-
Where it all started
Hitler secretly met with his top military advisers and declared to grow and prosper Germany needed the land of its neighbors. -
Period: to
German Expansion Timeline
-
Austria Falls
German troops march on Austria. A day later, Germany announced that its union with Austria was complete. -
The Turn on Czechoslovakia
Hitler massed troops on the Czech border, resulting in the Munich Agreement. This turned the Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired. -
Churchill's Warning
Hitler wasn't finished with Czechoslovakia. As Winston Churchill warned, Hitler poured German troops into what remained on March 15, 1939. -
Neutrality In The Nonaggression Pact
In the spring of 1939, Hitler claimed that the Germans in Poland were being mistreated. To everyone's surprise, Hitler and Stalin signed the Nonaggression Pact. This pact committed that Germany and The Soviet Union would never attack each other, and would split Poland between them. Doing this eliminated a two-front war, which benefited the both of them. -
Blitzkrieg in Poland
On September 1, 1939, the German Air Force struck Poland, raining bombs on Military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities. The Germans used their new Blitzkrieg strategy to invade Poland, using faster tanks and improved aircraft and military technology. They took Poland by surprise, and were quickly able to crush all of their opposition. -
The Phony War
Hitler used his sitting war strategy, which fooled everyone, including his enemies. He suddenly launched a surprise attack on Denmark and Norway in hopes of building bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. Using warships ans civilian vessels, the German Army came into Norway achieving almost total surprise. This gave them the upper hand, resulting in an easy victory. -
Invasion of Europe
On May 10, 1940, the Germans invaded Western Europe. Luxembourg surrendered on that day and became annexed to Germany. The Netherlands was also placed under a German Reich Commissar. Belgium came under German Military occupation. -
The Fall of France
The German offense trapped nearly 400,000 British and French soldiers as they fled for the beaches of Dunkirk. With all of the soldiers gone as they fled to safety across the channel, Hitler had the upper hand. He proposed his terms of surrender to the french officers, putting him in control of the northern part of France and having a Nazi-controlled puppet government being set up in southern France. -
An Aid to Its Axis
In an effort to aid its ally Italy, the German Nazis invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. With the help of their ally Italy, Germany partitioned Slovenia and annexed the northeastern part of the country, sponsored a Croat state, and put Serbia under military occupation.
