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Meeting with military advisors
In the process of declaring the take over of Austria and Czechoslovakia, Hitler held a secret meeting with his top military advisors. Hitler felt that in order for Germany to flourish and thrive they would need to take over larger areas of land surrounding them. -
Annexation between Austria and Germany
Hitler's first step in taking over Austria and Czechoslovakia was the invasion of Austria. Because of the 6 million people in favor or unification it was very simple for Germany to take control With no defence mechanism from Austria, the German troops invasion was complete. No other countries interferred with the invasion. -
Munich Agreement
The next step in Hitler's land expansion was to unify Czechoslovakia with Germany. Hitler invited French premier Edouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to a meeting to make a bargain. Hitler conviced them that this would be his last plea for land and they believed Hitler. They agreed to sign the Munich Agreement to avoid war. -
Hitler takes over Czechoslovakia
Hitler invaded the land that was left of Czechoslovakia and took it over. After taking Czechoslovakia over Hitler bragged, "Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist." -
Invasion of Poland
In the spring of 1939 Hitler's land hungry obsession made him take over Poland. Germany took over Poland by persuading the Germans in Poland by telling them that they've been mistreated and that they need Hitler's guidance and protection. -
Nonagression Pact
Stalin signed a nonagression pact with Hitler. Hitler and Stalin agreed to never attack eachother, which was a shock since they were once enemies. Germany also signed another pact, it was a private pact, that split up Poland with the Soviet Union. -
German Luftwaffe
On this day the German Luftwaffe which is the German airforce flew planes over Poland. These planes dropped bombs on Polish military bases, airfields, railroads, and even cities. Germany had a new military strategy called Blitzkrieg which advanced military technology which would take eneies by suprise and crush all defending force. -
War
Just two days after the terrible day in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The blitzkrieg worked very well the fighting ended in three weeks. The Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east side containing some of its territory. Germany annexed the portion in western Poland which contained most of Poland's population. Poland had ceased to exist by the end of the month, and World War II began. -
Stalin's annexation
Since occupying eastern Poland, Stalin then aimed to occupy or annex more countires. Stalin annexed the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Stalin sent the Soviet army into Finland. The Finns gave up and surrendered since they were outnumbered by the soviets. -
The Phony War
On this day Hitler bombarded Denmark and Norway with a surprise attack. Hitler claimed that this was to protect the countries independence but in reality he was planning to create bases all along the coast to attack Great Britain. -
Terms of Surrender
In Compiegne, on this day Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender. Results of this would be that Germans would seize the northern area of France and a Nazi-controlled government in Vichy, Southern France would be created controlled by Marshal Phillippe Petain. -
The Battle of Britain
Germany created an invasion fleet along the French Coast. Germany wanted to gain air superiority by aboloshing Britain's Royal Air Force. 2,000 German planes flew over Britain bombing London every night for about 2 months. This whole battle was fought entirely by air forces. -
The RAF fight back
On this day Britain's Royal Air Force decided to stand up to Germany and shot down over 185 German planes. Six weeks after that Hitler decided to call off the invasion of Britain. German still continued to destory Britain's cities using bombs trying to break their confidence or civilian morale.
