Table of Data Points

The final major Luftwaffe offensive during the war and a massive effort to disable allied air power in the low countries. The effort was ultimately a pyrrhic tactical success. Allied losses were replaced in weeks.

76 prisoners of Stalag Luft III escape. 73 are subsequently recaptured and 50 are murdered by the Gestapo on Hitler's orders.

The Gustav line was assaulted four times by Allied troops. For the last of these the Allies gathered 20 divisions for a major assault along a twenty mile front and drove the German defenders from their positions but at a high cost.

Admiral Yamamoto conceives a massive aerial counter attack designed to sink allied shipping and destroy allied air power in the Solomons and New Guinea. It was motived largely as a response to losses at Guadalcanal, New Guinea and the Bismarck Sea.

With Rommel withdrawing to the French-built southern defenses of Tunisia, the Mareth Line, following the Second Battle of El Alamein. The British 8th Army enter Tripoli.