On 1 July Rommel launched an attack on the British defences at El Alamein. The fighting, which was to last until the end of the month, is known as the First Battle of El Alamein. The German forces, exhausted after a long advance and short of fuel and ammunition, suffered heavy casualties and were forced… Read more »Read more

In the Western desert General Auchinleck assumed direct control of British forces and fought a series of defensive battles deep inside Egypt to delay the advance of Rommel’s troops while the position of El Alamein could be fortified. On 25 June General Eisenhower arrived in London to assume the post of Commander of American forces… Read more »Read more

In the Western Desert, British troops continued their retreat after Rommel’s Afrika Korps’ breakthrough at Gazala last week. Once again Tobruk was left isolated, but this time it was in no position to withstand a siege: on 21 June 35,000 British troops surrendered there. The British army continued their retreat into Egypt. Also this week,… Read more »Read more

This week the ongoing battle for Gazala in the Western desert reached a climax as Rommel’s Afrika Korps inflicted heavy casualties on the Eighth Army; on 13 June the British lost so many tanks the day was known as ‘Black Saturday’. On 14 June General Ritchie ordered a retreat, which would not stop until the… Read more »Read more

This week saw one of the decisive battles of the war when a Japanese fleet was destroyed by American bombers at Midway in the Pacific during 4-6 June. The Japanese lost four aircraft carriers and with them their naval superiority. Meanwhile in the Western Desert Rommel’s Afrika Korps continued its assault on British positions at… Read more »Read more

On 26 May Britain and Russia signed the Anglo-Soviet Treaty, in which each party agreed not to make a separate peace without the other. Also on 26 May, Rommel launched a major offensive at Gazala in the Western Desert, west of Tobruk. He initially broke through the British lines but ran into stiff resistance, and… Read more »Read more

In southern Russia, the Soviet offensive to recapture Kharkov broke down, and a German counter-attack left the Soviet armies encircled and destroyed. Germany finally called off the planned invasion of Malta: the island still offered fierce resistance, and Hitler now wanted to focus on the Western Desert. Also this week, the Japanese completed their invasion… Read more »Read more

While the Germans continued to prepare for their own summer offensive in Russia, this week the Soviet army under Timoshenko launched a major offensive to recapture Kharkov in the south, but met with fierce resistance from Paulus’s 6th Army. Also this week, British and Chinese forces retreated from Burma, allowing the Japanese to complete their… Read more »Read more

This week the American and Japanese navies fought the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first battle fought entirely between aircraft carriers; the Japanese won the battle and sank the USS Lexington, but sustained heavy losses and subsequently abandoned plans to invade New Guinea. Also this week British forces took Madagascar from the Vichy French… Read more »Read more

On 29 April Hitler and Mussolini met, and Mussolini pledged Italian forces to the Germans’ summer offensive in Russia, which would end at Stalingrad. On the same day the Japanese captured Lashio in Burma and closed the “Burma Road”, by which the Allies delivered supplies to Chiang Kai-Shek. Also, the “Baedeker Raids” continued this week,… Read more »Read more