Transcript World War II - Reading Community Schools

World War II
From Appeasement to Victory
Why did Britain and France end their policy of
appeasement?
•When Hitler broke his promise to not take more
territory when Germany annexed the
Sudetenland, Britain and France realized their
policy of appeasement was not working. They
realized he would continue to try to take more
territory if they continued to appease him.
Q.O.D. #11 2/2/10
Invasion of Poland
 Germany invaded
Poland on September
1, 1939.
 Britain and France
declared war on
Germany two days
later.
 World War II had
begun.
Invasion of Poland
 Germany attacked from the East, Soviet Union from the
West
 Each took part of Poland, as agreed in the Nazi-Soviet
Pact
 Poland no longer existed
 Although Britain and France had vowed to help Poland
once they realized their policy of appeasement wasn’t
working, Poland’s location made that difficult.
Blitzkrieg
 Blitzkrieg = “lightning war”
 Luftwaffe (German air force) bombed airfields, factories,
and towns and dive bombers would fire on troops and
civilians.
 Then, tanks and troops moved in.
France
 Maginot Line
 Fortifications built by the French in the 1930s along their
border with Germany to protect from future invasions.
 The French and British were at the Maginot Line
defending France from the Nazis
 The Germans bypassed the Maginot Line and invaded
France through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium
 British forces were caught between the German army and
the English Channel
Maginot Line
Dunkirk
 The British sent all
available boats – naval
vessels, merchant ships,
fishing and pleasure
boats – across the
English channel to
rescue their stranded
troops.
 They rescued over
300,000 British troops
and lifted British morale
France
 German forces marched toward Paris.
 Italy attacked from the South
 France surrendered
 June 22, 1940 – Hitler forced the French to sign
surrender documents on the same railroad car that the
Germans were forced to sign the armistice ending
World War I.
 Germany occupied northern France, in the South they
set up a “puppet state” with Vichy as the capital
Britain
 The Nazis attempted to invade Britain in Operation Sea Lion
 Beginning in August 1940 Germany bombed the southern coast
of Britain
 The Germans then changed tactics and began bombing
London and other cities
 The Blitz
 September 1940-May 1941: Bombing attacks destroyed
London and killed thousands
 Parliament continued to meet, people went about their daily
lives, king and queen stayed in London in bomb shelters with
citizens instead of fleeing to the countryside
 Failed – German Luftwaffe was defeated by the Royal Air
Force in the Battle of Britain. Blitz made British more
determined, and the Battle of Britain made them more
confident.
The Blitz
Winston Churchill British
Prime Minister
“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength
in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
Africa and the Balkans
 September 1940 - Italian forces invaded Egypt
 British pushed the Italians back, but Hitler sent General
Erwin Rommel the “Desert Fox” to N. Africa
 Rommel’s Afrika Korps pushed the British back across
the desert
 October 1940 – Italy invaded Greece
 Greece and Yugoslavia were added to the Axis
 Bulgaria and Hungary also joined.
 By 1941 the Axis controlled most of Europe
Erwin Rommel The Desert Fox
Germany and the Soviet Union
 June 1941 – Hitler violated the Nazi-Soviet Pact and
invaded the USSR
 Operation Barbarossa
 Wanted to defeat Stalin and crush communism
 Soviets lost 2,500,000 soldiers
 Destroyed land, factories, farms as they retreated
 Nazis were nearly ready to take Moscow and Leningrad
(St. Petersburg)
 Stopped by “General Winter”
Map:
 On the map you worked on Thursday and Monday,
identify the further areas of Nazi and Italian expansion
in Europe and North Africa.
 Use two colors:
 First color: German territory
 Second color: Italian territory