European Battles of World War Two Quiz

The focus of the Battle of Britain was in the skies of southeast England between July and September 1940, in which the German Luftwaffe attempted to wear down Britain's air defences in preparation for a sea-borne invasion. Waves of German bombers were sent to attack British ports, factories and airfields, while squadrons of RAF Hurricane and Spitfire aircraft attempted to shoot them down, along with their fighter escorts.

The British defence plan was much helped by its effective radar network, which generally detected the German aircraft before they reached the English coast, giving the defensive aircraft vital time to get into the air. As the battle stretched into autumn, Hitler calculated that it would be too late to launch a successful invasion during the winter months and called it off. Had the RAF been unable to hold off the German attacks for so long, the course of the war could have been very different.

The Normandy Landings, commonly known by the nickname "D-Day", took place on Tuesday 6th June 1944. In what was the largest ever seaborne invasion, around 156,000 Allied troops landed at five sites along the Normandy coast, establishing a crucial foothold on mainland Europe that enabled them to push forward into France and liberate Paris by the end of August.

The five landing beaches were given the code names Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Troops from the United States landed at the first two of these, with Canadians taking Juno and the British Gold and Sword. A successful intelligence operation during the previous months had led the Germans to believe the invasion was likely to take place elsewhere in France, meaning that the Normandy beaches were less heavily defended than they might have been. Even so, the Allies suffered serious losses, with over 4,000 dying during the initial assaults.

The Dunkirk Evacuation took place from 26 May to 4 June 1940, during which period over 300,000 Allied troops (mostly British but also around 70,000 French) were evacuated from the beach at the French town of Dunkirk, where they had been trapped by advancing German troops who had invaded France earlier in May.

Famously, the evacuation of so many troops was made possible by the requisitioning of over 800 small privately-owned craft which were sailed across the channel to assist with the evacuation. Their small size and narrow draft meant that they were able to get closer to shore to pick up soldiers, before either ferrying them to the larger ships anchored offshore, or in many cases sailing directly back to England with them.

Contrary to popular belief, most of the so-called "little ships" were taken over and crewed by members of the Royal Navy, although certainly some were sailed by their owners. One such was the motor yacht "Sundowner", which was owned by Charles Lightoller, who had been the Second Officer on the "Titanic", being the most senior officer to survive the sinking.

The Battle of Monte Cassino took place in Italy during early 1944, in which Allied forces carried out a series of assaults against German troops in and around the town of Cassino. The Allies had landed in Italy in September 1943, and had been slowly pushing towards Rome, against strong resistance from German troops.

One of the key German defensive positions was based at Cassino in the Liri Valley, overlooked by the historic monastery of Monte Cassino. Between January and May 1944, a series of four assaults were launched against the Germans, which were eventually successful. During the second assault, the monastery was completely destroyed in a bombing raid, although fortunately most of the monks, and the Abbey's historic treasures, had been evacuated some months earlier.

The Battle of the Atlantic is the name given to the ongoing struggle between German air and naval forces (including submarines) and the Allied naval and merchant ships traveling to and fro across the Atlantic Ocean, carrying vital supplies. It effectively lasted from the start of the war in September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945, making it one of the longest single military campaigns in history.

The Germans knew that if they could prevent merchant ships from bringing food and raw materials from the USA to Britain, it would be much easier to starve the British into submission. During 1940, German U-boats regularly attacked the Allied convoys, sinking several hundred ships. Fortunately, from May 1941 President Roosevelt authorised American Naval vessels to assist with escorting Allied vessels, even though America was not yet formally at war. During the middle of 1943 the U-boat attacks reached their height, but this was matched by many successful Allied sinkings of the submarines, and by the end of 1943 the worst attacks were over.

Telemark is a region of Norway which in the 1940s was the location of a hydroelectric plant which the Germans were using to produce "heavy water", an isotope of hydrogen which was crucial in the production of atomic bombs. The Germans and the Allies were both working on developing such a weapon, and British intelligence calculated that the German programme could be seriously delayed if its supply of heavy water could be destroyed.

The plant had been designed before the war by a Norwegian scientist named Lief Tronstad, who escaped to England following the German invasion and was thus able to provide the Allies with vital information about its design and layout. Bombing the plant was considered impractical because of the civilian casualties that would cause, so instead a small team of Norwegian troops was trained by the British Special operations Executive (SOE) and parachuted into the area in February 1943. Meeting up with four members of a previous failed mission who had remained in the area, they successfully infiltrated the plant and placed explosive devices which blew up both the existing supply of heavy water as well as the equipment necessary for its production.

All of the saboteurs got away successfully, five of whom escaped to Sweden by skiing cross-country for 200 miles, pursued by an entire German division. The whole operation is often cited as the most successful piece of sabotage in the entire war. The story was filmed in 1965 as "The Heroes of Telemark". While it takes some liberties with the details, the film has helped to keep alive the story of this remarkable operation.

By early 1945, Soviet forces had advanced to within around 40 miles of Berlin, and it was only a matter of time before Germany's capital fell and the war in Europe came to an end. Forces of the Western Allies (led by the United States and Britain) held back to allow the Soviets to take Berlin in a ground offensive, and in April 1945 the main attack took place.

The Germans fought bravely to the end, helped by conscripted members of the Hitler Youth and elderly militia making up the "Volkssturm", but the end was inevitable. On 30 April Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker, and a few days later most of the Germans surrendered to the Soviets. Outside the city itself, some German troops continued to retreat in a westerly direction, sensibly preferring to give themselves the chance to surrender to the American troops instead.

The Siege of Leningrad lasted from 8 September 1941 until 27 January 1944, a total of 872 days. It began when the invading German army completed an almost total encirclement of the city, with the aim of preventing any supplies from reaching the inhabitants. Although it remained possible for barely sufficient supplies to reach the city by barge across Lake Ladoga (or by sledge and truck when the lake froze in winter), over 600,000 people died in Leningrad during 1942 alone. The total number of dead is impossible to verify, but certainly exceeds 1,000,000.

Leningrad's heroic defiance of the German siege became a symbol of the Soviet Union's resistance against the Nazis. The composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Seventh Symphony in honour of the city, and it was famously performed in Leningrad itself during the siege, with loudspeakers broadcasting the performance to the German besiegers as a sign of the city's resilience.

The Battle of Kursk took place in July and August 1943 and became notorious as the largest tank battle in history. A German attacking force of 3000 tanks (plus nearly 800,000 troops and 2000 aircraft) was launched against a Soviet defence of 5000 tanks, nearly 2 million soldiers, and 3000 aircraft.

Although the Germans had some early success, breaking through the first line of Soviet defence, they soon became bogged down by determined resistance. On the 12 July the two armies met near the small town of Prokhorovka, when the Soviets decisively held back the German attack. This was the crucial turning point of the battle and forced the Germans into a retreat from which they never recovered. From this point in time, the Soviets began their inexorable advance towards Berlin.

The Battle of Stalingrad (July 1942 - February 1943) is one of the most famous single engagements of the Second World War. Hitler rightly regarded Stalingrad as one of the most strategically important cities in the Soviet Union, and its capture was an essential element in the German invasion.

Having advanced steadily towards Stalingrad itself throughout July, the first German troops entered the city on the 23rd August. However, they met with determined resistance, and for several weeks the two sides fought for every street and every building. In November a strong Soviet counter-offensive managed to cut off the main German forces in the city itself, effectively surrounding them. Although Hitler ordered them to fight to the death, the last remaining 90,000 German troops eventually surrendered. All but 5000 of these are believed to have died subsequently in Soviet labour camps.