Category:Battles and operations of World War II

This category contains historical battles fought as part of the Second World War (1939–1945). Please see the category guidelines for more information. A battle during the Second World War was a conceptual component in the hierarchy of warfare between belligerents, with each group seeking to defeat the other within the scope of a military campaign, and are well defined in duration, area and force commitment. The duration is usually less than a month, and the area is occupied by a force larger than an Army Corps, but smaller than a Field Army.

While military campaigns are guided by strategy, battles are executed on a level of staff planning known as operational warfare. A battle during the Second World War was defined by the specific military objectives, within a time-frame of less than a month. Where the duration of the battle was longer than a week, they were often for reasons of staff operational planning called operations. Battles or operations can be planned, encountered, or forced by one force on the other when it is unable to withdraw from combat.

Sometimes combat battles and operations are confused with the combats named operations due to use of a code name, but which are not necessarily either a battle or an operation, such as the Operation Barbarossa which was a campaign.

Related categories: category:Campaigns and theatres of World War II

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