what do you think, was the most important war operation during ww2 and why? Please add your reasons. I think was operation hushy, because from that operation began the ending of ww2.
Another topic like this eh…?
Whatever, discussion could prove interesting, in the long run.
I’d say Market Gar-, Fork-, Compass, the first push against the Italians in North Africa. It went along perfectly until someone in London told Wavell to stop the offensive and send troops to Greece. If Wavell had ignored the order and driven the Italians out of North Africa, the Desert War never would have happened, and possibly the invasion of Italy could have commenced sooner.
Then again, there is Operation Ultra, which doesn’t really need to be explained in my opinion, just helped know what the Nazis were doing.
Well, an operation may be important because it failed, and allowed an eventual victory by the Allies. Or, it may have been a successful operation that furthered those same ends. Specificity is also important. Could you expand on your question a bit?
Closest to one and it’s not really a single operation, although by the end it almost was.
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The allied cryptanalytical and intelligence distribution system, England, America, Poland, Russia, and Australia, together learned and shared ideas and approaches.
From traffic analysis through code breaking, ongoing decryption, cross-referencing, trend recognition, and controlled, secure restricted distribution and briefings.
While I do think that this was the single biggest factor in victory. I do have a more personal attachment to this view. i) I’m an ex-infantryman but did serve in Int. ii) My father-in-law an Australian academic served in Central Bureau which was part of Macarthur’s HQ. In April this year, just 3 days before he died, with Anzac day on the way, he received the UK’s WWII GCCS * medal from the then PM.
*Government Code and Cypher School
Trying to decide which operation or action is the most important is like trying to pick the most beautiful out of a bevy of beauties - nearly impossible and probably not worth it.
Manhattan. Manhattan and the development of the B-29.
That ‘operation’, if the war had lingered on, would have been decisive on all fronts.
Deaf
I would say the invasion of Poland, which officially started WW2.
Operation Varsity - the allies crossed the Rhine to invade Germany for the beginning of the end.
It is a bit of a hard question, I think you need to concentrate on a theatre of the war, atleast this is easier to specify. I will write what I think were the most important operations on some of the theatres.
Weserübung (Invasion of Denmark and Norway): Battle of Narvik
The chance to win in this battle was squandered with the withdrawal of the Allied troops because of the Battle of France.
Balkan Campaign: Operation Mercury
The Germans managed to take the island of Crete, which could have proved a serious threat to the Axis shipping in the area. But this came at so high losses that Hitler forbade further airborne operations, which could have been useful for the Germans.
Eastern Front: Operation Barbarossa
I think this was the operation which decided it for the biggest part. If things would have run more smoothly for the Axis, especially for the Germans at Moscow, the War in Russia would have for sure been different.
Pacific: Midway
The US troops managed to destroy 4 Japanese carriers and Japan lost many of it’s finest and most experienced pilots. From then on, Japan was not able to start any major offensvie in the Pacific any more and was constantly on defense, even though they were very tenacious at it. It was just a matter of time.
Italy: Operation Husky
The Allied forces managed to captured the island of Sicily and caught the Axis by surpires. The most devastating effect for the Axis was that this lead to the switching of the side of Italy. Tha Western allies had to face then only the German units (apart from Italian units in German service) and the Yugoslav Partisans had the chance to advance relatively deeply into the areas formerly held by the Italians (although not all could be held against the reacting Germans). Also, the Germans needed to divert troops for Albania, where they captured Tirana with paratroopers before Albanian Partisans could do the same.
Those are the operations I can think of now which I would regard as highly important. I would have some more, but I can’t write right now, I will add them later.
Operation Dynamo. Without those 300,000 + men getting out of France Churchill might have been forced to resign and a new prime minister and cabinet might have signed a peace treaty with Germany. Without Britain being a thorn in Hitlers side Barbarossa might have happened on time and been succesful. Without the unsinkable aircraft carrier the US could not have carried the war to Germany.
Lots of good points mentioned so far, I think it’s true that its hard to pin down one operation especially as WW2 has several theatres and several themes associated with it. For my tuppence’s worth the Japanese operation on Pearl Harbour has to be fairly key.
Bringing the Americans in probably shortened the war by a few years and arguably altered the world significantly. Without the Americans intervening Europe could well have gone ‘Red’ after the Russian steamroller had finished ‘liberating’ it. The British Empire might have limped on a few more decades. With American industry, cash and lives western europe was liberated and pressure was taken off the commonwealth forces in the far-east. And who-knows what the Japanese might have done if they solved their fuel problem and were left un-checked in the pacific?
If I’d been badly wounded in WWII and a surgeon had saved my life, I’d say that that was the most important operation of WWII.
Apart from that, there is no operation which is the ‘most important’ as if you take any single operation out of the war it probably wasn’t going to change the final result, being the defeat of the Axis forces, sooner or later.
Also a good point, but I would like to add something to this one. A big factor is also that Germany and Italy declared then war on the USA. Otherwise it could be questionable whether the USA could fight the Axis as a whole without inner unrest or not.
Interesting point, but would the fact the Japanese were allied to the Germans have dragged them into Europe anyway?
Well, I think not necessarily. Especially if the Axis in Europe would play this ace smart.
Not all Axis nations were in war with all Allied nations and vice versa. Bulgaria was not at war with the Soviet Union (atleast until 1944), but with US. Finland was at war with the Soviet Union and UK, but not with the US (as far as I know atleast).
Also in WW1, Italy was allied with the Central Powers Germany and Austro-Hungary, but refused to join the war as they signed a defense pact. Later they even chose to fight with the Entente against the Central Powers.
So it would need to convince the people of the USA to agree this war in Europe as well. And the lesson from WW1 was, such a war is costly. And since the European Axis could not directly help the Asian Axis, I think it would need a big convincing work to lead war on both sides of the Earth.
Now one could argue, if the status between the Germans and the US concerning the shipping would stay the same (Germans subs attacked US ships with supplies for the Allies, US ships attacked German subs), it could lead to an acceptable reason to declare war, which would lead the US then again into Europe.
This is atleast what I can think to it 
My bias is showing in this post (blush). But, in a more serious mindset, I think the most important operations in World War II were conducted off the battlefield and in obscure offices and secret residential houses–mostly where mathematicians and cryptologists broke codes for military intelligence and monitored messages from underground resistance groups. The bulk of the important military cryptology operations were conducted by the Cipher Bureau in Poland and Bletchley Park in England.
When I think of those numerous workers at the Bureau and Bletchley Park, Marian Rejewski’s name stands out the most and for good reason, too: his manipulations of the German Engima cycles helped the allied war effort enormously. Rejewski’s understanding of cryptology and usage of mathematical theorems such as group theory and permutations helped solve many vexing problems for the Cipher Bureau and the British military.
Ahh, Marijan Rejewski and his “bomba”. In school in the subject “Cryptography” we learned about him. He named his machine after his favourite ice cream brand if I am not mistaken.
‘Bomba’ interesting name for a Polish ice cream brand! I thought being a resident of Wien you would have thought the 1945 Vienna offensive was the most important 
Hahaha, maybe if I would be a real Viennese. But so, of course the most important operation is the battle of some remaining Axis troops with the Yugoslav Partisans around my home village a week and more after the official ending of the war in Europe :mrgreen:
They didn’t get the memo then? As an aside I love Vienna, visited it twice so far and would move there tomorrow if I could.