Transcript Chapter 16 Section 2 War In Europe

Chapter 16 Section 2
War In Europe
Main Idea:
Using the sudden mass attack
called blitzkrieg, Germany
invaded and quickly conquered
many European countries.
Austria and Czechoslovakia Fall
Nov 5, 1937 Hitler met w/ military
advisors
 Declared that to grow and prosper
Germany needed the land of the
neighbors
 Hitler’s 1st target =Austria
 March 12, 1938 German troops marched
into Austria unopposed
 Hitler’s 2nd target Czechoslovakia

Bargaining for the Sudetenland
 Hitler
said the Czechs were abusing
the Sudeten Germans
 Great Britain and France promised to
protect Czechoslovakia
 Hitler met with French premier
Edouard Daladier and British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain
 He stated that this would be his “last
territorial demand”
 To avoid war they believed him and
signed the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
 To avoid war France and Britain
believed Hitler and signed the
Munich Agreement
 This turned the Sudetenland over to
Germany
 Winston Churchill said that Britain
and France adopted the policy of:
 Appeasement-giving up principles
to pacify an aggressor
The German Offensive Begins
 After
Hitler conquered Czechoslovakia he
turned to Germany’s eastern neighbor
POLAND
 An attack on Poland would
 Bring
Germany in conflict w/ the Soviet
Union
 Provoke declaration of war from Britain and
France (promised military aid to Poland)
 Result would be fighting a 2 front war
Nonaggression Pact
 Stalin
surprised everyone by
signing a nonaggression pact
with Hitler
 Fascist Germany and
Communist Russia committed to
never attack each other
Also signed a secret pact to
split up Poland
BLITZKRIEG IN POLAND

Blitzkrieg (lightning war)- Germany’s
new military strategy
 Air force rained bombs over military
basses, airfields, railroads and cities
 Made use of tanks and powerful aircraft
 September 3 (2 days after invasion)
Britain and France declared war on
Germany
 WWII had officially begun!
THE PHONY WAR
 After
the fall of Poland French and
British troops held the Maginot Line
(along France’s eastern border)
 Hitler sent Generals through the
Ardennes (region of wooded area) in
northwest France
 Italy entered the war on the side of
the Germany and defeated France
The Battle of Britain
 Summer
of 1940
 Germany could not compete with
Britain’s navy
 Germany launched an air war over
Britain
 On a single day (August 15th) about
2,000 German planes attacked Britain
 Every night for 2 months bombers
pounded London
RAF (Britain’s Royal Air Force)
 RAF fought back against
Germans
 Used radar to detect and plot
the flight paths of German
planes
 RAF shot down over 185
German planes
 Hitler called off the attack
indefinitely