 Battle of Taranto
November 11-November 12 -
British carrier based planes destroy Italian fleet in Taranto Harbor.
- 1940 Battle of Hundred Regiments - Major engagement of the Red Army against the Japanese Imperial Army in August and September.
- 1941 Battle of
Cape Matapan March 28 - British fleet defeats Italian fleet.
- 1941 Battle
of Denmark Strait May 23 - Bismarck sinks HMS Hood
- 1941 Battle of Greece
April 6 - April 24 - Germany takes the
Balkan Peninsula after Italian Stalemate.
- 1941 Battle of Crete
May 20 - June 1 - Paratroops capture Crete,
suffer many casualties.
- 1941 Operation
Barbarossa June 22 - German invasion of the Soviet Union
- 1941-1942 Battle of Moscow Soviet defenders drive back German Army Group Centre
- 1941 Battle of
Pearl Harbor December 7 - Japanese destroy US Fleet in surprise attack
- 1941 Battle of
Singapure December 10 - Japanese torpedo craft sunk HMS Prince of Wales
and HMS Repulse.
- 1942 Battle of Macassar Strait January - US and Dutch forces attack Japanese convoy
- 1942 Dražgoše January 9 - First frontal engagement
on Slovenian soil with the German occupier
- 1942 Battle of
the Java Sea February 4 - March
1 Japanese wipe out Allied naval squadron
- 1942 Japanese Raids into Indian Ocean March 31 -
Japanese Raids against the British Eastern Fleet. Heavy British losses.
- 1942 Battle of Corregidor April 9 - General Wainwright's troops surrender, forced on Bataan Death March
- 1942 Battle of Nanos April 18 - 800 Italian soldiers lay siege to
50 Slovene partisans.
- 1942 Battle of
the Coral Sea May 4 - US loses USS Lexington; Japanese win tactically but lose strategically.
- 1942 Battle of Midway
June 3 - US loses USS
Yorktown; Japanese lose four aircraft carriers
- 1942 Convoy PQ-17 - 27 ships
leave Iceland on June 17 for Murmansk – on July 5 10 ships reach
Murmansk
- 1942 First Battle of El Alamein July 1 - British Eighth
Army stops Rommel's Axis forces invading Egypt
- 1942 Battle of
Sevastopol July 2 - Captured by Germans after eight month siege
- 1942 Battle of
Changsha - Chinese claim victory over Japanese
- 1942 Battle of
Guadalcanal August 8 - Beginning of Allied action in Solomon Islands
- 1942 Battle of Savo
Island August 9 - Japanese sink four US cruisers
- 1942 Battle of Dieppe
August 19 - "Operation Jubilee" was an Allied attack on the German occupied port
of Dieppe in France. Allied Failure ,Information used for D-Day.
- 1942 Battle of
Stalingrad August 22 - February
2, 1943 - City besieged by Paulus' German Sixth Army; from November 23 the Sixth
Army is surrounded and destroyed by Soviets; bloodiest battle in history, 1.8 millions dead approx.
- 1942 Battle of the Eastern Solomons August 24 -
Japanese aircraft carrier Ryuho sunk
- 1942 Battle of Milne
Bay, Papua New Guinea August 25
- 1942 Battle of Bloody Ridge September 12
- 1942 Battle
of Cape Esperance October 11 - near Guadalcanal
- 1942 Second Battle of El Alamein October 23 -
November 4 - Montgomery's Eighth Army forces Rommel out of
Egypt
- 1942 Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands October
25 - near Guadalcanal, USS Hornet sunk, but Japanese withdraw
victorious
- 1942 Operation Torch
November 17 - Allied landings in North Africa
- 1942 Naval Battle of Guadalcanal November 12 -
US defeats Japan. Turning Point
- 1942 Battle of
Tassafaronga November 30 - off Guadalcanal
- 1943 Battle of Osankarica January 8 - Over 200
Germans massacred all 69 men and women of the Pohorje battalion. Germans lost 19 men and had 31 wounded
- 1943 Battle
of Rennell Island January 29-30 - Japanese bombers sink a cruiser
- 1943 Battle of
Guadalcanal February 8 - Allies take the island
- 1943 Battle of the Kasserine Pass February 14 -
25 - Battle between US and German armored forces in Tunisia
- 1943 Battle of Bismarck Sea March 2 - US sinks Japanese
transports
- 1943 Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising April 18 - 5000 Jews and 5000 Germans die, Jews confined
- 1943 Battle of Castle Turjak September 19 -
Slovene partisans took the castle guarded by the Slovene village sentries
- 1943 Battle of Kursk July -
Germans attack Kursk salient at Orel and Belgorod; Russians drive them back; arguably the largest tank battle ever fought. Heavy
Looses
- 1943 Raid on
Schweinfurt October 14- The greatest Air battle among the Luftwaffe and the
USAF. The famous Air Battle known as "Black Thursday."
- 1944 Battle of
Cisterna January 29- Part of Operation Shingle- the 1st, 3rd, and 4th US Army Ranger battalions
attempted to capture the town of Cisterna.
- 1944 Battle of
Monte Cassino May 11 - 18
- 1944 Battle of
Normandy June 6 - August 25 -
Allies invade northern France across the Normandy beaches (Operation Overlord); hard fighting from Cherbourg to Caen; Germans surrounded and destroyed at
Falaise
- 1944 Battle
of Philippine Sea June 19 - Major carrier battle; US lose 123 planes and destroy
315 Japanese planes
- 1944 Marianas Campaign
- US invasions of Saipan, June 15, Guam July 21, and Tinian July 24
- 1944 Operation
Bagration June 22 - Eastern Front - Soviet offensive destroys German Army Group
Center.
- 1944 Battle of
Fontenay June 25
- 1944 Battle of
Tali-Ihantala June 25 - July 10 -
Finnish stop Soviet offensive
- 1944 Warsaw Uprising
August 1 - October 5 - 20.000 armed
Poles against 55.000 Wehrmacht and SS. City
destroyed in 90%, more than 250.000 casualties.
- 1944 Operation Dragoon
(a.k.a. Operation Anvil) August 15 - Allied invasion of Southern France
- 1944 Battle of Peleliu
September 17 - A fight to capture an airstrip on a speck of coral in the
western Pacific.
- 1944 Battle of Arnhem
September 17 - 26 -
The major battle of Operation Market Garden; Allies
reach but fail to cross the Rhine; British First Airborne Division destroyed
- 1944 Hürtgen
Forest October 6 - Stubborn German defence, appalling loses to US army
- 1944 Battle of Aachen-
October. Aachen was the first major German city to face invasion during WW II.
- 1944 Battle of Leyte
Gulf October 23 - 26 -
The largest air-sea battle in history.
- 1944 Operation Queen November 16
- 1944 Battle of Monte Castello November 25 -
February 12, 1945 - Brazilian troops
fight Germans in Italy
- 1944 Battle of the
Bulge December 16 - January
27, 1945 - German counterattack in Ardennes; General McAuliffe says "NUTS" at
Bastogne
- 1945 Operation Elephant January 26 - Allied offensive in
Netherlands
- 1945 Battle of Mindanao March 10 - US invasion of the
Philippines
- 1945 Battle of Iwo
Jima March 26 - After a month, US takes the island
- 1945 Operation Varsity
March 17 - 134 Allied gliders land troops in Weisel
- 1945 Battle of Berlin
April 26 - May 2 - Soviet forces encircle
and capture German capital; Hitler commits suicide
- 1945 Battle of Triest April 30 - May 2 - British army and Yugoslav capture the city
- 1945 Battle of Poljana - Last battle of World War II in
Europe
- 1945 Battle of Okinawa
June 21 - US takes Japanese Island in the Ryukyus; many casualties to both
sides.
After 1945
- 1948 Israeli War of Independence - State of Israel established on May 14; war with Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan, Egypt and Iraq; many Arab refugees
- 1950 Battle of Inchon
September 14 - UN retakes South Korea, reaches Seoul in 12 days
- 1950 Battle of Chosin Reservoir November 27
- 1951 Battle of Kapyong
Chinese offensive halted April 23
- 1951 Battle of Heartbreak Ridge September 23 - After 37 days, heights fall to UN
- 1954 Battle of
Dien Bien Phu - France loses Indochina when besieged here, from 1953 (First Indochina War)
- 1956 Battle of Suez - Britain, France,
Israel attempt to retake canal, Ike says No
- 1961 Bay of Pigs
Invasion - US-backed attempt to capture Cuba
- 1962 Battle of Namka Chun - Chinese-Indian War
- 1967 Six Day War June 5 - 10 - Israel defeats Egypt, Jordan and
Syria, occupies Golan Heights, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula
- 1968 Tet Offensive January 30 - North Vietnam loses militarily but turns the tide of US opinion against
the war
- 1968 Battle of Khe
Sanh February 5
- 1969 Football War July 14 - Between El Salvador and Honduras
- 1971 Battle of
Longewala December 5 - Bangladesh Liberation War.Decisive Indian Victory.
- 1973 Yom Kippur War October 6 - Deadlock between Israel and Egypt (loss of the east bank of the Suez, and
loss of the Barlev defense line, the best in known history) and defeat of Syria in Golan. See also Battle of Latakia
- 1975 Indonesia invades East Timor December 7
- 1982 Falklands War April 2 - June 14 - Britain recaptures Falkland
Islands from Argentina
- 1982 Operation Peace for Galilee - Israeli invasion of Lebanon June 6
- 1983 Operation
Urgent Fury October 25 - US invasion of Grenada
- 1989 Operation Just
Cause December 20 - US invasion of Panama
- 1991 Operation
Desert Storm February - Coalition forces eject Iraq from Kuwait
- 1993 Battle of Mogadishu October 3 - Policing
mission gone wrong, US soldiers trapped against militia in a populated city
- First Chechen War 1994
- May 27, 1996
- 1994 Afghanistan's Islamic State of Afghanistan (United Front) ousted by Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban).
- 1995 The fall of Manerplaw in the war
between the Burma Army and the
KNU
- Second Chechen War started in 1999, ongoing
- Balkan Crisis War in
Yugoslavia
-This article has been brought to you by BambooWeb and Wikipedia-
