War in Europe

Mr. White’s World History

Objectives After this section, we should be able to:

Explain how Hitler took over most of Europe

Eastern Europe In the early stages of the war

in eastern Europe, the German armies quickly subdued Poland

The Soviet Union occupied the eastern half of Poland, as was laid out in an agreement with Germany

The Soviet Union then took over Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, and then attacked Finland

Finland held out for a while, but was eventually forced to surrender and give up part of its territory to the USSR

Sitzkrieg After Britain and France had declared war,

there was basically no armed conflict on the western front, along France’s Maginot Line

In the meantime, the British mined Norway’s waters to prevent any trading with Germany Hitler claimed that this was a precursor to a British

invasion of Norway Hitler demanded that Denmark and Norway

accept the protection of Germany Denmark accepted Norway refused

Winston Churchill The German invasion of Norway was

successful, but cost the German navy some destroyers and cruisers

Hitler secured an outlet to make sure that his navy wouldn’t be bottled up

In Britain, Hitler’s new invasions resulted in heavy criticism of Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement – Chamberlain stepped down

King George VI of England called Winston Churchill to become prime minister of Britain Chamberlain had been one of the few people to

warn about Nazi aggression and Hitler

The Battle of France Hitler turned toward France

after Norway A French commander, Charles

de Gaulle, had been asking the French Army to supply more planes and tanks, but was turned away The Maginot Line and the

Ardennes Forest formed an impenetrable barrier between Germany and France, many thought

The German attack came through the Netherlands and Belgium, passing through the Ardennes and by-passing the Maginot Line

The Maginot Line

The Maginot Line was a system of fortifications built by the French after World War I to protect against German invasion of France. The strongest part of the line was concentrated along the border with Germany. The northern portion was weakly constructed because most viewed the Ardennes Forest region in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg to be impassable to tanks.

Dunkirk The British and French moved their best troops

into Belgium to stop the German advance, but they were quickly encircled by the German forces

Other German forces pushed into France, through undefended country

These forces pushed westward to the English Channel and encircled a force of 300,000 British and French troops at Dunkirk

For some reason, the German forces were ordered to halt, and the Allies were able to evacuate 300,000 troops across the British Channel from Dunkirk

The Fall of Paris On June 14, the Germans

entered Paris The French government

signed an armistice with Germany

The Germans occupied all of northern France and the Atlantic coastline to the Spanish border

A puppet French government was set up in Vichy under French Marshal Henri Petain

Some French continued to struggle against Germany, either as members of the French Resistance, or as part of the Free French government in England

The Battle of Britain Britain was the last nation in Europe that

stood in Hitler’s way Hitler made plans to invade Britain

Air supremacy would be essential to cross the English Channel

The Germans first set out to destroy British aircraft factories and airfields, then turned their attention to the British Royal Air Force itself

Finally, the German Luftwaffe switched to night bombings of London and other cities – known as the “blitz”

The Blitz Hitler hoped that bombing British cities would

break British morale and will, and that they might simply give in to Hitler

The bombings did not accomplish this, and in some cases seemed to have the opposite effect of increasing British resolve and desire for vengeance

The Germans end this battle having lost 1,700 aircraft, losses which they were not able to replace

Coventry, following a German air-raid

U.S. Neutrality The U.S. wanted to stay neutral through the

early days of the European conflict The 1937 Neutrality Act prohibited arms

shipments, loans, or credit to nations that were fighting wars

U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was convinced that Germany’s expansion was a threat to the U.S.’s peace and safety

With FDR’s urging, and news of Germany’s aggression, U.S. public opinion began to turn against Germany

Anglo-American Cooperation After Dunkirk, the British appealed to the U.S. for aid

The U.S. gave Britain 50 old destroyers in return for naval bases

The U.S. also would allow a cash-and-carry policy when trading with Britain – as long as it was paid up-front, and the British transported it, the U.S. would help supply

When Britain ran out of money, the U.S. adopted a lend-lease policy – the President could lend war materiel to any country whose defense was essential to the U.S.

FDR and Churchill also created the Atlantic Charter, which was an agreement that called for freedom of trade, self-determination, and the end of Nazi tyranny

North Africa Mussolini’s goal was to create a

new Italian empire around the Mediterranean

June, 1940 – Mussolini declared war on France and Britain British forces guarding Egypt and

the Sudan attacked Italian forces in Libya, and won victories

Churchill diverted troops from this British offensive to southeastern Europe, where they were crushed and captured

Hitler sent General Erwin Rommel to Libya to bail out the Italians Rommel pushed the British back

out of Libya The Germans increasingly

controlled northern Africa