Hitler’s Lightning War Part 1 of 2

Hitler’s Lightning War

Chapter 16.1
Europe
 Germany’s lightning attack
• September 1, 1939,
after signing
nonaggression pact,
Hitler Invades Poland.
• France and Britain
declare war on
Germany September 3.
• Poland fell before any
help could arrive.
 Blitzkrieg (lightning war)
• Poland fell to Germany’s strategy, the
blitzkrieg:
1. Fast moving tanks and planes
2. Invasion of massive infantry force
3. Idea was to surprise and overwhelm the
enemy
 Soviet Invasion
• September 17, Stalin
invades eastern Poland
• Annexes countries
north of Poland.
• Finland resists
• Stalin sends 1 million
troops to crush them
 Phony War
• After declaring war Britain
and France station troops
along Maginot Line.
• Fortified positions along
French/German border
• Waited for Germans to
attack
• Nothing happens. Armies
stare at each other
• April 9. 1940, Hitler surprise
attack on Denmark and
Norway
Maginot Line
 Fall of France
• Hitler sends large tank
force through the
Ardennes in France
• Sneak past Maginot
Line
• Cross France to north
coast in ten days
 Rescue at Dunkirk
• Germany traps Allies in
Lille in North France
• Allies outgunned with
backs to the sea
• Great Britain uses 850
ships to rescue the
Allied army
• May 26-June 4
• Save 338,000 soldiers
 France Falls
• After Dunkirk French
resistance fails
• June 14 Germany takes
Paris
• June 22 took control of
northern France
• Left puppet government
in southern France
• French government in
Exile in London under
Charles de Gaulle
 The Battle of Britain
• Britain alone against
Germany
• Churchill Speech
• Summer 1940 Hitler
bombs British aircraft
factories and airfields
• September begin
bombing cities
 Battle of Britain
• RAF outnumbered
• Radar and German code
making machine help
RAF start to win
• To avoid raids by RAF
Germany gave up
bombing during the day
• October 1940 only night
bombing
• Called Battle of Britain
 Allies Lesson
• Bombing ended May 10, • Taught Allies they could
1941 block Hitler’s attacks
• Hitler stunned by British
resistance
SECTION 16.1:
WORLD WAR TWO:
Africa, Eastern Europe
and the Soviet Union
 Germany invades Poland
USSR invades Poland

USSR invades Baltics

USSR invades Finland

Germany invades
Denmark and Norway
Germany invades
Benelux nations

Germany invades France

Battle of Britain
and the Blitz

Germany United Kingdom

USSR Italy
 Italy invades Egypt

British forces kick the

Italians’ fascist backsides

Germany United Kingdom

USSR Italy
The British couldn’t lose the canal, or access to the
oil fields in the Middle East (most of which they
controlled). Of course, Hitler wanted it too.

Hitler sent Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, to take

on the British in North Africa.
The Germans, of course, found the Lost Ark of the
Covenant and if it weren’t for Indiana Jones, all
would be lost….

… no, not really.

 Rommel chases the
British out of Egypt

They would go back and

forth for some time

Eventually, the
Americans under
General Patton show up
and get rid of the
Germans for all

Germany United Kingdom

USSR Italy
Of course, Hitler didn’t care that much about Africa –
he told the whole world in Mein Kampf that his goal
was to invade the Soviet Union.

He wanted lebensraum.

But first he had to build some bases to supply the

massive armies he would need.
 Germany “persuades”
Hungary, Bulgaria and
Romania to join his
cause.

They didn’t like the

Soviets much either.

Germany and Italy

invade Yugoslavia,
Albania and Greece –
countries that weren’t
willing to go along with
Hitler’s plan.

Germany United Kingdom

USSR Italy
On June 22, 1941 Operation Barbarossa was launched.

Stalin’s top advisers had warned him of an attack.

The Red Army was unprepared, poorly equipped,

poorly trained, and poorly led. It was a complete
disaster for the USSR.

Uncle Joe was TIME’s

Man of the Year in 1940
 Army Group Center Army Group
tried to reach South tried to
Moscow and force push into the
Stalin to surrender. Caucasus region
– rich with oil.
Prisoners and troops
from Siberia were Hitler decided he
shipped in to stop needed to take
the Nazis some 20 the city of
miles from Moscow, Stalingrad on the Army Group North
saving the city. way. surrounded
Most of the Soviet Leningrad for nearly
Air Force was 700 days.
destroyed on the
first day while still on Hitler tried to starve
the ground. the city to death, but
they hung on.
Stalingrad didn’t
work out so well for
the Germans…

(more on that later)

So… what’s going with
the USA anyway??
isolationism
Neutrality Acts
(1935-7)
Lend-Lease Act
(March, 1941) Atlantic
Charter
Undeclared naval
war with Germany