The Battle for France and Britain The Start of WWII The Battle for France and Britain

A Quick Refresher Neville Chamberlain says “Tisk tisk Hitler you have taken too much land, promise me you will not invade Poland and I’ll cut you some slack for breaking the treaty of Versailles” Hooray for appeasement!

Hitler “nah I’ll invade anyway” Then proceeded to invade from four directions and took Poland in a matter of days.

Joseph Stalin The soviets had also invaded Poland but did not stop there they moved into the Baltic Republics and then Finland. Why? To regain territory lost from WWI To stop any future invasions from Hitler Invasions in Baltic Republics were not as easy as expected.

So now what? Hitler’s now forced Britain to declare war by going against the appeasement Britain still in a state of recovery is not ready for war declares war on September 1st 1939 as soon as Germans unleash Blitzkrieg on Poland In 1940 both Britain and France were now formally at war with Germany but actually battles had been fought.

Naval Blockade The British were activly using their Navy in patrolling the water for German shipping boats Their biggest success was the destruction of the Battleship Graf Spee in Montevideo The lack of fighting was a blessing in disguise

Blitzkrieg LIGHTING WARFARE THREE PRONGED ATTACK!! What you need for Blitzkrieg is: Air, Tank, Man power Bomb communication stations and parachutists dropped behind enemy lines Armored spearhead:, tanks and infantry punch a hole in the weakest part of enemy front lines

The Invasion of France The Allies expected Germany to go through Belgium the same way they did in WWI, Schlieffen Plan They created a line along the Meuse and Dyle rivers

Paratroopers dropped into Berlin Berlin had no chance against the highly advanced German army Germans owned the skies of Holland. Which no competition the Luftwaffe was able to continuously bomb Holland making it easy to ground troops to take over.

The Ardennes Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) May 10th 1940 The Germans did the impossible and push their tanks and military flanks through the Ardennes soldiers and slipped by British and French stations

Guderian’s 116th Panzer Corps They raced for the channel coast. In eight days they covered 151 miles and had 1/3 of the French army and the BFE’s 10 division surrounded. Britain made one attempt to attack the long German corridor The long line made it hard for communications and Germans needed to slow down to allow foot soldiers to catch up

Operation Dymano -The plan to withdraw the BEF by sea from Dunkirk -A fleet of destroyers, tugs and passenger ferries crossed the English Channel -Because the port was under such heavy siege they had to ask merchants to lend any shallow hauled boats to pick up men because the destroyers could not get close enough

The Fall of France June 14 1940 German forces had overwhelmed the Maginot line and arrived to a undefended Paris. June 18th German commanders met with French officials with the goal of the new French government to work with German Government

Occupied France -Germany occupied North and West -Italy controls a small area south east Unoccupied zone was governed by the newly formed Vichy government (led by Marshal Pétain)