World War II, as the largest war in human history, had different turning points... Due to the large scale of the war, there were different war zones
The first point: the beginning of the war and the expected Allied victory: At the beginning of the war, the German side was very nervous, especially at that time the most powerful army in Europe in terms of training, tanks and manpower was actually the French army. They had more tanks than the Germans, many of which were actually better than the Germans. The German generals and commanders were very nervous because they were confident in defeating Poland, because most of the German troops were engaged in the Polish campaign, but there were only a small number of troops stationed on the western border of Germany, and the French might launch an attack, and they might have broken through the western front with a lot of losses, and once they passed, the Germans had nothing to stop them. Even after the Battle of Poland, German commanders were not particularly confident in attacking the French. They knew the armor of the B1 heavy tank, and in a head-to-head confrontation, the tank could defeat almost everything except the Flak88, which was not yet a tank gun at the time. The gun was used for a mixed anti-tank/anti-aircraft effect, but it was not a dedicated anti-tank gun and was not mounted on German tanks. In this regard, the german high command's plan was expected to reach only the Somme, and then after major battles in northern France and Belgium required a halt to reorganize the army and supplies.
Second point: the French campaign and the expected German victory: despite their technical superiority, the French still lagged far behind the Germans in terms of tactical training and coordination. They lacked air arms large enough to support their armor. The result was a six-week battle, despite the fact that the French gave the Germans a much tougher battle than many people think today ... It still ended with a great victory for Germany and a defeat for France. Achievements never made in World War I shattered many of the fears of German commanders. After this battle, it was expected that Germany would win the war because Britain was threatened with an invasion ... While the Battle of Britain would have prevented this from happening, they lacked the manpower and resources to drive the Germans back to Germany and the Italian attack on Egypt,
By 1941, Japan's war in China had lasted for many years, mostly in the 1930s, when Japan tried to enrich Japan by increasing its resources. However, they found that Chinese were reluctant to surrender after a major war, but continued to fight guerrilla warfare, forcing the Japanese to disperse their forces and continue to march towards China. However, while they received oil from the United States and the Dutch East Indies and iron from the United States, they were at least able to move forward. But as various atrocities were reported, Chinese continued to refuse to surrender, and the Roosevelt administration began to change its policy. This included a massive oil and iron embargo on Japan, which the Dutch East Indies agreed to after Japan manipulated its alliance with Germany to get the Vichy French to hand over Indochina to them.
Japan has only three options. They can negotiate honestly for their right to conquest and try to prove that their allegations against China are true, and get the United States to force China to accept the terms of the negotiations, giving Japan control over much of China... Even if it means losing some territory here or there. They could withdraw from the advance and comply with U.S. demands, which would be seen as a retreat and cost Japan the losses they had gained so far, or they could attack the United States and seize the Dutch East Indies, thus obtaining the oil needed to sustain themselves. Fight in China and win on their terms. They chose a third option and attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, hoping that the United States would surrender without the Pacific Fleet and expand the war in China into a larger Pacific War.
Third point: The Battle of Moscow and the Declaration of War on the United States: The victory in 1940 greatly built the confidence of Hitler and many of the generals around him. Isolated from the world and nostalgic for the Soviet Union's performance in the Winter War of 1939-1940, Hitler decided to launch Operation Barbarossa, hoping that defeating the Soviet Union would eliminate Churchill's power to save Britain and secure resources for Germany, which would need to last longer than Britain if Britain continued to stubbornly persist. For most of 1941, the Germans not only advanced, but also inflicted heavy losses on the Red Army. The Battle of Kiev witnessed the destruction of the entire Soviet army and cleared the way for the Germans to enter the Ukrainian granary and opened up a possible route for an attack on the Caucasus oil fields, which was Barbarossa's original goal.
However, for various reasons, the Germans refocused on Army Group Center and decided to go all out to capture Moscow, most likely in the hope that in the event of the capture of the Soviet capital and the heavy losses of the Soviet army, the Red Army army would either turn to Stalin, and the resistance in the east would completely disintegrate, so that Germany would not have to fight for it to obtain Caucasus oil. By December 1941, however, unlike earlier this year, the Germans were in trouble. On the one hand, winter in Russia came, and German soldiers who were only equipped for summer campaigns began to freeze to death, seeing that their equipment began to fail because they were not ready for winter. At the same time, the Red Army received reinforcements from Siberia, and various officers who were imprisoned but not killed during the Great Purge were released and returned to the Red Army. The result was a fierce battle that forced the Germans to retreat from Moscow.
During the same period, the Germans also declared war on the United States, probably hoping that Japan would declare war on the Soviet Union and help Germany against the Red Army. However, Japan did not, and the war has now expanded. Although it is not clear who will win... The Germans now face the Red Army in the east, the British in Africa, the Royal Navy at sea, and the American economy behind them... All of this happens at the same time. This made the war much larger in scale, and if germany's enemies did not surrender in a single battle, Germany's meager resources could actually win completely ...
Second point: The Battle of Midway: The Attack on Pearl Harbor severely damaged the U.S. Pacific Fleet and caught the United States off guard. The Japanese followed suit, rampage, taking them near Port Moresby in New Guinea and even into India's border areas in an attempt to cut off trade with China. But the U.S. Navy has not completely collapsed, and there are still aircraft carriers. A series of events from late 1941 to early 1942 would shake Japan's confidence. The first was the Doolittle airstrike, in which the American B-25 would take off from a U.S. aircraft carrier and attack Tokyo, Japan. The losses were small, but the fact that the U.S. was already so close made Japan nervous. The U.S. aircraft carrier will then block attempts to occupy Port Moresby and threaten Australia in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Therefore, Japan proposed a new plan aimed at expanding the Japanese Empire in the Pacific. The target is Midway, which would allow Japan to move forward from air bases and allow them to monitor the United States more fully at Pearl Harbor, possibly even forcing the main U.S. naval base to move back to California and luring U.S. carriers into battle they could not survive. Most of the oil obtained from the Dutch East Indies is used for this operation. However, U.S. naval intelligence had already begun to crack the Japanese Navy's code and was soon intuitively sure that Midway was the target.
Although the deceptive plan to seize Atul and Kiska in the Chain of the Aleutian Islands worked ... But the plan to capture Midway failed. South Cloud tried to balance the concerns between Midway and the American fleet, but unexpectedly lost four fleet carriers to american dive bombers during the battle... Akagi, Kaga, Goryū, Wyvern. These losses cost Japan's experienced sailors and pilots. Because of the way the Japanese train pilots, they can't replace them. In this regard, in many of the great air battles in the Pacific, Japanese pilots were not trained to defeat the United States. That's the magnitude of Midway's failure.
Fourth point: Stalingrad and the loss of oil: Moscow's previous defeat was huge, but not a battle lost in the war. German troops were still deep into Soviet territory, and stalin's many counterattacks overwhelmed the Red Army at the time. This led to the Second Battle of Kharkov, which led to huge losses for the Red Army, and if the Germans could maintain the casualty exchange rate of that battle, it did not matter how many people the Red Army had, they could not afford the loss of such a loss. At the same time, the losses suffered in Kharkov opened the door to the seizure of caucasian oil fields, which had always been Barbarossa's goal. If the Germans could take them, they would deny the Soviets access to their main oil supply, and any oil they received came from a fragile or long supply route that would not be sufficient to sustain an army of this size for long.
So, in 1942, the Germans set out for Stalingrad and Baku, hoping to prevent the Soviets from getting oil and hoping to secure additional oil supplies that would allow German armored vehicles to continue to operate for the foreseeable future. Since most of the Red Army wanted the Germans to attack Moscow again, this progress initially made good progress. But between the moving troops and the army, the Germans placed troops unfit for plains warfare on the plains, and troops not suitable for mountain and urban areas in mountainous and urban areas. This greatly slowed the advance and bought time for the Soviets to recover. By the end of 1942, although Baku was threatened, it was still in Soviet hands, and the fighting around Stalingrad was very fierce,
This led to Operation Uranus. The Soviet army launched a massive counterattack, crushing the entire army, mainly the Axis satellite forces, and encircling the Sixth Army in Stalingrad. Trying to rescue the army... But these failed, and Paulus refused to disobey the order and remained in Stalingrad, eventually surrendering in 1943.
Third point: The Battle of the Solomon Islands and the Imperial Navy: Starting with Guadalcanal, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps will begin a large-scale campaign shortly after Midway in 1942 until 1943. Here, the toughness of the United States and the economics of American power will begin to show the gap and differences between the United States and Japan. The Japanese won some initial naval victories and sank two U.S. aircraft carriers, but they were unable to sink the Enterprise or force the U.S. Marines to leave Guadalcanal. From then on, the United States will begin to strike at the Japanese Navy.
Japan sent ships to reinforce its personnel and harassed the U.S. Marines in a fairly routine manner, often at night. This was soon known as the Tokyo Express. But the United States will send more ships to the region. New battleships such as North Carolina, Washington and South Dakota will take part in combat. The USS Enterprise will continue to plague the Japanese Navy. The result was that Japan would eventually lose two battleships and various cruisers and destroyers trying to take control of Guadalcanal. With the disappearance of Guadalcanal... This soon led to the advance of the Solomon Islands, with the aim of isolating the naval base in Rabar and further weakening the Imperial Navy. And it can be said that the overall damage caused by this battle to the Japanese Navy was greater than that caused by Midway.
Fifth point: Black May Naval Defeat: The German navy was much smaller than the British, and even when the war began, they could not completely sweep the Royal Navy. Thus, the Germans left their submarines behind, and for many years the Atlantic naval battles ebbed and flowed. However, in May 1943, it won decisively. With improved sonar, radar and other detection equipment, more long-range aircraft and more destroyer escorts, the U.S. and Royal Navies sank a large number of German U-boats, forcing Donitz to effectively abandon the North Atlantic. From here, although the naval battles would continue into the final days of the war, the Germans were unable to prevent convoys from entering Britain, and a massive build-up led to the Normandy landings in 1944.
Sixth point: the summer of 1943 and the defeat/victory of the war: the Germans face a huge problem here. Their losses at Stalingrad weakened the Wehrmacht and Axis forces on the Eastern Front. In late 1942, the Western Allies also won victories in El Alamein and launched Operation Torch, which eventually cleared North Africa. Germany's position remained relatively strong, but a complete victory was no longer an option, negotiating terms was something Hitler didn't want to try, and at the Casablanca Conference, the Western allies decided not to commit. In this regard, Germany needs some major victories to turn the tide ... Buy time for Germany and could force at least one enemy to reconsider its position diplomatically.
This led to the Battle of Kursk and the Battle of Sicily. Although the Germans did inflict heavy losses on the Soviets, they also suffered heavy losses and failed to break through the large pockets surrounding the eastern cities. When this situation broke down, the Red Army would gain the initiative and motivation to further advance Ukraine and isolate the various German garrisons. Although their logistical system was heavily taxed and would limit the time and location of Soviet strikes, the defeat in Kursk was still detrimental to the Germans. At the same time, despite a strong rearguard operation in which Albert Kesselring carried out a phased systematic retreat in Sicily, the loss of the island still triggered Italy's surrender to the Allies,
With the Axis now broken as an alliance, the only other major member was Japan, which had never fought Hitler's war, germany was effectively isolated, and its losses in the East were so great that it could not defeat the Red Army. Soviet logistics may have slowed it down and forced it into a series of methodical stops and started offensives, but the Germans could not even force a major change in the outcome of the war. At this point, the war has been completely defeated, and the military will begin to plan to overthrow Hitler...
Seventh: Operation Overlord Saves the West: By 1943, when Operation Overlord began, Germany had lost the war, but the fate of Western Europe remained in question. The biggest potential fear was that the Red Army would eventually march all the way to the Pyrenees and ensure the safety of all of Western Europe. Since the West did not take significant action for most of the war, Stalin probably regarded the victory over Western and Eastern Europe as a major victory. After all, France has a large communist party, the largest communist party in Western Europe. Such gains would allow the Soviet Union to control Europe for longer than the Cold War after World War II. Allied leaders of all kinds were worried about what Stalin would do ... At this time, much of the purpose of the Mediterranean campaign was to cut off the Soviet offensive line from Italy ... By 1944, the Allies were advancing in Italy.
However, the march in Italy has progressed slowly. Although Kesselring could not directly stop the Allied attack, it could make the Allies bleed for every mountain. In this regard, the idea of crossing Italy and cutting off the Soviet advance was utopian and did not work. They would not have broken through the German defenses in time, if they had done so... If the alliance with Stalin broke, they would be too weak to do anything against the USSR. This made landing in France more important, although it was further away from Central and Eastern Europe. The landing proved successful, the Allies would break through from Normandy, but this time from farther away to the Soviets,
Overlord is not a battle to win World War II... By then the war had been won. It did, however, save Western Europe from Soviet occupation and at least 50 years of communist rule.
Fourth point: The Battle of Leyte Gulf and the victory or defeat of the war: Japan never really recovered from the Battle of Midway or Guadalcanal. However, it is not without the option of trying to get a better negotiating position, hoping that they can achieve a major victory and then have some reasonable forces behind them to negotiate peace. This has been tried and tried, but with little success. The Battle of Santa Cruz, which began with the Battle of Guadalcanal at sea, only led to more ships entering the Solomon Islands campaign, which ended in Japanese defeat. It was attempted again on June 15, 1944 in a great fleet battle in the Philippine Sea, but ended in the great Mariana Turkish shooting, where hastily trained pilots were shot down in droves.
By November 1944, the Japanese had become truly desperate because of their insufficient fuel supply, limited pilots, and the U.S. Navy had now recovered from Pearl Harbor. The United States is proving that it can afford to lose people and materiel, so Japan needs to give everything it takes, hoping to at least eliminate the landing forces, if not the main U.S. carrier strike force. So a series of contingency plans were developed so that all available navies and air forces were concentrated on the U.S. military, no matter where they landed... Whether it's the Philippines, Taiwan (Taiwan) or the islands of southern Japan. In November 1944, the United States landed in Wright, Philippines, and the Philippine plan began.
The result was the largest single naval battle in history. Japan lost at least three battleships, including the Musashi, which was almost Japan's last aircraft carrier, and a large number of cruisers and destroyers were sunk. Many of the ships that did not sink were at least damaged. The loss of so many naval assets and the re-loss of a large number of crew members actually meant a defeat for Japan. By this point, they had lost their naval prowess against the United States and could not really avoid defeat. They will either be starved to death, wiped out, or killed by nuclear weapons ... Because after Wright, the Japanese were incapable of keeping their enemies away.