The Sitzkrieg, The
Winter War, and the
War At Sea
The Sitzkrieg
• After fury of the blitzkrieg came the
sitzkrieg on the Western Front
– Sit down war
– Also called the phony war
– Was a six month lull between the fall of
Poland and the German attack on Norway
and Denmark
The Sitzkrieg
• British and French were behind the
Maginot line
• Germans gathered behind the
Siegfried Line
• Almost no combat
• Ended when Germany attacks Norway
and Denmark in April, 1940
Russia Invades Finland
• Russia was still very active during the
“phony war”
• Force Estonia to give them bases on
Estonian soil
• Latvia and Lithuania bullied into the
same thing
Russia Invades Finland
• Finland refused to give in to Russia
• Nov. 30, 1939- Soviet army struck at
Finland
– Soldiers carried propaganda leaflets
– Expected to be welcomed as liberators
– Thought it would be quick and only had light
clothing
– Not equipped or trained for harsh Finnish
winter
The Winter War
A Finnish soldier
Frozen Russian soldier
Russia Invades Finland
• Finns fall back and draw the Germans into
the forest and then they strike
• Would hit and hold the Russian front while
other Finns moved to the Russian flank
– Cut off routes of retreat
– Separated Russian units from each other
– Russians fell by the thousands
Russia Invades Finland
• World was amazed at Finnish resistance
• France and Britain begin to consider aiding
Finland
• Stalin realizes Hitler is watching
– Is Russia weak enough for Germany to take?
• Russia must take action against the Finnish
Mannerheim Line
Russia Invades Finland
• Stalin brings all five of his forces together
• In two weeks, they break through the
Mannerheim Line and after 42 days,
Finland is lost
• Russia gets everything they demand
– Their second largest city
– Their biggest Artic Ocean port
– Karelian Isthmus
The Struggle At Sea
• Never was a sitzkrieg at sea
• Began Sept. 3, 1939, 250 miles off the
coast of Ireland
• Germans sink British passenger liner
Athenia
• Was a violation of international
agreement
The Struggle At Sea
• By the end of September, British losses were
staggering.
• Resorted to the convoy system
– Ships gather in groups and were escorted by
destroyers who circled around the convoy, hunting
for submarines
• Was offense and defensive system
– The freighters and tankers acted as bait
The Struggle At Sea
• Churchill improved the convoy system
by adding aircraft protection at
either end of the voyage.
The Struggle At Sea
• British ships began to blow up and
sink as they entered or left port
• Germans were dropping a new type of
mine, a magnetic mine, at harbor
mouths
– Was drawn to a ships hull as the vessel
passed over it
The Struggle At Sea
• Late November, a German airplane was
seen dropping a magnetic mine
– It was captured by two skillful and brave naval
officers and brought to Portsmouth Naval Base
to be analyzed
• They could then combat it by encircling
British ships with an electric cable
– Called degaussing
The Struggle At Sea
• Germany had three pocket battleships
– Deutschland and Graf Spee left Germany
between Aug. 21 and Aug. 24 and were loose in
the ocean
• By Dec. 13th the Graf Spee had sunk 3
British merchant ships in five days
– Was tracked down by 3 British cruisers,
Achilles, Ajax, and Exeter
The Struggle At Sea
• Battle enrages
• The Spee leaves under smoke cover and
enters Montevideo, Uruguay with Ajax and
Achilles outside
– Uruguay is neutral
• Captain Langsdorff telephones the German
Admiral that escape is hopeless
• Spee leaves harbor with British ships
waiting hungrily
The Struggle At Sea
• Graf Spee is scuttled, sunk itself
– Fear if ship is captured secret equipment will
fall into enemy hands
• Langsdorff was so brokenhearted by the
loss of the ship that he wrapped himself in
an old Imperial flag, an insult to Hitler,
and shot himself.
• This ends the first phase of the Battle of
the Atlantic
The War At Sea