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Hitler met secretly with his top military advisers. He planned to take over the neighboring countries of Austria and Czechoslovakia because he claimed that Germany needed that land to “grow and prosper.” An advisor of Hitler argued that Hitler’s actions could start a war, but Hitler responded that it was necessary regardless of the consequences.
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Germany marched into Austria, and Austria’s citizens were mostly German speakers who wanted to join Hitler, so the countries formed an union.
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French premier Daladier and British PM Chamberlain were invited to meet Hitler in Munich, where Hitler claimed the annexation of Sudetenland would be his last land demand. Daladier and Chamberlain chose to sign the agreement. Winston Churchill, Chamberlain’s rival didn’t agree with the decision of appeasement, he thought giving in to Hitler to avoid war was a bad choice. Churchill said “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war.”
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Hitler led German troops to Czechoslovakia, and invaded the remains of the country. After Germany took over Czechoslovakia, Hitler started to plan his invasion of Poland.
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Joseph Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler, communist Russia and fascist Germany agreed to never attack each other. This was necessary because in order to take over Poland, Germany needed to prevent a two front war from occurring. So, Russia agreed to not fight, and a secret second pact was formed between the two leaders, Poland was to be split between them.
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The German Luftwaffe (air force) bombed Poland, German tanks invaded the Polish countryside. Germany was testing their new strategy, blitzkrieg, meaning “lightning war.” Germany crushed Poland’s surprised citizens. The attack resulted in Britain and France declaring war with Germany on September 3rd, 1939.
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The new blitzkrieg tactic worked well, all heavy fighting was done in 3 weeks before France and Britain could form a defense. The soviets attacked Poland from the east, finishing them off. By the end of September WWII began.
During the next months France and Britain fought Germany on the Maginot line, defensive walls along France’s eastern border. The Germans sat on the Siegfried line a bit back. Germans called this the sitzkrieg, or sitting war. Many newspapers referred to it as the phony war. -
Joseph Stalin and soviet Russia had been busy after claiming territory from Poland, they began annexing Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland. Hitler launched a surprise invasion on Norway and Denmark because he claimed it was necessary in order “to protect [those countries’] freedom and independence.” Hitler actually needed the land to build bases along the coast for striking Britain. Hitler then attacked Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The “phony war” was over.
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The Allied Troops, including the French and British all evacuated from France to England. The Germans trapped the Allies troops on the coast of France, where they were forced to evacuate by ship back to England. Many soldiers were saved, but some were unfortunately left behind.
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Hitler gave French officers his terms of surrender. A “puppet government” headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain was set up in Vichy, France, and Germans would occupy northern France. After France fell to these terms, Charles de Gaulle, a French general, fled to England where he confidently claimed, “France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.”
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Germans created an invasion fleet along the French coast and launched an air war. The Luftwaffe made bombing trips over Britain to harm Britain’s RAF. For two months Germany dumped bombs over London. They focused on bombing airfields, and then targeted cities. The RAF used radar to find flight paths of German planes, day and night. They lost 26 planes while they shot down over 185 German planes. Hitler eventually called off the invasion, but Britain and Germany kept bombing each other’s cities.
