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The Austrian Anschluss
In 1937 Hitler wanted to unite all German speaking people, including Austria and Czechoslovakia. He threatened to invade Austria unless they put Austrian Nazi's in important government roles. Austrian chancellor did what he was told but then put the unification of Austria and Germany to vote, fearing the results Hitler sent troops to Austria in March to announce the "Anschluss" or unification of Austria and Germany. -
The Munich Crisis
In 1938 Hitler set his eyes on Sudetenland, and area in Czechoslovakia with many German Speaking people. But Czechoslovakia refused to give up Sudetenland. France and the Soviet Union with the support of Britain threatened to fight Germany if they attacked Czechoslovakia. On September 29,1938 Britain, France, Italy, and Germany sent representatives to Munich to decide Czechoslovakia's future. -
Hitler Demands Danzig
A month after the Munich conference Hitler demanded that Danzig be returned to Germany. Danzig has been part of Poland since WWI. Hitler also wanted to build railroads across the Polish corridor, an area that separated western Germany and the German state of east Prussia. When Britain and France heard Hitlers new demand the were convince that war was inevitable. Britain announced that if Poland were to be attacked for defending its territory that Britain and France would come to there aid. -
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
After Britain and France stated that they would defend Poland if attacked, Hitler sent his foreign minister to negotiate with the Soviet Union. Stalin agreed, he thought the way to protect the USSR was to turn the capitalist nations against each other. This treaty if it worked, Germany would go to war with Britain and France and the USSR would be safe. -
The Invasion of Poland
Around 1.5 million German troops attacked Poland along its border. The Germans proceeded with bombing Polish airfields, attacking Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Hitler claimed that he only attacked in defense since Poland attacked first. But we later found out that Germany had faked the attack that he accused Poland of. Britain and France never believed him and declared war on Germany initiating the begging of WWII. -
The Fall of France
Britain sent troops to France and both stayed on the defense, France had built concrete bunkers called the Maginot Line. The French choose to wait behind this line and wait for Germany. This would be the wrong decision to make as it let Germany focus on the war with Poland. Germany went around the Maginot line in to Netherlands, Belgium, France rushed to help but left very few troops to defend the border where Hitler attacked with tanks this would leave France and Britain trapped in Belgium. -
Miracle at Dunkirk
After trapping the allied forces in Belgium the German's began to drive them toward the English channel. The only way out of Belgium was by sea. But Germany had control over every port in Belgium except for Dunkirk. Britain sent all types of ships to rescue the soldiers but Germans were closing in until Hitler order them to stop. This gave them the chance to escape and save around 338,000 solders from Belgium, but leaving tons of equipment and resources on Dunkirk. -
The Battle of Britain
In 1940 Hitler chose to attack Britain by air and sea but was forced to change his plans due to some unforeseen complications. Hitler then chose only to attack by air. Hitler would drop thousands of bombs on Britain especially in London, where they were attacked 71 times by the bombs. Even though they were attacked so harshly the British kept strong. The economy did very well even through this crisis. This led to Hitler calling off an attack by land, and changed his plans and invade Russia.
