The start of WWII: Czechoslovakia 1938, Poland 1939, to the Blitzkrieg of 1940

1. The start of WWII: Czechoslovakia 1938, Poland 1939, to the Blitzkrieg of 1940 <Click here With all of France gone, the remaining BEF, French and Belgian forces at Dunkirk were ferried back to England through a huge rescue operation in which ships of every size and use were taken to get troops back. On the 10th of May 1940, Nazi Germany made its move by pushing into the Netherlands and Belgium. The BEF and French forces who were waiting by the boarder of France just for this raced into the besieged countries and attempted to hold the line there. However this was exactly what the Germans wanted. On September 1st, 1939 Nazi Germany in coordination with the Soviet Union invaded and partitioned Poland. This was instigated by a fake “Polish attack” on the German boarder that was set up by the Nazi’s. By October 1st the entirety of Poland was overrun by the combined Nazi and Soviet forces that converged on it. With this the French and British who became Poland’s ally prior to the invasion declared war on Germany. A BEF was sent to France to support the coming battle. In March of 1938, Hitler used the ethnic ground lost in World War 1 (The Sudetenland) which was now western Czechoslovakia, as a reason to move troops there and force the government to capitulate to him. The British, French, Italians, and Germans all met without Czechoslovakia to discuss its capitulation. Essentially Great Britain and France gave the country up for “Peace in our time.” How wrong they would be… Once the Allies moved up to the line; The Germans launched spearhead attacks with Panzer Divisions. This was Blitzkrieg warfare, it was fast and none stop to the point that once the Allies were routed, there was no way for them to re-establish defensive positions. With this the Germans split the country in two, captured Paris while the Italians invaded from the south and eventually forced the Allies to surrender or retreat to southern England from Dunkirk.