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The Austrian Anschluss
In February, Hitler threaten to invade German-speaking Austria unless Austrian Nazis were given important gov't posts Austria's chancellor gave in to this demand but tried to put the matter of unification on German by making a democratic vote. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria. Austria was now a nameless entity absorbed by Germany. It was not long before the Nazis soon began their typical ruthless policy of persecuting political dissidents and, of course, all Jewish citizens. -
The Munich Conference
Representatives of Britain, France Italy, and Germany agreed to meet in Munich to decide to sign the Munich Pact, which seals the fate of Czechoslovakia. On September 29, Britain and France agreed to Hitler's demands, a policy known as appeasement,made concessions in change for peace. When Chamberlain returned home,he promised “a peace with honor ... peace in our time,” but he also began to speed up British rearmament, in case appeasement failed. Which did happened to preserve the fragile peace. -
Hitler Demands Danzig
Hitler demands that the city of Danzig be returned to German control. Danzig was more than 90 percent German, but it had been part of Poland sine World War I. Hitler's new demands convicted Britain and France that war was inevitable.
March 31, Britain announced that if Poland went to war to defend its territiry, Britain and France would come to its support. This declaration encouraged Poland to deny Hitler's demands. May 1939 Hitlerordered gemany army tooprepare toinvade Poland. -
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
German officials proposed a nonaggression treaty to the Soviets, Stalin agreed. Stalin believed the best way to protect USSR was to turn the capitalist nations against each other.
The nonaggression pact was signed by Germany and the USSR on Agust 23,1939. They did not know the treaty contained a secret deal to divide Poland between Germany and the SovientUnion. -
Invsion of Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Two days later France and Briant declared war on Germany.
Poland bravely resisted Germanys outslought, but its army was outdated. The Polish army rode horses and carried lances against German tanks. Germany used a new type of warfare called Blitzberg, or "lightning war." To support the tanks, waves of aircraft bombed enemy positions nad dropped paratroopers to cut their supply lines. By October 5, 1939, the Germans defeated the Polish military. -
The Fall of France
After World War 1, the French had built a defensive 280-mile long fortification, the Maginot Line, all along the German border as protection against a future German attack. To get around the Maginot Line the Germans would have to invade Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg first-- which they did. The Battle of France began on 10 May 1940. Hitler launched a new blitzkrieg. While the German troops parachuted into the Netherlands, an army of tanks rolled into beliguim and Luxembourg. -
Evacutaion of Dunkirk
On June 4, 1940, the evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk on the Belgian coast ends as German forces capture the beach port. The nine-day evacuation, the largest of its kind in history and an unexpected success, saved 338,000 Allied troops from capture by the Nazis. Hitler had been assured by Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe, that his aircraft could destroy the Allied forces trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk, so Hitler ordered the forces besieging Dunkirk to pull back. -
Battle of Britain
In June 1940, the German air force, called the Luftwaffe, began
to attack British shipping in the English Channel. Then, in mid-
August, the Luftwaffe launched an all-out air battle to destroy the
Royal Air Force. This air battle, which lasted into the fall of 1940,
became known as the Battle of Britain.On August 23, German bombers accidentally bombed London, the British capital. This attack on civilians enraged the British, who responded by bombing Berlin the following night.
