Nazi Expansion of Germany 19331940

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Nazi Expansion of Germany 1933-1940
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Europe In 1932
Great Britain
USSR
Germany
Poland
France
Czech
Austria
Maginot Line
Italy
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Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor by
President Paul von Hindenburg on January 30,
1933. By August of 1933 Hitler and the Nazis had
eliminated all other political parties, creating
a one party dictatorship. Plans for the rearming
of Germany began at once.
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The Third Reich
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Junker 87 Stuka Dive Bomber Fifth Panzer
Attack Tank
Battleship Bismark
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Germany was restricted from placing troops in the
Rhineland according the Versailles Treaty of 1919.
HITLERS FIRST MOVE
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Wehrmarcht Troops marched into the Rhineland
on March 7, 1936
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The Rhineland was reunited with Germany. France
and Great Britain did not move against this
violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
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On March 13, 1938 Nazi Germany annexed the nation
of Austria without incident. German troops
marched into Austria without the consent of the
Austrians and without any significant opposition
from the major world powers.
The Anschluss
Hitlers Second Move
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Hitler now sets his eye on the Sudetenland of
Czechoslovakia. This area was populated by a
large German Minority.
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British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain,
French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier and
Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini met with the
German Chancellor at Munich and agreed to the
German Annexation of the Sudetenland. The policy
of giving in to avoid war with Hitler became
known as Appeasement.
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On October 15, 1938 Nazi troops occupied the
Sudetenland without opposition. The appetite of
the Nazi crocodile was growing and with each
success public support for Adolf Hitler and the
Nazi Party grew.
Hitlers Third Move
And still the Powers of Europe DID NOTHING
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On March 15, 1939 Nazi Troops annexed Bohemia and
Moravia, thus completing the elimination of
Czechoslovakia. Hungary grabbed the last bit of
Czechoslovakia with the blessing of the Nazis.
The Nazi Crocodile now looked to Poland for its
next meal.
Hun
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With the captured tanks of Czechoslovakia Hitler
turned the Nazi War Machine to the East. Poland
became the next target for the Panzers
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To prevent the mistake of another two front war,
the German Foreign Minster, Joachim von
Ribbontrop signed a Non-Aggression Pact with the
Soviet Dictator, Josef Stalin and Soviet Foreign
Minister Molotov for the division of Poland on
August 23, 1939.
HITLERS FOURTH MOVE
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After signing the non-aggression pact with the
USSR, Hitler launched the Blitzkrieg of Poland on
September 1, 1939.
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Blitzkrieg Of Poland
September 1, 1939, Nazi Armor swept through
Poland using captured Skoda Tanks seized from
the Czechoslovakian Army. Great Britain and
France finally declared war on Germany on
September 3, 1939. HITLERS FifTH MOVE
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Junker 87 Stuka Dive Bombers rained death upon
the City of Warsaw, Poland. The Polish Army, out
gunned, out manned, and out fought, retreated
eastward.
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With the Polish Army in retreat, Stalin stabbed
the beleaguered Poles in the back by launching
an invasion from the East on September 19, 1939.
Poland crumbled. The Polish Government
surrendered on September 27, 1939.
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The Phony War 1939-1940
With the surrender of Poland, Hitler and
the Nazis turned their gaze westward to the
nations of Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and the Great
Britain. During the winter of 1939-1940, very
little fighting took place, while the Nazi armies
moved towards their positions for an attack on
the Western Front.
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Troop Placements April 1940
Norwegian Danish Armies
Belgium Dutch Armies
British Army
Nazi Army
Ardennes
Maginot Line
Italian A.
French Armies
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France refused to attack Germany and rested
behind the massive defenses of the Maginot Line.
This line of massive fortification extended from
Switzerland to the Belgian Frontier. The major
flaw was that the guns all faced East and would
only swing 180 degrees.
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Now the Nazi Armies struck Northward in
force. April 9, 1940 Denmark fell in one day. On
the same day Norway was attacked in an air and
sea invasion. On May 10, 1940, the Nazis invaded
France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
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The Nazis surprised the Western Powers with this
new type of lightning warfare known
as Blitzkrieg. The Nazi Armies smashed
into France cutting through the Ardennes Forest
and driving quickly to the English Channel
cutting the Western Forces in two. The British,
Belgian, and French Armies now retreated to the
port city of Dunkirk and prayed for a
miracle. May 15, 1940 the Netherlands
SURRENDERED May 28, 1940 Belgium SURRENDERED
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Norway surrendered on June 10, 1940
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335,000 British, Belgian and French Troops were
forced to retreat to the beaches of Dunkirk. By
a miracle, the Nazi tank halted their advance for
three days, allowing for their evacuation to
England.
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Paris fell to the Nazi Army on June 14, 1940
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France surrenders on June 22, 1940
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Great Britain
Nazi Germany has in only a few short months
conquered most of Continental Europe. The Nazis
set up a puppet government at Vichy. Great
Britain is all that now stands against the German
Juggernaut.
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Great Britain now stood alone, held together only
by the iron will of her Bulldog Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill.
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Prime Minister Winston Churchill May 13,
1940 "...We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go
on to the end. We shall fight in France and on
the seas and oceans we shall fight with growing
confidence and growing strength in the air. We
shall defend our island whatever the cost may be
we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in
fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall
never surrender and even if, which I do not for
the moment believe, this island or a large part
of it were subjugated and starving, then our
empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the
British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until
in God's good time the New World with all its
power and might, sets forth to the liberation and
rescue of the Old."
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"What General Weygand called the Battle of
France is over. I expect that the Battle of
Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle
depends the survival of Christian civilization.
upon it depends our own British life and the long
continuity of our institutions and our Empire.
The whole fury and might of the enemy must very
soon be turned on us now. Hitler knows that he
will have to break us in this island or lose the
war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be
free and the life of the world may move forward
into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then
the whole world, including the United States,
including all that we have known and cared for,
will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made
more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by
the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore
brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear
ourselves that, if the British Empire and its
Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will
say, "This was their finest hour."
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British Spitfires
German Messerschmitt
The Battle of Britain