Early German Aggression A Mr. Sabo Production

The German Offensive On March 15, 1939, Hitler marches his troops into Czechoslovakia, which ceases to exist. Germany is getting awfully close to the Soviet Union, which makes the dictator, Joseph Stalin, very nervous Stalin signs an non- aggression pact with Hitler, shocking the world and selling out his allies Clip

Hitler’s Genius Stalin would still be very nervous about Hitler being so close to him To calm his nerves, in exchange for his non- action, Hitler and Stalin signed a secret pact dividing Poland between the two of them When Britain and France intervened on Poland’s behalf, this would keep Russia out of the war, and it would be a 1 front affair

Germany invades Poland Use a new strategy called the “blitzkrieg” or lighting war, because it happens very fast Germans pick a weak spot on the line and pound it with their Luftwaffe, or air force After this, infantry divisions, supported by fast tanks, called Panzer divisions, would storm in at the weak point, and attack the enemy lines from within Poland tried to stop them with cavalry Clip

Germany Conquers Poland Started on September 1, 1939, and by the end of the month, Poland had also ceased to exist The Blitzkrieg worked perfectly At the very end, the Soviet Union also attacked, staking their claim This is the official start of WWII

The View from France After WWI, France had constructed a very high- tech line of defense facing Germany incase they ever were to invade again This was known as the Maginot Line Again, they did not protect their northern boarder with Belgium Hitler goes through Belgium around the Maginot line, using the Schlieffen Plan, and does it properly this time, learning from the past

The Invasion of France By the end of May, Hitler had completed his invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg He quickly swept into France, again, through Belgium Sent his tanks through an unprotected area of the line that the British and French troops believed were impassable

The Fall of France The Germans quickly ran through Paris, sweeping the French and British troops from the field They had the British and French armies trapped on the French side of the English Channel at a port called Dunkirk Here is where Hitler will have his biggest military blunder

Hitler’s Blunder He had trapped the troops using his ground troops and tanks He wanted his infantry to have the honor and glory for destroying the combined armies of France and Britain He told his Panzer divisions and aircraft to wait while the infantry caught up to the offensive During this time, using 800 boats, including many civillian vessels, ferried 330,000 French, British, and Belgian troops over to England

The Battle of Dunkirk This is the greatest successful military evacuation in history In England, a General named Charles du Gualle set up a government in exile Meanwhile, Italy joined the war on the side of Germany and invaded France from the south With no one to defend France, it was easily taken and the Germans set up a puppet government with a capitol in Vichy, France They put former French WWI hero Marshall Petain in charge of this government Clip

The Battle of Britain During the summer of 1940, Germany attempted to invade Britain Britain had a way better navy, so Germany opted to go to the air, bombing all of Britain Of Hitler’s 2,600 planes, 1,000 would be in the air at one time on a bombing run or escorting a bomber For 2 solid months, bombs rained down on London

The RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) needed to do something about the bombing Many of their planes were destroyed They created new, cheap, quick planes called spitfire planes These planes could run circles around the heavy German bombers They also developed radar, which was a new technology, so they could spot the raids coming

The Lend-Lease Act

The Election of 1940 Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented 3 rd term His opponent, Wendell Willkie, accused him of being a war hawk and failing to get the nation out of the Great Depression Roosevelt was aware of the isolationist sentiment and said there would be no war if he were reelected