The Turning Points in World War 2
二战转折点
（节选自《英语世界》2015年第8期）
译/斯笑彩 审订/仲文明
The Battle of
Britain
不列颠之战
Summer 1940—In hisattempt to “close” the western front and
return his grand plan to its originalcourse, Hitler rapidly
occupied France in a Blitzkrieg[1] invasion.
He then followed with an unprepared attempt to beat Britain in an
aircampaign that would enable invading the British
island.
1940年夏，希特勒发动闪电战，攻占法国，意在结束西线战事，重新采用原来的单线作战方针来实施他那野心勃勃的计划。随后，在准备不足的情况下希特勒对英国发动空袭，意欲全面侵占不列颠群岛。
[1]闪电战。
The
German Luftwaffe[2],
which was built primarily for massive tactical air support ofGerman
ground forces, suffered greatly from lack of heavy bombers and
fromshort flight range of its fighters in the battle of Britain.
Fighting theentire battle over Britain meant also that while for
the Luftwaffe each lostaircraft meant losing a trained crew, many
downed British pilots were able toreturn to duty and keep fighting,
so for an equal number of downed planes, theLuftwaffe had much
greater losses in trained pilots. The smaller Royal AirForce was
initially losing the battle to the stronger Luftwaffe. This
changedwhen in the middle of the battle Hitler ordered to change
the objective of theLuftwaffe’s effort from destroying the Royal
Air Force to terror bombing London.This big mistake, and the other
problems of the Luftwaffe mentioned above,allowed the Royal Air
Force to recover, increase the Luftwaffe’s loss ratewhile
maintaining its own force, and win the battleof Britain. The western
front remained “open” and
active.
德国空军主要是为地面部队提供战术空中支援而列编，因此严重缺乏重型轰炸机，且战斗机航程过短，这两点问题在不列颠空战中凸显出来。不列颠空战中，每一架德国飞机被击落，就意味着德军丧失一个训练有素的机组，而本土作战的英国飞行员即便被击落，仍有可能跳伞逃生回到部队继续作战。因此如果被击落同等数量的飞机，德国空军将比英国空军损失更多训练有素的飞行员。起初，力量较弱的英国皇家空军在与强大的德国空军交战中处于劣势。战役中期，希特勒下令空军改变进攻目标，不再攻击英国皇家空军，转而对伦敦实施大规模恐怖轰炸，德军便失去了优势。这一重大失误，加上之前提到的那些问题，使英国空军获得喘息之机。德国空军损失加剧，英国空军却保存了力量，并赢得了最终的胜利。西线战事并未结束，且战事频仍。
[2]（第二次世界大战中的）纳粹德国空军。
The Battle of
Moscow
莫斯科战役
In mid 1941, despite still having a western front, Hitler
turnedback East, to achieve his long desired prime objective of
invading andoccupying Russia, which was then also preparing its
huge military to apreemptive attack against him.
1941年年中，尽管西线激战正酣，希特勒却已将目光重新投向东方，妄图入侵并占领苏联，实现他蓄谋已久的主要战略目标。而此时的苏联也早已动员其强大的军事力量，厉兵秣马，准备先发制人，给希特勒当头一击。
Despite years of preparing for this declared objective,
theGerman military was simply not prepared to perform in the
extreme conditions ofthe Russian winter. Because of that, and with
total confidence in theirsuccess, Hitler and his Generals gambled
EVERYTHING on the German military’s abilityto defeat Russia before
the winter.
尽管德军为此谋划多年，但他们显然没有做好在苏联冬季极端天气条件下作战的准备。正因如此，加之希特勒及其将领极为自信，他们决定“孤注一掷”，要在冬季来临之前击溃苏联。
What did happen, was that
the Germans managed to catch theRussians in a complete surprise,
but even that was not enough.
德军的精心策划的确收到了奇效，苏联措手不及，节节败退，但这还不够。
Following Stalin’sdirect order, the Russian intelligence
made a huge effort to constantly monitorfor any preparation by the
German military to equip itself for the severeconditions of the
Russian winter, the single most clear warning sign of acoming
German attack. There were no such preparations, and since he could
notbelieve that Hitler will make such a wild gamble of invading
Russia unpreparedfor winter, Stalin dismissed allthe
warnings he received from his intelligence that Germany was going
toattack.
按照斯大林的直接命令，苏联情报机关密切监视德国军队，观察他们是否为了应对苏联严酷的冬季而进行军备，因为这是德军准备进犯的最明确信号。而德军并无此种准备，因此斯大林不相信希特勒会在不备冬装的情况下疯狂冒险，于是他并未理会德国将进攻苏联的情报警示。
Thanksto this complete surprise, the invading German
military caught the Russian armyin a very bad position. The Russian
losses in men and equipment weretremendous, they lost not just the
entire vast territory between Poland andMoscow, but also almost the
entire military force that was there.
德军出其不意，苏联仓促应战，战局非常不利，人员装备损失惨重。苏联不仅失去了波兰与莫斯科之间的大片领土，部署在当地的兵力也伤亡殆尽。
Theadvancing German army, aided by efficient tactical air
support of the Luftwaffewhich dominated the sky above, advanced all
the way to Moscow, but there andthen, in the extreme winter of late
1941, the German military ran out of bothtime and
thrust[3].
德国空军掌握了制空权，攻入苏联境内的德军在空军的有力战术支援下，长驱直入，兵临莫斯科城下。但就在彼时彼地，就在1941年末严寒的莫斯科，德军的时间和锐气逐渐消耗殆尽。
[3]猛推，推力。
It was exhausted andstretched to the limit, and was
already suffering badly from the winter, whenit was massively
counterattacked near Moscow by fresh
Russian reinforcements[4] which
were brought from the far other side of Russia, fromSiberia and the
far East. These fresh forces which were perfectly equipped
forextreme winter conditions stopped the German advance and even
pushed theGermans back. Moscow was saved, the Germans were stopped,
and that marked thelimit of what the German military could achieve
in the eastern front. They hadgreat victories in Russia, but
Russia, with its endless resources and territoryand its tough
winter and people, was too much for them. When the winter passedthe
Germans advanced again, far and
deep, but not in the direction of
Moscow[5], and they could no longer defeat
Russia.
德军精疲力竭，已是强弩之末，严寒的天气更是让他们苦不堪言，而此时苏联从西伯利亚及远东地区调来的生力军在莫斯科郊区对德军发动了大规模反攻。苏联增援部队为冬季作战做了完美的准备，他们不仅阻止了德军进攻的步伐，甚至还迫使德军后撤。莫斯科保住了，德军的攻势被遏制，这意味着德军在东线的军事进展到此为止。虽然德军曾在苏联取得多次大胜，然而苏联有着用之不竭的自然资源、广袤无垠的疆土、天寒地冻的冬季，以及不屈不挠的人民，这一切让德国难以匹敌。冬季过后，德军虽然又发起了更深入的攻击，但主攻方向不再是莫斯科，他们再也不能击败苏联了。
[4]增援部队。
[5]这里指即高加索地区。
Pearl Harbor
珍珠港事件
December 7, 1941—The Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor
forced theUS into the war at the same time when Hitler was stopped
near Moscow. Sincethen, the final outcome of the war was
inevitable. It was just a matter oftime.
1941年12月7日，希特勒被阻在莫斯科附近时，日本突袭珍珠港，将美国卷入二战。自此，战争的结局已不可逆转，（盟军胜利）只是时间问题了。
As for Japan, in Pearl Harbor it just started a war it
could notwin. Admiral Yamamoto, their greatest military leader,
warned them of that, butthe extreme militarist Japanese leadership
refused to consider other options.
而日本，只不过是在珍珠港发动了一场必败无疑的战役。日本最著名的海军大将山本五十六曾提醒过日本军方，但奉行极端军国主义的日本领导人拒绝选择其他方案。
D-Day
诺曼底登陆
June 6, 1944—After months and years of fighting
andpreparations, the western allies were finally ready for their
decisive move ofinvadingWestern Europe in order to occupy Germany
from West to match theRussian advance from the East.
1944年6月6日，经过数月乃至数年的战斗和准备，西方盟国终于下定决心，进攻西欧，从而在西线攻占德国，与东线进攻的苏联两线呼应，双向夹击。
D-Day, the invasion of France, did not change the outcome
of thewar, as Germany was already losing it, but it marked the long
awaited beginningof the last chapter of the war. The war ended a
year
afterD-Day. ■
诺曼底登陆，即法国光复，并未改变战争的结局，因为当时德国败局已定，但这标志着战争已开始翻开期待已久的最后篇章。诺曼底登陆一年之后，二战宣告结束。□
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