"Key WW2 Battles in European Theater" Topic

Based on
A) both sides having a decent chance at victory, and
B) the results having a major effect on the war going forward.

My top 5 are:

-Battle of Britain
-Normandy landings and breakout
-Stalingrad
-Malta (not sure about this one)
-German invasion of Poland (more specifically the lack of response from the
allies)

The ones my father survived (Normandy, Bulge, Varsity) so he could live to have me.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective!

I don't understand the use of the word "battle" for these discussions. In this one, the initial list of 5 all seem like campaigns to me. The invasion (and conquest) of Poland could rightly be considered an entire war.

It's true that the nature of warfare by WWII had made the classic definition of a "battle" irrelevant, but I've yet to see a functional redefinition that makes sense. Without a logical limit to the scope of a "battle", we can just say the Battle For Europe was the most important battle in the ETO, followed by the Battle of the Atlantic and then the Battle for Africa, and then… that's it. There aren't any others.

Does the 1940 campaign in France count? If the French and British hadn't gone for the bait would the outcome have remained the same?

They call anything a battle these days. But this is TMP and we should maintain a standard. I say if you can't put it on a table with miniatures, it gets demoted to campaign.

Ok. Campaign. I didn't mean to create such controversy!

I'm not sure being a campaign is "demoted". A series of battles that you could put on the tabletop would comprise a campaign.

Campaigns:
– The French Resistance
– The Italian Resistance
– The Polish Resistance
– The Baltic Resistance
– The [everyone else] Resistance

WRT the A and B criteria, if your forces have tactical and operational victories against resistance movements, you create a strategic loss to them.

-Aaracourt
-Moratain
-The British Counterattack at Aaras in 1940
-Pegasus Bridge
-Caen and Goodwood
-St. Lo and the breakout