Essential Question: What territory did Hitler gain in 1940?

 The Germans finally attacked Denmark on April 9,  In four hours, Denmark fell.  Two months later, Norway surrendered as well.

 Hitler gained control of Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg and began marching toward France.  By May 26, the Germans had trapped the Allied forces in the French city of Lille.  The Allies escaped to the beaches of Dunkirk, but they were trapped.

 In one of the most heroic acts of the war, Great Britain set out to rescue the army.  It sent a fleet of 850 ships across the English Channel to Dunkirk.  Along with Royal Navy ships, civilian crafts (yachts, lifeboats, motorboats, paddle steamers, and fishing boats) joined the rescue effort.

 From May 26 – June 4, this armada, under heavy fire from German bombers, sailed back and forth from Britain to Dunkirk.  The boats carried 338,000 soldiers to safety.

 On June 10, Mussolini joined forces with Hitler and declared war on Great Britain and France.  Italy then attacked France from the south. (German troops already occupied the north)  France fell by June 14.  Nazi troops triumphantly marched down Paris’s main boulevard.  France officially surrendered on June 22.

 French general who fled to London.  He set up a ‘government in exile’ committed to re-conquering France.  De Gaulle organized the Free French military forces and battled the Nazis until France was liberated in 1944.