Major Battles of the Twentieth Century

Table of contents

1 Before 1939 2 1939-1945 3 After 1945 4 After 1990

Before 1939

• 1904 Battle of Port Arthur February 8 - Japanese defeat Russians; start of Russo-Japanese War
• 1904 Battle of Mukden
• 1904 Battle of Yalu River May - Japanese defeat Russians (Russo-Japanese War)
• 1904 Battle of Dairen May 30 - Japanese defeat Russians (Russo-Japanese War)
• 1904 Battle of Liaoyang October - Japanese defeat Russians (Russo-Japanese War)
• 1905 Battle of Tsushima May 27 - 28 - Japanese win a decisive victory over Russian fleet in the Straits of Tshushima (Russo-Japanese War)
• 1908 Battle of Marakesh August 23 - Mulay Hafid successfully revolts against Morocco Sultan
• 1913 Adrianople - First Balkan War
• 1913 Battle of Dul Madoba
• 1914 Battle of Vera Cruz April 21 - US occupies Mexican town
• 1914 Liège August 4 - 17 - Germans invade Belgium; start of World War I
• 1914 Battle of the Frontiers August 7 - September 4 - Germans invade France:
  • Battle of Mulhouse August 7
  • Battle of Lorraine August 14
  • Battle of the Ardennes August 21
  • Battle of Charleroi August 21
  • Battle of Mons August 23
• 1914 Battle of Stalluponen August 17 - First battle on the Eastern Front in World War I
• 1914 Battle of Gumbinnen August 19 - 20 - Russians defeat German Eighth Army, advance to river Vistula
• 1914 Tannenberg August 26 - Samsonov's Russian Second Army encircled and destroyed by the German Eighth Army
• 1914 Battle of Heligoland Bight August 28 - First major naval engagement of World War I - heavy German losses
• 1914 First Battle of the Marne September 5 - 9 - German invasion of France halted by Allies
• 1914 First Battle of the Masurian Lakes September 9 - 14 - German Eighth Army defeats Rennenkampf's Russian First Army
• 1914 Battle of Antwerp September 28
• 1914 First Ypres October 31 - November 22 - Early trench warfare; "Kindermord bei Ypern"
• 1914 Battle of Coronel November 1 - Admiral Graf Spee defeats Admiral Cradock
• 1914 Battle of Lodz November 11 - Russians take city, lose it on December 6
• 1914 Battle of Cracow November 16 - heavy casualties to Austria and Russia
• 1914 Battle of Lowicz November 30 - December 17 - Russians take city
• 1914 Battle of Kolubara December 3 - 6 - Serbians drive out Austrians
• 1914 Battle of Falkland Islands December 8 - British defeat Admiral Graf Spee
• 1915 Battle of Dogger Bank January 24 - Admiral Beatty drives off Vice-Admiral Hipper's raiding force, sinks Blucher
• 1915 Battle of Gallipoli February 19 to January 8 1916
  • First Battle of Krithia April 28
  • Second Battle of Krithia May 6 - 8
  • Third Battle of Krithia June 4
  • Battle of Gully Ravine June 28 - July 5
  • Battle of Sari Bair August 6 - 29
    • Battle of Lone Pine August 6 - 12
    • Battle of the Nek August 7
    • Battle of Chunuk Bair August 6 - 10
    • Battle of Scimitar Hill August 21
    • Battle of Hill 60 August 21 - 29
• 1915 Battle of Afiun-Kara-Hissar - Turkish assimilation of Armenians
• 1915 Second Ypres April 22 - May 25 Germans use poison gas
• 1915 Battle of Loos September 25 - 28
• 1916 Battle of Verdun February 21 - December Five-month battle kills 700,000
• 1916 Battle of Jutland May 31 - last engagement of the German High Seas Fleet
• 1916 Brusilov offensive June - Russia nearly collapses Austria but losses are staggering
• 1916 Battle of Mouquet Farm
• 1916 Battle of the Somme July - Four month battle, bloodiest in history
• 1916 Battle of Romani August 3 - Turkish advance on Suez Canal defeated
• 1916 Battle of Magdhaba December 23 - Capture of Turkish garrison in the Sinai
• 1917 Battle of Rafa January 9 - Capture of Turkish garrison in the Sinai
• 1917 First Battle of Gaza March 26 - British fail to advance into Palestine
• 1917 Vimy Ridge April 9 - Canada's finest hour
• 1917 Passchendaele July 31 - also known as Third Battle of Ypres. Three-month battle costs Britain 400,000
• 1917 Battle of Caporetto October 24 - Also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo - Italians defeated by Central Powers, driven back to Venice
• 1917 Battle of Cambrai November 20 - December 7 - First successful use of tanks
• 1918 Battle of Tampere March 8 - April 6 in Finnish Civil War
• 1918 Battle of Cantigny May 28 - US First Division wins in first independent action
• 1918 Battle of Bellau Wood June 25 - US Second Division Marines capture woods
• 1918 Second Battle of the Marne July 15 - 18 - Allies halt four month German drive
• 1918 Battle of Amiens August - British force Germans to Hindenburg line
• 1918 Megiddo September 19 - Allenby's British crush Ottoman army
• 1918 Battle of Meuse Argonne Forest, September 26-November 11 - Largest AEF action of war; Allied victory. (In it, October 8, Cpl. Alvin York, outnumbered 19:1, leads capture of German machine-gun nest)
• 1918 Battle of Vittoria Veneto
• 1918 Battle of Chateau Thierry
• 1920 Battle of Warsaw - Poles defeat Red Army
• 1920 Battle of the Niemen river - Poles defeat the reserves of the Red Army
• 1921 Afiun-Kara-Hissar - Second Greek-Turkish War
• 1921 Battle of Anual July 21 in Morocco, Spanish army loses to Rifi berbers of Abd el Krim.
• 1936 Battle of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War
• 1937 Battle of Guadalajara in the Spanish Civil War
• 1937 Battle of Lugou Bridge July 7 - Japanese victory triggered outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War
• 1937 Battle of Nanjing early November to December 13 - Japanese victory after 2 months siege of the capital of Republic of China.
• 1938 Battle of Tai er zhuang March 27 - Chinese claim strategic and moral victory over Japanese

• 1939 Battle of Halhin Gol
• 1939 Poland September 1 - October 5 - Start of World War II in Europe
  • Battle of the Bzura River
  • Battle of Tomaszow Lubelski
  • Battle of Kock
  • Battle of Warsaw (1939)
• 1939 Battle of the River Plate December 13 - Admiral Graf Spee chased into Montevideo harbour and scuttled
• 1939 Battle of Suomussalmi December 8 - January 7 1940 - Winter War
• 1939 Battle of Tolvajärvi December 12 - Winter War
• 1940 - 1945 Battle of the Atlantic (1940)- the name given to the conflicts in the Atlantic Ocean throughout World War II.
• 1940 Battle of Narvik April 9 - June 10 - A minor Allied victory in the arctic.
• 1940 Battle of Dunkirk May 27 - June 5 - Evacuation of defeated British Expeditonary Force
• 1940 Battle of Britain July 9 - October 31 Germans try to bomb Britain into submission - RAF answers with fighters
• 1940 Battle of Taranto November 11-November 12 - British carrier based planes destroy Italian fleet in Taranto Harbor.
• 1940 Battle of Hundred Regiments - Major engagement of the Red Army against the Japanese Imperial Army in August and September.
• 1941 Battle of Cape Matapan March 28 - British fleet defeats Italian fleet.
• 1941 Battle of Denmark Strait May 23 - Bismarck sinks HMS Hood
• 1941 Battle of Crete May 20 - June 1 - Paratroops capture Crete, suffer many casualties
• 1941 Operation Barbarossa June 22 - German invasion of Russia
• 1941 Battle of Pearl Harbor December 7 - Japanese destroy US Fleet in surprise attack
• 1942 Battle of Macassar Strait January - US and Dutch forces attack Japanese convoy
• 1942 Dražgoše January 9 - First frontal engagement on Slovenian soil with the German occupier
• 1942 Battle of Java Sea February - Japanese wipe out Allied naval squadron
• 1942 Battle of Corregidor April 9 - General Wainwright's troops surrender, forced on Bataan Death March
• 1942 Battle of Nanos April 18 - 800 Italian soldiers lay siege to 50 Slovene partisans. Partisans break through, nine were killed and eleven were captured
• 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea May 4 - US loses USS Lexington; Japanese win tactically but lose strategically
• 1942 Battle of Midway June 3 - US loses USS Yorktown; Japanese lose four aircraft carriers
• 1942 Convoy PQ-17 - 27 ships leave Iceland on June 17 for Murmansk – on July 5 10 ships reach Murmansk
• 1942 First Battle of El Alamein July 1 - British Eighth Army stops Rommel's Axis forces invading Egypt
• 1942 Battle of Sevastapol July 2 - Captured by Germans after eight month siege
• 1942 Battle of Changsha - Chinese claim victory over Japanese
• 1942 Battle of Guadalcanal August 8 - Beginning of Allied action in Solomon Islands
• 1942 Battle of Savo Island August 9 - Japanese sink four US cruisers
• 1942 Battle of Dieppe August 19 - "Operation Jubilee" was an Allied attack on the German occupied port of Dieppe in France.
• 1942 Battle of Stalingrad August 22 - February 2 1943 - City besieged by Paulus' German Sixth Army; from November 23 the Sixth Army is surrounded and destroyed by Russians
• 1942 Battle of the Eastern Solomons August 24 - Japanese aircraft carrier Ryuho sunk
• 1942 Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea August 25
• 1942 Battle of Bloody Ridge September 12
• 1942 Battle of Cape Esperance October 11 - near Guadalcanal
• 1942 Second Battle of El Alamein October 23 - November 4 - Montgomery's Eighth Army forces Rommel out of Egypt
• 1942 Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands October 25 - near Guadalcanal, USS Hornet sunk, but Japanese withdraw
• 1942 Operation Torch November 17 - Allied landings in North Africa
• 1942 Naval Battle of Guadalcanal November 12 - US defeats Japan
• 1942 Battle of Tassafaronga November 30 - off Guadalcanal
• 1943 Battle of Osankarica January 8 - Over 200 Germans massacred all 69 men and women of the Pohorje battalion. Germans lost 19 men and had 31 wounded
• 1943 Battle of Rennell Island January 29-30 - Japanese bombers sink a cruiser
• 1943 Battle of Guadalcanal February 8 - Allies take the island
• 1943 Battle of the Kasserine Pass February 14 - 25 - Battle between US and German armored forces in Tunisia
• 1943 Battle of Bismarck Sea March 2 - US sinks Japanese transports
• 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising April 18 - 5000 Jews and 5000 Germans die, Jews confined
• 1943 Battle of Castle Turjak September 19 - Slovene partisans took the castle guarded by the Slovene village sentries
• 1943 Battle of Kursk July - Germans attack Kursk salient at Orel and Belgorod; Russians drive them back; arguably the largest battle ever fought
• 1944 Battle of Cisterna January 29- Part of Operation Shingle- the 1st, 3rd, and 4th US Army Ranger battalions attempted to capture the town of Cisterna.
• 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino May 11 - 18
• 1944 Battle of Normandy June 6 - August 25 - Allies invade northern France across the Normandy beaches (Operation Overlord); hard fighting from Cherbourg to Caen; Germans surrounded and destroyed at Falaise
• 1944 Battle of Philippine Sea June 19 - Major carrier battle; US lose 27 planes and destroy 402 Japanese planes
• 1944 Marianas Campaign - US invasions of Saipan, June 15, Guam July 21, and Tinian July 24
• 1944 Operation Bagration June 22 - Eastern Front - Soviet offensive destroys German Army Group Center.
• 1944 Battle of Fontenay June 25
• 1944 Battle of Tali-Ihantala June 25 - July 10 - Finnish stop Soviet offensive
• 1944 Warsaw Uprising August 1 - October 5 - 20.000 armed Poles against 55.000 Wehrmacht and SS. City destroyed in 90%, more than 250.000 casualties.
• 1944 Operation Dragoon August 15 - Allied invasion of Southern France
• 1944 Operation Anvil August 16 - Second Allied invasion of Southern France
• 1944 Battle of Peleliu September 17 - A fight to capture an airstrip on a speck of coral in the western Pacific.
• 1944 Battle of Arnhem September 17 - 26 - The major battle of Operation Market Garden; Allies reach but fail to cross the Rhine; British First Airborne Division destroyed
• 1944 Hürtgen Forest October 6 - Stubborn German defence
• 1944 Battle of Aachen- October. Aachen was the first major German city to face invasion during WW II.
• 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf October 23 - 26 - The largest air-sea battle in history.
• 1944 Operation Queen November 16
• 1944 Battle of Monte Castello November 25 - February 12 1945 - Brazilian troops fight Germans in Italy
• 1944 Battle of the Bulge December 16 - January 27 1945 - German counterattack in Ardennes; General McAuliffe says "NUTS" at Bastogne
• 1945 Operation Elephant January 26 - Allied offensive in Netherlands
• 1945 Battle of Mindanao March 10 - US invasion of Philippines
• 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima March 26 - After a month, US takes the island
• 1945 Operation Varsity March 17 - 134 Allied gliders land troops in Weisel
• 1945 Battle of Berlin April 26 - May 2 - Hitler commits suicide
• 1945 Battle of Poljana - Last battle of World War II in Europe
• 1945 Battle of Okinawa June 21 - US takes Japanese Island in the Ryukyus; many casualties

• 1948 Israeli War of Independence - State of Israel established on May 14; war with Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan, Egypt and Iraq; many Arab refugees
• 1950 Battle of Inchon September 14 - UN retakes South Korea, reaches Seoul in 12 days
• 1950 Battle of Chosin Reservoir November 27
• 1951 Battle of Heartbreak Ridge September 23 - After 37 days, heights fall to UN
• 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu - France loses Indochina when besieged here, from 1953 (First Indochina War)
• 1956 Battle of Suez - Britain, France, Israel attempt to retake canal, Ike says No
• 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion - US-backed attempt to capture Cuba
• 1962 Battle of Namka Chan - Chinese-Indian War
• 1967 Six Day War June 5 - 10 - Israel defeats Egypt, Jordan and Syria, occupies Golan Heights, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula
• 1968 Tet Offensive January 30 - North Vietnam loses militarily but turns the tide of US opinion against the war
• 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh February 5
• 1969 Football War July 14 - Between El Salvador and Honduras
• 1973 Yom Kippur War October 6 - Israel, taken by surprise on Holy Day, defeats Egypt and Syria. See also Battle of Latakia
• 1975 Indonesia invades East Timor December 7
• 1982 Falklands War April 2 - June 14 - Britain recaptures Falkland Islands from Argentina
• 1983 Operation Urgent Fury October 25 - US invasion of Grenada
• 1989 Operation Just Cause December 20 - US invasion of Panama