Siege of Leningrad (September of 1941 to January of 1942) It was also significant for marking the first time that Americans saw the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe first-hand. Operation Torch was ultimately successful. The Allied Forces were joined by the Eighth Army that drew forces from India, Canada, Australia, and other countries part of the British Commonwealth. It was also intended to take some of the pressure off of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Front. Operation Torch was aimed at opening the Mediterranean for Allied shipping by opening up a way to access southern Europe through north Africa. It marked the first time the British and Americans had worked together on an invasion plan, and the first time that American forces fought alongside their European counterparts. It was planned during a Washington Conference of June 1942, attended by President Franklin Roosevelt, and UK premier Winston Churchill. Operation Torch was an Allied invasion of what was then French North Africa that lasted from November 8th through 10th in 1942. Below is a list of some of the most influential battles fought in World War Two, fought in western Europe and beyond.
Between these super powers a series of major battles were fought that claimed millions of military and civilian lives on all sides, and left marks in the historical record like none ever experienced in warfare to date.
It pitted the Allied Powers led by Britain, the United States, Russia and France, against the Axis powers of Hitler-led Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. World War II began on September 1st, 1939 with the Nazi German invasion of Poland, and ended on September 2nd, 1945 when Imperial Japan formally signed its terms of surrender to become the last of the Axis powers to fall.