This document provides an overview of key events and battles in World War 2, including intelligence efforts between Allied forces, details of major battles like Stalingrad and Leningrad, profiles of key military leaders, conferences that shaped Allied strategy, and milestones like the end of the war in Europe. It focuses on the European theater and includes photos, facts, and excerpts on topics like codebreaking, convoy operations, hunter-killer tactics against U-boats, and major turning points on the Eastern and Western Fronts.

1. List of WWII Battles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_engagements_of_World_War_II

3. How Speed Defeats a U-Boat Montegue Dawson Oil on canvas The Mariners' Museum

4. U- 177 (Type IXD/2) Running on the Surface, circa 1942 Courtesy of Horst Bredow

5. U-Boat Transmitting Center Ashore in France, 1944 Courtesy of Horst Bredow

6. U.S. Navy Signalsmen Monitoring Enemy Radio Transmissions in the Atlantic, 1944 U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

7. Allied Convoy in the Atlantic, 1942 U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

8. Convoy System

9. Allied Intelligence Churchill and Roosevelt knew the importance of intelligence in safeguarding Allied commerce to defeat the Axis powers. The Anglo-American Allies shared information derived from newly developed technologies like RADAR and High Frequency Radio Direction Finding (HF/DF or "huff duff"). RADAR provided a means of detecting vessels and aircraft above the surface HF/DF was used to locate the sources of enemy radio transmissions such as submarines. Working together, British and American trackers exploited special intelligence to locate Axis forces with extreme precision. Allied intelligence leaders began sharing code-breaking secrets, known as " very special intelligence" and classified under cover-names like "ULTRA" and "MAGIC".

10. Enigma System in which Germany transferred their information through codes Solving the Enigma system remains one of the great Allied triumphs of World War II During periods when Allied cryptanalysts were unable to solve Enigma, U-boats caused great damage to Anglo-American commerce

12. Enigma

13. Bombe

14. Atlantic Battlefront

15. Hunter-Killers Hunter-Killers Chasing down an Axis Submarine—USS Pillsbury (DE 133) and USS Guadalcanal (CVE 60) U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

16. Depth Charges Bomb Bay Showing Depth Bombs and Sonobuoys inside a TBF "Avenger" U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

17. Allied Hunter-Killer Escorts Conducting a Depth Charge Attack on a U-Boat U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

18. Hunter-Killer Grumman TBF "Avenger" Configured for Antisubmarine Warfare U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

19. U-Tanker U- 118 under Attack by U.S. Navy Aircraft, November 5, 1943 U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

20. Watch the Capture of U-505 The Battle of the Atlantic: Allied Naval Intelligence in World War II

21. Hunter-Killer Grumman TBF "Avenger" Preparing to Launch U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

22. Operation Barbarosa The greatest land war in recorded history began at 3:30 a.m. on June 22, 1941. The initial German front was 995 miles long, and there was another 620 miles along the Finnish border. The main front would soon expand to 1490 miles and extend to a depth of over 600 miles. In to this great space of steppe, forest and swamp marched the best of the German Army, amounting to three quarters of it's field strength. By the end of the year, 3,500,000 Red Army soldiers were in captivity and 4,000,000 had died in battle. At one time the Germans occupied some 900,000 square miles of Soviet territory.

23. German Wehrmacht(Army) German Army in USSR was split: 1. Army Group North whose main goal was Leningrad 2. Army Group Centre whose main goal was Moscow 3. Army Group South whose main goals were Rostov, the Caucasus Mts, the Crimean Peninsula and Stalingrad

24. Hitler’s drive to the Caucasus

25. Battle of Stalingrad

27. Operation Uranus : German 6th Army Trapped in Stalingrad November 19, 1942 - February 6, 1943

28. Operation Winter Storm : Attempt to Relieve 6th Army Battle of Stalingrad: December 12-18, 1942

29. Soviet Pursuit After Stalingrad... German Counteroffensive January 13 - March 26, 1943

33. “ By any measure the battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest, arguably the largest single battle in human history. It raged for 200 days. More than 100,000 German and Axis troops died during the first phase of the battle in 1942 alone. More than 100,000 Romanians, and 87,000 Italians perished when the Soviets launched their counter-offensive. After that, another 300,000 Germans were killed or captured when the Soviets sealed the ring around the city. Thousands more died in the German attempt to relieve the 6th Army. Of the 500,000 German and fellow Axis troops that began the battle, only 92,000 were ever captured alive. The others were either missing in action, killed in action, died of starvation, exposure or disease. Soviet defenders meanwhile suffered up to a total of 1,000,000 dead, wounded and missing during the defense of Stalingrad, the counter-offensive, the defense of the ring and the clearing of the pocket. More than 100,000 Soviet civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs.”

34. Battle of Moscow

37. Battle of Leningrad On August 30 th 1941, the Germans took over Leningrad's railroads, cutting them off from the rest of Russia and the world. the only way for Leningrad to get supplies was through airdrop or crossing Lake Ladoga. Between November 1941 and October 1942, 641,000 people died of starvation. People resorted to eating rats, wallpaper paste and in some cases human flesh. Finally, a successful Russian counter-offensive at Stalingrad, drained necessary resources the Germans needed to continue the blockade, and eventually, it failed. The Germans never took Leningrad, but it was one of the most costly conflicts Russia had ever faced.

38. Erwin Rommel-The Desert Fox

39. Bernard Montgomery-Monty

40. George Patton

42. Casablanca Conference-January 1942 “Unconditional Surrender”

43. Invasion of Sicily-July/August 1943

45. Sicily

46. Sicily

47. Fighting in Italy’s Appenine Mts.

48. Italy

49. Italy

50. Tuskegee Institute

53. Dwight Eisenhower

67. Ike, Patton and Bradley

68. Battle of the Bulge

70. BATTLE FACTS  The coldest, snowiest weather “in memory” in the Ardennes Forest on the German/Belgium border.  Over a million men, 500,000 Germans, 600,000 Americans (more than fought at Gettysburg) and 55,000 British.  100,000 German casualties, killed, wounded or captured.  81,000 American casualties, including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed.  1,400 British casualties 200 killed.  800 tanks lost on each side, 1,000 German aircraft.  The Malmedy Massacre, where 86 American soldiers were murdered, was the worst atrocity committed against American troops during the course of the war in Europe.  In it's entirety, the “ Battle of the Bulge, ” was the worst battles- in terms of losses - to the American Forces in WWII.

71. Hitler’s Suicide

72. Hitler’s Bunker Unearthed

73. Eva Braun

74. V-E Day May 8, 1945

76. FDR’s Death?? Or Not

78. Truman is sworn in