Hitler’s Lightning War

1. Hitler’s Lightning War By: Alli Adams Amy Ayala Madeleine Bennett Esteban Alvarado Setting the Stage: Around the 1930’s, Hitler seized many territories and after seizing them he would proclaim he was finished with doing it. Then for a while he kept his word, but things became disastrous when he began to expand his lands again.

2. Germany Sparks a New War in Europe • Germany Sparks a New War in Europe • April 28, 1939: Hitler spoke before the Reichstag demanding that Polish Corridor and Danzig be returned to Germany. • Great Britain and France resisted Hitler’s threat. • August 23: Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin signed a ten-year nonaggression pact with Hitler. • Publicly, Germany and the Soviet Union promised not to attack each other. • Secretly, they agreed to divide Poland between them. • They also agreed that the USSR could take over Finland and the Baltic countries. • Germany’s Lightning Attack on Poland • September 1, 1939: Hitler launches a surprise attack on Poland. • German soldiers, tanks, and aircrafts attacked Poland’s capital, Warsaw. • The city crumbled under the assault and unleashed the beginning of World War II.

3. Germany Sparks a New War in Europe • September 3: France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. • Poland had fallen three weeks before those countries could have made any military response. • Germany’s invasion of Poland was the first test of Germany’s newest military strategy: blitzkrieg (“lightening war”). • Blitzkrieg involved using fast-moving airplanes and tanks, followed by massive infantry forces, to take the enemy by surprise. • The Soviets Make Their Move • September 17: Stalin sends Soviet troops to occupy the eastern half of Poland. • November 1939: 1 million troops are sent into Finland for a quick victory. • But the Finland winter caught Stalin and his troops by surprise and by March 1940 he surrendered.

4. The Battle for France and Great Britain • The Battle For France and Great Britain: • May 1940: Hitler began a massive sweep trough Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg in an attempt to strike at France. • Hitler sent a large force of tanks and troops to the Ardennes, a heavily wooded area in Northeastern France and Luxembourg. • German forces reached France’s northern coast in 10 days. • In France, they rejoined forces with the German troops in Belgium. • May 26, 1940: Germans trap Allied forces in Lille, France. • Belgium surrenders. • Allies escape to the beaches of Dunkirk the French port city in the English Channel; they were trapped. • Britain sends out to rescue the army at Dunkirk with some 850 ships; including Royal Navy ships as well as civilian boats such as yachts, paddle steamers, and lifeboats. • From May 26 to June 4, British sailed back and forth carrying 338,000 people to safety. • June 10, 1940: Italy’s Benito Mussolini joins forces with Hitler and declared war on France and Britain. • Italy attacked France from the south. • By June 14: Paris had fallen to Germany. • Two days later, France senses defeat. • French Parliament asks Marshal Henri Pétain to become prime minister. • June 22, 1940: France surrenders.

5. The Battle for France and Great Britain • After France fell, French general Charles de Gaulle fled to London. • There he set a government-in-exile devoted to reconquering France. • June 18, 1940: Charles delivers a broadcast from England telling the French people to resist. • He organized the Free French military that fought the Nazis until France’s liberation in 1944. • Britain stands alone against the Nazis. • Winston Churchill, the British prime minister declared that they would never give in. • Hitler then planned on an invasion of Great Britain. • Operation Sea Lion- Hitler’s plan to knock out the Royal Air Force and then land 250,000 soldiers on England’s shores. • Summer 1940: Germany’s air force, Luftwaffe, began bombing Britain. • September 7, 1940: Germany’s air force focused on Britain’s cities especially London. Despite all of the Destruction, the British continued to fight. • The Royal Air force hit back hard. • British had two secret weapons: • An electronic tracking system known as radar. • And a German code-making machine called the Enigma that was smuggled into Britain in 1930. It allowed them to receive secret German messages. • October 1940: Germans give up daylight raids in favor of night bombings. • This Battle of Britain continued until May 10, 1941. • Hitler decided to call off his attacks, stunned by British resistance. • He then turned his attention to Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

6. The Eastern Front and the Mediterranean • Germany and Italy • The first objective of Germany was North Africa because of Hitler’s partner Mussolini. • September 1940, Mussolini ordered Italy’s North African army to move east from Libya. • His goal was to seize British-controlled Egypt. • Italian troops had pushed 60 miles inside Egypt, forcing British units back. • Great Britain Strikes Back • -In December, British decided to strike back. • -British took 130,000 Italian prisoners. • -Hitler stepped in to help • -In February 1941, he sent General Erwin Rommel to Libya. • - His mission was to command a newly formed tank corps, Africa Korps. • -Rommel attacked the British at Aghelia. • -In January 1942, British drove Rommel back. • -Rommel regrouped and seized Tobruk.

7. The Eastern Front and the Mediterranean • The War in the Balkans • Hitler began planning to attack his ally, the USSR. • He wanted to build bases in south eastern Europe for the attack on the Soviet Union. • Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary joined Axis powers in 1941. • April 6,1941- Hitler invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. • Yugoslavia fell and Greece surrendered. • Hitler invades the Soviet Union • Hitler called his plan to invade the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa. • June 22, 1941 the blitzkrieg invasion began. • The Red army had 5 million men, but they were not well equipped or trained. • By September 8 Germans had surrounded Leningrad and isolated the city from tants. • Over 1 million people died. • The city refused to fall. • A Nazi drive in Moscow began on October 2, 1941. • Germans gad advanced to the outskirts of Moscow and the Soviet Union counter attacked. • Germans retreated because of cold weather and fuel oil froze, which made tanks and weapons useless.

8. The United States Aids its Allies • Due to War World I memories, the U.S. did not want to get involved in the war. • Congress passed series of Neutrality Acts from 1935-1937 • They made it illegal to sell weapons or give money to other nations at war. • But in Sept.1939, President Roosevelt changed the law so that Allies could buy American weapons as long as they paid cash and carried their goods on their own ships. • Then the Lend-Lease Act was passed in March 1941 and it allowed the president to lend or lease weapons and other war supplies to any county that was important to the U.S. • By the summer, The U.S. was escorting ships that were carrying supplies that came from that Lend-Lease Act. • On August 9, Roosevelt and Churchill met on a battleship off of Newfoundland and issued the Atlantic Charter. • It was a declaration that upheld free trade among nations and the right of people to choose their own government. • On Sept. 4th a German U-Boat fired on a U.S. destroyer and so Roosevelt ordered the U.S. to fight back. • But the attack that drew the U.S. into the war did not come from Germany, it came from Japan.

9. Test Questions • What was the new German military strategy and how did it work? • What did the nonaggression pact secretly state? • What is the name of the French General that fled to London and set up a government-in-exile devoted to taking back France? • A. Winston Churchill • B. Charles de Gaulle • C. Adolf Hitler. • D. Benito Mussolini • What was the result of the invasion of the Soviet Union? • Name two ways in which the United States supported the Allies.