Modern Era
Invasion of Yugoslavia (1941): The April War and Its Aftermath
Axis victory; Yugoslavia surrendered on 17 April 1941 and was partitioned among Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and the new Independent State of Croatia.
Region
Europe
Modern Era
Tuskegee Airmen: The First Black Military Aviators in the US
Nearly 1,000 Black pilots were trained at Tuskegee; their combat record helped pave the way for the desegregation of the US armed forces in 1948.
Modern Era
Battle of Moscow (1941–1942): The Red Army Saves the Capital
Soviet victory; the German advance was stopped short of Moscow and pushed back 100–250 km, ending hopes of a quick German win in the East.
Modern Era
Babi Yar Massacre (1941): The Mass Murder of Kyiv's Jews
German SS and police units shot 33,771 Jews in two days; the ravine became a killing site used until 1943 for tens of thousands more victims.
Modern Era
Sinking of the Bismarck (1941): The Hunt for Germany's Battleship
HMS Hood was sunk with almost all hands, but the Bismarck was tracked down and sunk on 27 May 1941 with the loss of most of her crew.
Modern Era
Battle of Crete (1941): Germany's Great Airborne Invasion
German victory; Crete was captured, but losses among German airborne troops were so heavy that Germany never again launched a major parachute operation.
Modern Era
Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944): 872 Days of Blockade and Hunger
The city held out; the blockade was broken in January 1943 and fully lifted in January 1944, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of civilian lives.
Modern Era
Operation Barbarossa (1941): Germany Invades the Soviet Union
Huge German advances and Soviet losses, but the Red Army survived and the offensive was halted before Moscow in December 1941.
Modern Era
White Rose Resistance (1942–1943): Sophie and Hans Scholl
The core members were arrested in February 1943; six were executed in 1943 and the group was destroyed, but its last leaflet was later dropped over Germany by the RAF.
Modern Era
Lidice Massacre (1942): The Destruction of a Czech Village
The men of Lidice were shot, the women sent to Ravensbrück and most children murdered at Chełmno; about 340 villagers died and the village was razed.
Modern Era
Operation Anthropoid (1942): The Assassination of Heydrich
Heydrich died of his wounds on 4 June 1942; the parachutists were killed in Prague on 18 June and the Nazis carried out brutal reprisals.
Modern Era
St Nazaire Raid (1942): Operation Chariot and HMS Campbeltown
British success at heavy cost; the Normandie dock was put out of action for the rest of the war, but about 169 raiders were killed and over 200 captured.