2014: 70th Anniversary of Important World War II Battles

The year 2014 heralds 70 years since some of the most notable battles in history. In Italy, the decisive battles of Anzio and Monte Cassino sealed the fate of the Axis in Southern Europe, and D-Day, Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge led to the undoing of the Axis in Western Europe. By the time the Bulge failed, Germany was in full retreat on both fronts; its unequaled military had been undone not only by pressure from all the Allied nations but also by a series of bungles by incompetent military leaders like Hitler. In a way, it is arguable that it was lucky the "man at the top" in Germany was crazy. The combination of an incomplete grasp of military strategy and tactics and a belief in his own infallibility doomed Germany.

Luckily, the saner heads of the Allied commanders prevailed, and 1944 was a year full of keystone victories over the evils of the Axis powers not only in Europe but in the South Pacific too. Guam and Saipan fell in 1944, and the war’s end was now just a matter of time in both theaters as the full air power of the Allies could be brought to bear. Recently, modern governments of countries involved in World War II have planned many commemorative events honoring these battles and the soldiers that fought in them.