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Neighbors Land
Hitler wanted to take over the land bordering Germany. He talked to his top military advisers on November 5th 1937 about this topic, he wanted Austria and Czechoslovakia to become part of the Third Reich. -
Union with Austria
Hitlers first target was to get control of Austria. The majority of people in Austria were fine with the unification. Then on March 12th, 1938 German troops marched in Austria unopposed and within a day Austria was unified with Germany, the rest of the world did nothing about it. -
Sudetenland
Hitler then wanted control over Czechoslovakia. The western part of Czechoslovakia called Sudetenland was a target, Hitler used fake news to persuade Sudetenland to join Germany. Instead of war, Hitler made a deal with France and Britain, the Munich Agreement between Edouard Daladier and Nevile Chamberlain and Hitler said that after taking Sudetenland he would stop taking over countries, this agreement was signed on September 30, 1938 to avoid war. -
Taking Over Poland
In the spring of 1939, Hitler started attempting to take over Poland. He said that Germans living in Poland were not being treated fairly by the Poles. People thought that he may be lying to turn people to his side but if he took over Poland then France and Britain would declare war and that would start a two-front war which would be bad for Germany. -
German Offense
Germany did not stay loyal to the Munich Agreement. On March 15, 1939 German troops were sent into Czechoslovakia and took over whatever remained. The next target was Poland. -
Soviet Union Neutrality
As problems were getting worse with Poland, Stalin signed the nonaggression pact with Hitler on August 23rd, 1939, meaning that Russia and Germany would not fight against each other. There was also a secret pact signed by them that the land of Poland would be divided between them. -
Blitzkrieg in Poland
On September 1st, 1939, Germany attacked Poland, they bombarded them with aircraft's dropping bombs on cities, railroads, and military facilities. Tanks were sent through the country side of Poland as well. The war strategy was called Blitzkrieg, which is surprising the country with overwhelming force. Two days after the attack, Britain and France declared war against Germany. -
Phony War
After the fall of Poland, British troops were sent to Frances eastern borders, staring at Germany but the German troops were staring right back. It was known as the sitting war or phony war. Suddenly on April 9th, 1940 Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway, then the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. They were all taken over by the end of May and that concluded the phony war. -
France Falls
German troops trapped 400,000 British and French soldiers as they fled to the beaches of Dunkirk. Then Italy joined the war on Germany's side and attacked France. On June 22nd, 1940 the French surrendered, Germany now occupied the northern part of France. -
Battle of Britain
In the summer of 1940, Germany began sending naval ships to attack Britain and attacking with air force. They bombed many places throughout Britain, for instance, big cities like London. But the RAF fought back well and on September 15th, 1940 the British Royal Air Force shot down 185 German planes and only lost 26 aircraft's.
