Unit 3 WWII – CHC2P/D

Blitzkrieg and the Battles

Ms. Pannell

Topic 4 Blitzkrieg: Blitzkrieg –

Lightening War

Relentless Nazi air and ground attack using Stuka dive-bombers, tanks and mobilized infantry

Was quick and took the enemy by surprise

Sept 1939, Spring 1940

Sept 1939 - crushed: Poland > 1 month

The Phoney War (Winter 1940) when no fighting took place

Spring 1940 - Crushed: Denmark - 1 day Norway - 2 days The Netherlands – 5 days Belgium – 18 days France – 6 weeks

Spring 1940 - DunkirkFall of France

British and French troops pushed back to the English Chanel by advancing German soldiers – town of Dunkirk

Britain could not afford to have any naval ships sunk during an attempted rescue

Fisherman, ferry boats and pleasure sailors rescued trapped British soldiers.

350 000 rescued, equipment left behind

Blitzkrieg – the strategy Air attack

Take out strategic sites Create chaos in civilian

population Paratroopers secure

strategic sites

Armored tank attack – break through into towns (create an entry ‘column’)

Infantry attack (troops arrive in truck loads – enter after tanks

City surrenders

“blood, toil, tears, and sweat”

Summer 1940 Britain stood alone in

Europe

Winston Churchill – Britain’s new P.M. “blood, toil, tears, and sweat”

Halifax – assembling convoys (food, weapons, soldiers)

Eiffel Tower – 1889 centennial of French Revolution

Battle of Britain British air force

(RAF) and navy controlled the 50km Channel, separating Britain from France

1. Germany needed to control the skies over the Channel before its planned invasion fleet could sail

Battle of Britain continued July 10, 1940

German air force Luftwaffe set out to clear the skies

Targeted radar stations, airfields, ports and factories

Slowly the first RAF planes were wiped out

Battle of Britain continued August – RAF

bombed Berlin

commander of the German air force, Herman Goering retaliated with the “blitz” - bombing cities with the intention of terrorizing the civilian population into surrendering

London bombed 57 consecutive nights. By the end of May 1941, over 43,000 civilians had been killed by bombing, ½ in London

Battle of Britain continued Londoners responded

by moving into air-raid shelters, subway stations, reopening their stores every day and just “carrying on”

British resistance grew stronger, not weaker

Battle of Britain continued London raids allowed

few remaining spitfires and Hurricanes to regroup:

i. new pilots were trainedii. Planes came off

assembly lines at about 500/month

Sept 15, 1940: Luftwaffe attacked but the RAF was ready. The Luftwaffe was decidedly beaten!

Battle of Britain continuedBattle of Britain won by a

few hundred pilots: Canadians Poles Britons South Africans New Zealanders

RAF lost 915 planes, Luftwaffe lost 1,722 planes

WW2, a new direction for Hitler

If Hitler could not wipe out Britain, he would turn against the Soviet Union

WWII overview

Sept 1939Invasion of Poland

Spring 1940W. Europe BlitzkriegFall of: Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France- Miracle at Dunkirk

Summer 1940Battle of Britain

June 1941O. BarbarossaNazi invasion ofthe Soviet Union

Dec 1941Japanese invasionof Pearl HarborHong, Kong, andMany islands in The PacificU.S. join the war

Aug.1942Cdn. Dieppe Raid

Sept. 1943– end of warItalian Campaign

June 1944D-Day – alliedInvasion of W. Europe “O. Overlord”

May 1945V.E. DayUSSR Land Grab

Aug 1945V.A. DayAtom Bomb

Operation Barbarossa, June 1941 Hitler redirects his

attack eastward

Breaks the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union

Attacks the Soviet Union

The Allies and Soviets now united over a common enemy - Hitler

Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front

Operation Barbarossa continued The Nazi would advance

into the Soviet Union until the winter 1942.

Hitler overestimated the strength of soviet tanks and manpower

Soviets would eventually push the Germans back

This marks the beginning of the end for the Nazis