"Battle of the River Plate The Battle of the River Plate was the first naval battle in the Second World War and the first one of the Battle of the Atlantic in South American waters. The German panzerschiff ""Admiral Graf Spee"" had cruised into the South Atlantic a fortnight before the war began, and had been commerce raiding after receiving appropriate authorisation on 26 September 1939. One of the hunting groups sent by the British Admiralty to search for ""Graf Spee"", comprising three Royal Navy cruisers, , and (the last from the New Zealand Division), found and engaged their quarry"
"Timeline of the Battle of the Atlantic This is a timeline for the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945) in World War II. August 19, 1939 August 21, 1939 August 24, 1939 September 3, 1939 September 5, 1939 September 7, 1939 September 14, 1939 September 16, 1939 September 17, 1939 September 17, 1939 September 20, 1939 September 26, 1939 September 30, 1939 October 5, 1939 October 14, 1939 October 16, 1939 October 27, 1939 October 30, 1939 November 21, 1939 November 23, 1939 November 25, 1939 December 4, 1939 December 5, 1939 December 10, 1939 January 30, 1940 February 5, 1940"
"battle of the Second World War the German pocket battleship ""Admiral Graf Spee"" was engaged by the Royal Navy (RN) cruisers and , and the Royal New Zealand Navy cruiser , off the estuary of the River Plate in December 1939. The German ship retired up the estuary with a crippled fuel system and put into port at Montevideo. A few days later, rather than fight outgunned, she was scuttled in the estuary. This engagement was part of the early Battle of the Atlantic. The historical English name ""River Plate"" uses an obsolete sense of the word ""plate,"" which was"
"smaller states. The best known events in North America during World War II were the Aleutian Islands Campaign, the Battle of the St. Lawrence, and the attacks on Newfoundland. The first naval battle during the war was fought on December 13, 1939, off the Atlantic coast of South America. The German ""pocket battleship"" (acting as a commerce raider) encountered one of the British naval units searching for her. Composed of three Royal Navy cruisers, , , and , the unit was patrolling off the River Plate estuary of Argentina and Uruguay. In a bloody engagement, ""Admiral Graf Spee"" successfully repulsed"
"Battle of the North Cape The Battle of the North Cape was a Second World War naval battle which occurred on 26 December 1943, as part of the Arctic Campaign. The German battleship , on an operation to attack Arctic Convoys of war matériel from the Western Allies to the USSR, was brought to battle and sunk by Royal Navy (RN) forces—the battleship plus several cruisers and destroyers—off Norway's North Cape. The battle was the last between big-gun capital ships in the war between Britain and Germany. The British victory confirmed the massive strategic advantage held by the British, at"
"Battle of Cape Palos The Battle of Cape Palos, also known as the Second Battle of Cape Palos, was the biggest naval battle of the Spanish Civil War, fought on the night of March 5–6, 1938, east of Cape Palos near Cartagena, Spain. On March 5, 1938 the two Nationalist heavy cruisers, ""Canarias"" and ""Baleares"", led by Vice Admiral Manuel Vierna Belando sortied from the naval base at Palma de Mallorca, in company with the light cruiser ""Almirante Cervera"", and three destroyers. The squadron acted as a distant escort of a convoy bearing war equipment from Italy as well as"
"Battle of Cape Bon (1941) The naval Battle of Cape Bon took place on December 13, 1941 during the Second World War, between two Italian light cruisers and an Allied destroyer flotilla off Cape Bon, Tunisia. When Italy declared war in June 1940, the ""Regia Marina"" was one of the largest navies in the world but it was restricted to the Mediterranean. The British Empire possessed enough resources and naval might to maintain a strong presence in the area and replace most losses by redeploying ships. This led to caution by the Italian command and a tendency to avoid conflict."
"Battle of Cape Spartivento The Battle of Cape Spartivento, known as the Battle of Cape Teulada in Italy, was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in the Second World War, fought between naval forces of the Royal Navy and the Italian ""Regia Marina"" on 27 November 1940. On the night of 11 November 1940, the British incapacitated or destroyed half of the Italian fleet's battleships in a daring aerial assault as they lay at rest at Taranto. Until then, the Italians had left their capital ships in harbour, hoping its mere presence as a fleet in being"
"Naval warfare in the Winter War The Naval warfare in the Winter War was the naval part of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union from 30 November 1939 to 13 March 1940. Overall, the level of naval activity was low. However, Finland had coastal artillery batteries which took part of battles along its coast. Naval activity during the Winter War was low. The Baltic Sea began to freeze over by the end of December, which made the movement of warships very difficult; by mid-winter, only ice-breakers and submarines could still move. The other reason for low naval"
"Battle of Danzig Bay The Battle of Danzig Bay () took place on 1 September 1939, at the beginning of the invasion of Poland, when Polish Navy warships were attacked by German Luftwaffe aircraft in Gdańsk Bay (then Danzig Bay). It was the first naval-air battle of World War II. The Polish Navy of the Second Polish Republic (1919–39) was prepared mostly as means of supporting naval communications with France in case of a war with the Soviet Union. However, after it became apparent that the aggressive side would be Germany, and the entrance to the Baltic Sea would be"
"Battles of Narvik The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940 as a naval battle in the Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian city of Narvik as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War. The two naval battles in the Ofotfjord on 10 April and 13 April were fought between the British Royal Navy and Nazi Germany's ""Kriegsmarine"", while the two-month land campaign was fought between Norwegian, French, British, and Polish troops against German mountain troops, shipwrecked Kriegsmarine sailors and German paratroopers (""Fallschirmjäger"") from the"
"naval battle of the Second World War, the Battle of the River Plate, which took place on 13 December 1939, serving aboard ""Achilles"" as the warrant officer overseeing the ship's torpedo tubes. He was mentioned in despatches for his conduct in the battle looking after the depth charges despite being exposed to gunfire from the . In 1941 he was made acting lieutenant, having received further training in England to facilitate his promotion which was made substantive a few months later. He was the first New Zealander to progress from being a boy seaman to a commissioned rank. A brief"
"Battle of Calabria The Battle of Calabria, (known to the Italian Navy as the Battle of Punta Stilo) was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in the Second World War. It was fought between the Italian Royal Navy (""Regia Marina"") and the British Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. The battle occurred 30 miles to the east of Punta Stilo, Calabria, on 9 July 1940. It was one of the few pitched battles of the Mediterranean campaign during the Second World War involving large numbers of ships on both sides. Both sides claimed victory, but in"
"the end of the war. Battle of Cape Gloucester The Battle of Cape Gloucester was fought in the Pacific theater of World War II between Japanese and Allied forces on the island of New Britain, Territory of New Guinea, between 26 December 1943 and 16 January 1944. Codenamed Operation Backhander, the US landing formed part of the wider Operation Cartwheel, the main Allied strategy in the South West Pacific Area and Pacific Ocean Areas during 1943–1944. It was the second landing the US 1st Marine Division had conducted during the war thus far, after Guadalcanal. The objective of the operation"
"Battle of Cape Gloucester The Battle of Cape Gloucester was fought in the Pacific theater of World War II between Japanese and Allied forces on the island of New Britain, Territory of New Guinea, between 26 December 1943 and 16 January 1944. Codenamed Operation Backhander, the US landing formed part of the wider Operation Cartwheel, the main Allied strategy in the South West Pacific Area and Pacific Ocean Areas during 1943–1944. It was the second landing the US 1st Marine Division had conducted during the war thus far, after Guadalcanal. The objective of the operation was to capture the two"
"Battle for Caen The Battle for Caen (June to August 1944) is the name for the fighting between the British Second Army and German in the Second World War for control of the city of Caen and vicinity, during the Battle of Normandy. The battles followed Operation Neptune, the Allied landings on the French coast on 6 June 1944 (D-Day). Caen is about inland from the Calvados coast and is astride the Orne River and Caen Canal at the junction of several roads and railways, the Orne and Odon rivers and the Odon canal, which made it an important operational"
"in Genoa on 25 April 1945. The British destroyers rescued 244 survivors, including Franz Burkart, in rafts and boats from ""TA24"" and ""TA29"" and took them prisoner. In 2011, Spencer Tucker wrote that ""the British destroyers achieved decisive results against a German unit... and their victory effectively ended the Kriegsmarine's ability to undertake deep water offensive operations"". Battle of the Ligurian Sea The Battle of the Ligurian Sea was a naval surface action of the Second World War fought on 18 March 1945, in the Gulf of Genoa in the Mediterranean Sea. A ""Kriegsmarine"" flotilla of two torpedo boats and"
"as a light cruiser, but did not attack, not wanting to compromise the operation. After return to Hel Peninsula, ""Wicher"" and ""Gryf"" were stripped of most of equipment and served as anti-aircraft platforms in the Hel naval base. Battle of Danzig Bay The Battle of Danzig Bay () took place on 1 September 1939, at the beginning of the invasion of Poland, when Polish Navy warships were attacked by German Luftwaffe aircraft in Gdańsk Bay (then Danzig Bay). It was the first naval-air battle of World War II. The Polish Navy of the Second Polish Republic (1919–39) was prepared mostly"
"Battle of the Bay of Biscay The Battle of the Bay of Biscay was a naval action that took place on 28 December 1943 during World War II as part of the Atlantic campaign. The battle took place in the Bay of Biscay between two light cruisers of the British Royal Navy, and a destroyer and a torpedo boat flotilla of the German Kriegsmarine hoping to intercept and escort a blockade runner. The battle was fought as part of the Allied Operation Stonewall which was to intercept German blockade runners off the west coast of France. In the confused action"
"the start of World War II in September 1939 until three of them were committed to the English Channel after the Battle of France began on 10 May 1940. Two of these were sunk shortly afterwards by German forces. When France surrendered on 22 June, two ships were in French Algeria, one was refitting in Toulon and the last ship was in England. During Operation Catapult in July, an attack on the Vichy Fleet intended to prevent it from being turned over to the Germans, the British seized the ship in England, but failed to prevent the two in Mers-el-Kébir"
"the two world wars as a military base aiding control of the South Atlantic. In the First World War Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914, a Royal Navy fleet defeated an Imperial German squadron. In the Second World War, following the December 1939 Battle of the River Plate, the battle-damaged HMS ""Exeter"" steamed to the Falklands for repairs. In 1942, a battalion en route to India was redeployed to the Falklands as a garrison amid fears of a Japanese seizure of the archipelago. After the war ended, the Falklands economy was affected by declining wool prices and the"
"Battle of the Ligurian Sea The Battle of the Ligurian Sea was a naval surface action of the Second World War fought on 18 March 1945, in the Gulf of Genoa in the Mediterranean Sea. A ""Kriegsmarine"" flotilla of two torpedo boats and one destroyer was conducting an offensive mine laying operation when it was intercepted by a British Royal Navy force. The British destroyers and sank two of the German ships and severely damaged the third; it was the last German naval surface action of the war. At the Malta Conference (30 January – 3 February 1945), it was"
"Battle of Leyte Gulf The Battle of Leyte Gulf (Filipino: ""Labanan sa Golpo ng Leyte"") is generally considered to have been the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in history. It was fought in waters near the Philippine islands of Leyte, Samar and Luzon, from 23–26 October 1944, between combined American and Australian forces and the Imperial Japanese Navy. On 20 October, United States troops invaded the island of Leyte as part of a strategy aimed at isolating Japan from the countries it had occupied in Southeast Asia, and in"
"on 5 December. Battle of the Caribbean The Battle of the Caribbean refers to a naval campaign waged during World War II that was part of the Battle of the Atlantic, from 1941 to 1945. German U-boats and Italian submarines attempted to disrupt the Allied supply of oil and other material. They sank shipping in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and attacked coastal targets in the Antilles. Improved Allied anti-submarine warfare eventually drove the Axis submarines out of the Caribbean region. The Caribbean was strategically significant because of Venezuelan oil fields in the southeast and the Panama"
"the defeat of Japan must follow."" The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the Kriegsmarine (German navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, the United States Navy,"
"Adriatic Campaign of World War II The Adriatic Campaign of World War II was a minor naval campaign fought during World War II between the Greek, Yugoslavian and Italian navies, the ""Kriegsmarine"", and the Mediterranean squadrons of the United Kingdom, France, and the Yugoslav Partisan naval forces. Considered a somewhat insignificant part of the naval warfare in World War II, it nonetheless saw interesting developments, given the specificity of the Dalmatian coastline. On 7 April 1939, Mussolini's troops occupied Albania, overthrew Zog, and annexed the country to the Italian Empire. Naval operations in the Adriatic consisted mostly of transport organisation"
"3rd (Heavy) Cruiser Division Vice-Admiral Carlo Cattaneo – Division Commander 7th (Light) Cruiser Division Vice-Admiral Luigi Sansonetti – Division Commander 9th Destroyer Squadron 11th Destroyer Squadron 12th Destroyer Squadron Battle of Calabria The Battle of Calabria, (known to the Italian Navy as the Battle of Punta Stilo) was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in the Second World War. It was fought between the Italian Royal Navy (""Regia Marina"") and the British Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. The battle occurred 30 miles to the east of Punta Stilo, Calabria, on 9 July 1940. It was"
"of Memel which Germany had demanded from Lithuania. The following month, she joined the battleship ""Gneisenau"", the cruiser ""Deutschland"", and several destroyers and U-boats for major exercises in the Atlantic. Additional maneuvers were conducted through the middle of 1939. At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, ""Leipzig"" was assigned to the blocking force that was intended to prevent the escape of the Polish Navy from the Baltic; they were unsuccessful. ""Leipzig"" thereafter went to the North Sea, where she and the other light cruisers laid a series of defensive minefields. This task lasted through the end of"
"commercial salvage operations.' Battle of the Java Sea The Battle of the Java Sea (, ) was a decisive naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Allied navies suffered a disastrous defeat at the hand of the Imperial Japanese Navy, on 27 February 1942, and in secondary actions over successive days. The American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) Strike Force commander— Dutch Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman—was killed. The aftermath of the battle included several smaller actions around Java, including the smaller but also significant Battle of Sunda Strait. These defeats led to Japanese occupation of the entire Netherlands East Indies. The"
"Battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945, and was a major part of the Naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the ""Kriegsmarine"" (Navy) and aircraft of the ""Luftwaffe"" (Air Force) against the"
"Battle of Łomża (1939) Battle of Łomża (7–10 September 1939) was a series of armed engagements during the Nazi German and Soviet Invasion of Poland. The battle took place in and around the town of Łomża, on both sides of the Narew River. Polish forces successfully held a series of pre-First World War forts from repeated German attack before being forced to withdraw due to the position becoming untenable following their losses at the Battle of Wizna and Battle of Nowogród. The Narew River formed a natural barrier close to the southern borders of East Prussia. The town of Łomża"
"Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history. On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes and along the French–German border to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp to prompt a political settlement. By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles attacked in"
"Battle of Durazzo (1918) The Second Battle of Durazzo, or the Bombardment of Durazzo was a naval battle fought in the Adriatic Sea during the First World War. A large allied fleet led by the ""Regia Marina"" attacked the enemy held port at Durazzo, Albania. The fleet destroyed the Austro-Hungarian shore defenses and skirmished with a small naval force. Allied forces involved primarily were Italian though British, American and Australian warships also participated. It was the largest naval battle the United States participated in during the war. Most of the city was destroyed in the bombardment. From 15–29 September 1918,"