Transcript Hitler`s Lightning War

HITLER’S LIGHTNING WAR
Chapter 16 section 1
GERMANY SPARKS A NEW WAR IN EUROPE
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 Germany’s lightning attack
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Blitzkrieg- lightning war
 Germans used artillery and bombing to attack Warsaw,
capital of Poland
 France and GB will declare war Germany
 Western half of Poland will fall to Hitler
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Soviets make their move
Stalin sent Soviet troops to occupy the Eastern half of
Poland
 Finland will resist
 Soviets pull out the win
 Finns will accept Hitler’s surrender terms
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THE PHONY WAR
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French and Brits had mobilized army against Germany
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Stationed on Maginot Line- system of fortifications along
France’s border with Germany
Nothing happened referred to as a “phony war”
Calm will end- Hitler launched surprise invasion of Denmark and
Norway
Denmark fell and Norway surrendered
Germany began to build bases along the coast to launch strikes on
Great Britain
THE FALL OF FRANCE
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Hitler send tanks through the Ardennes- heavily
wooded are in Northern France, Luxm., and Belgium
Germans squeezed between the Maginot Line
 Moved across France
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Rescue at Dunkirk
Germans had trapped the Allied forces around the Northern
French city of Lille
 Allies retreated to the beaches of Dunkirk, French Port
 G.B. set out to rescue the Army
 Ships crossed the English Channel and carry 338,000 soldiers to
safety
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FRANCE FALLS
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Resistance in France crumbles after Dunkirk
Germans take Paris
 French leaders surrender
 Germans take N. France and leave S. France to puppet gov’t
headed by Marshal Petain
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Headquarters for Petain was in Vichy France
Charles de Gaulle- French general, set up exile gov’t in
London
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Commits all energy to taking back France
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
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G.B. stood alone against the Nazis
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Technological advances help Britain
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Winston Churchill- new G.B. prime minister
Hitler will try to invade G.B.
Hitler 1st wanted to destroy RAF- royal air force then land
troops
Luftwaffe- German air force began bombing
British will not waver
Radar- could tell #, speed, and direction of Luftwaffe
Enigma machine- decoded German messages
Germans will give up on daylight raids
Stunned by British resistance Hitler called off attacks
Key to this battle: Hitler could be defeated
THE MEDITERRANEAN
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EASTERN FRONT
Hitler will have a shift in strategy
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AND THE
Turned attention to Med., Balkans, and the Soviet Union
Axis forces attack N. Africa
Axis powers- Germany, Italy, Japan
 Mussolini orders attack on Egypt
 Suez Canal was key to oil in Middle East
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Britain Strikes Back
Hitler sends in Afrika Korps- German tank force led by
Erwin Rommel- later called the Desert Fox for his success
 Rommel will seized Tobruk
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WAR IN THE BALKANS
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Hitler was planning to attack USSR from the Balkans
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Hitler persuaded Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary to join the Axis
Hitler invades the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa- plan to invade the USSR
 Soviet Gerneral Georgi Zhukov will counterattack Nazis
 Germans will retreat
 Hitler will gain nothing but 500,000 German deaths
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THE U.S. AIDS ALLIES
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Congress will pass Neutrality Acts
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Illegal to sell arms or lend $ to nations at war
Roosevelt creates Lend-Lease Act
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Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly and issued a joint declaration
called the Atlantic Charter-
Upheld free trade, right to choose own gov’t
 U.S. was in undeclared naval war with Hitler
 U.S. will enter war b/c of Japan
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