In your opinion, what was the most decisive battle in WW11?

Question:Why?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Why?

Battle of Stalingrad.
The capture of Stalingrad was important to Hitler for primarily two reasons. First, it was a major industrial city on the Volga River — a vital transport route between the Caspian Sea and Northern Russia. Secondly, its capture would secure the left flank of the German armies as they advanced into the oil-rich Caucasus region — with a goal of cutting off fuel to Stalin's war machine. That the city bore the name of Hitler’s nemesis, Joseph Stalin, would make the city’s capture an ideological and propaganda coup. Stalin realized this and ordered anyone that was strong enough to hold a rifle be sent out to war.[14] Stalin also had an ideological and propaganda interest in defending the city which bore his name in honor of his defense of the city during the Russian Civil War, but the fact remains that Stalin was under tremendous constraints of time and resources. The Red Army, at this stage of the war, was less capable of highly mobile operations than the German Army. However, the prospect of combat inside a large urban area, which would be dominated by short-range firearms rather than armored and mechanized tactics, minimized the Red Army’s disadvantages against the Germans.

However, the cold Russian winter set in and the Germans had neither the equipment or the clothes for the weather whereas the Russians were most at home in this climate. Even the Germans beloved Panzer tank regiment were usless in the weather. Through quick Russian thinking and tough survival skills the Russians preformed a pincer attack on the main German line, effectively crushing them.

This was the basically the begininning of the decline of the german superiority over europe.

The Battle of Britain was also important because it was the first loss the germans had suffered.

World War 11? Last i checked they stopped at 2.

world war 11 i don't car about that one what happend in world war 3.

battle at midway. it changed the course of the battle.

wait you did mean WORLD WAR II right?

normandy beach

In million years

didnt know there was 11 world wars o.O

D-Day, Normandy/Omaha Beach... I couldn't fathom any other. Years of planning, the highest level of secrecy, casualty laden but successful, toppled the Third Reich. Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't battles they were a show of superiority... they were necessary and justified, but by no means "battles".

The successful mission of the 'Enola Gay'!

They didn't learn from the 'first one'! It only made them 'wonder'!? But, when they learned that it was NOT a 'fluke', and that MORE would come... they decided that they had HAD enough!

Why? A few more bombs, and there would be NOTHING left of Japan! Better to 'suck-it-up' and LIVE to FIGHT another DAY!

And don't you think they HAVE???

Stalingrad. After it the Germans were on the defensive.

You can't say there was only one. Midway was a key in the Pacific. El Alamein was a key in North Africa. Stalingrad was a key on the eastern front in Europe. The D-Day invasion of Normandy was key on the western front of Europe. And, lest we forget, there might not have been a Europe to save had it not been for the Battle of the Atlantic (convoy system defeating German U-boats).

No simple answer to this question.

lol, i always laugh at the normandy answers,....160,000, largest invasion--hee hee...considering that Operation Barbarossa pitted 3 million Axis troops agains 4.5 million Red Army soldiers.

But anyway, Stalingrad is hands down the most decisive battle of WW2. The fate of the world was decided on the banks of the Volga.

Stalingrad was only significant if the Germans lost, which they did. The Soviets destroyed the 6th Army, which, in turn, forced the other half of Army Group South (engaged in capturing the Caucasus and Baku oil fields) to withdraw to the north-west to regroup and form a new defensinve line. The failure to capture the oil fields cut off the Axis powers from any hope of finding a large enough fuel source to continue an effective war, essentially sealing their fate with that of the 6th Army.

If the Soviets lost, the war was not lost as they had plenty of room to retreat further into the hinterland. Their resources in manpower, tanks, war factories, etc., meant they would've enventually won the war by sheer weight of numbers.

From the defeat at Stalingrad onward the Germans lost the strategic offensive. The outcome of the war was still up for grabs after the defeat at the gates of Moscow in '41, but after Stalingrad , it was all but over. The localized battles at Kursk, D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge were fought when the outcome was no longer in doubt. The loss of the Sixth Army, men and material, was something the Wehrmact never recovered from.

In scope, the Battle of the Bulge, Normandy, and all others did not compare to Stalingrad, not in the number of deaths (38,000 to 1.8 million) or significance. Prior to Stalingrad, the outcome of the war was still in doubt. Prior to the Bulge and Normandy, there was no question as to the outcome, all it did was waste Germany's last reserves that could've been used to stem the Red Army tide in the east; instead it accelerated their end.

Without cross-Atlantic supplies from North and South America to the Allies (including the Soviet Union) could not have succeeded against Germany, in my opinion the most decisive battle (although technically a campaign) in that theatre of operations was the Battle of the Atlantic.

with this being an opinion based question, you'll be lucky to get a consensus on the topic. there are several great answers already so i'll give you my input.
remember the old saying, " if if's and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry christmas." with that in mind, one could say the battle of britain was one of the decisive battles. if hitler would've invaded before the raf was destroyed, the war would've had a different outcome. if hitler would've let the u-boats have free-reign in the atlantic, effectively cutting off the british supply line from the u.s., the war would've been different. if hitler would've regrouped and consolidated his lines in russia instead of advancing on stalingrad, he might have been able to stop the soviet advance and then taken stalingrad. if the americans hadn't broken the japanese code and knew midway was next on their conquer list, the pacific would've been different. if the normandy invasion failed, the war would've been different. if any of these battles, midway, d-day, stalingrad, the battle of britain, or the battle for the atlantic, had a different outcome, the war might have gone the way of the axis. it is very hard to say which of these are more pivotal in history. if i had to choose a more decisive battle, i would pick the battle of britain. reason being is that it was the first time the germans had been defeated in battle. it proved that the nazi war machine wasn't invincable. it could be beaten.

Most of the answers tend to be American-centric. I agree that the analysis on Normandy kind of pales when compared to Operation Barbarossa (in terms of numbers and impact). Normandy is important only if it fails (and the invasion is pushed back a year which gives the Germans time to work on their superweapons, deploy more Me-262's or the Russians occupy more of Europe, perhaps adding Austria and all of Germany to the eventual iron curtain).

Stalingrad was also incredibly symbolic. But when Hitler failed to defeat Russia in the first year, I think that meant he was going to lose regardless of what happened at Stalingrad. That's because by that point, the Russians had regrouped, tank and troop quality had improved, the better officers were beginning to emerge and you saw it in how the Red Army fought.

I'd argue that the two most important battles of WW-2 were:
--Midway
--Battle of Britain.

At Midway, the Japanese lose arguably their 4 best carriers with almost all of their 4 best sets of pilots (fighter, dive-bomber and torpedo). From this point on in the war, Japan will never be a serious offensive threat again. After Midway, they're now on the defense and it's the US that has the initiative. Also, with the defeat of their carrier strike ability, we can now initiate an island hoping campaign (while if they'd had a significant carrier strike force they could have struck at isolated islands and defended the strategy). Midway was not only symbolic but it truly did change the war in the Pacific. If Midway hadn't happened (or if Japan had won that battle) I think we'd still have won but it would have taken another 2 years, we might have had to shift forces from Europe.

The Battle of Britain (failure of the Luftwaffe to neutralize the RAF) means that there can be no operation SeaLion (invasion of Britain). The Germans (with limited amphibious capability) counted on control of the air for this invasion because a significant portion of the initiation assualt wave would be airborne--paratroopers or Falschirmjaegers!

With the Luftwaffe's failure, Hitler turned to Russia and initiated Operation Barbarossa. It is arguable that once the timetable failed (ie: it envisioned defeating Russia by late Fall of the first year), there was no way that the Germans could win, that Russia would be too big, too numerous, too mobilized and organized to defeat while a multi-front war was going on.

Ultimately, the war on the Eastern Front became a meat grinder that bled the Germans white. So in that sense, Stalingrad absolutely accelerated that manpower loss and arguing for that battle as the most important one in the war is a very reasonable position. But I'd argue that this battle doesn't happen unless the Battle of Britain turns out the way it does. And if the Luftwaffe does gain air superiority and Germany does invade Britain after Dunkerque...does Britain fall? If so, it's an entirely different war in Europe, one in which I have a hard time seeing the US trying to wage from our shores or just from Africa.

Finally, I"m going to nominate one other battle that while I don't think it was the most important of the war, I think it was probably among the top 5: Okinawa. The bloodfest at Okinawa (Japan deliberately wanted to make it as costly as possible to discourage us from invading the mainland) combined with the fanaticism (widespread use of kamikaze) and the reaction of the civilians (1/4 of the civilian population on Okinawa committed suicide rather than be captured by the US--a factor of the lies they'd been told about what we'd do to them), was a deciding factor in the US use of atomic bomb on Japan. If Okinawa had been a battle more similar to say....Saipan, I think we would have invaded the mainland and not used the atomic bomb as a weapon which would have had major implications for the cold war that followed.

There were 2 theatres of war & therefore 2 decisive battles.

The European theatre of war - Stalingrad
The Germans committed the 6th Army (approx 300k men) + supporting divisions from their allies to capture a city for prestige/pride as the city was of no strategic imporatnce.

This battle of attrition could have been avoided & the Hitler could have let his generals use their best tactics, that is, war of manouveure.

The lost of an entire army & machinery that were irreplacable was to doom Germany into adopting defensive actions.

Pacific theatre of war - Battle of Midway

The lost of 4 carriers, hundreds of planes & skilled men were a huge blow to the Japanese imperial navy who then on could not take on the American Pacific fleet, relinquishing the caoomand of the air & the seas to the Americans.

Ground war: European eastern front - Battle of Stalingrad. First major defeat of German army.

European western front - Normandy - The start of liberation of western Europe.

Pacific theatre: Guadalcanal First land defeat of Japanese forces.

African front - Battle of Tobruk. First "theatre" defeat of German Forces.

Air war Europe: Battle of Britain. Had Germany won this battle, England would have been invaded.

Air war Pacific - Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ended World War 2 in the Pacific thus avoiding the need to invade Japan at an estimated cost of one million Allied casualties.

Naval war Atlantic: Battle of the Atlantic. Longest battle of world war 2. Defeat would have closed the sea lanes to Europe.

Naval war Pacific: Battle of Midway. Japanese advance across the Pacific halted allowing US forces to go on the offensive.