Europe Goes to War

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Europe Goes to War

• Chapter 24 Section 2

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Reading Focus Objectives

• How did the German invasion of Poland lead to war
  with Britain and France?
• What wartime victories and setbacks did Germany
  experience in western Europe?
• Why was the Battle of Britain an important
  victory for Britain?

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Key Terms

• Blitzkrieg- a kind of warfare emphasizing rapid
  and mechanized movement used by Germany
• Collaboration- close cooperation
• Resistance- movement in France that opposed
  German occupation during World war 2
• Allies- in World War 2, the alliance of Great
  Britain, the US , the Soviet Union and other
  nations

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Setting the Scene
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• Neville Chamberlain, a member of British
  Parliament, believed that sacrificing part of
  Czechoslovakia to preserve peace was a fatal
  mistake.
• Chamberlain made a dire prediction about the
  choice Britain and France had to choose
  between war and dishonor, They chose dishonor.
  They will have war.

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Invasion of Poland
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• The March invasion of Czechoslovakia ended
  Chamberlains hope of working peacefully with
  Hitler.
• Britain and France began preparing for war.
• On March 31, 1939, they formally pledged their
  support to Poland against Germany.

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Hitlers Pact with Stalin

• Hitler and Stalin recognized that they had much
  to gain by working together.
• Stalin refused to believe that Hitlers long term
  plans was to conquer the Soviet Union.
• Hitler and Stalin signed a ten year Nonaggression
  Pact, which eliminated the danger of Soviet
  invasion from the east.

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• A secret document attached to the pact divided up
  the independent states of eastern Europe between
  Germany and the Soviet Union.
• One week later, on September 1, 1939, Hitler
  invaded Poland.
• On September 3, Britain and France declared war
  on Germany.

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Lightning War

• The alliance of Britain, France and Poland had
  more soldiers and more infantry division than
  Germany.
• Each German division had superior firepower- more
  machine guns, artillery and other weapons.

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• German practiced a new form of attack that they
  unveiled in the invasion of Poland.
• Called blitzkrieg, this new military tactic
  included a fast, concentrated air and land attack
  that took the enemys army by surprise.
• Using the blitzkrieg tactic, German troops
  overran Poland in less than a month.
• They imposed German laws, and imprisoned and
  murdered Jewish citizens.
• Soviet forces joined the German attack. Stalin
  seized eastern Poland for the Soviet Union.

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War in the West

• After Poland fell, the war entered a quiet
  period. The British and French held back their
  troops, fearing tremendous losses.
• The key defense for the French was the Maginot
  Line, a massive string of fortifications along
  Frances border with Germany.

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Maginot Line

• Maginot Line provided housing for troops,
  recreational areas, and even air conditioning.
• The two major problems with this line was that it
  only protected part of France and all of its
  heavy guns pointed east, towards Germany.

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Germany Attacks

• On April 9, 1940, Hitler began a successful
  attack on Denmark and Norway.
• The German army overran Luxembourg in a day.
• German motorized and made their way all the way
  into northern France.

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Dunkirk

• The German drive west divided British and French
  troops into two pockets, one in the north and one
  in the south.
• In the face of Germanys advance, French and
  British forces in the north retreated to the
  coastal city of Dunkirk.
• Braving merciless attacks by the Luftwaffe, about
  900 vessels carried some 340,000 soldiers across
  the English to Great Britain (most heroic escape
  in history)

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The Fall of France

• On June 10, the French government abandoned
  Paris.
• Italy declared war on France and Great Britain
  on the Same day.
• On June 14, German troops entered Paris and on
  June 22, France surrendered.

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• According to the surrender terms, Germany
  occupied the northern 3/5 of France and the
  entire Atlantic Coast southward to Spain.
• Free France, a government in exile in London,
  continued the struggle against the German
  invaders from bases in Britain and colonies in
  Africa.

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Battle of Britain

• We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on
  the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields
  and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills
  we shall never surrender Churchill

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• Britains large and well equipped navy stood
  between Hitler and England. German had to
  control the air to neutralize the standoff.
• Hitler turned to the Luftwaffe to destroy the
  Britishs air defense.
• In Late August, a group of German bombers strayed
  off course and dropped their bombs on London.
  Two nights later British plans bombed Berlin.

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Courageous Defense

• Britains Royal Air Force stoutly defended its
  homeland even though they were greatly
  outnumbered.
• In December 1940, German bombing of London
  started some 1500 fires, setting the center of
  the historic city ablaze.
• By the end of 1941, when the German air raids
  ended, some 20,000 Londoners had been killed and
  more than 70000 injured.

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