The Battle of Britain was the first major loss for the Germans in WWII and changed the tide of the war early on. Germany turned their focus to their last big enemy which was Great Britain, after the fall of France. When Germany unleashed its air power on England, it resulted in the largest air battle in history.
The Battle of Britian started when the German Luftwaffe began hitting British convoys in the English Channel on July 10, 1940. After Germany took over France, Hitler and most of the German population thought the war was over, and that the British would want to surrender. The British, expecting some kind of attack, put as much money into the Royal Air Force (RAF) as they could. The Germans, realized that a full amphibious assault would be destroyed by the RAF before they touched British soil. So, the Germans decided to launch a mass attack on the RAF first. Starting September 6, Germany begins bombing London and other major cities. In just a few weeks, the Luftwaffe had dropped over 11,000 tons of high explosive bombs. Instead of sending up all available air power, the British sent up very few fighters to harass the German air raids. The goal was to avoid having all the British planes on the ground at once for refueling and rearming, for fear of being grounded during a raid. The fighters, as few as they were, threw off the Luftwaffe bombers' aim, but the British death toll was still higher than the Germans, although when a German pilot had to bail out over British soil, they were lost to the German war effort.
Although the Germans had a seemingly endless supply of planes, they were getting desperate. Raid after raid the germans did on the British airfields, there always seemed to be more British fighters to bother their bombers. The Germans were looking for a way to get British fighters in the air at once so that they could be destroyed. In order to try and draw a mass retaliation, Germany launched a mass air attack on London and other major cities. The long trip require just to get to London was too much for the German fighter planes, so the bombers were without escort for the final, crucial part of their raids. This resulted in many disastrous raids for the Germans, and on September 19, the attacks were postponed indefinitely, although many bombs were dropped and planes were lost even after the battle was officially over.
D-day began with an amphibious assault on the beaches of Normandy, consisting of U.S., Canadian, French, and British forces. To this day, The Battle of Normandy remains the largest seaborne invasion in history involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in then German-occupied France. The first landings were in the early morning of June 6, 1944 and land conquest continued for weeks afterwards. The British and Canadian beaches were to the east, and the American were to the west.
The Normandy invasion began with overnight airborne paratrooper and glider landings, massive air and naval bombardments, and an early morning amphibious assault on June 6, "D-day". The battle for Normandy continued for more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied beachheads. It concluded with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Chambois pocket.
Operation Market Garden's main purpose was to secure bridges over major rivers in the German-occupied Netherlands. The aim was to allow the Allies into Germany without any major obstacles. The operation was successful up until the capture of the Rhine Bridge at Nijmegen. The Allies could not hold the final bridge at Arnhem, causing the operation to be an overall failure.
After the Normandy invasion, the Allies did a massive rush inland, pushing the Germans back several hundred miles in just a few weeks. Their push inland halted when supplies ran low. The only docks for supplies were shallow ones at the original invasion beaches, and a deep water one at Cherbourg. Both were rather useless, because the softening up the Allies did before invasion took out all major railroads. The British still held the massive town and port of Antwerp, but the estuary's leading inland from the port where still held by the Germans.
Both "Market" and "Garden" were separate names for two different operations planned to compliment each other. Market would use the newly acquired airborne troops, and Garden would mainly use the British second army. Market was the largest airborne operation in history, dropping about 30,000 men.
The early bridges were easily captured, with only a few shots fired, but by the time the Allies had made it to their target bridges, the Germans had set up enough defenses to hold off the attack. The operation was said to be 90% successful, even with the many problems the Allies came across in their efforts.
The Battle of the Bulge was a last attempt by the Germans to turn the war to their side. The idea was to split the Allied line in half by charging through the Ardennes forest in Belgium. The attempt was a failed to accomplish its original goals, but did slow Allied movements for a while.
After failing Operation Market Garden, the Canadian first army was finally supplied and managed to clear the Westerschelde and open Antwerp to shipping. Antwerp allowed the Allies to get vital supplies and stabilize the Allied line. The massive attack that the Soviets had been launching in Poland had finally burnt itself out, and Hitler had time to plan his next move. The plan was to attack through the forest and move northward to take Antwerp. The Germans initiated their plan on December 16, 1944. Being in a heavily forested area, any major tank or armored vehicle threats were unexpected. The battle also started in bad weather, and all planes on both sides would be grounded, although the Germans benefited much more from this than the Allies. The first few days were most important, and heavy resistance to the Germans slowed the advance.
On December 21st, General Anthony McAuliffe, surrounded in Bastogne with the 101st Airborne Division, was awakened to a German invitation to surrender. His reply was that famous "Nuts!". The Allies held the town, and the advance was stopped when the Germans decided to cut their losses. This great German defeat was critical in reducing the length of the war, because the Germans had risked and lost irreplaceable men and equipment.