Less than four weeks after crossing the Russian border, a German army is within 200 miles of Moscow

The German advance is held just short of Moscow as winter arrives

US planes sink four Japanese aircraft carriers in the battle of Midway, halting for the first time Japan's aggressive expansion

Auchinleck finally stops Rommel's advance, in the first battle of El Alamein

US and Japanese forces begin a violent six-month struggle for Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands

A desperate battle begins for the city of Stalingrad, with house-to-house fighting between Germans and Russians

Montgomery launches the second battle of El Alamein against Rommel

Soviet tanks complete the encirclement of 20 German divisions at Stalingrad

With much of the German Sixth Army destroyed, the survivors led by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrender at Stalingrad

After a six-month battle, US troops win the Pacific base of Guadalcanal from the Japanese

William Slim secures the first Allied victories in the Burma campaign, at Imphal and Kohima in northeast India

Victory over Japan in a massive 2-day battle at Leyte Gulf assures US recovery of Philippines

US troops land on the island of Okinawa, only 300 miles from the main islands of Japan

After a ferocious three-month battle, Okinawa is in US hands

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends with the surrender to the Vietminh of 12,000 French troops