Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the "contested armed frontier" between lands controlled by Germany to the East and the Allies to the West. A "contested armed frontier" during a war is called a "front". This article is becoming very long. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... A world war is a war affecting the majority of the worlds major nations. ... Look up ally in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A military front or battlefront is a contested armed frontier between opposing forces. ...

For both world wars there was also an Eastern Front. Eastern Front may refer to one of the following. ...

World War I

Main article Western Front (World War I)

For most of World War I, Allied Forces, predominantly those of France and the United Kingdom, were stalled at trenches on the Western Front.

After the first few months of World War I (WWI) which started in August 1914, until the last few months during the summer of 1918, the Western Front consisted of a relatively static line of trench systems which stretched from the coast of the North Sea southwards to the Swiss border. To try to break through the opposing lines of trenches and barbed wire entanglements, both sides employed huge artillery bombardments followed by attacks by tens of thousands of soldiers. Battles could last for months and lead to casualties measured in hundreds of thousands for attacker and defender alike. After most of these attacks, only a short section of the front would have moved and only by a kilometer or two. Combatants Belgium, British Empire, France, United States, other Western Allies of WWI Germany Commanders No unified command until 1918, then General Ferdinand Foch Kaiser Wilhelm II Casualties ~4,800,000 Unknown though considerably higher Following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the German army opened the Western... Bishop Museum archive photos of World War I This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Bishop Museum archive photos of World War I This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ...

The principal adversaries on the Western Front, who fielded armies of millions of men, were Germany to the East against a western alliance to the West consisting of: France and the United Kingdom with sizable contingents from the British Empire and British Dominions. The United States entered the war in 1917 and by the summer of 1918 had an army of around half a million men which rose to a million by the time the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ... A dominion, often Dominion, is the territory or the authority of a dominus (a lord or master). ... November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 50 days remaining. ...

The Alpine Front between Italy which was a member of the western alliance and Austro-Hungarian Empire which was allied to Germany and the Ottoman Empire, is usually considered to be a separate front. Categories: Military stubs | World War I | World War II defensive lines ... Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. ... Motto: دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (The Eternal State) Anthem: Ottoman imperial anthem Borders in 1680, see: list of territories Capital Söğüt (1299-1326) Bursa (1326-1365) Edirne (1365-1453) Constantinople (Istanbul) (1453-1922) Language(s) Ottoman Turkish Government Monarchy Sultans  - 1281–1326 Osman I  - 1918–1922 Mehmed VI...

World War II

Main article Western Front (World War II)

The Western Front of World War II was generally restricted to the same geographic regions as during World War I. During the war the front moved much further, as far West as the English Channel and as far East as the line which would become the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Although fighting took place in Norway and Italy these are not usually included as part of the Western Front but as separate campaigns. During World War II, the Western Front was the theater of fighting west of Germany, encompassing France, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Denmark. ... Satellite view of the English Channel The English Channel (French: (IPA: ), the sleeve) is the part of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. ... Warsaw Pact countries to the east of the Iron Curtain are shaded red; NATO members to the west of it — blue. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

The Western Front had three distinct phases during the World War II.

The first phase lasted from September 1939 until 1940. It started with the Phony War with the allies taking up positions which created a front similar to that held during most of World War I. The first phase lasted until the Germans attacked and won a stunningly fast victory in June 1940. The British had to withdraw the British Expeditionary Force to Britain with an evacuation through Dunkirk Operation Dynamo and France was forced to capitulate. 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full year calendar). ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... British Ministry of Home Security Poster of a type that was common during the Phony War The Phony War , or in Winston Churchills words the Twilight War, was a phase in early World War II marked by few military operations in Continental Europe, in the months following the German... Combatants France United Kingdom Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand (French) Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) H.G. Winkelman (Dutch) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British army sent to France and Belgium in World War I and British Forces in Europe from 1939–1940 during World War II. The BEF was established by Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War in case the... This article is about a Second World War battle in 1940, for the 1658 battle of the same name see Battle of the Dunes (1658) Combatants United Kingdom France Belgium Germany Commanders Lord Gort General Weygand Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Ewald von Kleist (Panzergruppe von Kleist) Strength approx. ...

The second phase from the late summer of 1940 until the early summer of 1944 consisted of a stalemate along the English Channel where neither side were strong enough to invade the other's territory with anything more than commando raids. The main action during this period was happening in the Eastern Front. 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... For other uses, see Commando (disambiguation). ... Combatants Soviet Union,1 Poland (from January 1945) Germany,1 Italy (to 1943), Romania (to 1944), Finland (to 1944), Hungary, Slovakia Commanders Aleksei Antonov, Azi Aslanov, Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky, Ivan Bagramyan, Kirill Meretskov, Ivan Petrov, Alexander Rodimtsev, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Pavel Rotmistrov, Semyon Timoshenko, Fyodor Tolbukhin, Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Nikolai Vatutin...

The third and final phase started on June 6, 1944 with the invasion of Normandy on the D-Day of Operation Overlord, When an allied force consisting of American British and Canada Army Groups (with units from many other nations), successfully gained a beach head in Normandy in northern France. By the early autumn of 1944 the front was approximately where the World War I front had been. It ended on May 8, 1945 with the unconditional surrender of Germany. By that time western allied forces were on a front which stretched from the Baltic east of Denmark, southwards along the river Elbe, through the German/Czechoslovakia border into Austria and North Italy. This was a great delay in the war. June 6 is the 157th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (158th in leap years), with 1 day remaining // 1508 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three-year truce and cede several territories to Venice 1513... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B... Land on Normandy In military parlance, D-Day is a term often used to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. ... Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B... Flag of Normandy Normandy (in French: Normandie, and in Norman: Normaundie) is a geographical region in northern France. ... May 8 is the 128th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (129th in leap years). ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Population density in the wider Baltic region. ...

See also

• Eastern Front