In your opinion, what was the most pivotal battle in WWII, and why?

Question

you can differentiate between the two fronts: Atlantic and Pacific, since the dynamics were so different. so you can name one battle for each front.

Answer 1

The battle for Stalingrad. It basically started the demise of the German Army. The Germans tried to invade Russia without the proper equipment and their advance through Europe was halted at this point. Opening a second front was a big mistake on Germany's part, it committed a great deal of their army to the conquest of Russia and did not accomplish it objective, access to the oil fields in southern Russia, that the Germans desperately needed to continue the war. After their defeat, Germany was mostly in the defensive.
On the Pacific, the battle of Midway, in which the bulk of Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk or damaged. It also stopped the expansion of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific. From that point on, the Japanese had to be on the defensive, not in the offensive.

Answer 2

There were more fronts than just the Atlantic and the Pacific.
In the Pacific it was probably Midway which destroyed the Jap ability to move their forces around the different battle zones.
On the Atlantic front it was probably Operation Overlord , the invasion of Western Europe by the Allies.
In North Africa it was the Battle of El Alamein which started the destruction of Axis forces in North Africa.
On the Eastern Front it was the Battle of Stalingrad which showed that the Soviet army could destroy the Germans.

Answer 3

I yield to no man or woman....or even Alien Life Forms........in my admiration for the US Military past present and future and for what they have done....

but having read and studied extensively for 35 years the WW2 campaigns.........I've gotta go with the Soviet stand against the Germans in 1942 culminating at Stalingrad.....with something like 80% of the German war effort in the East, Ike would NEVER have gotten ashore at Normandy if the whole German Army, freed of Russia had been waiting for him....

in the Pacific, Midway is an obvious choice; let me submit the Solomons Campaign, especially the fight for Guadacanal as the turning point......this was the first time the Americans and Japanese had gone at it toe to toe on both land and sea.....and over a six month 13 sea battle 4 land fight campaign slugging match where no quarter was asked or given the Japanese, for the first time since 1936 were stopped dead and then driven back.

Answer 4

Stalingrad;
Nanking;
Normandy;
Iwo Jima;

In that order. Each of these battles defined the nature of the fighting on their respective front and set down new strategies and politics that still haunt us to this day.

At Stalingrad the Nazis were finally stopped and from here were put on the defensive.

At Nanking the Japanese brutality galvanized Chinese forces into opposition. They stopped fighting each other and turned all their energy towards the Japanese.

Normandy brought the western Allies into the war and turned the battle against the Nazis into a legitmate multi-front war.

The resistance at Iwo Jima galvanized the American belief that to actually invade Japan would have meant a bloodbath on the scale the world had never known, hence the employment of both the atomic and fire bombing campaigns.

Answer 5

In the pacific, the most important battle was Midway. In the Atlantic, the most important battle was Normandy.
"The Battle of Midway, fought over and near the tiny U.S. mid-Pacific base at Midway atoll, represents the strategic high water mark of Japan's Pacific Ocean war. Prior to this action, Japan possessed general naval superiority over the United States and could usually choose where and when to attack. After Midway, the two opposing fleets were essentially equals, and the United States soon took the offensive.

Japanese Combined Fleet commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto moved on Midway in an effort to draw out and destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet's aircraft carrier striking forces, which had embarassed the Japanese Navy in the mid-April Doolittle Raid on Japan's home islands and at the Battle of Coral Sea in early May. He planned to quickly knock down Midway's defenses, follow up with an invasion of the atoll's two small islands and establish a Japanese air base there. He expected the U.S. carriers to come out and fight, but to arrive too late to save Midway and in insufficient strength to avoid defeat by his own well-tested carrier air power.

Yamamoto's intended surprise was thwarted by superior American communications intelligence, which deduced his scheme well before battle was joined. This allowed Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, to establish an ambush by having his carriers ready and waiting for the Japanese. On 4 June 1942, in the second of the Pacific War's great carrier battles, the trap was sprung. The perserverance, sacrifice and skill of U.S. Navy aviators, plus a great deal of good luck on the American side, cost Japan four irreplaceable fleet carriers, while only one of the three U.S. carriers present was lost. The base at Midway, though damaged by Japanese air attack, remained operational and later became a vital component in the American trans-Pacific offensive" (History.navy.mil, 2007).

The battle of Normandy was historical because before then the Germans had control of Europe. After the Allies beat them there the Germans were majorally on the defensive. If the Germans would have won there the allies would have had to sign a treaty and also give the other Eisenhower speach which talked of a defeat and soldiers deaths. This battle could have gone either way. Hitler thought the allies would land farther down the coast so he kept his other 100,000 men and tanks there. If Hitler would have moved the tanks onto the beach at Normandy to repel the invasion, Germany would have won the battle. After this battle, Germany was significantly weakened and could do nothing to stop the allies.

Answer 6

For the Pacific Theater of Operations, or PTO, the battle that really turned the tide against the Japanese was the battle of Guadalcanal, because now the United States had an airfield from which it could mount sorties against Japanese convoys, fortifications, etc. In the ETO, there were many battles that could be called decisive, so I'll leave that to you.

Answer 7

in Europe it was Stalingrad. This decimated the German army

in the Pacific a lot of people would say Midway, i would probably agree, however Pearl Harbor would have to be the pivotal battle. The Japanese HAD to destroy the US fleet in that battle in order to have any chance of victory -- they did not, which would really have to be a pivotal cause for their defeat.

Answer 8

i'm somewhat looking forward to this Ashes sequence and definitely have not thoroughly written the Aussies off. regardless of the undeniable fact that England ought to bypass into the sequence as overwhelming favourites through present day style and the undeniable fact that the sequence is being performed in England. I reckon Chris Rogers would be slightly a dismal horse as he knows the situations over right here exceedingly plenty. good to work out some friendly banter flying around between the two gadgets of supporters too!

Answer 9

The Battle of Britain, as if the Germans had occupied Britain it would have been nearly impossible for all the future battles to take place

The Battle of Midway broke the superiority of the Japanese Fleet.

Answer 10

Battle of the Bulge. The entire American 101st airborne division was surrounded by German forces. The Germans were defeated, therefore they were low on resources to defend Germany and the German Army's morale was very low after this battle.