Transcript What are we looking at today?

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT TODAY?
•
“THE GERMAN WAY OF WAR”
•
FROM POLAND TO FRANCE
•
SAVED: THE MIRACLE AT DUNKIRK
•
THE VICHY GOVERNMENT
WORLD WAR ONE
• What was the Schlieffen Plan?
• Why didn’t it work
• Describe the speed of the war, or the nature of the war.
THE GERMAN WAY OF WAR:
MENTALITY
• Germany is encircled by enemies
• These enemies are resource rich
• In order to win the war, Germany
must defeat the enemy and
quickly
• German action leading into WWII
is rational and calculated
• Hitler sees France as the easiest
enemy to eliminate
THE GERMAN WAY OF WAR:
POLITICAL MANOEUVRING
• The Pact of Steel (May 1939)
• Continued trust between Germany and Italy
• Secret clause: joint military and economic cooperation
• The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 1939)
• Non-Aggressive Pact
• Secret clause to divide Poland territorially and divide
Europe into spheres
• Left Germany to concentrate on
France and left Russia to
reconquering the Eastern Europe
THE GERMAN WAY OF WAR:
BLITZKRIEG
• Literally means Lightening War: (Blitz- Lightening; Krieg- War)
• Heinz Guderian envisioned blitzkrieg as…
German invasion of Poland
OUTSIDE
LEARNING THE BLITZ
Enemy Front Line
• Air force attacks enemies
front and rear positions
Enemy Rear Position
• Infantry attacks the entire
front line engaging them
Enemy Front Line
Enemy Rear Position
T
R
O
O
P
T
R
O
O
P
• Tanks and mobile units
break through and attack
from the back
T
A
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K
S
Rear Position
T
R
O
O
P
T
R
O
O
P
Enemy
T
A
N
K
S
• Air force provides cover
once the tanks breach
enemy lines
BLITZ
VIDEO
FROM POLAND TO
FRANCE:
POLAND
• September 1, 1939
• Germany begins the invasion of Poland
• September 3, 1939
• France and Great Britain declare war on Germany
• October 6, 1939
• Polish forces surrender after the
Battle of Kock
• Germany and USSR divide Poland
POLAND TO FRANCE:
PHONY WAR
October 1939 to April 1940 a lull in fighting occurs- What
were the allies doing to prepare?
FRANCE
• WWI mentality:
• Maginot Line
• Located army on FrancoGerman border
• Dug trenches along the
Belgium border
BRITAIN
• Sends troops to the continent:
• 158,00 men sent to France
• Helped reinforce Belgium
border by digging trenches
Hitler decides to end the Phoney War and begins his conquest of Europe…
CHURCHILL BECOMES
PM IN MAY 1940
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•
•
Churchill preWWII
Enters war
cabinet, and
then requested
PM by King
George VI
Pretty much
saved
Britain…and
possibly the
world.
POLAND TO FRANCE:
GERMANY CONQUERS EUROPE
• April 9, 1940
• Germany invades Norway and Denmark
• Secures northern flank
• May 10, 1940
• Germany invades the
Netherlands and Belgium
• Germany uses these territories to
launch its attack on France
Europe before the French Invasion
THE MAGINOT LINE
POLAND TO FRANCE:
FRANCE- GERMAN PERSPECTIVE
"The tanks now rolled in a long column through the line of fortifications
and on towards the first houses, which had been set alight by our fire. In
the moonlight we could see the men of 7th Motorcycle Battalion moving
forward on foot beside us. Occasionally an enemy machine-gun or antitank gun fired, but none of their shots came anywhere near us. Our
artillery was dropping heavy harassing fire on villages and the road far
ahead of the regiment. Gradually the speed increased. Before long we
were 500 -1,000 - 2,000 - 3,000 yards into the fortified zone. Engines
roared, tank tracks clanked and clattered. Whether or not the enemy
was firing was impossible to tell in the ear-splitting noise. We crossed
the railway line a mile or so southwest of Solre le Chateau, and then
swung north to the main road which was soon reached. Then off along
the road and past the first houses. The people in the houses were
rudely awoken by the din of our tanks, the clatter and roar of tracks and
engines. Troops lay bivouacked beside the road, military vehicles stood
parked in farmyards and in some places on the road itself.
POLAND TO FRANCE:
FRANCE- ROMMEL’S ACCOUNT CONTINUED
Civilians and French troops, their faces distorted with terror, lay huddled
in the ditches, alongside hedges and in every hollow beside the road.
We passed refugee columns, the carts abandoned by their owners, who
had fled in panic into the fields. On we went, at a steady speed, towards
our objective. Every so often a quick glance at the map by a shaded light
and a short wireless message to Divisional H.Q. to report the position
and thus the success of 25th Panzer Regiment. Every so often a look
out of the hatch to assure myself that there was still no resistance and
that contact was being maintained to the rear. The flat countryside lay
spread out around us under the cold light of the moon. We were through
the Maginot Line! It was hardly conceivable. Twenty-two years before we
had stood for four and a half long years before this self-same enemy and
had won victory after victory and yet finally lost the war. And now we had
broken through the renowned Maginot Line and were driving deep into
enemy territory. It was not just a beautiful dream. It was reality."
Taken from Eye Witness to History: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html
SAVED:
THE MIRACLE AT DUNKIRK
• The French Army and British Expeditionary Force cannot
mount an effective defense German blitzkrieg
• Allies engage in a fighting withdrawal towards the coast
• Allies are surrounded by advancing German army on May
21, 1940 at Dunkirk
• Britain rushes to evacuate as
many troops as possible
• The German command calls a
48 hour halt
• Britain throws up defenses
around the city to secure
evacuation site
• Over 300,000 men saved
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN00p9qzf4k&feature=related
VICHY FRANCE:
GERMAN VICTORY
• June 14, 1940
• The German enter Paris
• Remaining defenses fall quickly
• June 22, 1940
• France sues for an armistice and Germany agrees
• Hitler insisted that the armistice be
signed in the very railway car in
which Germany had been compelled
to admit defeat at the end of World
War I
• Germany divides France into Nazi occupied
France and Vichy France
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pICq35lQ5WY&feature=related
FORTRESS EUROPE
…BRITAIN STANDS ALONE