5 The North African desert, Middle East, and Africa.4.4 Operation Overlord and the Normandy landings.The surrender of Japan was announced on 15 August 1945 and signed on 2 September 1945.įor the domestic history see United Kingdom home front during World War II. British scientists contributed to the Manhattan Project to design a nuclear weapon. The British Pacific Fleet took part in the Battle of Okinawa and the final naval strikes on Japan. In the South-East Asian theatre, the Eastern Fleet conducted strikes in the Indian Ocean and the British Army led the Burma campaign to drive Japan out of the British colony, which was finally successful from late-1944 to mid-1945.
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of the War. The liberation of Europe followed on, achieved with the Soviet Union, the United States and other Allied countries. British forces played major roles in the production of Ultra signals intelligence, the strategic bombing of Germany, and the Normandy landings of June 1944. There were eventual hard-fought victories in 1943 in the North-African campaign, led by General Bernard Montgomery, and in the subsequent Italian campaign. The UK and her Allies suffered many disastrous defeats in the Asia-Pacific war during the first six months of 1942. The Declaration by United Nations drafted by Roosevelt and Churchill in Washington in December 1941 formalised the Allies of World War II. The Grand Alliance of the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union was formed and Britain and America agreed a Europe first grand strategy for the war. Britain and America declared war on Japan, opening the Pacific War. In December, the Empire of Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific including an attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor. By August, Churchill and American President Franklin Roosevelt had drafted the Atlantic Charter to define goals for the post-war world. Churchill agreed an alliance with the Soviet Union in July and began sending supplies to the USSR. The United Kingdom and allied countries signed the Declaration of St James's Palace in June 1941 committing to no separate peace with Germany and setting out principles to serve as the basis of a future peace. The Army counter-attacked in the Mediterranean and Middle East, including the North-African and East-African campaigns, and in the Balkans. The Royal Navy sought to blockade Germany and protect merchant ships in the Battle of the Atlantic. Subsequently, urban areas in Britain suffered heavy bombing during the Blitz in late 1940 and early 1941.
Germany's planned invasion of the UK was averted by the Royal Air Force denying the Luftwaffe air superiority in the Battle of Britain, and by its marked inferiority in naval power. Churchill engaged industry, scientists and engineers to advise and support the government and the military in the prosecution of the war effort. The defeat of other European countries followed – Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France – alongside the British Expeditionary Force which led to the Dunkirk evacuation.įrom June 1940, Britain and its Empire continued the fight alone against Germany. Winston Churchill became prime minister and head of a coalition government in May 1940.
The Phoney War culminated in April 1940 with the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. There was little, however, the Anglo-French alliance could do or did do to help Poland. Some well known turn-based strategy games are Sid Meier's Civilization series, Heroes of Might and Magic series, Panzer General series, Warlords series, and Age of Wonders series.The military history of the United Kingdom in World War II covers the Second World War against the Axis powers, starting on 3 September 1939 with the declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France, followed by the UK's Dominions and Crown colonies, on Nazi Germany in response to the invasion of Poland by Germany. The presence of a computer to calculate and arbitrate allows game complexity which is not feasible in a traditional board game. Examples include Fire Emblem, The Battle for Wesnoth, Poxnora, Silent Storm, Steel Panthers: World at War!, King's Bounty, Great Big War Game, Nintendo Wars, UniWar, XCOM 2 and Chessaria: The Tactical Adventure.Īfter a period of converting board and historic TBS games to computer games, companies began basing computer turn-based strategy games on completely original properties or concepts. Tactical role-playing games are a part of this genre. Turn-based tactical game-play is characterized by the expectation of players to complete their tasks by using the combat forces provided to them, and usually by the provision of a realistic (or at least believable) representation of military tactics and operations.