LIFE - Battles That Turned the Tide

Battle of Antietam, 1862

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The battle of Antietam (or Battle of Sharpsburg, as it's still called in the American South) was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history: More than 4,000 killed and 23,000 total casualties. The first major battle of the Civil War fought on Northern soil, the day ended with Confederate General Robert E. Lee withdrawing his troops back across the Potomac, to Virgina -- a move that, while strategically correct, effectively ended Lee's first real push into Union territory.

Second Battle of the Marne, July, 1918

Mon, 01 Jul 1918 03:00:00 EDT

Gassed and blinded French infantrymen are led by comrades, and escorted by British soldiers, from the line during the second Battle of the Marne. The Second Battle of the Marne, or Battle of Reims (15 July to 6 August 1918) was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War I. It failed when an Allied counterattack led by French forces overwhelmed the Germans, inflicting severe casualties. Along with the Battle of the Argonne Forest, the Second Battle of the Marne marked the beginning of the end of WWI.

Forest of Death: The Argonne, 1918

Sun, 01 Sep 1918 03:00:00 EDT

U.S. soldiers fire a machinegun at a German position near Saint-Mihiel in France's Argonne Forest in 1918. Part of the final push by the Allies all across the Western Front in World War I, the Battle of the Argonne Forest saw Allied advances that were credited with leading directly to the November 11 Armistice.

The Battle of Britain, 1940

Mon, 01 Jan 1940 03:00:00 EST

Two German Dornier 217s fly over London's beleaguered and flaming Docklands, in 1940. The Battle of Britain was Hitler's attempt to achieve air superiority over Britain, break the nation's morale, and either force a negotiation or pave the way for an amphibious invasion of England.

London Street After a German Bombing Raid, 1940

Sun, 01 Sep 1940 04:00:00 EDT

Despite constant bombing during The Blitz, the British rallied, doggedly going about their lives in the face of unremitting hardship. The Nazis' "Operation Sea Lion" was scrapped, and The Third Reich's "invincible" military suffered its first defeat.

Supermarine Spitfire, Battle of Britain, 1940

Mon, 01 Jan 1940 03:00:00 EST

A Spitfire fighter plane heads out over the English Channel on a mission. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," Winston Churchill famously said of England's debt to the outnumbered RAF pilots who defeated the German Luftwaffe. Ever since Churchill's speech, the Allied pilots who fought the Battle of Britain -- English, Poles, Czechs, Americans, Canadians, Aussies, and many others -- have been known simply as "The Few." See More in WWII: The Battle of Britain.

America Gains the Advantage at Midway, 1942

Thu, 04 Jun 1942 03:00:00 EWT

U.S. Navy torpedo bombers fly over a burning Japanese ship during the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The turning point of the war in the Pacific, the Battle of Midway saw the U.S. permanently cripple the Japanese navy and gain the upper hand in the Pacific Theater for the remainder of the war.

USS Yorktown Is Hit at Midway, 1942

Sat, 06 Jun 1942 03:00:00 EWT

Smoke from anti-aircraft guns fills the sky as the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown is hit by a Japanese air-launched torpedo during the Battle of Midway. The battle had been planned as a Japanese trap to destroy the remaining U.S. carriers, but American codebreakers, intercepting messages sent to Japanese commanders, allowed the U.S. Navy to turn the ambush around. It was the Japanese military's first major defeat in the war.

Landing on Guadalcanal, 1942

Sat, 01 Aug 1942 03:00:00 EWT

U.S. Marines come ashore from a landing craft at the Battle of Guadalcanal in August 1942. The Allies' first major offensive against the Japanese Empire, the taking of the island put Japan on the defensive for the first time.

Fighting in Alleys: The Battle Of Stalingrad, 1942-1943

Mon, 01 Feb 1943 03:00:00 EWT

Russian soldiers race through rubble late in the Battle of Stalingrad, 1943. It was meant to be Germany's crippling blow against the USSR -- Russia still an ally, at that point, with America and Britain against the Axis powers -- and a personal humiliation for Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the city's namesake. Instead, it turned into the bloodiest battle in human history -- between the Soviets and the Germans, anywhere from 1.5 to 2 million casualites -- and marked the beginning of the end for Hitler's war machine.

Dueling Amid the Rubble of Stalingrad

Thu, 26 Nov 1942 03:00:00 EWT

German invaders fight a light artillery duel with the Russians in Stalingrad during a battle that is generally cited as the single most important turning point of the war in Europe.

George Patton Enters Messina, 1943

Sun, 15 Aug 1943 03:00:00 EWT

U.S. Lt. Gen. George Patton talks with Lt. Col. Lyle M. Bernard on the road to Messina, Sicily, on Aug. 15, 1943. The invasion of Sicily provided the Allies with a springboard from which to invade the Italian mainland, opened up the Mediterranean to Allied ships, and led to Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini's fall from power.

The Battle Of Kursk, 1943

Thu, 01 Jul 1943 03:00:00 EWT

A German soldier sits with his head in his hands by a destroyed heavy artillery gun and the corpse of one of his compatriots during the Battle of Kursk, July, 1943. The largest armored engagement in history, it was the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front, and gave the Russians, and thus the Allies, the advantage for the rest of the war in Europe. It was also the first battle in which the German Blitzkrieg was stopped before it could wreak significant havoc.

Fires at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, 1944

Tue, 24 Oct 1944 03:00:00 EWT

The crew of the light cruiser USS Birmingham uses hoses to battle fire aboard the fast carrier USS Princeton, set ablaze by a Japanese dive bomber during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. Perhaps the largest naval battle of all time, it saw Japan introduce kamikazes and throw nearly every naval vessel it had at the U.S., which was trying to cut Japan off from its vital resources. The result: The Japanese navy, which suffered its greatest loss in nearly 100 years, effectively ceased to exist.

Toward Omaha Beach, June, 1944

Mon, 05 Jun 1944 03:00:00 EWT

A convoy of U.S. ships heads towards the coast of France and the epochal, decisive invasion of Normandy.

Heading to Hell, 1944

Mon, 05 Jun 1944 03:00:00 EWT

Four U.S. servicemen show off their heads, shaved to spell out the word "HELL" while aboard a transport craft on their way to join the invasion of mainland Europe at Normandy.

Landing at Omaha Beach, 1944

Tue, 06 Jun 1944 03:00:00 EWT

Troops wade ashore from landing craft at Omaha Beach, under heavy, unceasing fire from German artillery and machine guns on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Survive First, Shoot Later

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:16:33 EDT

This Robert Capa photograph, of an American G.I. crawling through the surf toward a safer location from which to fire while bullets scream past, is considered one of the definitive images of D-Day. Capa took 106 pictures on D-Day but a LIFE photo technician in London ruined all but 10 of them. See more about this photo, and the soldier pictured -- an American named Hugh Riley -- on MSNBC.com.

The First Wave Goes In

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:37:15 EDT

American troops race in to meet the enemy on Omaha Beach. Many of the most iconic and riveting photos of D-Day were taken by Robert Capa, born Endre Emo Friedmann, a Hungarian who is considered one of finest war photojournalists who ever lived. "If your picture isn't good enough, you're not close enough," he said.

Obstacles on Omaha Beach

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:11:09 EDT

"My beautiful France looked sordid and uninviting, and a German machine gun, spitting bullets around the barge, fully spoiled my return," Robert Capa wrote of his landing in a U.S. craft during the invasion. "I paused a moment on the gangplank to take my first real picture of the invasion. The boatswain, who was in an understandable hurry to get the hell out of there, mistook my picture-taking attitude for explicable hesitation, and helped me make up my mind with a well-aimed kick in the rear."

It Makes an Interesting Table Cloth

Sat, 01 Jan 1944 03:00:00 EWT

A German flag captured in the French town of Carentan doubles as a tablecloth for a U.S. Coast Guard officer and two Army officers aboard a Coast Guard-manned landing craft off the French coast. During the D-Day invasion, it took 4,100 landing craft to ferry 160,000 men to a coastline that stretched 50 miles long and was protected by heavy enemy fire. The invasion saw more than 2 million troops land on French soil between D-Day and late August, as well as hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides, and tens of thousands of deaths. All told, Operation Overlord constituted one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history.

The Battle of the Bulge, 1945

Mon, 01 Jan 1945 03:00:00 EWT

American infantrymen from the 290th Regiment crouch in the snowy woods near Amonines, Belgium, on January 4, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge. It was Nazi Germany's last major offensive on the Western Front, but an Allied counterattack -- notably a lightning-fast redeployment by Patton -- ended Hitler's hopes of forcing a settlement.

An American Tank on the Road, Battle of the Bulge, 1944

Wed, 20 Dec 1944 03:00:00 EWT

A U.S. Sherman tank passes a gun carriage that has slid off an icy road in the Ardennes Forest, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, 1944. Here, outnumbered American forces thwarted Hitler's last major offensive.

General Anthony McAuliffe, Commander, Battle of the Bulge

Thu, 01 Feb 1945 03:00:00 EWT

General Anthony McAuliffe (shown here in January 1945), commander of the 101st Airborne at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, is the man who issued a famous one-word reply to German forces demanding that he and his outnumbered American troops surrender. His response to the demand, "NUTS!" -- the equivalent of saying, in effect, "Screw you!" -- made McAuliife something of an Army legend. He and his men valiantly battled the Germans until the Army's formidable 4th Armored Division arrived.

Sands of Iwo Jima

Thu, 01 Feb 1945 03:00:00 EWT

The volcanic ash that makes up much of the beach of Iwo Jima proves inhospitable to American fighters and their vehicles, like this wrecked Jeep, during the month-long 1945 battle -- a battle that saw some of the most brutal, intense fighting of WWII's entire Pacific Campaign.

American Planes Bomb Iwo Jima

Thu, 01 Feb 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Bombing raids on Iwo Jima in early 1945, including weeks of sorties before the U.S. invasion, proved ineffective as Japanese soldiers hid in an elaborate network of tunnels and caves. Conflict on the island -- and especially with the knowledge that hardened, intensely loyal Japanese fighters were literally burrowed into the very soil of the land -- proved beyond harrowing for the U.S. troops.

Marines Blow Up a Blockhouse on Iwo Jima

Mon, 09 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

In this remarkable W. Eugene Smith photo -- one of the most starkly violent cover pictures in LIFE's long history -- Marines take cover on a hillside as a Japanese blockhouse, or above-ground bunker, explodes during fighting on Iwo Jima.

Amid the Carnage of Iwo Jima, Shelter and Sleep

Thu, 01 Feb 1945 03:00:00 EWT

During the 35-day battle in Feburary and March of 1945 on Iwo Jima, a man finds refuge and sleep amid the wreckage that covers the island. The casualties on both sides were awful: More than 21,000 Japanese soldiers were either killed outright or died by ritual suicide, rather than surrendering. Allied forces took more than 26,000 casualties, with nearly 7,000 killed in action.

Iwo Jima: The First Flag-Raising

Fri, 23 Feb 1945 03:00:00 EWT

February 23, 1945: American soldiers raise the first of two U.S. flags atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, Japan. Several hours later, a much larger American flag was raised in the same spot -- the Secretary of the Navy reportedly wanted this first, smaller flag as a souvenir -- and the moment of that flag-raising was captured in a now-iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by the great photographer, Joe Rosenthal (next slide).

'Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,' Joe Rosenthal

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:05:07 EST

Rosenthal famously said of his picture: "I took the picture, the Marines took Iwo Jima." The strategic significance of the bloody, ferocious fight for Iwo Jima continues to be debated, but there's no doubt that, symbolically, very few American battles, in any war, have managed to work their way into the popular imagination quite like the 36-day struggle on a plot of land that even the Chief of Naval Operations, William V. Pratt, called "a small, God-forsaken island."

Heading Toward Inchon, Korea, 1950

Fri, 15 Sep 1950 03:00:00 EDT

U.S. Marines aboard a landing craft head toward the beaches of Inchon, Korea, still smoking from heavy U.S. Navy shelling. Led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the surprise amphibious assault during the Battle of Inchon decisively ended a string of North Korean victories and cut off the supply lines of communist forces approaching Seoul.

Winning Hearts and Minds: The Tet Offensive, Vietnam, 1968

Mon, 01 Jan 1996 03:00:00 EST

Vietcong soldiers climb onto a U.S. tank abandoned on a road in Hue during the Tet Offensive in 1968. The series of shocking, highly coordinated Vietcong attacks throughout South Vietnam was, in fact, a strategic failure for communist forces, who'd hoped to spark a general uprising. But, more importantly, it helped to turn a large and vocal portion of an already fatigued American public -- battered by domestic and international crises -- against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. That year, 1968, would become the deadliest of the war for American troops, with more than 16,000 killed. While a defeat, in terms of casualties and territory lost, for North Vietnam, the Tet Offensive was also the beginning of the end of American military dominance in Southest Asia.