History 102: World War Two, 1939-1945

PRINCIPAL BELLIGERENTS:

• Axis powers:
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
• Allies:
• Great Britain
• United States
• Soviet Union
• France
• China

Appeasement and Aggression

• March 1938: Anschluss (“joining”)
• Austrians warmly greeted Hitler
• 1938-39: Appeasement: Neville Chamberlain
• Sept. 1938: Munich Agreement

Outbreak of war

• March 1939: Germany occupied Czechoslovakia
• August 23, 1939: German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
• Sept. 1, 1939: Germany invades Poland
• Sept. 3, 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany
• Sept. 17, 1939: Soviet Union attacked Poland
• Soviet Union imposed control over Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia
• Nov. 1939-March 1940: Soviet-Finnish War or the Winter War
• German armies attacked Holland and Belgium
• May 10, 1940: British Prime Minister N. Chamberlain resigned
• Winston Churchill formed a coalition government

Blitzkrieg: "Lightening War"

• Panzer Divisions
• Armored vehicles
• motorcycles
• Planes
• Concentrated attack

• Germans quickly took France (occupied Paris on June 14, 1940)
• June 22, 1940, at Rethondes (the scene of the signing of the Armistice of 1918) Franco-German Armistice was signed
• Vichy France created: General Henri-Philippe Petain became head of state

Battle of Britain (June-September 1940)

• Britain won: Why?
• Winston Churchill
• Spitfires
• RADAR
• Goering’s unclear strategy
• RAF or civilian targets
• Hitler lost interest

German-Soviet War, 1941-45

• Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
• Lebensraum (Living space)
• Slavs - “subhumans”
• Poor Soviet Army performance in “Winter war” with Finland
• Possibility of Soviet attack
• Hitler: “We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down!”
• June 22, 1941: Germany broke Non-Aggression Pact and attacked USSR: Operation Barbarossa