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Hitler secretly met with his top military advisors on November 5th, 1937. He declared that to be able to grow and flourish, Germany needed the land of its neighboring countries. He planned to claim Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich.
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Austria was Hitler's first target to absorb into the Third Reich. The vast majority of Austria's population were Germans who were in favor of unification with Germany. So, the day after, German troops were sent into Austria unchallenged and announced that its union with Austria was finalized.
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Hitler looked to annex Czechoslovakia in order to give Germany more living space. He invited French premier Édouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to meet with him in Munich. The führer declared that the annexation of the Sudetenland would be his "last territorial demand." Since Daladier and Chamberlain were eager to avoid war, they believed him. Shortly after, the Munich Agreement was signed, which gave the Sudetenland over to Germany without any conflict.
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Hitler's next target was Poland. However, attacking Poland could rise tension with the Soviet Union. In addition, this would start a war, since France and Great Britain both promised to provide military aid to Poland. As tensions rose over Poland, Stalin surprisingly signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler. On August 23rd, 1939 Germany and Russia now declared to never to attack each other. There was also a secret pact signed which would divide Poland between them.
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At dawn, the German air force towered over Poland. They rained down bombs on military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities while German tanks raced across the Polish countryside. The invasion was a test of Germany's newest military strategy, known as the Blitzkrieg. The Blitzkrieg utilized technology such as fast tanks and more powerful aircraft to overwhelm and conquer any opposing force. The strategy worked so well that France and Great Britain didn't have a chance to form a defense.
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For the next several months after the fall of Poland, French and British troops were set on the Maginot Line, waiting for something to happen. On the Siegfried Line, which was a few miles away, German troops stared back. This was known as the phony war, or the sitting war.
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On April 9th, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasion on Denmark and Norway. The reason was to protect those countries’ freedom and independence. However, the real reason was so Hitler could build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. By the end of May, Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which would declare the end of the phony war.
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A few days after 400,000 French and British soldiers were trapped and fled across the English Channel from Germany, Italy invaded France. As Italy invaded France from the south, the Germans closed in from the north. On June 22nd, 1940, Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender in which Germans would occupy the northern part of France. After France fell, a French general named Charles de Gaulle fled to England. He proclaimed that France has lost the battle, not the war.”
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In the summer of 1940, the Germans assembled an invasion fleet along the French coast. The Luftwaffe began making bombing runs over Britain. Their goal was to gain total control of the skies by destroying Britain’s Royal Air Force. In a single day, approximately 2,000 German planes ranged over Britain. Every night for two whole months, bombers lashed London. The Battle of Britain raged on through the summer and fall. The Luftwaffe first concentrated on airfields & aircraft, then targeted cities.
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The Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) put up a good fight. Thanks to the new technological device, the radar, British pilots could pinpoint German planes. The RAF shot down over 185 German planes and only lost 26 aircraft. Hitler called off the Invasion of Britain six weeks later. Still, German bombers continued to lash out on Britain's cities in an attempt to disrupt production and break civilian morale. British pilots did the same and bombed German cities.
