War in Europe

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War in Europe

• The Start of WWII

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Key Events that led to WWII

• November 5, 1937
• Hitler meets with military advisers and suggests
  obtaining lebensraum from Austria and
  Czechoslovakia.
  
• Hitlers advisers fearful that this plan could
  provoke war.
  
• February 1938
• Hitler meets with Austrian chancellor Kurt von
  Schuschnigg and attempts to get Schuschnigg to
  appoint Austrian Nazis to government posts.
  Schuschnigg at first agrees but then later
  informs Hitler that hes changed his mind.

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Key Events Leading to WWII

• March 12, 1938
• German troops marched into Austria unopposed,
  forcing Schuschnigg to resign.
  
• March 14, 1938
• Germany announces that its Anschluss (union) with
  Austria is complete.

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What was the worlds response to this?

• Absolutely nothing

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Key Events Leading to WWII

• Spring 1938
• Hitler launches a propaganda campaign against the
  region known as the Sudetenland, part of
  Czechoslovakia inhabited by 3 million
  German-speaking people
• Hitler accuses the Czechs of abusing the Sudeten
  Germans and masses troops along the border.
  
• France and Great Britain promise to protect
  Czechoslovakia, a move which some believe will
  lead to war.

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Key Events Leading to WWII

• September 30, 1938
• Hitler meets with British prime minister Neville
  Chamberlain and French premier Edouard Daladier
  in Munich and sign the Munich Pact.
  
• The Munich Pact gave Hitler the Sudetenland to
  Germany without any shots being fired. British
  and French leaders believed they had satisfied
  Hitler.
• This decision plays to mixed reactions. Critics,
  including Winston Churchill, called the decision
  appeasement (giving up principles to pacify an
  aggressor.)

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What do you think?

• Should the French and British have given the
  Sudetenland to Germany?

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Key Events Leading to WWII

• March 15, 1939
• German troops pour into the remainder of
  Czechoslovakia and take it over with little
  resistance.
  
• Spring 1939
• Hitler next sets his sights on Poland, following
  a similar strategy to what he used to gain the
  Sudetenland.
  
• Skeptics believe Hitler is bluffing, because this
  move would lead to war with Britain, France, and
  the Soviet Union.
  

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http//www.dean.usma.edu/history/dhistorymaps/WWII
Pages/WWIIEurope/ww2el2.htm
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Key Events Leading to WWII

• August 23, 1939
• Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression
  pact, in which they agreed not to fight each
  other.
  
• They also signed a secret pact to divide Poland
  between them.
  
• This move leads many to believe Hitler would
  invade Poland very soon.

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Key Events Leading to WWII

• September 1, 1939
• Hitler invades Poland using a new military
  strategy known as blitzkrieg (lightning war).
  

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What is Blitzkrieg?

• Blitzkrieg involved three main elements
• 1) Heavy air and artillery bombardment, followed
  by paratrooper landings. This was designed to
  clear the area, disrupt communications, and
  prevent enemy reinforcements.
• 2) Conventional infantry attacks on both sides,
  with tanks gathering in between.
  
• 3) Tanks, motorized divisions, and infantry fan
  out and secure the area.

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Key Events Leading to WWII

• September 1, 1939
• Hitler invades Poland using a new military
  strategy known as blitzkrieg (lightning war).
  
• September 3, 1939
• Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.
  (This is the official start of WWII)
  
• Mid-September, 1939
• Poland falls to German forces.

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First Events of WWII

• Fall, 1939
• After the invasion of Poland, things were eerily
  quiet in Europe.
  
• The French and British troops amassed on the Magi
  not Line, a series of fortifications on Frances
  border with Germany.
  
• The Germans remained on the Siegfried Line,
  engaging in stizkrieg (sitting war), or called
  the Phony War.

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First Events of WWII

• Fall, 1939
• Meanwhile, Stalin was busy annexing territory
  lost after WWI for the Soviet Union.
  
• Stalin and Soviet troops retook Estonia, Latvia,
  and Lithuania with little resistance.
  
• When Stalin went after Finland, he was met with
  resistance, but eventually they would fall as
  well.

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First Events of WWII

• April 7, 1940
• German newspapers announce that Germany is ready
  to attack.
  
• April 9, 1940
• Hitler launches a surprise invasion of Denmark
  and Norway to protect their freedom and
  independence.
  
• End of May, 1940
• Hitler also had overrun the Netherlands, Belgium,
  and Luxembourg.

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First Events of WWII

• May, 1940
• With the invasion of Belgium, the Frenchs
  Maginot Line becomes useless.
  
• French and British troops begin moving toward
  Belgium to face German forces.
  
• Hitler sends his tanks through the Ardennes,
  which were thought to be impassable, cutting off
  Allied Forces.
  

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First Events of WWII

• June 1940
• British forces begin to flee France through
  Dunkirk. The evacuation uses a series of boats
  to get 330,000 troops to safety in Britain.
  
• Italy enters the war on Germanys side and
  invades France from the south, as the Germans
  continued toward Paris from the north.

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First Events of WWII

• June 17, 1940
• French Marshal Henri Petain urges the French to
  stop fighting.
  
• June 21, 1940
• Hitler hands French officers his terms for French
  surrender.
  
• Germans would occupy the Northern part of France,
  with the Southern portion controlled by a Nazi
  puppet government headed by Petain and located at
  Vichy.
• French General Charles de Gaulle flees to Britain
  and establishes a government in exile.

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First Events of WWII

• Summer to Fall 1940
• Germany begins to assemble an invasion fleet
  along the French coast as it prepared to attack
  Great Britain.
  
• The Germans also begin to make bombing runs over
  Great Britain using its Lutwaffe, or air force.
  
• Britain responds by sending its air force (the
  RAF) to attack German planes.
  

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First Events of WWII

• September 15, 1940
• The British counteroffensive shoots down 56
  German planes, while losing 26.
  
• September 17, 1940
• Hitler calls of the invasion of Britain
  indefinitely.
  
• By this time, Hitler controls most of Europe, and
  his major opposition is concentrated in Britain,
  across the English Channel.

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