German Aggression
1936- 1940
Do Now:
Map Activity: The Causes of World War
II in Europe, 1935-1939 p. 689
Read pp.688-93 in you textbook and answer
the following questions in your notebook.
PATH TO WAR
1. What was Hitler’s first step towards the unification of all German speaking
people? What was the result?
2. What was the Munich Crisis? How did the European leaders deal with this
problem?
3. What problems arose from Hitler’s demand for Danzig?
4. What did Germany and the Soviet Union each stand to gain by the Nazi-Soviet
Pact?
5. What regions did Hitler take or demand in the lead up to the war?
THE WAR BEGINS
1. What event led to the official declaration of war on Germany by England and
France?
2. What was new type of warfare used by Germany against Poland? Explain the
technique?
3. Why was the decision to leave French forces behind the Maginot Line
disastrous for Europe?
4. Why did France fall so quickly to German troops?
5. Why was the Battle at Dunkirk so important to the Allies?
6. How was Britain able to resist Hitler and the Nazis?
7. In what ways did Winston Churchill prove to be an effective leader for Britain
as the war began?
Aggression in Europe Map Instructions
1. Label the countries of Europe
2. Color Germany one color
3. Color each territory taken by Germany between 1933
and 1941 a separate color.
4. Make a key showing each country, its color, and the
year it fell to Germany.
Germany retakes the Rhineland
• In 1936 Germany sent troops into the
Rhineland, which had been demilitarized
under the provisions of the Treaty of
Versailles.
• The purpose of remilitarization was to show
the public in Germany that Hitler was 'putting
right' the wrongs of Versailles and also in
order to build military installations and
fortifications there.
Anschluss - Annexation of Austria
1938 - the Austrian Chancellor was bullied into
canceling a vote on union with Germany, which
he expected Austrians to oppose.
• He resigned his office and ordered the Austrian
army not to resist the Germans.
• The Germans invaded on March 12 and the
enthusiasm shown by Austrians persuaded
Hitler to annex Austria outright the next day.
• France and Britain protested Hitler's methods,
they and other countries accepted the fait
accompli.
Munich Agreement Appeasement
• In September 1938, Neville Chamberlain, British
Prime Minister, met with Hitler
• Hitler threatened to invade Czechoslovakia
unless Britain supported Germany's plans to
takeover the Sudetenland.
• Desperate to avoid war Chamberlain and
Edouard Daladier (France) agreed that Germany
could have the Sudetenland.
• In return, Hitler promised not to make any
further territorial demands in Europe.
Munich Agreement Appeasement
• On 29th September, 1938, Adolf Hitler,
Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier
and Benito Mussolini signed the Munich
Agreement which transferred the
Sudetenland to Germany.
• In March, 1939, the German Army seized
the rest of Czechoslovakia.
GERMAN-SOVIET PACT
The German-Soviet Pact (Ribbentrop-Molotov
Pact) had two parts.
• An economic agreement, signed on August
19, 1939, provided that Germany would
exchange manufactured goods for Soviet raw
materials.
• Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union also
signed a ten-year nonaggression pact on
August 23, 1939, in which each signatory
promised not to attack the other.
Germany Invades Poland
• Britain and France guaranteed the
integrity of the Polish state.
• The German-Soviet Pact stated that
Poland was to be partitioned between the
two powers, enabled Germany to attack
Poland without the fear of Soviet
intervention.
• On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded
Poland. The Polish army was defeated
within weeks of the invasion.
War In Europe
• 3 September 1939 - Britain and
France were forced to declare war
after Germany ignored their
separate ultimatums demanding
the withdrawal of German troops
from Poland.
Do Now:
• Primary Source Analysis: The Battle of
Britain, 1940 p. 692
Denmark and Norway
• April 9 – Germany invades Denmark
King Christian X, convinced his army
could not fight off a German invasion,
surrendered almost immediately.
• German warships enter major
Norwegian ports, from Narvik to Oslo,
deploying thousands of German troops
and occupying Norway.
• Hitler now added a second and third
conquered nation to his quarry, which
began with Poland.
The Low Countries
(The Netherlands, Belgium and
Luxembourg)
• Possession of the Low Countries would
give Nazi Germany not only vast
industrial resources and advance bases
for coming assaults on France and
Britain.
• With Belgium in his hands Hitler could
outflank the vaunted defensive Maginot
Line
– He could then move into France across the
unfortified Belgian border.
The Battle of France
10 May 1940
The battle consisted of two main operations.
• Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) German armored
units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut
off and surround the Allied units that had
advanced into Belgium.
• Fall Rot (Case Red) executed from 5 June,
German forces outflanked the Maginot
Line to attack the larger territory of France.
Dunkirk
• Operation Dynamo was the
name given to the
evacuation from Dunkirk
conducted from 27 May to
4 June, 1940.
• In nine days, 338,226
French and British soldiers
were taken off the beach
by a ragtag fleet of over
nine hundred vessels.
France Falls
An armistice was signed
25 June 1940 at Compiègne
• Under its terms the north and west of
France were occupied by the German
Army
• the remaining one third of the country was
ruled by a French government located at
Vichy and headed by aging Marshal Henri
Philippe Pétain.
The
German
occupation
of France
occurred
during the
period
between
May 1940
and
December
1944.
The Battle of Britain
• the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) during the
summer and autumn of 1940 tried to gain air
superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF)
• the first major campaign to be fought entirely
by air forces.
• It was the largest and most sustained
bombing campaign attempted up until that
date.
• The failure of Nazi Germany to destroy
Britain's air defense or to break British morale
- is considered both its first major defeat and
a crucial turning point in the war.