13.2WWII Begins

The Austrian Anschluss• Hitler wanted to unify all German-speaking people.• Both Austria and Czechoslovakia spoke German.

• If Hitler were to take these countries, he would gain: 1. Food Supplies 3. More men to fight 2. Land 4. More natural resources

• In March of 1938 Hitler invaded Austria declaring Anschluss (means unification).

Germany invading Austria

Austrians cheering for the Germans as they enter

Austrians cheering for Hitler

The Munich Crisis• Next Hitler set his eyes on the Sudetenland in

Czechoslovakia, but the Czechs were resisting• France promised to fight for the Czechs, and Britain

had promised to help the French• Representatives from Britain, France, Italy, and

Germany agreed to meet in Munich• At the Munich Conference in 1938 the sides agreed to

give Hitler the Sudetenland, but it had to be the end of Hitler’s demands

• This was an the greatest example of appeasement – trying to make peace through bribery

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waves the document giving the Sudetenland to Hitler. With this, he told the world, "I give you peace in our time." In hindsight, we

recognize the betrayal of Czechoslovakia at Munich as the "height" of appeasement.

World War II Begins• Only a month later, Hitler declared he wanted

Danzig—a German city given to Poland after WWI• Now no more appeasement—if Poland got invaded,

France and Britain announced they would go to war.• August 23rd, 1939 Germany and the USSR signed the

Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact agreement. This was a friendship between the two.

• This was done by Hitler so that he wouldn’t have to fight a war on two fronts.

• September 1st, 1939, Germany invades Poland and thus starting WWII.

Germany invades Poland

• It only took a month for the Germans to take Poland• Germany was using a new type of warfare called

Blitzkrieg – meaning “lightning war”• It combined several new technologies -- Overhead

bombing coordinated with Panzer tanks to break through opposing forces quickly. Paratroopers and radios connected the forces for lightning fast speed.

• Basketball equivalent of a full court press• The polish army rode horses and had lances…poor

guys

Invasion of France• France and Britain were prepared for an invasion from

Germany.• After WWI, France had built a wall of concrete bunkers and

various fortifications on the German border named the Maginot Line.

• What is wrong with the Maginot ling?

France had a false sense of security because of the Maginot Line

Invasion of France• Hitler knew of this wall

and decided to invade France through Belgium.

• Britain and France didn’t expect Germany to attempt to go thru the Ardennes Forests

• Hitler easily won Belgium and turned toward France.

• June 22nd 1940, Hitler accepted the surrender of France.

Breezing into France“The people in the houses were rudely awakened by the din of our tanks, the clatter and roar of tracks and engines. [German] troops lay bivouacked beside the road, military vehicles stood parked in farmyards and in some places on the road itself. Civilians and French troops, their faces distorted with terror, lay huddled in the ditches, alongside hedges and in every hollow beside the road. We passed refugee columns, the carts abandoned by their owners, who had fled in panic into the fields. On we went, at a steady speed, towards our objective... The flat countryside lay spread out around us under the cold light of the moon. We were through the Maginot Line!”

-- Major General Erwin Rommel, commander of the Seventh Panzer Division

France after an air attack

Battle for Britain• In 1940 Winston Churchill became the new Prime Minister

in England – and he was a BEAST.• Germany wanted to invade England, but couldn’t because

of the English channel..so they had to first beat them through the air.

• The German Luftwaffe began dropping bombs on England.• Luftwaffe = German airforce

“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 still say, 'This was their

finest hour.‘”

Battle for Britain• From August 23rd until September 6th Germany

bombed London during daylight. • From September 7th - November 3rd, Germany sent

200 bombers every NIGHT except for one.• The British had developed an advanced radar system…

so they could protect themselves with air fire and getting civilians into safe places

• By the end of 1940, Hitler called off his invasion of England.

• The Battle for Britain was the first defeat of the German army

Defusing a dud bomb