airborne warfare
The first concept for the use of American airborne troops occurred during World War I in 1918, when Gen. Billy Mitchell proposed a mass drop of paratroopers against German trenches ...
Alan Brooke Alanbrooke, 1st Viscount
(1883–1963).Soldier. Chief of the imperial general staff for much of the Second World War, Brooke was the son of an Irish baronet and a member of the protestant ascendancy. After the Royal Military ...
Allied Control Commissions
Were formed to oversee the implementation of the terms of the various armistices the Allies imposed on some of the Axis powers. They were controlled by the Allied power which ...
Ardennes campaign
(also called Battle of the Bulge) (16–26 December 1944) The last serious German counter offensive against Allied armies advancing into Germany in World War II (Normandy Campaign). It resulted from a ...
Basil H. Liddell Hart
(1895–1970), English military writer and theorist.Liddell Hart, Cambridge‐educated, served as an infantry officer on the western front in World War I (twice wounded) and retired from the army as ...
Battle for Germany
(1945) the final European campaign of World War II, won by the 4-million-strong Allied army, under the leadership of Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower. Despite disagreement over tactics, ...
Battle of Anzio
Also known as Operation Shingle (January–May 1944) a World War II battle to maintain positions after an amphibious landing at Anzio on the Italian coast. On January 22, 36,000 Allied ...
battle of Arnhem
(September 1944)Battle in Holland in World War II. Parachutists of the 1st Allied Airborne Division (British, US, Polish) were dropped in an attempt to capture key bridges over the Lower Rhine to ...
battle of El Alamein
A battle of the Second World War fought in 1942 at El Alamein in Egypt, 90 km (60 miles) west of Alexandria. The German Afrika Korps under Rommel was halted in its advance towards the Nile by the ...
Battle of Falaise Gap
A fierce World War II battle (August 13–25, 1944) near Falaise and Argentan, in France, in which U.S., Canadian, and Polish forces attempted to cut off the escape route of ...
battle of Kasserine Pass
A mountain pass where, on February 20, 1943, American forces attempted to force their way past Gen. Erwin Rommel's German and Italian armored units as part of the Allied effort ...
battle of Medenine
This was fought on 6 March 1943, during the final phase of the North African campaign, when Rommel, by then C-in-C Army Group Africa, struck at forward formations of Montgomery's ...
Battle of Messina
The final battle in the World War II invasion of Sicily, won by the Allies on August 17, 1943. It was a noted triumph for the U.S. 7th Army under ...
battle of Reichswald
The Reichswald is a large tract of forest situated south-west of Cleves. In February 1945, during the battle for Germany, it was the scene of bitter fighting as Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian ...
battle of Rhineland
(1945),the name given to a series of battles fought by the Allied armies to capture terrain up to the west bank of the Rhine river, from 8 February until ...
Battle of St. Lô
An important battle following the D-Day Landing and leading up to the liberation of France, on July 25, 1944. Unable to make progress across the German lines, the Allies coordinated ...
Battle of the Bulge
An unofficial name for the campaign in the Ardennes, December 1944–January 1945, when German forces attempted to break through Allied lines and almost succeeded in doing so.
battles of Alamein
(1942),part of the Western Desert campaigns in WW II. Alamein (or al-Alamayn) lies on the Egyptian coast some 60 miles (96 km) west of Alexandria. With the extremely inhospitable—if ...
British Expeditionary Force
(BEF)The name given to British troops deployed for immediate conflict in the first half of the twentieth century. As a result of Haldane's army reforms in 1906–7, a territorial reserve army was ...
camp Followers.
Although this expression has been corrupted into a synonym for prostitutes who follow army camps, it historically referred to all civilians, male and female, associated with the military. Followers ...
