International relations in the twentieth century

The defeat of France, 1940

Britain and France now expected Hitler to attack on the west. Between
World War I and II, France had constructed the Maginot line, a series of
fortifications along the Franco German border, so that Germany could not
attack France. The French also believed that the wooded Ardennes
Mountains, which straddled France’s north-eastern borders with Luxembourg
and Belgium, would prevent German tanks and troops from coming through.
Their generals presumed that Hitler would follow the German plans of World
War I and attack through Belgium. They were badly mistaken.
On 10 may 1940, Hitler began his attack on France. He again used
blitzkrieg tactics, and German tank divisions advanced quickly through the
Ardennes. They cut off French and British troops who had invaded Belgium.
The defeated armies were pushed back to Dunkirk on the English Channel.
At this point Hitler ordered his troops to halt, and this gave the British
and French troops time to organise a mass evacuation of troops from
Dunkirk. In operation dynamo, Britain sent all available boats – naval
vessels, motor boats, tug boats, even paddle steamers – to rescue troops
from the beaches. Over 300,000 soldiers were evacuated in seven days, but
much equipment was lost. The German armies easily captured the rest of
France, including the great fortifications of the Maginot line, which were
captured from behind. On 22 June, France signed its surrender in the same
railway carriage in which Germany had signed its surrender at the end of
World War I.
France was now divided into two parts. Most of the country was ruled
directly by Germany, whereas the remainder, which became known as Vichy
France, was ruled by a French government under German control.

The Battle of Britain

During Hitler’s invasion of France, Neville Chamberlain was replaced as
Prime Minister by Winston Churchill. After the fall of France, Britain now got
ready for invasion. Churchill showed great determination to fight and
encouraged British people to resist. He said, “We shall defend our island
whatever the cost may be… We shall never surrender.” Hitler prepared his
invasion plan of Britain, which was code-named Operation Sea Lion. He
knew that he had to gain control of the skies over the British Channel first.
This lead to the Battle of Britain between the British Royal Air Force and the
German Luftwaffe.
German Messerschmitts, Stukas and Heinkels took off from France,
Belgium, Holland and Norway. Their plan was to attack airfields and radar
stations in Britain and to defeat the RAF. Hundreds of German aircraft
attacked Britain daily in August and September 1940. On one day alone –
the Day of the Eagle (13 August) – almost 15,000 planes attacked Britain.
During the Battle of Britain, the RAF lost many aircraft and pilots, and the
pilots who survived were exhausted. But the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the
British matched the German planes. The British also had radar. This gave
the RAF the advantage of knowing when and where the Luftwaffe were
going to attack. Then the Germans switched their attacks to cities, which
gave the RAF a chance to recover. In the middle of September, Hitler
postponed the invasion of Britain until further notice. This was Hitler’s first
defeat.

The Holocaust
Hitler had a great hatred of the Jews (anti-Semitism). He now used the
power of the government to persecute them. Jews were banned from the
civil service, from universities and from journalism. The Nuremberg Laws
were passed in 1935. Under these laws Jews were deprived of German
citizenship, marriage between Jews and non-Jews was banned and Jews
had to wear the Star of David. In 1938, when a German diplomat in Paris
was killed by a Polish Jew, the incident was used an excuse for a night of
violence against the Jewish people. On 9 November 1938, in the Night of
Broken Glass, Jewish shops and synagogues were attacked, about ninety
Jews were killed, and others were arrested and sent to concentration
camps. Hitler insisted that a fine be imposed on the Jewish community to
pay for the damage.
By 1939, half of Germany’s 600,000 Jews had emigrated to other
countries. Jews were rounded up and contained in ghettos such as Warsaw,
or in concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Dachau and Treblinka. The
Nazis put into action their “Final Solution”, which was the extermination of
the Jews. By the end of the war, 6 million European Jews had been killed in
the Holocaust.

Operation Overlord
The Allies selected France’s Normandy coast for their invasion because of
its beaches, shallow water and closeness to Britain. They surprised the
Germans, who expected and attack over the shorter sea route from Britain
to Calais. On 6 June 1944, warships and landing craft crossed the English
Channel and landed at five beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno
and Sword. Allied troops set up artificial harbours called mulberry piers to
bring in tanks and trucks, and they built a pipeline under the ocean called
Pluto to supply oil. They were protected by British and American aeroplanes,
which controlled the air. The allies later advanced across northern France to
Paris. The British and Americans suffered a setback in the Battle of the
Bulge, when the German army tried to break through allied lines in the
Ardennes mountain range in Luxembourg and southern Belgium. But the
German advance was quickly halted.