The Battles
 Once Germany invaded Poland under the fabricated reason
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that Poland had attacked a German border post, Britain
along with Australia and New Zealand declared war on
Germany.
France, Canada, South Africa and Nepal would quickly
follow and also declare war on the Nazis.
Allied troops gathered on the border of France and
Germany but did not attack for seven months.
Leaders on both sides still hoped for peace.
This seven month period of was known as the “Phony War”.
 Germany’s new war tactic was called the Blitzkrieg
or “lightning attack”.
 It was a fast-moving way of fighting.
 Columns of tanks and armoured vehicles would
smash through key defensive points while divebombers supported the attacks.
 The idea was to hit the enemy hard and fast before
they could mount an effective defense.
 Germany used this “lighting warfare” when they
attacked Poland.
 On May 10, 1940, the Germans ended the “Phony War”.
 Hitler invaded Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and
France.
 The Blitzkrieg was employed to smash through French
and British defenses.
 Within weeks, the Germans had overrun the
Netherlands, Belgium and France.
 The British army had been force back to the sea at the
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French port of Dunkirk.
The ships on a rescue mission for the British were
bombarded and machine gunned by Hitler’s troops
300 000 British troops were safely ferried across the
English Channel Britain.
The evacuation saved the British army.
France, however, could not be saved.
 On June 17 1940, the French government surrendered
to the Germans.
 The German army moved in directly controlling 3/5 of
France.
 The rest of France was controlled by a collaborationist
government (Vichy France)
 The Germans now occupied most of France.
 Hitler expected Britain to sign a peace treaty after
France surrendered.
 The new British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill
would not submit to the Nazis.
 He said Britain would fight on.
 The German plan to invade Britain was called
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Operation Lion.
Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to attack Britain.
This air battle known as the Battle of Britain.
Hitler wanted to make invading Britain easier by
first destroying Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF).
On August 13, 1940, the Luftwaffe began attacking
RAF airfields in southern England.
1000 German bombers were attacking Britain each
day by the end of August.
The RAF could not replace the pilots and planes
being lost fast enough
 The tide turned in favor of the British when the
RAF bombed Berlin.
 Furious Hitler began bombing London instead of
the RAF airfields.
 The German attacks on London and other British
cities would be known as the “Blitz”.
 The Blitz would drag on from September 7, 1940
until May 10, 1941.
 43 000 died in London and a million homes were
destroyed.
 Although the damage to British cities was devastating, the
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Blitz saved the RAF.
Now that airfields were not being attacked, the RAF had
time to repair and replace damaged aircraft and train new
pilots.
RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes were shooting down more
and more German aircraft everyday
By the end of September 1941, Hitler realized his plan had
failed. He had lost the Battle of Britain.
Operation Lion and the invasion of Britain had to be
abandoned.
 Once France had been captured, Hitler turned his
attention to the Balkans.
 Greece fell by April 27, 1941.
 Hitler now controlled the Balkans and could turn to
the USSR.
 On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the USSR.
 Hitler broke the Nazi-Soviet Pact once he had secured
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Poland and France.
Hitler attacked the USSR for two reasons
1)Hatred of communism
2)Living space or lebensraum
The code name for this attack was “Operation
Barbarossa”
The Soviets were caught by surprise.
Millions of soldiers and were killed or captured.
By the end of the year the German armies were only 30
km from the capital of Moscow.
 The Germans were stopped in their tracks by the
bitter Russian winter.
 Heavy rains turned the ground to mud preventing
the tanks and large artillery from being easily
transported.
 Snow and ice followed, freezing the German
soldiers who were not properly equipped for the
conditions. Their clothes could not keep them
warm and their guns froze.
 Russian armies bolstered by fresh troops began a
counter-attack and by the end of 1941 the German
advance had been stopped.
 In 1942, Germany launched another attack; the Russians
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were ready.
Hitler wanted to gain the area of the Caucasus. This area
was rich in oil in the south of the USSR.
The German Sixth Army would need to pass through the
city of Stalingrad to reach their target.
The Battle lasted 5 straight months. The Russians fought
for every house and every street.
In Nov 1942, two Russian armies closed around Stalingrad
in a pincer maneuver.
250 000 German soldiers were trapped in the city.
Thousands died as Hitler refused to allow them to escape.
On February 2, 1943 the last German soldiers surrendered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCUIfbAGp6c
 Following the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, the
United States joined the war ending its policy of
neutrality.
 US President Roosevelt and British PM Churchill
met at the Arcadia Conference.
 Both decided that Germany and the Nazis were the
immediate threat.
 In order to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union
who was under attack by the Germans, the Allies
agreed to attack Axis forces in North Africa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv1niwxQgoY&feature=related
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5166/
 Churchill and Roosevelt were not prepared for a major
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assault on Hitler’s “Fortress Europe”. They decided to focus
first on North Africa and Italy.
Germany led by Rommel had been fighting the British
under General Montgomery in the deserts of North Africa.
Rommel was forced to retreat at the battle of El Alamein in
November 1942 in Egypt.
American troops under General Eisenhower came to aid
the British and finished off the Germans.
In May 1943, the Germans surrendered and the desert war
was over.
 The British and American armies moved on to Italy in July
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1943.
The Italian people turned on their dictator Mussolini and
overthrew him.
In September 1943, the new Italian government made peace
with the Allies.
Hitler had lost his Italian ally.
Hitler tried to plug the Italian gap as quickly as possible.
By spring of 1944 Hitler was defending Germany from the
USSR in the east and the Allies in Italy to the south.
He knew another attack would soon becoming from the
west
 The invasion of Normandy in German occupied France
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would be known as Operation Overlord.
The invasion would begin in the early morning of June 6,
1944. This day was known as D-Day.
It had originally been scheduled for June 5 but had been
postponed due to bad weather.
Hundreds of landing-craft nosed onto the Normandy
Beaches (Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah Beaches and
Pointe du Hoc)
German soldiers fought hard to repel the Allied invasion
but they failed. By the end of July 1944 Allied soldiers had
crossed the beaches of Normandy and were pushing their
way across Europe.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFQIuF590B4
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMq7iiIoiSw&f
eature=related
 Fought over the winter 1944-45, it was the last major
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German offensive in Europe.
The battle was a last ditch attempt by Hitler to split the
Allies in two in their drive towards Germany and destroy
their ability to supply themselves.
The massive attack was primarily against the Americans.
However, the success of the Germans lasted just two days.
Despite punching a bulge into the Allies front line, the
Germans could not capitalise on this.
The Germans had based their attack on a massive
armoured onslaught. However, such an attack required fuel
to maintain it and the Germans simply did not possess
such quantities of fuel.
 The Germans had advanced 60 miles in two days
but from December 18th on, they were in a
position of stalemate
 By mid-January 1945, the effect of lack of fuel was
becoming evident as the Germans had to simply
abandon their vehicles
 The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle
fought by the Americans in World War II. 600,000
American troops were involved in the battle. The
Americans lost 81,000 men while the Germans lost
100,000 killed, wounded and captured.