-
Hitler had a secret meeting with his top military advisors to declare that Germany needs land from its neighbors. An advisor then stated that annexing the countries could provoke war, Hitler replied with: “‘The German Question’ can be solved only by means of force, and this is never without risk.”
-
The German troops marched into Austria unopposed. Only a day later, Germany announced that its Anschluss (union) with Austria was complete. The rest of the world, including the U.S. did nothing about it.
-
The Munich Agreement was signed, which turned Sudetenland over to Germany without any war or violence.
-
German troops flooded into Czechoslovokia, or what was left of it. At nightfall, Hitler bragged and said “Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist.” After that, he decided to head to Poland.
-
Facist Germany and communist Russia come to an agreement and commit to never attack eachother. They also signed a secret pact to divide Poland between them.
-
The German air force bombed Polish cities, military bases, railroads, and airfields. They also sent tanks to the Polish countryside, causing confusion and chaos. This was all just to test Blitzkreig, which was a new attack method. It used advances in military technology such as the newest tanks and fastest aircraft Germany had to take the enemy by surprise then "crush" them.
-
Due to the terror and tragedy in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The blitzkrirg method worked perfectly and only took 3 weeks to conquer, which was too quick for Britain and France to even mount a defense. It was too late for any of Poland's allies to save them and by the end of the month, Poland ceased to exist.
-
Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway which he said was “to protect their freedom and independence.” In reality, Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts of those countries to strike Great Britain.
-
At Compiegne, as William Shirer watched, Hitler gave French officers his terms of surrender. This stated that the Germans would occupy the northern part of France, and a Nazi controlled government would be set up at Vichy, in southern France.
-
The RAF shot down over 185 German planes and at the same time, they only lost 26 aircraft. 6 weeks later, Hitler called off the invasion of Britain. “Never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many to so few.” Churchill said, praising the RAF pilots.
