1. Chapter 16 World War Looms
Section 2
War in Europe

2. I. Austria and Czechoslovakia Fall

3. Union with Austria
Post WW I division of Austria-Hungary creates fairly small Austria
Majority of Austrians are German, favour unification with Germany

4. 1938, German troops march into Austria unopposed, union complete
U.S., rest of world do nothing to stop Germany

5. Bargaining for the Sudetenland
3 million German-speakers in Sudetenland
Hitler claims Czechs abuse Sudeten Germans, masses troops on border

6. 1938, French Prime Minister Daladier and British P. M
1938, French Prime Minister Daladier and British P.M. Neville Chamberlain meet with Hitler in Munich, Germany.
Sign Munich Pact, hand Sudetenland over to Germany.

8. Winston Churchill condemns appeasement policy, warns war will follow.
Appeasement—giving up principles to pacify an aggressor. France and Britain submitted to Hitler’s demands.

9. Churchill’s comments about the Munich Pact – “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war.”

10. II. The German Offensive Begins

12. The Soviet Union Declares Neutrality
March 1939, German troops occupy rest of Czechoslovakia
Hitler charges Poles mistreat Germans in Poland

13. Many think he’s bluffing; invading Poland would bring two-front war

14. Stalin, Hitler sign nonaggression pact—will not attack each other

15. Sign second, secret pact agreeing to divide Poland between them.

16. Blitzkrieg in Poland
Sept. 1939, Hitler overruns Poland in blitzkrieg, lightning war.
Surprise and overwhelming force (tanks and planes).
Military expansionism

17. Germany invades Poland and the Soviet Union matches Germany and invades Poland from the East.
Germany annexes western Poland; U.S.S.R. attacks, annexes east

18. France, Britain declare war on Germany after Germany had attacked Poland; World War II begins

19. The Phony War
French, British soldiers on Maginot Line face Germans in sitzkrieg

23. Stalin annexes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania; defeats Finland
1940, Hitler invades Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

24. III. France and Britain Fight On

26. The Fall of France
German army goes through Ardennes, bypassing French, British

28. British, French trapped on Dunkirk; ferried to safety in UK

29. 1940, Italy invades France from south; Germans approach Paris

30. France falls; Germans occupy northern France
Nazi puppet government set up in southern France

31. General Charles de Gaulle sets up government-in-exile in England

32. The Battle of Britain
Summer 1940, Germany prepares fleet to invade Britain

34. Battle of Britain—German planes bomb British targets for two months.
Britain uses radar to track, shoot down German planes

35. The Battle of Britain caused Hitler to call off invasion of Britain indefinitely.
Germans, British continue to bomb each other’s cities