Don't forget the largest land battle in US military history namely The Battle of the Bulge. If you're ever in Europe contact me and I'll be happy to show you around the sites where it all happened. I've worked for ASAM, NATO, The History Channel and Breakthrough films Canada as a Military Historian. Moreover I'm British, I live in Belgium and I'm rightfully proud of our allies. If you need any more information about the battlefield don't hesitate to contact me at: theardennes@skynet.be Keep up the great work. Martin

..You must know this too..
....What was the biggest naval battle in the waters adjacent to India..??
..On April 4, 1942, Japanese naval forces steamed into the India Ocean waters that surround Ceylon and the India sub-continent..The Jap forces included five aircraft carriers..
..The Japs opened the offensive with massive air bombing attacks on the harbors of Trincomalee and Colombo, both in Ceylon..
..In the initial attack, the Japanese sank the armed merchant cruiser "HMS Tenedos"
..The cruisers "HMS Dorsetshire" and "HMS Cornwall" put to sea from the harbors for safety and maneuverability..But Jap carrier-based aircraft sank them both..
..In a follow-up attack on Trincomalee, probably the finest deep-water port in the East, the Japanese dealt a terrible blow to the British fleet..They sank the aircraft carrier "HMS Hermes" and the destroyer "HMS Vampire"
..In addition, Japanese bomb attacks keyed in on the Tricomalee floating drydock, the only drydock between Tokyo and England that could dock the biggest warships of the British fleet..They sank the drydock in the harbor..The mighty Tricomalee drydock remained in the harbor, a twist and grotesque reminder of the Jap attack to every vessel that used Tricomalee during WW2..
..In an air battle accompanying these actions, the British shot down 21 Japanese aircraft..The British lost 19 aircraft..
..The British lost 800 men in these actions..Most of the casualties were men drowned in the sinking of the warships..
..With the combined victories in Ceylon and Singapore, there was no force left to stop the Japanese navy in the India Ocean..India was at the mercy of the Japanese fleet..
..The Japanese fleet steamed away to do battle elsewhere..That strange action reminds us of the popular idea of books and movies of the 1920's and 1930's that Orientals - and particularly the Japanese - are "inscrutable."
..Sailing away from a prostrate India, jewel of the British Empire - that was indeed an "inscrutable" action by the Japanese fleet in the India Ocean..

.. When did the first Japanese bombs fall on India..??
..On April 6, 1942, Japanese carriers that had participated in the Battle of Colombo and Tricomalee sent bombers over India..The bombers dropped explosives on Coconada and Vizagapatam, two small ports in Madras Presidency..(Vizagapatam was a British military port..)
..The ports were targets of opportunity following the raids on Tricomalee and Ceylon..Is is probable that the Japanese hit them for the psychological impact the strike would have on the India civilian population..
..They were right in believing a bombing on India proper would cause havoc..Commerce came to a halt in the two cities as terrified Indians fled to the countryside..It was a reaction that would be repeated later in Calcutta..( In fairness to the Indians, it must be noted that panic was the usual reaction of civilians anywhere in the world to the aerial bombardments of WW2.)
..Answering criticism in the House of Commons about the British losses in the Japanese raids on Tricomalee and Colombo, Ceylon, in 1942, Winston Churchill answered with one of the great ironic statements of history;
.."An immense amount of study and discussion preceded these lamentable events,"Prime Minister Churchill said, "but study and discussion are not in themselves sufficient to prepare against attack by a superior force of the enemy.."
..I remember the German tank Gen who lead the troops all the way in front, in the Battle of the Bulge..He think he in the Victory in that battle and he was 100% wrong..