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Hitler denounces the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. He also announces the existence of the luftwaffe which directly infringes upin the Treafy of Versailles.
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In 1937 Hitler called again for unification of all German speaking people, including those in Austria and Czechoslvakia. If HItler planned on expanding for more territory, France and the Soviet Union both threatend to fight if Germany attacked Czechoslvakia.
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In Feb 1938 Hitler threatene to invade German-speaking Austria unless Austrian Nazis were given important government posts. Fearing the outcome, Hitler sent troops into Austria in March and announced the unification of Austria and Germany
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Britain and France agreed to Hitler's demands, a policy that came to be known as appeasment. In other words they made concessions in exchange for peace. They felt tha tis they gave him what he wanted they could avoid war.
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After WWI the French had built a line of Concrete bunkers called the Maginot Line along the German border. The French waited behind the Maginot line for the Germans to approach.
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Stalin believed the best way to protect the USSR was to turn the capitalists against each other. If the treaty worked, Germany would go to war against Britain and France,and the USSR would be safe.
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On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. WWII had begun.
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Poland bravely resisted Germany's onslaught, but it's army was outdated. Germans used a new type a warfare called blitzkrieg, or "lightning war". Blitzkrieg used a large number of massed tanks to break through and rapidly encircle enemy positions.
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The Polish Army could not repel the attack. Warsaw, the Polish capitl fell to the Germans on September 27. On Oct. 5 1939, the Germans had defeated the Polish Army.
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A month after the Munich Conference, Hitler demanded that the city of Danzig be returned ot German control. Although Danzig was 90% German, they had been apart of Poland since WWI
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In contrast to the war in Poland, Western Europe remained quiet. The British had sent troops to France, and both countries remained on the defensive, waiting for the Germans to attack.
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For an unknown reason, Germans forces suddenly stopped its enclosure on Dunkirk. With a 3 day delay, 338,000 French and British troops had evauated.
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On June 22, 1940 Hitler accepted the French surrender in the same rainway car in which the Germns has surrendered at the end of WWI.
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German air force, called the Luftwaffe, began to attack British shipping on the English Channel. The air battle that lasted into the fall of 1940 became known as the Battle of Britain.
