Case Blue, Stalingrad 1942
The turning point of the war in Europe came in the southwestern Soviet Union during the second half of 1942. It began due to Hitler’s attempt to gain the decision in the east while also giving Germany control of the oilfields of the Caucasus. He codenamed the operation Fall Blau (Operation Blue). Its climactic chapter is remembered today as the Battle of Stalingrad.

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• The Battle of the Eastern Solomons took place on 24-25 August 1942. Just as at the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway a few months earlier, the opposing ships never came in sight of each other. All attacks were carried out by carrier-based or land-based aircraft. Though neither side won a total victory, the US gained tactical, operation and strategic advantages.
• Operation Crusader In November 1941, the Allied-held Libyan port of Tobruk was surrounded and cut off from overland supply. Gen. Erwin Rommel was planning to assault it late that month, but he had not anticipated his Allied counterpart in command, Gen. Claude Auchinleck, would strike first. He could not have been more mistaken.
• Germany’s War Machine Though the German military was well organized and efficiently led, it was not the flawless war machine propaganda and news coverage made it out to be, then or since. It performed so well in the first half of the war because its opponents were ill prepared and poorly organized. Even as those opponents gradually made improvements and applied what the Germans had taught them, ever more flaws in the German war machine became apparent.