Transcript Hitler`s Lightning War – Western Front

Hitler’s Lightning War
Why was the German army
able to take over countries so
quickly?
Western Front
• Sept 1939: Germany uses a “blitzkrieg” or lightning war strategy in Poland
• Blitzkreig is a surprise attack using fast moving airplanes, relentless
bombing, tanks & massive troop deployment
• Sept 1939-March 1940: Soviet troops invade E. Poland, and then Stalin
annexes three Baltic countries & invades Finland as a “buffer” zone
• Mar 1940: Allies mobilize their armies on French-German border
• France & Britain wait, Germany doesn’t attack – “phony war”
• Apr 1940: Hitler attacks Denmark & Norway (bases for later attack on GB)
• May 1940: Hitler blitzkreigs the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg
Fall of France
• From Belgium, German troops squeeze through heavily wooded Northern
France to get passed French Magnoit Line.
•May 1940: French troops are
trapped at coastline. British send
850 ships across the channel to
rescue the French at Dunkirk
Rescue at Dunkirk
Map Time!
Stripe 26, 27, 28 and 29 in red
Stripe 6,7,8,10,11 in purple
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After Dunkirk, Mussolini joins forces with Hitler to attack France
June 1940: French resistance crumbles, Germans enter Paris
In Southern France, Henri-Philippe Petain is named French Prime Minister
Petain sets up a “puppet government” loyal to Germany = Vichy France
•French general Charles de Gaulle sets up a French
De Gaulle
We
government-in-exile in London.
Will
Retur
n
•De Gaulle dedicates himself to retaking France
Battle of Britain
•August 1940: Hitler plans an invasion of Britain. First,
he must take out the British Airforce (RAF)
Great Britain stops Nazis
•German Luftwaffe (airforce) led but only Allied Nation left
by Hermann Goering begins
bombing Britain
•Oct 1940: New technology called radar & a
German code breaking machine named Enigma,
help the British counterattack the Luftwaffe
•May 1941: Stunned by the resistance Hitler calls off
attacks – proves Germany is not unstoppable!
We Shall
Never
Surrender!
Winston Churchill
Map Time !
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Stripe 5 in purple, put purple “x’s in 5b, purple x’s in German Allies
Color #1 in blue, color Allies on key in blue