1. World War II Begins

2. United States
Roosevelt speaks out against growing “epidemic of world lawlessness”

3. American people favored isolationism
Roosevelt promised to keep out of the war but saw danger posed by Japan, Germany, and Italy

5. What caused Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany?
On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland (a violation of the Munich Agreement). Great Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. World War II had begun.

6. Blitzkrieg (lightning war) – new method of warfare introduced by the Germans. Stressed speed and surprise in the use of tanks, troops, and planes.

7. Britain and France could do nothing to help Poland
September, 1939 – Hitler and Stalin were dividing Poland per their prewar agreement

8. Stalin forces Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia to allow Soviet army bases in their countries

9. Finland fights back but surrenders in 1940

10. Spread of War
Allied forces prepare for attack against France on Maginot Line – string of steel-and-concrete bunkers along French-German border

11. April, 1940 – Germany attacks Denmark and Norway to the north
May, 1940 – turn west to invade Netherlands and Belgium

12. Dunkirk
Allied troops retreat to Dunkirk following surrender of Belgium
Trapped between the Germans and the French coast of the English Channel

13. 800 British warships, ferries, and fishing boats back and forth across channel and rescued more than 300,000 British and French soldiers

14. France June – Germans crossed Somme River and swept into France
Italy joined the war and attacked France from the southeast

15. June 14, 1940 – German troops marched into Paris
France surrendered
one week later

16. Britain Battles for Survival
Britain only country in western Europe not controlled by Germany

17. Britain Battles for Survival
August, 1940 – German warplanes begin bombing British air bases, shipyards, factories, and cities destroying parts of London and killing many people

18. Battle of Britain – German air forces (Luftwaffe) and Britain's Royal Air Force battle until October

20. Prime Minister, Winston Churchill refuses to surrender leaving Hitler frustrated
Germany suffers heavy losses; Hitler abandons
plans to
invade

21. Germany Turns on Stalin
Hitler decides he needs resources and land of the Soviet Union
June, 1941 breaks Nonaggression Pact with Stalin

22. Destroys planes and tanks and captured over half a million soldiers in the early phase of the invasion

23. Stalin orders scorched-earth policy

24. Soviets burned their cities, destroyed crops, and blew up dams that provided electrical power
Germans had difficulty supplying their troops and advancing