In your opinion what was the turning point in world war II?

Question

Was it D-Day, the Battle of Alamein, Pearl Harbor, or the Battle of Midway? And Why?

Answer 1

The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point because after that there would be no more major german victories on the eastern front.

Answer 2

I think you have to look at it in 2 ways . The one would be against Germany and Italy and the second with Japan. In scene 1 I look at Alamein because German forces in North Africa were retreating and North Africa was lost. We must look at the same time the Battle of Stalingrad where the Germans were fighting a near stalemate with the Red Army with no end in sight.Without significant additions in the military arsenal the Germans were in a winless situation. The turning point in the war in the Pacific is Midway because the Japanese navy would not have the effectiveness it had before Midway and the island hopping began for the Americans which would eventually end at Okinawa in 1945 and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We must also look at Pearl Harbor because the Japanese did not finish the job there although they did cause plenty of damage and death.Without destroying only a part of the fleet and neglecting the oil supplies the Americans were crippled but not eliminated. Japan had awakened a sleeping giant. It also gave the Russians the Lend Lease the British were getting as early in 1940. It was a combination of a couple of arenas that turned the war around for the Allies.

Answer 3

The turning point in World War II was the Battle of the Kursk (Operation Zitadelle). In the preparation for this battle alone, the Germans fielded close to a million troops, ten-thousand field artillery pieces, more than a thousand tanks, and five hundred aircrafts. This roughly corresponds to about a third of the entire German military strength. A few hours before the eve of the battle, General Guderian (Inspector General of the German Armed Forces) made this celebrated remark that went straight into the history books: "If this whole agglomeration of strength... If this colossal and awesome might of German military power could not beat the Russians... Then nothing ever will." As it happened, the Germans lost the battle. The Kursk battle started in the 4th of July 1943, and ended a week later. After this defeat, General Guderian sadly confided to his aide "Germany already lost the war". And rightly as he had spoken, the Germans were later forced to fight in a constant retreat ever since, slowly losing every ground of Russian soil that they gained in the previous two years of the German invasion. The Allied landing at Normandy is still more than a year away after the Kursk battle. But at this moment, the prospects of German defeat is already a reality.

Answer 4

Many turning points in different theatres.

El Alamein in N Africa
Midway in the Pacific
Stalingrad in the East
Breakout at Normandy in the West
The advent of Escort Carriers and Hunter Killer Groups in the Atlantic(U-Boat War)

Italy had no turning point, it was a hard slugfest till the end. Anzio if executed properly might have been that, but alas it was not.

China too had no real turning point but as in SE Asia a bitter struggle till surrender.

The Atom Bombs were a coup d'grace not a coup d'maine, just as the Battle of the Bulge or Kursk

Military History.com has some good articles on these important actions and what they in turn lead to.

Ret. USAF SNCO

Answer 5

There were several. The seige at Stalingrad where the Soviets stopped the German advance, the battle of Britain, where the British people held out against the Luftwaffe and denied Germany the air superiority needed to invade, the second battle of El Alamein, where the German advance in North Africa was turned around, forcing them to retreat to Tunisia and denying them access to the oil fields of the middle east, and Midway where the Japanese navy were first defeated.

Answer 6

The attack on pearl harbor sealed defeat for the Japanese and Germans because of the US capabilities in production and manpower. Even Yamamoto knew that Japan could not beat the US and had the Japs waited another year or so perhaps Hitler could have finished off Britain. That could have delayed things but without a means to attack the US the foreign powers never had a chance.

Answer 7

In the Pacific Theater of Operations, the turning point is considered to have been the Battle of Midway, 4JUN42. In the European Theater of Operations, The D-Day Invasion, or Battle of Normandy,6JUN44 would be considered the turning point.

Answer 8

Operation Barbarosa i.e. Hitler attacking Russia in Summer and their inability to annihilate Red Army by the time cruel winter set foot. Most of the people here don't realize that Russians single handedly defeated the germans on the eastern front during that battle at the time when Germans had upper hand in the west. Thank god he committed that blunder of dividing his forces and attacking Russians which ultimately let to capture of his 1 million troops.

Answer 9

In Europe, on the western front, the battle of the Bulge seemed to be the decisive battle that assured success over the third Reich !

In the Pacific, the battle of Saipan is said to have been the turning point in the war against Japan.

Answer 10

For the European side, it is the answer of the Germans losing at Stalingrad.

For the Pacific side, it is the answer of the Battle of Midway.