19. Heroes and Villains from World War II: Turning Points of the War

My Name is Georgy Zhukov: Marshal of the Soviet Union

I was born in 1896 into a poor peasant family in the Russian village of Strelkovka. I did not inherit wealth, rank, or influence. What I possessed had to be earned. Before armies marched at my command, I worked with my hands, learned discipline through hardship, and discovered that survival often belongs to those who prepare themselves before the crisis arrives.

From Peasant Son to Cavalryman

As a young man, I went to Moscow and became an apprentice furrier. Then came the First World War. I was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and served in the cavalry, where I was wounded and decorated for bravery. Russia soon collapsed into revolution and civil war. I joined the Red Army and fought for the Bolsheviks. Those years taught me something I never forgot: an army without discipline, supplies, communications, and determined leadership can collapse regardless of how brave its soldiers may be.

Learning the Profession of War

I remained in the army after the Russian Civil War and steadily rose through the ranks. I studied modern warfare carefully. Cavalry was giving way to tanks, aircraft, artillery, radios, and mechanized formations. In 1939, I commanded Soviet and Mongolian forces against the Japanese at Khalkhin Gol. We struck their flanks with armor and artillery and surrounded their forces. The victory strengthened my reputation, but more importantly, it demonstrated what concentrated firepower and coordinated movement could accomplish.

The Germans Invade

On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The blow was enormous. Soviet armies were surrounded, cities fell, and hundreds of thousands of our soldiers were captured. There was no value in pretending the situation was better than it was. The Germans were experienced, aggressive, and exceptionally dangerous. Our task was to survive their first great offensive, rebuild our shattered forces, and make them pay for every kilometer they advanced.

Moscow Must Hold

By autumn, the Germans were approaching Moscow. I was ordered to help organize its defense. Reserves were brought forward, defensive positions strengthened, and exhausted units reorganized. Then winter arrived and Soviet forces counterattacked in December 1941. The Germans were driven away from the capital. Moscow proved something important: the Wehrmacht could be stopped. Germany had expected the Soviet Union to collapse quickly. It had not.

The Trap at Stalingrad

In 1942, Hitler's armies drove toward the Volga and the Caucasus. Stalingrad became a battlefield of factories, ruins, cellars, and shattered streets. While General Vasily Chuikov's men held desperately inside the city, Soviet commanders prepared something larger. Operation Uranus struck the weaker Axis armies protecting the German flanks in November. Soviet forces closed around the German Sixth Army. Hitler's soldiers, who had come as conquerors, were now trapped. In February 1943, what remained of the Sixth Army surrendered.

Driving West

Stalingrad was not the end. Kursk followed in 1943, where the Germans attempted another great offensive and failed. From there, the Red Army increasingly carried the war westward. We crossed devastated Soviet territory, entered Poland, and pushed toward Germany. The scale of the fighting was immense. Armies required ammunition, fuel, bridges, railroads, replacements, artillery, and relentless coordination. Victory was never produced by one commander. Millions of soldiers and civilians carried the burden.

Berlin

In 1945, I commanded the 1st Belorussian Front during the final drive toward Berlin. The German capital was heavily defended, and the fighting was severe. Our forces crossed the Oder, broke through German defenses at the Seelow Heights, and entered Berlin. On May 8, representatives of Nazi Germany signed the final act of military surrender before Allied representatives in Berlin. The enemy that had invaded our country and reached almost to Moscow had been defeated in its own capital.

Victory—and Its Price

After the war, I remained one of the Soviet Union's most famous commanders, although political favor was never permanent under Stalin or those who followed him. I eventually served as Minister of Defense before again being removed from power. I spent my later years writing and reflecting upon the war until my death in 1974. I was proud that we defeated Nazi Germany, but age gives a commander time to consider the cost behind the arrows drawn across military maps. Millions died, soldiers obeyed orders they would never return from, and civilians suffered terribly. I made hard decisions because I believed victory demanded them. Yet if I owe an apology, it is to those ordinary soldiers whose names history rarely records. Marshals receive medals and monuments; soldiers pay for them.

The Axis at High Tide: The World in Early 1942 - Told by Georgy Zhukov

At the beginning of 1942, no sensible commander could look at the map and assume the Allies would win this war. Germany dominated or controlled most of continental Europe. German armies stood deep inside Soviet territory. Japan was tearing through the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Britain remained defiant but stretched across a worldwide war, while the United States had only recently entered the conflict. From Moscow, the situation did not look like the beginning of an Allied victory. It looked like a struggle for survival.

Hitler's Empire Stretched Across Europe

Germany had accomplished in a few years what many Europeans once thought impossible. Poland had been crushed in 1939. Denmark and Norway fell in 1940, followed by the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. German power extended into the Balkans, while Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and other Axis partners or aligned governments strengthened Hitler's position. Britain had survived the Battle of Britain, but Western Europe remained largely under German occupation or domination. By early 1942, Hitler could look at a map and see German influence stretching across an enormous portion of Europe.

The Soviet Union Was Bleeding

For us, the greatest danger had arrived on June 22, 1941, when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa. German forces destroyed or captured enormous numbers of Soviet troops and advanced hundreds of miles. Kyiv fell. Leningrad was surrounded. German soldiers approached Moscow. We stopped them outside the capital and counterattacked in December, proving that the Wehrmacht was not invincible. But do not mistake that victory for safety. Millions of our citizens were living under occupation, enormous industrial and agricultural regions had been lost, and the German army remained deep inside our country.

Japan Explodes Across the Pacific

Then came Japan. After attacking Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese forces launched offensives across the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong fell. Japanese forces invaded the Philippines, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and other territories. On February 15, 1942, Singapore surrendered—one of the greatest defeats in British military history. Japanese troops then advanced through Burma while the Dutch East Indies fell during the opening months of 1942. To millions watching these events, Japanese expansion seemed almost unstoppable.

North Africa and the Middle East Were in Danger

There was another front that could not be ignored. In North Africa, German and Italian forces under Erwin Rommel threatened British positions in Egypt. Beyond Egypt stood the Suez Canal, one of Britain's most important imperial transportation routes. Beyond that lay the Middle East and its oil resources. Germany was also preparing another offensive in the Soviet south toward the Caucasus. No single Axis plan successfully joined these fronts together, but the strategic danger was obvious: Axis advances threatened some of the world's most important transportation routes, agricultural regions, and sources of fuel.

The Allies Were Powerful—but Not Yet Ready

The Axis possessed enormous advantages, but its enemies possessed resources that should have worried any thoughtful German or Japanese strategist. The Soviet Union had survived the catastrophe of 1941 and moved major industries eastward beyond immediate German reach. Britain remained in the war and possessed a worldwide empire and Commonwealth. The United States now brought immense industrial capacity into the conflict. But factories require time to produce weapons, armies require time to train, and ships require time to build. In early 1942, much of that potential power had not yet reached the battlefield.

Three Battles Would Help Change the Direction

This is what students must understand about early 1942: the outcome was not predetermined. The Axis had suffered setbacks, particularly before Moscow, but Germany and Japan still possessed formidable offensive power. Yet during the months ahead, three names would become symbols of a changing war: Midway, El Alamein, and Stalingrad. They occurred thousands of miles apart and involved different armies, commanders, weapons, and conditions. Together, however, they demonstrated something increasingly important. The Axis powers could be stopped—and once stopped, they could be driven backward. The great question of 1942 was who would seize the initiative. The answer was about to be written in the Pacific, the Egyptian desert, and the ruins along the Volga.

My Name is Wade McClusky: American Naval Aviator

New York, in 1902, at the beginning of a century when airplanes themselves were still something new. By the time I became a young officer, aviation was changing warfare. I entered the United States Naval Academy and graduated in 1926. I began my career as a surface officer, but the sky interested me more. I earned my wings as a naval aviator in 1929 and entered a profession in which every flight demanded judgment, discipline, and a willingness to make decisions quickly.

Learning to Fly for the Navy

Naval aviation was still developing when I entered it. We were learning how aircraft could scout for fleets, attack ships, and operate from carriers hundreds of miles from land. Flying from a carrier was unforgiving. A pilot had to find a moving ship in an enormous ocean and then land on a short deck that pitched beneath him. There was little room for hesitation. Those years taught me that equipment matters, but training and judgment matter just as much.

War Comes to the Pacific

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Pacific War changed overnight. Battleships had long been considered the backbone of naval power, but aircraft carriers now became indispensable. By 1942, I was serving aboard USS Enterprise and commanded her air group. Japan had won victory after victory across the Pacific, and its carrier force was experienced and dangerous. Then came word that the Japanese were moving against Midway.

Searching an Empty Ocean

On June 4, 1942, our aircraft launched to find and attack the Japanese carriers. I led dive-bombers from Enterprise, but when we reached the location where we expected the enemy, there was nothing below us but ocean. Fuel was disappearing with every minute. Turning back would have been understandable. Instead, I continued the search. Then I spotted a Japanese destroyer, Arashi, moving at high speed. I reasoned that she might be returning to the carrier force. We followed her course.

There They Were

Soon the Japanese carriers appeared below us. American torpedo squadrons had already attacked at terrible cost, drawing Japanese fighters down toward the water. Our dive-bombers arrived high above at a critical moment. I directed part of our force toward the carrier Kaga while other aircraft attacked Akagi. We rolled into our dives. Bombs struck the carriers amid fueled and armed aircraft. Within minutes, ships that had helped dominate the Pacific were burning.

Midway Turns

By the end of the Battle of Midway, Japan had lost four fleet carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu. The United States lost Yorktown. Midway did not end the Pacific War, and no sensible officer believed that it did. Japan still possessed powerful forces and would fight with tremendous determination. But its carrier striking force had suffered a blow from which it could not easily recover. America had stopped the advance and gained an opportunity to begin taking the initiative.

The War Continued

My own war did not end at Midway. Later in 1942, I commanded the escort carrier USS Corregidor and continued serving in the Pacific. I eventually rose to rear admiral and remained in the Navy until retiring in 1956. In later years, people naturally asked about that June morning and the decision to continue searching. President Franklin Roosevelt awarded me the Navy Cross for my actions at Midway, and Admiral Chester Nimitz later said my decision helped determine the fate of our carrier task force and our forces at Midway.

The Pacific Crisis and the Road to Midway - Told by Wade McClusky

In the first months of 1942, we were fighting an enemy that seemed to be everywhere at once. Japan had struck Pearl Harbor, swept through Southeast Asia, and pushed across the western Pacific with remarkable speed. From the deck of an American carrier, the map did not offer much comfort. But naval officers understood something else: Japan's victories had carried its forces across an enormous ocean. If we could find the right opportunity to strike its carrier fleet, the course of the Pacific War might begin to change.

A Pacific Empire Expands

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was only one part of a much larger Japanese offensive. Japanese forces attacked across the Pacific and Asia, taking Hong Kong, invading the Philippines and Malaya, capturing Singapore, and seizing the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. American forces in the Philippines were eventually overwhelmed, with Bataan surrendering in April and Corregidor in May 1942. Japan now controlled an enormous defensive perimeter stretching thousands of miles. The United States needed time to build ships, train crews, and move forces into the Pacific. Japan intended to deny us that time.

The Aircraft Carrier Changes the War

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had demonstrated what carrier aircraft could accomplish, but it had failed to destroy America's Pacific Fleet carriers because they were away from the harbor. That became enormously important. Battleships had dominated naval thinking for decades, yet in this new war, fleets could attack each other from hundreds of miles away without the opposing surface ships ever seeing one another. The aircraft carrier had become one of the most important weapons in the Pacific. I served aboard USS Enterprise, and we knew that finding the enemy first could mean the difference between launching an attack and being caught with aircraft sitting helplessly on our own decks.

A Warning in the Coral Sea

In May 1942, American and Japanese carrier forces fought the Battle of the Coral Sea. It was the first major naval battle in which the opposing carrier fleets attacked one another primarily with aircraft and the main surface fleets never exchanged gunfire directly. We lost the carrier Lexington, while Yorktown was damaged. But Japan's planned seaborne invasion of Port Moresby was turned back. More importantly for what came next, the Japanese carrier Shokaku was badly damaged and Zuikaku's air group had suffered significant losses. Neither would participate at Midway.

Japan Chooses Midway

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto wanted to destroy what remained of America's carrier strength. His plan centered on Midway Atoll, a small American base roughly 1,300 miles northwest of Oahu. By attacking Midway, the Japanese hoped to threaten an important American outpost and draw our carriers into battle, where Japan's experienced carrier force could destroy them. Yamamoto's operation was complicated, with Japanese forces dispersed across a wide area. He expected surprise. What he did not know was that American intelligence had gained critical insight into Japanese plans and identified Midway as the target.

We Knew They Were Coming

American codebreakers had made major progress against Japan's JN-25 naval code. Commander Joseph Rochefort and the intelligence team at Station HYPO in Hawaii helped establish that the mysterious Japanese objective called "AF" was Midway. Admiral Chester Nimitz acted on that intelligence. Yorktown, damaged at Coral Sea, was hurriedly repaired at Pearl Harbor and sent back to sea. Enterprise and Hornet were also positioned northeast of Midway. Instead of Japan surprising us, American carriers would be waiting.

Two Fleets Search the Ocean

That was the strange reality of carrier warfare. Somewhere beyond the horizon was an enemy capable of destroying you, but first you had to find him. Aircraft flew reconnaissance missions across enormous stretches of ocean while commanders studied reports and calculated where enemy ships might be. A scout aircraft appearing an hour too late could change a battle. A mistaken position report could send an entire strike force into empty ocean. Fuel itself became a clock counting down every decision.

June 4, 1942

Before dawn on June 4, Japanese aircraft took off to attack Midway. American aircraft from the island soon went into action as well. Then came the report every carrier commander had been waiting for: Japanese carriers had been located. Our decks came alive as aircraft were fueled, armed, launched, and organized into strike groups. I took off from Enterprise leading our dive-bombers toward the reported enemy position.

We believed we knew where the Japanese fleet would be. When we arrived, there was nothing beneath us but the Pacific Ocean. Every minute we continued searching burned fuel we needed to get home. I now faced the sort of decision naval aviation gives a man only a few moments to make: turn back and preserve my aircraft—or keep searching for an enemy fleet that might change the course of the war if we could find it.

Battle of Midway: Finding the Japanese Fleet - June 4–7, 1942 - Told by McClusky

On the morning of June 4, 1942, I was leading dive-bombers from USS Enterprise across an empty Pacific Ocean. Somewhere ahead were four Japanese aircraft carriers whose aircraft had already attacked Midway. We had launched to find them, but when we reached the position where they were supposed to be, they were gone. My fuel gauges were dropping. Every mile farther meant one fewer mile available for the return flight. I had to decide whether to turn home or continue searching. I continued.

The Battle Begins Before Sunrise

The Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu launched aircraft against Midway early on June 4. American radar detected the incoming strike, and Midway's aircraft scrambled. The Japanese bombed the island heavily, but Midway remained operational. American aircraft from the island attacked the Japanese fleet in several waves, largely without success and with severe losses. Meanwhile, Japanese commanders received reports that American ships were nearby. The battle was becoming a race to locate, arm against, and strike the opposing carriers first.

The Destroyer Below

My Enterprise dive-bombers had flown beyond the expected Japanese position when I noticed a lone ship below. It was the Japanese destroyer Arashi. She had remained behind while attacking the American submarine USS Nautilus and was now steaming rapidly to rejoin the Japanese carrier force. Her wake pointed northwest. I could not know with certainty where she was going, but there was a reasonable conclusion: a destroyer moving at high speed through this part of the ocean might be returning to the fleet we were hunting. I changed course and followed. Then we saw them.

The Japanese Carriers Appear

Below us was the Japanese carrier force. At almost the same time, American torpedo squadrons had been making courageous attacks at extremely low altitude. Torpedo Squadron 8 from Hornet and squadrons from Enterprise and Yorktown suffered devastating losses. Their attacks scored no torpedo hits on the carriers, but they helped occupy Japanese fighters and defensive attention near sea level. When our dive-bombers arrived high overhead shortly after 10:20 a.m., the Japanese carriers were in the midst of intense flight operations and combat preparations.

Down We Went

There was no time for ceremony. I directed most of my Enterprise dive-bombers toward Kaga after recognizing that too many aircraft were initially concentrating on the nearer Akagi. Lieutenant Commander Richard Best and his small group attacked Akagi while our aircraft plunged toward Kaga. At nearly the same time, Yorktown's dive-bombers struck Soryu. From thousands of feet above, our SBD Dauntless aircraft rolled into steep dives, accelerating toward the ships while antiaircraft fire rose toward us.

Bombs struck home. Kaga was devastated. Akagi was mortally damaged. Soryu was burning. In only a few minutes, three Japanese fleet carriers had received fatal blows.

Hiryu Strikes Back

The battle was not finished. Hiryu had escaped the first devastating dive-bomber attack. Her aircraft found Yorktown and attacked her twice during the day, leaving the American carrier badly damaged. For a time, the Japanese still had a carrier capable of striking us while our commanders urgently searched for her. Later that afternoon, American dive-bombers from Enterprise, including aircraft originally from Yorktown, found Hiryu and mortally damaged her as well. All four Japanese carriers that had attacked Midway were now doomed.

Victory Had a Price

The fighting continued beyond June 4. The Japanese abandoned the Midway operation and withdrew. On June 6, American aircraft attacked retreating Japanese cruisers, sinking Mikuma and damaging Mogami. Meanwhile, the damaged Yorktown was being salvaged when the Japanese submarine I-168 torpedoed her and the destroyer Hammann on June 6. Hammann sank quickly; Yorktown finally rolled over and sank on June 7.

When the battle ended, Japan had lost four fleet carriers and many experienced aviators and aircrew, while the United States had lost Yorktown and suffered serious aircraft and personnel losses. Midway had not won the Pacific War in four days. Years of terrible fighting remained. But Japan had come to Midway intending to lure America's carriers into destruction. Instead, four of its own carriers were gone. And for the first time in the Pacific War, the strategic balance had begun to shift.

Why Midway Changed the Pacific War - Told by Wade McClusky

When we returned from the Battle of Midway in June 1942, no responsible officer believed Japan had suddenly ceased to be dangerous. Its navy remained powerful, its armies occupied enormous territories, and years of fighting still lay ahead. But something fundamental had happened in those waters northwest of Hawaii. Japan had come intending to destroy America's remaining carrier strength. Instead, it lost four frontline carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu. Ships can sometimes be replaced. The experience concentrated aboard those ships is far harder to rebuild.

Four Carriers Gone

Before Midway, Japan's First Air Fleet had been one of the most formidable naval striking forces in the world. Six fleet carriers had attacked Pearl Harbor. Four of those carriers went to Midway, and all four were lost. Japan also lost hundreds of aircraft associated with the operation and many trained airmen and carrier personnel. The human losses among Japanese aviators were serious, although the destruction of Japan's elite carrier-aircrew strength was a longer process that continued in later campaigns. Midway's immediate blow was the destruction of four carriers and the disruption of the powerful organization built around them.

America Lost Less Than Japan Could Replace

We paid heavily as well. USS Yorktown was lost, along with the destroyer Hammann, aircraft, and American lives. Yet there was an enormous difference between the industrial capacities of the two nations. American shipyards were already building a fleet on a scale Japan could not match over a prolonged war. Essex-class carriers, escort carriers, aircraft, destroyers, transports, and other vessels would eventually arrive in extraordinary numbers. Japan could build new ships too, but it could not keep pace with American production once the full strength of the United States economy entered the war.

The Carrier Became the Center of the Pacific War

Midway also demonstrated what naval officers had been learning since Pearl Harbor and the Coral Sea: the aircraft carrier had become central to naval warfare in the Pacific. At Midway, the opposing carrier forces never fought a traditional battleship engagement against each other. Aircraft flew far beyond the horizon to find and attack enemy ships. Reconnaissance, communications, intelligence, pilot training, deck operations, and the ability to launch strikes rapidly could decide the fate of an entire fleet before its surface guns ever came within range.

Japan's Expansion Meets a Barrier

Midway also frustrated Japan's attempt to seize the atoll and destroy the American carriers defending the central Pacific. Japan remained capable of offensive operations after the battle, but the sequence of almost uninterrupted victories that had followed Pearl Harbor had been broken. The Battle of the Coral Sea had already stopped Japan's seaborne attempt to capture Port Moresby. Midway followed with a much greater carrier defeat. Japan could no longer assume that every major operation would push its defensive perimeter farther outward.

From Defense Toward Offense

The change did not occur overnight. Only two months after Midway, however, American Marines landed on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands on August 7, 1942. That campaign became a brutal six-month struggle involving land, sea, and air forces. Japan fought fiercely and inflicted serious losses. Yet Guadalcanal demonstrated the larger change taking place. The United States was no longer merely responding to Japanese advances. American forces were beginning to choose places where they would attack.

What Midway Really Changed

People like simple turning points because they make history easier to understand: before this battle one side was winning, afterward the other side was winning. Real war is rarely so neat. Midway did not make American victory inevitable, nor did it destroy Japanese military power. What it did was alter the carrier balance at a critical moment, protect Midway from invasion, preserve two of the three American carriers committed to the battle, and deprive Japan of four major carriers that had spearheaded its early victories.

My Name is Bernard Montgomery: British Military Commander

I was born in London in 1887, the son of an Anglican clergyman who later became Bishop of Tasmania. I was not an easy child, nor would anyone who knew me later have described me as an easy man. I possessed strong opinions and usually expressed them. I entered the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1908. The Army became my profession, and I came to believe that a commander had three great responsibilities: know what he intends to do, make certain his soldiers understand it, and never send them into battle without preparing them properly.

My First War

When the First World War began in 1914, I went to France with the British Expeditionary Force. At Méteren that October, I was shot through the lung and seriously wounded. For a time, there was considerable doubt that I would survive. I recovered and returned to military service. The slaughter of that war left a permanent impression upon me. Courage alone was insufficient. A commander who wasted his soldiers because he had failed to plan properly had failed in one of his most fundamental duties.

Preparing for Another War

Between the wars, I studied training, organization, discipline, and command. I could be demanding because I believed an army must practice before battle what it intended to do during battle. When the Second World War began in 1939, I commanded the 3rd Infantry Division and took it to France. When German forces broke through in 1940, we withdrew toward Dunkirk. Britain escaped disaster, but evacuation was not victory. We had much work to do.

Taking Command in the Desert

In August 1942, I was given command of the British Eighth Army in Egypt. The situation was serious. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Axis forces had driven deep into North Africa and threatened Egypt. I found an army that had fought hard but had suffered repeated reverses. I told the men that retreat was finished. We would prepare, we would build our strength, and when we attacked, we would do so with a clear purpose. Morale is not created by speeches alone. Soldiers gain confidence when they believe their commanders know what they are doing.

El Alamein

On the night of October 23, 1942, our artillery opened fire at El Alamein. The desert erupted. Infantry moved through enormous minefields while engineers cleared paths for our armor. The battle did not unfold neatly. Battles rarely do. Rommel's defenses were formidable, and the fighting continued for days. But we possessed growing superiority in artillery, tanks, aircraft, supplies, and manpower, and I intended to use that superiority methodically rather than gamble it away.

The Breakthrough

By early November, the Axis position was breaking. Operation Supercharge helped rupture the enemy defenses, and Rommel began withdrawing westward. El Alamein mattered far beyond the ground we captured. The Axis advance toward Egypt had been decisively reversed, and the Eighth Army began pursuing the enemy across North Africa. At last Britain possessed the kind of land victory it desperately needed. It showed our soldiers—and our enemies—that the German army could be beaten.

From Africa to Normandy

I later commanded forces during the invasion of Sicily and returned to Britain to help prepare for the invasion of Normandy. For D-Day in June 1944, I commanded the Allied ground forces during the initial phase of the campaign. The planning was immense because the task was immense: land an army across the English Channel, establish a secure bridgehead, and then break German power in France. After Normandy came the advance across Europe, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, the crossing of the Rhine, and finally Germany's collapse.

The German Surrender

On May 4, 1945, at Lüneburg Heath, I accepted the surrender of German forces in northwestern Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. I had begun the war retreating toward Dunkirk. I ended it receiving the surrender of German armies. Afterward I became Chief of the Imperial General Staff and later served as NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe. I remained outspoken, confident, and sometimes controversial until my death in 1976.

The Desert War and the Road to El Alamein - Told by Bernard Montgomery

When I arrived in Egypt in August 1942 to command the British Eighth Army, I found an army that had been fighting across North Africa for nearly two years. It had attacked, retreated, attacked again, and retreated again. Tobruk had fallen. General Erwin Rommel had driven eastward into Egypt, and the Axis forces stood little more than sixty miles from Alexandria. Behind us lay the Nile Delta, Cairo, and the Suez Canal. There would be no further retreat. I intended to make that perfectly clear.

Why the Desert Mattered

To someone looking at a map, North Africa might appear to be an enormous stretch of empty desert. Strategically, it was anything but empty. Egypt contained the Suez Canal, the vital waterway connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and routes toward the Indian Ocean. The Middle East also contained crucial oil resources and imperial communications. If Axis forces broke through Egypt, Britain's strategic position in the region could become extremely dangerous. The desert was therefore not some distant sideshow. It was part of a worldwide struggle over transportation, resources, and military power.

Rommel Comes East

Rommel had earned his reputation honestly. His German Afrika Korps and its Italian allies had repeatedly surprised British commanders with rapid movements and aggressive counterattacks. In May 1942, Axis forces launched an offensive from Libya. After hard fighting around Gazala, the British position collapsed. Tobruk, which had resisted Axis siege the previous year, fell on June 21, 1942, along with tens of thousands of Allied troops taken prisoner. Rommel continued east into Egypt. British forces withdrew until they reached a narrow defensive position near a railway stop called El Alamein.

A Battlefield With Walls Made by Geography

El Alamein offered something unusual in desert warfare: the enemy could not easily drive around it. The Mediterranean Sea blocked movement to the north. To the south lay the Qattara Depression, an area of salt marshes, soft sand, and difficult terrain largely unsuitable for major armored formations. Between them stretched a front of roughly forty miles. The British had stopped Rommel there during the First Battle of El Alamein in July. But stopping him was not enough. The Axis army remained in Egypt.

I Take Command

On August 13, I formally assumed command of the Eighth Army. I immediately worked to restore confidence and impose a clear plan. There was to be no assumption that we would retreat farther east if attacked. We would hold our ground, build our forces, and then destroy the enemy's position. I visited units and spoke directly to officers and soldiers. An army that expects defeat is already halfway toward it. The men needed to know that their commander had a plan and intended to see it through.

Rommel Tries Once More

Rommel did not wait quietly. At the end of August, Axis forces attacked again in what became the Battle of Alam el Halfa. Rommel attempted to move around our southern flank and strike into our rear, but we had prepared for him. British defenses, artillery, tanks, and Allied aircraft helped stop the offensive. Rommel was forced to withdraw to his original positions. This mattered enormously. The Axis had made its final major attempt to break through toward the Nile Delta, and it had failed.

Building the Hammer

I was not interested in attacking simply because politicians or newspapers wanted immediate action. Before we attacked, I wanted superiority. Reinforcements arrived, including American-built Sherman tanks. Artillery was concentrated. Supplies accumulated. Engineers prepared to deal with the enormous Axis minefields. Troops trained repeatedly for the tasks they would perform. Meanwhile, Axis supply lines stretched hundreds of miles back toward ports in Libya, and Allied naval and air attacks made the delivery of fuel and equipment increasingly difficult.

By October, the Eighth Army possessed substantial advantages in men, tanks, artillery, aircraft support, and supplies. But superiority on paper does not defeat an enemy. It must be converted into coordinated action.

The Night Approaches

Our objective was not simply to push Rommel a few miles backward. I wanted to break his army sufficiently to force it out of Egypt and begin driving it westward. Infantry would open passages through the minefields. Artillery would strike Axis defenses on an enormous scale. Armor would move through the corridors and engage the enemy's mobile forces. The plan required patience because the defenses before us were deep, heavily mined, and strongly held.

On October 23, 1942, darkness settled over the desert.

Thousands of British and Commonwealth artillerymen stood ready beside their guns. Infantrymen waited for the order to advance. Engineers prepared to enter the minefields.

At 9:40 that evening, our artillery opened fire. The Second Battle of El Alamein had begun.

The Second Battle of El Alamein - Told by Bernard Montgomery

At 9:40 on the night of October 23, 1942, the desert erupted. Hundreds of guns of the British Eighth Army opened fire along the El Alamein front. The flashes illuminated the darkness, and the bombardment rolled across the desert like continuous thunder. For months, Rommel's German and Italian forces had threatened Egypt. I had told my army there would be no retreat. Now came the more difficult part. We had to prove that we could advance.

Operation Lightfoot Begins

Our opening attack was called Operation Lightfoot. Infantry divisions advanced through Axis defenses while engineers worked to clear passages through enormous minefields—what the Germans called the "Devil's gardens." The name Lightfoot reflected the idea that infantrymen could cross anti-tank minefields that vehicles could not. Behind them, armored formations were supposed to pass through cleared corridors and enter the battle beyond. It looked orderly on our maps. On the battlefield, darkness, dust, mines, enemy fire, and confusion made everything harder.

The Desert Refuses to Break

I possessed greater resources than the Axis army, but Rommel's defenses were formidable. German and Italian troops fought from prepared positions supported by anti-tank guns, artillery, mines, and armor. Our tanks encountered narrow cleared lanes and fierce resistance. Progress was slower than planned. That did not persuade me to abandon the operation. I had not expected El Alamein to be won by one magnificent charge. My intention was to maintain pressure, force the enemy to consume fuel, ammunition, men, and machines, and use our superior resources to wear down his ability to resist.

Rommel Returns

Rommel had been in Germany receiving medical treatment when the battle began. He hurried back to Africa and resumed command on October 25. His situation was becoming increasingly difficult. Axis forces were short of fuel, and Allied attacks against Mediterranean shipping had contributed to serious supply problems. He could still counterattack—and he did—but every lost tank was more difficult for him to replace than it was for us. The battlefield was becoming a contest not merely of courage but of endurance.

The Australians Pull the Battle North

Heavy fighting developed in the northern sector, where Australian troops repeatedly attacked Axis positions. Their pressure forced Rommel to shift forces northward to contain them. British, New Zealand, South African, Indian, Free French, Greek, and other Allied troops were also part of the Eighth Army's multinational effort. This was not simply one British formation attacking one German formation. El Alamein brought together soldiers from across the British Empire, Commonwealth, and Allied forces against German and Italian defenders.

Operation Supercharge

By the beginning of November, I believed the time had come for the decisive effort. Operation Supercharge began during the early hours of November 2. New Zealand-led forces and supporting British formations attacked, followed by armor intended to break through the Axis position. Fighting was severe, particularly around the remaining German and Italian anti-tank defenses. Losses were substantial, but Rommel's armored strength was being reduced to the point where he could no longer maintain the battle on the same terms.

Hitler Says Stand Fast

Rommel recognized the danger and began considering withdrawal. Then came an order from Hitler demanding that his army stand its ground. Such orders may sound impressive hundreds of miles from the battlefield. They do not manufacture fuel, replace destroyed tanks, or restore exhausted soldiers. Rommel temporarily obeyed, but the military situation continued deteriorating. On November 4, Axis defenses began collapsing in several places, and retreat became unavoidable.

The Pursuit Begins

The Axis army withdrew westward across Egypt and into Libya. Not every enemy formation escaped. Several Italian divisions, particularly those without sufficient motor transport, suffered heavily and large numbers of Axis troops were captured. Our own attempt to trap and destroy the retreating army completely was frustrated by several factors, including congestion, difficult conditions, and later heavy rain. Rommel escaped with part of his force, so El Alamein did not destroy the Axis army in North Africa.

But it changed the direction in which that army was moving.

Before El Alamein, the question had been whether Rommel could break through Egypt. After El Alamein, he was retreating westward. Within days, another enormous development would transform the North African war: on November 8, American and British forces landed in Morocco and Algeria during Operation Torch.

Rommel was retreating from us in the east.

Another Allied army had just appeared in the west.

The Axis position in North Africa was beginning to close like a vise.

Why El Alamein Mattered - Told by Bernard Montgomery

When the guns finally moved west from El Alamein in November 1942, the importance of our victory could be measured by one simple fact: Rommel was retreating. For months, Britain had worried that Axis forces might break through Egypt. After El Alamein, that immediate danger had been reversed. We had not destroyed every German and Italian formation, nor had we ended the North African war, but we had changed its direction. The Eighth Army was advancing. The Axis army was going back.

Egypt Would Not Fall

Egypt mattered for reasons extending far beyond Cairo or Alexandria. The Suez Canal provided Britain and its Allies with a vital strategic route between the Mediterranean region and the Red Sea, with connections onward toward the Indian Ocean and Britain's wider imperial communications. The Middle East also contained enormously important oil resources. Had Rommel broken through the El Alamein position and continued deeper into Egypt, Britain would have faced a grave strategic crisis. Our victory removed the immediate threat of an Axis advance toward the Nile Delta and Suez.

Rommel's Army Had Been Hurt

El Alamein was not merely a retreat. The Axis forces had suffered serious losses in men, tanks, guns, vehicles, and equipment, and large numbers of troops were captured during the battle and withdrawal. Rommel still commanded a dangerous force, but he faced a problem that became worse with every mile he retreated: logistics. North Africa was enormous. Fuel, ammunition, food, spare parts, and replacement equipment had to cross the Mediterranean and then often travel great distances overland. Allied naval and air forces were making that supply system increasingly difficult to sustain.

We had greater resources and increasingly strong logistical support. In modern warfare, that difference eventually becomes decisive.

Britain Needed a Victory

There was also something that cannot be measured merely by counting tanks. Britain needed confidence. Since 1940, British forces had endured the fall of France, Dunkirk, Greece, Crete, setbacks in North Africa, and the shocking surrender of Singapore. There had certainly been important successes—the Battle of Britain among them—but British ground forces desperately needed a clear offensive victory against a major German-led army. El Alamein provided it.

The news traveled quickly. Here was proof that German forces could be attacked, broken, and driven from prepared positions. The psychological effect mattered to soldiers, civilians, governments, and occupied peoples watching the war from afar.

The Timing Could Hardly Have Been Worse for the Axis

Then, only four days after the major Axis retreat from El Alamein began, another blow landed far to the west. On November 8, American and British forces came ashore in French North Africa during Operation Torch. I was advancing westward from Egypt while new Allied forces appeared in Morocco and Algeria.

The two operations were not one single battlefield maneuver, and the political and military circumstances surrounding Torch were complicated. But strategically the consequences were unmistakable. Axis forces in North Africa now faced powerful Allied pressure developing from opposite directions. Germany and Italy responded by sending additional forces into Tunisia, prolonging the campaign, but the strategic situation had turned sharply against them.

The Axis Could Still Fight

It is tempting, when studying history afterward, to make every turning point look inevitable. El Alamein was not the end of Rommel, and it was certainly not the end of Germany. Axis troops continued fighting in North Africa for months, and the European war would continue until 1945. We ourselves made mistakes during the pursuit, and Rommel succeeded in withdrawing substantial forces.

But after El Alamein, the Axis never again mounted a serious advance toward Egypt. That distinction matters. Before the battle, Rommel's army stood inside Egypt threatening to move eastward. Afterward, it began a retreat stretching hundreds of miles toward Libya and eventually Tunisia.

The Direction of War Changes

Midway had already delivered a tremendous blow against Japan's carrier fleet in June. At almost the same time we were fighting at El Alamein, another struggle of extraordinary importance was raging at Stalingrad. The year 1942 was beginning to demonstrate that Axis expansion had limits.

That is why I would tell a student not to remember El Alamein merely as tanks fighting in the desert. Remember the direction of movement.

For much of the war, Allied armies had been forced backward.

At El Alamein, we turned around. And we did not return.

My Name is Vasily Chuikov: Soviet Military Commander

I was born in 1900 in the village of Serebryanye Prudy, south of Moscow, into a large peasant family. Russia was an empire when I was born, but revolution and war would destroy the world of my childhood. I entered the Red Army during the Russian Civil War while still a young man. I learned command not in comfortable classrooms, but among exhausted soldiers where hesitation could cost lives. War taught me early that a commander must understand what his men are facing because orders that look simple on a map become something entirely different under fire.

Becoming a Commander

I remained in the Red Army after the Civil War and devoted myself to soldiering. I studied at the Frunze Military Academy, commanded units, and learned the growing importance of artillery, tanks, communications, and coordinated operations. Before Germany invaded the Soviet Union, I also served as a military adviser in China during its war against Japan. There I watched another nation struggle against a powerful invader. When I returned to the Soviet Union in 1942, my own country was fighting for survival.

The Germans Drive East

Hitler's armies had invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and inflicted terrible defeats upon us. In 1942, they drove south toward the Caucasus and the Volga. One city stood directly in their path: Stalingrad. By September, German troops were smashing their way into the city while Luftwaffe aircraft reduced entire neighborhoods to ruins. I was ordered to take command of the 62nd Army. When I crossed the Volga and entered Stalingrad, I understood exactly what was expected. We would hold the city.

There Was Nowhere to Retreat

The Volga was behind us and the Germans were before us. Sometimes only a street, a wall, or the floor of a ruined building separated the two armies. We fought in factories, cellars, apartment blocks, sewers, and railway yards. The Germans possessed tremendous artillery and airpower, so I ordered my soldiers to stay as close to the enemy as possible—to "hug" them. If German positions were only a short distance away, their aircraft and artillery risked killing their own men. We turned the ruins into a weapon.

Every Building Became a Fortress

Stalingrad was not a conventional battlefield. A factory could become a fortress. A staircase could become a front line. Positions changed hands repeatedly. Reinforcements crossed the Volga under shellfire, often entering combat almost immediately. Men such as sniper Vasily Zaitsev became symbols of resistance, but thousands of others fought without becoming famous. The Germans kept attacking, and we kept forcing them to pay for every meter. Our purpose was simple: survive, hold, and give the Red Army time.

The Trap Closes

Then, on November 19, 1942, Soviet forces launched Operation Uranus. While my army continued holding the Germans inside Stalingrad, powerful Soviet formations attacked the weaker Axis armies guarding their flanks. The pincers met west of the city, trapping the German Sixth Army. The besiegers had become the besieged. Hitler ordered his troops to remain in place, but the Luftwaffe could not supply them adequately. Hunger, cold, disease, and Soviet attacks steadily destroyed what remained.

Stalingrad Stands

In February 1943, the final German forces in Stalingrad surrendered. The city was scarcely recognizable. Buildings were shattered, factories burned, and countless soldiers and civilians were dead. But the German attempt to conquer Stalingrad had failed. Our 62nd Army was renamed the 8th Guards Army, and I continued commanding it as we advanced westward through Ukraine and Poland. The army that had once fought with the Volga at its back would eventually fight inside Germany itself.

From the Volga to Berlin

In 1945, my soldiers participated in the final Battle of Berlin. The ruined streets reminded me in some ways of Stalingrad, except now we were advancing through the enemy's capital. After the war, I continued serving the Soviet Union, eventually becoming a Marshal of the Soviet Union and commander-in-chief of Soviet Ground Forces. When I died in 1982, I was buried at Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, among the soldiers whose struggle had defined my life.

The Men Who Held the City

I was proud of Stalingrad. We were given a task that seemed almost impossible, and we did not surrender the city. But commanders survive in history more easily than ordinary soldiers survive in memory. I gave orders knowing that men might die carrying them out, because defeat could have cost even more. If I owe an apology, it is to those soldiers I demanded everything from—the men who crossed the Volga, entered the ruins, and never crossed back. The world remembers generals and marshals, but Stalingrad was held by soldiers.

Stalingrad: The Battle Inside the City — Aug–Nov 1942 - Told by Vasily Chuikov

When I crossed the Volga to take command of the 62nd Army in September 1942, Stalingrad was already burning. German aircraft had smashed factories, homes, railway yards, and streets into mountains of rubble. Smoke hung over the city, and the Volga behind us was under constant enemy observation and fire. The Germans believed they were approaching victory. I looked at those ruins differently. A destroyed city could be extraordinarily difficult to capture. Every basement could become a bunker, every factory a fortress, and every pile of rubble a place from which a Soviet soldier could kill an advancing German.

The Germans Reach the Volga

The struggle had begun before I arrived. Hitler's 1942 summer offensive drove German armies deep into southern Russia toward the Caucasus and the Volga. Stalingrad stood along that great river and was an important industrial and transportation center. On August 23, German forces reached the Volga north of the city while the Luftwaffe launched a devastating bombardment. Thousands of civilians were killed during the opening attacks and subsequent fighting. Entire districts burned. Yet bombing the city did not make it easy to occupy. In many places, the destruction created exactly the defensive terrain we would use against the Germans.

My Orders Were Simple: Hold

I assumed command of the 62nd Army on September 12. The military situation was extremely dangerous. German forces were pressing into the city, and in places our defenders were squeezed into narrow strips of land along the Volga. Reinforcements, ammunition, food, and medical supplies had to cross the river, often under artillery fire and air attack. The wounded traveled back in the opposite direction when boats were available. There was no comfortable headquarters far behind the battlefield. My command posts remained close enough to the fighting that we understood exactly what was happening. Our task was not complicated to explain. We had to hold.

We Learned to Hug the Germans

The Germans preferred to combine aircraft, artillery, tanks, and infantry in coordinated attacks. In open country this combination had destroyed armies. Inside Stalingrad, I wanted to take away as many of those advantages as possible. We kept our positions extremely close to the enemy—sometimes only dozens of yards away. We called this "hugging" the Germans. If their aircraft or heavy artillery attacked us, they risked striking their own troops. Then we fought them at close range.

The battlefield became rooms, staircases, courtyards, sewers, workshops, and shattered walls. A building might contain Germans on one floor and Soviet soldiers on another. The front line sometimes ran through a single structure.

The Factories Become Fortresses

Some of the worst fighting occurred around the great industrial complexes in northern Stalingrad: the Red October steel works, the Barrikady gun factory, and the Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory. German troops attacked repeatedly with infantry, tanks, artillery, and aircraft. Our soldiers defended workshops filled with wrecked machinery and rubble. Units were reduced to fractions of their original strength, yet new troops crossed the Volga and entered the battle.

The Germans captured most of the city, but "most" was not enough. As long as we possessed positions on the western bank of the Volga, the 62nd Army remained alive.

A War of Small Groups

Stalingrad produced its own methods of fighting. Small assault groups moved through ruins, using grenades, submachine guns, rifles, machine guns, and sometimes sharpened entrenching tools in close combat. Snipers hunted soldiers who exposed themselves for only seconds. Vasily Zaitsev became the most famous Soviet sniper associated with the battle, but he was one among many men fighting this intimate war.

One building became particularly famous. Sergeant Yakov Pavlov and other Soviet soldiers defended an apartment building that became known as Pavlov's House. They fortified it and held the position for weeks. Stalingrad was filled with struggles like this, though most never acquired famous names.

The Volga Was Our Lifeline

Everything depended upon the river behind us. At night, boats and ferries carried ammunition, food, reinforcements, and equipment across the Volga. German artillery and aircraft tried to destroy them. Men arrived on the western bank and sometimes entered combat almost immediately. Our bridgeheads became desperately narrow in places, but they survived.

By November, the cold was increasing. The ruins were filled with exhausted men from both armies. The Germans had captured much of Stalingrad and reached the Volga at several points. Looking at a map, they might have appeared close to victory. They did not understand what was happening beyond the city.

Something Was Coming

While we held the Germans in Stalingrad, Soviet armies were gathering north and south of us. German forces had concentrated heavily upon capturing the city, while long stretches of their flanks were defended largely by Romanian and other Axis allied armies with fewer anti-tank weapons and weaker defenses against a major armored assault.

We inside Stalingrad were not fighting simply for another ruined factory or another shattered apartment building. Our resistance was fixing substantial German forces in place while the Soviet high command prepared a much larger operation.

At dawn on November 19, 1942, Soviet artillery opened fire far to the northwest of us.

The Germans had spent months trying to surround and destroy my army. Now the Red Army was going to surround theirs.

Operation Uranus: The Hunters Become the Trapped - Told by Georgy Zhukov

For months, the Germans had attacked Stalingrad believing that one more assault might finally break our resistance. They watched General Vasily Chuikov's soldiers clinging to narrow pieces of ruined city beside the Volga. What concerned us was not merely the ground inside Stalingrad. The German Sixth Army had pushed itself deep into a dangerous position, while Romanian and other Axis allied armies guarded long stretches of its flanks. Stavka saw an opportunity. Instead of throwing everything directly into the ruins, we would strike around them.

The Plan to Surround an Army

General Aleksandr Vasilevsky and I presented Stalin with the concept for a great counteroffensive around Stalingrad, while Soviet commanders and staffs developed the detailed operation. The idea was straightforward but enormous in execution. Soviet forces would attack north and south of the city, break through the Axis flanks, and drive rapidly westward. If the two spearheads joined behind Stalingrad, the German Sixth Army and other Axis units around it would be trapped. The operation was given the name Uranus.

November 19: The Blow Falls

On the morning of November 19, 1942, Soviet artillery opened fire against Romanian positions northwest of Stalingrad. The weather was poor, but the attack went forward. Infantry broke into the defenses, followed by tanks and mechanized forces that drove into the rear. The Romanian Third Army could not contain the assault. On November 20, Soviet forces attacked south of Stalingrad against the Romanian Fourth Army and neighboring Axis positions. Again, the front began to break.

This was precisely what operational surprise was meant to accomplish. We were not attacking where the enemy was strongest. We were attacking the structure holding his strongest forces in place.

The Ring Closes

Soviet armored and mechanized formations raced across the steppe behind the German Sixth Army. On November 23, forces from the northern and southern attacks met near Kalach and Sovetsky. The ring had closed.

Inside were roughly a quarter-million Axis personnel at the outset of the encirclement, though estimates vary depending upon which attached units and supporting personnel are counted. General Friedrich Paulus and his Sixth Army suddenly faced an entirely different war. Yesterday they had been trying to capture Stalingrad. Now they had to ask whether they could escape from it. There was still a possibility of attempting an early breakout. Hitler refused to authorize one.

The Promise That Could Not Be Kept

Hermann Göring claimed that the Luftwaffe could supply the trapped forces by air. It could not provide what an army of that size required. Bad weather, Soviet fighters and antiaircraft guns, insufficient transport aircraft, losses, and inadequate airfields all worked against the airlift. Food, ammunition, medicine, and especially fuel became increasingly scarce.

The winter grew colder. Horses were slaughtered for food. Wounded men crowded medical stations. Vehicles became useless without fuel. The German Sixth Army was still dangerous, but every day inside the pocket made it weaker.

Manstein Comes Toward Stalingrad

The Germans did attempt to rescue the trapped army. In December, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's Army Group Don launched Operation Winter Storm from the southwest. German armored forces advanced toward the pocket and at one stage came within roughly thirty miles of the encircled forces. But Paulus did not launch the major breakout that might have attempted to meet them, in part because Hitler continued insisting that Stalingrad be held and because the Sixth Army's fuel situation was increasingly desperate.

Meanwhile, Soviet operations against Axis forces elsewhere threatened the relief force's position. Manstein's troops eventually withdrew. The ring remained closed.

The Pocket Shrinks

In January 1943, Soviet forces launched Operation Ring to destroy the encircled army. Artillery, aircraft, infantry, and tanks steadily compressed the German position. Airfields were captured, making even the inadequate Luftwaffe supply effort increasingly impossible. The pocket split apart.

On January 30, Hitler promoted Paulus to field marshal. No German field marshal had previously surrendered alive, and the implication was obvious. Paulus did not kill himself.

On January 31, Soviet troops captured him in the southern pocket. The remaining northern German forces surrendered on February 2.

The Hunters Had Become the Trapped

The Sixth Army had marched toward the Volga as part of Germany's great offensive into the Soviet south. It had fought its way through Stalingrad street by street and factory by factory. Yet the very concentration of forces around the city had helped create the conditions for catastrophe on its exposed flanks.

Operation Uranus demonstrated that the Red Army of late 1942 was not simply the battered force that had suffered enormous disasters in 1941. We were learning to conceal preparations, concentrate armies, coordinate enormous offensives, exploit weaknesses, and strike deep into an enemy's rear.

Stalingrad had begun with the Germans driving east toward the Volga.

It ended with an entire German field army disappearing inside a Soviet encirclement.

The Wehrmacht was still powerful. Germany was far from defeated.

But after Stalingrad, no serious commander could pretend that the war in the east was proceeding according to Hitler's plan.

1943: When the Direction of the War Changed - Told by Zhukov and Montgomery

By the beginning of 1942, the Axis powers controlled an extraordinary amount of territory. Germany dominated much of continental Europe and stood deep inside the Soviet Union. Japan had conquered vast territories across Asia and the Pacific. Yet during the months that followed, three distant battlefields—Midway, El Alamein, and Stalingrad—showed that Axis expansion could be stopped. By 1943, the larger question was changing from whether the Allies could survive to whether they could seize and maintain the strategic initiative.

Three Battles, One Changing War

Montgomery: "I would begin in the Pacific, although neither Zhukov nor I fought there. At Midway in June 1942, American carrier forces sank four Japanese fleet carriers while losing Yorktown. Japan remained extremely dangerous, but the defeat badly damaged the carrier striking force that had spearheaded its early expansion. Two months later, American forces landed on Guadalcanal. The Americans were beginning to move from strategic defense toward offensive operations."

Zhukov: "And in Europe the crisis had not passed. Hitler began his great summer offensive in the Soviet Union in June 1942. German armies drove toward the Caucasus and Stalingrad. They wanted territory, transportation routes, and access toward the Caucasus oil fields. At Stalingrad, the German Sixth Army became locked in a struggle for the city while Axis allied armies protected its extended flanks. We saw that weakness and prepared to strike it."

El Alamein Reverses the Desert War

Montgomery: "In Egypt, we faced Rommel. The Eighth Army had already stopped the Axis advance at the First Battle of El Alamein before I assumed command. My task was to prepare the army to attack. On October 23, the Second Battle of El Alamein began. We possessed important advantages in supplies, artillery, tanks, aircraft support, and manpower, but advantages are useless unless properly organized. After nearly two weeks of hard fighting, the Axis position broke. Rommel began retreating westward."

Zhukov: "That victory mattered beyond the desert. The Axis threat toward Egypt had been reversed. Then, on November 8, American and British forces landed in French North Africa during Operation Torch. Suddenly Axis forces there faced pressure developing from east and west. Germany and Italy would continue fighting in Tunisia until May 1943, but the direction of the North African campaign had fundamentally changed."

Then Came the Encirclement

Zhukov: "Eleven days after Operation Torch began, we launched Operation Uranus around Stalingrad. We attacked the weaker Axis forces guarding the German flanks rather than wasting our strength solely against the Germans inside the city. On November 23, our spearheads met west of Stalingrad. The German Sixth Army and other forces were trapped. Hitler ordered them to remain. The Luftwaffe could not adequately supply them, and the German relief effort failed. On February 2, 1943, the last organized German resistance in the pocket ended."

Montgomery: "Stalingrad was a tremendous blow to German power and prestige. That is important because wars are fought not only with divisions and tanks but with confidence. For years, Germany's victories had created an impression of military superiority. Moscow had already demonstrated that the Germans could be stopped. El Alamein showed they could be driven backward in North Africa. Stalingrad showed that a major German field army could be surrounded and destroyed."

Why 1942 Was Different

Montgomery: "We should be careful with the phrase turning point. No single morning suddenly made Allied victory inevitable. Germany still occupied enormous territories in 1943. Japan still controlled a vast Pacific empire. Allied forces would suffer many more defeats and casualties. What changed was the strategic momentum. The Axis powers increasingly had to replace losses while confronting enemies whose military and industrial strength was growing."

Zhukov: "That distinction is essential. The Soviet Union was rebuilding armies while producing enormous quantities of weapons. American factories were producing aircraft, ships, tanks, trucks, and other equipment on a tremendous scale. Britain remained in the fight. The Allies were also becoming better at coordinating air, land, and naval power. The Axis powers could still launch dangerous offensives, but the conditions that had produced their spectacular early victories were disappearing."

1943: The Pressure Increases

Zhukov: "The change became clearer during 1943. In July, Germany attempted a major offensive around Kursk. We had prepared extensive defenses, and after the German attack was halted, Soviet forces launched counteroffensives. From that point onward, the Wehrmacht would never again mount an offensive on the Eastern Front comparable in strategic ambition to its earlier campaigns. The Red Army increasingly drove west."

Montgomery: "And elsewhere the Allies were also advancing. Axis forces surrendered in Tunisia in May 1943. Allied troops invaded Sicily in July, contributing to Mussolini's fall from power later that month. In the Pacific, Guadalcanal had ended in an Allied victory in February, and American and Allied forces continued campaigns across the Pacific and New Guinea. The Axis now had to respond to growing pressure across several theaters."

The Initiative Changes Hands

Montgomery: "That is how I would have students remember 1942 and 1943. Midway, El Alamein, and Stalingrad were not three magical victories that won the war. They were powerful signs of a much larger change. Japan's carrier force had suffered a devastating setback. Axis forces were retreating from Egypt. A German army had surrendered at Stalingrad. The Allies were beginning to decide where major battles would be fought."

Zhukov: "Precisely. In early 1942, much of the world watched the Axis advance. By the end of 1943, the map told a different story. The road ahead would still pass through ruined cities, beaches, mountains, forests, and thousands of graves. But the direction had changed. Germany and Japan had begun the war by forcing their enemies backward. Now their enemies were coming toward them."